Winter's Mystery

The Beginning

A heavyset man in a slightly disheveled suit lumbered into a room, it was a decent sized room, a foyer with three archways. One led to a kitchen and dining area, one to a sitting space, and the third to a bedroom. He bumped into a table at the center of the foyer, obviously drunk. At the same time two armed men had entered the foyer and took their place on either side of the main doorway.

The drunk man grumbled at the table and headed towards the bedroom, bumping into the side of the archway as he went. "Well...little...whatever you are..." He slurred as he spoke, then catching his balance a little he stumbled towards the bed, "I am quite..." His speech was temporarily interrupted by a ghastly sharp intake of breath that somewhat resembled a burp and a hiccup, holding a fist to his chest he continued in his slurred condescending tone, "...ready to get...what I paid for." His gaze was not on the bed, but in the direction of the wall to the right of the bed.

The drunk man set another unsteady foot forward, however, before he had reached the bed and before he could say another word, the sounds of a fight could be heard from the foyer. The man turned to see the commotion, nearly falling over as he did, "What the..." The two men from the doorway were now in hand to hand combat with another man.

This mystery man had shoulder length dark brown hair, a black mask that covered his mouth and nose, and black leather combat gear that covered most of his body, save his left arm, which was covered in what appeared to be metallic panels with a metallic red star embellishing his shoulder.

He deftly slid a knife across the throat of one of the bodyguards and then plunged the blade into the temple of the other. Their bodies hit the floor with a sickening thud. Their blood began to pool out onto the wood floor. The drunk man was frozen in fear as the masked man raised his gun and put a single silenced bullet through the center of his forehead, it exploded out the back of his skull. The man fell back to the floor, blood soaking into the white carpet, the deep red creating a large circle around his head.

The masked man lowered his weapon and was about to leave when he heard a chain jingle inside the bedroom. Slowly he turned and his cold gaze fell on a frail female with short brown hair, she was dressed in essentially nothing as what appeared to be thin strips of fabric and string barely covered the more intimate areas of her body. She was standing and looking at the masked man, but he saw no fear in her dark brown eyes.

The sound that had drawn this strange assassin's attention to her had come from a chain that was attached to the wall at about 4 ft up from the ground and led to a metal collar that was clasped around her neck. The chain appeared to be long enough to reach mostly across the bed, though she remained standing beside it.

He advanced towards her, emotionless eyes locked on hers. When he stood a little beyond arms length from her he raised his gun level to her head, but instead of her shrinking back as he was accustomed to people doing at the end of his gun barrel, she stepped forward and pressed her forehead to the barrel of the gun and closed her eyes.

This caused the man to hesitate, he had never encountered anyone inviting him to kill them in such a way. He looked her over and noticed bruises, many in the shape of hands or fingers, covering her body. Especially on her exposed thighs and abdomen.

Something inside him kept his finger from pulling the trigger and instead he lowered the weapon. She opened her eyes and with almost no expression on her face looked into the eyes of the now conflicted man standing before her, as if studying his blue gaze for an explanation. He seemed to be having an argument with himself in his head, though it was hard to tell with the mask covering most of his expression. The woman remained unmoving as she watched his internal argument blaze in his otherwise expressionless eyes.

Finally after a long moment he turned and went to the man he had shot in the head and removed the tie from around his neck and the belt from around his waist, being careful not to step in the pool of blood that had thoroughly soaked the carpet around his head and upper body. He turned back to the woman who was watching him intently, he walked up to her and took her wrists and used the belt to secure them behind her back. The reach was easy for the man who stood just over 6 feet tall, a whole foot taller than the frail 5 ft female standing obediently before him.

She didn't fight against him or resist in any way, instead she allowed him to secure her wrists, tucking her head only slightly to avoid his shoulder. Once her wrists were secured he stood up straight again, she didn't speak but caught his gaze once more.

The masked man then raised the tie he had removed from the dead man's neck to her face, she could see clearly now that his arm was not covered in metal panels, but was in fact made entirely of metal. Then only darkness, as the strange man blindfolded her. Once the blindfold was secure she felt a pressure on her left shoulder, indicating the man wanted her to lower herself to the ground.

Obediently she did as she was prompted and knelt on the ground and sat back on her feet, she felt his hand lift slightly off her shoulder, but gloved fingers began to trace her jaw from below her ear to her chin. The man's thumb brushed her bottom lip before being removed all together and she was left in silence and darkness.

The man left quietly, pausing at the archway of the bedroom for only a moment to look back at this woman who had asked for death so gracefully, yet, he couldn't give it to her. She never said a word and he wondered what the depth of her predicament was, to be chained to a wall in such a fashion in a man's room. Though he knew this was merely a room rented from the actual owner of the establishment, often used by shady politicians and wealthy men. He still wondered at her calm demeanor at the sight of three deaths and then her way of asking to be the fourth.

He wondered if killing her would have brought relief for her, since she seemed to be so welcoming of death and her condition did not seem to be a pleasant one. But, he couldn't pull the trigger, for reasons he himself could not fathom. Finally, he left completely and tried to push her from his mind. But the look in her eyes was permanently etched into his brain, even after the organization he killed for, wiped his memories, her gaze still remained.