Ten years ago, when the Clyde brothers travelled to the City of Londonary, they were still two naïve young lads. Taking their grand dreams with them, they set out to make a name for themselves. They came from a family of shepherds, with their parents expecting the same from them. However, their peaceful lifestyle did not lead them away from the passion of hunting. With a few pellets and a rifle, the boys spent their free time in the woods hunting wild games. The woods were like paradise to them, with the trickling streams and the sweet autumn winds. They would often camp in there for days when they can, and be out after several days with a couple of pheasant hanging on their shoulders. Despite their love for the wood, they also knew to pay its proper respect. The woods had been the setting of many tragedies in their village, and the boys took care not to become one of them. 

Riley, the older of the two, was the better hunter. Patient and talented in sharpshooting, he took great care of his younger brother Tyler when they journeyed into the woods. Tyler, on the other hand, was much more cautious and meticulous, and covered Riley’s back whenever he can. In growing up, both brothers came to love the story of Robin Hood. The idea of a heroic outlaw was fascinating, and they’ve spent their days alternatively playing the role of the folklore hero. One day, they told themselves, one day they’ll make the story a reality. 

When Tyler reached sixteen, the two brothers packed their belongings and bought the first available ticket to Londonary with their savings. They decided to make their debut in the floating city, fighting crime and corruption. When they stared out the windows of their airship, Riley handed Tyler the last piece of bread in his bag. “That’s the last of it. From here on out, we are going to have to earn our food,” Riley told Tyler.  

Tyler nodded to his brother’s words, and split the bred in two. He handed the bigger half to Riley, “You are bigger, so you’ll need more.”

Riley patted Tyler on the head and snatch the smaller piece instead, “You need to eat more to grow as big as me,” he flexed his arm then, showing the well-defined girth of his arm. For that moment, when Tyler looked to his brother and his silly grin, he thought they were unbeatable. 

That was ten years ago. The present day Clyde brothers lack much of the optimism of their early days. If there was anything they learnt it’s that no one is unbeatable. 

Within the narrow confines of a dark alleyway, Tyler set Riley down by the wall as he went to check the main street which they would be crossing. The soft light of the moon had shone upon Tyler’s upper body, showing he had indeed grown over the years, not quite to the size of his brother, but athletic nonetheless. His time spent in Londonary had carved new scars upon his bodies, and dimmed the look in his eyes. He walked back to Riley when he was satisfied with what he saw, “The coast is clear, here let me help you.”

Riley grunted as he wrapped his arm around Tyler’s shoulders. His other hand clenching tightly around his side flank, stained with fresh red blood. He braced himself before lifting himself up with Tyler’s help. No words came from him, as he saved his energy to maintain his composure. “We are almost there,” Tyler comforted Riley, “Just one more street to cross.” 

They shuffled across the empty street and into another alleyway, hidden by the darkness of the night. Tracking along the walls, they found a set of stone stairs leading down to the basement blocked by a metal door. Tyler looked around to make sure no one’s nearby before knocking. Moments later, the door was opened slightly, revealing a slit of dim light behind it. However, even then, Tyler could catch sight of the person behind it. What he saw wasn’t a face, but the long beak of a mechanical bird attached to the torso of a human. Tracking up along the beak, Tyler saw a pair of grey eyes behind two glass lenses, indicating that they are indeed dealing with a human. He was told the doctor might be strange, but he certainly wasn’t expecting to notice it so soon. 

“Dr. Elmore?”

The birdman nodded his head, “I was expecting you, please come in.”

The door opened, revealing decently sized room surrounded by stone walls and floors. One thing that immediately caught Tyler’s attention was the lack of windows. Indeed, he didn’t notice any windows on his way here either. The ventilation is completely dependent on what Tyler assumed to be vents on the ceiling. “Follow me,” the doctor instructed, leading them away from the door and down another set of stairs on the far side of the room. “I like to keep my practice private,” Dr. Elmore explained as he opened another metal door at the end of the stairway. 

