Maelstrom

Prologue

[inter arma enim silent leges]

Her footsteps echoed off of the cinder-block walls like the beats of a dying heart. Each one felt thunderous, before fading off into a distant memory, a plea for help. Inside her chest, her own heartbeat hammered through her veins, and she willed them into compliance. Now was not the time to get cold feet.

Their rendezvous was going to be short, she knew that much. It was a quarter to midnight, the ending notes to a powerful symphony, the closing credits. Things would end after this, one way or another.

And that's what she wanted. For all of this to end.

"I see you got my message."

She stiffened, turning her head as if to glance over her shoulder. She didn't need to look to ensure that he was there, in the shadows, just like he always was.

"What can I say?" She began, cynical to a point. "You made me an offer I couldn't refuse."

He chuckled, his own footsteps like gunshots. "I have that effect sooner or later."

She took a deep breath, quelling every nerve in her body telling her to run, to go back on this. "So when do I begin?"

He was behind her now. She could feel his presence the way you could feel the looming depths of the sea while standing on the shore. There, whether you wanted to realize it or not.

"This was the right decision," He said softly, twirling a strand of her hair around his finger. She resisted a shiver of repulsion. "I hope you know that."

"If I didn't, I wouldn't be here."

"And how do I know this isn't a trick?"

"You're not bleeding out on the ground, are you?"

She could imagine his curling smile in her head. She tried to swipe the image from her head, but as if he knew, he kept it in her mind. Watching her. A permanent reminder.

"Relax, Tessa," He began in a hypnotic voice. "It'll all be over soon."

He pressed a gloved finger to the back of her neck, and suddenly, her life was flashing before her closed eyes. Those days by the sea, her mother's warm embrace, her friends at her side, a city in smolders. She could hear their cries, see their dead eyes. Gone, dragged to the depths below.

A shock rippled down her spine, and she gasped for air.

And when Tessa Brennan opened her eyes, she did not know who she was. She did not know who she had been. Instead, she only had one purpose. The purpose she'd been created for. She was a weapon, designed to kill, torture, and destroy. 

Now and forevermore.