Supposed To

Chapter 3: Grey

"You did this." a whisper curled around the girl's ears, the smell of rot heavy in the air. She opened her mouth probably to defend herself. Only no sounds but strangled gasps escaped as she clawed at her throat trying to find relief. 

"You had no right to judge us, we had families, jobs, and a life." The voice continued volume rising. The rot taking on notes of burnt flesh. The girl felt a heat wave slam into her. 

"You with your savior complex fronting to cover the broken apathetic wretch you were born to be." Flames flicked towards the girl to devour her. It burned bright: unwilling to compromise even at the desperate wails of the girl. Her voice finally freed only to be overtaken by pain. 

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Laying in a puddle of sweat, paralyzed by a dream I've had 36 times is pathetic. 

Hi pathetic,  I'm Ka-Li nice to meet you.  

If I wasn't emotionally in shreds, I would chuckle at the irony of an orphan making a dad joke. As things stood that wasn't going to be for a while. I knew the feelings would fade, sunrise come I would get out of bed, take a shower, and choke down some cereal. 

But it was still dark out, I still wallowed in fear and agony, my sweat cooling into an uncomfortable sludge. I took lives for a job and I found pride in it most of the time. I researched my targets and I had the power to sense their true intentions even with that there were times where I doubted my actions. Was I too extreme could they have changed? Were things really that bad was I doing more harm than good? 

The people I worked for weren't good people they used the dark web to get rid of people in their way, when I killed bad people for them it was helping them succeed with their plans until someone eventually ordered their deaths. Eventually, the spots would be filled again. It was a never-ending cycle. 

Despite the futility of it all, I hoped that I helped someone somewhere somehow, because doing nothing isn't an option. 

A whine came from outside the door, the door was always cracked open for moments such as these. "You can come in Twain." My voice may have shook, but it did the job and that's what mattered. 

Thrilled with the permission my lovable furball launched itself at me full force. Of course, Twain aimed for my side so as not to crush me, not that I would have minded breathing was already difficult, mind as well suffocate weighted down by my best friend. 

His front paw was across my chest his head tucked under my chin. The soft blue glow from Twain comforting. All animals had a glow, there's didn't have the complicated cornucopia of colors that humans had and I had yet to meet a single one with anything but a pure white aura with their closest layer. All the animals wanted to do was protect themselves and the ones they cared for.

I only saw his auras on nights after my missions, I could meditate my ability into "off" and turn it "on" with a thought, however, if it was "on" I couldn't disable it right away. One of the hypotheses I had was that because most of the time my ability was off, it was hard to concentrate when you could see the emotional change and dark thoughts of every person you passed in a busy city, there was a build-up of power that happened that would have to wane before it could be contained again. 

Despite my acceptance of asphyxiation having part of Twain's weight on me was helping me breathe. It wouldn't be too long before the hand I was petting his super soft fur with stopped shaking. Groomers are expensive, but worth every penny. 

I always wondered what Twain thought of me in times like these, animals are simple but that also means it's hard for me as a human to understand their thoughts. Whenever I brushed against his Aura at times like these all I feel is protection. As if he would do anything to keep from hurting. 

The first time I had done this when he was a little puppy protecting me from the evil vacuum cleaner  I had been surprised to discover no worry or fear just a need to protect. It was like there was no doubt in his mind that he would protect me. 

And to be honest, he instilled the same faith in me, I know Twain would stand in front of me and protect me, my furry companion wouldn't let anything hurt me. I don't know how long we lay there, but it must have been a couple of hours because the sun was beginning to shine through my window and creep across the floor. 

A soft ding came from my phone, my mission had been confirmed as completed. Whoever had ordered that hit was high-up with connections otherwise there is no way they would have been able to confirm the kill and go through the proper channels of the dark web by now. Plus the dark web had to take their commission and send me a message pinged from several different phone towers. 

Not that it was necessary tech made by intuition was top notch if stealth was the objective of the product you could be sure no one would be able to find it. However, not all of the dark web's operatives were graded highly enough to have the connections and money to get an authentic piece from Intuition. So it was a good policy to have. 

My limbs didn't feel as heavy and I needed to start the new day. I had taken a shower after my job last night, but with all the sweat from last night's nightmare, another one was warranted. I was thinking about picking up a breakfast sandwich from down the street, before heading in for my morning shift. I needed to get a move on. Time waited for no man. Or woman.