107

Part two: Not all monsters do monterous things.

Yeah guys!! I'm back with part 2!!! Ready for the feels ?!
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K, on with the chapter !!
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Chapter one

'My name is Myra Dawn Ashburn. I am one of the Rank 1 assassination agents for the Red Brothers Society'.

Repeat the words again. Again. Again.

It was all my fault. I killed them. Even if I didn't physically attack them. I should've warned them earlier, but I didn't. I chose to cower first and look for my courage later. It was all my fault.
***************

It had been two days since I came back home. I waited for that moment for such a long time. I longed to see my brother's kind smile and walk through the green fields of home. That wasn't exactly what I came back to, though. The green fields that had once covered almost as far as the eye can see became nothing more than random blotches every now and then. Walking through the familiar streets made me drown in the painfully familiar loneliness I felt for the past 3 years and striding through the glaring crowds made me feel as if I was an alien rather than the girl who was born and raised here for 16 years. Mothers and fathers who would even catch a glimpse of me would urge their children to get away. They looked at me like I was a ghost, like I was dead and came back to the land of the living.

Never have I seen anyone as lost in their home as I was.

My eyes had traces and evidence of the long sleepless nights I spent since I came back. Nash's response to my return was more of disbelief and astonishment rather than joy and happiness. Every time I tried to speak to him and let out the flow of words I had planned to say, nothing would come out even though I had a lot to tell him. How much I missed him. How happy I was to see him again. But whenever we stood face to face, we would only stare blankly. I knew that certainly he knows what the Red Brothers' agents do and what kind of tasks they were given. I knew that I cannot escape the fact that I would have to explain to him what I have been doing for the past years. I would have to explain my ongoing feeling of guilt and the nightmares that leave me breathless and stunned every night.

Many things have changed since I was taken, but the one that surprised me the most about my brother was the fact that he was engaged to one of our oldest friends, Vanessa. She was one of the closest things I had to a sister. I remember she was always around as we grew up. The Ashburns were her only family since she was an orphan that grew up in a near by orphanage. But it wasn't like one of those depressing and abusing orphanages you would see on television; she was happy there. She knew what Nash and I were, but she kept the secret like it was her own.

The house was a whole other story by itself. I walked through every room and hallway and found myself stepping into the long path of memory lane. I stood in front of the now empty fish tank and remembered the first time our dad got us a fish to put in it. We were so excited about our first pet and seeing how overjoyed we were, our parents promised that for every good deed we made we would get rewarded with another fish of our choice. These were the simplest moments of happiness we felt. I always believed that the best memories were made out of the faintest of smiles or tiniest of gifts.

The most comfort I felt was when I was in my old room. For some reason, I was obsessed with the colour turquoise, which covered most of the room. I used to feel like that room was my refuge from the minor problems I had back then that I thought were unbearable. How foolish and childish I was. Is it possible to age 30 more years in terms of one's perspective of life over a period of 3 years? Well, I certainly felt like I did.

It was 12:30 am but I still couldn't get myself to go to sleep so I decided to look through our old band album. Back when the world made more sense, before our parents died and I was changed into an astounding killer, Nash, Vanessa, a boy who moved away when before our parents died with a few months and I had a band. We used to make remixes of our favorite tracks. The band was called 'Tone Loud.' Probably not the best name there is but we thought it was perfect. We used to have so much fun especially during our tiny 'concerts.' Vanessa and I even designed our very own poster which hung carefully over my bed. I missed those golden days. As I flicked through the pictures, I saw more and more smiles that brought out a few tears trickling down my cheeks. Is it possible to envy myself, just me of a different age? I certainly did.

At around 4:20 am I finally succumbed to sleep and let my exhaustion take over. Such a stupid thing to do. If you think that everyone escapes the horrid reality in their dreams, you obviously never experienced the kind of dreams that have tormented me. I only had two dreams that were always the same. One in which I was being pulled down by the people I ended deep into the blackness of the ocean. The other was me watching as I burned down a whole building. I could almost feel the heat and could clearly hear the piercing screams and  pleads for help. Though the sight would have brought any man to his knees, a smile was etched on my lips. I turned and started walking away with pride in what I had done, thinking that I was invincible and that what I did to those poor people could never happen to me. I was wrong. The fire I set started growing so fast making  me start to sprint away. I wasn't fast enough. Sparks caught to my clothes and I felt as the flames ate away at the fabric then my skin. Flames kissed my skin until I fell to the ground and started wailing louder than any of the other victims.

"Mayra! Wake up! Mayra!"
I jumped up to a sitting position with my back as straight as an arrow, feeling the shadows caressing me gently. Wrapping around me. Comforting. Quickly, I demanded them to be gone as I felt a sting in my left palm. I looked down and saw that my nails had dug into my skin. Good. The pain probably helped wake me up. I squinted into darkness and made out a figure crouched beside me on the bed. Nash.
It's too dark. He didn't see the shadows. My shadows.
"Sorry I woke you up, " I apologized as I inspected the wound.
"It's fine. I heard you scream so I ran over here. Nightmares that bad, huh?" Concern tinged with sympathy was present all over his face and embedded into his voice. "What happened to you over there, Myra? And don't you dare hide anything because you know that I will know if your lying."
A long long pause. I contemplated what to say calculating every word that I would say say. Finally I spoke. "Myra Ashburn ,Rank 1 assassin. Category: Lone wolf. Asset number: 27." I gave him his answer in the most straightforward of ways. I gave him my identification information.

He swallowed hard and bit off the words he was about to say then decided that they were worth saying. "Rank 1. Was it as bad as it sounds?"
Even through the darkness I could see tears building up. He felt guilty. I took his place. It would have been him suffering these nights. And God knows if he could have escaped too. But I would do it again if time went back. I would always protect him. So I didn't say a word. He doesn't need to know what would have happened to him. Not right now.

"Answer me! What did they make you do?" He was yelling now. His voice trembled as he spoke. He was desperate. "Myra!" He kept shouting, asking what they did to me. What I did.
"You want to know so badly? Fine! 107 !" I finally gave up and told him.
"107 what?"
"107 missions. 107 successes. 107 murders."