Chapter 58 - 57: A Masquerading Woman

Chapter 58: Chapter 57: A Masquerading Woman

3 days later,

A large truck rumbled down the road, the driver glancing at the time with great haste, gnawing on his lip with an anxious twitch..

It was imperative that he make it to the designated point in time; failure meant ending up dead in a random ditch somewhere in the desert.

The driver was tasked with transporting Ricky's precious cargo, and Juan, Ricky's unforgiving supplier, had made it clear that any delay would be met with harsh consequences.

Even a minute late, and punishment was inevitable with the driver looking down at his cut off pinkie before shivering.

Sweat slicked the driver's palms as his gaze flickered nervously between the road ahead and the ticking clock.

Suddenly, his attention snapped back to the road as a figure loomed in the center of his headlights.

Before his mind could process what he was seeing, his right foot slammed on the brake.

The tires screeched violently against the asphalt, the sound echoing in the night.

As the figure grew closer, the driver squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for impact, but the figure remained unnervingly calm, untouched by the chaos bearing down upon them.

The car screeched to a halt, the blinding headlights cutting through the darkness to reveal a stunning woman standing in the middle of the road.

She extended a single finger toward the oncoming truck, and, impossibly, the vehicle responded.

It decelerated right where her finger rested, finally coming to a complete stop just as her finger lightly touched the truck's front.

The woman leisurely traced her finger along the side of the truck, her movements deliberate and confident as she strutted toward the driver's door.

The driver, trembling, slowly opened his eyes, his breath catching at the sight before him.

The woman was stunning, her beauty so surreal that it seemed to defy all reason, leaving him in awe and disbelief.

"Hey handsome, do you think you could help me?" The woman winked, and the driver practically melted in his seat, reduced to jelly by that simple, seductive gesture.

Her hand moved with a slow, deliberate grace toward the handle of the car door, each motion seeming to draw him further under her spell.

"I-I-I-I, y-y-y-yes." The man stuttered, his words fumbling over each other as his eyes remained completely entranced by her presence.

He was so captivated that he didn't even notice when she pulled open the car door, her every move drawing him deeper into a daze.

*Gulp*

"Do you need a rid-ah!" The man tried to speak, summoning what little courage he had, but before he could utter a word, the woman seized his collar with surprising strength.

In one swift motion, she yanked him from the car and hurled him onto the road, leaving him stunned and sprawled on the pavement before her looming figure.

"I do, but unfortunately, I don't need a driver." The woman's voice was cold yet commanding, her words dripping with menace despite the warmth of her smile.

As the man lay dazed on the road, the woman's eyes flashed a brilliant yellow, glowing with an otherworldly intensity that sent a shiver of fear crawling up his spine.

Before he could react, she pulled out a small pistol, the cold metal glinting ominously in the dim light, jolting his mind back to reality.

*Click*

"W-WAIT-"

*BANG*

Raven was ruthless as she pulled the trigger, the bullet rocketing from her pistol and tearing through his forehead, leaving a small, gaping hole.

Blood trickled from the wound as Raven's body abruptly shifted, morphing into his appearance before she stepped into the car and resumed his life.

Meanwhile at Juan's compound,

"BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

A loud, roaring laughter echoed as the Gulf Cartel surrounded a poker table with Ricky, Juan, Chores, and two other men.

The two additional figures were the current municipal president, Roberto F. García, and Juan's right-hand man, Manuel Esteves.

"Slick, you must tell another one!" A drunken Roberto roared towards Ricky, nodding his head as he peeked at his cards before clearing his throat.

"Alright, alright." Ricky maneuvered his hands to quiet the roaring laughter, and the room gradually fell silent in anticipation.

Meanwhile, Chores, Alexander, Barko, and Chester stood out of place to the side, still slightly perplexed by Ricky's fluent Spanish.

After stashing the $1.4 million worth of weed in his storage, courtesy of Chores, he found himself with nothing left to do.

