Red Lady

Eden

The flight to England was going to be a long one, I knew. Not just in time, but a long wait that went against my nerves and mind. The closer we got to the new destination, the antsier I got. I was bouncing my leg as I tried to get rid of all of this pent up energy. If I hadn’t of been on a plane, I would have either been practicing my hand to hand skills—which had been proved superior when I had gotten into a physical fight with one of those guards that were better kept nameless—or went on a run to just sooth my muscles. However, I was stuck thousands of feet in the air, packed into a plane with no room for any of those exercises.

I wouldn’t have mind shooting anything either, though I think the pilot would have frowned upon that. A bullet hole through one of the windows shaped for trouble ahead. I had to stop the laugh from escaping my mouth at the thought; I ended up smirking instead. This probably gave the impression that I was thinking very naughty and violent thoughts for Roberts.

However shocking it seemed, I ended up leaning back into my very comfortable chair, looking out the window at the night sky, and falling asleep. Not even a moment ago, I had been complaining of too much energy, but here I was gaining more. Maybe it was exhaustion that was causing me to be so jumpy and excited. You never mixed a fresh kill with exhaustion; it could lead an assassin into bad things.

No matter the rhyme or reason, I didn’t complain about falling asleep. During my slumber, I did one of the things that I did when I knew my body was safe. I dreamed about the past. Not a made up creation from my abyssal mind, but an honest to god replay of the life I had lived after just leaving to continue my line of work. It was nothing pleasant, but they always said that people dreamed of the worst things when they felt the safest. But was it really necessary to relive things that I constantly thought about during my waking hours?

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My mission had been simple: Kill “Insert name here” without being caught, leave, then receive the other half of your payment. It was how I always operated. The assassinations that I was to do never really ranged farther than that. Sometimes it would ask to give them a slow and painful death, or a quick one from a distance. Sometimes they even wanted them tortured, which was something I had been trained in. Other than those special cases, however, the killings were strictly the same. Kill said man or woman, then leave. I had never really strayed from that path because I knew the rules.

For this target, I had been given the picture of a middle aged man—whose name I had forgotten, though I didn’t really care for names—who was said to be causing trouble for the local “mafia” organization. I had scoffed at the word that they had used so easily. A small town like this had thugs, not a mafia. I knew what a true one was, because I had been born into one, as well as previously worked in my own. But a job was a job, and all I was interested in was money. This nameless man had a hefty price on his head, and I was the one that was going to collect it.

I had scoped the town out days previous, getting a feel for how I was going to do this. Since it was what I called a “personal” killing—meaning the kill was going to be face to face—it was going to need planning. During the day, I had disguised myself as a foreign traveler who was only staying a couple days before leaving. At night, however, I was a prowling animal. And tonight, the kill could commence.

I was dressed in dark attire, not all black because this town wasn’t that dark. Deep hues of green was what I wore, blending into the trees around the man’s house. On me I had three hand guns, as well as two knives that rested in sheathes that wound around my forearms. I was well prepared for any personal assassination, and by the report I had been given of our nameless hero, he never went down without a fight.

Through the back windows of his home, I could see dim lights in one room, and when his shadow passed by the window, I knew that he was in there. Stealthily moved to the side of his home, I used one of my knives to wedge in between one of the windows. After a moment, the pathetic lock on it gave and the window was easy to open. After my scouting, I knew he had no alarm system, which made my job easier. However, I looked down upon this man for being so cocky in his safety.

As quiet as death, I pulled myself in through the opened entryway, closing it gently behind me. That way, if he came across it, he didn’t suspect anything. I listened to the sound around me, making sure I really was alone, then went towards the room that I had seen the man in. The door to this room was open a smidge, letting the light from it sent a crack of light into the darkened hallway.

As I was about to enter, I heard something behind me and I rolled to the ground, moving a foot or so away from the position had I been previously and now looked at my attacker from one knee. In the little light I had, I saw that standing before me was my target, armed with a large enough knife to look like a sword.

“You’re a very sneaky man, I have to give you that,” I purred to him with a smirk. He seemed shocked by my accent but didn’t let it alter his face too long before it was replaced with his previous glare.

“I didn’t get this far in my life without knowing techniques to protect myself from assassins like yourself.”

