Assassination of Memories
Prologue Part I-Death In Shadow

The night scene flew past the window of the black Mercedes as Mr and Mrs Tarantino drove back to their estate after their night out together. Rain collided into the windshield; the thunder roared outside, lightning flashed, illumining the mountain side. "Maybe seeing a murder play wasn't the best idea." Mrs Tarantino said rubbing her arms with her dark hands. Her dark honey coloured eyes held fright as her mind started playing scenes in her head.

Mr. Tarantino smiled at his wife, "Don't worry darling, nothing like that is going to happen." His jade green eyes returned to the road ahead. "Are you sure, what about the children?" Mrs Tarantino shakily said twisting her finger in her wavy chocolate brown hair like a child. Mr Tarantino waved his hand, his blond moustache practically twitching with his grin. "The guards are on duty Sarah. Nothing wrong is going to happen." He promised in his deep voice. He hadn't told her that rumours were going 'round that he was possibly the next target for one of the assassins from the Organization, and telling her now wouldn't be smart. "Maybe your right." Mrs Tarantino sighed looking out her window. Another flash of lighting lit the road like day light; Mrs Tarantino gasped flinching back from the window.

"Sarah?"

"I though I saw…Never mind." She decided better than to say anything. The girl had been there only for as long as the lightning flashed; now she was gone. Even though she had been there for a second her inhuman blue eyes had been etched in Mrs Tarantino's mind with an angry glare. Mrs Tarantino shook her head trying to tell herself that she was seeing things.

As the car passed by a Vectrix superbike, made its way surprisingly silently after the Mercedes, its rider pressed closely to the bike. Bike and rider dressed in black made them virtually invisible until the mountain flared with lightning, though both disappearing by the tree line when light was present. Unnoticing to the follower the Mercedes drove onto another path bumping slightly over the dirt road towards the house hidden in the mountain side.

From a cliff cave above four figures watched the car pull down the road one took out a walkie talkie the static making the entire group wince. "Alright their pulling up to the house, anything odd going on?" Through the static the guard on the other end answered, "Nothing yet. Y'know maybe your wrong; maybe Shadows won't strike tonight, maybe we've got the wrong person or maybe even the wrong place." The guard's voice had a clear Irish accent.

"That's a lot of maybes, and only one defiant. And that is that Mr Tarantino is Shadows' target."

"I guess your right…"

"You guess? Who said that the Whispers were talking to him?"

As the two bickered none of the group noticed the Vectrix that went quickly up the road like a ghost keeping the Mercedes in sight. The large mansion loomed ahead, in the guard tower the main guard waved to the couple in the car, not aware of the motorbike that stopped fifteen feet away. The gate slowly opened, Mr Tarantino drove onto his real drive way, the gate creaking closed though not fast enough to lock out a black blur that darted in, disappearing into the shadows of the high wall courtyard. The couple got out, Mr Tarantino took a deep breath of the night air chuckling. "See, everything is completely normal." He said smiling over to his wife who got out of the car.

She smiled weakly, rushing to the out-door corridor of the old medieval like building towards the big wooden main doors. Even inside some of the house was open; with Oahu's weather they could get away with it without the place becoming freezing. Tarantino walked towards his children's room, the hall opening up to another courtyard to his left. The crickets played their tune and the sound of bats flying just above the house could be heard by all ears.

"Mr. Tarantino Sir!" a guard cried jogging over. "Ah you must be the new one, what can I do for you?" Tarantino asked cheerfully. "Sir ye do know that heis after you, don't you?" the guard said slightly out breath with an Irish accent. Tarantino just smiled, "Your just as panicky as my wife, don't worry about it. Shadows can never come within a hundred feet from here without us knowing." He left whistling along the way.

The guard shook his head; Tarantino had too much self confidence for his own good. The guard turned on his heel almost stepping on a black cat in front of him. The guard jumped back as the cat hissed angrily at him darting into the closed off corridor. 'Great,' the guard thought, 'a black cat just crossed my path. Somethin' bad is going to happen.'

#*#*#*#**#*#*#*

Tarantino chuckled to himself as he walked in through the closed corridors of his home feeling pathetic he had gotten lost in his own house. As he made his way to his youngest son's room he passed by the music room. He stopped at the same time as music started to play. Someone was playing the piano. Then a hypnotic voice floated out into the hallway singing.

"Playground school bell rings, again
Rain clouds come to play, again..," Tarantino turned out of curiosity creeping towards the door to the music room. He pressed his ear near the crack of the door listening.

"Has no one told you she not breathing?
Hello, I'm your mind giving you someone to talk to
Hello,"
Tarantino opened the door to the music room, the light from the door way pouring into the room , the shadows becoming more sharper and hiding as much as they could. The last note played rang through the air though from the door way Tarantino could see the piano that was in the right corner with no one there. The keys faced away from him and if he had been actually paying attention he might have seen the pair of feet that were slightly visible from the intended hole in the piano's structure. The man shook his head telling himself that he was hearing things and turned to leave when the piano started playing again.