In fact, using this method brought consequences as Ricky's ability to make money suddenly appear and then disappear left some of the cartel members feeling uneasy.

Rumors began to spread that Ricky was a devil, possibly a mutant which created a clear tension at first.

However, after he showed them a cross from the Vatican, any fear they had accumulated was swiftly washed away.

In fact, Ricky was surprised to discover just how religious Juan and the other members were almost, or even more devout, then Italians.

The rumors dwindled upon witnessing his affiliation with the church, yet Juan made it clear that neither he nor the cross he bore commanded respect but despite even this, the rumors persisted.

During this time, Ricky wasn't idle; he devoted himself wholeheartedly to drinking and trying to get closer to Rosa.

Initially, he made a concerted effort to cozy up to her, but after realizing how blatantly she avoided him, he eased off and began to enjoy his vacation.

His actions were subtle at first, but after joining the other Gulf Cartel members for drinks, he quickly fell into his usual pattern when drunk with others: he became fast friends with them.

Chores, Alexander, Barko, and Chester felt like fish out of water, as none of them understood Spanish and they had no special ring to translate for them.

So, they mostly talked among themselves, communicating in a mix of summon-to-summon and human-to-dog interactions.

However, Chores and Barko began to realize, due to this sudden isolation, just how sentient Alexander and Chester truly were.

Both Chester and Alexander had been passing the time playing Go Fish, and eventually, Chores and Barko couldn't handle the boredom any longer and decided to join in.

Surprisingly, they managed to find a way to communicate with each other, allowing them all to join in on the game.

Chester quickly began dominating, destroying Chores and Barko, while Alexander consistently ended up in last place.

As three days passed, Juan organized a lavish banquet in honor of their new big-ticket buyer, Ricky.

The entire Gulf Cartel was in attendance, along with the municipal president and as the night progressed, the event culminated in a poker game.

Ricky seized the opportunity to maximize his winnings, and by the end of the night, he had racked up around $75,000 from Juan, Manuel, and Roberto.

Despite the cartel switching the cards after he won seven times in a row, Ricky continued to win without even needing to use his own cards.

The method was quite simple, Ricky started telling jokes and, once he had everyone's attention, Alexander and Chester would discreetly scope out the competitors' cards.

They agreed to help him only after he promised them snacks and warmed up to the gentle giant that was Chores.

However, Chester flatly refused to reveal Chores cards to Ricky, as his good-natured honesty conflicted with the scheme, leaving Ricky slightly peeved and down $12,000 as a result.

Ricky practically had to beg Alexander to help him in return that he fights in mighty battles to gain vast honor and glory, it was a weird request needless to say but Ricky still accepted with the slight downside that Alexander wouldn't tell him Chores cards as well.

"An army general suspects that his platoon of one hundred men are all banging his wife. One night, he decides to see if his suspicions are true. While his wife is sleeping, he gets up and inserts an anti-cheat device into his wife's pussy. It's shaped like a tiny razor blade that leaves small cuts.

The next day, the general gathers all one hundred men. One by one, he asks them to pull down their pants and checks for cuts on their privates.

He orders those with cuts to be shot on the spot. He continues down the line and is astonished to find that each and every soldier has a cut. He can't believe it, every single one of them has had sex with his wife. That is, until he reaches the 100th soldier.

This truthful soldier has no cuts on his dick. The general, proud of the soldier, says, 'Thank you, soldier, for being faithful and honoring the cause.'

The soldier replies, 'Shank you thor dish means sho much cho me, I'm absholutle honored.'" Ricky slurred the last part of the joke, and after a moment of dead silence, a tidal wave of laughter rolls into the room as the majority get the punchline.

"What do you got?" Ricky whispers to Alexander, who crawls up to his shoulder.

"The man known as Maneul has what you call pocket aces." Alexander informed Ricky, who inhaled a deep breath of cold air.

