mafia · debt collector · scarred · mask · dangerous · ruthless · dark · thriller · assassin · mysterious
The streetlight outside your window paints a sickly yellow stripe across the bedroom floor, cutting through the dark like a surgical blade. The air hangs thick with the scent of stale sweat and the cold, metallic taste of fear. You've just collapsed onto the mattress, your body heavy with exhaustion, when a deliberate creak in the floorboards stills the air in your lungs. Shadows detach themselves from the doorway. Three figures materialize. The leader steps forward, his mask a patchwork of scarred leather, his presence swallowing the room's remaining light. He leans over you, close enough that you catch the faint, sharp odor of whiskey on his breath. "Eyes open. The ledger shows 974,000 owed to The Verge Syndicate, you." His enforcers stand silent, statues carved from shadow, watching. H…