The Cleaner – Chapter 2
Introduction:
Thanks a lot for the reviews on the first part guys!
CHAPTER 2 – THE CLEANER
Atlas is a person with a very dark story. He has seen things most people would be scarred for life if they saw. And he has done even worse. In order to survive in such conditions, one must be able to keep his temple, his body, trained hard to withstand the harshness. But there’s one thing that can never be withstandable no matter how hard one has trained.
“Goddamit!”
“What? Are you ok?”
“What did you feel these bags with? Rocks and bricks?”
“Hey, it’s not my fault that I eventually bought all these clothes! Someone else told me that “Just a top and leggings are too little”
“Hey, it’s ok. No offense, but you’ve been living in rugs for all this time. Am I at fault for wanting to get you something nice?”
“Or in your case, Mr. Atlas, many nices.”
“Yeah, fine. Let’s get to the truck, and we will talk home.”
In the parking lot of a mall, you are bound to see many different brands of cars. From a family minivan, to even exotics like Ferrari’s and Lamborghini’s when the stars arrive. But a Soviet Military Convoy Truck, that’s indeed a rare sight.
“So, you didn’t tell me. What job do you do and you got that much money?” Kate asked.
“I don’t do anything unusual. I just got lucky in the trade business. Heck, few months ago I had trouble with the rent.” Answered Atlas, obviously saying a lie. A lie Kate would not learn, until much later.
“So you’re a nerd?” Kate asked playfully
“You could say so. Not really though. I get outside my house a bit, and also workout sometimes. “
Kate didn’t answer back. There wasn’t a need to. She felt comfortably talking with this man. Comfortably. A feeling she thought she had long lost forgot…
—
Kate was sitting in the living room, watching an old romance movie, resting on Atlas’ shoulder who was watching as well.
“How come you’re still awake? It’s midnight, and there’s a romance playing. I thought these movies were boring to guys!” Kate expressed her question.
“Oh no, not at all. The movie is really interesting.”
“Oh, well, I’m surprised you like it. Anyways, I wanted to tell you that even though I am deeply thankful for all you have done for me, I don’t want to keep-
Atlas’ phone rang.
“Oh wait I have to pick this up” Said Atlas before even looking at the phone’s screen.
The crates are ready. We are waiting for you to come and give permission to transport them
“On my way” Said Atlas, and closed the phone.
“Hey, look. I got to do this little thing, I will be back in twenty minutes. You can do anything you want in the house, I’ll be back in an instant. Bye!” Atlas said as he was exiting the door.
Kate was surprised by Atlas’ sudden exit, but after a while she went back to normal again. The movie ended, and the next one was a thriller, which she absolutely hated, so she thought of sitting on the computer and access her old facebook profile, which she hadn’t been in for three years.
She lifted the laptop’s screen, and pressed the power button. The computer booted up immediately as it was in sleep mode, and she was greeted by a nice wallpaper of the city lights at night. She opened up the web browser, and went to facebook. After logging in, she was greeted with a wall of notifications.
“Wow. 735 notifications. Guess that’s what going away from facebook for three years looks like. She decided to open her latest status updates.
Friday 13, April 2003. It was a picture she had uploaded of her dog. Poor Jack, who knows where is he now. She decided to move on to check some songs. She found that her favourite artists had uploaded quite a few songs, and that she liked them. She decided to download them. After downloading them, she also decided to make a folder in Documents where she would keep all the songs she downloaded. But something else caught her eye. It was a folder named “CONFIDENTIAL”. Powered by her curiosity, she eagerly opened the folder only to be found in front of some information she was hardly able to process.
“Atlas DeWitt. ex-SpetNaz Officer, Commanding Officer of a KGB secret act unit. Work history includes people of insane diamensions, such as Middle Eastern Warlords to even Vladimir Putin himself. She then found another folder. This one read “WORK 1987”. Just as she opened the file, the door was heard opening.
“Hey Katy, told you I’d be back-“Atlas turned his head and saw Kate looking at the pictures from the work at Berlin.
He dropped the cake he was holding and rushed to close the laptop from Kate’s eyes.
“I’m doing this for your own good, in here are images you shouldn’t see.”
Kate was terrified. She had already seen the overview of the pictures, pictures depicting gruesome murders. She got up and went against a wall.
“Who are you? What were those? Why did you even- You know what I will just leave now. I’m too afraid to learn more.” She said as she was getting ready to leave.
“Relax, you are not in danger. If you want you can leave, I’m not stopping you from. But I’m begging you to listen to me.”
“How do I know I’m safe here? How do I know you are not a crazy serial killer who got his hands upon me?” Kate wanted to leave, but something inside her stopped her from.
Atlas pulled his weapon, removed the safety, armed it and threw it to Kate.
“Here, take it if you feel safer. I can prove I am not a killer or a psycho. Just listen to me. Please.”
Kate grabbed the gun but wasn’t able to make much of it, so she left it the table by her.
“Go on. Are you going to tell me you were a reporter in Berlin and happened to pass by the bodies?”
