Taken to Underbriar Academy

The Past

Eight Years Ago...

(Unknown)

"You sure you're going to be okay?" My mother asked. "I'm good. Good bye" I said as I opened the front door. "Go and no matter what, do not look back. I love you so much. I just don't want you to get hurt. You're my best little boy" My mother rushed over and pulled me into a fierce hug. I returned it with a tear rolling down my ten year old cheek. I gazed up into her face memorizing every detail once more before she kissed my forehead and gently pushed me to the door.

I took my first step out and didn't turn back like she said. The leaves crunched under my feet as I ran through the thick woods towards a mountain that lay between me and my destination. I had always dreamed I would climb this mountain, but under very different circumstances. My backpack hit my back multiple times slowing me down as I pulled myself up the steep incline. Tears fell from my eyes onto the dry dirt turning it to mud and my hands shook from the fear that ran through my body. I had expected this day to come but I never truly believed it was this close.

I heard a gunshot behind me and closed my eyes tight. My throat tightened as i tried to take in a breath. The sound of the shot resonated in my head and my tears suddenly stopped. I felt myself harden. My hands dug into the side of the mountain and once I had pulled myself together, I climbed again. I was about halfway when my head started to turn back. "No" I said in a stern broken voice.

When I got to the top where I could actually walk and not climb I didn't dare look behind me. No matter what I was to never look back. I made my way through the woods vowing to myself I would destroyed the person who just wrecked my life and anyone that was with them, but not now. First I needed to learn just how to do so and bring them to their knees. Tightening the straps of my backpack I headed for the one person who could train me to eliminate these people. I never shed another tear.

Five years later

I held a knife in my hands twirling it in between my fingers. In one fluid motion I threw it and it hit the center of a pear. My grandfather walked into the room and immediately saw the pear. "Are you ready?" He asked not taking his eyes off the impaled fruit. "Yes" I muttered walking past him. We walked to his the door and my grandfather took hold of my wrist. "Be careful" he said sincerely. I gave him a short nod before shutting the door behind me and running my hand through my hair.

I took a breath looking out into the thick woods and I started walking. With every step my anticipation grew. This was the day I would learn of my mothers killer. I walked for about two miles before my uncles lodge came into view. My grandfathers words flashed into my head. "Use your head" He would say before I would see my uncle.

People were standing outside the lodge smoking countless cigarettes and mumbling among themselves as I walked past them. When I stepped inside the lodge, people talked a little softer. I leaned against the window and my uncle walked out of a back room. Everyone got quiet. Without invite I walked past him into his office. Like usual, his case of weapons on the other side of the massive dark brown desk met my eyes first. I moved my line of sight to the animal heads on the sides of his walls and to the scratched wooden floor I had stared at so many times.

"We have got sights on the man that you have been awaiting to see" He said to me. I stood up taller meeting his eyes as I waited to hear more. "He and his family are here in the United States. If you leave now they will still be where we have last located them, but I have a request. There is another man in that area that I am passing to you" He explained. "Now that your part of the operations here, you will be expected to carry out whatever is asked" My uncle said. He handed me a file with the family's information. I opened it and studied it carefully. Afterwards he handed me another and I read over it quickly.

"Take caution with this one" He said nodding to the first file. "We know little about him. This is the day you've been waiting for, do not mess it up with your anticipation. I have trained you better than that. But I do have new information. I believe he is already aware of our knowledge of him. Play your cards right" My uncle said handing me a bag. I took it from him without losing his eye contact. "You work for me, remember that" He warned. "Yes uncle," I said with a slight nod. I turned to leave but his voice stopped me. "Oh, and don't disappoint me" He said and I nodded once more. "I will handle this" My uncle's wicked smile deepened and he held his hand out for me to leave.

I stomped through the front room and racked my brain for possible locations to carry the long awaited task out. A whisper caught my attention then. "Let's hope he doesn't choke. Boss's nephew, never would've made it if he were alone" My eyes fogged red and I turned on the voice. My hand moved to his throat with a knife appearing in my hand from my belt. "If you have something to say, say it" I growled. My grip on the knife tightened. He gasped and looked into my narrowed eyes without a word. I moved it to scratch his neck, shaving off a small bit of a beard before I removed the pressure and threw open the door leaving the room in a tense silence.

My uncle popped into my head and I thought on our past then, what he has helped me work towards. For the past five years, he had taught me like all his other assassins. We trained night and day. Some, like me, tried harder than the rest for a specific purpose. I was highly respected from even the highest assassins because of the skill I had built. Only now I was finally able to put what I've learned to the ultimate test. I had taken lives before, but not like this one. This time the life to take is personal.

I rushed to where my motorcycle rested and started it up. I tucked my fake license in my back pocket before tearing through the woods. My uncle's lodge grew small in the distance but I paid no attention to it in my mirror. I never looked back. Finish the job and never look back.

My mind raced at all the ways I could finish the man. I was aware he had a wife, son, and daughter. Maybe I should take his son and daughter first and let him beg. That might work. I was at a loss from the stand point of the pictures I was shown of his family were very blurry. I would have to sit back and watch before I made any move. I needed to be sure nothing went wrong or I had the wrong person. The only thing I was certain of is the man's smiling face.

I had driven to their town only refilling my tank once. I saw the normal place to find the family was a small café called Berry's Brew. I climbed the stairs on the building across from the café waiting for the second man to show up. If I was able to get rid of him, I could put my entire focus into the man who killed my mother. I watched the man walk up and I smirked. He was predictable. I looked at every feature on his face. This man was a serial killer and everyone around him was oblivious. The lack of attention people carried annoyed me. A serial killer, walking right in front of them, and all they notice is the color of the sky, if that.

My finger touched the trigger and I took aim with rage flooding through my body. I let out a breath and pressed the trigger. Like all the other times, I pulled the trigger, there was a jerk, my breath stopped, and complete silence surrounded the earth for a moment. I blinked and it was over. The silence was interrupted with a loud piercing scream from an onlooker and I nodded. I had finished the job. Like always, I didn't hang around. I did what I did best and disappeared from the scene.

***

I was out riding my bike that night when suddenly I heard a screech and a car crashed into my bike. I slammed into the car and everything began to spin. The windshield shattered from my impact and I rolled over the top and toppled to the ground. My breathing came out in short gasps as I tried to move. The only feeling I had was the warmed cement from under a street light touching my face. Nothing responded. Pain seared from my entire body. Without feeling, I already knew I had broken ribs. My voice escaped me as I tried to scream.

Harsh hands yanked my limp body off the ground and I was thrown into the back of a van. Blood trailed down my face and my arms lost their feeling as I was tied down. A man came into view but I couldn't make out his features. I blinked rapidly trying to yell or fight but a needle was shoved into my arm. My body relaxed and I became numb. Another needle replaced the drugged one. Voices dragged around me. "It's him... cant...he said bring... hospital... careful... mind twister...get to Underbriar..." I groaned in pain and the voices become clear. "Quickly, knock him out. You have eluded us long enough? Looks like the hunter has become the hunted" He smirked and I made one last effort to break free but a blow to my head made my entire world go black.