The Thorned Rose

17

I did a lot of research on Kasim Hasic. Nadia told me not to underestimate him, and she is a very wise woman, I needed to listen to her. She emailed me over the files from his previous company that showed every kill he carried out with them. There was fifty-seven of them. It wasn't a lot, but each one was a pretty big job. There were a few standout kills, which earnt him a lot of respect from me and many other assassins. For example, he murdered the president of Nigeria, whilst he was locked in a room, surrounded by an army of men, and he got in and got out completely unscathed, killing only five soldiers in the crossfire. He was a ruthless man, and every single job he carried out, the bodies were always left completely mangled because of how aggressive he was, extremely unnecessary, but to him, it was a show of power. He was skilled and effective, and great at what he did. After a job went wrong, and he killed the wrong guy because he got lazy and didn't read the paperwork, and the guy he was supposed to kill went into hiding, and is still alive, the Bosnian company and every assassin in the company turned their backs on him, wanting nothing more to do with him. This was, of course, to show that they did not tolerate such behaviour, but it angered Kasim a lot. He started making his way through the assassins in the company, finding their home addresses and killing their significant others and children in front of them before killing them. There is one thing that I cannot stand, and it isn't because it makes me feel bad, or guilty, or upset, but I just think it is a hugely egoistic thing to do and is completely unnecessary. That thing is killing or hurting innocents, especially children and animals. I had a huge drive to find this man and murder him, and I knew that there was currently a threat on a female assassin called Ajla Mujadic, and her wife and their adopted son.

I was able to scope out the house, from a far distance, which let me scope out Kasim who was also scoping out the house. By the looks of how prepared he was, I could tell he was planning on striking tonight, not wanting to do anything in the day time because there would be too many witnesses, and the Bosnian company of assassins would come down and reign hell on him, but at night-time, when people were sleeping, there was no way they could call for back-up. There is something else I dislike, not as much as killing innocents, but definitely a dislike, and that is killing or drugging someone when they are sleeping. It is a coward's move, and Kasim is a coward for doing such a thing. It did tell me, however, that Kasim was weaker at the moment. A man who has no fear about losing a battle wouldn't kill someone in their sleep. For example, me, I know, if I am on top of my game, I would win any one-on-one fight thrown at me, so would never feel the need to take the coward's route. Nadia told me not to underestimate him though, so I was going to forget about the idea of him being weak, and assume he is at the top of his game.

At about 10pm I saw his car pull up a couple of houses away from the Mujadic's house. At 12.08pm I saw him get out, with a knife in his left hand. I am right-handed, and this meant I already had a disadvantage, technically. Someone who is right-handed will fight in a right-handed stance, but this can catch them off guard if they are punched from the left, when they are assuming the punch will be coming from the right. The left-handed stance throws many people off-guard, as they don't think about all directions a punch can come in. Statistically, left-handed people win more of their fights that right-handed people, only slightly, but still significant. I have fought against a lot of left-handed people in preparation for whenever I had to fight a left-handed person, and against a lot of people who I didn't realise were left-handed so that I could quickly adjust my fighting style. Technically, I am right-handed, I write with my right hand, I shoot with my right hand etc, but I am ambidextrous when it comes to fighting, just because of situations like this. I followed Kasim, at a safe distance, unfortunately not able to kill him because there were a couple of dog-walkers around, and I watched as he picked the lock on the side door. I followed him into the house, but he disappeared.

"So, they sent you, who are you? Someone from the company? You are about to die, little girl," spoke a voice from behind me. I spun around and saw him holding a huge hunter's knife, half of his face lit by the moonlight, showing the numerous scars he had on his face, acquired since the picture in his file was taken. His nose was crooked, looking like it had been broken at least two times. He was a large man, taller than me, but it looked like a lot of his weight was fat, not muscle. Never underestimate that though, a fat person still has a lot of weight they can use against you. His eyes were evil, filled with rage and hatred.

"I am not from Bosnia," I spoke, and I watched a flicker of fear cross his face as he realised the company had outsourced his assassination to someone else, then he smiled, when he realised how feared he was by the Bosnians to not sent any of their own women or men. We stared at eachother, like two bulls, waiting for the first one to flash something red to begin the charge. The bottom half of my face was fully covered, but my eyes were on full display, and if I was describing how they may look to him, I would say they were full of boredom, loathing and smugness.

He launched first, holding the knife in the air and striking at me with a downwards motion. I ducked and span, dodging the attack, knocking his leg, but because of his weight he didn't fall like many people would.

"That the best you've got?" he evilly smiled, launching at me again whilst I was on the floor. I rolled out of the way and the knife went into the floor, straight where I had just been. I was now slightly behind him. I kicked the back of his knee, and they buckled, but he didn't fall. I jumped up, this was going to be a case of me getting a knife in his before he got one in me, rather than me being able to drop him easily on the floor and just jab it straight into his heart with ease. He launched at me again, and I managed to whack his hand out of the way, almost causing him to drop the knife. I kneed him straight in the balls, and then used my elbow to hit him in the jaw. He launched again, but I blocked it again; he was way too predictable, and he was letting his anger override his skill. I always kept cool, calm and collected in a fight, but I understand not everyone is able to do so. I knew he was about to launch again, and just before he did I punched him straight in the nose with my left hand, breaking it again, and did an uppercut punch right on his chin, he screamed out in pain and I heard the crying of a baby. He was going to kill a fucking baby? This ignited a rage of fury within me, each one of my punches was faster and stronger, each one of my dodges was quicker, and I used the momentum of each to hit him twice as strong. I was able to karate chop him right in the vagus nerve, and although it didn't knock him out, it severely affected him. I knocked the hunter's knife right out of his hand, grabbing it, and launching it straight into his heart. I watched the tear of a killer of innocents slowly trickle down his face as he fell to the ground. Dead.

I turned around, stood there was Ajla Mujadic, with a gun in her hand, and a look of relief on her face. She watched me in awe as I took a white rose pin out of my pocket and fastened it to the t-shirt of Kasim.

"You are the Thorned Rose? Thank you, thank you so much! You saved my wife, you saved my child, thank you," she said. About twenty seconds later the house was stormed by an army of Bosnian assassins; Ajla must've heard the commotion and called them before coming out with a gun to kill Kasim. I have no idea how long she was standing there.

"You really are as good as they say," spoke a man's voice. I recognised him from the photo as the Nadia of the Bosnian assassin company, "on behalf of myself and all of the people's lives you have avenged and now saved, I want to thank you. If there is anything you ever need from any of us, you have it." He handed me a business card with his name and number on – Haris Velic. I nodded at him, and shook his outstretched hand. They told me they would deal with the body, and pay me whatever money I wanted as well, but I rejected it. Even though I have many objections to having a baby of my own, they are one of the most innocent creatures on this planet, and I need no money, appreciation of fame to happily kill every single baby-killer on this planet. Haris shook my hand again, thanking me, again. They all bloody thanked me a million times and showered me with unnecessary praise. I said my goodbyes and left. It was now 4am, and my flight to London was at 6am, so I quickly got changed in my hotel room, grabbed my things and went straight to the airport, with a very quick turnaround.

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