Despite been in the basement, the room resemble very much like many hospital that Tyler had seen. There is a water tap running on one side, and shelves filled with multiple medical instruments and drugs. The room is separated in half by a curtain, hiding the operation table behind it. “There is negative pressure generated in this room, so the room is supposed to be sterile. So, if you please, leave your brother by the operation table there, and return to the room above. I’ll inform you when the operation is finished,” the doctor motioned for Tyler to place Riley on the table. 

Tyler didn’t budge, “I’m sorry, but I am going to stay here. I didn’t bring my brother here just to leave him. I want to be here during the operation.” He looked to Riley who agreed with a nod.

“That will increase the risk of infection Mr. Clyde, the result of which can very well be permanent disability,” Vito argued otherwise. 
“My brother’s willing to take the risk, and so am I,” Tyler was persistent with his wishes. 

After considering a brief moment, Vito nodded. “Very well, help me lift your brother on the table, and I’ll teach you how to clean yourself so you can minimize the contamination. The rule is: you don’t touch anything until I tell you to.”

Moments later, both Vito and Tyler were gloved and dressed in white gowns. The bird mask is no longer on Vito’s head, but was replaced by a surgical mask and cap. Riley lay on the table shirtless, and breath in short shallow breathes as he waits to be operated upon. Tyler stood idly by, watching both his. He looked up to see Vito arranging the various instruments on a smaller table beside the bed, not able to recognize quite a few of them. “Will he be alright?” He asked, as he watched Vito prepare. 

“Maybe,” Vito didn’t look up, and picked up a syringe. “He has a fever. I’m going to try to calm that down.” He jammed the needle into Riley’s arms, and emptied the content inside. “Anesthetics next. Passed me the syringe on the table to your left.”

Tyler looked around briefly before locating what he thinks is the correct syringe, “Is this the one?”

Vito took it from his hand without a word, and emptied the content into Riley like the one before. The anxiety from Riley eased as the medication settles in, and his eyes glazed over slightly. “Now hold your hand together and don’t touch anything, and take a few steps back please.” 

Without waiting for Tyler to respond to his orders, Vito began sifting through the wound with his gloved hands. Tyler watched as Vito moved about, switching tools from scalpels to needle drivers. “How did your brother get this injury?”

“Does it matter?” Tyler asked, uncertain whether to give the answer or not. 

“No. Your employer already told me about them. Just wanted to know whether you trust me.”

“Guess I don’t.”

“That’s alright. I don’t need you to trust me,” there was a brief pause as Vito focused on the task at hand, “Not many people do.”

There was a pang of regret in Vito’s voice that made Tyler look up and examine the doctor’s face. Slightly curious, and with nothing else to do, Tyler pursued the doctor’s statement, “What do you mean?”

“What have you heard about me?” Vito answered the question with another. 

Tyler went over what he had gathered about Vito prior, and not much came to mind. He was told that Vito was a surgeon willing to operate on anyone with the price to pay. Corrupt maybe, but nothing significant according to their employer. “Not much. So why do few people trust you?”

“Stupidity,” there was such bitterness that came from Vito’s words that Tyler was taken aback. “Do you know what is necrotizing fasciitis?” 

Tyler shook his head. 

“It’s a bacterial infection, involving the death of your tissues. Some people call it the flesh eating disease, which can be misleading because the flesh isn’t eaten; it dies because of the toxins. The only way to treat it? Surgical removal of any flesh involved. Not a pleasant procedure for anyone involved.”

“And you had it?” Tyler deduced. 

Vito didn’t reply, but Tyler knew he got the answer. Tyler thought about it slightly more, “It was on your face, and that’s why you wear the mask.”

“Smart boy,” Vito replied. 

“How bad is it?”

“Bad enough for some to believe I worship the devil,” Vito laugh softly from under the mask. 

“How did you get it?”

“By helping another who suffered from it.”

Hearing this, Tyler moved closer to the surgical table, “Wait, so it spread? Does it mean you could infect my brother?”

