Bound by Deception

21.2 A Massacre on Monday

"Are you guys here for Madame?" A googly-eyed agent stopped them. "Good heavens, at last! We've been waiting for you for hours! The good lady has been tearing her office apart; please stop her!"

"Metaphorically or literally?" Sterling grinned. "Because if Madame has somehow shapeshifted into a bear, I'd like to see that in person."

The googly-eyed man blanched. "Don't say such things!" He yelped. "Now, hurry! Hurry! We can't waste any more time, otherwise, we'll be next!" He scampered away.

Aria watched him run. "He seems too skittish to be working here."

"He must be one of the organizers. Either that or he's a newbie. Madame's not lazy when it comes to recruits." Sterling rubbed his hands together. "Speaking of Madame, come on. I want to go see if she's a polar bear."

"If she is, you're dead," Aria muttered, following him. They reached Margot's office, which was the only part of headquarters that looked in disarray. From the crack in the door, the two of them could see papers littering the patchy carpet and shards of glass and broken shrapnels in the mix. The walls had dried splatters of blood and skewered weapons and frames. Entering the room, Aria and Sterling were alarmed to find their boss slumped over her work. The ink from her broken pen made a pool of black liquid around her cheek, and she held nothing but a singular photograph in her hand. Upon further inspection, Aria realized that it was the picture of the young, red-haired boy from before.

"Madame?" Sterling sang, strolling to the desk. "Madame?! Are you okay?"

Margot remained motionless. Sterling rounded her desk and poked her. Like an arrow, her hand shot up and grabbed his collar, slamming him into the desk. She grabbed the pen and raised her other arm in the air to stab him, but Aria stopped her.

"Madame, it's us!" She cried. "Stop it!"

Instantly, the wild, deranged look that coiled around Margot's eyeballs in red strings disappeared. Her muscles relaxed and she sunk into her chair. The pen clattered on the ground, nearly causing Sterling to trip as he bolted from the desk.

"Huh. I always wondered what I'd look like with black hair," he mused, studying his reflection in the cracked mirror behind her. The ink from her pen stained the white, wispy locks of his hair like octopus tentacles.

"Sterling, focus!" Aria growled. She put a tentative hand on Margot's shoulder. "Madame, what happened?"

"An attack..." Margot hoarsely whispered. Her hollow stare drifted to Aria as if she was staring right through her skin and bending her bones with her eyes. "There was an attack, Aria...they...they came and killed so many of us...my brave soldiers..." she gripped the young assassin's shoulders, shaking and jerking. "All of them...I worked so hard...how could they..."

"My guess is a mole," Sterling mentioned from afar, still gazing at his reflection. "Was there anyone that you caught acting suspicious, Madame?"

"None..." the woman stopped shaking long enough to reply. She began to breathe heavily, clenching the picture in her fist. "I blindly trusted everyone...I can't do that anymore. We'll need stricter rules...we'll need...to rebuild." She sighed, and when she looked at Aria again, the girl could see dark black bags hanging from her hollow eyes. "Aria, I need you to move quickly with this mission. I know that you have done what you needed, but this can't wait any longer. Finish Edward. Drink up everything that you can. But don't kill him."

"Don't kill him?" Aria frowned. "But Madame, you said-"

"Kill him, and I'll have you expelled from this job, do you understand?" Margot shouted. "Aria, we need Edward alive so that we can find this mole. Until this betrayer is found, you will not do anything to harm Edward. Do you understand?"

"But-!"

"Do you understand, Aria?"

Aria grit her teeth. "Yes...Madame."

"Good." Margot stood. The swelling had disappeared from her cheeks and she looked rather composed after Aria had given her response. "Sterling, I want you to get rid of every man on this list. They are in some way related to our killer. Find them and kill them."

"Sure." Sterling took the list. "Awesome. More murder on my hands." A cruel gleam lit up his glacial orbs, igniting a look of utter wickedness. "Sucks for you, Aria. Looks like I'm gonna be having all the fun."

"Shut up." Aria scowled. "Madame, why can't I help Sterling? I'm not always with Edward."

"Your aunt and uncle would get suspicious, and we can't have more eyes on us than we already do."

"You mean apart from all the big officials in Grandville?" She scoffed. "Fine. Whatever. I'll keep to my post."

"Good." Margot whipped toward Sterling, who was balancing a thin knife between his fingers like the whirling blade of a spice grinder. "Sterling, remember, you're hunting for the kill. I don't want any survivors."

"You know that I never leave any survivors, Madame," Sterling said with a wink.

"This is serious. We don't have time for joking," Margot grumbled. Her fists had loosened, and Aria noticed with a short glance that the photograph was in a tight, crumpled ball. She didn't want to be presumptuous, but she dared to think that the picture was sentimental to Margot. The woman had prided herself on her isolation from other human beings, but Aria was beginning to wonder if maybe, just maybe, this massacre had hit a soft spot in Margot's blackened heart. 

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Why don't you think Madame wants Edward dead? How will Aria go through with this? Did Edward attack the syndicate? 

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