Forced Assassin (editing)

Licensed to Kill

[Licensed to Kill]

Since that night, I've become a different person. I didn't smile or crack any jokes. I knew from now on I needed to be on the Takers' good side. To gain their trust, to become someone to rely on, someone that would never betray them. Though I thought I had it all figured out, my plan had a turn for the worse. My mental state was completely redirected.

Turning back into the compound, a mini horde of cheerful children were waiting for me. How could I face them looking like this? Blood caking my clothes and skin. I could practically imagine their innocence floating away from just the sight of me. A raw depiction of what was suppose to be their future. I couldn't get it out of mind, the thought of me being an extra part in their lives that they will learn to fear, or the splitting image of what they will turn into, to aspire to be. That's just my curse I suppose, being this- monster.

Stepping out of the car they picked up their pace. "Iris!" they cried in unison. I had to turn away. I couldn't bring myself to look at them. They had no idea what I had just done and I'd like to keep it that way. The image they had of me was one of friendship, and love. Me, in state I was in just then, it would ruin that, no doubt.

"Holt!" one of the Takers stepped between us. Coming to a stop, the kids took a few weary steps back. "You will no longer be in contact with miss Iris. She is a Taker now, not one of your classmates. You can resume yours relations once you are worth our time. Now leave us, unless you need to learn your place." He swung his arm down, revealing a baton.

Defeated and afraid the children turned around and headed back. I remember their faces, full of sadness, of want. They viewed me as a sort of guardian for each and every one of them, and I felt like an absolute failure. They were the only ones in my life I could remotely call family, and now, I was all alone.

"That wasn't necessary, sir." I turned myself forward again, a new sense of hardness in my heart.

"Your face said otherwise. Plus children shouldn't be mixed in with our line of work." He turned to me, the shape of a smile under his mask and the crinkle at the sides of his eyes. It was meant to comfort me, but it disgusted me.

"Come on then recruit. We've got work to do."

Yeah, he was right. Plenty to think about, plenty to plan, plenty to do.

~*~

It's been 10 years since then. The children haven't been forgotten, and never will. To them I was just some nanny they had a while back. Some poor replacement for a mother assigned to them by the Takers.

I would watch them from time to time, from a distance of course. Making sure they are still the kids I used to know. They weren't. No surprise there. You don't come back from the initiation the same. How could you? Taking a life, or even lives? You can never forget that.

The entry of the Takers was a task I knew all too well. And staring at them, I knew some of their fellow classmates hadn't made it back, and they had killed as well. Most of them unfazed, some of them still shaking from weeks after the trials commenced.

I stared down at my coffee I had in my hands, looking at my reflection. I was there once too. But I wasn't like the rest. I didn't feel much of anything. All I could think about is what I was going to do to take this dammed establishment down. It was filthy, disgusting, vile, it made my blood boil.

I gripped the hot cup, my knuckles turning white. The table shook and I looked up. "Iris." The man sat, shaking me from my trance. He was a bit older than me, his eyes were a cloudy blue, a scruffy, stubble beard across his chin. There was a feeling to him. Like he wanted something from me.