The Silence within the darkness

The world is ever changing and the gates have taught us that with their appearance followed by the emergence of contractors and dolls. The Star have changed to be fake replicas of the night sky that was known before and now represents the life force of all the contractors or dolls that appeared after the gate. People changed after that, myself included. Who was I before the gate? A functioning part of society, a good steady job, and a person who held functioning relationships. Who am I kidding my love life was always a train wreck. My name is Karyn Estrada and after the company I was working for had an investigation looking for a contractor I left because I knew they would find me even though I wasn't the one they were looking for. The reason for that was due to my contract, whenever I made eye contact with a doll I can see past the exterior and peer into the Psyche that is repressed by the doll state. If the investigators brought a doll I would have emitted synchrotron radiation and been exposed. The risk was not worth it. My payment was a pain too, I had to go propose to the first person I saw. Talk about frustrating, as a result I ended up with stalkers galore and some weird urban myth floating around town about me. After leaving the company I was picked up by some contractor and offered a job. Apparently my power had some use to them in getting dolls to defect and reprogram them. They trained me to be an assassin using a custom sniper they built that allowed me to carry it around in a backpack and use with ease despite my small frame.

I spent years looking down that snipers barrel taking out people that I was ordered to simply for a means to survive and I got pretty good at it. One day apparently a rival contractor company that went by the name "the syndicate" was causing friction with our faction. I was ordered to take out one of their teams, a job I had done many times previously. The Data packet had their code names "Hei-the black reaper" designation BK-201 and the doll "Yin." All I felt was just another job as I headed out, but in hind sight, I wish I had prepared myself better and maybe not gone at all.

The Targets had set up in a nearby hotel. I had bugged it with leaving some ones for them to find and ones within the walls that they would not find but as always I assumed that they knew that they were being listened to. Any agent that has cleared a room would be a fool to think that there was no devices left until the building was back to the framework. I say that but then again maybe I am just a cynic. I look down the scope at my targets and size them up. Hei wanders around the apartment pacing before he begins to settle. Ha takes off his large black trench coat and begins to get more comfortable. He sets out his weapons on the bed leaving one blade and grapple line attached and sheds down to his singlet and black trousers. The doll sits in the corner ever so quietly with her feet in water.

"I guess she uses water to call spectres." I mumble to myself staring down the scope as I get a bad feeling that this should have been in the information packet. Hei walks over to the doll and states, "Yin do you know the code words for situation A and B in this mission?"

Yin replies in the stoic and emotionless doll voice, "Code words are not yet confirmed."

"Alright," Hei begins, "Situation A response I hate you. Situation B response I love you. Understand?"

Yin paused for a moment and responded, "Acknowledged code words."

I thought to myself, "What the hell are situation A and B? What weird code words..."

I continued to observe and waited for the hit squad of assault type contractors to get positioned ready to take them out. They seemed to be going unnoticed as Hei and Yin maintained their positions and seemed unaware of the threat that approached them from the shadows. I felt some pity for my targets when they met their fate unaware or not given the chance to escape but I guess that it was some kind of mercy too.

The radio silence from the team was broken as the voice crackled over my headset, "Commencing operation in t minus 5."

A moment later Yin spoke up without being prompted, "I love you, Hei."

My heart skipped a beat as I stared down the room. What was meant by this? I felt panic rise however was left unsure by Hei still on the bed unmoving. I stared down the scope as I heard the doll get more desperate in trying to alert him, "Hei, Hei, Hei." She repeated but he simply just lay there. I Blink for a moment and look at my watch to check when the team will rush. I prepare myself my rechecking my calibrations for wind speed and distance. The rest of my calculations and adjustments were complete and so I took my aim positioning my crosshairs on Yin the doll. I took a deep breath and steadied my aim.

Just as my finger started to brush the cold steel of the trigger a flashbang went off and blinded me through my scope. I attempted to look down the scope with my other eye in order to take the shot which was not as affected by the flash only to see a room full of smoke. The hum of synchrotron radiation and gunfire filled the air and I quickly grabbed my gear to relocate in case I had been discovered. Screams of agony followed by silence as the night sky showed lights falling to earth like the blood from their bodies that resembled a meteor shower of the old days.

Slowly the air begun to fill with silence as the cries and gunfire begun to cease and I got more cautious. I quickly removed the scope and flipped up the iron sights in order to give myself an advantage at this closer range as I begun stepping over the bodies of fallen comrades. In my old life the sight of this would have made me sick but now the only thought that was in my head was the option of defecting to the syndicate as the most logical course of survival. Every turn left my heart race. I came to a large warehouse close by that had a light trail of blood surrounded with the bodies of fallen contractors and a single broken white mask, trademark of the Black reaper. I brave the chance to move in, after all if he is injured already he will be more vulnerable and I would get the largest reward of my life. Walking through the giant steel doors I enter into the dark and move in low and slow. I made it around 5 metres into the warehouse before a heard movement from behind me.

That brings you to how I got here staring down the shimmer of a glock staring me in the face held by the black reaper. When you are about to die they say your life flashes before your eyes but I guess it is different to everyone. I open my mouth to speak and offer my services to the syndicate when something in the corner of my eye causes me to shift focus from the gun in my face. Yin was next to Hei unharmed with her hair shimmering in the moonlight. Our eyes meet and I feel my power activate. I know the sheer fact I was emitting synchrotron radiation meant I was dead no matter how harmless my power in this situation and time felt it had slowed as the depths of her psyche flooded my head.

"HEI!" Her suppressed psyche screamed, "I love you, Hei! We don't need to kill anymore! Let's run away! Find somewhere safe and have a family together! Get away from this hell of murder, death, and servitude that is a pit darker than black! Save me, Hei!"

I smile as I return my gaze to the barrel of the gun and think to myself, "If I die, I am happy this was the last sight I was able to see...

*Click*

*BANG*

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