2019
Gun or freedom.
If you were only seven years old, only a first grader in elementary who personally witnessed your own town and your grandparents massacred in front of your two little eyes but you still managed to avoid death somehow, what would you have chosen?
Haiya instinctively touched the cold metal inside her black leather coat as she took a deep breath under the dim starless sky. It was something she did only when she needs warmth and peace of mind after a mission. Unfortunately, the city of New Orleans where her two missions was located failed to grant her request of silence.
In the middle of the night in the loud, lively street of Bourbon, she was seated, her elbows rested on top of her slightly folded knees , her head and slumped shoulders leaned on a wall in the back right side of the door on the rooftop of the tallest skyscraper where she had just murdered.
And every after her kill, she would be in a rooftop somewhere where she felt away from the shitty world. She stared at the moonless night. Something about it always calmed her raging heart and she very well knew why.
It was the comfort of her visible vulnerability being hidden, darkness masked the unguarded vengeful eyes, strong veins and the lone cries.
It became a habit after the last 4 years in a rooftop in Los Angeles where she killed the only man who let her body feel something she wasn't familiar with. Until now, Haiya still think of what could have been if she didn't pull the trigger.
Resentment is never a word in a work. She always reminded herself to obliterate the memory of their sensual night despite her mind always lost in thoughts about how the stranger young man dared touch her intimately.
Something deep inside her exquisitely ached but she didn't linger on it. She continued to silence her thoughts rumbling in her mind.
The city is so unlike the calm state of Vancouver, Canada where their recent mission had lingered into months not just days. She thought as she envisioned the green vivid trees, the forests and the mountains surrounding them in the green atmosphere of Vancouver which is 2, 713 miles from New Orleans. It was literally calm just by looking at it.
She never admitted it but she missed it there. Now ,with Yviro, her mentor, they had been moving from city to city, state to state and nation to nation because of their profession.
She was glad she would also travel other places because of her missions but she ended up missing the plain boring trees she saw everyday in Canada.
Now, she's irritated by the loud noise people made in the goddamn place she's in. Yeah, it was so damn alive Haiya can feel its spirit with the vibrant beat of music from street parades and parties below. And hail the city lights that never goes off.
It was like they never need the sun. But it was all broken play of noise in her ears. And she barely endured the city for her missions. If she could just shout and tell those motherfuckers to shut up.
She actually creased her brows, doubting if people even had a sound sleep in their homes. But maybe they were used to it. It's their tradition anyway.
She looked up to the faint starry sky, it's like lights mirrorring the city's colorful lights, only the stars lost in brightness compared to the city's shimmering lights.
While she tried so hard to empty her mind, she couldn't help but flash what happened earlier on her first mission in this city. Her 1648th mission. How hairs all over her skin stood at the old fat man's tight sensual grip on her butt. Until now, Haiya still itched to peel her skin off to lose the touch of a pervert man, again!
Why does her mission always involved meeting so damn bunch of assholes!
She scanned the rooftop again. No sign of any living thing except her. The wind still breathe ice on her skin.
1643 targets--easy and 15 targets she classified as difficult. She had always mentally listed her accomplished missions' data and perfectly calculated her enemies' demographical informations with their personality and behaviours.
During her first few missions, she never actually cared about their shits but after encountering several qualities she believed hindered her success in a mission, she mentally and emotionally prepared herself. To why she thought maybe one day these weaknessess could backfire and she'd be in her grave although she didn't care much about her dying.
The traumatic event 18 years ago lingered in her dreams turning into nightmares, followed her like a ghost and never let her in peace for all her life.
There's still that reaping pain in her chest every fucking time it passed onto her thoughts. The tragic childhood she witnessed and survived alone.
She closed her eyes hoping to finally shut her thoughts...but only to be met by more.
She forced to squeeze her eyelids. She didn't want to be reminded again. The loss. The chaos. The clutching pain on her chest burned her conscience. And killing was only her release but it's still tomorrow night.
She needs to calm. The cold air heated up as it passed her lungs. She straightened both her legs to ease the numbness that lingered in her bent knees.
Haiya only trusted Yviro and no one else. If he would command her to dug six feet under and bury herself in it, she would, without any further question.
Despite the shitty missions, she never failed one. Never. But she had moments of doubts and long pause during some missions. And her mentor Yviro always said to her, "A single second wasted on thinking while pointing a gun is already considered a failure in assassination."
It is. Her encounter with a young man has already proven it.
As she grew up she learned to detest perverted men. She always thought her mission was just to put a bullet into anyone's head but Yviro made her learn to flirt like a bitch. To play, not just kill. He was so insistent on making Haiya learn to seduce like her skill wasn't already enough to finish someone in a second. She never understood his point not until she met someone who made her believe in Yviro.
He always said it was always a powerful technique a woman have that was undefeatably cunning. And one day, she would definitely need it. Although she kept doubting what he said, she never complained about it.
" Men are weak when it came to women. " Yviro would always tell her blankly. And Haiya always wondered before until now what's behind those blank stares of him, he look always dead cold when it would come to this issue.
It became one of her principles because it was widely proven on her own experience. Just a wink and they're already begging you in a dark secluded area.
She hugged her knees closer to her body to feel her own warmth. Her next mission's still tomorrow but she still want to be alone....every time. She always finishes her mission quickly yet she never wanted to go home until midnight.
Pleasure's probably damn heaven, she'd thought although she already hated the idea of her spreading her legs for any man. However, suddenly she doubted herself at the thought because 4 years ago, someone made her spread her legs without begging her. And she let him even just for minutes....enter her soul.
A cold air made it through her neck and chills surrounded her whole body. She didn't notice how her fist balled into a hard stone until she felt a needle-like pain on her palm. She wrapped herself with her leather jacket as if it would erase the chills a memory from 4 years ago.
Then again, it came to her how she itched so damn much earlier to pull her daggers hidden on her thighs when the old fat man suddenly squeezed her butt.
Today's mission was succesful but she always hated meeting a perverted dickhead.
Of course, she let him touch her but it didn't linger as when she flirted like a whore to let him tell her his passcode on the vault beside his bed, he was already cold on the floor. She still memorized the man's last emotion in his eyes. It told a tragic anger for the unexpected betrayal.
How those asshole seeks heaven only to end up in hell. Real quick.
But she never felt sorry for them though. She actually enjoy how their eyes lust looking at her bare body because a minute later, it would be an empty lifeless stare.
Haiya felt something on her pocket. As if by instinct she pulled out the picture only to be met by some bizarre feeling of fear and excitement.
It's her next target just below the building she was seated.
She tried to focus her eyes on his face that subtly screamed a sinister aura. She never feared anyone with just an image of them yet the man seem someone who would instill a single pressure on her, she knew just by studying his grim face. He had a pair of dark eyes, so round and black. He look young, probably the same age range as her. But there's something in the way his eyebrows furrowed, his lips thinned in a line and his decided jaw tightened that said much he wasn't so young anymore at his age.
But Haiya was tired. Once in a while, it came to her the fact that she was already here. Even if she wanted to, she can't never turn back time. As if to comfort her fears, she mentally noted how far she's already overcome. Who would threaten her serenity?
She glance on her wrist, stood up and left.