'Oof, f*ck that.' Ricky thought about how he didn't want to lose any more money, even though it was a small fraction of his total winnings.

Over the past three days, Ricky had netted two hundred thousand dollars, excluding today's winnings, all thanks to Juan's compulsive gambling.

"I don't get it." Manuel leaned over to Juan, who was dying of laughter, and whispered to him.

"The soldier ate her out, Manuel." Juan cackled as he finished, and Manuel's face gradually showed a look of realization.

"Oooooooooooooooooo." Maneul nodded, the others bursting out into laughter at their friends' nativity.

"Okay, okay, everyone calm down so I can finally win!" Juan waved his hands, signaling for the surrounding members to stop laughing.

Everyone placed their initial bets, and as Ricky's greed began to fully manifest, he decided to lose a little to maintain his reliability.

A 2, 8, and a jack of spades were revealed and Ricky immediately tossed his face cards to the center, signaling that he was folding.

"Bad hand, Slick?" Juan joked as he raised the pot by a thousand, and everyone accepted the increase.

"I just wanted to let you win for once." Ricky smirked as laughter echoed around the room and he began to light up a blunt.

Juan scoffed but remained a good sport about it as the next card was revealed to be a nine, causing his eyes to twinkle.

"fifteen thousand." Juan smirked as he raised the pot by a staggering amount, and everyone present understood that he must have a strong hand.

"Ugh." Roberto grunted and folded, while Chores and Manuel remained firm in their stance.

"Call." Maneul and Chores, both called Juan, didn't hide his smile as he started playing with his chips.

The last card was flipped, revealing a five of hearts but Juan, however, seemed indifferent to it as he pushed more chips into the center.

"Raise twenty five thousand." Juan smirked, making Ricky let out a whistle though instead of backing down, Chores and Manual both called.

"Let's see those cards, boys!" Ricky said as Juan stood up with a puffed-out chest and threw down his cards first.

"Pair of nine and eights!" Juan boasted as if victory were already assured, and Ricky raised an eyebrow.

"That man is really bad at poker." Chester commented from the side, shaking his head as he already knew the poor man's fate.

"T-That is true but-"

"But that same girl has a problem." Raven shook her head with a sad expression, which only heightened Rosa's anxiety and made her increasingly paranoid.

"W-What's wrong?" Rosa asked, her voice trembling, as Raven slid to her side.

"She doesn't have a backbone." Raven sighed, causing Rosa to fall silent, caught off guard by the directness and warmth of her approach.

"I have-"

"Shut up, Rosa." Raven interrupted her in a demanding tone as Rosa looked down.

"Y-Yes." Rosa spoke, but her words faltered as her eyes widened, gazing up at the woman she had become.

"Your childhood must've been rough, right dear?" Raven asked, her gaze steady, as Rosa's eyes seemed to reflect the harsh streets where she and her brother struggled daily for food, enduring their father's neglectful parenting tactics.

"You only had your brother to lean on, and while that was the greatest gift you could have received, it was also a curse." Raven said, pulling Rosa into her embrace and hugging her gently.

"But just because he guided you through your childhood doesn't mean you should give up and follow whatever he says." Raven continued as she released Rosa, who started to tear up, and gently caressed her cheek.

"Follow your heart and if that leads you to that alcoholic, then go for it." Raven smiled as Rosa nodded, then slowly slid behind her.

*Sniff*

"Thank you Camilia, I'll do it. I'll go talk to him-"

"Tomorrow, since I need to borrow your identity today." Raven swiftly locked Rosa into a full nelson, cutting off her air supply.

"KERUK!" Rosa's eyes widened in horror as she saw the girl she knew as Camila slowly transform into her own reflection.

In the next moment, Rosa's body went limp, and Raven swiftly caught her, dragging her unconscious form into the stall.

*Knock*

*Knock*

"Rosa are you-"

"I-I-I'm fine." Raven used Rosa's voice to stutter shyly, causing the men outside the door to exchange puzzled glances and shrug.

