Chapter 11: Side Character x Mafia Boss (11)

Inside the pitch-black alleyway...

Alastair looked down at Elena, his pistol barrel still pressed firmly against her forehead. His expression was as cold and as solid ice.

"You really should learn..." he murmured softly, "...to stay completely out of other people’s business."

He slowly raised the pistol, adjusting his grip. The cold, steel barrel rested against Elena’s forehead. Her entire body trembled violently under the suffocating weight of his intent. She couldn’t move a single muscle. For the very first time in her peaceful life... she truly understood what it meant to stand face-to-face with absolute death.

Just as Alastair’s gloved index finger began to tighten against the trigger-

"NO!!"

A familiar breathless voice echoed loudly through the narrow brick alleyway.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!!"

Everyone in the alley turned instantly.

Lyra came stumbling frantically around the brick corner, completely out of breath, her hair disheveled and her clothes messy.

The dangerous men in black suits instinctively reached inside their jackets for their suppressed guns. But before anyone could draw a weapon-

Alastair lazily lifted a single finger.

His trained subordinates immediately stopped their movements, bowing their heads and silently lowering their hands away from their holsters.

Lyra finally reached the group, bending over double and panting heavily.

"Huff..."

"Huff..."

Without hesitation, she threw herself directly in front of Elena, placing her own small body as a shield. "Let her go!" she shouted, spreading her arms out wide protectively.

"If you desperately want to execute someone..." Lyra gasped out, pointing her trembling finger wildly toward the terrified man cowering against the wall nearby, "...take that old man!"

"Do whatever you want with him! Shoot him, throw him in a river, I don’t care!" she blurted out desperately. "Just give me my best friend back!"

The frightened old man stared at her in absolute, utter disbelief, his jaw hanging open. "...M-Miss?"

Alastair looked down at Lyra with silent fascination. Then his eyes flicked over to the gaping old man. A very faint smile pulled at the corner of his handsome lips.

Interesting, he thought.

Unlike the naive girl standing behind her, who preached about justice and morality, this strange little waitress had run straight back into a trap just to protect her friend and had immediately tried to bargain away a stranger’s life without a single shred of hesitation.

He slowly walked toward Lyra, his shoes clicking against the damp stone floor.

One slow step.

Then another.

Only when he stopped directly in front of her did Lyra truly realize... just how ridiculously tall this man actually was. She had to tilt her neck back at an angle just to meet his piercing grey eyes.

"..."

She quietly swallowed the thick lump in her throat. He’s literally a giant...

Still... she puffed out her chest, trying to make herself look as big and intimidating as humanly possible.

"L-Look..." she stammered, her voice squeaking slightly. "Just because you’re tall and wear expensive suits doesn’t mean you can go around scaring innocent people."

"I..." She clenched her small fists at her sides. "I can fight too!"

She tried her absolute best to sound fierce and brave. "I swear I will!"

Alastair stared down at her flushed face for a quiet moment.

Then... he leaned down.

Slowly, smoothly, he lowered his tall frame until their faces were only mere inches apart.

Lyra’s dark eyes widened in shock. Too close! Way too close!

Behind them, Elena gasped and shouted in terror, "Don’t hurt her! Please! Take me instead!"

Alastair ignored every single word coming out of Elena’s mouth as if she didn’t even exist. Instead... he leaned even closer, hovering right beside Lyra’s exposed ear.

His deep voice was barely above a quiet whisper, sending a dangerous vibration straight through her core.

"...Let’s see."

"...How brave you really are, little mouse."

His cold breath brushed gently against her sensitive earlobe. An electric shiver ran straight down her entire spine, making every single tiny hair on the back of her neck stand straight up on end. She was completely paralyzed, unable to move a single millimeter.

Then-

WEE-OOO! WEE-OOO! WEE-OOO!

Blaring police sirens suddenly echoed loudly through the surrounding city streets, accompanied by flashing red and blue lights reflecting off the tall buildings in the distance.

Alastair let out a quiet, dark chuckle against her ear.

"So..." he whispered, pulling back just enough to look into her panicked eyes. "You came prepared."

His piercing grey eyes remained locked tightly onto Lyra’s face.

