Assassin's Loss
A/N Nope, I'm not dead, I just needed a nice break from the Fan fiction circuit.
That, and I have a lovely net Girlfriend who is a little distracting, but I love her anyways.
All right kids, with that, I bring you Chapter eight
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Chapter 8 – Dreams of an Assassin
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There she was again.
There he was again.
It was of course happening again, just as it had every night prior to tonight.
But…
Tonight was different, tonight…I was standing there, and no longer was he talking to Nino, No longer was she accepting him.
Or…was she? Was it Nino? Or was it…?
"Jennica?" I say aloud.
But it's not, it's not Nino, and it's not Jennica, it's both of them, both of them fused into a single body somehow.
And then there is blackness.
There is the thief I struck down, another regular visitor to my dreams, the woman that Matthew was in love with, the woman I killed without a second thought.
But her face, again, it wasn't her, wasn't Leila, but was that strange Nino/Jennica fusion, her face contorted with horror as the knife he held penetrated her neck, scarlet ribbons spraying from it, falling to the ground in what almost seems like slow motion.
The woman falls; blood is on the ground, on me, on my dagger.
And I'm smiling.
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I jolt awake, as if seeing a demon reaching for me to kill me in my sleep, but there is nothing around but a still sleeping Jennica, I glance around, there is really no way to tell time, it's still dark out, I can tell that from the holes in the cave, no light besides the moon is shining in.
"What the hell was that…?" I mutter to myself.
Since I young age, I had rarely dreamed, not about the people I killed, not about women, and certainly not about the two of them together.
Since Nino started melting my soul, I'd have a dream from time to time, sometimes good, sometimes bad.
But none like that.
This is the first I'd call a nightmare.
I stand and walk to the spring, washing my face and trying to rid myself of that image, that image of me grinning like someone having the time their lives.
When I killed Leila, I had not smiled, I hadn't smiled for any kill I made, and they were all indifferent to me.
Why did that nightmare show otherwise?
I move back to the place I'd been sleeping, it was still warm from my body heat.
"Guilt I suppose…" I say, thinking aloud, "Guilt for what I have done…and what I fear I will do…"
Jennica stirs, and I feel that I should shut up before I wake her.
"But what do I have to be guilty about? Besides the people I've already killed? Why would I hurt Nino or Jennica? Why are they in my dreams in the first place?" I think.
Nino, makes sense, after all, she had stolen his heart, and ran off with someone else before he had the chance to tell her.
But what about Jennica, how does she fit into it?
I look over at the girl wonderingly, she looks tranquil, serene, peaceful, she certainly doesn't look like a girl who had been molested by her father, lost a mother, and was almost raped less than 36 hours ago.
I barely know her really, but I shutter to think what would have happened to her if I hadn't come along.
Would she have died? Probably, there was no one else on the path, and none of those guys were going to have a change of heart, I could tell that.
Jennica shivers, the cloak I had let her borrow had fallen off her small frame, I get up and put it back on her, then return to my spot.
I sigh, I know I should try to sleep, if I don't I won't be worth a damn in a fight.
But for some reason, the prospect disturbs me; I don't want to see that again.
But a long day, and several hard fights win out, my eyes start to drift closed.
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I'm in a house, it's not huge, but hardly small either, there are shouts, muffled words from another room, I walk around, trying to figure out just where I am, when I see in the kitchen of the home, a couple, a beautiful woman with long blond hair that reaches past her shoulders, and a red haired man, he has a knife in his hand, he's shouting something, I can't make out, like the whole world is fuzzy to me, the sound inaudible.
The woman is trying to stay calm, the man looks insane with anger, he swings the knife, barely missing the woman's tender looking neck, he follows it up with a punch to her face, knocking her to the ground.
My eyes widen, and I reach for my daggers, when I realize that I have no daggers to reach for.
The man follows her to the ground, the woman says something in protest, and the man raises the knife.
Blood.
Blood everywhere, coming from the woman's soft skin in the middle of her throat, it spills and gushes over the kitchen floor like red paint over an old wall by a lazy painter.
The man looks shocked, shocked at what he has done to her, he stairs at the knife in his hand, and he is shaking.
Another man, a bulky, bandit looking man, comes in and gasps, the men exchange words, and then they carry her out of the house.
I turn and walk out of the room, disgusted at what I have seen, willing myself to wake up, I walk down the hall, my legs seeming to move themselves now, I open a door in the hallway and there is a child.
A small blond child, I know who it is in an instant, a small Jennica, her arms are wrapped around her pillow and she is squeezing it tightly, her eyes trace up to me and she gasps, "What are you doing here!" She shouts, not in a child's voice, but the voice of the woman I've come to know as Jennica.
All at once there is blackness.
All at once I'm awake.
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I open my eyes and see that Jennica is awake, staring at me with wide-eyed horror, "What were you doing there?" She asks fearfully, "What were you doing in my dream?" her voice is a tremor, she sounds like a child asking about the boggy man.
"I…don't know Jennica…" I mutter, for some reason I feel ashamed, like an intruder, even thought I had no control over where I went when I fell asleep.
She is shaking uncontrollably; she tries to stop and partly succeeds.
"Maybe…I pulled you in…mom and I used to have dreams where we talked…and we both remembered them in the morning…it's a seer power…but never one I mastered…"
"I'm sorry…" I mutter, looking away from her.
"What…did you see there Jaffar…I know you…were down there…what…happened?" She asks, sounding scared, but also wanting to know, "I've had that dream…at least once a week…ever since mom died…but…but I never come out of my room…all I hear is the sounds…"
I shake my head, "Then you know what happens…" I close my eyes; the woman's horror stricken face is burned into my retinas.
"Please…Jaffar…I need to know…" Jennica sobs a little, her eyes tearing up.
"The man…kills the woman…and another man shows up later…and they drag her off…" I say, giving her the short, slightly cleaner version of what I saw.
She regards me for a moment, taking in the shortness of what I said, and how my tone was neutral as I said it, "…Yeah…I thought as much…" She says softly, curling into a ball, her arms wrapped around her legs near her chest, "I…I always knew…"
I stay silent, it is her past she is dealing with, and it's none of my business.
"You should try to sleep a little longer Jennica…we'll both need our strength tomorrow." I say after an extended silence.
"You're right." She says after a moment, turning and laying down against the rock again.
It's not long before she is asleep, and I follow shortly after.
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Again, sorry for being GONE for so long, I'm going to try and pick up the writing trip again.
