Searentown was a mile south and I swear my feet have never ran so fast in my entire life. Aspen was running beside me. I guess she got the run she wanted. The trading post was on the northern border of the town so it was close.
I slowed and pulled my hood up, Aspen stayed in wild form. She saw me as a big sister which made it easier to have eachothers backs in battle.
I knew exactly who's handwriting it was and I was ready to end him. If he wanted to talk to me he could've just sent me a letter. I took my bow off my back and legitimately kicked the door down.
Dylan, a guy I worked with after the incident, stood straight up.
I angrily drew my bow back, "On the ground now."
His knees hit the floor before I even finished my order.
"Blaire-"
"No shut up," I interrupted him. I handed my bow to Aspen who held it in her jaws. She sat down and watched everything else go down.
"You're lucky I consider you a friend," I furiously snapped as I walked over to him, grabbed his throat, and dragged him out of the trading post.
"Are you gonna kill me Blaire?" Dylan asked. I wasn't holding his throat tight enough to hurt him, it was just to stay in control of the situation.
"If I was going to kill you then I would've loosed an arrow," I answered as I dropped him. His face hit the floor.
"You didn't need to kill that woman to get my attention by the way," I angrily explained with an eyeroll.
"Whatever, Blaire," Dylan snapped at me, "all the elk have migrated north, you'd be stuck in that town for another two months."
"What do you want Dylan?"
We were in the forest. The trading post was just barely visible.
"I've been hired for a job and I need your help."
"What kind of job?" I asked.
He took a deep breath instead of answering.
"You know I don't do that stuff anymore Dylan, find someone else to do your dirty work," I snapped.
"Blaire-"
"No, stop arguing, I told you I dont do that anymore."
"Just one more time."
"No, you said that last time!"
"And this time it's a murderer."
"And last time it was someone who kidnapped a kid, did some unthinkable things, and then killed her."
"You didn't launch that one into another dimension..." Dylan recalled.
"He deserved what he got," I growled.
"And who decided what punishment people deserve?"
"What's your point Dylan?"
"I'm just saying, you justified your actions on our last job with 'that dude got what he deserved'"
"He did."
"I'm not arguing with you Blaire, I'm just saying that it's a similar job."
"I don't do that to people anymore."
"Blaire please," Dylan pleaded, "Trust me, you're gonna want to work this job."
"Yeah sure," I turned my back to him and sarcastically threw my hands up, "I'm definitely going to want to kill someone else."
"Blaire the only thing you've ever talked about is a vicious attack that happened to the people closest to you. That's the only thing you've told me about your past, this person is that family's vicious attack."
I spun around and stared him down. I rolled my eyes and gave in, "What's the description?"
Dylan smiled, "Extremely tall, everything else seems like a hallucination."
"The whole description Dylan, I'm not about to kill every tall person between here and there."
The word kill rolled off my tongue like a bad disease. I looked off to the forest floor to the right on me. A rush of all the memories from the job I killed someone in rushed back.
--
"Blaire, bounty is four hundred, the victim was a little girl."
I looked at Dylan who was reading off a paper that was dropped off at the trading post. His scar from our last job was finally healing. It stretched from his left eye down to his lip. He got sliced with a steak knife while we were collecting a woman who killed her kids. He didn't know I had powers, so I refused to heal it. It was pretty deep and I stitched it up for him but it still looked pretty bad. We don't usually kill on site, it usually goes down with me and Dylan taking them to an outpost where someone who signed up to kill those people does the easy job. Those are the true psychos, but I guess I'm no better since I get them from point "A" to their death.
We end up with the dirty work of kidnapping the murderers and taking them there. A job I got thrown into after the same people I work with came and kidnapped me. Superstrength sure does help when you're bashing the heads of murders so they don't kill you. Long story short, they recruited me as a Bounty Hunter/Hitman because they had a lack of both after I went through the whole facility.
"How young?"
"Six"
I shivered at the thought of all those atrocious things happening to a six year old girl. In addition to the fact she lost her life in the end.
"Name?"
"The girl's or the murderer's?"
"Both."
"Layna," Dylan answered, "A little red head girl from a place called Lionsville."
I froze. Layna. The little girl who visited me after I saved Carter and almost died. I closed my eyes slowly and reopened them.
"And the assailant?"
"A man by the name of Gregory Thomas, a neighbor of the girl."
"Tell Paul to go home." I told Dylan as I felt an anger boil in my bones.
"Blaire?"
"Tell him and let's go."
Dylan looked shocked at my sudden change of attitude. I had many jobs like this before and this was the first one where I dropped my 'no kill' rule. I could see the wheels turning in his head.
Lionsville was hours away, we drove the truck down there but it was still at least an eight hour drive. With the way I was driving, the drive was about six.
My anger was making me grip the steering wheel made my knuckles go white.
Aspen sat in the backseat, she was merely a little puppy. I got her a little less than two months ago.
"I'd like to live by the way," Dylan said as he grabbed every safety handle he could reach.
"Shut up."
"What's your problem?"
"That monster is going to have his body parts slung all over the town."
"What's gotten into you? What happened to 'I don't kill people?'"
Because that's family, I thought.
I didn't answer. I swerved into the center of town right infront of the council house and threw my hood and mask up. My mask covered my nose and mouth.
I got out of the truck and pulled my knife out. Dylan was screaming obscenities at me as I walked directly to the house that Layna lived in. I knocked on the door to no answer.
My skin side took over and ripped the door off its hinges. Layna's mom and older sister were huddled in the corner.
"Where's Gregory?" I growled.
The little girl perked up, as if she recognized me.
Her mom pointed to a wall, "The house on that side."
"I'm sorry about Layna." I said before walking out of the house, setting some money on the end table by the door to pay for the damages.
Dylan looked dumbfounded at me and my trail of destruction to the neighbor's house.
I ripped the door down and caught Gregory at his dinner table. I jabbed my knife into the doorframe and pulled my bow off my back. I drew it back, "Away from the table Gregory."
"How do you know my name?"
"Did I stutter?" I growled. Gregory immediately dropped from the table and took two steps towards me.
His hands were up.
"Why are you here?" He frantically asked.
"She was six. A six year old." I rambled through my teeth as I dropped my bow and grabbed the knife from the doorframe. I shoved him to the wall with the knife to his neck.
"Layna was just a child, so full of life, so loving. With a loving family. An you killed her, you murdered her so she wouldn't tell anyone what you did to her. I should RIP you apart the same way you did her."
Gregory didn't respond.
I grabbed him by his throat and his eyes instantly widened.
"You don't even know her name do you? You didn't care. Of course you didn't."
My grip tightened.
"Carla?"
I closed my fist around his throat which crushed everything, including his spine.
The crack brought back the sound I heard when Carter was half phased through a tree, and even through the mess if fighting, I still heard every bone and organ in his body crack. I let go of my grip and he fell straight to the floor.
My senses flooded back to me.
What have I done?
Who have I become?