A PURE HEART

iv

the street is filled with people, scared screams, and cars. usually, his assignments are more secluded. he walks across the street confidently, gun cocked, ready to shoot. his instructions are clear, two men and a woman. three targets.

he hears the woman's voice, she seems to be hiding behind a car. silly, he thinks, but a little too silly to be true. before he can shoot, the woman jumps on his shoulders from behind. she moves fast an clever, nearly outsmarting him because physically, she is no match for him. and he knows that she knows that too.

her red hair screams "familiar!" in his head and so do her movements but his mind is too fuzzy to figure out why. it is filled only with "kill!"

right when he thinks that he has her, she dislocates his arm. not his human one but his metal arm by throwing a tiny little taser against it, earning herself a head start.

his eyebrows pull themselves together in an angry frown, angry because she was smarter than him and angry because he thinks he knows why she did that but he can't put a finger on it. he sees himself with her in a small room, giving her a taser. he sees himself with her in a boxing ring, pressing her to the ground. he sees himself with her in many situations and what makes him even angrier is that he remembers none of them.

"natalia."

the name pops up in his head as he sees her running away from him in the still crowded street. he knows that it is her name and he remembers her telling him her name. but nothing more.