“So you’ve been signed before,” I stated, cursing my employer silently in my head. He had not given me this information beforehand.

“I have, but I have never been gone after by someone of your caliber.”

I gave him a rolling bow, always keeping my eyes and smirk on him. “Nor will you ever, because you won’t leave this house alive.”

“We’ll see about that,” he growled before coming at me.

He swung the knife at me with all the force he could muster, making it easy to avoid the swipes because they were so wide and predictable. However, I was running out of hallway to back into, so I could no longer put myself in a defensive state. I grabbed one of my own knives and held it against his as it came close to my throat. I opted not to use a gun, that way if I missed him while dodging his weapon, I wouldn’t attract the attention of anyone nearby.

I pushed with all my might against him, causing the man to stumble and give me my edge. I jumped forward at him and slashed at his arm, opening up his shirt and skin and instantly showing the blossom of blood. He didn’t even flinch at the pain, only coming at me again. He swiped at my head and I ducked low into a kneeling position before kicking my le out at his knees. He groaned in pain and ended up falling to the ground.

I went to follow him and pierce my knife through his chest, but his knife came out at me and cut into my side, almost as deep as I had cut him. The pain was like that of a pinch, a pain I had come used to during my schooling. I pulled my arm down, pressing the blade to my injured side to stop him from using it on me again. He tried to pull the blade back so he could stab me, but my grip was too powerful. He moved it to the left, digging it farther into my side, but it did not deter me from holding it.

While he was distracted with cutting me, I pushed my fist into his wrist painfully, making him let go with a cry and hold his more than likely broken wrist to his chest out of instinct. I took my blade and pinned his hand to the ground with my own before stabbing the knife through, making him scream. It was a fight, but I did the same to the other, broken hand, earning me another scream.

His screams had excited me, making me smile large and my eyes to grow just as huge as I watched him writhe on the floor. He was in so much pain that he couldn’t move to get the blades out.

“You were a nice little spar against me, I have to admit. Don’t worry though, no one I have ever met had been to my standards; you didn’t have a chance in the beginning, so don’t blame yourself.”

He just narrowed his brown, hateful eyes at me and struggled, grunting in pain but still moving his hands anyway. I took his large knife that had fallen to his side in the struggle and looked at the blood that was dripping off of it. My blood.

“I had to admit, I wasn’t expecting you to wound me at all, it’s impressive. However, if I had my gun you wouldn’t have been so long. Just know in your last dying moments that I will wear this wound proudly until it fades away.”

“Damn you bitch,” he swore, his breathing ragged. I only smiled at him in return, one I knew that was crazy enough to cause nightmares.

“Now, I’m going to use your own weapon to kill you. It will look nice protruding from your chest.”

I raised the thing above my head, aiming directly where his heart would be, but as I was about to bring it down in a powerful motion, a voice stopped me.

“Daniel, are you out there in the hallway?” The voice was a woman, sounding weak, and was coming from the room that this Daniel had once been in.

I looked down into his eyes and saw them widen in fear once he heard the woman’s voice. He wasn’t afraid of her, no, he was afraid for her.

“Oh, Daniel, I didn’t know we had another guest with us. How rude, why did you not introduce us?”

He struggled against the knives again as I got up, knowing that I was going to go in there. He ignored the pain as best he could, trying to get the sharp blades to get out of the wood. However, I went to them and pushed them in deeper with my foot individually, making him hiss in pain.

“Don’t move, I’ll say hello to her. You are disposed of as of right now. Please, don’t get off,” I finished off with a quiet laugh.

“Daniel? Please Daniel, are you there? I hear a lot of noises.”

“Beth—“

I kicked the man in the head, shutting up before he could get too loud in his warning. I saw his eyes roll into the back of his head and I knew that he wouldn’t be making any sounds for a couple of minutes, let alone be moving.

“Now, I’m going to go give your friend a nice little greeting. You stay here.”

I took Daniel’s large knife and used it to open the door farther before stepping in. The woman was sitting in the bed, looking tired and sick. Her eyes squinted against my figure in the dark, but when she saw the blade in my hand, she gasped.

“Aw, don’t look so afraid. I just came to say hello.”

“Who are you? And where is Daniel?”

“He’s in the hallway, Beth. He’s a little stuck, so he couldn’t join us.”

