EDIT: I started writing this wayy back in 2011, and stopped at the chapter 'The Unhelpful Introductions'. I've been struggling between rewriting or juts continuing where I left off, and I finally decided on rewriting the prologue (because it was just too cringe-worthy) and keep the other chapters the same. I hope you'll keep in mind that I was pretty young when I wrote the first few chapters. My writing gets better, I promise ;)
How I Became an Assassin
Prologue
"I never wanted to be an assassin, it just turned out to be this way..."
The conference room was dark, only lit by the light seeping under the tightly drawn blinds. Many silhouettes lined a long oval table. They stood up in welcome as a final person entered the room.
"Good morning, gentlemen. Today I would like to present you with an opportunity of a lifetime…enough money to last you all for your entire lives, islands, even seas, if you so wish…"
The school bell rang to signal the end of a regular day at school. A brown-haired girl made her way down the school entrance with a bounce in her step, when she heard someone call her name: "May!"
She turned around and smiled at her sporty friend, Misty. "What's up?" May asked.
"Could we grab something at the mall? I think I'll faint if I don't eat before my athletic meet." Misty said, her eyes glinting just by saying the words 'athletic meet'. May grinned at that.
"Sure!" she replied. "Now what should we eat…"
"Oh, I know there's an ice cream shop having a grand opening at the mall two blocks away," piped a cheery voice behind them. The two of them turned around, surprised, and both started slightly as they realised it was the new transfer student, Dawn.
The reason for their uncomfort was not unreasonable. Behind Dawn's cheery exterior hid a prestigious background. Being a direct heir to a large trading company, she lacked nothing in terms of money and fame. She regularly attended her father's business meetings, quietly shadowing many important discussions and agreements. Yet her parents suddenly transferred her to a public school seemingly to learn more about society, causing a buzz within the whole school.
She was only a teenager, yet already being groomed to become the next president. Certainly an intimidating new student that approached them.
"So…would you guys like to go together to the shop to try it out?" Dawn ventured, her eyes practically begging them to be nice to the new student in school.
The person slid a photo onto the table.
"We need you to infiltrate this girl, and after obtaining every single bit of information from her, we need you to kill her."
They leaned forward in an attempt to observe the photo in the dim light, their eyes flashing in instant recognition as they saw her face.
"Torturing doesn't work with this girl, so I need you to send a female assassin-it must be a girl-to befriend her and steal information from the inside. We have received information that the target will transfer schools again in one year. In her new school, befriend her before she makes new acquaintances."
"Finally, ice cream for my poor stomach!" Dawn exclaimed happily.
"You don't have to eat that fast, though…" Misty said warily, eyeing Dawn practically inhale her dessert. "It's barely four right now."
May munched her waffle set in silence, too engrossed in eating to say anything.
Dawn replied, "I have a dinner with some company execs and their sons soon, so…"
Misty glanced over at May, unsure of how to reply to that.
May's quick mind leapt to action and she swiftly swallowed her bite of waffle and asked, "Are they all love calls from your fiancée hopefuls?" causing Misty to snort and Dawn to grin.
"Nah, and even if they were, I'd reject them all," Dawn said, still grinning. "Boys are loud and disgusting and the opposite of cute me."
As Dawn continued to describe some hilarious and horrendous bachelors she had been forced to meet in the past, Misty quickly slid a thankful glance at May for carrying the conversation.
Their high school friendship was currently like this: sassy, sharp-minded May and blunt, athletic Misty. And it seemed like bubbly, cheery Dawn would soon be entering their friend circle.
"You have one and a half years for this project. Since you're forced to wait a year for the target to change schools, you have half a year to obtain what information you need from the target. Use this year wisely, gather information and do not make mistakes when you are in operation."
The man, having finished his speech, stood up and slid a slip of paper across the table. He snapped his fingers, and suddenly, five men dressed in black came out from the shadows. They surrounded the man, and they seemed to vanish, but in fact, they had simply slipped out through an inconspicuous doorway.
The remaining men in the room glanced at the picture the man had left behind and eyed each other carefully.
"We have to take the job," one said. "But we don't have a female assassin young enough for the job."
A second glanced briefly at the others in the room, his eyes cold and calculating."Then we have a year to train a girl how to be an assassin," he said calmly. "D, can we have the honour of letting you choose the girl?"
A young man, not even past his twenties, looked up. "Sure. What criteria are you looking for?"
The man let out the faintest glimpse of a smile. "Well, find one which seems…different. I don't need crybabies in the training arena." With that, all the men simultaneously stood up and they exited the room, flitting through the doors like leaves blown in a breeze. If you entered the room a moment later, you would never realize that there had been anyone in the room at all.
