The Institution

Part 2

She stood at the bottom of a driveway that led up to a farmhouse on top of a small hill that wore the colour of unfinished wood, weathered for countless years and baked by the scorching summer sun. Her eyes scan for potential threats and an easy escape route as her muscular and scarred arms rest on the guns placed around her waist. A smirk forms on her blood red lips once she surveys that the only people in the area were herself and her current target and notes that next to the house was a gas cylinder that could make for an easy kill. Her skilled eyes locked onto the ageing house as she stalked towards her next victim in a dangerous but attractive manner with a look that would make any grown man run scared. A checklist ran through her head the closer she got to the house; hidden switchblades, check, 9mm handgun, check, revolver, check, silencer, check. She sneaks into the house and follows the noise to the kitchen where her target is standing with his back facing her. Knowing how easy this kill will be she decides to play around with her target first and knocks on the bench to alert him of her presence.

"Elizabeth?"

Taken back, Elizabeth keeps her composure but as much as she hates to admit her target saying her name did come as a shock.

"What did you just say?" her body becomes tense as the man says nothing but continue to look at her as if she was a distant memory.

"I said," pulls out her gun and aims it at his head, "what did you just say and how do you know that name."

"My daughter, that is my daughters name and I know that it is also your name because you are my daughter." He said as he raised his arms in surrender.

"I would recognise you anywhere sweetheart. I never thought you would turn out like this. When I did what I did I had hoped that you would at least be sent to a foster home where you would be adopted by a loving family and you would be safe. I never imagined that they would turn you into this, this killer."

"Do not call me a killer! My targets were all terrible people who wanted to destroy all that is innocent left in the world and the only way to stop them was to eliminate them, so do not call me a killer."

Jeffreys face drops at what his daughter has just said, realising that his daughter has been brainwashed after twenty years of being with The Institution.

"Sweetheart the people you killed may have been the bad guys but The Institution are the evil compared to them. What they did to us twenty years ago is the definition of having no soul because if anybody from that place had a heart they would not have put a gun to a five-year-olds head and would have been prepared to shoot you because of a mistake I made."

Elizabeth lowers her gun slightly as confusion takes over her face from what was just said.

"No, no they told me you gave me up, that to save your own skin you contacted them with a deal that they could have me if they let you go. You abandoned me when I needed you the most. Because of you, I became an orphan that was trained in elite fighting skills with the knowledge of so many weapons I have lost count. Because of you, I did not have a normal childhood where I had hundreds of dolls and other normal girl shit, no I had a knife and gun collection instead with countless bruises, cuts, and scars to go along with them."

Jeffrey slowly takes a step towards Elizabeth to try and comfort her but as soon as he puts his foot down Elizabeth raises her gun to his head again causing him to stop.

"Sweetheart that is not how it happened, they manipulated you into thinking that so you would do what they said. After your mother died I didnt know what to do. I was left alone with a five-year-old daughter with no idea how to support you. Thats how they found me. Completely devastated by the death of my wife with no job to raise you. When they first came I thought they were the answer to my prayers, that they would save us, except they were really demons in sheeps clothing."

He could not control the tears flowing down his face as he recalls the worst moments of his life, something he wished he would never have to relive again, especially to his daughter.

"I did not abandon you by choice. When they finally caught up to me they told me my punishment for betraying them would be to kill the only thing I loved in the world so they held a gun to your head and prepared to shoot. I begged so much pleading with them to kill me instead but they just kept pointing the gun to your head. I told them I would do anything, anything at all so you could live and that was when they lifted the gun."

Jeffrey took in a deep breath to calm himself down as he could feel his anger rise from talking about a subject that had haunted him for twenty years.

"Relief filled my body as soon as I saw it happen but what they said next still haunts me. They said if I didnt want you to die they would take you and my punishment would be that I would never know what happened to you or see you again. I took the deal because it meant that you would live. You have to, believe me, I did not abandon you because I didnt care, I abandoned you because I love you."

After all the years of training to hide her emotions Elizabeth did not have a clue on how to express what she was feeling so she did the only rational thing she could think of. Acting quickly Elizabeth took the gun that she had aimed at her targets head and turned it on herself and shakily held it against her temple with tears flowing down her cheeks. Deep down she realised that what he was saying made complete sense, but Elizabeth did not know what to do. Especially after realising that her whole life and existence had been one big lie.

Not wanting to lose his daughter again, Jeffrey quickly grabbed the knife that was on to counter and stabbed himself in the stomach as he instantly fell to his knees in pain and looked up to his daughter begging her not to pull the trigger.

"Elizabeth use this, use my death as inspiration to keep fighting and to never give up until the job is done. Use my death to take revenge on The Institution, take revenge for what they did to you and our family, and especially take revenge for what they did to your mother"

Dropping her gun in shock Elizabeth runs to Jeffrey as quickly as possible.

"Dad, Dad what are you talking about, what about Mum. No Dad no I just got you back you cant leave me please," tears were flowing uncontrollably as she did whatever she could to stop the bleeding even if she knew that it was no use, that he was too far gone.

Jeffrey carefully raises his hand to brush away the tears flowing down his daughters cheek as he struggles to breathe.

"You have grown into a beautiful woman and my only regret is that I havent been there to watch you grow up, to watch you fall in love, get married and have kids of your own." His breath gets caught in his throat as he struggles to say his last words to his daughter.

"You look exactly like your mother did when I first saw her, so beautiful and so full of life. I, I love yo---." His words faded as he did with tears in his eyes but a small smile on his face as if in his last moments he was joined by an angel known as his wife.

Elizabeth could not hold in her grief as she screamed in agony as her last living family member died in her arms after finally being reunited. As if a switch had been turned on in her brain Elizabeths face turned emotionless as she looks up with a determined look in her eyes.

Elizabeth knew the risks she was taking now that she was betraying The Institution but she knew that if she did not try then her mothers and fathers life and deaths would be in vain. She knew that once The Institution discovered that she was not the one to take her fathers life than they would eliminate her for failing her assignment. Elizabeth looks down at her fathers body once more and closes his eyes with her shaky hands before carefully placing his body on the floor before walking out of the house.

Silent tears still ran down her face as she walked further and further away from the farmhouse and the body of her dead father. Suddenly, Elizabeth stops and reaches down her waist to where her 9mm gun is located before taking a deep breath and firing.

Time passes as Elizabeth watches her fathers house and body go up in flames from the explosion caused by the gas cylinder she saw on her way into the house with tears silently running down her cheeks and a dangerous look in her eyes before she turns on her heels to start her next and most important mission with The Institution.