Epilogue

"RAVEN!" a voice screams in the darkness.

"Please! Anything but this, anything but my child," the same voice begs.

"You knew the consequences and took the risk. You couldn't deliver, so therefore she belongs to us now. If you didn't want it to come to this you should not have failed," a deep voice breaks through the sound of crying.

"Please," the first voice weakly begged.

"Weakness is not acceptable," the deep voice stated robotically before the sound of a sword pulled from a sheath was heard and then a bloodcurdling scream.

I jolted up from my nightmare breathing heavily. I rapidly worked on slowing my breath and heartbeat before I was heard and punished. I was supposed to be quiet; I was supposed to be undetected, light on my feet, and stealthy, but never noticed, especially during the night. Nightmares were a sign of weakness that I could never afford to show. I knew what happened to those that failed the tests, I have seen it firsthand and been forced to distribute some of the punishments myself.

It was a recurring dream I had been having for as long as I could remember. It has been haunting me for years with no explanation, but always ends up in me waking up in a cold sweat with a weight on my chest. I threw off my blankets from the thin mattress on the ground and treaded softly around those silently sleeping around me. Nights were the most unnerving. Nothing moved and even crickets outside didn't dare make a sound. Complete silence was the hardest thing to adjust to since I have been here, but this training ground is all I have known.

Repetitious training and experiments since I was a year old, continuous healer visits to monitor my progress through the experiment I was assigned to be part of, and nonstop tests and training during the day is what every day has consisted of. No birthdays, no holidays, no gifts, no friends. Friends. That is something I used to wish could be a reality. It didn't take long for me to realize that befriending anyone here was a bad idea. I am the only one from my age group that made it this far, so there hasn't really been anyone that I could get attached to anyway. Weakness, in any way, was unacceptable, including caring about anything other than the mission in front of me. Weakness was severely punished, generally by death that was a public affair performed in front of the rest of the "students" in their class, if they could even be called that. We were experiments, we weren't human, but we weren't quite anything else.

I am a trained assassin and that is what I will always be. That is all I know and I am not free to roam the world outside these walls for another 5 years without direct supervision and a specific mission to complete. Perfection and follow through or death, which is something that isn't easy to come to terms with as a 10 year old, but I am in a world that has caused me to grow up very quickly.

I have never really known happiness and comfort, only pain and the feeling of being pushed to her limit in isolation from everyone. The only person I know the name of is my trainer, healer, and educator, Sal. He was assigned "master" before he reached the age of 15 where we are sent out on missions and was immediately recruited to monitor my progress. I am told I am too dangerous to be around other people until they test my control, but that has yet to stop them from still sending me on missions to kill for them.

I was on a mission, just a few days before I turned 11, with Sal's voice in my ear giving me current information on my next target. I had the blueprints in my mind and was searching for the best location to place myself for the cleanest shot. It was a large gala in an old museum that was full of uptight and stuck up people that think they are better than the rest of the world. My target hadn't paid my client in enough time, so I was hired out by the company to complete the payment in kind. They usually don't let someone my age out of the walls, but I am small, agile, and more competent than any of the other experiments above me.

I found the perfect set up, a dark unlit marble balcony that only had two security guards patrolling. They were now knocked out and tied up and resting underneath one of the paintings that probably was a fake or not worth nearly the amount of fuss that is made over it. We are often encouraged to kill anyone in our way, but the idea of killing has never sat well with me. I can separate myself for a job when needed, but the two guards are innocent and have no business being involved in this. I look young enough that the "I can't find my parents" line and a few tears work almost every time. I pull out my rifle and set it up on the stand with a silencer attached to prevent excessive noise. I have the case set up and have rehearsed the take down of the gun so many times it's second nature and very quick.

The target is a fat man that has a woman on his arm that is much too young for him. He gets up to give his speech, and she hangs onto his arm with a dumb, empty smile until she almost falls over from trying to physically get her claws in him. She is the typical dumb type that is only in the relationship for the money, that isn't even his. A thought of whether she will actually grieve for him, but it doesn't last long before it is gone. Focus, breathe in, focus, breathe out, pull the trigger.

As my finger tightens on the trigger a soft voice mutters behind me, "Do you really want to be doing that, Raven?"

I didn't sense anyone's presence. That has never happened to me. I control myself enough to not jump. Always have the upper hand, and if you don't, fake it until you make it. I have three minutes left of the target's speech to take the shot.

The man that spoke looks like he is over 100 years old and still extremely spry. He is thin with a beard down to his hips and a knowing twinkle in his eye to match the smirk on his face. I don't say anything; I just make unwavering eye contact with this mystery man in front of me that somehow knows my name.

"How rude of me, my name is Albus Dumbledore, and I have a proposition for you," he says. "I am the headmaster at a school called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I know I just sound like a senile old man, but we welcome many different types of wonderful students with magical abilities and I know you would fit right in, even with your differences and unconventional upbringing. Your parents actually attended the school themselves, and I know they wished you to also attend in their footsteps."

That got my attention. Not only did this man know my name, he claimed to know who my parents were. This had to be a test from Sal. I don't have parents. I was taken and then they were most likely killed. That's how all of the children got to the compound.

"What kind of trick is this Sal? Throwing me a test in the middle of a mission, I'm kind of busy right now," I mutter through my mouthpiece.

"What trick? Just make the shot before it's too late and come back. It is a simple mission that has been entrusted to you" Sal's quick and monotonous voice replies.

"Oh he won't know about me, they don't approve of me talking to you and taking you away, but you are old enough to make your own decision and choose your own path." He held out a hand to me.

"What is happening?" I ask him.

"I am here to take you away and show you how much potential your future can have."

I took a step back from him. I hear applause from below. The speech is finished and my target is now surrounded by a large mass of people.

"Raven, you have failed your mission. Please return to await your punishment for your actions," I hear Sal say in my ear as I start to think about the unspeakable violence I will know because of this man.

I glare at him, and suddenly I hear my nightmare in my ears. The pleading, the uncaring deep voice saying failure is unacceptable, the bloodcurdling scream and suddenly going with this crazy old man offering me a different future doesn't seem like a terrible possibility anymore.