*Here it is guys, my faithful followers, this is the beginning to the end of Kill Me Sweetly, the journey is almost over.**
I tightened the knots around the idiot’s hands while he cursed me out. Cuffing him over the head I replied, “Hey it isn’t my fault you can’t beat up a little tiny sixteen year old girl; I mean come on dude, sort of pathetic.” I stopped to look over at his partner who was passed out in the dirt and stated, “Well at least you’re not as pathetic as that, he went down in one hit.”
This week had passed by slowly and since it was Saturday and we didn’t have school tomorrow I decided to go out; I found these guys beating up a small geeky looking man in an alley. Nothing says suspicious like an alley.
Tightening the last knot on the first guy I started walking away when he shouted, “If you let me go I’ll let you in on a secret!” I stopped and stared back at him, he quickly said, “I can give you information on really good black market with knives and a bunch of other stuff!” Why did he think that would buy him his freedom; I liked winning my knives.
He smiled when I came back over; well he was smiling until I shoved a gag into his mouth and spit on his face for trying to bribe me. I walked away smiling at his muffled curses towards me. Whistling a merry tune I took my mask off at the edge of the alley and shoved it into my back pocket so I could just walk home without needing to hide. I passed the diner Sam, Nat, and I always went to, then the small art store. Pretty soon I left the street lights behind me as I stepped onto the road leading to Lilith on the outskirts of town.
The walk itself only took me about twenty minutes, but then I opted to sneak in through the front doors of the school and walk to my room. I got to the doors and found them unlocked letting any stranger who wanted to sneak in come in. Rolling my eyes at Mrs. Hertz stupidity I pushed the doors open and stepping into the great hall staring at the marble statues.
I shut the doors behind me and started making my way slowly through the halls. A hallway from the steps leading up to the girls’ dormitory a delicious smell of brownies hit my nose and I was instantly reminded of the time Adam brought brownies over to my place on all of my birthdays; without a second thought I started following my nose toward the smell.
It took about five minutes for me to find a door cracked open; pushing it open a little more I peeked in and saw Mrs. Hertz sitting at her desk with a huge plate of brownies. I watched hungrily as she raised a brownie to her mouth then pause when her phone started ringing in the other room. With a sigh the head mistress pushed her up and walked into the other room; I heard her start talking to someone on the phone.
Pushing the door open a little more I ran in and grabbed the plate of brownies then ran back out into the hallway quietly shutting the door back to where it was previously. Instead of making a break for it I stood there waiting until she came back into the room. A minute later I heard, “Wait, there were brownies right there…” Laughing I ran down the hall and started up the staircase while eating a brownie; oh my goodness they were still warm and full of chocolate chips.
The door to my room was of course locked so I shuffled the plate of heaven into my other hand; I grabbed the key around my neck and unlocked the door. I shut the door quietly behind me and started towards my room when I noticed that the light was still on. Damn if Sam woke up then what am I supposed to tell her? I guess I should just say I went for a walk and stole some brownies from Mrs. Hertz; she would so get a kick out of that.
Plastering a smile on my face I walked into my room saying, “Guess what I got you,” then stopped when there was no one there; Sam’s bed was empty. Shrugging my shoulders I walked over to my desk and set the brownies on it when the door slammed shut behind me; I nearly tossed the brownies.
Spinning around I saw Sam and Natalie both standing there staring at me with weird expressions on their faces; like I was about to grow horns or something. Shaking the thought away I held out the plate of brownies to them saying, “Look what I got, and they’re still warm so you might want to eat up.” The two of them just continued to stare at me, green and brown eyes full of distrust.
I set the brownies down asking, “Okay what’s up, because on a normal night those brownies would have been gone already.” Once again all they did was just staring at me and watch all of my moves like I was some sort of animal display. Deciding that two could play at this game I collapsed onto my bed with my arms behind my head staring back over at them.
The silence stretched on for minutes until I saw Natalie make a fast move and something landed on my lap. Picking it up I shook out the crinkles and read out loud, “The Masked Shadow, Our Town’s Savior, Does it Again,” folding the paper down so I could see them over the top I asked, “What, I agree with you guys, she’s cool, still don’t know why you’re acting so weird though.”
Finally Sam spoke up, “Not the damn article, look at the picture Josey.” Staring back down at the article I saw a small picture of me that was grainy and had poor quality, the only thing that was clear was the mask on my face. When I didn’t say anything Sam stated, “That’s your mask, the one you took from Natalie like a month ago.”
Trying not to panic I looked at the picture and said, “Yeah it kind of does look like that mask huh? That’s weird.”
The paper was ripped from my hands and Sam shouted at me, “Of course it does because that is your mask! You’re the Masked Shadow aren’t you Josey?” I opened my mouth to deny it when she cut me off saying, “Don’t even bother denying it, all of the evidence is against you. The Masked Shadow is a teenage girl that is our age, with a mask that looks a lot like yours. In that picture you can tell that she has short black hair even if the quality is shit. I have woken up countless times to find you missing. Then the Masked Shadow showed up after you came to this school.”