“Don’t worry. It’s no longer infectious.” Vito looked up to meet Tyler’s eyes. Tyler noticed now the droopy right eyelid that must be the result from the incident. “But do you trust me?” Vito asked. 

Tyler sighed, “Do we even have a choice?” Moving back away from the table, Tyler slumped into a chair. “It’s been a while since we had any say in our life.”

“What’s your case?”

“The usual one. Two young lads thinking they could change the world. Both realized the world’s a much crueler place than they thought,” Tyler smiled sheepishly, “And they don’t have the face to go back where they come from.”

“How did you want to change the world?”

“Redistribute the wealth from the rich to the poor. Eliminate the class divides. A revolution maybe. But we realized too late that people don’t want revolution anymore, everyone just wants routine.”

“Should perhaps studied politics instead of hunting, no?”

Tyler laughed, “Yes, definitely.”

“Robin Hood doesn’t exist anymore.”

“We realized it. Too late maybe.”

“So you became assassins instead.”

Tyler let out a deep sigh, and settled in his chair. “You know, that’s not what we wanted. None of this,” Tyler motioned to Riley lying on the table, “But that’s the only thing we know.”

“And that bracelet on your wrist,” Vito glanced at Tyler before returning back to his work, “Is that a remainder of your home?”

“Oh this?” Tyler lifted his arm up, and examined the bracelet on his arm. It was a simple bracelet of blue beads, held together by red threads. “No. This was just something from a dumb girl.”

“See her much?”

Tyler smiled, but it lacked any joy from it. His eyes remain fixated on the beads around his wrist. “The thing with our profession is that you can take away anything that’s precious from others, but at the same time, others could do the same to you.”

“I’m sorry,” Vito apologized.

“No don’t be,” Tyler sighed again, “As I said, she was a dumb girl.”

Vito stopped what he was doing, and gazed at Tyler for several second, then sighed himself. A few moments later, Vito took off his glove and walked over to Tyler, “It’s done.”

“Is my brother alright?” Tyler looked away from his wrist and back to Vito. 

“Yes. He just needed some rest. Come, give him some time,” Vito pushed opened the door and walked upstairs. Tyler shook his head, “I’ll stay here till he wakes up.” 

“Suit yourself, I’ll grab some food for myself,” Vito offered Tyler a seat as he went upstairs to grab some food. He returned moments later with a plate of bread and deli. It was then that Tyler noticed that Vito still wore the surgery mask from before. “Why don’t you take your mask off?”

“I prefer not to. It’s not a pleasant sight.”

“It’s okay. I’m sure I’ve seen worse before. Besides, I don’t think neither of us has much to hide from the other.”

Vito considered it for a moment, and then slipped the mask off slowly, revealing the scarred face from below. Tyler got a careful look of the face this time. Indeed, just as Vito eluded, the face was badly scared and hollow at some parts. “Yep, definitely seen worse. I would put you above average in terms of looks from the people I’ve seen,” Tyler joked. 

Tyler sees what could have been a smile on Vito’s face. “Thanks.” He then took a seat a couple steps away from Tyler, and began making a sandwich for himself.  

“It’s rare to see meat these days,” Tyler commented as he looked at the plate. 

“If nothing else, my profession pays me well, and it gives me freedom to be at home when I need to. How about you? When is the last time you had a proper meal with the family?”

Tyler shrugged and gazed at his brother’s body on the table, “If you meant just with my brother, then it’s been a while. If you meant with my whole family…I would guess that’s ten years. You?”

“Every night at six, I close my clinic and walk home to eat dinner with my family. It’s the only thing that never changed ever since I began practicing here, because it’s the only thing that matters. Don’t you think so? To know that you have a home to return to?”

“But not everyone has the choice. You think we can back out from what we do, and go eat dinner with our family?”

“I think we all have a choice, what’s left is just consequences.”

Tyler laughed a hearty laugh, “For someone your age, you are quite naïve. What are you? Mid thirties?”

“Just about,” Vito finished the last bite of the sandwich he made. “It’s getting late, and I am getting old. My hands are even shaking when I don’t have enough rest.”