"If I smile and don't… believe
Soon I know I'll wake from this dream
Don't try to fix me I'm not broken
Hello, I'm the lie living for you so you can hide
Don't cry,"
The large buff man turned back towards the piano which a pair of sheet white hands played, their owner hidden in shadow. The intruder stopped singing though kept playing, a pair of violet cat-like eyes appeared above and behind the hands flashing with a dangerous flicker. The door behind Bronx Tarantino slammed shut locking. He quickly turned using all his weight and strength to open it.

It wouldn't budge.

"Damn it! Who are you!?" He snapped turning back towards the stranger. They stopped playing in the silence Tarantino was deeply submerged in his sinking feeling turning back to the door still struggled to get the door open.

"Curiosity killed the cat." The stranger said in an unemotional tone.

Tarantino froze. That saying, it couldn't be possible. By the sound of the voice she was just a young girl, maybe the same age as his oldest daughter, but that line. The figure moved so quickly Tarantino had no chance to even flinching. She kicked him away from the door standing at full height, a flash of lightning showing her features for one second. She was quiet tall for her age which seemed around fourteen or maybe even fifteen with the palest skin Tarantino had ever seen. Her spiked and jagged dark hair was cut short adding to her boyish look. She donned a pair of dark boots with black jeans and a done up black long coat that went down to the top of her army styled boots, the collar of the coat going up past where her ears should have been. A dark tail swished behind her, the ears on top of her head were angled forward to where Tarantino laid staring up at her in horror.

No, it couldn't bee possible, on the same day that his wife was worried that something was going to happen, the same day where the new guard had mentioned that Tarantino was a target, the same day of the anniversary of his brother's death… He had to act quickly, it couldn't happen tonight. Tarantino quickly pulled out his gun firing at the girl; she leapt sideways, the bullet grazing her shoulder. She shot forward ripping the gun away from him with a hiss, jumping on top of a file cabinet. He turned around making sure that his back wasn't turned to her. She was so fast, living up to the name. Her violet eyes stared down at him like a cat watching an insect. In attempt to save himself Tarantino whipped out his two way radio backing away from the girl. The static made her pupils to become slits with a snarl she dived towards the man.

"Somebody help, Sh─" Tarantino screamed as she bit down on the radio and his hand, and with a loud SNAP his hand broke, the radio sparking as she crushed it too. Tarantino knocked her off of him collapsing against the wall holding his hand. She was back on him in seconds, pining his arms to the floor, a gun barrel pressed against his forehead. She gave him a few moments, for experience she knew that some people would want a moment to pray. "Th-this can't be possible," Tarantino stuttered. "The g-great Organization assassin Panther Shadows is a… girl?!" he spat the last word out.

"Curiosity killed the cat." Shadows repeated pulling the trigger blood splattering across her impassive face.


"Late again." The boy sighed hanging his head. Hidden in shadow only Tarantino's legs were visible, blood pooling underneath his body. The younger boy looked at the body in disgust feeling like he was going to be sick. "I knew somethin' was going to happen when the cat ran across my path. I shoulda stuck with 'im." The Irish guard said glumly. "It wasn't the cat's fault, how many times do I have to tell you there's no suck thing as bad luck?" The young boy hissed angrily. "Okay you two calm down." A girl scolded not looking at the dead man. "So 'bout this Shadows character…" The guard said not really informed about the same person his friend –practically brother– was after. "Panther Shadows, a top notch assassin that appeared two months ago, he's already killed more than eighty people, flawlessly and without a trace. Except for a questionable paper flower at every scene." The older boy turned to the blood red paper flower on the desk to the left just a little ways away from the body. "How did anyone find out his name?" the guard asked.

"Someone was stupid enough to go after him, had a cell phone and caught Shadows meeting up with an ally a mile outside of the location. Of course Shadows killed him before the guy could give anymore information apart from the name. Then a kid caught Shadows' line as he starts playing with his prey then just before he kills them: 'curiosity killed the cat'." The boy answered back. "Shadows kills everyone who as a bad connection to the Organization, did you know two of Tarantino's four kids are actually subjects?"

"Every time we're either too late or we corner him and he still get's away. It should have been impossible for Shadows to escape this time, there's no way out." The girl said stepping forward, sweeping the room with her eyes skipping the body.

"No there is. There." The younger boy said pointing to a window just above the desk, the group instantly having their doubts. It was 1½ feet high and 2 feet wide, no one was going to fit through that. "Even I can't fit through that window, how the heck is a young man going to?" the older boy said. "Shadows could be a woman you know!" the girl snapped. "Well even if Shadows was, no one and I mean no one is going to fit through there." The boy retorted. The younger boy walked up to the window standing up on the desk. "What are you doing, you're going to leave you prints all over the scene!" the girl hissed. "Ya well if you have forgotten I have no file whatsoever in the Outside, so they can't blame me." The boy stood on his tip toes to look through the window.

