The Blood Red Saga: Revenge Solves Everything

Chapter 2: Clothes

 The next morning, I didn’t put on my tweed jacket, my purple shirt or my polished, jet black shoes with my Grey trousers. Instead, I slowly left the bedroom, careful not to wake my wife, and snuck to the dining room. I got down on my hands and knees and crawled under the table. The floor splintered my naked body once or twice as I positioned myself in front of a panel on the floor. I had intended to be it so it blended in with the floor but due to the little variety of material I could get my hands on, I had to settle with a slightly lighter type of wood which actually stood out more than you would have expected it to. I had to purchase an oak dining table to cover the panel. I slid my fingers into a gap between the panel and the wooden floor, and pulled. It was substantially heavier than I recalled but I managed to lift it up and I then placed it quietly to the side. In the hole, which had now been revealed in the floor, was a folded set of clothes. A blood red jacket and tie, a pure white shirt (that had surprisingly not lost its bright colour) and a deep blue pair of trousers. I swiftly put them on and wrapped a belt, which consisted of a few small pockets, around my waist. Within the pockets of the belt, were a set of six round objects. The objects held within the belt were my trusty shurikens; five of which, were stained with blood. I couldn’t help but smile softly at the memory of a pleasant feeling of my polished steel dagger, thrusting cleanly into the soft flesh of a man or woman; I wasn’t discriminative against my victims.  I place the panel gently back into place and brushed the dust of my clothes. I turned and standing in the doorway was, you have probably guessed it, Trish.

 She glared deep into my eyes, and then they travelled up and down my body, studying my clothes, and then went back to glaring directly at me. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a shady character outside the window but my eyes were fixated upon those of my wife. Her deep blue eyes seemed to have suddenly lost their sparkle and had turned glassy; her mixed emotions of fear, fury and curiosity struck me without fail. I opened my mouth to speak but her glare sharpened suddenly and I flinched. I felt a drop of sweat trickling the right side of my face and wiped it away when it reached the scar over my right eye. She didn’t move as she spoke.

 “Why have put on your old clothes?” she asked calmly, although it was obvious that she was angry with me. I had told her quite a few times about my nickname when I was an assassin and showed her the clothes that gave me my nickname once or twice. I had told her that I had burnt the clothes the night I promised her that I would not be involved in the line of work that was assassination. “Tell me. Why have you put on your old clothes?” she repeated.

 I felt the sweat build up in the fair coloured mess on my head which was my hair. “I… I thought I’d wear it out to the market today for a change.” I replied shuddering. I wasn’t quite sure what to say. I loved Trish more than anything and it pained me to lie to her. But it would pain her more if she knew what I was about to do.

 “What if someone sees you in it?” she replied after a few seconds which felt like hours. I became more and more worried as the fear of losing the one I loved most bubbled up inside me until I felt sick.

“What of it?” I gulped.

“If they recognise you, they would certainly go to the police.” She replied immediately. It seemed as if she anticipated my every word. She seemed calm when she continued to talk about what would happen to me and how they would hang me, decapitate me, or worse. I wasn’t worried about the calm tone when she spoke of me being sentenced to death for she knew that I was perfectly capable of escaping anything I wanted to. I was worried for she knew I was lying. She knew why I was dressed how I was. She knew me too well. She was testing me… testing to see if I would lie to her like she knew I lied about burning the clothes.

“I love you Trish.” I interrupted and she stopped talking and glared at me. Her eyes softened and I could see tears beginning to build up but she blinked them away before they could roll down her face..

“I love you too, but tell me, honestly, why you are wearing what you are wearing.”

 I hesitated to do so, but eventually I explained what the man had come to talk to me about last night and how the job paid so much, we would never have to work again.

“I do not care how much pays, you cannot do this again,” I saw the tears returning but she was too busy talking to blink them away. “You promised me you would never be in this line of work again. When you purposed to me, you renewed that promise. Please do not do this.”

“I must,” I replied. “Yes, we have a nice home but we need the money! We cannot live on bread and milk forever. Do you not want to live like royalty?”

 She hesitated. I could see the temptation in her eyes but she was stronger than me. She was able to control herself more than I have ever been able to. “Of course I do. But this is not the way to achieve this.”

“Please, Trish, I love you and I wouldn’t have accepted this job if I didn’t think it would improve your life and allow you to live your dreams. I ask of you, just once, to allow me to rid this city of another evil doer and be rewarded for such a task. Not just for me but for us.” This had been mostly truth except for one part. I had no idea whether the victim would be a criminal or perfectly innocent, I would kill as long as I was paid. It was true, though, that I would not have gone through with it if I thought it wouldn’t benefit her.

 “Very well,” she said as she led me to the front door. “Leave. When you return, we shall never speak of this day or any time where you have done anything like this again. OK?”

 “Of course. I love you.” I repeated.

“I love you to…” she whispered back after kissing me upon the cheek. “Red…” she whispered. The word stopped me in my tracks just as I was about to leave. A chill was sent up my spine and I felt sick. The last time I had been called that, it had been a woman screaming it when she spotted me on a rooftop. I had immediately located her and I threw one of my steel shurikens. I rarely ever missed and that night was not one of those that I did. The shuriken struck her in the centre of her throat and it travelled through her at such momentum it ended up stuck in the pipe directly behind her.

 “Don’t call me that.” I growled. I was hiding a weak smile. Although the name sent a chill up my spine, I liked it all the same. It gave me a feeling of power, the feeling that I was invincible.

 “But that’s who you are. Until you stop the killing, you are… Blood Red.” She growled in return.

 She closed the door behind me and I immediately turned to where the shady character had stood. He was gone. Who was he and how much did he know? There was no time for investigating that however, so I left in search of my prey.