Vin Altraz, Time Assassin

Two

The year is 1816. I attempted to assassinate Antoine-Joseph at his birth but his new parents seemed to always be attached at the hip with him (or at least attached at the arms, budum tss). So I've arrived in the year that he is two. My first step, of course, was to get acquainted with his parents, Charles-Joseph Sax and wife. I decided to use my 'new neighbour' role and proceeded to their place of dwelling at precisely tea time.
"Hello? Can I help you?" A tall, young man with a small beard asked as he opened the door to me.
"Hello. I've just moved in awhile ago and I was about and thought I would stop by and say hello to introduce myself. Hello!" I replied in my unusually perky, friendly voice.
"Well, hello then. It so happens to be tea time would you like to join us and then we could properly introduce ourselves?" My plan worked flawlessly. I would be done with the job and onto my next assignment before, well, tea time.
I followed the man into the sitting room where he asked me to wait as he went to explain to his wife that they were having a guest for tea. He returned momentarily with a youthful woman carrying a tray with a quaint tea set on it and some biscuits and following behind them was a boy of two years old. Antoine-Joseph. I could stand right up and grab this child and finish my job that easily. But as per rules of the time assassins it has to seem like an accident. Otherwise various unsolved murders would be cropping up everywhere and people would begin to get suspicious.
"My name is Charles-Joseph Sax, and this is my wife and my son, Antoine-Joseph." The man said as he sat and Mrs. Sax began serving tea, silent as the grave. But my true interest was Antoine-Joseph, who was scrambling to climb to his father's lap. Mrs. Sax sat as we all began to drink our tea and make small talk. I introduced myself as Adolphe Trepman, a single man living alone in a one room apartment across the street.
As we talked the subject changed to Antoine-Joseph, who looked up from the biscuit he was nibbling when he heard us talk about him.
"He is such a quiet thing." His mother said affectionately. "He never talks back but he also spends a large amount of time alone. I worry about him sometimes."
This was taking too long. I was racking my brain for an idea of what could be done to get me alone with the boy and for me to off him and make it seem like an accident. I changed the subject to the house. It was a small house but it was a tall house, reaching three stories tall, as Mr. Sax proudly stated. As he bragged about the height of his home I began to brain storm. I had hatched my plan, now I had to execute it (and their child, budum tss).
"Can I use your loo?" I asked suddenly.
"Of course." Mr. Sax replied. "Right through there."
As I stood, though, I tipped the tea tray with my knee ever so slightly. But it was enough. The tray came crashing down and spilled tea all over the chairs where Mr. and Mrs. Sax were sitting and, as I planned, covered their neatly dressed son in tea and biscuit crumbs.
They were in a fit then. Broken china all on the floor. Mrs. Sax screaming that the furniture would surely be stained if they didn't clean it and that her child would be sticky for the rest of the day.
When Mr. Sax finally quieted her down he told her to get some cleaning supplies and she obeyed. I offered to take Antoine-Joseph to his room to clean him up as they tidied the sitting room. At first Mr. Sax would not let me achieve the care of his son and claimed he could wait. But I insisted, saying I was great with small children and that if we didn't get him cleaned up now his clothes would surely be stained forever.
Mr. Sax eventually agreed and pointed me up to Antoine-Joseph's room, which was on the third floor to my amazed luck. I led the toddler up as his parents cleaned the sitting room.
The stage was set. The actors in place. All I had to do was yell 'action' and all would fall into place. I undressed Antoine-Joseph and opened a window. My story was simple. I would claim that the child had fallen while my back was turned as I was fetching him fresh clothes. Then I would steal away and return to my time and be paid for my work.
Antoine-Joseph looked at me with his little two year old eyes. I had been trained against things like this for many years at the academy but still I felt a pang of pity.
"I know you're not going to understand why I have to do this." I told him. "But it must be done. And if not by me then someone else surely would try. It's easier this way. Faster. I promise. Understand?" He stared at me. He didn't understand. So I pushed him.
I waited until he hit the ground head first before running down the staircase as fast as my long legs could carry me. I ran to the sitting room and screamed that the child had fallen out the window, which gave them quite a shock. Together the three of us ran out the front door. The child lay there, a small pool of blood around him. As his parent lamented and cried I walked away. They didn't notice that I left and I don't blame them (their child just died, for goodness sake) so I got back to my time machine.
I preformed my time jump back to what was the present for me and approached the time assassin's leader.
"I have completed my mission by the extermination of Antoine-Joseph Sax." I stated, head slightly bowed. "Please pay me what is owed."
The assassin leader motioned to a man standing in the corner who disappeared into a door behind him and returned a few seconds later with a book in hand and gave it to his master. The assassin leader read for a moment.
"You shall be paid nothing. You did not succeed." He declared, his voice a low rumble.
"What?" I stuttered, aghast. "Please, my master, what does the book say?"
"It says, 'Antoine-Joseph Sax at the age of two fell from a height of three floors, hit his head on a stone and could barely stand.' He did not die. You have failed your task."
"Please, give me more time. I will achieve my goal." I begged.
"Granted. Now begone and finish your task."
As I left, I pondered over what had just been explained to me. He was still alive and I had failed. I lost to a two year old. But that wasn't going to happen again.