The Key to X | Editing - but on hold

X

August-October 2007

Cell A-4 of Malachite Asylum for the Mentally Ill and Criminals

My foster mother would regret this one day, sending me to a mental hospital. To be honest, I could not believe what she did. What kind of mother would send a kid to a mental hospital? She shipped me away, literally in a box to the cell. I was mentally stable when I arrived, but I was furious. I was given my own room, which I called my "Cell." The moment I set foot here, I knew that there would be a rare occasion that I would go back. Luckily for myself, I met someone that changed my life forever. There was a young man, in his twenties that stayed in the cell to my left. He was known as The Ninja, one of the most talented assassins out there. He was caught and sent here to prevent any more of killings. I met him when I was 7. I met him at meal times, after accidentally running into him. Unlike most people that ran into him, I was not afraid.

"What is your name?" He questioned, sitting down next to me the next day. A small smile broke out onto my face as I spoke softly.

"Call me X," I turned to him, my eyes boring into his hazel eyes. "X for unknown, X for a variable." He smiled faintly, pulling out a bronze dagger.

"Would you like to learn?" He twirled it, releasing it into the air. I jumped up, taking the blade and twirled it in my hand exactly like how he did it. Ninja smiled, pleased by how quickly I learned. From that day on, our short encounters were made into training sessions, where Ninja and I trained, practicing how to throw knives, and up to the pressure points of people. After a month, I had made lots of improvement. He was proud of me, his only and best student. 

I had often seen him twirling another dagger, identical to the bronze one I held, of gold color. I had asked him about it after he told me that there were three blades, triplets. Gold, silver and bronze. He had given the silver blade away, to a friend, he said, thinking back to his younger years.

One fateful day, the day I remembered and hated, October 18th, someone came and tried to kill me. It was a tall man, who had entered and asked where I was. He was lead to where Ninja and I trained, the two of us, running around. The man waved his guide away and pointed a 50-caliber gun at me. He fired the bullet flinging towards me. Almost as if in slow motion, Ninja leaped before me, shoving me out of the way and threw his golden dagger at the man, killing the man on impact. Ninja's leap to shove me out of the way saved me, however, it cost something even more. His life. With tears brimming in my eyes, I stepped towards him, examining where the bullet pierced him. It hit him directly in the chest, the silver bullet hitting his hard. He gasped and wheezed for air, pointing at the golden dagger.

"Take... dagger... good... live..." He gasped before his bright hazel eyes became blank and vacant. I tugged the dagger out of the dead man's chest, my face, streaming with never ending tears. I then secretly vowed that I would keep his golden and bronze dagger safe, and kill for good, not evil. He did not want me to make the same mistake he did. I stopped speaking afterward, sitting alone at mealtimes and in my cell. Ninja had risked his life to save mine, and gotten himself killed. I would never forget him. His name is engraved in my memory forever, guiding me to go on and do what was right. From then on, I killed the first person at thirteen, Rasputin with no regrets that he was in league with others that were out to kill the royals and take their places. Everywhere I went and killed, I left my mark, the red, bloody x.

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Well, now you know where X learned his bloody skills.

-Charlie