"Hey there's a hair here! Never mind it's just a cat hair." The kid grumbled holding the strand of black hair in his had. They all stood in silence the Irish guard thinking he had an idea how Shadows could get out of that way but didn't really have an explanation.

Outside of the building the black cat looked around making sure no one was going to step on it again, it darted towards the wall, and just a couple feet away from it jumped, landing on top of the 19 foot tall wall. Turning the cat saw the bunch of guards running towards the music room, and couldn't help but smirk. The cat morphed into a figure that jumped down to the other side of the wall running over to the Vectrix motorbike. It rode away, the long coat flapping in the wind.

#*#*#*#**#*#*#*

"Isn't she wonderful!?" the Director said smiling at the Whitecoats that had come to see if Shadows was indeed real. Standing in front of them she looked more monstrous than wonderful with the blood splattered across her white face like a stain on a white shirt. Some of the blood was already dripping down her face as it had started to rain just as Shadows had gotten to the Organization. "Silently done job, and done quickly too, Shadows is our ultimate weapon. Don't you think?" The Director glanced over to his prized possession.

"Sir there still is some fault with the subject." The Director whirled his head glaring at Dr. Aly. The doctor pushed his glasses back to the bridge of his nose; he was a short, scrawny man with short bleach white hair and faded brown eyes. "Bronx Tarantino was able to graze it─" "Her." The Director corrected with a hiss. "With a shot and was still able to cry for help." Dr. Aly finished with a flinch from the Director's expression. Shadows' eyes darted from the Director to the doctor and in a flash the Dr. Aly was pinned to the wall the barrel of her gun pressed firmly against his head. She always had an angry kind of expression on her face making her more of a demon than an angel, her inhuman electric blue eyes narrowed at the doctor. His eyes crossed, trying to see the gun he was facing, and he saw Zephyr engraved on each side of the pistol in the font like French Script on Microsoft Word.

"Zephyr?"

"Yes, together Shadows and Zephyrare unstoppable. Since Shadows moves faster than your average human the gun has been specially made so it won't shoot too late." The Director said in monotone. The two other Whitecoats stood in horror to see a gun being pointed to Dr. Aly by Panther Shadows. "You better watch what you do; unlike the fool Artemis she will kill you if you are a threat to me." The Director said and snapped his fingers. Shadows let the doctor down slowly returning to the Director's side. "She is smarter than any of our subjects and the only one that I trust to terminate our biggest threats. Shadows you may return to your room." The Director said.

With a swift nod she left quietly the door sliding open with a whoosh and closing behind her. Shadows drifted through the corridors of the Organization until she came to her room. It also slid to the side revealing the plain large room she had. The whole room was grey, with no windows or any other doors than the one that locked from the outside behind Shadows. Against the wall to her right was a large metal double bed with uncomfortable mattress and thin pillow and blanket. A round table with four chairs was in the middle of the room, and a little over in the corner was a toilet with a screen for privacy.

It wasn't much, though Shadows had acquired an easel with large pieces of paper, pencils and erasers. Different abstract pictures were scattered around the place, on the easel was an incomplete picture of a bird in flight. Shadows quickly went over to the bed kneeling down to get underneath it. She crawled back out, in her hands two books, one large heavy hardcover the colour of red dirt and a smaller hardcover pocket book. Shadows sat down on her bed laying the pocket book aside, opening the bigger one on her lap.

She would never forget this author who wrote this book in a quick frenzy, the words scribbled on thick line pieces of paper glued to an old book. CL Dare Son Air, a normal child that had been sent here because none of CL's had the time to watch over the kid so they sent CL to their uncle's friend.

"Father lied to me…" Shadows said, her voice echoing through her room. The page she was last on showed proof:

This place even has assassins, people or even miserable subjects that kill innocent people without a thought. Most of these people aren't even a threat to the Organization, wait correction, none of them are. One person isn't going to affect very much for the world wide moving Organization, since the location get's lost. The Director sends off these subjects, some not even noticing their killing without a purpose.


Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming
Cannot cease for the fear
of silent nights
Oh how I long for the deep sleep dreaming
The goddess of imaginary light

In my field of paper flowers
And candy clouds of lullaby
I lie inside myself for hours
And watch my purple sky fly over me

I linger in the doorway
Of alarm clock screaming
Monsters calling my name
Let me stay
Where the wind will whisper to me
Where the raindrops as they're falling tell a story

If you need to leave the world you live in
Lay your head down and stay a while
Though you may not remember dreaming
Something waits for you to breathe again

In my field of paper flowers
And candy clouds of lullaby
I lie inside myself for hours
And watch my purple sky fly over me

Evanescence
Imaginary