He met evil when he was only a child, though in his eyes evil was beautiful. Heads bathed in blood, livers fed to him on a silver platter and stone cold eyes. Ah yes, frozen eyes were his favorite things to see.
The fear, desperation, yearning for the last bit of hope that was left in someone's eyes before they died. He loved it. No, he absolutely adored it.
At least he used to, that was until he learned the truth. The truth about it all, the truth that was mean't to be kept hidden from him until he was older. Now, he was gifted with nothing but lies that were fed to him on a sharp knife that could chop his tongue off if he licked the wrong way.
Silence stared at his book and kept his hand up to his chin. He leaned his elbow against the hard-wood desk as he listened to the sound of his parents arguing. Arguing about him. Actually, I wouldn't call it arguing it was more like having an aggressive conversation about his future.
He sighed and flipped to the next page, staring at the confusing words on the paper. It wasn't that he wasn't paying attention, the problem was he simply didn't care for studying or reading at all. What he wanted was to go outside, to leave his home that was far away from humans and meet other people. Meet other alive people.
Silence's room door swung opened, making him effortlessly threw his knife back and listen to it hit the wall behind him. His father ripped the knife from the wall and looked down at it.
"Your aim is off." He said as he walked closer to Silence and sat down on his bed.
Silence glanced at his dad and observed his face expression. It was filled with worry and regret, but more importantly there was a large scar on it. His bottom lip was puffy and purple while his right eye looked almost swollen. Silence's eyes glided down to his hands which were red and bony.
"Mom hit you, you just finished a assignment and your worried about what I'll do." Silence commented and flipped to another page.
His dad smiled and his eyes softened only proving Silence right furthermore.
"You got all that by just a glance? Your getting better, almost better than me." His dad joked.
Silence didn't reply, instead he closed the stiff book and turned to face his father. His eyes narrowed and he slumped deeper into the lumpy chair.
"You came here to talk about something, right?" He asked.
His dad sighed and the happiness in his eyes dropped down to tiredness. He began to play with the knife in his hand as he thought of what exactly to say.
"Silence, what you saw was-"
"A kid. A normal, happy kid, right? One that doesn't live high up near volcanoes and stuff. One who doesn't grow up around killing."
His dad buried his hands into his face and he ran his fingers through his hair. He licked his lips and began to think once again.
What Silence had saw, it was the happiest person in the world. A small little girl, she was smiling and holding onto a stick that had bubbles coming out of it. Her hair was high up in pigtails and another man was laughing and running with her. The two looked almost identical. They both looked so happy.
"Some kids are different." His dad tried to explain.
"Some kids are normal."
"Silence-"
"No." Silence threw another blade at his father making him catch it with his bare hands and look up at Silence.
Silence's face was furious and filled with frustration. Seeing his tempered face only made his fathers become testy as well. Silence's dad dropped the knife and blood dripped from his hand. He glared at Silence.
"That child is weak. Would you rather grow up and be weak?!" His voice rose "Would you rather grow up not knowing about what you do and love!?"
"Love? You mean killing? Killing people who don't even deserve it?! I don't love it!" Silence protested. His glare at his father became deadlier and showed more warning.
"You do love it! You just learned the truth too quickly!"
"Shut up!" Silence grabbed another blade and drilled it at his dads heart. His dad, this time quicker grabbed the knife and stood showing off his huge muscles and strong body.
His attempt at being intimidating didn't work on Silence though, instead he continued to look up at his dad with a face filled with pure hatred and disgust.
"Normal kids are doing normal kid stuff while I'm trapped in this house and being taught how to murder!" Silence yelled.
Unexpectedly, Silence felt the pain of his dads heavy fist go deep into his stomach. Silence coughed and looked down. He gripped on tightly to his gut and a small wheeze left his mouth.
"You will become the next assassin in the family. Wether you like it or not is not my problem." He said with his fist balled up. He began to walk towards the door not even caring too look back at his sons hurt face.
Silence angrily threw a knife at the wall and listened to it pound loudly. A small wood chip from the wall fell down to the ground. It was a day after his father had yelled at him and his stomach was still throbbing.
He had slept through the pain the other night like it was nothing, but now that it was morning he could barely stand. A punch like that from a man as big as his dad would've killed anyone else. Anyone else who wasn't practically used to this sort of pain like him.
Silence ripped the knife from the wall and listened to the faint sound of the door knob shaking. Just as the door opened Silence turned and quickly threw his knife at it. The butler dodged easily and held a platter as he entered.
"Your father has sent me to apologize." He said and removed the lid from the platter revealing a large cake.
"No he didn't." Silence knocked the plate over, but before it could even touch the ground the butler caught it again. "What do you want?"
