CHARACTERS

【 Rope 】

【 Ashe's Backstory 】
【 Emi's Backstory 】

◈⋅ ∗ ──── ⋙

15 years old

"You, you filthy loanshark, made my life a living hell," Emi grumbled, tightening the rope around the man's wrists.
Tied to a chair, just like his wife and three children.
In the basement of their own villa.

"I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. And now you'll repent for your crimes. Doesn't matter if I'll go to jail after this. At least I rid the world of greedy wastes of space like you."

Emi didn't care if the children were crying. Or that they were innocent.
He knew they were.

The youngest child was screaming and yelling, however.
Too annoying.
Too loud.
It hurt his head, his ears.

With a bread knife in his hand, he slid the child's throat, and sighed in relief.
The chaos in his head slowly died down again.

"Heh. You all make great targets for practice," Emi hummed, smiling a toxic smile.
The middle child saw, and knew.
From a distance, Emi began to throw the rough bread knives at the middle child.
Target practice.
And all the parents could do was look, or look away.

The middle child was soon dead as well, with numerous knives stuck into their body.

"Now—" Emi started, but then the door of the basement opened and a light click could be heard.

". . . So this is what happened," a calm voice said, "I was already wondering where they were. It seems like you got to them before me."

Emi turned around slowly.
In the opening of the door there stood a young man Emi's age, with brown hair and a gun pointed at Emi.

"W-what—" Emi stuttered, not knowing how to process this. He looked once again at the other, and his eyes— he fell in love with this person's eyes.

"I'm a hitman," the other explained, "I'm supposed to assassinate that man."
He nodded at the man Emi tied to the chair.
"But it seems like we had the same goal tonight. What did he do to you?"

". . . My dad once loaned money from him, and when he couldn't pay back in time. . ." Emi trailed, anger flaring up once he thought about it again, "We got thrown out of our house. We had to live on the fucking streets for months, and the cold and hunger killed my little sister!"
Emi yelled out the last sentence, and threw his last knife in anger at loan shark.

The knife was stuck in the man's forehead.
His eyes rolled backwards, and he died.
The woman, who'd been silent for a while, began yelling and crying now.

Emi fell to the ground when he saw what he did. Tears welled up in his own eyes, realization dawning upon him, seeing what he'd done.

"S-shit. . . No. . . I don't. . ."
He crawled backwards, right against the hitman's legs.

". . . There's nothing left for me to do anymore. Come on. Let's go. You've never killed before, have you? We gotta get out of here."

Emi felt strong arms heaving him up on his two feet.
The woman was crying, and the oldest child as well. They were still tied to the chairs, and Emi wasn't going to release them.

Emi then saw everything happen in a flash.
He was outside of the basement.
Then out of the villa.
Then in a car.
Then in another car.
Then before the door of an apartment.

"I have clean clothes for you— what's your name, by the way? I'm Ashe," Ashe said, smiling at Emi as he unlocked the door.

"I'm. . . I'm Emi," Emi replied, in awe— he didn't remember how he got here, or why he was so easygoing and trusting with a person that just told Emi he was a hitman.