“No I will not lie. I will take this story from the beginning.
I used to be in the Soviet special forces. That was not because of my choice, but because I was raised for this. I never had a life as a normal child. I grew up in a camp, and remained there until not much after becoming 18. I was trained from a young age to learn combat tactics. I was best in my class. Because I was raised like this, I thought me being a killer was a normal thing. The higher officers saw I was especially good. So they decided to train me on a whole another level. They taught me to kill without remorse. They turned me to a war machine. A machine with no conscience, no drawbacks. A machine made to follow orders, but mainly kill. Upon the dismissal of the USSR, I was left a man with no knowledge to do anything else other than kill. I lived in the slums of Moscow for not long, since the Mafia noticed me. I had stolen and killed their men in so many ways, that they eventually stopped seeing me as an enemy, but more as an opportunity. So they invited me to work for them. I was homeless, with no food and an opportunity to receive all I wanted by doing what I knew best: Killing…
I had become so feared that everyone knew me. Only the saying of my name caused terror in the souls of my enemies. That was until, I understood that the life I was living was not a proper life. If you could even call it a life at all, On that very job you saw in the computer, I was brought to realisation by-
“Gregovich.”
A long pause was made after Kate said this name…
“What? How did you know?” This was the first time Atlas words carried fear with them.
“Gregovich. My father. He used to talk about you a lot. He said you were the only man that he learned from while he was teaching you. A man with no conscience, no remorse. The perfect killing machine. But he understood from the time he saw you spare that man in the shootout that you had a heart, deep inside.”
“You are telling me that Gregovich is your father?” Atlas was amazed beyond realization, and was almost crying in tears. He went to Kate and hugged her.
“I am so sorry. I am so sorry for what I have done to you.” Said Atlas almost crying.
The night after Atlas left from Berlin to go work in the meat factory, he received a telegram that Gregovich and his wife were killed by the Russian Mafia. That night was the only night he had truly mourned for someone.
“Don’t be sorry. My father’s knew what was coming for him that day, and he fully embraced it. He said it was worth the price. After that I never saw him. He put me on the train to France so I was safe.”Said Kate, also crying while still being held tight in Atlas’ arms.
“You know, the man that killed your father. Godonov. He is the man I took the money from. Up in the forest of Skepova. I made sure he had a slow and painful death, one deserving for what he had done. After that on the trip back home I met you.”
The feeling of danger that had taken up Kate an hour ago, was now dimished, and replaced by a feeling of safety. She knew that if she was with Atlas, she was in safety.
—
The morning found the two characters of our story sleeping on the couch, one resting on the other. Kate was the first to wake up, and snatching the opportunity, decided to give back the favour from last day. When Atlas woke up, he was greeted with a table full of breakfast made by Kate.
“Good morning. Did you sleep well?”
“Yeah, I guess so. Did you make all this?”
“Yeah, feel surprised? I thought of repaying the favour”
“It was not needed, but thanks. Look, yesterday I had something to tell you, which I did not get to.”
“Throw it on”
“I have decided that with all the money I got from that one last job, I would buy myself a nice beach house over in Greece. So I thought of buying this one here and gifting it to you, so you can have somewhere to stay after I leave. Along with a small gift.”
“Even though your offer was pretty good, I will propose something else. I want to come live with you.”
“With me? Why? When? Now?” Atlas was caught surprised again.
“Yes, with you. Now that I learned who you are, I am sure. From the moment my father had talked about you, without even knowing you, I was in love with you.”
“You know what? You are the only person that ever catches me of guard. That means something. Yes, I agree, I’d be pleased if you came with me.”
“Thanks a lot. It means a lot to me knowing I am with someone that loves me truly.”
—
The newly made couple was on the road, in a sporty Ferrari tearing apart the Nationals of each country they passed through. In about an hour they would be arriving at their destination, looking at the house they would buy.
“Hey, Kate, all this driving has tired me up a bit. How about we take a break for a while?”
“You’re the captain!”
Atlas laughed at the last statement, and stopped the car in a patch of grass near the road, by the side of a cliff. The view was outstanding, looking over at the plains of Macedonia, the real one, and the majestic seas of Chalkidiki.
“You know, I am so happy that we are doing this. Moving on, changing our life so much. We are getting fresh air into us. So lovely.”
“Yeah I agree on that. But there’s one thing that I have something to say about.”
“What is it?”
“Lower your head, I will tell you in the ear!”
Atlas lowered his head, only for Kate to instead of moving her mouth to his ear, she moved her lips to his lips. The two kissed passionately, almost as if they connected their bodies together. Words can only describe so far the intensity of the flame inside them, burning and making the desire each one had for each other even more powerful. When this dance of the two bodies and souls ended, silence ruled. The two were looking at each other, and then unto the sea when Kate broke that blissful silence.
“Come on, we better head on. If we keep like this, we will reach the house in a week! And I promise you, it will be worth it getting there as fast as we can. I will make sure of it…”
The two got in the car, and drove off to the horizon…
END OF CHAPTER 2 – THE CLEANER
