The Nightingale's Blade

Prologues of Death and Old Blades

A/N: For those of you who have read this story on another account, it was originally mine and I asked a friend to publish it for me. 

It was a cold, rainy day on August 15th when a hooded man knocked on their door.

An innocent six-year-old girl looked up from her puzzle book, only the slightest bit interested at who was there. She watched, unsuspecting, as her mother walked over to greet whatever guest was on the other side. Her mother, knowing better, wasn't expecting a guest at all. But when you had a job like Natalie Lolen's, you couldn't expect anything ordinary.

Years later, that same man would be in Natalie's daughter's dreams, laughing - carrying that horrible bloody knife that ended her parent's life on that miserable day.

From the fireplace rocking chair, James Lolen, the father, looked up. "Who is it?"

Natalie gave no answer, nor did the strange man, who seemed to be grinning. Grinning at...what? The clueless expression that James and her daughter gave? Natalie Lolen's face, which had suddenly turned pale? "It's been too long," the man rasped. James looked up from the magazine he was reading and turned pale.

"It's been too long," the man repeated again. "And I'm tired of it, so you have two options here. Either you cancel the debt, or I cancel it for you."

Natalie shook her head. "I did what you wanted, and I deserve the money."

The man shook his head. "I told you to kill him slowly. I told you to bring him to me first. And yet-"

"I did what you wanted!" Natalie yelled, the color quickly returning to her face. "If I had let him live, they would've gone after you! I saved your life!"

The man grinned. "What I do with my life is your choice. I don't care about it anymore - just how I spend it." And then, before anybody else knew what was going on, there was a flash of silver and Natalie Lolen fell to the floor with a knife through her heart. The man's grin widened with every passing moment.

The six-year-old let out a blood-curdling scream and burst into tears.

"And now for you, James. It's been a good run-"

James yelled something and then grabbed a chair by the table, his only defense. The man charged at him with the knife, and James swung the chair - just too slowly - and the man got out of the way. James yanked a silver dagger with rubies embedded in its handle out of his pocket, but it was too late. The man pulled out a pistol and there was a deafening BANG as James Lolen collapsed, his mouth still shaped in an 'O' formation. The dagger slid out of his hand and was never seen until many years later...

The man cocked his head and stared at Scarlett Lolen with a cruelly amused smile. His eyes were blue, but not a bright, determined blue like Natalie's or Scarlett's. His gaze burned, empty and cold, and in the darkness, it seemed to glow.

Suddenly, with a swish of his cloak, he was gone. Vanished. Scarlett sat cowering by her father, frantically looking around, as her sanity slowly dwindled. With panicked tears, she gazed out the door, where the man's coat had disappeared until there was no use anymore. He was gone. And so were her parents.

There she sat, clutching her father's hand, horrified at the blood stains on the floor. She sat, and, whispering, "Mama? Papa?" waited for her parents to wake. Scarlett waited and waited, but James and Natalie Lolen never answered their daughter's pleas. Scarlett waited until all that was left was the pitter, patter, of the rain splattering the streets in the freezing air.