The Last Assassin

Chapter 1: Dark Roofs

  I was running with my brother and sister across the rooftops of New York. We would always do this, since we liked to parkour everywhere. We would race all the times on the rooftops, and we were always safe... so we thought. On this particular day, though, we weren't. My sister turned to look at me, since I was starting to fall behind, "Come one, slowpoke! You're fallling way behind, and we're not gonna wait up" she shouted to me, and climbed up the fire escape to a higher level. I climbed the side of it, and caught up to her. Our brother, well, our brother was way ahead of us. He was already out of sight. 

  We reached the rooftop, and my sister stopped for a breather, and so did I. She playfully punched my shoulder like she always did. "You're always in last place, you know that?"

"Shut up. I caught up to you." I laughed and looked around for Mark. He was out of our sight, and we thought he kept going. "Hey Sophia, where's Mark?" She shrugged, and walked ahead to see if he was at the edge, catching his breath. I followed, and almost suddenly, he popped out of nowhere and scared us both to the ground. 

  He was laughing so hard, I thought he was gonna cry. "Shut it! That was NOT funny!" Sophia punched Marks arm hard, but he was still laughing. Sophia was closer to my age than Mark, since he was 8 years older than me, and 6 years older than Sophia. "You're right. That wasn't funny, that was hilarious! You two just screamed like girls and fell down!" I got up, and leaned on the door by us. "You forget that I AM a girl!"

"What's his excuse then? We all know he's hit puberty already, he's 16." Sophia just shook her head, and I remained silent. "You know he's still easily scared. He's always been like that. He can't help it, but you can by stopping the whole 'Hiding and scaring us' routine!" Mark just shrugged, and sat down by the edge. The sun was right above us, but was starting to get blocked by the gray clouds rolling in from the east. "Looks like it's gonna rain soon" I told them, and they both looked up. "I guess so. Mom wil want us home soon then, but I'll let her know we're gonna be late."

  We got lunch, and hung out for a bit at the usual place in the mall near our house. We went back up to the rooftops, and I was starting to fall behind again. Something shined in my eye, and temporarily blinded me. I stopped to look at what it was, and picked it up. It was a symbol of some kind. It had a pointed tip, a hollow nside, and two ends at the bottom that didn't connect, and left a small hole between them. It had a little pin on it, so I pinned it to my jacket since I thought it looked cool.

  My sister ran back, along with my brother to see why I was just standing there like an idiot. "Hey Kyle! What are you doing? Now isn't the time to be trying on accessories. We're on a rooftop, dude!" I ignored my brother's comment, and Sophia just looked at my new symbol. "I've seen that symbol somewhere before. I think it's a part of some cult of something."

"Whatever it's from, it's cool and I'm keeping it" I told them. I usually got what I wanted, since my family could afford to get things. Mark shook his head, "If it's a part of a cult, people will come looking for you, thinking you're a part of it."

"Knock it off Mark."

"I'm serious!" Sophia shook her head, and I shrugged. All three of us headed home, but before we could get there, several people were on the rooftop, eyeing us from afar. When we got closer, Mark asked them, "Can we help you?" One of them, who was wearing a mask, looked at us, me specifically, and questioned us. "Are you three a part of the assassins?" We looked at each other, and shrugged, not knowing what the assassins were. A few more people came, and glanced at each other, then at me... and my symbol. They were all wearing something different. The man with the mask got closer, and reached for me. Sophia blocked him, "Excuse me! You don't touch my little bro, got that?"

"Girl, it would be wise for you not to interfere again like that." Mark chimed in to defend us. He was a jerk at times, but he was protective of us nontheless. Family is family, and we stuck together. "Listen, pal. I don't know who you guys are, but I don't care. You leave my family alone, or you get hurt." Mark started to clench his fists, but the masked man grabbed him, and threw him aside. They started to come after me slowly, but Sophia tackled the masked man to the ground. One of them snuck up behind me and pinned me down, putting me on my knees.

  The Man's mask fell off, and I saw how he was missin one of his eyes. He punched Sophia, and threw her off. "Pathetic effort. I don't know if you two our assassins or not, but it doesn't matter. I'll show you what happens when you interfere with a templar's work!" The man put his mask back on, and grabbed Sophia by her hair. Mark tried getting up, but he was kicked down by two of the other guys. Sophia was trying to break free, and I was struggling as well, but it was for nothing. "I know your little brother there is an assassin, and I'm gonna see how much he'll endure before breaking down.

  Sophia looked at Mark, then at me. We were all taken down by people we didn't know. I here a gun shot, and the man holding me down fell, holding his neck as it bled slowly. We saw hooded figures around us, and a few jumped down to stab the guys pinning Mark with whatever they had under their sleeves. I later learned they had hidden blades to silently kill with. Mark got up, and helped me up. The figures ran to the masked man, but he knocked them away. Sophia screamed as we saw a bit of hair get pulled from her head. Mark and I ran over to try and get her away from the masked man, but we were stopped in our tracks. He was holding a knife to her neck, and we knew what would happen if we moved.

  The figures got up, and looked at the masked man. "Don't do it, Nick" I heard one of them say.

"It's too late to tell me 'Don't do it' since I've already been sent over the edge! Your creed tried 'helping' me, but all that did was make me lose an eye! Well, I'm through listening to the Assassins. I'm a Templar now, and I've been given a whole lot more power!" The man grinned, and what he did shattered my heart, and almost my sanity. With no hesitation, he sliced Sophia's neck open, and she dropped to her knees Mark ran over to help her up, but the masked man shot him with a hidden gun. I sat there, open mouthed, and looked at the two of them. The assassins took the man down, and I ran to my dead siblings. I ran my hands through my hair, and prayed that it was a nightmare that I would wake up from soon, but it wasn't a nightmare, and I didn't wake up...