Not Just a Game

Prologue: 10 Months Ago

Watching the moonlight dance on the pond was so mesmerizing, Karissa almost forgot about the blood seeping into the dark water. The blood of the people she killed.

Almost.

The stench of the rotting flesh was sharp in the air, disgusting and vile. That, at least, was a small price to pay for getting a taste of delicious revenge.

Near-silent footsteps approach from behind, and Karissa didn't need to turn around to recognize her partner in crime. Faux.

"Was killing them really necessary?" he muttered, bending down to wash his hand of crimson blood. Karissa focused on the ripple on the usually calm sea as she considered his question.

Stupid question, really. Killing was never necessary, but revenge was something Karissa took far too much pleasure in either way. "Necessary? No."

Faux rolled his eyes. "I'm going to assume that you're still going through with this."

This. Such a simple word to replace 'sneaking into the castle and killing the princess in an act of revenge she's been working towards for years by killing specific people to weaken the emperor.'

"Obviously," was all she said.

A blustery wind swirled, the rustling of dead leaves building a crescendo of sound as they sprinkled over the bodies. "Why now?" Faux inquired, his voice soft, as he stared off into the distance.

"Because this is the perfect opportunity," Karissa replied, her voice bidding no emotion. Though, that wasn't the real reason, and Faux knew it. She could kill the princess, perfect opportunity or not. The reason real was that this was the five years anniversary of the day the emperor attacked her family. The day when everything went to hell.

Not that Karissa would ever admit that.

"Sure. What's the real reason?" Faux pressed.

Karissa coolly shrugged, turning around. The wind blew at her thin, golden hair like beams of sunlight. Glancing at Faux, she could almost see the memory resurfacing in his eyes. Her tanned skin, she knew, reminded him of when the first met on a warm summer day an eternity ago. Her warm brown eyes reminded him of chocolate, the kind that melts in the warming heat of happiness, the kind that turned hard from the icy cold reality of the world they lived in.

In contrast, the moonlight made Faux's skin look even paler than it usually was. Twisting on his face was a smile Karissa knew too well-the smile that looked like a child's. Seemingly innocent, as if making others happy would be enough for him. Karissa bit back a laugh. As if that would ever been enough to hide the unbearable pain and guilt eating him inside out. Something like regret loomed in his cerulean orbs.

They were different that way. Karissa found a thrill in murder. Faux found nothing but eternal regret and, perhaps, a memory he refused to talk about. He had ambitions and passions, sure, but most of them didn't revolve around killing his enemies. He only killed for her.

"Let's go," Karissa commanded, taking a step.

"Stop avoiding my question!" Faux snapped, refusing to move an inch.

Karissa immediately whirred on him. "Stop wasting breathe trying to get me to tell you things you know I won't say. You have your secrets, I have mine. Deal with it." Then she marched away, her stride graceful and determined and deadly.

Within a moment, Faux's footsteps found its rhythm besides her, just as she knew he would.

When he didn't say anyhting in return, a heavy silence descended upon the two. In the darkness, silence carssed Karissa's skin like a cool summer breeze, smoothing her raging soul, taking away her jagged edges.

Before long, Karissa's eyes landed on the silhouette of the castle, her mind keenly focused on the future that hid inside of it. Her fingers wrapped around the dagger at her side, her thumb sliding against the smooth blade before picking it up. Determination boiled within her, and she refused to glance back as she walked, step-by-step, towards the castle.

Too focused on her task, Karissa didn't notice Faux straying from the path and walking away from her and her damned destiny.

***

Even though rays of silky moonlight were the only things to illuminate her path, Karissa had no problem fading into the unnoticed shadows and sneaking into the castle.

Within a few minutes, she found the secret passages hidden between the grand walls and snuck into the princess's room. Princess Amelia, daughter of the crooked emperor.

The strands of light seeping in from the windows did not ignite the fiery hues of the princess's golden silks and marble furniture, but it was enough for Karissa to navigate her way to the princess's sleeping figure.

Then she froze.

There was a single slit that dragged across Princess Amelia's throat, deep enough to kill her.

The princess's face was still set in it's peaceful slumber, like she never register the pain and was still bewildered to what happened, but it was much paler and colder than normal. It lacked life.

Dead. Super, super dead.

The first emotion emotion burned in Karissa's gut was anger. Just like that, her first chance at revenge had been stripped away from her.

But then confusion started to swirl in the back of her mind.

Who killed her? How? And why now? On the very same night as her?

It was too much to be a coincidence. Not that Karissa ever believed in such things.

Shaking her head, Karissa quickly turned and rushed back outside. It wasn't long before Karissa found herself reunited with Faux, the sight of her companion bringing a grin to her lip. We'll figure this out, together, she thought, rushing over to him, the news bubbling at the tip of her tongue.

That was, at least, before she saw the palace guards stalking up from behind him.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice pained but firm.

"Faux!" Karissa gasped, recoiling as though he had struct her. In a way, he indirectly had. With anger and adrenaline pulsing through her veins, she blindly threw herself at her partner. Well, her ex-partner now.

As an assassin, she had a tendency not to trust many people. After all, how many people can you trust when your plans revolved around killing people in cold blood? But how could the one and only person on the planet she gave her trust to be the person who betrayed her? Tears of bleach clouded Karissa's vision and she barely registered the guards grabbing onto her and pulling her back, their claw-like fingers digging into her skin. Even the gunshot that was fired and the bullet that flew through her gut barely made her focus on reality.

Much to her surprise, Karissa fell into Faux's powerful arms. "Did our years together mean nothing to you?" she murmured as the world slowly started to slip away from her grasp.

Refusing to meet her eyes, Faux quietly admitted, "Our years together meant the world to me. Only reality is so much bigger than my miniature fragment of the world. And that reality is better off without more violence. Without your violence."

Those words dug a dagger into her heart, probably deeper than Faux intended. Faux had always been one to talk about working towards the 'greater good'-a concept that had always seemed too good to be real-, but saying that she was enemy were words Karissa never anticipated Faux to say. To even think.

Her only friend. Her enemy.

As he slowly rested her on the damp grass, Karissa looked up at the moonbeam shining so far away. The moonlight was a diffused ocean above the emotional battle threatening to overtake her. It lessened the inky blackness of night, but wasn't so bright as to dull the stars that speckled and glittered in the heavens above.

A heaven so far above that Karissa knew she could never reach it, especially from the pits of hell.