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"Stay down, you glitching piece of shit!"
I screamed it while diving behind a rusted dumpster, the metal screeching as a bolt of raw, violet energy slammed into the concrete where my head had been a second ago. The air smelled like ozone and burnt plastic.
Jax wasn't just a contract breaker; he was a junkie for the Void. He’d juiced himself up with forbidden cards, and now his skin was literally cracking, leaking that shimmering purple filth. He didn't even look human anymore—just a shaking, twitching mess of veins and desperation.
"I can feel it, Kane!" Jax howled, his voice sounding like two slabs of granite grinding together. "The power! I don't need the Collector! I don't need any of you!"
I peeked over the edge of the dumpster. He was ten feet away, vibrating so hard the puddles around his boots were rippling. My hand went to the deck in my pocket. My fingers were shaking. Not from fear—though there was plenty of that—but from the debt. Every time I touched these cards, I could feel Silas’s cold thumb pressing against my soul, reminding me that I was on a very short leash.
"You're not powerful, Jax. You're leaking," I yelled back, trying to keep my voice steady. "You're a broken faucet. Give it up before you pop a vein and turn into a puddle of neon sludge."
"Shut up!"
He lunged. He didn't run; he blurred. One moment he was by the alley entrance, the next he was slamming into the dumpster with a force that nearly knocked me flat. The metal groaned, buckling inward. I scrambled back, my heels skidding on the wet pavement, and whipped a card from the deck.
*The Static Shield.*
I slammed the card onto the ground. A translucent, shimmering wall snapped into existence between us. Jax hit it face-first with a sickening thud. The violet energy flared, cracking the shield instantly, but it gave me the three seconds I needed to breathe.
"What's the matter, Kane?" Jax sneered, his face pressed against the fracturing energy. His eyes were gone—just two glowing purple voids. "Too scared to play a real hand?"
"I'm not scared of you," I lied, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. "I'm just wondering how much of your brain is left to actually feel the pain when I erase you."
I stepped closer, my boots splashing in the grime. The power imbalance here was disgusting. Jax had the raw output, the kind of brute force that could level a city block if he didn't burn out first. I had the finesse. I had the rules. And most importantly, I had the debt that made me a monster in a suit.
I reached for another card. *The Tether.*
As soon as my fingers brushed the card, a sharp, freezing spike of pain shot through my chest. I gasped, dropping to one knee. It was Silas. He was watching. He wasn't just collecting the debt; he was savoring the struggle. He wanted to see if I'd break before the target did.
*Do it, little bird,* Silas’s voice echoed in the back of my skull, cold and mocking. *Suffer a bit more. It makes the win taste sweeter.*
"Get... out... of my head," I hissed through clenched teeth.
Jax saw the opening. He roared and tore through the Static Shield, the energy shattering like glass. He grabbed me by the collar of my jacket, lifting me off the ground with one hand. His grip was like a vice, and I could smell the acrid, metallic scent of the Void pouring off him.
"You're nothing," Jax spat, his face inches from mine. I could see the purple veins pulsing in his neck. "Just a lapdog for the Collector. A little rat chasing crumbs."
I choked out a laugh, even as my lungs screamed for air. "Maybe. But this rat... has the winning hand."
I didn't pull a card. I didn't need to. I reached up and slammed my palm directly onto his chest, right where his heart should have been.
I didn't use a card. I used the *Void Pact* itself.
I bet my own sanity. I bet the next three years of my memories. I bet every shred of peace I had left just to flip the odds in this one moment.
*I call,* I whispered in my mind.
A black hole the size of a coin opened on Jax's chest. It wasn't a flashy explosion. It was a silent, greedy vacuum. The violet energy didn't blast outward—it got sucked back in. Jax’s eyes widened. The smugness vanished, replaced by a sudden, piercing terror.
"Wait—" he gasped. "What did you—"
*Suck it all back,* I commanded.
The Void didn't care about his protests. It ripped the stolen power out of his veins, pulling the purple light from his eyes and his throat. Jax screamed, a sound that started as a roar and ended as a pathetic whimper. He collapsed, his body hitting the pavement with a wet thud. He wasn't dead—not yet—but he was empty. A hollowed-out shell of a man, shivering in the rain.
I stayed on the ground for a long time, gasping for air, my chest feeling like it had been hollowed out with an ice cream scoop. The price had been paid. I couldn't remember what my first dog's name was. I couldn't remember the color of my mother's favorite dress. Just... gone. Traded for a win.
I slowly stood up, wiping blood from my lip. I looked down at Jax. He was staring at the sky, his eyes dull and human again, but completely vacant.
"Debt collected," I muttered.
I turned to leave, my legs feeling like lead. I just wanted a drink. I wanted to forget the smell of ozone and the feeling of my soul being peeled away layer by layer.
Then, a sound stopped me cold.
A light, melodic laugh. It didn't belong in this alley. It was too clean, too confident.
I spun around.
Perched on a fire escape ten feet above me was a woman. She was dressed in a sharp, midnight-black coat that cost more than my entire life, her dark hair whipping in the wind. She held a compact pistol loosely in one hand, the muzzle pointed casually toward the ground, but her eyes—sharp, calculating, and dangerously amused—were locked onto me.
She didn't look at the broken man on the ground. She didn't care about the carnage. She looked at me like I was a rare insect she’d finally caught in a net.
"Impressive," she said, her voice a low, sultry purr that sent a shiver down my spine. "The way you folded that energy... very clean. Very professional."
I shifted my weight, my hand hovering near my deck. "Who the hell are you?"
She leaped down, landing with a grace that felt predatory. She didn't stop until she was inches away, her perfume—something like jasmine and gunpowder—cutting through the stench of the alley. She tilted her head, her gaze scanning my face, lingering on the black marks beginning to fade from my wrists.
She smiled, and it wasn't a friendly one. It was the smile of someone who had just found the missing piece of a very expensive puzzle.
She raised the gun, not to my head, but pressing the cold metal of the barrel right against my sternum, exactly where the Void had opened on Jax.
"Found you," she whispered, her breath warm against my skin. "Dealer."