Alarms wailed as I quickly ran through the dark hallways of a mansion. The floor was decorated in a gorgeous shade of a dark red carpet, but there was no time to focus on that. I had to find my target, and fast. Only problem was, all the doors in this hallway looked the same. Literally.

They were all spaced out evenly, with a table and a vase of flowers in between each door. Had I stop to inspect them closer, I would've seen an alternating pattern of roses and lilacs. Nevertheless, I ran, mentally counting the doors I passed until I hit 41.

The 41st door. The room my target was supposed to be in.

I stopped in front of the door, panting quietly. I made sure my cloth that covered the bottom part of my face to the start of my nose was secured and cautiously tried the doorknob. Surprisingly, it was unlocked, which I found unusual.

I opened enough of the door for me to peer into the small crack and look around. I concentrated intently, using my training to utilize my enhanced receptive system. Everything seemed to be normal; there were no objects or shapes I deemed dangerous to me.

I opened the door fully and carefully, making sure that it didn't squeak. I then slowly crept inside. A central large window in front of me was opened, letting in the moon's glimmering shine. To the right of me, I saw a grand bed, gorgeously decorated with velvet sheets and flowers, with a large red canopy over the bed. The lavish covers and pillows would've intrigued me in different circumstances, but I had a mission to complete.

To my left, there was a large fancy mirror upon a very delicate and elaborate dresser. The dresser was topped with jewelry boxes and cosmetic items, along with a smaller mirror, all of it in front of the larger mirror.

The floor was gorgeously covered in the same dark red carpet as the hallway, but through my heightened senses, I was able to feel that it was much squishier than the hallway's mostly because the room belonged to a high value target.

Which brings me to the next thing I saw.

On the balcony outside in front of me stood a girl, about my age, with her back towards me. My eyes trailed down her shining black hair, which stopped just below her shoulder blades. She wore a white nightgown, almost like a dress. The curls and ruffles made her seem like a princess, which, in this case, was pretty close.

She stood there, apparently gazing up at the stars. I sneaked quietly across the carpeted floor, silently drawing my blade from the sheath on my left side. The long dagger gleamed under the light of the moon as I entered the balcony's doorway. The carpet ended at the doorway, as the balcony floor was now composed of a dark oak wood. I hesitated there, since I knew from experience that some wooden floors squeaked under weight.

I steeled my resolve and prepared to make the risk of stepping out onto the balcony when the girl spoke.

"You're here to kill me, aren't you?"

I froze, unsure of what to do. I brought my hand up to my cloth that covered the bottom half of my face. The only thing that should be visible in the moon light would be my dark eyes, since everything else about me was darker.

"You don't talk much, do you? That's ok, my life is still going to end anyway. But before I go, can I learn what your name is?" The girl turned around to meet me, and I was momentarily stunned.

Her face was unblemished, almost perfect, as her dark eyes bore into mine. Her hair was emphasized a lot against her white nightgown. Her silky hair reflected the light of the moon softly, like a ray of sunshine through a window in the morning. She had such an innocent face, and all I could think was how a girl of her caliber was a target issued to me. She was gorgeous, a angel of a human, but I had the task of killing her.

"Well, are you going to at least grant me one last wish of knowing your name?" She cocked her head to the side as she looked at me curiously. I hesitated before replying.

"They call me Delta. Just Delta. Now, since you know my name, may I have the favor of knowing your name as well?"

She smiled faintly as she replied.

"My name is Embyre Amas. But of course, shouldn't you know? You're an assassin sent to kill me, so you should've been informed of who I was."

Alarms shrieked in the distance as we stood in awkward silence.

"Er.. are you going to kill me or what?" The girl called Embyre repeated.

I snapped out of my stupor and shrugged.

"Why are you acceptant of this? Usually, most people would beg for mercy when assassins come after them."

This time, it was Embyre's turn to shrug.

"I'm just ready. After so many years of being someone I don't ever want to be, I'm tired of living like this."

"How old are you?" I asked, surprised. In the back of my mind, I knew that I was secretly breaking a rule that forbid the assassin from talking to the target. But I couldn't help it; there was something about the girl that intrigued me.

"I'm 14." She answered.

"Cool.. I'm.. 14 too.." I hesitantly said.

"Why are you an assassin? You're so young to be one." She questioned me with a curious look.

I became defensive.

"Well, on the other hand, why are you the heir of the Amas company? Above all, a supervisor?" I retorted.

Embyre smiled sadly.

"If I had the choice, I wouldn't be an heiress. I guess it's my parents' fault. They forced me to learn how to be a proper lady, even in 2018. If it were up to me, I'd go to a public school and live like a normal girl, instead of performing a charade in front of my true self." She finished, her smile turning bitter.

For some reason, I felt myself sympathizing with her. I understood how she felt.

"Hey.. my parents dumped me into the assassin organization when I was 3, and I haven't heard from them since. I didn't want to be an assassin, but this is the only route I've got. I wish I could attend a public school as well." I tried not to reveal too much about my life.

She laughed softly, like an angel's music from the heavens in my ears. I don't know why, but I was willing to spare her life even if it costed me mine.

