Ashes (Flame Ash Burned Backstory)

Chapter 14: Assassination

5th November 2006

Yet another year had passed: the two fire children had been at the school for three years now, and had reached the age of eleven. Phoenix had learned to control the jealousy he felt whenever Jaws would hang out with them, and the two boys had become good friends. However, he couldn't help feeling a little jealous from time to time, as the accidental kiss he shared with Flame was constantly stuck on his mind.

Today, there was no time for him to focus on jealousy or Flame: he and Jaws were having to work together to carry out an assassination on a man they had been given information on.

According to what they had been told, this man had been keeping a number of young children in a basement - ones he had kidnapped - and had been said to have been carrying out horrific drug-testing upon them as a form of torture. The exact number of children to have been taken was uncertain, but they knew it was higher than fifty.

Were the parents looking for their kids? No. The kids were orphans, or homeless on the streets in terrible conditions already.

Of course, more than half of those kids were expected to be dead.

Flame had been told to follow the two like a shadow: to make sure that they both completed the assassination without a hitch, to kill witnesses, and to ensure that there was backup if something went wrong. Jaws and Phoenix were not informed of this, and so when they set out on the mission, they were unaware of her presence.

Flame had been selected to shadow the two for different reasons, none of them being that she was less capable in a fight than the boys. On the contrary, she had proved to be the more skilled of the three when it came to hand-to-hand combat and stealth, and that was why she had been chosen to be their backup.

One of the other reasons she had been chosen as their backup was because of her emotional connection with the two. Phoenix and Jaws were both her best friends - two people whom she truly cared about, and after losing her family, she would do anything to protect the people she loved.

When she was younger, before she had died, there was nothing she could have done at that age to protect herself or her siblings or her mother. It was only after she had died and became the fiery little monster that she was now, that she was able to defend herself and fight with her new power.

The skeletal hand on her necklace belonging to the nameless man who tore her life apart was a reminder that she could fight back.

She was not going to lose anybody else.

They set out as soon as the sky began to grow dark, at around five o'clock, and people began setting off fireworks for Bonfire night. The loud bangs and crackles of the fireworks as they shot up into the sky would drown out any noise, as well as serve as a distraction for the public of the towns and cities.

The boys were decked out in all black, and so was Flame. The two fire children needed to wear ski masks, and keep their hair hidden as it glowed brightly in the dark. Apart from their glowing eyes, they blended in with the shadows flawlessly.

Jaws had simply gone for a bandana, pulled up over his nose and mouth with his eyes exposed. His sharp shark teeth would be able to serve as a weapon at close range during a fight, but hopefully it would never have to come to that as they had been told to get rid of their target as quickly as possible.

Under the sleeves of their shirts, the boys had daggers strapped to their wrists for easy access, and on their belts, they had a length of thin, razor-sharp wire and a knife which could either be thrown or used to stab.

Phoenix would have preferred to use his fire powers to get the job done quickly, but as the existence of Fire People was supposed to be kept as secret as possible, he had been told to eliminate the target without the use of magic.

Flame had also been prohibited from using her fire powers, having to use an AMT Hardballer pistol, and a knife coated with poison.

Flame and Phoenix didn't have to worry about their DNA being traced if one of their hairs came out, as any hair which was cut off simply shriveled up and turned to ash unless it was still attached to the heads of the fire children. Jaws did, however, so he kept his hair tucked back under the hood of his hoodie.

Hidden by the darkness of the night and the distraction of the beautifully colored fireworks, the two boys, shadowed by Flame, reached their destination. Their target's house was at the end of a small cul-de-sac in a rough area in a city, and all the lights were off in the surrounding houses. Everyone else had gone out to see a fireworks show.

Perfect. There would be no witnesses, as long as they pulled the job off quickly and without a hitch.

Jaws and Phoenix climbed in through an open window on the ground floor of the house, around the back. Flame followed, swiftly ducking down behind a couch to avoid detection from her friends, which was covered with bags of white powder and needles as well as photographs of children - dead and alive.

The walls had been sound-proofed, and the cream-colored carpet by the stairs leading to the basement was stained with blood. By the color, Flame could tell that some blood was old, but most was new.

Jaws and Phoenix tiptoed towards the stairs leading towards the basement, before suddenly, they came to a stop. A scream rang out from the basement.

A blood-curdling scream - that sent shivers down the spines of the three child assassins, that was so full of pain and suffering that it made the blood of even the two fire children run cold, that could only be made by somebody in unimaginable agony.

Following that scream was another, and another, and another. From the same child. Filled with more and more and more anguish. It was unbearable to listen to. Especially for Phoenix, who had screamed the same way when he was burned alive in his own home, and that is exactly what triggered his flashback.

Immediately, he backed away from the basement stairs until he was against the wall, breathing frantically with wide eyes. His whole body began to shake as he slid down the wall into the fetal position. Jaws, terrified, raced over to him and shook him.

"Dude, snap out of it!" Jaws whispered urgently, shaking Phoenix again. "This isn't the time!"

"I can't..." Phoenix cried, curling up tighter. "I can't - I can't - I can't! Jaws, help them!"

"Breathe!" Jaws instructed him. "Phoenix, you need to calm down before-"

Footsteps began growing closer, banging loudly and angrily on the basement stairs. Jaws looked up just in time to meet eyes with their target, who now stood at the top of the stairs, looking down at him and his panicking friend with an icy glare and a gun in his hand.

The man raised the gun, setting his sights on Jaws' forehead, and moved his finger to the trigger.

A shot rang through the house...

Blood splattered against the wall...

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See ya later, my little demons!