I’m a hitman. I kill people for money. That’s about it.
Well, I used to be. After that contract, I’ve given up that line of work. You would too, if you saw what I did. There are things in this world you just don’t tussle with.
I got this job like any other, anonymously. They wanted to take out a wealthy philanthropist. I did some preliminary research on her, didn’t find anything pointing to why this person wanted her dead, but found she would be doing a speech in a week’s time.
I scoped out the area ahead of time. Plenty of tall buildings around. Perfect for a sniper.
The day came and I was in position. Quite a crowd had come to see her. Almost felt bad killing her in front of all of them.
She emerged onto the stage and the crowd cheered, all the while I had her in my sights.
I would shoot her when she was at the podium, that was the plan. When she would be standing still.
I didn’t pay any attention to the speech. I was too focused on getting the perfect shot.
When I had it all lined up, I put my finger on the trigger and her head jolted up, our eyes meeting in the scope.
I know now what it feels like when people say their hearts stopped beating.
She stood there, stiller than a statue, staring me down, well over three thousand feet away.
It took me a second to register that the speech was somehow still going and the crowd was reacting as if nothing remotely strange was going on. As if their speaker hadn’t just froze in place in a stare down with someone they couldn’t even see.
If earlier wasn’t enough to spook me, that was.
I got out of there like a bat out of hell.
I didn’t care if I looked suspicious sprinting to my hotel room in order to get the rest of my stuff, I just need to get out of this city, out of the country, as fast as possible.
I slammed open the door to my hotel room and my blood froze in my veins.
She was there, quietly sitting on the bed, waiting for me.
I tried to run but something caught my foot and dragged me inside, letting the door close with a bang.
Twisting around, I drew my pistol and shakily pointed at her.
She stared at me with unearthly green eyes.
Standing up, she stalked over to me and squatted down so my gun was pressing against her forehead.
My finger was on the trigger but I couldn’t pull it. It was like all my muscles had seized up.
“You came to kill me, didn’t you?” She leaned harder into the gun’s barrel. “Why don’t you do what you came here for?”
Still my finger refused to move.
“Come on, it’s easy.” She curled her hands around mine with a finger against my trigger one. “Just-”
“-pull-”
“-the-”
“-trigger.”
I shot back against the door, no longer being able to tolerate her touch, letting the gun hit the floor.
She rose back into her full height like a serpent uncurling itself.
“W-what are you?” I managed to sputter out.
“That depend on who you ask. But first,” She tilted her head, an innocent gesture made sinister. “You don’t seem like the type that would kill just for the hell of it. No, you’re too professional.” She stepped forward.
There was no room for me to move back.
“So, tell me, who hired you? It couldn’t be just anyone. This face isn’t linked with any sins.”
I couldn’t speak.
“You realize they sent you to die right? You’re just a human, and a grossly under prepared one at that. Don’t you want revenge for them throwing away your life so callously?”
“I… don’t know…” I managed to choak out.
She raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know who hired me, it’s policy…”
“You know,” She leaned in, “if you’re lying to me, I have ways of extracting the truth from you.” Her fingers got way too close to my forehead. “It will be very painful, of course, and the chance of surviving afterwards is slim at best.”
I couldn’t bring myself to speak.
She stared me in the eyes for the longest time before scoffing and turning away. “This has been a waste of time. I’ll let you live, but,” She looked back at me, green eyes gleaming, “if you attempt to expose me, I will not be so merciful.”
She sunk into the shadows and her dark form slunk out the window.
I haven’t seen her since and I pray I never do.
Couple days later I received an impatient message from my client. Did some digging and found out they were an infamous hate group.
Less than twenty-four hours later, the news ran a section about the sudden massacre of said hate group.