Another quiet day in Montreal. Woo.

I sucked in a deep breath as I readjusted my tie in the mirror. I hated my job. But what choice did I have? To not return, to just quit? I'm pretty sure Abstergo wouldn't like that. Pretty sure the Assassins wouldn't be too fond of it either. So I guess my personal consent isn't important.

Coffee. Fucking coffee. Every day, coffee. Would it kill them to satisfy me with some tea? Guess so.

Two years since a colleague of mine, Desmond Miles, passed away. I wouldn't say "passed away" because I'm more pessimistic than that. He died. Yeah… that sounds better. Died. Saved the world, although we can't tell. I excelled the breath I had forgotten I sucked in.

A sharp ring interrupted my thoughts. Pressing a finger to my earpiece, I answered the incoming call. Static welcomed my ear warmly. Loud, high-pitched static. Shouldn't be surprised. It is Abstergo technology, after all. "This is Hastings."

Silence. I repeated myself twice. Something prevented me from hanging up. I'm not sure what it was, most of the time when I don't get in answer, I hang up knowing it is a goddy telemarketer. But this time… I didn't. And I don't know why.

Suddenly, from all the loud static, I heard loud breathing. Then some coughing. And soon, through all the static, breathing, and choken coughs, came a voice. "H-hello?" it was a female voice.

I froze in place. Sounded so familiar, yet I couldn't make it out. Wasn't Rebecca, and definitely wasn't Lucy. She was dead. Just like Desmond. "Hello? This is Hastings. Can I ask who this is?"

Wheezing now. The static got heavier. "Hello? Answer me!" I screamed into the mic. For some reason, I didn't want to lose this call. For some reason, I wanted to know what was going on. I didn't want the call to end… for whatever reason.

Then it came through. "S-Shaun… I finally reached you." The static cleared. In fact, it was gone.

"Who is this?"

The wheezing got heavier. "Please give me a moment, Mr. Hastings." she finished the sentence with a loud cough and it sounded like she collapsed. Silence.

The silence didn't stay for long, though; soon she was talking again, and without coughs or wheezes. Must be a breathing problem. "My name is not important right now, Mr. Hastings. This is an –"

"No, it is important. I have to go to work in fifteen minutes, and this call has been holding me back. So who are you and why did you call?"

A long sigh from the other side. "Mr. Hastings… you don't have to worry about your job. I took care of it for you. You're excused. Forever."

I felt my anger boiling. Suddenly I wanted to meet this bitch more than ever and slap her until she was crippled. I couldn't lose my job. I had to stay in it. Not only was it my only source of income, but the Assassins needed me there. "Now you listen here, you stupid little bitch. If what you are telling me is true, then I hope you know how much trouble you have put me into."

All I heard was a laugh. Takes away my job and laughs. Fine. I'll take away her life and laugh. "If you really care that much about your job, which I'm sure you don't, in fact, I'm pretty sure you hated it." I heard rustling in the mic. "Then meet me at 516 83rd Avenue. It's an abandoned warehouse, tons of privacy. A great place for you to kill me. If you really wanted to." The called ended there.

516 83rd Avenue. Then that where I'll go. I demand answers from this… woman. Who is she? What is going on? Why did she excuse me for life from my job? If she doesn't answer, then it's a great our meeting location is at an abandoned warehouse.

I reached the location I was supposed to meet her. An old, red-brick building, two stories high. Giant metal doors, with signs reading FORECLOSED and DO NOT ENTER.

I pushed open the giant metal doors and was greeted with a cloud of dust. I coughed and covered my face. It was hot inside, and dark. The electricity will most likely not be working on a foreclosed building.

"Hastings."

I froze. It's the girl. I darted my eyes from where I heard the choked voice. There was only one other person in the room, and I'm guessing the voice came from the dirty blonde woman across the room. I couldn't contain my rage. I ran for her.

She wasn't expecting it, to say the least. Because once I tackled her and pushed her up against a wall, her eyes were wide with fear and confusion. "Easy, easy! That's no way to treat a friend." She coughed and stared at me.

I reached for the small pocket knife I had brought along for protection and rammed her nose with the hilt of the knife. "You're not my friend. Do you have any idea how much trouble this puts me into?"

Tears filled her eyes quickly. The bridge of her nose was a bright red, already beginning to bruise, and her nostrils rained blood. "Mr. Hastings… You have every right to be mad at me right now but I can assure you that I am not your enemy. I'm here to… to…" she was coming in and out of reality. Then she began to wheeze.

"Here to what?"

She didn't answer. She just passed out. "Damnit!" I barked at her unconscious body. I laid her down carefully against the wall and stared at her.

As soon as she regained consciousness, I threatened her with the blade of my pocket knife. "You were saying?" I got a better look at her from this angle. About five foot eleven inches, roughly around 110 pounds, and maybe mid-twenties. I found her less threatening when I saw her jacket: white with a black eagle.

She reminds me so much of… Desmond. "You're fucking crazy, Hastings. I'm here to tell you that you are excused from Abstergo Industries on the order of the Assassins." She wiped the blood from her face and reached for her purse. She scrabbled through lose papers until finding what I'm assuming she was looking for. An inhaler.

She inhaled the medication from the inhaler twice. Her wheezing eventually stopped. "Anything else you want to beat out of me while I'm still here and barely able to move? What if I tell you I'm not a true blonde? Will that make you go apeshit all over me?" she was clearly irritated and upset with me.

"I'm sorry… I thought that you were a threat. Why didn't you tell me that over the call?"

She bat me an eye. "Seriously? I thought you were so smart. You seemed to know what you were doing when you beat me with your knife." She growled under her breath. "Abstergo has ears everywhere. I was using an Abstergo earpiece, as I'm sure you were, too. I'm just lucky no Abstergo agents came to beat information out of me. Oh wait, that already happened."

"I… I'm sorry. You nose isn't broken, right?"

"No. Just will be badly bruised."

I just stared at her. She has every characteristic Desmond had. Well, not every characteristic, he didn't have tits. And he wasn't as skinny as she was. "What's your name?" I asked.

"Lilac."

"Lilac what?"

"Lilac Esterm."

Lilac Esterm. So not related to Desmond. Well, she could be, but not sibling wise. Could very well be a cousin or half-sister. She finally realized how I was staring at her with awe and confusion. She spoke up. "What? Finding more parts to beat out of me?" She took a loose tissue from her purse and dabbed her nose and still-leaking nostrils.

"No... no, it's just that you remind me like an old friend." I have never called Desmond a friend outside of my mind.

She laughed. "Of Desmond?"

***TO BE CONTINUED***