"You should listen to your parents. It's much easier that way." The butler warned and looked at him with concerned eyes. It was clear that he really did care about Silence, but that didn't make him any less worse than the rest of his family.
"Get out of my room." Silence pushed pass him, making sure to roughly hit his shoulder against the butlers.
Silence entered his overly large bathroom and slammed the heavy door shut. He locked it and looked at himself in the mirror.
His eyes were a cloudy grey that was filled with a ghostly, emotionless stare. The longer he looked at his eyes the more murderous he seemed. Silence looked up at his ashen colored hair and turned the faucet water on.
He splashed the cold water in his face and tried his best to get the image of that girl out of his mind. Was he overreacting? It was just a picture of a girl, but she looked so much different from him. Her hair was brown, she was smiling and she had a bright light that circled around her like a large bubble.
Her face was filled with life and excitement. That man who followed her seemed to be playing a fun game with her, his parents never played games like that with him…
Silence poured more water on his face then turned the water off. He turned to the door and ripped it open. He began to walk down the wide hallway with his hands deep inside his pockets. He walked pass doors and portraits searching for the room where he found the picture before.
He doubted that it was still in there, and even if it was it was probably a trap, but he just wanted to see her face again. He wanted to compare his to her's, more importantly he wanted to examine the picture and try to figure out what was different about her that made him not even remotely close to it.
Was it her smile? Her hair or eyes? Was it because she had a happy father figure that didn't hit her? Why exactly was she so happy looking and he wasn't?
Silence slowly entered the room and looked around at the soft sofa's that were sitting in the middle of the room. He stared, from the door, at the picture that lied on the table. It was a trap, he knew that very well. His parents would never leave it out, not unless they expected him to get it.
Silence walked up to the table and looked down. He had to make sure not to touch anything if he wanted to get away with seeing this. He stared closely at the picture, observing everything about it.
They were outside. The girl and the man, and there were large green trees, nothing like the trees he lived near, but deep down Silence had a feeling that the sun and the high grass wasn't the reason why she was so happy. It was because she wasn't exposed to killing so quickly, but that made her weak, right? Not knowing how to kill made her vulnerable, right?
Her natural, brown eyes glistened in the light. Sure, she looked innocent and powerless but she also looked happy and joyous. Did being happy mean that you had to be useless?
Silence had so many questions, but he wasn't sure he'd get the right answers from his family. He wasn't sure he'd get the right answers from anyone but himself. He needed to see what true happiness was, he needed to see the difference between being high up close to volcanoes and being down low in villages.
He needed to know if being happy made you weak.
Silence backed away from the picture slowly trying to make sure not to touch anything. As he backed away he felt his back touch someone making him turn and pull out his knife. He pointed it at his mother who was smiling calmly and staring directly in his eyes.
"Let me guess. You saw that child and now your wondering if what me and your father told you is true. Your second guessing your life here as an assassin, and you don't know if that little girl is the normal one or if you are." She said and smiled.
"I never-"
"I don't blame you. You've grown around only me and your father of course your confused. Your dad just doesn't understand." His mom began to guide him to the sofa and gestured for him to sit.
Silence hesitantly sat down and looked at his moms hands that were down on the hem of her dress. His mom sat down next to him and grabbed the picture. She stared at it closely and continued to smile.
"I've grew up around children. Around kids. Ask me any question and I'll answer for you."
Silence glanced at the picture then back to his mom.
"What are other kids like?" He asked.
His mom chuckled softly as if his question was bizarre, but bought back many memories.
"At first they're kind and innocent. They become your best friend, and you learn to trust each other dearly," she started, then suddenly the smile on her face faded "and then they stab you in the back until you can't walk and leave you to fend for yourself."
Silence's eyes widened. This certainly couldn't be true. If they were so reckless and strong, then how come his father said they were weak? If they were so weak then how come his mother said they'd leave you?
They were lying. Which mean't he had to see for himself, after all you know what they say, an assassin who hasn't seen it all is no assassin at all.
The difference between Silence's mom and dad, was that his father was a greedy man who loved power, and his mother was a greedy woman who loved giving it to him.
His mother had given him the picture, said that it was for the times that he needed to be reminded of the horrid story that she had told him. The story in which she was hurt horribly by a child. It was clear her story was mean't to scare him off of ever thinking to question being an assassin ever again, but somehow it did the exact opposite.
Now that Silence had heard the story, he was certain that his parents would do almost anything to get him to stay, but he wanted to leave. He wanted to test out the truths of what they were saying, more importantly he wanted to figure out which one of them was lying.
Not only that, but these kids, these children that were the same age as him and younger fascinated him. He wanted to know more. Was he really going to do it though? Run away? He was curious, impatient and an assassin, of course he was going to get what he wanted; and if that included running away, then that was exactly what he was going to do.
