There was nothing more, James just smiled at her and with it left the house. No shots, no beating up, no murder… Alda managed to stay alive in a situation where survival rate was close to zero, she beat the odds with her sudden and unpredictable act and at the same time she just put everyone's life at risk.

But shit, James walked away and with it she became the first living person after her mother and maybe Bella who could talk to him in this way and could actually hit him. What a tale to tell though a generation.

Though that wasn't what she thought about, that small glory, that shit, she could do the unimageable and stay alive to brag about it… no, she immediately collapsed to her knees as James left.

"Fuck…" She whispered as she stared at the blood in front of her, the blood of James… the blood that came because of her… she already imagined her whole family being beheaded and thrown into a fucking pit.

"What was this Alda…?" Albert spoke still from the chair in the same position, he didn't even move the whole time, his hand remained on the table, not even daring to move a single bit, as he thought about the same.

That he fucking going to die the worst way possible… because well he was the one that started all of it by asking James a simple question… fuck, Albert was the one among them who truly knew the scale of things that could have been happened to them. Alda was just only scraping the surface, because Albert actually knew what it means to die in the "worst way", because he heard stories… about Ferucci and his men.

Not just heard but one time Ferucci asked him for a cleaver and boning knife, which was strange on its own but what was more strange that he asked it while he was wearing a vinyl white apron with blood all over it, and when Albert asked what he is doing Ferucci answered with "skinning then dismantle" though Albert didn't really thought about it much back then and he gave it to him the knives. Then when he jokingly said to a guard that Ferucci is cooking something, maybe a pig, the guard looked confused and well… he told the truth to Albert who just straight up vomited everywhere, and even more when the guard showed him a picture.

Ferucci was holding a head in his hand with a smile on his face.

But the story just got worse when Ferucci went back a few days later to Albert, with the two knives and said "they worked perfectly."

Yeah he went back with the knives, to give it back to the fucking chef… the knife he skinned somebody with… to give it back to the same chef who was cooking for Charlotte, for James's mother, and everybody in the house. To give it back to Albert.

Though he said he cleaned it and it looked perfectly fine, Albert once again vomited the shit out of himself as he looked at the knives and what it was really used for… and the thought that Ferucci brought it back to him… to cook with it.

From that point on he never once again used the knives in the kitchen… but brought his own.

That's what Albert knew, if this had gone wrong, they would have ended up on a table, skinned or chopped, tortured in the worst way possible, because even if Ferucci is in a coma, there are still fucking devils in this family.

"We were lucky…" He whispered again as Alda was just still on her knee staring at the blood, but there was one more.

Chris, the one who truly mastered being invisible, so invisible that he did not speak, he even breathed slowly and made as little sound as possible. He was invisible even to open eyes, and it actually worked, James didn't look at him even once, just at Albert and Alda. Though it was mostly because they started all of this, regardless when the slap happened he too experienced what true fear is, when the adrenaline rushes through you but it doesn't work, instead just pushing you into that deep hole where you know there is no fucking escape, that you're going to die, that your life ends at that moment.

His fight or flight response was not working. It was more like he accepted the fact that fuck, there's nothing he can do, and he realized what he saw on social media about noradrenaline was a fucking myth. Your brain thinks you're gonna die, so it releases its full potential as a desperate attempt to live… yeah, Chris's desperate attempt was to become invisible… the first superhero of the world… though it worked to some extent.

"I-I'm sorry…" She finally whispered some words but behind it was no apology but more like still the shock, shock of those eyes and how close she was to death… and still is, because Mike witnessed it and she saw his eyesé

Yeah a close man to James saw it all and even if he spared her, their life… if the word goes to others they will be killed anyway… because of the sheer amount of respect they have for James. They would just let a random housekeeper disrespect their boss, who they willingly die for.

"Get up." A voice came directly in front of her and as she looked up, it was the same man, it was Mike. His voice was not threatening nor calm, it was somewhere between it.

The kitchen again immediately went silent as Albert was thinking about the skinning while Chris was again trying to be invisible.

Alda, though… she stood up slowly, and as she did, she noticed Mike's hands. He had gloves on which were covered with blood.

"What happened here should be forgotten forever, not a single word, not a single thought about it." He said as slowly pulled off the gloves from his hand. "Today was one of the worst days, at least how I witnessed it, and this just topped it all." He looked at Alda and threw the bloodied gloves in front of her. "Be thankful to God that today mercy fell upon all of you, mercy that is almost non-existent in this world."

She felt that deep respect for James coming from Mike, that he was ready to die for him, ready to punish.

"Be happy and clean up." Mike said as he eyed Alda a little more. There was no gun in his hand, no motion toward it, just a deep stare… and then he turned around and left the house, leaving them all in silence. This text was acquired from M|V|L0EMPYR.

A threat without any words, a threat without any gun, and what followed was the one obvious thing they could do.

Alda slowly picked up the gloves from the floor, and as if nothing had happened, she just started to mop up. Albert and Chris also stood up, collected the plates, and started to wash the dishes…

There was no time to sit around or think about it, no, they had truly received mercy.