Chapter 5

It had been a month since that day, that day when I saw my brother, that day when I met Shaun again. It's been a month and I've made £15,000,000 my blade is stained with blood and I'm just sitting in a coffee shop waiting for my next contract. I stared into space, the warm cup pressed against my hands, every time I looked at them I saw how I killed and killed, the blood and bodies.

"Sam!?"

Bhind me was my former friend Max. He was a guild member who I often drank with, we went on quests a lot back in the old days and he used magic. He was friendly but I hated him.

"Hey man what's going on?"

"Not much me and a few of the guys made a guild and now we're just raking in the profits, you?"

"Not much."

"Well man I'm um sure it will get better for you. We should get a drink sometime. I'll call you."

He won't.

He walked out of the coffee house as soon as he went in after talking to me like some charity case.

I felt a familiar coldness on my shoulder as my cup went cold.

"You want me to kill him right?"

"Wow very good you even saw me coming" the masked man was standing behind me four cards.

"They co-own the guild. I take it you want me to kill all of them."

"Wow you're practically a pro. The reward is ten mill do it by the end of the week." and then he was gone leaving me with four cards and four targets.

I walked up to the Titan guild. And walked into the golden hall. I walked up the stairs with a hood covering my face and saw the names. There was: Max, Zack, James and Hank. They were all my old drinking buddies. We used to drink till the morning then fight monsters. They were close to friends but I trusted them. And they were the first to turn.

I walked back out to the street and waited on the roof for a day. The four entered the building early in the morning and late at night they left together laughing and chatting. I followed them down the road to a bar,

Typical.

I followed them inside my hood hiding my face, I sat in the corner and watched them as they drank. My plan was set.

"So? What's your plan?"

"You'll have to find out"

"Oh goodie, I do hope we get more genius like the 'kill him in a toilet and then let his blood drain in the bowl.'" he said his words mockingly and with a heavy sarcastic tone. I'd learnt to ignore him over the years but it still annoyed me.

"Just shut up and stay ghosty, deadman."

"Oooh burn"

"SHUT UP!!!" I shouted, my voice echoing through the room, my entire body froze as I realised what I'd done. I muttered "Shit" under my breath and sat down pulling the hood over my head as far down as it would go.

The room went back to it's normal chatter but I didn't dare look up. My heart was pounding, I couldn't get found out. It can't happen!

Slowly after a few minutes I peeled back my hood to see the four men talking as usual. As they left I followed, grabbing a bottle of beer in my hand, careful to grab it with my sleeve.

I followed them down the street until they passed through a back alley. I went to hit the first with a bottle but as I swung my hand out I was standing on the roof above.

"What the hell?"

"Bad plan sam"

The masked man stood behind me holding the bottle.

"How is that a bad plan, staging a fight is pure genius!"

"Dumbass! watch how the pro's do it." The masked man snapped his fingers

"I'm canceling the job for you clearly. I should've taught you better."

A girl walked into the alley. She walked up behind them and as fluid as a river she dodged in between them pricking them all with a thin needle. She then walked away, the man not realising what happened. As she reached the roof the men collapsed their hearts giving out. She climbed up to the roof and stared at me.

"This is him? I'm disappointed." She was wearing a mask with a smile painted over the fabric, she had purple hair and was wearing leather clothes with thousands of syringes hooked over her body.

"Hey!"

"Shut up kid you were going to 'stage a fight' anyway this is Arachnid. She is my Vice guild master and unlike yours she can't stab me in the back. And for the record I am Jack."

"Hey hey Jackie, can we call him dumbass? It really suits him."

"What the hell is wrong with staging a fight!?!?!"

"EVERYTHING!" they shouted in unison and I could've sworn that Shaun chimed in too.

"Why is poisoning them any better?"

"Listen 'Dumbass' in case your tiny mind can't comprehend what just happened is I stopped their heart using a poison specifically designed to mimic the symptoms of an OD on Hyper Barium Liquor,

which in case you couldn't see I planted a bottle in their pockets with trace amounts on the side, this is how real assassins do it you idiot! Thinking you can just bend a mayor over a toilet and be done with it is why amatures like you have to be watched over by Jackie."

I was shocked, how did they figure out a plan so complicated and do it so quickly? What is this feeling? I haven't felt it in a while.

Is it failure?

No,

weakness?

No,

it's a feeling of utter incompetence, of total and complete idiocy in my role. I used to be the best, the strongest so why am I so far below these two. why do I feel like garbage, just trash getting in the way of these two.

"Hey Arach, I think we should take him to the main base. You can teach him a few things on poison so he doesn't come up with more genius solutions like 'staging a fight' or letting someone bleed out into a urinal next time."

"Jeez Jack you're killing me! But fine I guess I can teach this idiot a few things."

"Good, now Sam, try not to throw up ok?"

"Wait whaa..."

Jack snapped his fingers and his cloak enveloped me, wrapping me and Arachnid in the darkness. The world swelled around me and I was really dizzy, my head started to spin as the cloak opened and light poured in from the darkness. I ran away to the side clutching my stomach and mouth hurling into the nearest container I could find.

"Oh you had one job sam! Anyway I have other things to do, Arachnid don't kill him, anything else is ok though. Later!" The masked man disappeared. I looked up from the bin I was crouched over. I was in a cave filled with shops, there were weapons and poisons lining the walls, books covered the walls reaching high to the ceiling. And above me was a huge sign that said one thing only

'KILL'

£15,000,000