May walked cheerfully back home, happy to have made a new friend. She walked up to her front door and rang the doorbell.
Her mom, Caroline, opened the door almost immediately. "Well, May, welcome home!" she greeted. "Why were you late today?"
"I was out eating ice cream with a new transfer student," May answered as she took off her coat.
"Well, e careful," Caroline warned. "You've seen how many girls have been 'interrogated' by men these few days, and men with guns!"
"Just weirdos scaring girls for no apparent reason," May said, shrugging, "And why would they pick me, of all people to 'interrogate'?"
"Well, just be careful!" Caroline warned once again. "You're father's still sick and I need to tend to him. Max is doing his homework in his room, so just don't make a lot of noise, okay? I don't need two grumpy males shouting at me that they can't hear themselves think, when they're obviously creating a bigger racket."
May giggled. "Don't worry Mom, I'm just going to watch TV," she reassured. "And I'll even turn the volume really low!"
Caroline disappeared back upstairs and May headed to the living room. She turned on the TV and plopped on the couch.
"News, nope." May said, channel surfing. "Teletubbies, nope. Ben 10, nope. Weird show, nope. Oh well, I'll just watch the music channel then."
"-please listen to the wonderful movements from Mozart, and-"
"Seriously, classical music?" May said incredulously. "Oh well, guess I'll listen to it for a little while."
She sat back and relaxed for the first time in that day. Listening to classical music always brought her peace. A second movement had just started playing when a faint sound disrupted her rest. May frowned and opened her eyes.
'That sound was… unnatural.' May thought. 'I wonder what happened? It sounds like something fell on the ground.'
May decided that Max had dropped his textbook on the floor or something, and continued listening peacefully to her music. Another disruption soon followed.
May could practically feel someone staring at her, and it didn't feel like her family members. That mystery person was most likely spying on her, and May fought to keep her breathing and her heartbeat going at an even pace.
'He, or she, doesn't know that I sense him/her,' May told herself, trying to quell the feeling of panic. 'But what if it's just someone from school? Oh yeah, they wouldn't be stealthily breaking into people's houses and spying on an average girl.'
She heard the faintest sound of the person moving, and suddenly, she was grabbed by her shoulders and roughly twisted around.
She looked at her attacker, eyes wide.
D mentally sighed. This girl was not going to meet the criteria. One, she was almost crying already. Two, she looked kind of cute. Blech. Three, he was pretty sure she was going to scream in the next half second.
She didn't.
D was quite amused. Every girl he came across would usually scream, or cry. This girl was just staring at him, terrified.
"What do you want?" she whispered.
"Well, if I really used all this time to sneak into your house, what do you think?" he said, tilting his head in amusement.
The girl's muscles didn't tense to claw out his eyes, or take a deep breath to scream. The girl just continued to stare at him.
'Okay, so this staring supposed to meet the criteria?' D thought. 'Well, at least she didn't scream yet.'
No one saw it coming.
A hardcover book travelled through the air and hit D square on the head. He reeled back, and the girl, or May, quickly used that time to being running up the stairs to her family.
D was still reeling from the attack and the shock of how the girl managed to attack him. He hadn't even seen her pick up the book.
'This means that I can stop searching for a girl now, I guess,' he thought as he quickly recovered and began his pursuit after May. He saw the girl trip on a stair and fall down. Her head hit the carpet with a loud thunk.
'Quite pathetic,' he thought, 'tripping down the stairs after managing to escape from me. At least she didn't see what happened to her family.' With that, he picked up May and slung her over his shoulder. Another man appeared from the garden, and the two males leapt into a black car with their prize and drove away.
"Well, well, well," a man said, pacing in a circle around May. "What do we have here?"
May was collapsed on the ground, still unconscious.
"Why is she unconscious?" the man barked at D.
"She fell down the stairs." D replied.
"And she's correct criteria because of that?" the man sneered.
"No, I chose her because she managed to hit me on the head with a book." D replied stiffly.
"Did you let her hit you?" the man asked, a sadistic smile playing at the corner of his lips.
D stood there for a little while before shaking his head.
"Well, D, I might have to question your position, then," the man said, "you're supposed to be the strongest throughout the world. But this girl certainly has some spark. For your punishment-"
D looked up, his eyes narrowing.
The man smirked at that. "For your punishment," he repeated, "You will be held back from any missions for a year. A hereby proclaim you as the mentor of this girl. So, have fun! Your new codename in M, by the way."
D, now known as M, looked down again. 'This is going to be a fun year,' he thought bitterly.