The sound of a knock at Silence's room door dragged him away from his thoughts. A knock, that mean't it was either a maid or a butler, or his mom trying to come off as motherly. Silence, despite knowing that it wasn't any danger, grabbed his blade from off of the desk and continued to look at the door.
"Come in." He called out.
The door slowly opened and Lauren walked into the room. Lauren was a maid that worked for Silence's parents, she was just as young as Silence which was why his parents hired her. They hoped that he and Lauren would grow fond of each other making Silence want to stay home.
She held out a large platter and entered the room. The door closed silently behind her and she placed the silver plate down on his desk.
"I heard about everything that's going on." She said.
Silence looked at the plate for a little then looked back at Lauren. She had chestnut eyes and golden brown skin. Her hair was split into two large puff ball ponytails and her lips were a luscious pink.
"Yeah? I bet my dad told all of you guys." Silence allowed the knife to drop from his hand making Lauren calm down a bit.
"Yeah he did. He held a meeting about it and everything." Lauren hesitantly removed the lid and revealed a small piece of paper.
Silence stared closely at the paper, eyeing it suspiciously then looked back up at Lauren. She sighed loudly and her eyes dropped.
"Silence- I mean Mr.Spades, I don't know how I can say this without being fired… but, I understand what it's like to not be around other kids. Your the only person I talk to here that's actually nice to me." Lauren admitted "Your parents want me to try and convince you to love this place, but honestly, I'd give the world to leave this mountain high volcano and I know you would too. Just please, if you run away, write to me."
Silence looked back at the paper. He grabbed it off of the platter and looked down at the emptiness. A small smile grew on his face.
"You'll be the first person I write to, and hey what's with this Mr.Spades stuff? You know I'll never tell my dad." He joked.
Lauren smiled too. She gestured at the chair as if asking to sit and Silence nodded his head. Another loud sigh left her mouth as she sat down and smoothed her maid-dress.
"Your parents will be mad." She said.
"I know, but there's no way I can stay here. Not with everyone feeding me lies, I have to see for myself. How am I supposed to be an assassin if I haven't even seen other people?"
"Yeah, I guess your right. It'll be lonely here without you though." Lauren looked down.
"We could run away together." Silence suggested. Lauren laughed and shook her head.
"And risk putting my family in danger? No way."
"I'll miss you too." Silence smiled.
Lauren couldn't help but feel just a bit sad. Sure, she completely understood how Silence felt, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't miss him. Plus she had to keep this large secret from his parents while getting away with it.
While Lauren was mourning his disappearance, Silence was thinking of a way out. A way to escape without getting caught. His best bet would be to either leave during the night or make a distraction and get out in the day.
Truthfully, Silence didn't care when he'd leave, he just wanted to get out in time. Get out before he got caught and go down to the villages. The one thing that Silence knew for sure was that it would be a long way for him to finally see some other people which mean't whenever he left he'd have to stay up and alert the entire time.
Over the next few days Silence found himself outside more often. Not outside as in off the mountain, but outside as in around his house, in the trees. Searching for camera's and traps that could've been hidden.
He planned out what he would take, which wasn't much. He decided to bring his knives, some money and sneakers that he would change into once he got outside. He would first leave footsteps of the other shoes tricking his parents, then go the other direction. Once he was far enough he'd put the new shoes on and run like his life depended on it.
Of course he had a backup plan, a plan for if his parents did catch up to him or if a wild animal came his way, but he doubted he'd have to rehearse for such a situation. He'd simply go off of his instinct, whatever he felt was right at the moment.
After endless nights of thinking, Silence figured it would be best if he went during the night. It would be harder for people to spot him, and even if his parents did happen to wake up, they probably wouldn't be quick enough to catch him.
Then the night finally came. He was going to run away. In the morning, around the afternoon time, Silence told Lauren what he would be doing. He trusted her enough to give her all of his plans incase it didn't work, and he gave her the exact phrase to say if his parents started to suspect her of something.
Then Lauren hugged him goodbye with tears in her eyes. Well not fully goodbye, of course Silence was going to come back, he didn't plan on being away for long, but he had to go.
Silence stood in the dark and stared at the dirt ground. The cold air smacked his face, but he ignored it and began to make the deep footsteps into the ground. The trail didn't need to go long, just far enough that would make his parents confused.
As he walked he couldn't help but fall off into the thought of what it would be like to be around people. To be in a real village with real humans, humans that weren't dead. He wondered if he would make friends, or if the children would be just like his mother and father described them to be.
So there it is, the start to such a complex story about such a complex little boy. The story in which an assassins pride could change everything.