THE BEGINNING.

Yvette Decaux, dead at age twenty two, found herself drifting.

In the in-between, she watched as souls like her floated to and fro, some slipping away to death, others jumping forward to life. Yvette herself was stuck in the middle, wanting desperately to simply find peace in her death, but at the same time tied down to life with the burning desire to punish those who deserved to be punished.

Unfortunately, she knew that even if she returned to her body, there was nothing she could do. Even if someone could grant her wish and brought her back to her childhood, she knew she had no power to change anything on her own.

That was when she saw another soul hovering between life and death just like her. She felt something strange as soon as she saw this other girl, like maybe their lives were inexplicably linked, and when she took a peek into this girl's life, she knew. Yvette Decaux had no power to change her circumstances, but maybe if it was her... maybe if it was this Yvette, she could help her set things right.

They could not speak to each other, in this strange in-between space, but when Yvette offered her hand, the other girl seemed to understand her intentions and placed her own hand in hers without hesitation.

"If it's you, I believe you can change things, help Yvette Decaux live a better life and make sure there is no tragic ending this time."

Yvette blinked at the ghostly visage of Yvette Decaux, and knew instinctively why she had accepted her hand. She hadn't been ready to die, when her plane went down. Perhaps it was ironic, with someone who faced death practically everyday. She knew too that she deserved to die, and yet she was unwilling to let go of her life, she had clung on so tightly even right up until the last moments. And then Yvette Decaux had found her and given her her second chance to live again.

"Okay then." Yvette said. "Leave it to me."

The least she could do was repay Yvette Decaux by living her life well, by making sure her poisonous family did not escape unscathed, by ensuring that she would never get involved with Leon again.

"Thank you."

As the wavering image of dead Yvette disappeared, all the memories of her life seemed to flood into the currently alive Yvette's mind all at once. Now there was only one Yvette Decaux, the one who was experienced and hardened assassin, and as she turned back around to face the Decaux family, there was only one thing on her mind: payback.

It was as if someone hit the play button on a video with the way the family of strangers all started moving at once.

"Yvette," Her younger sister, Geneieve, spoke, "I'm having a tea party tomorrow, and this time Duke Olivier is coming, so make sure you're nowhere near the gardens, okay? I can't have the duke knowing we keep something dirty like you around."

Claude smiled as he placed a hand on Genevieve's shoulder. "You don't need to worry about this piece of trash, Genevieve. We can just lock her in the cellar again."

"Oh, of course!"

Without a moment of delay, Genevieve then rang a bell. A minute later the butler walked into the room and bowed. "Yes, Miss?"

"Take Yvette to the cellar immediately! And make sure not to let her out at all tomorrow. Duke Olivier is coming!"

The butler took hold of Yvette's elbow. He didn't grip hard enough to cause any pain, but it was a firm hold nonetheless. Yvette didn't put up a fight and let him guide her towards the cellar.

As she was leaving, she heard Sabine speak up. "Do you really think the duke will be interested in you?"

"Just because he already rejected you doesn't mean he'll reject me!"

What a nauseating conversation.

The walk to the cellar was short and quiet. Neither her nor the butler said a word as she entered the room, not even when he closed the door and locked it behind her.

As Yvette sat on the floor of the dingy, dusty cellar, she thought about what she could do. Her first idea had been to simply kill all the Decauxs, but then she realised that wouldn't really be satisfying. She needed to really hurt them first, before slowly driving them into a corner.

It would be the easiest to start with the sisters. Since Genevieve had mentioned that a Duke Olivier was coming to the manor tomorrow, and since she seemed so excited about having him over, perhaps Yvette could start with that.

She brushed a hand through her black hair, looking at the shiny, straight ends of it, and thought to herself that Yvette Decaux was sure enough, a beautiful woman. Even if the rest of her family thought her eyes were unnatural and cursed her for them, it didn't change the fact that her strangely coloured eyes was part of her charm. It complimented her slightly cold features, lighting up her whole face.

At any rate, despite Sabine and Genevieve also being pretty, Yvette was certainly a couple levels above them in terms of beauty. It was why both sisters liked to humiliate Yvette so much, especially Genevieve when she'd force Yvette to do humiliating things in front of other people. They envied her beauty, and they hated that they envied someone who they saw as below them, and so they punished her for it.

Typical.

Yvette wasn't exactly well versed in the arts of seduction, she had never been the type of assassin that liked to get close to her targets that way, but she had still undergone that training like all other lady assassins had. If she could use the fact that she was a woman to her advantage, she wouldn't hesitate to use it, that was a rule most assassins like her followed.

It was a good rule, and tomorrow, she was planning to use every asset she had to her advantage.