A The Fledgling Assassin short story.
Summary: Who would have thought requesting an assassination was so dangerous?
‘I can’t believe I’m doing this.’
Evelyn Hartman sat nervously at a dinky little table in a poorly lit room. Across from her sat a man with black hair and red eyes. A notorious assassin by the name of The Winged Death. She would have been terrified of him, if it weren’t for the young woman with blonde hair and green eyes sitting next to him. Somehow, it was actually the girl’s eyes that unnerved her more. The man had at least some emotion in his eyes. The girl’s eyes just looked cold. The Fledgling Assassin… she was apparently called.
“So, Mrs. Hartman,” the man spoke. “You want us to assassinate your husband.”
Evelyn gulped at hearing the word ‘assassinate’. It was becoming all too real, far too fast. But looking at the dangerous criminals sitting across from her, she didn’t feel like she could back away now.
“Yes, that’s right,” she replied.
“What’s the reason?” The man asked.
“Does it matter?” She replied a little too fast.
“Of course it does.” The girl replied matter-of-factly. “We’re going to need way more information than just this, but the reason is a good start.”
Evelyn paused for a moment. ‘I guess I can tell a half-truth, at least…’ She cleared her throat and responded, “He’s cheating on me. That’s reason enough, isn’t it?”
The girl hummed for a moment as her partner rummaged through some papers.
“Ah yes, I see, he was cheating on you.” The man confirmed before continuing. ”Did you know he’s also been using drugs to take advantage of the women he cheats on you with?”
Evelyn’s eyes widened as she gulped even harder. “Uhh… no… of course I didn’t know anything about that…” She swore that the young blonde woman rolled her eyes. She briefly thought there might be trouble, but the girl kept the conversation on the business at hand.
“Did you bring the payment?” The blonde continued. Evelyn nervously nodded as she took out an envelope. She handed it to the girl, who opened it and counted the amount.
“Ten-thousand dollars, it’s all here,” she said casually. Evelyn couldn’t believe how little these people seemed to care about the amount. ‘I guess this is a normal amount of money for them…’
“Thank you very much Mrs. Hartman,” the man said, reaching out his hand. “For now this will be enough information. We will be in touch with you soon.”
Evelyn shook his hand, being unable to keep herself from shaking. Nodding towards the blonde young woman, she turned around and started walking towards the door.
Moments later her lifeless body fell to the ground, the man standing over her with a bloodied knife in his hand.
Jennifer looked at the body for a moment. “Not that I’m complaining Sedge, because it obviously makes our job very easy. But what are the odds that after the husband requested the assassination of his wife, said wife would actually waltz in here and request the assassination of her husband?“
Sedge shrugged. “Not the first time this has happened to me.”
Jennifer’s eyes widened. “You mean this has happened before?!” Sedge just shrugged again.
Looking at the body for another moment, Jennifer’s eyes narrowed. “Also… did you really have to assassinate her inside? Couldn’t you have at least waited until she walked out the door?”
“What, you don’t want to clean the mess?”
“I’m NOT going to clean the mess. You are.”
“Fine, fine. After that, we can go finish the other assassination.”
Jennifer sighed in exasperation. “You mean we’re still going to go after the target she requested?! She’s dead!”
“Yes, she’s dead, and yes, she herself was complicit in the drugging of those other women together with her husband. But she paid. So a job’s a job.” Sedge said, as if this made perfect sense.
“You’re crazy, you know that,” Jennifer replied, even as she started preparing herself to go after their next target of the day.
And so continued another perfectly normal day in the life of the Fledgling Assassin.
