Chapter 1: Prologue
Ariel Atoms was known to be a top-class assassin in an underworld organisation. Her mission was to assassinate whomever the higher-ups had appointed her to. She could never refuse nor reject their request. In doing so, she would be punished accordingly and she would have to endure any types of pain they inflicted on her; both physically and mentally.
She looked over to the sight of the dead body lying in front of her. She was wearing a white mask painted with red — the corpse's blood — and a few strands of her long blonde hair were painted in it as well. Her light blue eyes are devoid of emotions. Another innocent life she was forced to take and she could never undo what she did. The blood was on her hands and no matter how many times she washed them, it would never change the fact that she had killed someone again.
"Aren't you tired of living like this? Following their orders and killing people over and over again?" A voice in her head spoke out solemnly.
She gave a thoughtless hum before replying apathetically, "What can I do? This is my life now. All I can do is follow their orders. I tried running away more than once and they still caught me. What can I actually do but to dance along to their commands?"
She pulled up her dark hoodie, covering her head completely, and walked out of there, leaving no one alive. Not even a trace of her was left behind.
Before she got into this line of work, she vividly remembered she had a loving family. A pair of beautiful parents and a couple of annoying siblings. She was happy and free when she was with them. She thought that they would last together forever and grow old together. In spite of that, her life turned out for the worse and her dreams were tarnished.
Her family was torn apart and her parents was brutally murdered right before her eyes. She and her siblings were then separated. That was the last time she saw them alive. She was brought into the world of crime at the age of seven and that was the first time she took someone else's life without any mercy granted.
She never had a joyful childhood ever since and she was forced to grow up quickly.
The organisation had trained and taught her ways to survive; to kill, to assassinate. She had been through countless pains and sufferings, just to be where she was then — a top-class assassin.
She never understood back then why they needed her to indulge in such cruel painful acts. As she grew older and matured, she finally understood why they needed her — a girl, a woman, a female. Men underestimate women and they never expected for a pretty woman like her to betray them — to kill them in a blink of an eye. Other than that, older women would trust her fully and they thought she could be manipulated till she slit their throats without a warning. This was the life she was forced to go through.
Back then, she did make an attempt in running away on five different occasions, but they caught her before she could make her way out. She was severely punished afterwards and since then, she gave up on making any attempts to escape this cruel world. She was forced to accept the fate of a caged bird. She could never be free till the day she died.
20 years had passed and she had long grown to be apathetic. Whatever pain was inflicted onto her had gone numb. She could feel nothing. She was no longer afraid of the dark. If anything, she welcomed it.
"Good work, Ariel! Tonight, we will be hosting a banquet party…" her leader's voice faded into the background and she heard a sudden death tune whispering into her ears.
"I will kill you in the afterlife! You hear me?! I will find you and kill you even after death!!"
"You're a possessed demon!! You murdered with no mercy in the house of Adam!"
"Please spare my children! They are just eight-years-olds! Please!"
These voices lived in her consciousness and they were following her everywhere. Even in her sleep, they were still there. They were her salvation. They reminded her of the people whom she had killed every single day and the rotten smell of blood would still be tainted in her hands, despite washing them clean. Their constant torment was what kept her awake and alive at all times.
The party began, as the music was blasted aloud, with everyone enjoying themselves and happily drinking away. Despite being a little tipsy, none of them were being careless and let themselves be defenceless. They were always on high alert. That was what the organisation had taught them.
Rule Number 1: Never let your guard down.
That was how all of them had survived and they never trusted anyone but themselves; not even their own blood-relatives.
As they were merely enjoying themselves, the lights were immediately cut off and only the sound of music remained. Then, out of nowhere, gunshots were heard from everywhere and people were returning the fire from one spot to another. Groans and loud pains of wail were heard in the dark.
When the lights came back on, only one woman was left standing on the dance floor with a pile of dead bodies all over the place. She emptied her cup of wine before letting it fall to the floor and it broke into thousands of pieces.
She looked over to the wounded man on the floor who was by her feet. He had blood spilling from his forehead and his legs were covered in three gun wounds. He was in a bad shape and he could not stand any time soon.
He looked up to her with a spiteful expression, "You…! Ariel, How could you do this to us..?! To me?!"
Her face darkened and her eyes stared at him coldly, "I never wanted to be a part of this. I wanted to get out but all of you forced me to stay. I am growing tired. I had enough. This needs to stop."
She recalled the torment she had been through; the torture she had to endure, the pains and sufferings she was forced to bear. She had enough of living as a top-class assassin and she wanted a way out.
He scoffed, "There are back-ups coming in any second now! What makes you think you can leave here?!"
Her eyes remained locked with his as tears formed in the brim of her lifeless ones, "Who said anything about leaving?"
She brought up her right hand and in them was a detonator device. She had planted the bomb weeks ago when she had come to made a decision. In order to be free, she needed to clean up the mess first and hope that in the future, children would not be kidnapped to do the dirty works of these underworld organisations.