May stirred and finally woke up. She opened her eyes, just to find herself face-to-face with a guy in black shades. She gasped.
"Welcome, May." The man said. "You can call me A. You are in one of our training arenas, and don't try to escape. I'm afraid we've employed you as one of us, so have fun here." With that, he went through a doorway and disappeared.
May still looked confused from the huge lack of information the man gave her, and shakily stood up. She was still recovering from the shock of being kidnapped, and how…strange the guy was. As M neared her, she drew back, frightened.
"What do you want?" she said, tears welling up in her eyes. "Why did you kidnap me? Why did you bring me here? Why do you have green eyes? Why did you dye your hair that disgusting shade of green?"
M sighed. He really hated his new codename, and this girl was so downright annoying when she wanted to be. He was snapped out of his self-pity by a clunk on his head. And in exactly the same place where the book hit him. He winced.
"Hello?" May's angry voice rang through the arena. "Are you even listening to me?"
M smiled to himself. This girl certainly had a spark in her. He ignored her just to see what she would do.
May puffed out her cheeks in anger. M continued smirking and closed his eyes for a few seconds.
Bad idea.
Who knew girls could be that lethal when they were angry?
May went over to one of the flamethrowers. "What's this?" she said curiously and pressed the button. She melted a door off its hinges before M wrestled the flamethrower away from her.
"Stop it," he growled.
"If I stop, can I go home?" she said hopefully.
"No." M said, sighing. This girl was so bipolar, she was driving him mad. He kept a firm grip on her and led her to a room off one of the doorways. There was nothing special in the room, only a table and two chairs. This was actually the torture chamber, but M didn't tell May that.
"Let's start from the beginning. You are May Maple, correct?" M asked.
"Nope," May said cheerfully. "I'm a juicy pumpkin."
M glanced at the Lying Machine hidden in the wall. The pointer was still pointing at 'Truth'.
"What?" May said innocently. "That's my nickname."
'Gah, this girl has too much spark in her,' M thought. 'Though she can be a great assassin, at this rate, we won't get any progress. How can she act that well that it's completely unbelievable?'
"Are you fourteen?" M asked.
"Ye-No. Fourteen years and fifteen days." May answered. M pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Do you know where you are?" he asked, tired of the pointless interrogating.
"No, unless you tell me," May answered. She was keeping up her fake side for as long as possible.
M sighed, tapping his fingers on the table. "Stop acting like that, or we'll make you unable to talk for the rest of your life." From his belt he took out a long dagger, twirling it in his hand nonchalantly.
May eyed it warily. "Fine, I'll act 'normal', then." she said grumpily. "Can I go home if I do so?"
"You won't ever be able to go home, so stop asking." he snapped. M was getting annoyed of her in what, ten minutes? And he still had a year to go.
"Let's start with introductions. We are the corporation SLY. Put it in a different order, and we are LYS, or Let You Serve. Scramble up the letters for Let You Serve, and you'll get three words. Toy. Use. Revel. We toy with you, we use you, we kill you, then we revel in the prize we get from all that trouble. Simple?"
"You're assassins?" May looked horrified. She thought she was kidnapped by a weird street gang terrorizing girls, not those guys on TV.
"Yes. And you're going to be one in a year." M said.
"No." May said firmly. Kidnap her, bring her here then force her to be an assassin? They would never be able to do that.
"Would you prefer a memory wipeout, then?" M asked. "Then you'll be a cheerful slave, following all my orders. Which one will you choose?"
"How about Option C?" May suggested. "Just kill me instead."
"Why would you think that?" M asked curiously.
"Well, I'd rather die than kill other people," May answered.
"Nice answer," M replied, slightly amused, before continuing, "However, if you don't follow our commands, I'm afraid we'll have to kill your family." M was tired of the game he was playing, and went back into business. "Right now they are in custody, and beware of what you say and do. Their lives are at stake."
May seemed to be struggling with something inside her. Finally, she sighed in defeat. "Where do we start?" she asked quietly.
M smiled. They were finally getting somewhere.
May is acting OOC here. Well, she was pretending to be Dawn, then Misty. She didn't know that she was kidnapped by assassins, right?
And I'm pretty sure you know who 'M' (or 'D') is. I'll reveal what the codenames mean in the later chapters! Just have fun guessing while you're waiting! Or maybe you already know!
Sadly, Dawn and Misty won't be appearing for a while since this is a Contestshipping story, so enjoy the future chapters of May and Drew and we'll get back to them later.
Reviews are highly appreciated! Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions with me!
~KurunaGirl
