It's Kill Or Be Killed...

Chapter 4 - The Next Victim...

I had no idea where we were headed, and I had no idea where I was when we arrived. Alex knew it all too well. We jumped out of the barely functioning truck and Alex ran over to the front door; lifting up what looked like the letter box to reveal a keypad and typing in a password so the doors open.

“Welcome home!” Alex smiled as we walked in. Home? What did he mean? I have no idea what this place is, where I am or anything!

“What do you mean home?” I ask obviously, he ignores my question and continues to walk in. Shaking my head I follow him into a room opened by double doors. At the far end was a huge Christmas tree, lit up and filled out with tinsel, baubles and other decorations; it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen! A smile instantly appears on my face, but when I look over to Alex it soon disappears. He’s looking down at the floor.

“Pete did it, with some help from me… Said the family could all meet up; you know; Me, you, Pete, Gail and Scott…” He mumbled. The eerie quietness in the room told me there was not a happy ending to this story.

“So where is everyone?” I say, almost not wanting an answer.

“Dead…” He said, shaking his head and rubbing his hand over his mouth. “Just me and you left as far as I heard…”

“H-How did they…?” I didn’t need to finish the sentence.

“Well, with Pete you know what happened…” He said, my gaze at the tree. “Gail was taken out after botching a job and Scott is MIA. No one’s seen him for ages!”

“The last time I saw you guys was my first day! I’ve hardly been able to stay in contact! Now I find out there was gonna be some ‘Christmas Party’ that no one can make it to cos they’re all dead?” I say, my sentence getting louder as I speak. “Well that’s just great! I could have died today! So could you! How can Des think this is acceptable? None of us can tell if it’s him that texts!” I cup my hands round my face.

“Alyssa, I know! I was there for half of it. Don’t think I don’t ever wonder the same thing… We’re the best ones though; I’d be more worried if one of us had died…” I don’t know how to take that sentence really, a kind of compliment but insult to everyone else who is actually dead! Alex’s phone buzzes. “Alyssa, come on; Des wants a chat.” He says with no feeling. He walks me to another room, punches in another code to allow the door to open and reveal a room with a small phone in it. The phone rings and Alex puts it on loudspeaker.

“Des.” He starts.

“Alex, Alyssa. It’s nice to hear from you.” The distorted voice says.

“Yeah well its better than texting!” I say sarcastically.

“Look, I just wanted to say I am deeply saddened by the passing of your family, but it seems like another firm is trying to get at us… I know you two can handle yourselves, but from now on I want you to work together…” I breathe in deeply and look up at the ceiling.

“Is there a problem with that?” Alex glares at me. I didn’t mean it to seem like I wouldn’t work with him, I was too busy feeling guilty about Pete. After all, I’m the second best of the family and I couldn’t save him! I didn’t even really try, I couldn’t even focus on the situation!

“No, there’s not a problem with that!” I say, exhaling.

“Good. I have a job for you; I know it’s Christmas Day and I know you probably have better things to do, but this is urgent…”

“Pfft, yeah, better things to do!” I begin, ready to blow my top and scream blue murder at this man. “You blatantly know we either have no family or won’t be seeing them, you know we don’t have anything better to do because every Christmas you send us out on killing sprees and we get shacked up in shitty hotels! Last year, what did I do? I killed a newly-wed couple and stayed in a seedy motel that smelt of greasy fast food. Merry Fucking Christmas!” Alex puts his hand on my shoulder. It calms me slightly.

“Sorry, Des. Please go on…” I roll my eyes, he’s such an arse-kisser.

“It’s a 600k job. I’ve been told details but I think it’s better left for you to read and research…” The distorted voice told us chillingly.

“You’re not researching?” Alex question, raising his eyebrows in confusion.

“No. I want to see how you can do. See if you can do it without me. Now, I’ve got the papers being delivered now and you have until the end of boxing day to do it…” He hangs up. Within seconds the doorbell rings and Alex runs to the door, shortly after running back with an envelope. He opened it and read an attached letter.

“Alex and Alyssa. Knowing we are being hunted as you read this, I’m seeing how you cope without me. I’ve paired you off for reasons you should understand already. First off, Merry Christmas. Second off, the other paperwork is what I could dig up on the victim; very difficult girl to find stuff out on. Please read carefully. Des. P.S. The best time to kill her would be tonight.” Alex pulls out the other piece of paper and scan reads it before passing it over to me. “Piece of cake!”

“Are you fucking serious, Alex?” I shout after reading only two lines.

“I’m sorry?” he’s shocked by my reaction and turns to face me.

“She’s 18 years old! How can you say it’s easy when she-”

“She is?!” Alex interrupts. “I dunno, I never read their name and age. I just read her routine!”

“Jesus Christ, Alex! I can’t kill a child!” I throw the paper on the floor.

“W-We have to…” Alex said, as if he didn’t care.

“She’s 18! How can you say we need to do anything? At 18 were you doing anything that’d result in you dying? Fuck this!” I scream, shaking my head. I press speed-dial on the phone and wait for that distorted voice to speak.

“Alex, Alyssa.”

“What the actual fuck Des? An 18 year old?” I scream at the phone.

“A job is a job. Do it, or get fired.” If he was sitting across from me I would have leapt over and smacked him in the face.  I just gritted my teeth.

“What has she done?!” I order.

“It’s on the sheet, at the bottom. Under the beautiful amount of money? Alex, please feel free to read it aloud!”

“It’s a revenge mission. The girl’s parents killed the Client’s son in an accident. They want them to feel the same grief.”

“WOAH WOAH WOAH!” I shout. “We’re KILLING a girl cos her PARENTS did something to the CLIENT’S CHILD? No one see what’s wrong with this?”

“Ally…” Des started. It creeped me out that he’d called me Ally, as only the Family ever called me that! “You’re doing this job, or I can send a hit out on you! Now I don’t want to lose you, so I suggest you do it! Or at the very least, plan it!”

“You have got to be kidding me…” I mumble as he hangs up again. Shit. I guess I gotta do this job…