Daisies & Daggers

    Daisies & Daggers

Chapter One-

    It’s been two years since I seen the sunlight. I glint from the pain it causes to my eyes. The hospital bed is hard and uncomfortable and pain shoots into my torso from the gunshot wound that put me here. I groan as a nurse walks into the room with a cup of water, “She’s awake…” I see her smile faintly and her feeble hands slowly give me a cup of water that I drink down forcefully. It feels like somebody is stabbing my throat and I mumble a swear. It hurts to drink. But it feels so good. She sees the pain in my eyes and pats my back softly. I cough up the water and a little bit of blood. I’m still weak.

    “We’re going to keep you overnight just incase. You’re to weak to go out there on your own Mae, and we’re so, so sorry… but your daughter and husband are dead.” She purses her lips. Her aged nose and face being illuminated by the sunlight. She closes the blinds to stop the pain from getting to my eyes, even though I’ve somewhat gotten used to it.

    “When did they die…” I look down solemnly.

She looks at her clipboard and chews on the cap of a pen, “Sophia’s time of death… is September, Seventeenth 2014. Kazou’s time of death, November, Twenty-seventh, 2014.” I feel the tears welling up in my eyes, “What’s the date..?”

    “June, Fifth 2015.” She replies, sighing.

    “You have to be shitting me woman.” I groan. I still remember that night as if it were yesterday, yet it was two years ago, Noriko Jiang. Leader of the Poison Arrows. Her choppy hair as she kicked open the door, she beautiful yet masculine face staring me straight in the eyes. My poor two year old Sophia crying on the baby monitor and my newly-wedded husband, Kazou being shot with the AK47. Noriko was my latest mission. My boss, Gina, told me she was blackmailing our gang, The Black Cloaks. She said she would turn us in. So I was to go and kill her. My partner, Mitsuko and I were terribly cornered by some of her gang. They found our whereabouts. Mitsuko escaped and I was rescued. But they found my home. Shot my two year old daughter in the hip, and shot my husband in the stomach. And I, in the torso. Mission, Failed. That makes me more nervous about being in this hospital, will they arrest me, find out who I really am? A chill runs up my spine and my black silky hair covers my face and the pieces that folded into my hospital gown itch my back. I never really been social with anybody. I’m not that kind of girl, when my parents died in one of their missions I was to fend for myself in a dog-eat-dog environment, which led me to not trust anybody. The gangs knew who I were. Gina took me in and raised me to be her top dog assassin. I’ve been killing since I was fifteen. For seven years. I’ve killed. For my whole life I’ve seen people killed. Which led to my schizophrenia and my PTMS. The same nurse brings me dumplings and rice, with orange juice. I cautiously pick up my chopsticks and start on the rice. I stare at the nurse straight in the eyes. Something seems familiar about her. I shake off the thought,

    “We’re deciding to let you go early.” She smiles.

I raise an eyebrow, “Do you really think that’s safe to be doing in my condition?”

    “Let’s just say that maybe you won’t have to worry about your condition for long.” She smiles.

Frustrated, I grip the edges of the bed, “What… do… you… mean.”

She taps the clipboard with her nails, holding against her small figure coated in a traditional Japanese nurse gown.  

    “You only have about five minutes to live.” She chuckles.

I open my mouth to speak. But I’m cut off. By a dagger that she pulls out from her back pocket. I remember her now. She was one of the gang members who cornered me and Mitsuko. Noriko is still after me.