His eyes widened in fear. He realised then she was being serious. He tried to dissuade her from doing anything rashly yet his attempt failed. She saw right through him and shot his arm in point blank range with the gun in her left hand, in which she had gotten from the gun pouch behind her back.
"It's too late, Leonard. You can't prevent this. No one can."
"Wait! Stop! Ariel!" Her team leader, Leonard, struggled with his then injured arm as he tried to move away from her.
"Goodbye, Leonard. See you in Hell."
With that said, she pressed the button without a second thought and within an instant, the whole building collapsed as the large flames engulfed everything and everyone in it. The sound of the explosive going out was so loud that it reached miles away. It immediately caught the attention of people. Four fire trucks and three police cars hurriedly made their way to the scene. As they extinguished the flames, no one was left alive and they could only find a number of corpses. Others, including Ariel Atoms, were burnt to ashes.
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Ariel found herself waking up in a big queen size bed in an unknown room. She was not wearing the red dress she had worn to the party. Instead, she found herself wearing big blue pyjamas. She wondered if it was all a dream and a naught that she did not actually blow up the building of the organisation she grew up in.
She swung her leg to the other side of the bed and realised how long and thin the legs were, as compared to her own ones. She slowly stood up and found herself to be taller than normal.
'Am I hallucinating?' She questioned herself mentally and found herself having a hard time to stabilise herself in walking. There were trials and errors upon finding the washroom as the room was too big and unfamiliar. She had even mistaken a walk-in wardrobe to be the washroom.
The mirror in the washroom was covered in hot steams. Whoever was in the shower earlier had just got out of the bedroom and she missed them by a few minutes. Fortunately, she did not bump into them earlier, or else, everything would be awkward since she was already a socially awkward person. She immediately used her hands to wipe the mirror and gasped in shock upon witnessing her current feature.
Darker pair of orbs was staring back at her, instead of her usual blue eyes. She was no longer in her original body. She was in the body of a skinny tall man. He seemed malnourished and starved. His height was about six feet tall, taller than her original height. His dark hair was as long as her previous blonde hair and as she compared them, she noticed that his hair was greasy and oily. It seemed he did not manage to maintain proper hair care as well. She could also tell the body's previous state was muscular before it became weak and helpless. Other than that, his face was covered in blue-black bruises and since the pyjamas he was seen wearing was big enough to expose his collar, there was dark purple around his pale neck. Though, the purple marking around his neck was fading and she felt her sore neck gradually became numb from the trauma pain inflicted on that area.
Before she could inspect her body further, the bedroom door was harshly banged aloud. It was as if someone was trying to break in from the outside.
"Ajax! Open this door right now!" A scream was heard outside and Ariel knew she never liked what was coming.
She willed herself out of the washroom and opened the door, just to stumble backwards as the door was roughly pushed open from the outside. She looked over to the elderly woman who was fuming in rage.
"You ungrateful brat!! Your fiancé told me you refused to sleep with him again! Just what is wrong with you?!" She screamed aloud and went as far as grabbing his (her) long hair tightly, pulling him (her) closer to the old lady.
Ariel remained calm, despite the build-up anger simmering in her heart. Memories of this previous body came into her mind and she finally understood what the man had gone through to be this sickly looking.
He was being used and abused all this while by the people whom he thought was his family. His mother sold him off to a wealthy family, in exchange for goods and money. His father had long abandoned them as he was busy building his own family. His future-husband-to-be was abusive and whatever he did for him, his fiancé was never satisfied. That resulted in him being punished all the time.
Before she was transmigrated into this body, the owner was being punished by his drunken fiancé and unknowingly to anyone, his drunk fiancé had choked him to death. As he had left the world, she came and occupied his body. Thus, his drunken fiancé did not realise he had died and his soul was replaced.
'If this is what my second life is like, I shall change my fate. From now on, I will no longer be a caged bird. It's time to let myself be free.' She pledged silently.
She was no longer Ariel Atoms. He was now Ajax Rodney. He shall not falter and he shall not be afraid. It was time to change and the first thing he needed to do was stand up against his very own abusive mother.
He placed a harsh grip onto his mother's wrist and harshly pulled his head backwards, forcefully ripping the hair off his head. Small blood was pooling down from the torn patches. Tears threatened to fall from his eyes but he held them back.
The old lady stared at him in fear, "Have you finally gone crazy, Ajax?! You're insane!"
The side of his lips tilted upwards into a nasty smirk as he spoke out with a clear voice, "You made me what I am today. Time's for me to return the favour, mother."
With the door slam shut, no one knew what had taken place in there. Hours later, a maid was merely walking by the room but came to a sudden stop. She smelled a foul stench coming from the said room. Not expecting for the worse, she hurriedly opened the door. There, on the bed lies the young master's fiancé with a knife struck in his stomach with multiple stab wounds. His head was bleeding badly as well. The maid was hyperventilating. As she turned around and was about to call for help, she screamed out loud in fear. The mother of the young master's fiancé was seen hanging herself with nothing but the curtain wrapping around her neck tightly as a support.