"You'd seem like a great guy. But, as fate would have it, you're sent here to kill me, right? So let's get this over with." Embyre closed her eyes and raised her head, exposing her neck to me. I glanced at my blade in my hand and steeled my resolve.

I sheathed my dagger.

Upon hearing the sound of metal scraping against leather, Embyre opened her eyes. She raised an eyebrow questioningly towards my sheathed dagger.

"What's wrong?"

I shook my head. "I'm not going to kill you."

"But.. won't you get in trouble? This is what your job is after all."

I scoffed and smiled bitterly underneath my cloth mask.

"My job? I wish I didn't have this job. Nah, I'm not going to kill you because you seem like a nice girl."

"R- really? Is that it?"

I nodded. Embyre's expression suddenly turned angry.

"I get it. You're just like all the guys who say that I'm a nice girl just because I'm pretty, or hot, or sexy, or something like that. Guys like you are jerks and should walk off the face of the earth."

I chuckled, hearing her response to my claim. I was still chuckling as I shook my head.

"Nah, I'm not saying that cause I'm like the other guys. I'm saying it cause I really do think that you're a nice girl. We have something in common, and that's how our parents treat us. Well, I do have a good reason for saying that you're a nice girl, because after this, I doubt we'll be seeing each other again." I finished up as I turned around to walk away.

"W- wait!" Embyre called behind me. I paused, and turned back around to face her.

"What's up?" I asked, impatient to finish the job.

She bit her lip and hesitated before speaking.

"Please, try to spare my parents. I know that they should deserve the assassination after all they've done to me, but they're still my parents. Even if they beat me, even if they forced me to sit all those hours to become the perfect lady, I still want them alive."

I placed a hand over the top of my left chest and bowed deeply.

"As you wish, so it shall be."

She smiled thinly.

"You sound like one of my servants. But, thank you. I'll be counting on you."

I slightly nodded my head as I turned and ran out the door. Upon entering the hallway, I traveled back down the path I came from, trying to get to the intersection of stairs of this three mansion house. My plan was to go to the third floor and find Embyre's parents to knock them out and hide them somewhere. The hard part was finding them. Or knocking them out, whichever one took longer would be the harder task.

I started slightly panting as I ran down the dark hallways, praying that my dark attire would mask my identity to any guards who should've been racing their way to Embyre's room. Well, if any of them did managed to see me racing down the shadows like a rocket, they wouldn't be able to catch me anyway. I was the second fastest junior in X Cross, second only to my best friend. We were faster than the average teen at our age, much faster.

Anyway, I was racing down the hallways as fast as I could, trying to get to the stair intersection. I saw an orange light at the end of the long dark hallway and thought that the guards were coming. However, it was the complete opposite of what I thought.

As I got closer, I felt the heat before I saw the flames. As I bursted forth from the hallway, I was smack dab in the middle of a firestorm. The roar of the blazing flames resounded in the mansion as I stared in shock. Red fire licked the walls and ceilings as it covered paintings and furniture within the main entrance hall of the mansion. The stair intersection next to me was swallowed in searing blazes, and I had to move out of the way.

Just as I steered clear of the fire, the whole entire stairway fell on itself, preventing me from reaching the second then third floor. The collapse of the stairs wouldn't be a problem for me in an ordinary situation, since I could climb up to the second stairs and do the same for the third. The problem was the fire, the sudden blaze critically injured any chance of climbing up to the second and third floor.

The fire was like a hungry beast, swallowing up everything in its sight. There was nowhere to go, save for the exit or the hallway I exited from. The alarms were screaming in the night as I heard sounds of shouting and struggling outside. That told me that at least most of the house was evacuated. And since Embyre was such an important figure, they would most likely come back inside for her. Which meant I needed to get out of here ASAP.

I prepared to jump the thankfully low flames that were in front of the door when I heard a low thump behind me. It was very low, and would've probably gone unnoticed by most people, but I was not most people. I heard the quiet thump and whirled around quickly.

"Think fast!" A voice yelled when it threw an object at me.

My blade was already in my hand and slashed the object that was thrown at me. The object shattered into splinters and wood, so apparently it was a wooden object of some sort.

"Man, your reaction time is really fast. I could never surprise you." The figure laughed as he got into the light of the fire.

On closer inspection, I saw and recognized his blue- gray eyes as well as a part of his unnaturally silver hair. He was also wearing the same dark attire as I was, dark jeans, dark shirt, black face mask, and black hood, but I knew who he was already.

"Alphred, what are you doing here? I thought this was a solo mission for me."

Alphred, my best friend, laughed as he took off his hood and mask. His clear pale face gave him the look of a celebrity, which was probably why the girls at X Cross were constantly trying to get a duo mission with him.

"I told the Highers that I didn't want them to reveal my name in the mission because I wanted to surprise you. So, are you surprised?" He flashed a million dollar smile, a white smile only given to famous figures. I was a bit jealous of his good looks, but I couldn't complain when I had the title of strongest and most dangerous junior assassin in the world. Also, he was my friend, I couldn't be envious of him for long.

