Interlude

The window in her bedroom was wide open to let a cool breeze into the over-heated room but it was futile. The hot summer air from the cloudless day still hung over her bed like a blanket. Uncomfortable she threw herself from one side to the other kicking her blanket away in the process. Sleep just wouldn´t come to her like so often. Her mind never shut up.

Thoughts twisting their way to the surface of her sleepy brain keeping her from drifting off. Hazel eyes stared at the ceiling tracing patterns in the wood. Sometimes when she wasn´t able to relax and all attempts to finally fall asleep were in vain she would read to distract herself but tonight she didn´t feel much like reading at all.

Tonight her father had told her about her future about the plans that her mother and he had made for her. At nights like this she dreaded being born in a family like hers and wished for a more or less normal life as pathetic as it sounded to her own ears; though she knew whenever she´d been at other kid´s houses (which had been very few times) and had met their families she felt that she didn´t belong there either. The way the parents kept staring at her whenever she´d said something, monitored every movement as if she was a threat to their children had made her sad the first few times.

Now however she was used to people´s stares and the wariness in their eyes. Many times she´d wished to be ordinary, fatuitous like everyone around her, things seemed to be much easier on their side. Being far too smart for one´s age wasn´t easy. After a few years she´d figured out why they acted like they did around her and had decided friends weren´t necessary just an obligation to seem at least a bit more normal.

At a very young age she´d started to develop a perfect mask for the outside world. School was another obligation her parents forced her to follow up to in order to keep appearances. In school she was a nerdy kid with long brown hair with too much red to it, always sitting in the back, keeping to herself but having people to talk to, loners always get too much unwanted attention, just answering when the teachers asked her but if they did she would give the perfect answer so she´d maintained excellent grades.

Sometimes kids started to bully her and once after a fight at her old school where she´d broken the bully´s nose, she´d learned that her parents didn´t like that kind of attention. Questions like: `why can your daughter break someone´s nose with a precise punch?' weren´t appreciated. They´d moved shortly after. Again.

Her mind lingered on the conversation with her father; she repeated it over and over to get every angle of it.

"It is time to talk about your future. Your mother and I have plans you should learn about." Her father sat at the table close to the fireplace cleaning guns. Genna was unwilling and would rather do something else but she obliged and sat down opposite to her father.

"Genna, you know what your sister is going to do? She´s good with rifles, perfect eyesight, great aim, you? Not so much but you´re a clever girl, too clever if ya ask me." Genna rolled her eyes and sighed. "I will never be as good with guns as Yasmine is and I most certainly do not want to become anything like a stupid sniper assassin for hire."

"In our line of work we do as we´re told, we sell our skills, we follow orders. You´re not good at that, either." Genna just sat there and stared into the fire through a curtain of her hair with her arms crossed defiantly in front of her.

"No, you are destined to do greater things, Genna. Your mother and I think you should complete your training as Yasmine and when you´re ready and old enough open up your own business to sell and coordinate our kind of work."

"By own business you mean criminal business! And if I don´t want to? If I want to be … something else?" Her father put the rug down that he´d just used to polish a hand-gun.

"Genna don´t be stupid, doesn´t suit ya! Discussion is over for now, this is no voting and this is not a democracy." With that he got up and left into the kitchen where her mother was cooking dinner. For some time Genna just sat at the table and pouted. Her sister had been thrilled to say the least when her parents had revealed their plans for her future. Genna couldn´t understand why anyone would be thrilled to hear she would become an assassin for hire. How dreadfully boring.

A creaking noise from the stairs ripped her from her thoughts. Yasmine must be returning from her night out of the prison. She was only a few years older than Genna and was allowed to do what she wanted because she did always as she was told. Tonight she´d gone to a party at some popular kid´s house whose parents were out of town.

