Payback

First Blood

For the next month, I trained with Jungkook both at the house in the gym and at the nightclub. Jackson even helped out with refreshing my memory on my sword fighting skills. Since Jackson does fencing regularly, it was nice to be able to brush up on my sword skills with him. Everyone else seemed to agree with Jungkook's idea of giving me more flexibility with how I make money. The only one who was concerned was me. Jungkook's question about whether or not I can kill someone stayed with me. I can't say for sure if I could kill someone. I haven't been around death that much, and I haven't even been in the underground world that long. I kept trying to convince myself that I can kill bad people, but can I? Can I take away someone's life?

I looked down at my hands that sat in my lap as I rode in the back seat of the car that Hoseok was driving. I picked at the calluses that were beginning to form on my hands from using the wooden sword. Jimin has been giving me lotion to help keep my hands soft, and I've even spent a few nights with him. I told him my concerns but there wasn't much that he could do to help other than take my mind off of them. Even Taehyung has been warming up to me and even asked to spend a couple of nights with him. Everyone else still seemed to be more closed-off toward me, and not expecting me to be able to pull off becoming an assassin. I still have a lot of training to do before I actually become one, that is, if I can actually kill someone.

"We're here"

I heard Hoseok's voice as he pulled the car up to an abandoned warehouse. One of the intruders from last month's raid against one of the drug houses recently escaped our custody. Jackson got a tip that he might be hiding out in an abandoned warehouse, so he asked me to join him.

"I still don't understand why you want me to come with you." I said quietly. "I've never done this kind of thing before."

"You can't get experience by not doing anything. I brought you with me because Jungkook asked me to."

Jackson loaded two handguns and gave one to me. He then took out two long knives. One looked like a Seax, and one was a trench knife. He hesitated for a moment before looking over at me and handing me the Seax.

"I'm giving this to you. It's not a sword, but it's close."

I sighed and took the Seax.

"Is today my test as to whether or not I can kill someone?"

Jackson nodded. "We're here to kill, not capture."

I bit my lip, wondering if I should just let Jackson go. But if he needs help, then I need to be there to back him up. I took a deep breath and looked over at Jackson, who was waiting for my signal.

"I'm ready."

We both got out of the car and I had time to put the sword belt around my waist and put the Seax in its sheath that was on the belt. I kept the gun in my hand just in case the man had a gun.

We entered the warehouse, which looked to be an old china factory. There were stacks of plates on the rusty conveyor belts and tall shelves stacked with cups and saucers. If the guy is still hiding out here, he could pop out of nowhere and kill us on the spot. My eyes immediately scanned the room for potential hiding spots.

We walked slowly for the next couple of minutes, careful as to not make sounds as we stepped over broken china. We suddenly heard a voice from a distance. We followed the voice only to find that there was more than one voice. We hid behind a shelf of plates and saw that the man wasn't alone. Three other men were there talking to him. They seemed to be arguing about something. I could barely hear what they were saying, but Jackson was able to hear them better. I looked over at him and saw the color drain from his face.