“How are you going to survive when they reveal the new time and clock tomorrow?” Tyler asked half-jokingly.

“Simple answer, I won’t,” Vito jested in reply, “Let’s get your brother out of here, so I can get home to get some sleep. By the way, do you also have my payment?”

“Ah, yes,” Tyler almost forgot, but was reminded to take out a sack of coins and tossed it to Vito, “Two hundred pound as requested.”

Vito put the sack aside, “I’ll trust you with the numbers. Alright, you start lifting from this side. I’ll go around the other side to help you.”

Tyler nodded and moved close to Riley on the table. As he put his hand under the body, he felt an unsettling cold from it, “Hey, is it suppose to –.”

His words were cut short when he felt a freezing sensation his back. He rotates his head in time to see Vito throwing a syringe into a bin by the wall. By then him leg turned weak and bends beneath him. There was brief moment of confusion on his face, before it turned to an expression of seething rage, “What did you do?”

“Spinal injection. Chemical destruction of your spinal cord. Normally hard to landmark where you can inject in someone who’s obese, but for someone as well toned as you, it’s quite simple,” Vito explained as he walked over to Tyler, who’s lying on the floor. “I’m afraid I haven’t been completely honest with you.” There was emptiness in Vito’s eyes as he looked over Tyler then at Riley. 

“Why?”

“Why not? After all, I was paid a good amount for this,” Vito pointed at the sack of money he had left on the table. He squatted down beside Tyler, holding the boy’s chin in his hand so they both could lock their eyes, “I think you know by now why this is happening. You are right. People like you don’t simply walk out of what they do, so consider this a retirement.”

“I wouldn’t have talked.”

“I know,” Vito nodded, “This isn’t how I would have ended it either if it was up to me.”

Anger slightly subsided as sadness began overwhelming Tyler and he find it hard to breathe now “And my brother?”

“We killed him together, don’t you remember? You handed the syringe to me when I asked you to.”

“You m-monster,” the word stuttered out as Tyler tried to struggle against the loss of sensation.  

Vito closed his eyes and slowly exhaled as if in meditation. He opened his eyes a moment later, “You are right, I am a monster. That’s what everyone says. For a very long time, you are the first person that didn’t judge me by how I looked. I really liked you. So it’s a shame it has come to this. Now that we had our little talk, and we understood each other a bit, I guess we are acquaintance of some sorts. I want you to know, that I tried my best to make this process as painless as possible. So I want you to do a favor for me.”  Tyler tried to interrupt, but only found himself mumbling, so Vito pushed on. “Once you are in Hell, and you want to come back to hunt someone, find me and me alone. Leave my family out of this, okay?”

With what dignity Tyler still had, he mustered the strength and released the only answer he could, “N-no.”

With a sigh, Vito pushed himself up and walked over to the cabinet. He sifted through the tools until he retrieved a large hook. “You know why the hamstrings in your leg are named as such? I was told it was the tendon that butchers used to hang hams in their stores. I have always wanted to see the truth in that.”

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The dawn was breaking when Vito closed his clinic and strolled towards his home. The street vendors have already began setting up their shop, and the smell of the first batch of bread was filling the streets. The streets will soon be crowded with citizens from all across the city, waiting to get a first glimpse of the clock tower. However, he felt far too tired to join in. On his way, he stopped by a small grocery and purchased some ham and eggs, something he craved every time after a long night at work. The sandwiches he had earlier didn’t do him any good; after all, they were poisoned. Even with the antidote he had taken prior, he still felt a tingling sensation down his hand. Tyler was cautious, Vito admitted to that. 

When he opened his apartment door, the room was still dark with the curtains drawn. He took a peek into the bedroom and saw Bridget has yet to wake up, not surprising. He’ll cook the breakfast; it will be a nice surprise for her. He heated the pans and cracked the eggs, watching them sizzle on top of the oil. Even standing, he felt he could fall asleep if he just closed his eyes. However, before fatigue could completely creep up upon him, he heard the creak of the floor. Bridget has woken up. “Did I wake you up?” He asked, without turning around.