July 9, 2006

“Honey, stay with me!” My mom grabbed my hand again. “Keep your hand on the cart or you’re going to be sitting in it.” I pulled my hand from her grasp. The cart was too cold to touch and one of the wheels was squeaking. If I had to get in it, the screeching would get worse. The wheel continued to squeak. It seemed like it was scratching my eardrums. “Watch where you’re going, Leon!”

Mom pulled me against her. I looked up to see a man who towered over me. He was talking to mom in a low voice. His wavy blonde hair had strange black tips. In his hand he held a long black walking stick and on top of the stick sat a wooden replica of a cobra’s head. The eyes were made of sparkling rubies. As the man finished speaking, he glanced down at me. His eyes flashed. I grabbed for my mom’s hand.

This man had a strange air floating about him. It made me want to get away from him. “Come on, Leon.”

I followed mom slowly, glancing back at the man. He was hobbling down the aisle, leaning heavily on his “snake head” stick. The head was facing me. Its ruby eyes glittered and suddenly seemed to be illuminated. There was fire in their gaze. I quickly turned, trying to think about something else. As we left the aisle and started down another, I saw a Spider-man action figure.

My hand slipped from my mother’s. I knew that I wouldn’t take long, so I went to get a closer look. The toy was wonderfully colored. The sharp angles of the figure’s body caught my eye. The hands had magnetic in-soles so that it could stick to a refrigerator. I turned back to show my mom, but she was gone. My heart began to thud against my chest.

What had happened? Had she gone off without me? I turned in circles, trying to get a glimpse of her black and pink running shoes. I couldn’t see them. The air became suddenly stifling. I looked up, right into the face of the man.

He was grinning down at me like a jackal to his prey. “Did you lose your mommy, little boy?” His teeth seemed to be too big for his mouth. One of them had a gleaming gold cap.

I knew that I wasn’t supposed to talk to strangers, but I nodded anyway. “I know where she is.” The man reached for my hand and seized it before I could pull away. “I’ll help you find her, don’t worry.”

He had a strange way of talking. He seemed to breathe through his teeth as he spoke. I went along with him, only because he had a killer grip. My fingers felt like they were about to fall off. The man had a very slow pace. He would lean heavily against his stick and then sway to the side, onto his good leg. His “snake head” stick was staring at me again.

The eyes lit up once more. They seemed to really be looking at me. Their gaze of fire settled on me. I couldn’t look at it anymore. I noticed for the first time which direction we were going. Not the way my mom had gone. We were going towards the front doors.

A voice came over the store’s intercom. “If someone happens to see a small four year old boy, please bring him to the front desk. He has brown hair, green eyes-,” the entrance doors slid shut behind us, shutting off the rest of the message.

In vain, I tried to yank my hand away, but the man only clenched harder. Tears burned my eyes. Where was my mom…

After leaving, the man had taken me to another small store. He had taken me to a back room and down a long staircase. The store was just a cover to what was underneath. A cover for a terrible organization called Kaosis. At the time, I hadn’t known it.

Later, the man told me that I had been brought there because of my incredible brain. For a four-year-old, I was brilliant. I could do fifth grade math with ease and I hardly had to glance at sixth grade reading. I could even work our home computer better than my own parents.

That wasn’t the only reason he had kidnapped me. He had wanted to use me in an experiment called Anigene. His scientists had discovered that injecting a young child with animal genes, gave the child powers. My injection happened to be from a lion.

About a week later, my body began to change. My green eyes turned to fiery amber. After that, my fair brown hair became coarse and the color had slowly changed to the tan of lion’s fur. I grew two inches the week after.

The muscles in my arms and legs toned themselves and grew stronger every day. My reflexes had only been seen in comic books before. Everything about me was unimaginable.

Then my training began. Each day I would get a lesson on a type of weaponry, martial arts, and then they showed me tapes. The tapes were designed to make me become immune to violence. They were tapes that documented agents that had come before me. That’s right, agents. I was being trained as an agent. Not just any agent, though.

I was being trained as an assassin. I would be the most dangerous yet. Twelve years later, I became known as the “living nightmare.” I am Leon Jira the assassin.