After a few moments, the door creaked open, and Raven timidly ducked her head, twirling her hair between her fingers as the two guards, rubbing their necks, looked at each other in confusion.

"Rosa, we didn't mean to-"

"N-No, it's ok." Raven acted out perfectly, making her voice grow weaker with every word spoken.

"Excuse me." Raven ducked her head and scurried away, leaving the two guards to sigh in relief.

"Dammit Pablo, you know how she is with conversations." The guard said, while Pablo rubbed his forehead in frustration.

"Whatever, as long she's safe." Pablo shrugged, walking after her to resume their guard as Raven walked down to the first floor.

"Hold up, I need to take a piss." Ricky suddenly handed a half-empty bottle of tequila to Chores, who scrunched his eyebrows in confusion.

"Why is it sticky?" Chores asked Ricky, who instead of answering, started laughing as Chores' scrunched expression started to grow horrified by the second.

"SLICK, WHY IS THE BOTTLE STICKY!"

Ricky laughed as he stumbled toward a couple of bushes, unzipped his pants, and relieved himself, letting the pent-up liquor flow out.

*PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS*

"Ah~" Ricky let out a relieved breath, savoring the moment, until he scrunched his brow and turned his gaze toward Rosa's direction.

'He felt my presence?' Raven gave Ricky full marks for his instinct, noting that not even an animal could have heard her footsteps.

"Rosa, you do know I have my cock out right now?" Ricky joked in a weirdly forward and flirty manner, making direct eye contact with Raven.

She ducked her gaze, but not before sneaking a quick glance at his member, a little surprised while forcing down a mischievous smirk.

'A+' Raven thought to herself as she timidly grabbed the ends of her skirt, remaining silent until Ricky finished pissing.

"Hello?" Ricky asked while slowly wobbling over to her, only for Raven to take three steps back.

"I-I heard you have the devil's powers, is that true?" Raven asked, prompting Ricky to raise an eyebrow before shrugging.

"I don't really call it that-"

"But it is, it is the devil's powers and-"

"You don't believe the words you said." Ricky interrupted Raven's own interrupting question as his lie detection kicked in, causing Raven to bite her lip in response.

"Please tell me." Raven tried to meet Ricky's gaze but quickly shifted her eyes back down.

"Yeah, I'm a mutant, is that a turn off for you or something?" Ricky asked only for Raven to reply with a fake blush.

"Guess not." Ricky flashed a smile, deciding to show off as he used his powers to create steps out of thin air, starting to walk up them as Raven watched in shock.

"Cool, right?" Ricky laughed out, spreading his arms as Raven's gaze trailed up tohim seemingly standing in the air.

'So, he is a mutant.' Raven thought before clasping her hands together.

"I heard-.....I heard their really mean to the people with devil's powers-"

"Eh, who cares." Ricky shrugged without letting her finish, Raven ducking her head to hide the twitch in her eyebrow.

Hopping off the psychic structure, Ricky stood in front of Raven once more as he sought to lift her chin with his hand only for Raven to take another step back.

"Why don't you care?" Raven asked, deciding to quench her curiosity even further which made Ricky sigh while scratching his head.

"Cause why should I care about what people beneath me say?" Ricky honestly spoke since after coming to this world and gaining powers, his usual sheepishness had disappeared as he more or less acted however he wanted to.

In his past life, it wasn't unusual to get one-sidedly beaten up by his loan sharks after they pointed a gun at him, but after gaining powers Ricky shed that part of him and became who he was always meant to be.

A total narcissistic, self entitled, asshole, and he made sure to let everyone know about it.

'Huh?' Raven was baffled at Ricky's straight forward response.

"But don't they try to kill your kind-"

"Look, people are always going to kill people and the same goes for mutants or whatever the f*ck you call them." Ricky honestly didn't want to get into this topic as he'd rather get into Rosa's pants.