Damn, they really did their research on grilling me out here. Throwing my hands up in the air and standing I said, “Fine, I’m the freaking super hero of this town, but I don’t see why you two are pissed at me, I’ve been saving hundreds of people’s lives for the past few weeks, don’t you think it’s cool?”
This time Natalie spoke up, “Well we did about two hours ago when we figured it out but here’s a question; where the hell did you learn all of this stuff? You must have had some kind of training to be able to take down guys two times your size, then in the articles it talks of different weapons that you have on you when you take people down. Knives, a flare gun, grappling hooks, you even have bracelets that apparently deflect knives aimed at you.”
Shit they got me there, opening my mouth I quickly said, “Yeah I had some martial arts training and the gadgets are keep sakes from my, um, family.” That so didn’t sound convincing at all and it was obvious that they didn’t believe it either.
Crossing her arms Sam asked, “So the orphanage gave you permission to take martial art lessons? What sort of orphanage would do that? And the gadgets are from your parents? Wasn’t your mom a teacher and your dad a plumber? Why the hell would they have knives and stuff and give them to their daughter before the age of ten since that’s when you ran away?”
I must have looked like a trout since my mouth was hanging wide open at that; why can’t people just believe the lies I tell them? What the hell should I say now, only the truth at the moment would make the most sense and if I tell them that I’m an assassin here to kill someone living in town then they would so run me through with a shovel.
Sam and Natalie both stood there glaring at me waiting for me to say something. If they were really my friends then wouldn’t they accept the truth? I haven’t hurt them in any way at all for the month and a half that I’ve been here, which has to count for something on my part. Then they got to know the real me, the one who is obsessed with kiwis, loves picking on Crystal, and hates gym coaches with all of her heart. They have to understand or all of this is lost.
I took a deep breath then started telling them the truth, “No, you guys are right, I didn’t get those from my parents and I didn’t get lessons from the orphanage. In fact, I was never in an orphanage my entire life; I grew up on the streets.” Their faces got shocked looks on them, I spun around so I wouldn’t have to see them and continued, “It’s true, my sister committed suicide, my mom was an alcoholic, and my dad physically abused me, so I ran away at the age of ten and found this empty warehouse a week after I’ve been living on the streets.
“About two weeks after I made my home there I started getting these packages in the mail full of money and food for me; I didn’t know who was sending them or anything, all I knew was they were helping me big time. Then a week after I started getting those I got a note in one of the boxes that told me to go kidnap a little baby from a house in the middle of the city; I didn’t want the care packages to stop so I did what it told me to do, kidnapped the baby, and left her in an alley for someone to pick her up.
“When that was over I kept getting more assignments to kidnap people for a few weeks until finally I got one that said I had to kill this girl my age. I followed her around for a week watching her waiting to get her alone, but I couldn’t do it when the time came. That night when I got home there was this huge dog that attacked me with a note that told me if I failed again then I would be the one in a body bag.
“So when I got my next assignment that told me to kill this grown man I did what it instructed me to do. I waited until he was alone in an alley then pretended that I got hurt. When he came over to help me I stuck a twisted piece of metal that I found a night ago into his chest. That was the first person I had to kill and it wasn’t the last one.
“My organization trained me to become an assassin, one of their best guys, Adam, came over to teach me martial arts and how to use any tool and weapon. He soon became my best friend and he’s the one I get my assignments from now, he just texts them to me. We spent hours together training and training until about two months ago I got another assignment that I had to start on right away.
“Apparently there was a hacker in our system that was stealing important information on our work. After a week they managed to trace the computer he was using down to this town about forty minutes from this school. Currently I’m the best assassin that they have in the making and I’m also the youngest so they decided that my cover would be to pose as a student here so I can track him down and get to him. Lately I haven’t been able to get near his house and when I do I get stuck in some sort of trap, so I got bored and decided to start beating up bad guys in town so I wouldn’t get too antsy.
“There, that’s the past six years of my life in a nut shell, happy,” I asked folding my arms across my chest and spinning back around to look them in the face. Natalie was pale white and when I glanced at her she took a quick step back like I was about to chop her head off, I looked over at Sam and saw that she was a cherry red and looked like she was about to explode.
Sam took a step towards me and shouted, “So you’re telling me that this entire time I’ve been living with some psycho assassin who was sent here under cover?” I simply nodded my head and winced as she yelled, “Well screw that then! You were never our friend then if this is just a cover to get close to a guy so you can kill him! I want you to get out of here and never come back!”
Well to hell with that she can’t kick me out of school. I walked up to her until we were face to face and said, “Sam, I have been living with you for over a month and have not touched a hair on your head.” I turned to Natalie who backed further away and said, “And just a few days ago I saved you from becoming a grease stain on the gym floor.”
