Night Assassin

Night Assassin

    The little girl often stared out her window and imagined things that could never be. Things like the brown pillars with green paper coming out of it. Trees, that's what they were called. She wondered what it would feel like to see one, maybe even touch it if she dared. The teachers in her school talked about how they felt rough, and she liked that. Rough means texture, and texture meant personality. She told her teacher about her opinion, and they recommended that she take counseling.
The girl knew it was dangerous to even think about these things, forget about touching them. That's why her teachers looked so horrified about her thinking process. Still she could not stop the thoughts of nonexistent things from coming into her young mind. She could not quell the thought that some day she might find the objects of the past.
    Anyway, she thought with a sigh, seeing a tree was impossible ever since the Great Wars. The few trees that existed were kept with the government, big officials that never showed their faces. Well, maybe they came outside, though she never saw them.
    As minutes passed swiftly, the girl's thought shifted from trees, to the moon. The moon that wasn't real.
The Dome where she lived had an artificial sky; people say that everything is an exact image of the real sky. But the real sky was supposed to have white blobs called clouds. The real sky was supposed to make water come out of air, which was called rain. This sky didn't even have a moon that changed shape. This fake moon that she saw through her window every night, stayed round. It would be nice if she might see the real moon. Just to make sure that she was real too, and that her whole life wasn't a lie.
    A firm, but kind voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts. "Lilly, why aren't you asleep?" Her father's strong figure pushed her door open and stepped inside her room. He squinted in the darkness, before finally finding the little girl's small figure concealed by the window. The shadow of her dresser made her look like a cat. A small black cat that was hiding from view, so no one would notice it. Her father sighed before speaking again. "It's almost past curfew. What's keeping you up?"
    The girl named Lilly stayed silent for a moment. She knew very well that her thoughts were dangerous, and even the closest of people couldn't know about them. So she thought up a lie. A fear that kept her up most nights, especially silent nights.
    " I was just thinking about the Sicarii. What if they get me in the night? I have to stay up, so I know if they're coming." She whispered, as her father brushed a strand of hair that was as dark as night from her face.
    At those words her father seemed to stiffen, as if he had just realized what she said. His mouth set into a rigid line, and the young girl wondered if talking about the Sicarii was forbidden too. If so, then she had just made a huge mistake. A mistake that might not be able to forgive, she did not want to think of the consequences for her loose mouth.
    " You mean those Night Assassins? Well, if I know anything about them it's that they love to prey on children who are awake in the night. That way they get the pleasure of hunting them. Do you know what they do to children?" He whispered darkly, as the girl shook her head. Her eyes seemed to have gotten wider by the second, and to hear his next words she had to lean in, for it seemed as if the night wanted to steal them away.
    "They say the Sicarii eat them, piece by piece. The worst part is that no one ever hears you scream, because the first thing they go for is your throat. And the last thing you ever see is their empty eyes."
    The girl's body now shook with small shivers, and it wasn't because of the cold, though it seemed as if the temperature had dropped a few degrees. Her father watched as she darted beneath her covers, glancing around the room as if something was stalking her, already planning out her slow death. He stood for a moment or two, before leaving the room thinking she would sleep.
But the girl did not sleep. Nor did she think about trees. All she could think about were two eyes watching her.
Two eyes that might be the last thing she would ever see. She found herself changing her opinion about the moon. She liked the artificial moon that shone consistently everyday. This moon was proof that not everything that seemed real was real. If this moon wasn't real then neither was the Sicarii. For the first time in the young girl's mind, she wished for her whole life to be a lie. Then she could rest in peace, and just be Lilly of The Dome and forget about eyes, trees, and the moon.