My name, is Daniel Howell, and I am a hit man in London. I have been ordered to kill many people around town, no one has even noticed their sudden disappearance. I've had many people want me to kill someone for them, and whenever I do, the police always find their fingerprints on the weapon. Mostly because my tactic of attack is more, sinister. I befriend the person I'm going to kill, taking only around two days for them to open up to me. But when I have their trust, I put on gloves and become, quite literally, a back stabber.
My target now, is someone named Philip Lester. It's so far been three days, and he still hasn't opened up to me yet. This was aggravating, but I can't blame him, I am what most call his opposite. Wearing dark clothes, my attitude toward the world can be interpreted as hatred. While Philip, (Phil as he told me to call him.) wears bright colours and and has a light hearted attitude about the world.
At the moment I am typing a message to send to my boss before he gets sent to jail for the murder. He responds aggravated that I have not put and end to Phil, sending a message with a string of profanities. I have gotten used to this by now, being one of the only hit men to use the tactic of befriending a target before killing them. A message from Phil pops up on my screen.
"Want to start a Skype call?" I read the message again, then type a response.
"Sure, what's your Skype?" He sends me his Skype name and I open Skype, typing in his name and clicking on his profile. Within a few minutes the unfamiliar ringing of the Skype ringtone plays in my headphones. I answer the call, my webcam switching on, and Phil's face appeared on my screen, a bright smile on his face,
"Hey Dan! How are you?" I take a second to respond, and cough when I realize he asked me a question.
"I'm good, how are you?" He nodded, responding with another generic 'good'. I shift in my seat, not used to talking anyone on Skye.
"Are you okay Dan? You look uneasy." I am uneasy. But I keep that to myself.
"I'm fine. I'm just not used to Skype calls." He gave me a confused look.
"You don't have Skype calls with your friends?" I could feel the silence, it was so sudden, and seemed to last forever until I finally responded.
"I don't have any friends, never have..." This was true, I felt it would be fine to tell him this small hint of personal information seeing as I was going to kill him anyway. But something about thinking of that scene, Phil dieing in front of me, especially by my hands made everything feel cold. It felt like someone had kicked the emotions into me, after not having them for years.
"I'm your friend, you could Skype me when you need to. I'm always here!" His saying this made something in my heart break, I know he was a few years older than me, and that my job was to kill him, but some part of me made that feel almost impossible. My breathing got shaky, every emotion I had blocked out since childhood rushed back to me.
"Dan? Are you okay? Dan! Why are you crying?" I can't respond to him, I feel something in my heart, guilt, and I can't look at him in this moment, so without any goodbye, and him asking me repeatedly if I was okay, I hung up. I get up from my desk chair, putting my headphones on the desk, and walk to the bathroom, looking in the mirror. I was crying, my eyes red, tears falling down my face. I grab a towel from the cupboard and put it to my face, wiping the tears away before new ones fell.
I go back to my office, sitting in the desk chair, pressing the towel to my face again. The loud ring of the Skype ring tone plays, and I take in a deep breath. I set the towel on the floor next to my chair and put my headphones on, answering the call. I wipe the remaining tears off of my face as Phil's face appears on my screen, a worried expression on it. I felt bad for making him worry about me. It was odd feeling emotions, even bad ones I should have been feeling for years.
"Dan... Are you okay? Why did you hang up?" I look at my keyboard, not knowing what to say until I feel like I need to say something.
"I... I don't know what it's like to be okay, and I hung up because..." I felt myself freeze up, I couldn't tell him, he'll never trust me if I do. I take a deep breath, and before saying anything, I let the breath out.
"Because why?" Oh god, I felt like I was going to cry again. He sounded so worried, like he genuinely cared about me. Why would he care about me?
"Because... I don't know... I don't usually feel emotion and suddenly I did. I got... scared?" I nods, as if he knew what I meant by that. I probably sounded crazy, should I hang up again. The sound of a message played in my headphones, and I click it. It was my boss, it was a threat.
"Dan? Are you oka-"
"I have to go." I must have looked mortified, because his voice sounded even more worried. I click on the Skype icon and look at his face, he was worried and confused. "I'm really sorry Phil, but something happened and I-" He cut me off.
"What happened Dan." I looked at myself in the corner, my eyes were red, and I looked panicked. I sigh, looking back at his face.
"Phil, it's really nothing you need to worry about, just work things. Coworker died, boss wants me to go to the funer-" A sudden loud bang on the door made me jump right out of my seat. I don't know why I didn't hang up, but I didn't, and he was going to see everything, all because I didn't turn off my webcam. The door was knocked in and my boss was there, angry as ever.
"Daniel James Howell, what are you DOING?!" I move back, and he walks forward, passing by the webcam. "You should be out, doing the job I hired you to do!" I stopped when my back bumped the wall. I had nowhere to go now, I just had to face this. I could feel my heart beating faster, and faster when I realize, I left the phone call going.
"Well... I quit" He snaps his head toward me, staring at me with his cold dark eyes.
"You, what? Daniel that's not how this works. You have to finish the job, or you'll get a bad reputation." I feel something bubbling inside my heart, anger, now that I knew that Phil could hear all of this.
"What if I told you I quit it all." His eyes widened, he was angry, ready to rip me to shreds. I felt my heart sink, as I heard the sound of the Skype call ending. He hung up, what was he going to do? Please don't call the police Phil... You'll get me thrown in jail with him.
"You can't just quit Daniel, you have to fi-" He was cut off when I ran forward, shoving him out of the room. I kept the door opened and kept pushing him, until he shoved me back and I tripped, falling on my back with a thud. He leaves as the sound of sirens fill the air. God damn it Phil.
I sit up, putting my head in my hands, I could hear yelling outside, and then sirens again. I stand up, looking out the front door, the police were gone along with my former boss. I close the door and go back to my room, my computer is still on, my headphones were thrown on the floor. I pick them up, setting them on my desk. The ringing of a Skype call filled my ears, my headphones were unplugged. I answer, and there was Phil, worried, but relieved to see me.
And I realized then I was in love, and that even when you were not supposed to be hostile, love kills.
