lucifers horsemen (an assassins tale)

Chapter One: Adri

Twenty four hours left. Then I die. I stare at the wall in front of me. I think that I should be afraid, but instead I feel calm. I lie down on my bunk and stare absently at the ceiling, wondering what the others before me had felt on their last days. I feel someone else's presence. I sit up. Standing in my cell is the one person that I never wanted to see again. Milton Knight. I snarl and glower at him. He raises his eyebrows calmly, almost mockingly. I decide to try the other approach.

"What do you want?" I ask, even though I couldn't care less. I may as well be polite, I have less than a day left to live.

Milton sits next to me on my bunk. I tense, but don't move away.

"What do I want?" Milton says, pretending to think about it. "I want you to come with me," he exclaims, looking pleased with himself. I roll my eyes, wishing he could be as clueless as he is acting. I decide to play along.

"Go with you where?" I ask, trying my best to sound interested. He smiles mischievously.

"I can't tell you that. I can tell you that it will save your life. For a while at least," he says. I sigh, wondering whether death could be better than what he is offering or not. I weigh my options, but finally my will to live wins over my fear.

Drawing in a shaky breath, I say, "Okay, I'll go with you. But I don't think the local authorities will approve of me walking off death row." Milton chuckles.

"Nobody will even know you're gone. Just trust me," he says. I scoff.

"Trust you?" I ask. He is one of the least trustworthy people I know, especially because I don't know his weakness.

"Okay, don't trust me. But if you want to live, then we have to go now," he says, his face going from mischievious to serious.

"Then let's go," I say. He grabs my hand, and before I can pull away we are swept into darkness.

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"Milton! Where have you been? I was worried," I said as I looked at him questioningly.

"I'm sorry," he said, taking my hands in his, "I had some business to take care of."

"It seems like you've been busy a lot," I said, pulling my hands away from him and turning away. "What's her name?" I ask, my voice wavering.

"What?" Milton said, sounding shocked. I wasn't convinced, so I turned to face him. I saw a glimmer of guilt in his eyes, so I looked down. A tear slipped down my cheek.

"I'll bet that you've been spending all of my money buying her gifts, too. All of the money that I risked my life to get so that I could support you and me," I hissed through clenched teeth.

"Adri, it isn't like that," Milton said pleadingly.

"Then what is it like!" I yelled, trembling with anger, "I've stolen for you, lied for you. I've even killed for you. Why do I do these things? Because I love you! I don't want to see you get hurt."

"I love you too, Adri. I could never love anyone else. But you can't give me what I need. As soon as I get what I need, I'll come back for you. I promise,"

I felt like he had just stabbed me in the heart. If I wasn’t all he needed, then did he really love me at all? I looked up at him, determined not to cry.

"If you leave, don’t come back. I won’t be here," I said, every word tearing into me.

"I know you won’t," he said. Before I could say anything, he hit me in the head. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was a policeman hovering over me.

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I open my eyes slowly. A door opens and I hear whispering. I sit up and look around, feeling like I’m in a dream.

"Adri! I’m so sorry I didn’t warn you. The first time teleporting is always the hardest," a familiar voice says. Milton’s voice. I glare at him. He puts his hands up in a sign of defeat and steps back.

"So, where are we?" I ask.

"Wait and see," Milton says, sounding almost exited. Milton grabs my hand and leads me to the door.

I yank my hand away and say, "Don't touch me." Milton shrugs and opens the door. The door leads into a long hallway. We walk down the hallway. I make sure that I can see Milton at all times. I don't trust him. The hallway ends at two dark, wooden doors. Milton opens one of them and gestures inside.

"Wow," I exclaim, looking around. I forget about Milton. We are in a huge room. Long wooden tables line the room and beautiful chandeliers hang from the high ceiling.

"Yeah, yeah. You can admire all of this later, you'll be eating here every day," Milton says, brushing past me. He marches to the other side of the room. I walk quickly to catch up to him. He opens another door, but this time I make him go first. The door leads outside. We are standing in a large field. The grass is greener than any grass I have ever seen. Buildings surround the field. People rush around, all dressed in black.

"Why is everyone wearing black? Did somebody die?" I ask, trying to be funny. Milton looks at me and grins thoughtfully.

"These are assassins. Of course someone died," he replies. I nod slowly. My hands start to tremble. So these aren't just normal people. They are trained to kill. As Milton leads me across the field, I find myself eying everyone warily.

"Hey, Milton, got a newbie?" a boy about my age shouts. When he sees me look up quickly, he laughs.

"Yep, she's a newbie alright," a girl says, laughing along with him. They walk away, entering one of the buildings together. Milton and I enter a building at the end  of the field. We are in a large room that has couches lining the walls. Milton opens another door and I step inside.

"Ah, Milton. Who is this?" a man asks. His hair is gray and he has striking blue eyes.

"This is Adri," Milton replies.

The man offers his hand and says, "My name is James. Welcome to the League of Assassins."