Nothing Personal

Falchions and First Impressions

I wiped the blood running down my chin away and I straightened my position. I pulled my ponytail tighter, keeping my black hair out of my dirt covered face. I looked around at the dead 'bodies' that the training centre at the academy made us train against. They were lifelike mannequins, complete with 'blood' which currently stained my favourite army pants.

I pulled my ponytail tighter more out of habit than need as I grunted in frustration. Yes, it might be un-ladylike, but at the moment I was no queen of England. My black hair was matted to my face, greasy with perspiration. My face was streaked with sweat, blood and dirt. My baggy cargo army pants were ripped and my black tank top was filled with mud, my boots soles missing.

I looked exhausted.

And this was just training. Granted, it was the most intense level but still.

A massive silver tube lowered itself from the sky, settling in the middle of the forest, nestling against fallen crunchy leaves and pine needles. The outline of a door started glowing and slowly melted away to form a doorway. Frederick burst through it, his green jade eyes (exactly like mine but a bit lighter) were teeming with excitement and his dark brown hair was flying everywhere.

Who is Frederick?

Many things...my friend, my professor, my trainer. He looked almost exactly like me but had a more excited nature about him, which I have never matched. The majority of the time I was more timid than him, almost taking on a field mouse personality and apparently resembling a dark, brooding vampire.

"Emily!!! That was AMAZING!!!" He yelled in my face, the pens falling out of his spotless white lab coat. He had a white lab coat on, over black jeans and a T-shirt. I just nodded in agreement, too tired to speak. He nodded his head sympathetically, patting my back and handing me a bottle of ice water which was sealed and tucked away neatly in his pocket, completely unnoticeable amongst the usual clutter he had in them.

"Thanks Fred" I said, pulling him into a hug. His face crinkled in disgust as he pulled away, dusting himself off. He learned his throat in a rather official manner. "Your stamina has improved by over 60% in the last week and your reactions were approximately 17% faster. Your timing has also improved, that's entire simulation would've taken you an estimated time of 5 minutes 45 seconds but instead it took you 3 minutes and 0,7 seconds." He said proudly and in a way that showed authority. I rolled my eyes playfully.

I swear, sometimes you'd never guess that he was 3 months older than me. He was a prodigy, a child brought up around science. He was accepted to teach hacking abilities but was selected to become my trainer due to the similarities. I gulped down half of the bottle and poured the rest over my face, taking delight in the brief sensation of icy water running down my neck and washing off the blood which had filled my mouth. The metallic taste remained however, and I was forced to not gag.

Frederick cringed again, this time in a way that suggested that I look worse than I thought I do, which is pretty bad since I know that I'm a wreck. To get the attention back on my scores, I gathered up the energy to speak. "Fred, my scores? Translate into English." I joked, still panting. His eyes sparkled again. "Basically, keep it up and you'll be a full spy by next year." I forced out a smile. 'Spy, just a fancy title for assassin.' I thought to myself. Sure, I handled missions already but once I'm a full 'Spy' I'd be forced to continue with this profession for the rest of my life.

Already it was basically compulsory. I was taken at the age of eight and took a blood oath. You can still see the engraving on my neck at the back, its shaped like a sword with blood dripping off of it to spell out the initials 'E.R.S' which stood for 'Erit Reus Sanguinis'. Latin for 'Blood Shall Be Shed', our motto. I still remember how the cold blade searing into my skin felt, causing my eyes to pool with tears and my hairs to stand on end. Even now I still feel my eyes sting at the memory. That time already I was forced an assassin. The engraving means that if I choose to leave the cult, the only way is through my blood being shed. When I'm a full assassin then I won't have to kill people. I get to choose between that and becoming a teacher. In my opinion, becoming a teacher was even worse than killing. Why? I would have to train younger children to do it. Corrupting such innocent minds with murder, tainting their childhood, their parents giving them up willingly like mine..