Red

A Fine Art

(1963)

"You will apprehend the Silver Widow. The Red Room may have trained her, but Hydra will save her." The man on the other side of the tainted glass ordered to the soldier.

- - -

It was strange seeing the streets so quiet. Adelaide's shoes made little to no noise as she made her way towards the front door.

Two knocks and she waited for an answer.

The door opened and an older man smiled. "Lucky you caught me. I was just about to close up." He said and invited her in.

The shop looked the same as it did a few days ago when Adelaide first came in. The only difference was a child screaming and crying behind a door.

The man walked behind the counter. "Still want the socks?" He asked and bent down to check under the counter.

While he was distracted, Adelaide made sure the bolt on the door was in place. No one should be able to interrupt. She coughed loudly to mask the noise. Following, she pulled a knife from her pocket.

"These?" The shopkeeper put a pair on the counter.

"Yes, the white ones." Adelaide reached over the counter and slit the man's throat in one clean swing. Blood splattered all over her clothes.

She shrugged off her black jacket so she was left in her white tank top that had blood stains on it already.

A fine art it was.

She walked towards the second door where the crying was coming from. On the other end she heard a woman's soft voice.

"James, supper's ready!" She called to her husband.

Adelaide opened the door to find a thin hallway with a woman staring at her from the other end. Fear occluded her eyes as she noticed the blood on Adelaide's shirt.

"Who the hell are you?" She demanded.

A low ceiling and narrow walls. She would need to hold her knife beside her leg to get a full swing. Instead, she threw the knife towards the woman's chest.

She fell back with her eyes still wide. Adelaide got on top of her and removed the knife. She slowly made a thin line across her throat with the knife. More blood.

At the end of the hallway where the wife had come from was the kitchen. The sound of a dish crashing was heard among the sound of boiling water.

Adelaide held her knife ready and walked into the kitchen, and found a servant girl. She opened her mouth to scream. In the larger space of the kitchen, Adelaide was able to slit her throat in a straight swing, stopping her scream.

"Mommy?" A little girl whimpered from a doorway. Her hair was in pigtails. She held a rag doll and stared at her mother's lifeless body.

Adelaide walked over and leveled herself with the little girl. "Hello, dear." She said in a sweet voice before she slowly cut the soft skin of her neck.

Adelaide closed her eyes and took in the coppery smell of all the blood. The rush it gave her was breathtaking.

She quickly jerked her eyes open when she heard a child's cry. It came from down the hall.

Adelaide found another door further into the house. This one led to a neat, musty-smelling room, with a crib against the far wall.

She walked over to the cradle and stared at the small bundle. She couldn't be more than two weeks old.

Pity fell over the assassin as she peered down on the small infant. So young and pure.

The baby gave Adelaide a blank look. She wasn't her mother and couldn't provide for her, but neither could her dead mother.

Adelaide picked up the baby, making sure to keep it tucked in its pink blanket.

"Rue." Adelaide remembered the one thing about her mother. The song she would sing to her daughter. "What if we fall? Then we fall together. I can't let you go. But I can't stay."

Adelaide walked back into the shop and looked at the shelves filled with clothing. She set the bundle down and walked over to grab another white shirt.

She took a lighter and burned her old one.

Just when she was about to grab the baby and leave, a violent knock sounded from the door. It sounded metallic.

She didn't know who it could be. She didn't stick around to find out. She left through the back window.