By: Alicia Chen
I was an assassin, and I was a pretty good one. I would get missions occasionally, and when I finished them, the people that operated the system would pay me. I didn’t have parents, and to be honest, I didn’t really need them. People often called me talented because I could kill without a single remorse.
I used to have a friend. She was nice. Her name was Macy. She had mousy brown hair, and sea green eyes. She accepted me when no one else would. But she was murdered. With poison. There were many cases of this, but it felt different when it was someone who you knew. Death is an odd thing, saying that someone died doesn’t feel real, until you realize that you won’t ever hear their voice again, never see their face again. They’ll never speak to you again and have become a thing of the past.
It was all well, until one day I got a mission that wasn’t really…ideal for me. It involved tracking down a boy around my age at the time named Tobias, and at the end, kill him. I didn’t know why they wanted me to do this, but I overheard that he had a secret in his house. This was challenging because even though my physical skills were good, my social skills were bad.
But I still did it. I approached him at school in the library and came up with a flawless plan. I would approach him and ask him for help reaching a book. That was the best plan I could think of. Surprisingly, it worked. Tobias was nice, and after a while we became friends.
I would sometimes hang out at his house, partially to have fun, and partially to investigate. Nothing in his house looked suspicious at first, the house was clean and tidy, and things were organized. But eventually, I caught on to what was suspicious. The upstairs bathroom door was always locked. I asked Tobias, but he just said that his father told him to NEVER go to the upstairs bathroom. “And because of that, every morning I have to take the impossible trek downstairs to go to the bathroom,” he said. We laughed, but I knew I got the clue I needed.
I was happy, until I realized something important. I needed to kill Tobias at the end of my mission. But we were friends, and I couldn’t just kill my best friend. Also, he never did anything wrong. If anything, it was his father who needed to be stopped. Since I wanted to save Tobias, I arranged a meeting with a manager of the base.
That night, I dressed in a peach shirt, black jacket, and black skirt. By the time I got to the base, it was midnight, and the moon was up high. I sat down. The lady in front of me shook my hand. “Hello, Aida. I’m Christina. Nice to meet you. So, you arranged a meeting about your mission. Is everything all right? Do you need any backup?”
“No. It’s not that. The mission is going great, and I even got a significant clue about a secret in his house. It’s just that, I can’t kill him. I know I’m not supposed to get attached but being friends with him was part of my mission. I can’t kill my best friend.”
“I understand, and I would love to help you, but the people with higher positions have decided that no matter what, you must uncover the secret within his house, then kill him. They declared this non-negotiable.”
I was devastated. What could he have done wrong? Why were they doing this to us? But instead of snapping back at the lady, I turned around and walked away. This was bad.
Months passed by, and I figured out some more clues about that bathroom. First, there is very likely some kind of toxin or weapon in that place, and it deadlier than any other weapon humankind has invented. Second, someone in Tobias’ family was supposed to guard those weapons.
One day, I decided that it was time. I was going to tell Tobias all of this. All while I was tracking him. I beckoned for him to meet me somewhere where there was no one nearby. The only quiet place nearby was a dark alley. He came. I said, “So, Tobias, I must tell you something. I’ve been on a mission to um…Assassinate you and investigate a secret in your house. But I don’t want to kill you. So I figured, maybe we could investigate the secret in your house together so I can refrain from killing you.”
“Aida, I knew that you were tracking me all along. I know the secret in the bathroom. And since you won’t last long anyways, I’ll just tell you. There’s deadly poison in there. The type that’s been killing off people here for quite a while. I’ve killed a lot of people. The most memorable is probably a medium sized girl with mousy brown hair. She put up quite a fight. I knew her from school. Her name was Macy.”
I was quite shaken. The boy I have been protecting, the boy that would hang out with me after long school days, the boy that I have been defending, killed Macy. He spoke again. “I have a vial of poison on me. I’ll just use a needle to inject it into you, and you’ll be gone.
I fought to keep my voice from shaking. “Kill me? I’m not that easy to kill than you might think.”
Tobias lunged towards me; a sharp needle directed to my neck. He was strong, but slow. If he couldn’t catch me, he couldn’t hurt me. I dodged to the side, then threw a kick at his side. He clenched his teeth but made no sound. I needed to end this, and soon. I pulled a blade from the inside of jacket. As an assassin, I have a wide arrangement of blades, and I like to keep a few on me just in case.
I drove the knife into him. I didn’t give Tobias a chance to make any noise. I watched him crumple to the ground, my shoes being stained red. I whispered, “I never knew it would be so easy to finish you off.” But really, it wasn’t. I felt like an empty shell. I reported back to base and got paid.
And I’m still an assassin working for the base. Now, they often send me on missions where I must interact with people, and then in the end finish them off. It’s been a lot easier. All I must do is pretend I’m a lovesick, helpless little girl, then attack when there’re not paying attention.
None of these people, though, filled the emptiness inside of me.