Tables are Turned

Prologue

Affrica sat there, against the wall, doing homework. She was alone once again, no one ever sat with her at lunch time. She was 14 and in year nine, although she was a year younger then everyone, she was the smartest in her year. 

She looked up from her textbook to see Zachary and his group walking up towards her. Affrica collected her things and got up, she started to hurry away when her arm was grabbed and she was forced to turn around. She looked up into the green eyes of Zachary Cane. Zachary Cane is probably the lowest of the low in Affrica's opinion.

" Why you running away, buffalo?" Great she thought here he goes with the nickname thing again.

" L-let go-go of me" She cursed under  her breathe for stuttering. Zachary just laughed. He leaned forward

" Stu, stuttering, a, a, again, are w, we?" She looks down at her feet and willed him to go away. To leave her alone for just one day. But he never left with out a bit of taunting, sometimes he would slap  her. But not often.

" You finished the homework for maths?" Affrica just noded her head, she doesn't look up.

" Ok. the teacher said we could do it in pairs, put my name on it" Affrica just nods again

" Is that a yes safari girl, come on. Speak. Everyone wants to hear your stupid stutter."  Affrica takes a deep breathe and tries to concentrate on not stuttering

"yes... i'll put your n-name on it" She gave herself a round of applause for only messing up once. Zachary lets go of her arm and kicks her legs, hard. Affrica cuts herself off mid-cry in pain. She won't let him have the satisfaction of her pain. Zach and his friends just laugh at her feeble attempt to look strong. She turns around and starts walking off. Don't run, your not a coward she told herself. But the annoying logical part of her brain thought otherwise If your not a coward then why don't you fight back, why do you only stutter when he's around? She sighed and went to her locker to get her books, she had a free next and she sure as hell wasn't going to stay in the same area as Zachary. oh Cane, she thought as she walked along how I hate you.

She was walking along side the road when a car with black tinted windows pulled up just in front of her. A man got out and started walking towards her. Affrica looked around and saw no one was around. Next thing she knew there was a wet cloth around her mouth. She remembered seeing this in a movie before and tried not to breathe. but it was to late, she was already losing focus. The last thing Affrica saw was the back door to the car being opened and then she totally blacked out.  

Affrica woke up on a very hard surface. She looked around  to see she was in a sort of cell. It was a three walled room with nothing in it but a bed. She sat up and held her aching head, trying to remember what happened. Then she heard a load sound and looked up. standing just outside of the cell was a boy around her age.

" You feeling OK?" he seemed nice enough. But considering she was in a cell and he didn't exactly seem like a rescue team she wasn't going to trust him any time soon. Not trusting her voice, Affrica just nodded. The boy smiled at her, she didn't return the gesture. 

"I'm Taj" Affrica just nodded her head. After a long pause Taj spoke up.

"well, whats your name?"  Affrica didn't want the strange boy knowing her name, so she lay down on the bed facing the wall. She could hear the boy laughing and for some reason this annoyed her. She turned around and snapped at Taj. 

"what!" 

"You're probably the first person to not ask what this place is and why you're here." Affrica wasn't sure how to answer that. So she didn't. The boy just shook his head and walked away. All of a sudden a wave of fear ran through her. She was in a cell, in place she didn't know, with some strange boy outside her cell. Affrica felt her cheek go wet and she realised she was crying. She started literally slapping the tears away from her face. This is stupid she thought i haven't cried in years! I don't even know for sure this is a bad place . And then that stupid unhelpful side of her brain  spoke up of cause this is a bad place, did you come here willingly? No. All the while Affrica continued to hit her face, trying to rid her face of tears. Then she felt a pair of hands on her wrists, but she continued to slap herself

"Hey, hey, hey. Calm down, It's ok, you're going to be ok. I promise" Affrica looked up to the source of the calm voice to see the boy from earlier. 

"P-please ju-ju-just tell m-me-me what's happening, a-and where i-i-i am" 

"look, i'm going to let your wrists go if you stop hitting yourself, ok" She nodded. He slowly let go of her wrists. She looked at him and saw that he was on one knee on the ground in front of her.

"ok. I'm going to take you to The Boss. i'm going to hold your hand so you dont run away. Ok." Affrica just nodded and gave him her hand. For some reason she believed him when he promised she would be ok.

He started leading her out of the cell and down a short hallway. She saw that there were only five cells and they were all empty. They went through a steel door and then it was chaos. There were people everywhere, everyone looking like they were in a hurry and had to be at some place right that minute. Then they made a sharp right turn through a doorway and they were in a plain grey room with a deck, some chairs. Sitting behind the desk was a man in his mid-thirties. He gestured for Affrica to sit down. She took a seat and Taj stood next to her. The man coughed and then looked at Affrica.

"Im Peter, but call me Boss. Now, i'm sure you're a bit scared. I'm going to explain everything to you, if you could refrain from talking until the end that would make this a lot easier.

This is firm of assassins. We train people aged 12 up to around 17, 18. The younger you start out the better. 

We send our assassins out to dispose of the worlds most dangerous criminals. Occasionally a client comes in asking for us to rid them of an enemy, and we do that. 

The firms name is The X and although it's illegal, what we do, the government help us keep everything on the down low. No one knows about us. Anyone who starts to get too close immediately becomes a target for one of our assassins. 

You have been selected to join The X. We'll train you to become an assassin. The pay is great and we do allow relationships as long as they are with in The X. If you get pregnant you have to get rid of it. 

Taj will be trained along with you, he already has some experience, so lets just hope you catch on quick. His parents were assassins, they died a year ago. But Taj is wll trusted through out The X.  When you're old enough to go on missions, you will be partners. You will learn to read the others every move. 

Once you join you can never see you're family again or your friends. We'll fake your death... they'll mourn and get over it. You must spend the rest of your life devoted to The X. The longest you'll live is probably around 30. Not many make it over 30. 

There is no choice as to whether you work for The X or not. You've been chosen and you have no choice. If you ever run away you, your family and your friends will become targets. We can't afford to have information leaked. 

Do you understand?" Affrica just stared at the man. Is he kidding! She couldn't comprehend what had just happened

" Affrica, do you understand?"

"I'm an assassin" Affrica was speechless as to how strong and confident that came out. It was like this was who she was. Affrica, the assassin. It didn't sound right. She had always loved her name, it was so different. But she needed something that sounded more like an assassin name. Danger, Danger the assassin. Cool! 

" Boss, can I ask for one little favour?"

" It depends" He raised his eyebrows 

" Can I change my name to Danger?" The Boss sat there for a minute and then laughed

" Whatever helps you sleep at night, and I mean this literally" Then he began laughing more, as though he was laughing at some joke someone had said. She didn't understand. What she did understand was that now, now she was Danger ...  the assassin.