Fool Me Once, Fool Me Twice

First Time, First Kill, First Test

I lay awake next to Grace and think back to the first time I ever killed someone. I was lucky, I guess, my kill had been planned down to the tiniest detail. I knew who to kill, when to kill him, where to kill him and how I was supposed to do it. I even knew what kind of cufflinks he would be wearing. His name was Constantine Vasquez, a professional killer, like me. Constantine had a thing for younger girls, which was why I was given the assignment. 

"You're the youngest, and the prettiest of all the agents we have here." Wade had told me as I stared at myself in the mirror of the prep room. I was sixteen, and I had just completed the Fledgling training, the youngest agent Skyline ever had. Maggie walked into the room after Wade left, bringing me an outfit to wear for my first assignment. Maggie was only eighteen at the time, and she took me under her wing as though I was her younger sister.  

The outfit was the most humiliating part. I wore a lacy black bra with matching panties under a tight black pencil skirt with a sheer white blouse tucked into it. My shoes were six inch black heels that looked painful before I even put them on. The person in the mirror wasn't me anymore; she was just a skyline agent that I'd seen around the office.  

"You're going to be fine, Jenny." Maggie promised me as I put the key in the ignition of the brand new Porsche SUV that I had signed out for my assignment. I nodded as strongly as I could manage and pulled away, adrenaline pumping through my body. 

The Party was beautiful. It was in the grand hall of one of the art galleries in Philadelphia, and the whole place was decorated with monochrome colors. I thought it would be painfully obvious to everybody that I didn't belong there, but nobody seemed to notice me; nobody but him. Constantine's eyes followed me for almost an hour before he came over to speak to me. I expected his voice to have a strong Spanish accent, but it was almost undetectable. Clearly he had been working on losing his accent for a long time.  

"You seem different to the other women here," I noted that he called me a woman, even though I was clearly too young for that label, "Are you here with family? Friends?" I glanced down at the ground for a moment to prepare myself, and then looked shyly up at him through my eyelashes.  

"No," I said shyly, "I'm actually here alone." 

"Well I'm sure we can find a way to fix that." His slimy smile was enough to make my stomach turn, but I had to get on the good side of this guy. "Would you like a drink?"  

"That would be great, thank you." I replied and he held out his arm, motioning for me to go ahead of him. On the way over to the bar, I caught a look at our reflection and could see Constantine staring right at my ass, making no effort to look at where he was going. 

"Whisky and whatever my lovely friend here is having." Constantine told the barman, who looked expectantly at me. 

"Can I get a vanilla martini, please?" I asked sweetly and the barman hurried off to make my drink. While we waited, I slid up onto one of the bar stools and Constantine did the same. 

"I'm sorry, I never formally introduced myself," The slimy face was back again, making me squirm in my seat, "I'm Constantine Vasquez." He held out his hand and I shook it daintily. 

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Constantine," I looked at him coyly through my lashes, "I'm Jessica Levi." 

"Jessica." He repeated, testing out the sound on his tongue. 

"Well, people really just call me Jessi." I added, making it seem like I wanted us to be friendlier. I had chosen my new name very carefully, searching until I found a name that was appealing and sounded enough like 'Jenny' for me to answer without thinking. It seemed like Constantine liked the name, so I guess I had done my job properly.