Note: Thanks for the reviews. All will be reveiled in time. XP Darn it... Anyone have any suggestions for assassin names?

Chapter Two: Home Sweet Home

The parents, Takeshi Harper and Keira Ida Harper, as their formal names were, picked me up the next morning. From the doctor, I had gained valuable information about Erisad and her family.

Takeshi Harper was a businessman in a large company known for being at the top of the competition. As I had suspected, he was Japanese, but also partially Vietnamese. His blood type was A.

Keira Ida Harper was an electrical engineer for the same company that Takeshi worked for. As her occupation hinted, she was in the electronics department. Keira was part British and part Swedish. Her blood type was A.

Erisad Harper was quite the mixed young girl. She was 16 and would have been a junior at Cambridge High School if the accident had not happened. Her blood type was O, making her the perfect universal donor. That is, if you disregard the plus or the minus next to the O’s. She was an average student, and according to her medical records was very involved. She was a varsity gymnast and a track and field member. Clubwise, Erisad was involved with the fashion club, newspaper, and the chorus. With Erisad’s many activities came a slew of health problems; asthma, anemia, as well as several other minor conditions.

The Harpers’ home was a quaint house in the suburbs of a place I was yet to know the name to. The house did not stand out among its neighbors. It differed slightly only in color and structure in that conforming neighborhood.

Inside, it was clean and cozy. The dining room, kitchen, living room, and family rooms had full sets. There was even a study on the second floor that represented a small library. We had entered through the garage, where they parked their car. Even that was clean. The tools and mechanical items were there. There was a backyard with a deck, and a little screen that enveloped the whole thing to shield from rain. Somewhere in the hall on the first floor, there was room where only Erisad’s father entered.

Erisad’s room was my nightmare. As straight males were not stereotyped with pink normally, I was rather horrified at the outcome. The room was a cascade of bright and pastel colors; most of which were pink. The bed covers were pink. The drapes were pink. The carpet was pink. Even the dresser and the table were some shade of pink. I prayed that Erisad’s wardrobe was not the same.

The parents left me to adjust to the room and went to prepare some sort of food, saying that the hospital was never known to have particularly mouthwatering food. I was more than happy to be alone as I closed the door and started searching the room.

The girl’s wardrobe did not consist of all pink fortunately. On the contrary, Erisad’s clothes varied in color and style. I noticed that she did not have clothes that were extremely revealing; she wasn’t a high school slut.

There were several pictures on the walls of presumably, Erisad’s friends and relatives. There were a few lone pictures of her and another boy, possibly her boyfriend. He looked a little tall for her and in some of the pictures, he looked rather dumb. In fact, it seemed as if he was concealing something behind that false grin of his. Strangely enough, I felt that he seemed familiar. For some reason, the whole house seemed familiar. It was perhaps a feeling of deja vue as if I had been in the house before somehow. I wondered if it was just my mind playing tricks on me.

To absorb all that had happened and to observe the room, I sat down on Erisad’s bed to recollect the events. I needed to remember my own identity as well. I remembered the event of my murder. It had been the night of August 15th, my 25th birthday. As I tried to remember the details of my previous life, Keira came to get me.

I followed her down to the dining room, where there was food prepared. I didn’t eat that much nor did I talk. After words, we went to the family room where Takeshi joined us. They were trying to revive Erisad’s memory, which I was sure would not be revived since I was in her body. They showed me various pictures and talked to me.

In one of the pictures was the picture of a young man who looked strikingly familiar. It hit me a few photos later that I had just seen a picture of my previous self, and with that notion, I began to remember my identity.

I knew Erisad’s father…had met him once or twice. He had hired me as an assassin. In my previous life, I had been a nameless assassin. In the underworld, I was known by name, but on the outside, no one knew me. It was all for the better. Erisad’s father had hired me to assassinate …another assassin. It wasn’t unnatural for assassins to kill others. Mercenary assassins did not care who they killed as long as they were paid. Sadly enough, I suppose I was a mercenary assassin.

I had completed Takeshi’s mission rather successfully, but soon after, I had been murdered. I never knew if there was a connection and never had the chance to even think about it, but now, I had that chance, and I wondered if it was just coincidence or something else. Out of a whim, I asked about the young man in the picture.

“He passed away about a year ago,” Takeshi replied. “It’s better just to not remember him. He was just an acquaintance, no one you knew.”

An acquaintance. “How’d he pass away?” I asked.

Takeshi sighed. “Accident.”

At this point before I could say anything else, Keira pointed at another boy in another picture. “This is Trevor.” It was the boy that had been in Erisad’s room. “Don’t you remember him? He’s your boyfriend.” She smiled. “He’ll be visiting tomorrow.”

I almost gagged. “Boyfriend?”

“He volunteered to aid you in remembering friends and school,” Takeshi answered.

As I gagged in silence to myself, Takeshi and Keira kept feeding me information that I was not taking in because I was “gagging” and thinking. Suddenly, the phone rang, causing me to jump. Takeshi stood up and went to pick up the phone. I sat in silence, and Keira sighed. I didn’t pay attention to her tries to refresh Erisad’s memory. I was bored and I listened for Takeshi’s voice.

“Hi. Yes…Erisad’s back…. Yes, I thought it was a punishment at first because of Seth’s death, but everything’s fine now…” Takeshi’s voice said.

Seth… the name was familiar. Why wouldn’t it be? I realized with a start that it was my first name. If Takeshi used my first name, that meant he knew me. People usually referred to me by my last name. What did he mean by punishment?

“…Yes, Seth Hardin, the Deathhand.”