Midnight Murderers

Chapter 7: Impulses

We arrived at an empty hall way, dust-storms formed in the aftermath of our footsteps. Eric leaned over me to knock on the door three times and no more. There was an eerie silence before the doors dramatically opened. The blinding overhead lights shined in my eyes as I walked into the room, only for Eric to shut the doors behind me before leaving. I walked further into the room and laid my eyes on a woman. The only other person in the room, sitting on a chair at the head of a large table, her throne, watching me with her hands clasped leaning on the table. She lifted her hand and gestured to a seat at the other end of the table.

"Sit."

I kept my eyes on her whilst sitting. Analysing her mousy brown hair curled and propped upon her shoulders, the bold red lipstick lining her lips, the professionalism of her outfit and attitude.

"You must be wondering why you are here?"

I didn't do anything, just stared straight into her green poisonous eyes. She reminded me of this serpent I saw at the zoo the one time that mum could afford to take me. Beautiful vibrant green scales littered its body as it moved its head back and forward preparing to strike when I least expect it. She reminds me of this woman, beautiful but deadly, someone who should not be underestimated.

She cleared her throat and stood from her chair before pressing a button on the wall. The curtains that covered the right side of the room started to move to the corners of the right side of the room as the arena came into focus through the glass.

"It's nice isn't it? Being able to watch all of these people without them ever knowing it. But you knew, didn't you? You knew that I could see you. You knew that I was watching."

She moved around to the left side of the room to fill a mug with coffee. The coffee poured into the mug with painstakingly slowness.

"You're quite the entertainer. That boy that's struggling to get up from the mat. You knew you would win. You analysed his weaknesses and yet you let him hit you to give him the element of surprise when you finally took him down. The way that you use your skills are quite... fascinating if I do say so myself."

She finished pouring her cup, taking one small sip to make sure it was right before resuming her position on her throne.

"I have a proposition for you... I run a very special program here and I would very much like it if you participated in my program. You are a little bit young, but your skills are beyond the levels of most older than you."

She glanced back at her mug taking another sip. She left her mug on the table, before getting up, gesturing for me to follow her with her finger. I got up and followed her out of the door that I originally came through. We walked silently to a ward, much like the isolation one I was in. The doors opened before she could even knock and she nodded to a camera on the roof that I noticed whilst we were walking up the hallway. The doors opened to an entertainment room, with a huge television, arcade games. There were a couple of tables near a kitchen nook. There was a hallway down the right and left sides of the entertainment room filled with bedrooms.

"Where is everyone?"

She looked down at me before looking back at the room and walking down the left hallway.

"They are either training, sleeping, or doing other various tasks assigned by me. This is for all personnel completing my program."

She scanned a card on a reader placed on the doorframe to the last door at the end of the hallway. It beeped green before opening. The room was nice. It had a queen bed, desk, bookshelf, chair, wardrobe and attached bathroom.

"This is the only bedroom with its own personal bathroom, but seeing as you are going to be the only girl residing here, I thought I'd be generous enough to allow you this privilege. The rest of this ward is occupied by boys and men. There are no rules here expect for no fighting or any acts of violence outside of the arena. I have put too much money into making this ward nice and appealing for it to be covered in blood every second of the day. This means that if you wish, you can have people in your room, but if anything happens that would have been your choice to let them in. They will not be able to access this room unless you verbally allow them upon entry seeing as they don't have the barcode or chip in their hand."

I looked at both my hands, flipping them over, until I found a little bump under the skin on my left hand between the thumb and forefinger.

"Now go and make yourself comfortable, the boys will be arriving for dinner shortly from training, it is your choice whether or not you introduce yourself."

She turned on her heal, leaving me in the room by myself, wondering when or how they got that chip in my hand. I left the room to explore the area more and found Aiden sleeping on the couch snoring his head off. I whispered his name, and when that did nothing I grabbed both of his shoulders and started to shake them til he was startled out of his sleep. He jumped up before attempting to swipe my legs out from underneath me. I jumped them and pushed his chest slightly so that he stumbled and sat back down on the couch.

"What the hell? Oh... hey Luna. What are you doing here?"

"This weird woman took me out of training and brought me here saying that I am now completing some program."

He sat up straight, eyes wide. All seriousness had returned to his face. He rushed to grab my hands and ran his thumb over the little bump. Guilt and sadness clouded his eyes as he once again looked at me.

"Oh... Luna... I'm sorry for bringing you into all of this."

"What the hell are you talking about Aiden?"

He grabbed my hand before dragging me to a room that happened to be directly next to mine. He said my name before pulling me in.

"Listen... I'm really sorry for bringing you into all of this. I should have never taken you out of that room when I first met you. You should have never made it to that arena where she could have set her sights on you. Most girls here end up being put into cooking, the medical department, cleaning, or bookwork. No girl has ever been put in the program."

"What even is the program?"

"That woman you met is Madame Boustire and she is the top dog, the woman who single-handedly started up this entire organisation and has designed this program. The program you are in right now, is called Midnight Murderers. She makes her money off people who hire assassins from her organisation. The Midnight Murderers are the assassins in this ward. Some here, train for years until she puts them into the field. They are always solo jobs and everyone is for themselves. Sometimes she even sells us to the highest bidder. More than likely she is going to keep you in here until you start to hit puberty and form shape, then she is going to buy you lingerie to seduce men or to sell you off. How old are you again?"

"Fourteen."

"Jesus! Wait... how old were you when you were taken here?"

"Um... My dad kicked me out when I was eight and then I passed out and when I woke up I was here."

His eyes widened before he started pacing the room muttering phrases such as; 'it can't be you', 'why did they do that to her'.

"Aiden! What in the bloody hell are you on about?"

"Alright... listen... there were some rumours floating around the agency six years ago when I first arrived in this ward that a girl had arrived in the middle of the night, courtesy of Eric, with broken bones and many other various injuries... Anyway, they put her into a medically induced coma and they underestimated how long it would take for all her scaring to heal and accidently messed up the dosage amounts, anyway, she ended up being under for four years. So when she did finally wake up it was under heavy pain relief and medication as they were trialling some new formula they came up with. They had tried on various other children and apparently this girl, well you, were the first success. When you did finally wake up you weren't yourself and bounced from recovery wards to isolation wards until you fully woke up from all the drugs in your system."

"Is that why when I'm fighting I have these impulses, this blood-lust. Something just takes control of me and I just see red."