Genna listened to the low noises her sister made when climbing up the stairs. Easily she had memorized all the different types and sounds of the movements of her family and that was why she knew immediately that something was wrong, that something had happened. The pattern of her sister´s steps was out of place, sounded changed somehow. Swiftly she jumped out of her bed and stumbled over clothes on the floor towards her door. There she hesitated for a second not entirely sure she wanted to know or see what would greet her in the small hallway. Slowly she turned the doorknob and opened the door a bit. She had to blink a few times out here it was much darker than in her room. Without thought she whispered her sister´s name into the darkness but got no answer. Her bare feet made no sounds on the wooden floor as she left her room and sneaked into the hallway where she could finally make out the form of her sibling. "Yasmine?" Her voice sounded unsure and tiny. "Are you alright?" Genna didn´t want to wake her parents.

"Go back to bed!" Her sister´s voice was harsh but there was another quality to it like voices sound when one had cried.

Genna didn´t follow her sister´s order she never did and took a few steps closer until she could see her better and she looked indeed horrible. At the sight of her sister Genna inhaled a sharp breath before she laid her hand on her shoulder. The blouse from her school uniform was torn and a bad bruise covered her right eye Genna could detect dried and wiped away blood on her bottom lip and more bruises on her wrists and thighs but those were mostly covered by the rim of her navy skirt. Clues transformed into deductions and though Genna was only nearly twelve she knew what all those could mean, must mean.

Very early Genna had come to realize that she lacked what other people called empathy, often she had been called cold-hearted or worse but it wasn´t quite true she did have feelings but didn´t care to show them because of their obvious uselessness. Right now she wished that she was unable to feel anything because she was horrified, scared, angry, sad and utterly helpless.

"Yasmine? What-what happened?" Her voice was an even more tiny whisper that cracked at the end and became a sob. Yasmine didn´t react. Genna´s small hand took her sister´s and she walked her into her bedroom at the end of the hall. Her sister didn´t try to resist the leading of her sister.

Yasmine told her not to say a word to her parents and refused to leave her room for the next two days. Her parents didn´t seem to care or notice the odd behavior of their daughter so Genna felt the need to do something on her own. It took her only one day of investigation to find out who was involved and who the leader of the group was. Three boys from their school. The followers didn´t matter, the leader however did. Genna had hated him before and everything he stood for but with what he had done now… Yasmine had repeatedly refused Genna´s attempts to convince her to go to the police and Genna couldn´t deal with the helplessness she was experiencing.

Carl Powers was his name, one of the popular kids all the girls liked him but yet he preferred to hurt her sister.

The next morning after the weekend was as hot as the last two days had been. Genna walked from their cottage to school with the intention to confront Powers. Patiently she waited in front of the boy´s locker-room of the swimming-pool. She counted the boys who left the locker until she was sure only one remained. Before she´d watched the swimming exercise and had seen Powers to be the last one in the pool, she´d learned that he was training for a competition next week. The heels of her leather shoes clicked on the tiles and echoed from the walls as she entered the locker-room.

"Who´s there?" Carl Power´s voice came from the back of the room two rows of lockers between them. Genna didn´t answer before she reached the final row and had turned it to face him. The boy was already wearing his school uniform, trousers and shirt. He turned towards the sound and saw a small girl standing there.

"Hey! This is the boy´s room! Get lost!" Genna didn´t move and regarded him with cold eyes.

"Carl Powers, I came to understand you know my sister?" Carl raised an eyebrow he was much taller than her, strongly build and she was sure that she couldn´t fight him but she needed to do this regardless. He turned back to his bag and continued to pack it.

"And who are you?"

"Doesn´t really matter, does it? You know my sister that´s all that matters."

Now he stopped and turned back towards her. "What do you want?" He was irritated and took a few steps in her direction. An intimidation Genna was sure usually worked just fine but she didn´t react, didn´t flinch what seemed to confuse him.

"You hurt my sister and I came to tell you that you have two options." With every word she took a step closer and was now half a circle around him while he followed her with his eyes. "Option one: You will turn yourself in to the police and your buddies." She emphasized the last word with a bitter tone. "Or option two: you will pay for what you did." Genna stood close to Powers and whispered the last words.

