The Assassin (one-shot)

‘I’m going to die!’ the young girl thought, feeling trapped. ‘Why did this happen??’.

She retraced through her memories. Everything started absolutely in a normal way, in a normal. Having her favorite drink in her favorite pub. Seeing a good looking guy in that pub was no surprise. It always happened. Said hot guy was having a drink with another guy at the table. He was laughing, shooting glances at the people from time to time. He had beautiful eyes. Next to them was another group of people. Five, in total. They appeared to be discussing something, business most likely. They didn’t seem as regulars, she would have recognized them. They were also enjoying their drinks as they were speaking, mixing a work meeting with a pleasure meeting. Her eyes went back to the guy at the table next to them. He got up from his table, said something to the person at his table, and then went for the exit. He was tall, well built. Probably somewhere in his twenties. His long hair looked so beautiful and soft, yet so manly on him. She wondered how it felt to touch it, just a bit. As he graciously brushed by her in his leave, she felt a bolt of electricity shoot through her body. A shiver went through her spine, she couldn’t place it. When she turned around to steal another glance, he was gone.

After some time, people were starting to leave the pub. Before she knew it, the only tables that were occupied were hers, where she was with her friend, and the other table with those five people. Not long after, they left as well. Seeing it was already late and almost closing time, she decided they should also be on their way, and asked for the check. She liked this place; drinks were good, AND cheap.

She bid her farewells to her friend and started for her home. It wasn’t a long walk, so she was enjoying the night air. It felt so cool, and the fresh air seemed to soothe her sense of smell as she walked passed a building and turned the corner towards a small alley, a shortcut to her home.

‘No…’ she frowned. ‘This isn’t right…’, she thought as she sniffed the air. There was this smell that didn’t quite fit in the night air. It smelled… she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, she only knew that she didn’t like it. Turning another corner, her eyes widened in shock as she recognized the smell.

Death. Corpses. Five, in total. The same people that were lively drinking at the table next to them were now lying in their own pools of blood on the concrete. The blood kept flowing out of their bodies, until it reached, she saw then, a pair of leather combat boots. She didn’t even notice the man dressed in all black in the middle of the file of corpses until something shone from his hand. A knife. A weird looking knife, that is. And it was all covered in blood. He turned his head, taking notice of her staring at the scene.

“Now this is inconvenient,” he said in a voice that was meant to be annoyed, but it came out more like amused. “You weren’t supposed to see any of this,” he said as he fully turned towards her, now walking in her direction. “Now I’ll have to deal with you as well,” he finished.

She gasped. Walking towards her with a bloody knife in his hand, with a smirk plastered on his face was the same guy she saw earlier in the pub, his eyes now burning through her own.

Terrified, she let out a scream. Activating every muscle she had in her body, she ran for it. Ran as fast as she could, as far as she could.

“Oh, don’t choose the hard way! Please?” she heard him calling out as she was running away. She didn’t care where to, only as far away from him as she could. After running for a few good 10 minutes of running, she came to the conclusion that she finally lost him. Leaning on the trunk of a large tree in a park she came across, she was now catching her breath. He wouldn’t find her here, she was sa-

“Tired of playing cat and mouse yet?” came a voice from the other side of the tree. She bolted up from her place, staring at the person that was now sitting casually on the ground with his back on the trunk of the tree.

She ran again. In this situation, this was all she could do. But she couldn’t run endlessly like this. She needed to find a place to hide in. A place where he couldn’t reach her, where she would be safe.

She almost yelled of happiness when she came upon the police station. She could ask them for help. A wave of relief went through her as she stepped through the entrance of the police station. She desperately grabbed the arm of a random policeman that was drinking his coffee.

“Please! I need your help!” she cried, the policeman dropping his coffee from the sudden movement, but then grabbed the hand that was holding his own arm with his other hand.

“Alright, just calm down,” he said. “Just tell me what’s happening.”

After a few glasses of water, she was able to finally calm down. She felt safe now that she was here.

“Alright, so let me get this straight. You witnessed a guy murdering five people, and when he saw you, he tried to kill you too,” the cop asked.

She nodded.

“Can you give me a description of him?”

“Yeah,” she answered. “He has long brown hair, and…” she was now at loss for words. Even though she ogled him for an entire night, she couldn’t remember anything aside from his hair and his black clothes. Anyone on these streets could be wearing that. But then she remembered something. “He had this weird medallion at his neck on a long chain.”

The cop nodded.

“I’ll form a search party. Don’t worry, we’ll find him. And we’ll keep you safe until we do.”

She smiled, followed by a sigh of relief.

“Thank you,” she said.

The cop smiled.

“No problem. It’s our job to protect the citizens.”

She returned his smile. It was explained to her that two cops will be placed on guard outside her home in case he showed up. When she was driven towards her home, she could already see the cops placed in front of the mansion she lived in. She let out a breath she didn’t know she was keeping in.

Entering the house was one of the hardest things she ever did. Paranoia was still creeping in, turning around at every strange sound. The cop that accompanied her kept reassuring her, that if anything happened, they’d be just outside.

She nodded, half heartedly. Looking on the bright side, he couldn’t possibly know where she lived. She didn’t have any reasons to be frightened.

She went inside, locking all the doors and windows. She knew that the cop had a spare key so he could enter if something were to happen. Turning on the hot water in the tub, she dived in and let herself by relaxed by the nice aromas. Roses. She loved roses.

She deserved this night’s sleep, she thought as she went out of the bathroom.

“You sure like taking long baths, don’t you? Even though I would too, with a tub that big…” she heard behind her. Jerking her head around, she saw the same expression of the guy that brought her terror. This time, she could clearly see the green eyes of a mystical gleam, even in the dim light. She let out another scream as she ran. How did he get in without being noticed? She ran towards the window of her bedroom, since she knew the two cops would be right down.

But they weren’t. The car was empty and no one seemed to be patrolling.

“Look there,” the terrifying, yet deep and soft voice said behind her, pointing over her shoulder.

   There they were. A few meters away, the two cops were at the shade of an old big tree on her lawn.

Both dead.

“They were both kind enough to let me in,” he added, dangling the key from her house in front of her face. He jerked his hand away, but he caught her, her back hitting hard on the wall and his knife now on her throat. But instead of just slicing it completely open, he just gently cut a bit so that a few drops of blood were flowing out. He studied the blood on the knife for a few moments, a sly smile now on his face as he raised his medallion. Which she now realized it wasn’t exactly a medallion. It looked like a vial… a vial filled with blood. He let her drop of blood from the knife go into the vial, as he studied it smugly. “Souvenir collected,” he said, now lifting his head up to face her with his hypnotic green eyes. “And now it’s time to finish the job.”

She tried once again to shove him off, and succeeded, but he caught her again right away.

“Why…” she asked, her strength now leaving her. She could almost hear the smirk in his voice when he answered.

“Rule one for an assassin: never leave any witnesses,” he whispered in her ear and she felt a stab in her stomach, his knife piercing her in two different places, doubling the pain. He lifted her up, placing her on her bed. She could see the moonlight shining on his face, making his eyes gleam. His long hair was falling down on her face as he placed her, and she felt herself losing consciousness.

“Sleep well, my princess,” he said as he kissed her forehead.

For some reason, she felt at ease. Maybe because she knew she was dying. Maybe because she was accepting her fate. Maybe because those green eyes still looked hypnotic. She closed her eyes and drifted into nothingness, where she couldn’t feel pain anymore.