"Smart."

"Unlike your foolish friend."

Lyra almost smiled proudly, her ego instantly inflating. Of course! I called the police before I ran back-

She suddenly froze completely stiff.

...Wait a minute.

Did I literally just get complimented by the most dangerous Mafia Boss in the city?!

Before her overwhelmed brain could even begin to process that terrifying thought-

Alastair’s expression turned instantly cold and emotionless once again. He looked directly into the very depths of her eyes, his voice calm... yet utterly terrifying.

"If you truly value your friend’s fragile little life..." he warned her, the atmosphere around them freezing over, "...forget absolutely everything you saw tonight."

He paused, stepping backward into the deep shadows.

"And if you ever decide to open your mouth and speak..."

"I won’t waste a single second removing you and your friend’s entire existence from this world."

Lyra’s blood ran completely ice-cold in her veins.

Alastair turned around on his shoe. Without giving either girl another glance... he silently vanished into the pitch-black darkness of the back alley, his men melting away into the shadows seamlessly behind him.

Only a few tense moments later... several armed police officers came rushing into the mouth of the alleyway, weapons drawn.

"Miss!"

One of the senior officers hurried straight toward the two girls. "Are you two alright?! We received a call about an armed confrontation!"

Lyra just stood there in absolute, stunned silence, her knees shaking so hard she could barely keep herself upright.

His final threat kept echoing over and over again inside her mind like a haunting bell: I won’t waste a single second removing your entire existence from this world.

She unconsciously shivered, wrapping her arms tightly around her stomach.

Elena stepped forward, her voice filled with urgency as she pointed toward the dark end of the passage. "Officer! The dangerous man who was threatening us with a gun was standing right over there just a second ago!"

The police officers quickly swept their flashlights through the narrow corridor, illuminating every corner.

Everyone looked.

There was absolutely nothing there.

There was only a completely empty, quiet alleyway... as if those terrifying men had never even existed in the first place.

Elena suddenly stepped forward, her eyes wide with frantic panic as she addressed the head police officer.

"Wait!" she pleaded, waving her hands in the air. "There was another man here with us! An older gentleman! Those men were going to kill him, and they took him away with them!! Please, you have to save him before it’s too late!"

Lyra’s dark eyes widened to the size of absolute dinner plates.

Oh, for the love of everything holy... Lyra screamed internally, her soul nearly floating right out of her body. Female lead, I am begging you on my knees, please stop talking! Do you have a literal death wish?! That mafia boss is probably watching us through a sniper scope right now!

Before Elena could blab out any more life-threatening details, Lyra hurriedly darted over and gently yet very firmly grabbed Elena’s arm, pulling her back a few inches.

"Haha..."

Lyra forced out a bright totally fake laugh, giving the deeply unimpressed police officers a wildly awkward smile.

"I’m really, really sorry about her, Officers," Lyra chimed in, her voice pitching up. "My dear friend here just... well, she has a very, very wild imagination when she gets tired!"

Elena turned her head toward Lyra in utter shock. "Lyra?! What on earth are you talking about? We both literally saw-"

Lyra quickly cut her off before she could utter the words ’mafia’ or ’gun’, talking at double speed over her.

"You see, Officer, when she called me on the phone earlier, she was crying so hard and hyperventilating so loudly that I genuinely thought something truly terrible was happening to her!"

She scratched the back of her head awkwardly, letting out a small embarrassed cough.

"So, naturally, being a paranoid friend, I completely panicked and dialed emergency services right away. But when I actually sprinted all the way over here..." She gestured vaguely at the empty brick walls around them. "There was absolutely nothing here. Just a stray cat. I guess she was just super stressed out from work and imagined the whole entire thing because the alley was dark and spooky! Hehe..."

Her wildly awkward laugh echoed loudly through the dead silent alleyway.

Elena stared at her as if Lyra had suddenly grown a second green head right in front of her eyes. "But, Lyra-!"

Underneath the long sleeves of their jackets, Lyra secretly reached over and pinched Elena’s sleeve sharply between two fingers. It was a desperate warning.

Please... for the love of survival, just go along with it! Lyra pleaded with her eyes.