Killing Cardinals

Chapter 1

It was January. The icy wind outside was blowing so harshly that it was nearly knocking children to their backs. But the life-or-death grip on their wrists by their parents kept them from the ground. People were everywhere, yet everything was so quiet. The sky was a dull white echo of it's blue-tinted glory. I was silent.

I could feel the wind pouring through the window, sticking to my gloves and masked face. If someone were to come in through the first floor, I'd hear them. The silence was deafening, the only sound echoing through my ears being my own soft breathing from underneath the mask. I felt like my entire body was chilled, but yet I was sweating beneath the layers.

My body was shaking aggressively, but even if anyone could see me, they wouldn't notice. My nerves spawned from complete silence and a fear of making mistakes. I only stared down at the intersection through the scope, my eyes searching.

Blonde hair, green eyes, black suit, red tie.

My eyes gleamed when I saw the tall, newly shaved politician. He was smiling in such a way as if he had no conscience. He had no remorse for the things he had done. My finger was reaching for the trigger, but I kept telling myself I needed to wait. I had to do this right.

Wait for an opening, I kept repeating to myself. This was my one shot. If I blew this, I was done for. I had to be completely and entirely accurate.

Finally there was a clearing in the crowd, and the politician was at the center of it. This was it. This was what I had prepared for.

After about two whole seconds, I took a breath, narrowed my eyes to be precise, and let my finger reach for the trigger.

I couldn't miss.

It only took a second for me to pull away from the scope and lift my AR below the window. Every window in this building was open. They would have to search every floor before they got a single clue of where the shot had come from. The soft sound of screams from outside began to flood over me, and I felt bad. I felt a tear well up in my eye, but I also chuckled at the absolute triumph of my bidding. I let out a shaky sigh after the fact and packed everything up. I took out a note that had already been so carefully written, and set it in the farthest corner.

Let the games begin.

I took one more glance at the window from across the room, and balled my hand into a fist so hard that my knuckles were likely to turn white. I turned around, looked upwards, and escaped like a shadow into the darkness.

This is for you, dad.

***

In the early hours of the morning, I jostled myself awake. My eyes glanced to the clock, that read 7:34. I took a breath and slumped back onto my pillow, but could only sit there for a few moments before my eyes peaked open again.

I groaned in frustration, finally admitting defeat and sitting up. I rubbed my face, staring down at the grey carpet below me. My heart rate was higher than usual. I'd felt like I'd just run up a rough hill for thirty minutes.

I stood and walked sloppily to the bathroom, my eyes gathering plenty of water and becoming itchy from the lack of sleep. I stared at myself in the mirror, touching at the bags under my eyes and biting my lip. I had hardly slept in weeks. I hadn't gotten a decent night's sleep in years. My insomniac brain was filled with strange buzzing feelings as I thought back to what had happened last night. The feeling of the icy wind on my face, the uncontrollable shaking of my hands and arms. The furrowed down feeling of my eyebrows sitting so hard on my eyelids that probably made me look like I hated the world.