• Rain: cold grey rain that poured down the back of my neck. I stared into the alley, poised
    in the darkness as the wind swept through my already wet clothes. The alley was dark, mud covering the stone paving. My leg cramped, I ignored it. I twisted the coil of wire in my hands idly. It was irritating, waiting like this.

    This place, it smelled already of decay. The scent of death was everywhere. Blood painted the walls of the houses that lined the alleyway, while the scent of rotting flesh haunted me even through the heavy rain. Laughter; raucous and grating, came from behind me. I winced and shut out the noise, concentrating on my other surroundings. Not an ideal location really, few routes of escape were open to me, and too many for my prey. But this, this was the only place the target would be alone.

    I do not know why I’d been asked to take care of this one. I hadn’t asked, one does not question their supervisors in my line of business. The truth is, I’m trying to get out. This was my last job, one last kill and I’m free. He had even sworn a blood-oath to the fact. I had asked, more demanded for that assurance.

    My heart aches to be elsewhere, to run away from all of this. The only thing keeping me is this job. If I leave without completing it, well I do not want to know what would happen to me then. To think, that someone like me could become someone like this. I laughed, it hardly mattered now. I am what I am, one more job and I can be someone else.

    Footsteps muffled by mud drew my attention. I saw her as soon as she entered the alley. A delicate paper umbrella over her shoulder, protecting the extravagant silk kimono she wore from the rain. Her face was painted in a white mask, hair shining in the flickering
    light of the lantern she carried in her free hand.

    My heartbeat quickened. I dropped down after she passed, slipping the wire around her neck. I pulled it taut, bracing myself in case of struggle, she did not. I glanced at her, she had dropped the lantern and a hand was trapped between the wire and her windpipe. She smiled, twisting around in the noose to face me. Swifter than I could follow she pulled a blade from pitch hair. It flashed in the light cast by the fallen lantern as it swept down and sliced into my throat.

    The skin pushed away from the blade as it made its way toward my jugular vein. Once slicing across that, blood: vermillion and burning gushed forth. Coating my front as she stepped back to avoid getting any on that exquisite kimono. She smiled still, lips the color of cherry blossoms. I collapsed to the ground, clutching my throat.

    “My apologies Takashi, you are no longer useful.” she said as my hands slipped in the blood. Laughing; a pretty chime-like sound, she turned. Bending gracefully to retrieve her lantern before walking away. As the rain continued to fall, the blood mixed with the mud around me. A bit of warmth while my body grew cold. As the world started to raise dark, I could still hear her laughter.