"And yeah, although I haven't met any wacko's who want to kill me for being a mutant I'd rather not worry about it." Ricky shrugged and continued to close the distance between himself and Raven, who kept backing away.

"Because why worry about a future that you don't know what will happen-"

"What if you did." Raven spoke dryly, irritated by how effortlessly Ricky embodied everything she wasn't, causing her facade to slip slightly.

Ricky's movements halted as he realized she wasn't lying or asking a question; she was implying she knew the truth.

"Rosa what are-"

"What if you knew the future?" Raven asked seriously as Ricky raised an eyebrow while showing a confused look.

"Isn't that like-.......impossible?" Ricky scratched his head since in every movie he's ever heard, the main thing that came with all that bullsh*t was how the future wasn't set in stone.

"What?" Raven chuckled instantly at his half assed response before immediately covering her mouth since it was out of character for Rosa.

"It's just-ugh, this is hard to explain.'' Ricky rubbed his head, trying to find the right words to say, while Raven couldn't help but smile at the sight of him.

"Ok, say in one instance you live out your whole life, alright?" Ricky suddenly said as he started to go off the butterfly effect movie starring Ashten cuctochor or whatever his name is, Ricky couldn't remember anymore.

"Then for some reason your past self learns the entirety of his future life from a young age." Ricky spoke, still struggling to find the right words, but Raven understood more or less what he was trying to convey.

"Ok and?" Raven asked, since she also didn't really understand what he was going with this sentence but understood the current scenario.

"Well, unless that younger self acts exactly like his future self then the future wouldn't change, but that's impossible since his other self didn't know the future unlike his younger self." Ricky tried to explain, but he was honestly too wasted to really formulate it right and that showed as Raven looked immensely confused, before her eyes suddenly widened.

"And let's say the younger self remembers that in one year that he's gonna lose 10k on a bet, would he bet on that same person again cause I wouldn't-"

"What if the future predictions weren't specific but instead a vague premonition of future events?" Raven suddenly asked a question, while Ricky rubbed his head, his drunken mind clearly running on fumes at this point.

"That's just complicated cause like, what if interfering and trying stop the future causes it however I'd say if one future thingy comes out false then-"

"It will immediately invalidate the others and cause questions for the other predictions." Raven urgently started thinking about her whole reasoning for doing all the events that had occurred till now.

'Have I been relying too much on Irene's visions.' Raven thought to herself as she sat down on a nearby bench, while Ricky clutched his stomach.

'I need talk with Irene about these diaries once more since this man makes some good points-'

"BLERGH!" Ricky vomited in a nearby bush as he hadn't paced himself at all while Raven's expression became plain.

"What was your name again?" Raven asked since she had really come to like Ricky's rough edges as she thought of it as charming, but also incredibly stupid and annoying.

"You felt that connection too? Well I guess I can tell you the name of your future husband." Ricky gave a charming response that made Raven chuckle, realizing how unusual it was for her to act out of character from the persona she had taken on.

"Oh yeah? Then who is it?" Raven asked as Ricky leaned on the wall and gestured to himself.

"The one and only Ricky Luciano baby, the only man that will make you-BLERGH!" Ricky said only for him to continue vomiting again as Raven started laughing hysterically at him.

"Well, until we meet again Slick-"

"Call me Ricky and where are you going-BLERGH!" Ricky started vomiting again as his stomach was a mess as Raven started laughing as her hips swayed while walking away.

"Then, till we meet again, Ricky." Raven side-eyed Ricky as her eyes flashed yellow.

"Wait-"

*THUMP*

Ricky couldn't even chase after her to continue putting on the moves as he stumbled before passing out due to the continuous mix of weed and liquor.

'I wonder when the last time I've laughed like that.' Raven wiped her eyes with a smile as she turned the corner, shifting into the appearance of Luis.

'Now it's time for mommy too get some more spending money~'