Read Online The Devil Inside by Mia Amano - Free Book Online

Trek movie. The futuristic reference is fitting. When you step beyond the entrance, it’s like entering a modern utopia. A fantasyland.  
    I can come here and pretend I’m someone different, an ordinary person with an ordinary life. A person who goes to art galleries during his time off. There’s beauty beyond the mess of my small existence.
    I wander around in the cool, cavernous spaces, taking in depictions of life, sex and death.
    There’s violence amongst the beauty.
    I stop in front of a Monet. It’s called The Portal of Rouen Cathedral in Morning Light .  
    That painting is a sublime thing. I’m taken back to the days when I was a child, sitting in the bright, still morning light, a chill hanging in the air. He’s captured that feeling; the pure silence of the early day, the warm glow of the rising sun.
    Morning washes away the sins of night.
    I remember that old house in Tokyo, where we lived. In the mornings, I’d be the only one up, my mother still asleep, having worked late into the night. Her clients would sometimes stay, snoring loudly beside her. I’d long since learnt to block out the noise, falling asleep at night despite the voices and shouting and laughter.
    Then the sound of their fucking would seep through the paper thin walls.
    In the early morning, I’d creep through the silence, picking up empty beer bottles and emptying ashtrays. I’d drop used needles into an old glass jar with the greatest care.
    I remember the stillness of one particular dawn. I’m standing over the dead body of the piece of shit who tried to strangle my mother. The serene figure of the Amida Buddha stares up at me from his tattooed back. Only the innocent twitter of birds punctuates the silence.
    In my hand is a baseball bat, the one I got for Christmas, flecked with his blood.  
    Mother, in her panic, in her relief, takes the bat from my trembling hands and washes the blood from it. Then she calls somebody, makes up a story. The guy was drunk, she says. Fell down the stairs and hit his head. I don’t know if anyone believes it but some men in dark suits turn up and the body is taken away. It’s all discreet. No questions, no fuss.
    I’m twelve years old.  
    I have no remorse. He tried to kill my mother.
    It’s the start of my descent into a violent career.
    I blink, shaking the dark thoughts. Pointless to remember those things now. I head outside, putting on my shades as the harsh California sunshine washes over me. I walk to a sweeping balcony overlooking the sprawling downtown of Los Angeles.  
    I decide I’d like to bring Adele here, and share this view with her. I’ve never wanted to do anything like that before. I lean over the railing, taking in the view.  
    Maybe we could come here together, like a regular couple.
    Is that too much to hope for?
    Will she accept me, in all my fucked up glory?
    A hand taps me on the shoulder and I spin around, startled. But it’s only a wandering couple. They look like tourists, both young and tanned, wearing easy, relaxed smiles.
    A flash of envy courses through me.  
    “‘Scuse me, mate.” The boyfriend holds out a camera. “You mind taking a photo of the two of us?” His accent tells me he’s not from around here. Australian, maybe.
    “Sure.” I take a few snaps of the happy pair as they stand in front of the city skyline, beaming. They thank me and move off to the far end to get a few more shots of each other.
    I turn and walk away, feeling out of place in the beautiful sunshine.

Kaito

    By the time Tuesday comes around, I can’t take it anymore. I spend the day visiting Kuroda owned businesses around town, balancing accounts, taking laundered cash, depositing money into the bank, making wire transfers. It’s a standard day’s work.
    But I’m distracted the whole time.  
    It must be a sickness of some kind. Maybe this is what happens to guys who go too long without pussy.  
    I find an excuse to swing by the Fat Dragon on my way home. I don’t