Zenith’s Tower - Chapter 12

Ellis looked around the warehouse, trying to catch his breath.

Shit! What do I do now?

Ellis limped back and forth thinking about his next move. Three corpses and one half-dead unconscious thug surrounded him. Ellis’s stomached turned as the adrenaline he had before wore off. His body throbbed with every thought as blood trickled down his body, soaking the floor.

I have to destroy all the evidence of me ever being here. But if I’m going to destroy it, I might as well see if I can find any cash or something.

Ellis searched the thugs for anything valuable and found some jewelry as well as some cash. He then rummaged through the crates around the warehouse quickly for anything he could use or sell but only found guns, ammunition, and drugs. Next, he made his way to the office where he knew the safe that his bosses used to store cash was. Blood dripped from his face and leg onto the floor as he limped into the office feeling slightly lightheaded. He pushed the feeling to the side as he crouched down and pulled the small safe from under the desk. He tried to pry open the door to the safe, but it was tightly locked shut.

Damnit.

Ellis wracked his somewhat foggy brain for a way to open the safe before an idea popped into his head.

He gathered anima into his fingertip and used a small steady stream of electricity, like a plasma cutter, to cut open the safe. He peeled the cut metal back like a tin can before he reached inside and began pulling everything out. The first thing he pulled out was a large roll of cash. It looked like the roll was made up of all hundred-dollar bills. He set the roll aside and reached in again. The next thing he pulled out was a small blue gem. Ellis looked at the gem closely and immediately recognized it to be an anima gem.

Did they get this from one of the monsters that came out of the Tower?

Ellis questioned as he examined the anima gem. It was a little bit bigger than the gems he had gotten from imps in the Tower.

If people know about the gems, then maybe I can sell this and the big gem that I got from the Imp King? They must be worth something if these guys had this gem locked up in a safe. In any case, I don’t think they’ll be needing any of this stuff anymore.

He stuffed the cash and gem into his pocket before he stood up to search through the rest of the office. The room was mostly littered with various bottles of liquor and beer as well as drugs. Ellis searched through the inside of the desk and found a note that said the main boss of the arms trafficking warehouse was supposed to be visiting tonight to check out the new shipment of weapons.

The boss is coming tonight?! I’ve got to get out of here quickly. I’ve already gotten everything I can from this place, and I’ve been here way too long; I need to cover my tracks and leave. I don’t want anyone, especially the head honcho, to be able to trace any of this back to me.

Ellis hobbled back to the main area of the warehouse. He raised his hand and shot burning hot lightning around the entire building, setting it ablaze. He then launched a couple of massive bolts of lightning at the steel supports which held the building up to make sure that the whole building would collapse in on itself as the fire kept burning.

With the rest of the city in shambles, no one will care about this warehouse burning to the ground. Wuxiaworld for visiting.

Ellis smirked at his own genius and ensured that everything that could be on fire was on fire before he stealthily left the warehouse. He made sure no one was around and used the dark shadows made by the setting sun to make his way back to his apartment.

By the time he made it back to his apartment, it was pitch black outside. Ellis turned around and looked behind him making sure no one had followed him. In the distance, smoke filled the air and bright raging fire could be seen. Ellis slowly limped up the stairs, hugging the rail to keep himself from toppling down the stairs. He unlocked the door and staggered into the house, leaking blood everywhere. His body was throbbing, and he was barely staying conscious. He grabbed the potion and poured it over his wounds before he collapsed to the ground in agony. Slowly, his wounds closed up and begin to heal. When the pain subsided Ellis looked at the bottle of potion lying next to him. It was half-way empty now.

This potion was supposed to be for mom, but now its half-way gone. Maybe it’s not even strong enough to work on her condition.

Ellis massaged his temples in thought before he looked at the stuff he’d taken from the warehouse. There was a little over $5000, two rings, a necklace, a pair of diamond earrings, and the anima gem.

I can try to pawn this jewelry tomorrow and make some money off it all. As of right now, I have half the amount I need for moms’ medical bills. But for now, I shouldn’t leave all this stuff lying around.

Ellis walked over to the corner of the room and peeled a floorboard up carefully, revealing a small storage space. He had used this storage space to hide important things in the past as it wasn’t uncommon for people to break into the apartment and steal stuff. He stuffed all the money into the crevasse before putting the floorboard neatly back in place.

Ellis walked past the bathroom and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. Though his injuries had healed he was still covered in blood. Ellis went to the sink and splashed water onto his face. Bloody water ran down his cheeks and spilled into the sink. He kept rinsing and scrubbing the blood off his face until he was clean. After rinsing himself off, he looked at himself in the mirror once again. An intimidating looking reflection with a large jagged scar covering the right side of its face stared back at him in the now blood-soaked bathroom. Ellis looked at himself for a couple of minutes in silence before he broke down.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit!

Ellis pounded the countertop below him leaving fist-sized dents in it. He was used to killing. He had spent months killing just to survive. But not killing people.

Shit. I killed them. They were gonna kill me. I had to kill them. It was self-defense. Why did I enjoy watching them suffer so much? They threatened to hurt Solara. They deserved it.

Ellis rationalized with himself as a plethora of emotions overwhelmed him. He looked around at the blood-soaked bathroom.

“I gotta clean all this up before Solara gets home.”

Ellis said out loud, calming himself down as he tried to take his mind off everything that had just happened. He stripped off his bloody clothes and threw them away. Then he scrubbed the rest of the blood off him before he cleaned the bathroom. After cleaning the bathroom, he cleaned the trail of blood he had made from the front door to the bathroom. With all the blood cleaned up, Ellis looked around the apartment. It was still littered with trash and half-eaten plates of food. Ellis decided to start cleaning the rest of the house since Solara still wasn’t back yet. He spent about an hour and a half cleaning up the mess. He was almost done tidying up when the front door creaked open.

“Well, you’re getting off late, huh?”

Ellis said as he dried off the last of the clean dishes and put it in the cupboard. He turned to greet Solara.

“How wa-…”

Ellis stopped abruptly when he noticed that it wasn’t Solara at the front door and a dark expression crept over his face.