"Eh, I'm a bit surprised. But, what was your mission, though? I was given the solo task of eliminating the targets." I asked, curious.

Alphred's grin became wider as he replied.

"I requested that the Highers made that girl a priority, so that I could take out the parents myself. A secret duo mission, but I got the more higher threat figures. Hah, I bet you're feeling dumb, aren't ya?"

Alphred laughed as he flashed his brilliant smile. I knew he was joking around with me, since we grew up in X Cross together, but he inadvertently made me break my own promise I had just barely made. I stood still as Alphred chuckled the last laugh out of his system.

Glass shattered, and I heard shouting coming from the hallway where Embyre was located. Almost instantly, I knew that they were coming to rescue her.

Alphred stopped laughing and looked at me. A silent understanding passed between us as we both knew we had to get out of the burning mansion.

"We gotta go."

"I know."

We raced towards the door, Alphred just barely in front of me with me on his heels. As we ran, I suddenly thought of something.

If I went back to X Cross HQ, then I would have to either lie or tell the truth about the failure of my mission. Both ways would end up with me getting terminated, even if I lied, since the higher- ups or Highers would find out anyway. Even if I survived, I would have to go back to finish off Embyre, and I couldn't face her, not after Alphred killed her parents, the ones I had sworn to protect.

Making up my mind, I steeled my resolve as we leaped over the flames and banged open the door. The cool, fresh, dark night produced a warm wind across the dark hill that the Amas mansion was located on. We stopped just in front of the entrance, catching ou breaths.

"Hey, I need to go and make sure that I finished the job." I lied through my teeth as I glanced at my best friend.

"You sure? You never once made a mistake. Dante, you couldn't have possibly made a mistake, could you?" Alphred called me by my real name.

We both knew each other's real names, and kept our code names secret, which was weird, considering no one at X Cross knew our real names and called us solely by our code names.

I nodded.

"Maybe. But I want to check for sure. Go on ahead at the rendezvous point. I'll meet you there."

"You sure? You don't want any help at all?"

I nodded again. "Just go."

Alphred pulled his face mask and hood back on as he ran ahead, back to the rendezvous point. I did not go back into the mansion or the rendezvous point. I ran in the other direction, back to my home.

I heard the rumble of thunder as rain started to pour, quickly drenching me as I ran in the night. I glanced behind once and saw the majestic mansion consumed in the bright firestorm as the rain fell, as if crying for the loss of the people who died tonight. Except for the one who should've died tonight did not.

I focused in front of me once more and ran, ran to forget my past. I was tired of being an assassin. I was tired of completing missions. But this was new. This was the first time I had failed a mission, broke a promise, and deserted my best friend.

(-)

I yawned and stretched in the warm sunlight at the back of the classroom at Classic High. English class bored me, and I felt that I would never learn the material. Even at 15 years old, I was still the same old me. Except that I wasn't an assassin.

A year had passed since that night. I hadn't remembered it since. Nor did I want to.

Anyway, I was trying not to sleep and was failing miserably as I finally placed my head on the metal desk. 2019 still did not come up with a way to keep students awake during class. Or make class fun, for that matter. I laid my head on my arms and closed my eyes, preparing to doze off when I felt a poke on my head.

I shot up in my seat and tried to look awake as I glanced to the side to see if it was the teacher that had poked me. It wasn't.

"Bro, you gotta stop sleeping in class, you're going to miss the new exchange student coming in." Jason Fure, my only real friend at Classic High, said.

He was the same age as me, but only an inch shorter at 5'6''. His brown hair complimented his blue eyes. He had a tough guy face, with a small white scar on his bottom lip. His headphones that were looped around his neck were slim and portable, a product of the technological advancement of 2019. I pulled my ear buds out of my ears and examined them, black wire and bud, a product from 1999. They were still good though, and not bulky on the ears like Jason's headphones.

"Bro, I'm about to pass out. You know I'm always tired in the mornings, and I could care less about the new student."

"But I do. What if she's hot?" Jason ran his hand through his spiked hair, checking his key chains that ran out of his pocket and straighten up his "gangster" clothes. Jason had a tough guy demeanor, but he was a soft guy at heart. He worked hard, supported his family, and tried his best not to disrupt the flow of the atmosphere. He was also protective of his little sister, as he had shown me once before.

I yawned again. "Who cares if she's hot? She'd still be way outta your league." I waved a dismissive hand at him.

Jason shrugged. "So? I can still try. You never know."

I laughed. "Sure, sure. You can try, but it'll never work."

"Class, pardon the disruption, but the transfer student from Clarington is here, and we need to let her in with a warm welcome. You may enter." Mr. Toal said towards the door. The door creaked open and in came a face I never thought I'd see.

I stared in shock at the figure that had came in and stood in the front of the class. My jaw slightly dropped, and I lost my composure, something I had never done in a few years.

"Hello, my name is Embyre Amas. It's nice to meet you all." The new transfer student said.

An: I will be uploading chapters for this story every Friday, since that's the due date my Creative Writing teacher told my class. So, for a first chapter, what do you guys think?