Assassins

Chapter 4

The room was dark. A blank dark. I couldn't see anything and anything couldn't see me. I was startled. I knew I wasn't in my apartment. My apartment let's in some sort of light. Even if there was a black out, the flood lights would have been turned on. No, this darkness was the kind that scared little kids and women who were walking home late at night.

I sat up from what I was laying on. I figured out it was a bed of somesort. I was half afraid to move about the room the bed was in. There wasn't enough ambition in me to add a surprise bruise. I looked around the blackness, trying to make out any objects. There wasn't any. There was no feeling, other emotions besides dazed, confused, and anxiety. Nothing.

That's when feeling came back. Pain coarsed through my viens, attatching themselves to nearly every place in my body. I cringed, biting my lip, refusing to scream out. I tossed myself back onto the bed, hoping some of the pain would subside. You're stronger than this, I told myself as a fraction of the pain seemed less. I wanted the shock and adrenaline back. I couldn't feel the pain when they where taking care of everything.

I heard a voice through the pain. I knew the voice. I loathed the body the voice belonged to. I wanted the pain to subside enough to let me go back to my own blackness. I wanted to control things again. I just wanted to get the hell out of there.

"Dale, I will go and check on the new recruit. Make sure she's still alive, you know?" the voice said.

"Careful, even injured like that she could still try to kick your ass."

There was a chuckle. "I wouldn't give her that much credit. She's the first girl the Vitani's ever had and she barely made it through initiation."

The Vitani. Memories came flooding back. I was inducted into the Vitani. My life was now ruined. I was going to be held at the whim of whoever the hell is the leader of this God damn killing machine. Now, I was going to be trained to kill.

The door opened and a shadow was cast, nearly blinding me with the light. The darkness had become my freind in this room of loneliness. I didn't know who the shadow belonged to but I knew it was someone from the Vitani. I started trying to relax my muscles, letting the pain slowly coarse through the rest of my body. The shadowed figure stepped toward me, leaving the door open.

"You gave us one hell of a scare, Serina," the figure said. It had no face but I was pretty sure who the voice belonged to even if my face felt like it was on fire and swollen like I was beaten with every inch of my life. Oh wait, I was.

I didn't say anything.

"Serina," he said. "Let me tend to those. We can't have you going to the hospital since you know what our faces look like." He sat on the bed beside me as I found myself in the fetal position, cringing in pain. "Oh, I know it hurts. We can only let you work through the pain seeing out we can't have any meds or pain medication. Besides, we believe that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

"Fuck," I uttered under my breath. Just put me out of my misery. Kill me. Something.

There was a light chuckle. "Oh, it's not that bad. Try almost dying. Now that's a bitch."

He moved hair from my face and smiled. "You are really cute. I wonder if your grandfather knew before he died. Or if you would be as benificial to the Vitani like some say you would be."

Now he was just talking and it was almost annoying me. But it was keeping my mind off some of the pain.

"Who-" I started. There was a small burst of pain. "Who are you?"

"I am Earl, head of the Vitani. You already know my best friend Dale; he's the one that was in your classes."

Great, I am talking to the head of the Vitani and now, when I am all healed, I will want to kill him...again.

Earl pulled something from somewhere I couldn't see. "That pain looks like it's winning. Why don't we let it?" He held the syringe to the light. "The poke should only be a sting."

He wasn't lying and I soon feel back into the souless darkness that surrounded me only moments before.

The next I woke up, I was in light. I was laying flat on the bed and I was still in the clothes I was wearing before all this happened. During the times between Earl, who is now the head of the Vitani, and sleeping the pain off, I thought about how long it's been since I was home. Back in my apartment. Time stood still around me and there was no doubt that if I thought about it, I would be delusional.

The room I was in was basic. There was the single bed where I lied, a single chair and table. There was a small wardrobe where Earl would go into from time to time. Then there was a one way glass like you'd see in police interrogation rooms. I knew they were watching me. Across from my bed was the only door in the room. There were no windows either. I was trapped and this room was my prison cell.

Earl was in my room when I woke up from yet another nap. He just sat in the chair and stared at me. When he knew I was fully awake, he smiled and looked at me.

"I think it's time a doctor checked you out."

I thought he meant I was able to go see a doctor at a hospital. It wasn't like I was eating a whole lot or anything.

"Really?" I asked sarcastically. I was sick of only seeing him. I hardly talked to him when he sat next to me. I personally wanted to shoot him. "Then let me check myself out."

I stood up from the bed and started walking around the room, looking for my socks and shoes.

"I can't let you leave, Serina. You might spill our secrets about the Vitani we still want to baffle people with."

I turned to him suddenly. "Earl, I miss my apartment. You can't keep me here like a prisoner, it only pisses me off. If you're so worried, send someone to watch me. Besides, I have a job I kinda miss."

That was a partial lie. I missed my job more than I missed my apartment. I wondered if Maria called an APB out on me. Knowing her motherly instinct about me, she would have if I never showed up to work.

I was able to go home but with a small price. I was watched. At least I was able to be in my apartment again. I unhooked any form of communication to the outside world besides the TV. I wanted the background noise. When I reached my bathroom, I prepared to see my face looking like hamburger. When I started my shower and undressed, I looked in the mirror as I took off my jewelry.

My face looked the worse. I had a yellow bruise on one side of my cheek. My lip was still swollen and the cut between my eye and my eyebrow looked like it was in dire need of something. Perhaps some Neosporin. I scanned down the length of my body and saw a deep cut, it looked like I needed stitches a long time ago. It was under my ribs. I was shocked my hair wasn't dyed in dried blood. Those freaking guys did nothing to clean my wounds. Stupid ass Vitani.

I slowly stepped into the shower, preparing myself for the warmth of the shower and the stinging that would follow. I eased under the water, letting everything, including my mind, get used to the soothing and stinging at the same time. I cringed when the water hit my face and ran down to my cut on my side. I looked to it vowing I'd beat the hell out of the guy that gave me that. Hell, I might be tempted to give him a matching one.