But Powers only laughed. "And you will do what exactly? You are just a girl!" Genna didn´t answer just stood there and stared up. "And you´re obviously crazy." Still Genna did neither react nor answer. Powers grew more and more irritated until he snapped. He pushed the girl into the metal lockers. "Here is a proposal for you! Go to hell!" His forearm pressed against her neck and to his horror she didn´t react in any way, she didn´t even cry out when her back hit the metal. "Your sister is a filthy whore and got what was coming to her!" He was screaming now but let her go and to grab her hair instead and drag her out of the locker-room towards the pool.

Genna felt the panic rising in her chest; her fingernails scratched his arm and hand as she tried to free her hair from his violent grasp. Of course this meant option two if he wouldn´t drown her in the pool.

And then the cool water of the pool was all around her she tasted chlorine, it hurt her wide open eyes, her lungs burnt with the desperate need for air. Dark wisps of hair floated around her face her school uniform got heavier, ever so slowly her vision got blurry. For all that she still didn´t struggle and that freaked Carl Powers out. He would have liked to drown that little bitch right here.

Fear pumped through her veins it felt like ice and took everything of her not to struggle. Tears floated from her wide eyes and Genna was more than happy he couldn´t see it. All her life she´d never felt so scared and helpless. Everything started to hurt, her muscles contracted and her lungs burnt even more. Finally she couldn´t hold her breath anymore. Water entered her nose and mouth forcing its way down her trachea. The pain was overwhelming and her consciousness began to float away.

Eventually he let go.

Genna´s hands sought hold on the rim of the basin and she barely managed to pull herself up. Coughing and retching she lay prone for a few minutes on the cold tiles before she managed to drag herself up and stumble away from the dreadful pool. 'Option two it is.'

The first murder, the first attempt in anything is always a very special occasion. Some people liked to jump into the cold water without thinking or hesitation, a reckless behavior and not one that suited Genna. In every matter she preferred careful planning and testing beforehand. Approach a new subject from every angle, learn everything about it, investigate and validate every option even failure. Don´t forget to consider possible consequences. With all that done pick the right time and place, be prepared and in this specific case: don´t get caught.

Completely drenched Genna walked home that afternoon ignoring the strange looks people gave her on the way and the horrible burning sensation in her lungs. She realized that her hands were trembling not from cold it was far too hot but from anger. The cottage was already in sight when she decided to go to her favorite place. An old tree close by the cottage was perfect for climbing and Genna loved to climb it whenever she felt out of her usual balance. Her small fingers dug into the bark of the old tree. The rough texture of the bark grazed her skin on her fingers and on her bare legs but she didn´t care. On a particular high but still broad branch she rested watching the sun. Her school-uniform had started to dry and the anger began to sooth. Finally she was able to clear her mind from the searing anger, it was no use working on a plan to murder someone with an occupied mind. She had a natural ability to suppress and ignore pain so this didn´t influence her thoughts. A neat plan practically constructed itself in a few hours with her newly required background knowledge of Carl Powers she´d discovered during their meeting in the locker-room.

Patience was a difficult trait but Genna managed to wait for the right time. And when the time came it was all so easy. Child´s play.

After the deed was done Genna realized a few things about herself she didn´t particular appreciate. For one she didn´t feel remorse not one bit, no regret at all. The second thing she hated more than the fact that she wasn´t capable to regret, was the idea that settled in her mind. The wish to become something else than what her parents were, was shattered into pieces. Her path was pretty much settled from that day on.

A little time passed, the incident with the poor kid that drowned in the pool was all over the news though no one discovered it was more than a tragic accident. No one except for a boy. Genna had started to overhear the police scanners when one night she heard some police men laughing about a boy who´d repeatedly called the station claiming the swimming-pool accident was in fact a murder. Genna sat up straight in her bed to her wonder she wasn´t scared to be exposed no one would believe that boy but … excited.

It took only a little effort to recover the name from that particular boy.

One person in the whole wide world saw the murder. Someone was out there just as smart as she was. A boy called Sherlock Holmes. And one day she would find him and play a game with him, a game so sophisticated, so brilliant, so mind-blowing he would never forget and she was certain he would just love that.