Song Short Stories - Ac's short story compendium

Ghost Assassin

"Hey commander, can you unplug me?" I asked into the microphone on my headset. A beep was heard as my headset cable unpulgged and the door from the observation room opened. I took my headset off and stretched my neck out, standing up and pushing down the blinds on the observation tower, I walked to the door and picked up my rifle from next to the door. The ladder downwards was rather shaky and I always felt uneasy climbing it, although I worked up here for years. When I reached the bottom I swiped my keycard over the black door panel and the doors opened for me.

Outside was as always. The sun was rising and the dirt looked redder than ever in the red hue of the rising sun. The head safehouse was downwards from the ovservation tower in a small ravine. I half-skid half-ran down the grey rocks, staining them red with my dirt covered boots. The safehouse door was wide open and the security checkpoint guards were absent. I passed through the checkpoint, dropping my rifle off at the checkpoint, thinking maybe the guards just ran off for a break or something. The safehouse was a small yet complex underground network of tunnels, living spaces and commute rooms. I took the regular turns to my living quarters, passing the message boards with the usual HELP requests written out with a big red HELP. They were in a rather odd font, and the messages below looked quite short but I didn't take much notice in them.

I unlocked my living space and shouted, "I'm home sweethearts!" my kids were adorable little ones, and I couldn't wait to see them after a long night shift, along with my beautiful husband. "Mark? Where are you and the kids?" I said walking into the kitchen and looked for some sort of note of where they all went. I searched the whole of our flat and finding nothing, I ran towards the nearest notice board. And then I noticed it.

HELP

He took our wise,

He took our old,

His hands so cold,

His heart of ice ,

Our kids he culled,

Our wise he drowned,

My fate is lost and so is yours,

Run while you can and save your souls.

I shrieked as an icy hand wrapped around my neck and pulled me to the floor almost effortlessly. My futile efforts to escape the grasp were met with no response. Trying to escape it's frigid grasp, my breath was running out and with my last efforts I managed to turn on to my stomach to look at the impostor's face. It was m-

I slowly came back to from my dream like haze. My headset was dangling from my neck, the cable cut halfway. I blinked rapidly, trying to regain a sense of time. Did I fall asleep? Why is the cable cut? I pulled up my head and observed the room in shock. The windows were crushed, blinds dangling on single iron threads, as if just about to fall off. The door was shut, but didn't look sealed and there was dust everywhere. I tried standing up and fell face first on the floor covered with dirt and dust. It took me a while to get up but I managed it in the end. I picked up my rifle and tried pushing the door. It gave way and crashed on the floor behind it, which collapsed and fell to the bottom. The ladder was obviously nowhere to be seen but the pile of rubble was just high enough for me to jump down onto it without any harm. I jumped and as I hit the floor my knees gave way and I fell down once again. I got up much faster than last time and brushing dust off my clothes, I took out my keycard. It was blackened and the paper inside was yellowed with... Age? The chip was still intact and when I swiped it across the sensor on the door a soft buzz was heard.

The door cracked and fell apart, leaving a small crack that I could just about fit through.

Everything outside was red. Blood red. The rocks, the dirt, the walls of the tower, the path, the grass... I staggered forwards to the ravine and the safehouse.

The door was shut and I swiped over it with my keycard. These doors didnt fall apart, but opened normally. The air inside was ice cold and it chilled me even though it was a hot summer day. I entered and saw the security checkpoints fallen over and 'out of order' signs strewn all over the floor. No guards, no sign of life, just decay. I decided not to drop off my rifle, instead proceeding straight through the checkpoint. The weapon detectors buzzed slightly, the LED not shining, probably because of a burnt out battery. The hallways weren't dark, the lighting was dim but working which was quite a suprise. I passed empty commute rooms and sealed apartments, feeling a wierd déja vu as I passed all of them. I arrived at my apartment and swiped my keycard over the lock. The door slid open very smoothly and I was met with an even bigger chill. My furniture was mostly broken or decayed, the dishes still in the sink from yesterday, or hopefully yesterday. Something wasn't right, I searched the apartment but didn't find anything. Everything was too damaged to make out anything complete.

I walked out and went to the nearest notice board. There were nail marks sliding downwards from one of the pegs, and the board was void of anything else. I turned to investigate the nearest commute room. The room was empty except for a skeleton impaled against the wall, a paper dangling from it's hand. The skeleton looked eerily familiar and I felt a wierd attracrtion to it. I picked the note from it's hand. The paper was crumpled and slightly yellowed with age, not as much as the other papers I have seen. I felt an odd sense of being in this situation before, like I've read the note before.

HELP

I took our wise,

I took our old,

My hands so cold,

My heart of ice ,

Our kids I culled,

Our wise I drowned,

My fate is lost and so is yours,

Run while you can and save your souls.

"So you found us." A voice behind me said, echoing through the halls. My voice. Slowly turning around I stood to face myself. Her face was streaked with blood, an axe on the floor next to her and she was leisurely leaning on it. "What do you mean us?" I asked. She pointed towards the skeleton. "That's me, that's you, that's us." A rumble was heard in the distance and the floor shoke. "Wh-What? How can it be me? How can you be me?" The walls and the entire safehouse were shaking. She shook her head and looked me in the eyes. "We are dead. This is our imagination," The walls were cracking and crumbling, the ceiling falling down. "You, We, have been clinging to reality, unable to cope with what we have done," then I realised what has happened, why everyone was gone, why this place was deserted, why I was dead, why I had an axe, why I found the note, everything made sense now.

Yeah, remember it all,

Lead imbued in black walls,

The air was dusty,

Her armor getting rusty,

She found what she never had,

Her life cut short by things so sad.

Ghost Assassin; end.