Phantom Assassin (2015 version)

Chapter 12

Shallomar drummed her fingers along her chin, blubbering her lips together out of boredom. Hailey stares at her, eyelids drooping in tiredness.

"When will Trace be back?" Shallomar finally whined, tapping her feet impatiently under her chair.

Hailey shrugged and sighed. "Who knows? Looks like Phantom's got him worked up over something again, and it doesn't look like a simple bug fix either, like last time."

Shallomar's bottom lip pouted. "I finally started liking him, too."

Hailey laughed. "Yeah, I guess it is too bad his Modifier upgraded again, huh?"

It was silent for a moment, and then Shallomar stood up abruptly, facing Hailey. "Wanna check the event board to see if there are any leftover missions?"

Hailey blinked at her for a few seconds, as if she didn't understand exactly what Shallomar was suggesting, and then, suddenly realising, she gasped. She jumped up in her chair and landed on her toes.

"You know that means we'll be risking our lives, right?" Hailey challenged, crossing her arms over her chest.

Shallomar nodded slowly. "Yeah, I know. That's exactly why I wanna go." She paused a moment, and Hailey just stare at her, at a loss for words. "Don't you think it's kind of lame that we just sit around, waiting for when Phantom requests our help? I mean, I think we should have some reign over our lives."

Hailey, sighing, dropped her arms to her sides. "Shallomar, you and I both know that we have zero reign as it is. We're lucky to even still have human thoughts."

Shallomar nodded shamefully. They were lucky to still have the behaviour of humans, minus the insane craving for killing people.

"But," Shallomar tried to convince Hailey, "I can't just sit around while one of our new comrades is being tested on and upgraded. It's depressing. So please, can we go on an event?"

Hailey's eyebrows creased, trying to figure out some sort of way to refuse Shallomar's request, but the harder she thought about it she started craving it as well.

"Dereck," Hailey summoned, still watching Shallomar. A grin crawled into her features.

The man appeared behind her and clutched her around her waist, supposedly catching her by surprise. Hailey flipped around, cackling, and allowed him to peck her forehead. Then, he backed away and nodded. Hailey smiled and looked back to Shallomar.

"You want to go right now?" Hailey asked, failing at hiding her excitement. The craving was taking over her.

That was the only side-effect of ignoring Phantom's constant badgering for updates; the unbearable craving for killing. Blood. Death. Screaming....

Hailey didn't let Shallomar answer, because she knew the answer, and raced forward to grab her sleeve. They both pressed their Modifiers in and their drab pajamas fizzled away to be replaced by their slick black cloaks.

Hailey bit her lip anxiously, hardly able to contain herself anymore.

They disappeared out of the room and Dereck waved them off, feeling slightly relieved that Hailey's carelessness meant they wouldn't have any missions today.

So he went to sleep again after making himself a good cup of coffee. It'd been awhile since he could sit down and calmly enjoy himself.

~~~~~

Hailey clutched Shallomar's arm, literally bouncing up and down. This wasn't like her, but she didn't care. Her insignia tickled her arm and she giggled like an insane person. Her Tool was itching to take over her. Not yet, not yet.