When it rains in the desert

Letters from Celia

Once when I was around 18 there was an assignment. It was like every other assignment. I got home from Uni, changed and found Maggie.  Maggie briefed me on the who and the where and I left. I was running late that day. It was only when I got to the location I began questioning what I was doing there. It was a house. A normal house. I mean really normal. It didn't look like there was a drug dealer or a kidnapper in that house, no. The people that lived there looked abnormally regular. I was so sure I'd gotten the wrong house that i'd circled the neighborhood 3 times before opening the envelope and checking my target.

When I opened the envelope there were 4 photos inside. A man, a woman and then there were two children. Rick had sent me to this house to kill a family. The bastard sent me to kill a bloody family like he was asking if I could lend him a tenner.  Of course I couldn't do it. I turned the car around and went back to the compound. That was when I learnt that Rick was willing to do anything, no matter who he hurt, as long as it wasn't his business. He locked me up for two weeks and when he let me out Carter had been forced to do it for me.

It broke him. Carter didn't speak a word for two months. But it wasn't as simple as that, Carter had never killed anyone before and now his first kill was going to be two children. Two innocent children and two innocent parents. You have to understand though, our targets were seldom guilty. My hands have a lot of innocent blood on them Jacob. Blood I'll never be able to get rid of.

Long story short, Rick had them kidnapped and brought back to the compound, they were beaten for three days before Carter had to kill them for their own sake. They begged Carter to kill them. It was a lesson. For both me and Carter, Rick was telling us that we would've been doing them a favor by killing them when we were told to. 

Those children died a painful death because I didn't kill them when I was told to. They had to be beaten until they begged for death, and when they begged, they were denied again and again, left to think that they would never taste the sweet mercy of a quick death. Sarah was 12 and her brother Lucas was 9. They saw more pain in three days than they would've ever faced in their whole lives. They didn't deserve to die. No matter what their father had done, they were innocent.

No one understands that better than me. A child left to pay for her fathers mistakes. The reason, you're wondering, I was never told what the reason was. I was never told the heinous crime committed that sentenced this family to death. But I will never forget their names. I wont ever forget Sarah and Lucas Seyer.

-Celia.