The Gallows Mansion

Chapter 2

Cocky, little son of a bastard. Maybe the day he steps of his high no mountainous horse he will see I am not as foolish as I look or as he perceives me to be. He underestimates me as I am a woman, I am sure of it. Being in a Mansion that is male dominated has it's perks. A couple of the traders, have a brotherly care for me, like I am their little sister. They brought me clothes and cloaks when I came home in one that is tattered, stained or unable to be saved. It was nice, a kind gesture. But I couldn't give them anything unless they were in dire need of a certain body part for a peculiar reason. It also helps being a woman because if one falls for you they immediately become the ridiculed and downtrodden one. It is no longer me, they become the centre of humiliation although they are able to hold their own and defend themselves better than I would have ever had the balls to do. 

But he, he gets under my skin. Almost everything he does just annoys me. He acts like he is the King of Assassins or Murderers but he stays in the Mansion far too much to hold that title.He might have all the advice under the title "trick of the trade" but it didn't mean he was any good at the execution and practical part of the job. 

Of course I knew to pack my weapons within my dress and conceal everything from the hint of a blade to the tip of an arrow. I had found myself in such a hurry to leave this morning that it was not my first priority. Last night had not gone to plan, I failed my mission and returned to the Mansion far later than I have ever before. The target never met his grave. However this highlights the good thing about the secrecy of the Gallows. You can return to the hallways and glares of others and so long as you look cunning, wicked and confident they assume you were successful. The truth is though, I act more than I don't. I'm sure the other assassins in the Gallows had to clean up my mistakes and take out the target because they were still not dead. But that's another perk, we don't know who each other's targets are. We don't know if they got them or not, all we know is when each other leaves the Mansion.

Although I would never admit it or tell anyone in The Mansion or anyone at all for that matter much of the blood on my clothes and weapons from the night before was my own. Sadly my target got the better of me and I quickly found myself on the receiving end of the blows, although two on one is barely fair. My target was a female, roughly 28 years of age, a dress shop worker by day and apparently shifty by night. She was sleeping beside her husband when I scaled to their bedroom window. In bed by ten every night until midnight when they were awoken to the screaming sounds of the young babe in the cot net to me, not nearly a month old. I found myself absorbed for too long of a millisecond with the babe's ease. It was just enough time for the mother to prove that she was expecting and ready for me. Within seconds she had at least two of my daggers that were attached to my thighs. When I turned to face her with a sword drawn she had already jumped back to distance herself. Her feet like snow falling, silent. 

She swiftly manoeuvred us into her lounge, away from the sleeping babe. She walked cautiously with impressive footwork. According to my target sheet she was wanted for tricking an assassin trainer into thinking she was sent to them by the King of Assassins. With her clearly taught and mastered footwork she rounded the room until she came to stand still. Slightly bent knees, arms raised with blades in her her palms, my blades in her palms. I looked up with my most wicked stare and intended to send a final shot of fear through her body before she met her match. But nothing like that happened, because I realised where I was standing. In a corner, no windows on these walls, only photo frames at my disposal. I had allowed her to corner me. That's when I knew, I wouldn't be completing yet another mission. 

It was slopping work on my behalf but she wasn't so crafty herself. She had left one entrance unblocked and outside her arm's reach, even with the blade's extra extension. I took the exit immediately only to be sliced by her Husband across the thigh. Cheap shot but it worked, I lashed back but only received a blade to the arm from the wife. I struggled to the window and called myself out and over the ledge whilst the husband inspected his wife's lack of injuries. I really needed those long shot targets, ones I could use a bow on. But miraculously my name supplier already had a master in those fields. Hopefully he or she was not living within the Gallows Mansion and I never knew. Surely not.