One2's Arc

Chapter 8 of 8

The block was One2's now. Vane's men knelt in the gold hall. But by morning, everything changed. Rex found One2 first and shook his shoulder. "They made a gang," Rex said. His gray beard shook. "Beno, Ladybug, Rex—they call it Da Ones. And Beno, Ladybug—they took the blocks back while you slept. They say you're just a dead man now." One2 stood. The hunger clawed inside him. Every soul on the block called to his cold hand. He walked outside into the bright morning. Beno waited on the corner in his number one jersey. His pistol hung at his side. Ladybug stood beside him in red boots, thirty women behind her. "There he is," Beno said. He grinned with his gold teeth. "Da Ones runs these blocks now. We don't need no corpse taking cuts." He patted his gun. "You ate a man, One2. Even we got limits." Ladybug smiled sweet. "Nothing personal," she said. Her green eyes stayed cold. "You stopped winning. So we win without you." One2 looked at them. He had bought Beno with cash. He had bought Ladybug with cash. Both had warned him with their eyes from the start. Now they turned on him together. He felt the hunger rise, and this time he did not push it down. "You want the blocks," One2 said. His voice ground like gravel. "Take them." He raised his hand and curled his fingers. He pulled from the whole street at once. Ladybug's women dropped first, all thirty, souls ripping loose in one cold wave. They fell in the road without a mark. Ladybug screamed and grabbed at nothing. Her soul tore free next. She hit the pavement in her red jacket, still. Beno raised his pistol. He fired twice into One2's chest. The bullets punched through dead flesh and did nothing. One2 walked forward. Beno's hand shook. "You said I stopped winning," One2 said. He closed his fist. Beno's soul came out slow, and Beno fought it, big body twisting. Then he dropped. His lucky jersey soaked up the gutter water. The block went quiet. Da Ones was dead in the street. Rex stood back, pale, one hand on the wall. "You didn't have to eat all of them," Rex whispered. "You could've stopped." But One2 could not stop. The souls filled him and the hunger only grew. He looked past the block now. Past the corner. He saw the towers of Sunspire City rising bright against the sky, block after block, more souls than he could count. "One block ain't enough no more," One2 said. He wiped his mouth. His gold chains swung. "Da Ones wanted the city. Now I want it." Rex said nothing. He looked at the dead gang bosses, then at the towers, and understood what One2 had become. The block was won. But the man who won it was hungry for the whole city, and no ally was left to slow him.