The three of us stood there looking at each other when suddenly the door creaked open behind us. I looked over my shoulder expecting to see Crystal there complaining that we were ruining her beauty sleep, but my heart stopped beating when I saw Nick standing there looking pale white; he must have heard everything.
Walking over to me he looked down and asked, “Is all of that true Josey?” I stared back up into his bright blue eyes that were so full of hurt; I desperately wished that what I said wasn’t true but I couldn’t lie now; I nodded.
Nick blinked his eyes and when he opened them again they seemed darker and more menacing. “Then I agree with Sam, you should leave this school now, no one wants you around here anymore.”
I started to get desperate when all three of them were glaring at me. “But guys I just can’t leave, my organization will kill me if I don’t get this guy. I might have not been truthful with you all about my life but I know that none of you would want me to die.”
Sam spat back, “Imagine all of those people you killed Josey, I bet they didn’t want to die either but you didn’t give them a choice in the matter now did you? So yes, I want you to leave and if you die, then oh well too bad, this entire mess is your fault anyway!”
That seemed unfair and I was about to tell her that when my phone started ringing a spy theme song I got off of James Bond; work was calling me. When I went to pick it up Nick snapped, “Put it on speaker so we can hear it, don’t worry we won’t say anything.” I looked up at his blue eyes which were staring at me with so much hatred I felt my heart stop beating for a moment; with a shaking finger I hit speaker.
Taking a deep breath to calm my voice I said, “This is Agent thirty-nine speaking, what do you need?”
“Agent thirty-nine,” a smooth female voice replied and all of my friends leaned in to listen to her, “We have information on your target that he is planning on moving soon to a different location; he must have gotten wind from somewhere that we were close to catching him, and with your visits lately he must have started planning this a few weeks ago. Tonight you need to get into his house and get his work to destroy while taking him out, we don’t care if you give us a body or not, we just need him out of the picture as soon as possible; so clean up will be on your head to. Do you have any questions for me?”
I ran what she just said through my head before saying, “No, mission is understood and I will get to it right away, expect a call in a few hours.” The line went dead in my hands so I snapped my phone shut and tucked it into my back pocket where it was a moment ago.
Pointing in the general direction of where my phone was Sam said, “See, you’re going to complete your mission tonight which means you can get the hell out of this school!” I looked at Natalie for help; she just shook her head at me then turned away. It broke my heart to do so but I turned to Nick to see what he had to say.
His eyes were full of hatred as we stared at each other. Biting my lip nervously I whispered, “I guess you want me to leave too then.” His mouth tightened until it was only a line before he finally just nodded at me not saying anything.
My eyes were burning with unshed tears as I spun around and grabbed my assassin bag from underneath my bed. While my three best friends watched I took out a few knives and stuck one around my ankle, two around my hip, a fourth one went under my shirt, and the last one was small so I slid it up my sleeve. Next I threw on my metal cuffs and belt that was carrying my grappling hook and trip wire along with a lock pick in case I had to break into his house. Finally I slipped a few test tubes full of different chemicals into a pocket on my belt before grabbing a small bundle and turning around to face everyone; they continued to glare at me.
Grabbing a screw driver I took out two of the ear pieces and started fiddling around with them quickly twisting wires together until I had what I wanted. Placing one on my ear I held out the other saying, “Here, I fixed it so you can use it to hear what I’m doing the entire time and what anyone else is saying around me; and if need be you can hook it up to a phone and use it to track me down if you guys want to.”
No one made a move to take it so I set it down next to the plate of brownies that I forgot was there. Turning back around I asked, “Anyone going to say something before I leave for good?”
Natalie just continued to look at her feet, Sam pursed her lips and glared at me, and then Nick just pointed to the window and said, “Just get out of here Josey, no one wants you anymore.”
That hurt me more than anything, so I spun around and leapt onto the window ledge kicking the windows open. Turning around I looked at the three of them again; my two best friends and my boyfriend, all who wanted me to leave and hopefully go die. With a sigh I turned and jumped just shooting out my grappling hook to catch myself at the last second.
When I turned back to look one last time I saw the three of them at the window staring down at me. No one said anything still so I spun around and ran into the woods on my way to my target’s house to finally kill him for good.
I can’t believe that Sam wants me to go die, Natalie hates my guts, and Nick, oh my god, and I think he hates me the most. I can’t say I blame him since his girlfriend just told him she was an assassin but I could probably die tonight and no one even said goodbye to me.
Just as I was pushing a branch out of my way, my foot hit a string and there was a tugging sensation around my leg. A rope hauled me up into the air and I screamed in surprise trying to twist up to untie myself quickly. I almost had my knife to the rope when there was a whooshing sound and a figure flew out of the forest. Before I could do more than curse a needle was stabbed into my arm and I felt a drug being forced into my blood system.
My eyes shut right away as blackness filled my vision. Before I could pass out though I said, “I’m sorry,” to Nick, Sam, and Natalie back at Lilith in case they were listening. The thought that they probably weren’t floated in my brain before I passed out feeling someone grab my waist.