I saw fear go through her eyes, just like it had the man outside, and in an instant she went for something in the open drawer next to her. Knowing it could be nothing good, I pulled out the gun closest to me, which happened to be in my hip holster, and happened to be faster than her.

“Pull your hand away from their dear, or I’ll have to hurt you.”

She did as she was told and just sat there like she had before. She had the same gaze that Daniel had, one that was full of hate and I smiled again.

“Aren’t you just precious, little Beth,” I told her, coming up to her on the side of the bed. Looking in the drawer, I saw a gun, almost looking like a replica of mine. Not wanting her to be able to get to it, I kicked the nightstand over, causing it to send out a loud sound and send the gun across the phone.

“We don’t want you—“

Before I finished my sentence, Beth slapped my hard across the face, since I was then in reach, and knocked me back a few feet. My mouth was wide open in shock, seeing as I couldn’t believe she had slapped me, and almost missed her as she tried to bolt out of bed.

“I don’t think so,” I growled, catching her as she sped passed me, wrapping my arm around her throat. She grunted and struggled, but seeing as she was ill, she had no chance of getting out of my hold.

“I don’t have time to deal with you, and you’ve pushed me over the edge,” I sighed. I stabbed the knife into her stomach, making sure not to go in too deep, seeing as she was pressed against me. She stopped struggling instantly and sagged against me, bleeding from the wound.

Not wanting to let her suffer, I moved my arm from her throat to around her bleeding stomach and pressed the blade against her creamy neck.

“If only you would have kept quiet, you could have lived,” I whispered with a smile before I cut a long and deep line across her neck. The blood sprayed out instantly, slightly covering me but mostly hitting her and the ground.

I let her drop to the ground, knowing she would be dead in seconds and stepped over her body. I stopped when I realized how messy the blade had become and wiped it on a part of her clean gown before leaving her in a pool of her own blood.

When I came back out into the hallway, Daniel was still pinned to the floor—like I actually thought he could escape—and seemed like he was coming out of whatever dizzy world he had been in when I kicked him.

“We won’t be having anymore interruptions Daniel, your friend has been taken care of.”

“Beth! Y-you monster!” His threat was a little weak, but I heard the heat in it.

“Why, thank you. Now, you can join her!”

I resumed my previous position with the knife, and there was no one to stop me this time. It went straight through his heart and I could feel the point come in constant with the wood on the other side of his body. He instantly stopped moving and his lifeless eyes stared up into the ceiling above him. My job now complete, I pulled my blades out from his hands, cleaned them just like I had the other blade, then left the way I had come in. As I traveled to the place I would be meeting my employer, I noticed no one had heard any of the scuffle. I was just that damn good.

The man met me at the place specified, just as promised, and he looked a little sick when he saw all the blood on my skin and the open wound on my side that was starting to scab up. I would have loved to see his face if he could have seen all the blood on my dark clothing.

“I hope that all that blood is not yours,” he said a little shakily. I rolled my eyes at this so called “mob” boss and shook my head.

“He got me once, but this is his blood and that of a woman. Something you forgot to mention. Along with the other attempts you put on him.”

The man shrugged nonchalantly, looking away from my bloody form. “I didn’t think it was important. All that matters is that the job is done. The rest of the money has been sent to your account. Here is the proof.”

He pulled out his phone and opened it to the page that showed the successful transaction. I nodded my head, now knowing I had the money I deserved.

“You are no longer in my employment. Goodbye, Red Lady.”

The man turned his back to me and started to walk away, but stopped when a bullet went passed his ear. He almost screamed and looked back at me, his eyes just as wide as the two people I had just killed. I gave him the same smirk I had given them.

“W-what are you doing?!”

“I don’t take lies well, sir. I’m afraid you’ve crossed me, and I won’t take that. Besides, this town will be better without a stupid man like you running around.”

Not waiting for him to say anything else, I shot him through the head and walked away before his body even dropped to the ground.”

“Eden, wake up!”

I snapped away and sat up instantly, shoving the gun that had been in my hand into the chest of the person in front of me. Ashton’s eyes didn’t show any fear whatever, knowing that I wouldn’t shoot him, and knowing that he had scared me into the position.

“Sorry, I’m just a little bit jumpy.”

“Bad dream?” he asked. I shook my head, running a hand through my dampened hair.

“Just reliving the past.”