Chapter 22: The Pearl #2
When the old lady — Claire — saw Diana's bewildered expression, she chuckled softly. "Someone decided to challenge the leader again," she said, shaking her head. "These people never learn, honestly,"
Claire started filling her in about everything, without Diana asking her to. She told her about the identity of the foolish man wanting to challenge him and his group of friends.
It was inevitable, she remarked and it was fairly obvious that that would be the ending result, seeing how he had lately been striding into their neighborhood, confident and imposing on everyone who lived there, even the ones who were innocent and clueless. He would demand stuff like a king and the ones who refused him would meet with unfortunate fates. Diana knew that she was referring to the bodies found at the river bank on outskirts of the town.
If it wasn't for the simple pieces of jewelry found on them, that were only sold around here, they wouldn't have identified the corpses.
She heard Claire chuckle, "It is good that he requested the match himself. Anything is better than his wife finding him dead one morning, I guess." It wasn't funny, and Diana couldn't laugh with her, which didn't seem to bother Claire in the least as she continued her chatter.
After seeing how rich the gang that controlled their part of town was, he and his group got greedy and flames had ignited in him as his hunger for power grew every single day. His eyes watched like a hawk as people tried currying favor with random folks who had connections to the gang, and it only got worse when he found out about the fact that they not only protected this part of town but other areas too.
So he challenged the Ares.
She thought of Ares but had no memory of a face or a shadow, just rumors flying around him being the leader of the ring. The gang itself was established years ago before anyone could remember. The interesting part was that the position of the Ares could only be taken if someone challenged the current leader and won the match.
In her head, Diana was a little disappointed to have never seen someone challenge the Ares before, not in the last five years and if it wasn't for the murmurs and the whispers that were carried with the wind, she wouldn't have known about such a thing, not when Elliot kept telling her to stay away from such topics.
Nonetheless, she thought that such things would be held in a more formal way, maybe a stadium or a fighting ring, anything but a brawl in the middle of the streets where people were cheering with food and other unique stuff. It was both distasteful and unusual.
Other than the setting itself, it was really reckless to just request a match, especially when you won't be able to even see the Ares, not until you win against all his gang members and really reach the top, proving yourself worthy of wasting his time, according to Claire.
Diana shook her head internally, thinking how delusional these people were. Ares itself was just a title, not a name. The name had always been kept a secret to drive away any unnecessary personal fights with the leader and that itself went to show how serious they were about their business.
With how mysterious the Ares was, it only caused more rumors to spread around. Some said that the current holder of the title had been around the longest and never lost a match, solely because nobody got to reach him yet and they always lost to his helpers. But others also said that it'd been way too long since anyone heard of any Ares dying or losing in anything, and if it weren't for the fact that they saw people taking charge of surveillance every now and then, they would have thought that the Ares was only a legend.
Diana had no recollection of the gang's name and didn't ask. She thought it was better not to involve herself in such a thing, especially when she was already in so much danger as it was.
But then she remembered something important. The reason why everyone would swallow their rational side and request a match.
It was the most attractive thing about the Ares position; the Pearl.
"This pearl only gets people killed, I tell you," Claire rolled her eyes, bringing her shawl closer to her, "I can't fathom why anyone would want to know the future. Why the council doesn't stop such a thing, is beyond me," She said with disgust before turning around and returning to her tiny house, opposite to where Elliot and Diana lived.
Knowing the future.
The sheer knowledge of that being possible made Diana stare at the group of people fighting with unblinking eyes. There was no way for her to actually go in there and win a fight when the force of the wind alone could knock her back and there was the fact of her being pregnant too.
She kept watching the group fighting for a while, the only thing she could see was people's backs as they pushed forward to get a better view of the fight, and then she slowly stepped back to the house.
The jacket went off of her, leaving it on a random table, and Diana slipped her arms inside the blanket on the sofa and brought it closer to her body, glancing at the clock with no expression, seeing one of the handles stopping swiftly at one o'clock.
The grunts and cheers outside kept reaching her ears but it was all just a soft noise to her as her mind started working like machines.
She threw any idea of telling Elliot the truth about her situation out of the window as she had a faint memory of doing so last time. She wouldn't repeat the same mistakes she had made before, not if she had any say in it.
Another thing she thought of was getting ahold of the pearl, but as she tore her mind for possible connections between her and the gang, she disappointingly found nothing, and with that, her train of thoughts quickly changed lanes, knowing that the neighborhood she lived in was too dangerous and a simple mistake on her part could get her a game over.
Her fingers danced on the soft blanket, tracing the faded patterns and following the trails that seemed to find ways to repeat themselves in a harmonic rhythm on the fabric. Her gaze followed her fingers, but her mind was in a totally different place.
Diana sat in the small living room, her body silent and her mouth in a straight line, and if one was to look at her, they would think she was totally fine, only if it wasn't for her eyes that weren't focused, and at some point, her fingers had stopped moving as a pool of darkness appeared somewhere in the very depth of her pupils, almost making them impossibly black.
--
A swaying bulb was the only source of light in the small room and it was barely any help for the standing girl. She clenched and unclenched her hands, and moved them in and out of her pockets, then continued to massage her temples a few times before muttering some type of prayer that sounded too aggressive to be anything calming.
Her set of clothes were too neat and presentable for the place she was in, and the scowl on her face, that she had had since the moment she walked into the room, didn't disappear.
"Fucking hell," She kicked a bottle of alcohol that was rolling on the ground. "Clean this place up for once, it looks like a pigsty." She looked down her nose at the person lying on the sofa.
A childish giggle left the wasted man. "Why would I?" he rolled and fell onto the ground, groaning in pain before nuzzling his face in the beige carpet - or was it supposed to be white?
Aidan kept watching as Max let out a cheer when he finally was able to stand up on his feet after a few tries, totally comfortable with his messy appearance and stench. It took him a moment to get over his achievement and look at Aidan with his brows pulled together and a disgusting pout. "Why are you here?"
Aidan rolled her eyes and said, "Thanks for finally asking."
Max giggled and hiccuped, swaying a few times, knowing it will only bother his friend. "No problem, man." the mocking look didn't escape Aidan, and she had to count to ten backward a few times to calm down.
Max looked like he was enjoying tormenting his serious friend and probably thought of taking it to the next level if it weren't for the fact that Aidan looked like she was ready to pull her gun out and empty it in his forehead.
Max raised his hands in defeat. "Fine, fine, I'm all ears now."
Aidan made sure he was serious before starting, "Someone from the west is challenging the Ares to a match," she ignored Max's whistle, "He wants us to take him seriously."
Max burst out laughing suddenly, "Those pathetic dogs, they always do that, what's the difference?"
"He might have some something on our leader." Max's face finally turned serious.
"Does Ares know?" When Aidan shook her head, Max asked again, "When are you planning on telling him then?"
"He is a little busy right now,"
Max rolled his eyes, ignoring the glare that Aidan shot at his direction. If his friend started lecturing him about respecting their leader's privacy again, he would gladly shoot himself.
Then he thought of the idiot that they spoke of and internally grinned. He wondered how strong he was, or if he had any backing to give him such courage. Maybe he had something hidden up his sleeve to dare and step up in front of them. Oh, Max's blood started bumping for sure.
Now, for his friend.
"Fine," Max let out a defeated sigh and stood up, picking his jacket up from underneath some junk and shrugging it on. He brushed his hair back, letting his green eyes glint in the low light. "I will handle our little champion."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
tara_
tara_ New cover ~~~ I also changed the synopsis.
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