Purple Tulips | N.R

Special Treatment

    "Not only did you hesitate but as we can all hear, also completely missed any vital points." The monotone quiet voice of Miss Winters seemed to echo around the room seeming louder then the muffled screams of the bleeding man kneeling in front of her. "We do not tolerate failure here, you know what will happen now Y2, don't you? " She was talking to the boy beside her, the boy who had failed to accomplish what he had been ordered to do, terminate the unknown man. Y2's crying, which had begun when he had been handed the gun to kill the man, intensified. He even resorted to begging, something that he should have known could only make things worse for him. She took the gun from his hands.

"Please Miss Winters! I can do it, I can!" Miss Winters seemed to consider his words, something probably done simply to give him hope, she turned towards the other children emotionless staring at each of the seventeen kids standing rod straight in a semicircle before addressing them.

"As Y2 decided to plead his case we will from now on change what happens when you fail a simple task we ask of you." She looked around the room one more time, some of the older children, Y1, X2 and a few more were almost stone faced, some children showed fear and pity, but her eyes stopped on the youngest of the group, she had tears running down her cheeks, but wasn't actually making a sound, already knowing not to attract too much attention to herself Miss Winters eyes stopped on her. "X6 come."

The smallest girl in the group stiffened , the boy beside her pushed her forward, and with a stumble she started to walk towards the group in the center of the room, Y2 looking a bit hopeful, and the man still whimpering from the gunshot wound. When she reached them she stood straight looking ahead, not up at the woman and stayed quiet, she had not been given permission to speak. "You will take this and finish what he failed to do." The woman extended a hand with the gun to the girl, who took it with shaking hands looking up at the woman in shock. "Are you going to fail me too, X6?"

All the other kids were shocked, most of them hadn't had to kill a person yet, only animals, Y2 was the third to have had to do it, and the second to fail, Y1 had gone first, on the day he was told was his seventh birthday, X1 was next a few days later, also on her seventh birthday, she failed, she was dragged out and a few minutes later her screams were heard, she never showed up again, all the other kids knew what that meant, then X2, almost two weeks later, followed her also on her seventh birthday she was successful, that was only a few days prior to Y2's own seventh birthday, so they didn't understand why she was ordering X6 their youngest, barely three to do it.

"No Miss Winters." With shaking hands she raised the gun level to the man's head. The didn't move, just stared her in the eyes, she glanced at the woman and saw her also starring. Focusing back on the man she inhaled closed her eyes and pulled the trigger, the recoil sent her on her back and the room went quiet. X6 got herself back up, the man lying dead, blood pooling beneath his head and splattered behind him. She tried to hand the gun back to Miss Winters, like she'd seen X2 and Y1 do but the woman shook her head.

"You're not done yet." With a nod of her head towards Y2 two guards came in the room grabbing the boys arms, and making him kneel. He tried to struggle out of their hold. "You can't close your eyes on this one can you?"

Her eyes widened. He was struggling, with his head moving around, she shakily raised the gun. "Please X6, don't do this, please!" She began to lower it but raised back up when she heard the woman clear her throat, aiming for the heart as his chest was moving a lot less then his head. A loud bang was heard and she went flying to her back again and again she got up, slower this time, not daring to look at the boy the guards were no longer holding up, and hesitantly tried to hand the gun to the woman once more, this time she took it, scrutinizing the girl.

"We'll make something out of you yet." Miss Winters turned X6 towards the other kids and placed a hand on her shoulder. "From now on whoever fails this step will be taken care of by X6. So don't fail me. You are all dismissed." The room began to clear out every kid glaring at X6, still held in place by the woman's hand on her shoulder, as they left.

That was the first day that all the other children showed any animosity towards her, and as time went on and Miss Winters seemed to favor her more and more so did their grudges towards her. They didn't know that on that day she'd only been allowed to rest hours later, in excruciating pain that she was not allowed to show, due to the punishment she received for showing any hesitation in following Miss Winters orders.

All they saw was that she'd gotten her own room, she went on her first mission long before graduation, long before any of them, and until the death of Y4 the last of them to die, they never found out that the only reason she'd gotten her own room was that Dr.Ronald Hugh had taken a special liking to her, after her sleeping arrangement changed to her being away from the other children, some of the other scientists and guards decided to take advantage of the situation. All of this was happening with the knowledge of Miss Winters, in fact, she was only chosen for the first mission that she went on, at six years old, because of what was happening. Due to the knowledge they had of the targets... tastes, Miss Winters knew that X6, with her experiences, would be just his type. Since he and his wife had been trying to adopt a child for a few years, so she went undercover for a few months as Agatha Wagner a little orphan girl who after a few pulled strings was adopted by Ernst, the target, and Catrin, his wife. Only when they got the intel they needed was she ordered to kill them both. His life was the first she felt no qualms about taking.