Kill him.

The high, cold voice rang out and the words it brought with it echoed around the chamber. The man to whom the voice belonged looked up from where he had been staring heatedly at something obscured by the shadows his body cast. This was his boss. This was the man who held money, power, and, indeed, all the cards. A sharp, metallic sound was heard as the man slowly drew a knife previously sheathed in his belt. The grating scrape seemed deafening in the absolute silence. He held it for a moment, weighing it with both mind and eye, contemplating it. And then his face contorted, his body twisted, and with sudden force, the knife was slammed down into the table. The knife had penetrated the thick oak from which the table had been made from, but more importantly, it had also pierced through something else, something that looked like a picture of a man. This was his target. The one his boss would want dead. The one he would have to kill. Kill him. The man to whom his boss was referring to had had the knife stuck through his picture dead center, so that it looked as though he had a rather peculiar nose that started off thin and widened, ending in a very large and ostentatiously adorned hilt. Naturally, he wanted to know more about his target, but his boss had never revealed any more information than was absolutely necessary. He was a professional, and was expected to act as such. He retrieved the picture and turned to his employer. With a nod and a bow from the hip, he walked slowly backwards until he reached the dark corridor that led to the outside world, away from the cold, dark metal of the enclosed room his employer seemed to reside in. The corridor led to the great expanse that lay just outside, where citizens milled about on their daily routines, bustling about their trivial, bothersome chores, blissfully and completely unaware of his menacing intentions. The warmth of the sun on his back and the sights, sounds, and smells of the quayside open-air market outside the building were juxtaposed with the shadowy darkness hed just emerged from, a disparity so sharp and so distinct that it was disorienting. A whiff of salty sea spray invaded his senses as the cool, stiff breeze billowed around him. Somewhere, a flag flapped in the brisk wind, snapping back and forth to the rhythm of the earths currents. His head spun as he wandered through the market, ruminating on the task at hand. Kill him. On his exit from the room, hed taken the photo of the man with him. He looked upon it now. The ragged edges of the photo were torn and tatty, having been through countless examinations. The marks

of hatred upon it were clear, as much by its scruffy nature as by the vertical slit through the center of it where the knife had been. Unexpectedly, a child screaming in ecstasy stumbled across his path, cutting him off, breaking off his musings. He abruptly drew up short and stopped just in time, teetering on his toes before regaining balance. The small girl looked up with startled and fearful eyes and dropped a small package shed been holding. His hardened expression of contemplation softened at the sight of her alarmed appearance, and he bent down to pick up the package shed dropped. As he handed it back to her, a spark jumped the gap between their fingers, like an impulse racing through synapse in a neuron. He felt the spark travel down the length of his arm, settling in his torso, near his heart, and he felt it ignite something within him. As he stood there, arm outstretched halfway through his act of decency, the spark grew. The winds of the sea blew in and around him, fanning the small but growing flames. And for a moment, as she grasped the package, their fingers touched, and fire burst forth, roaring in ferocity, melting away the exterior of the cold, professional killer hed built around himself, dousing him in cold but refreshing water, awakening his mind, washing away his mistakes. And suddenly, he began to question himself. What hed done. What hed been doing. What hed done with his life. These thoughts whirled around him, as did his world. Reeling with realization, his world swum and spots danced at the corners of his vision. Through hazy eyes, he saw pavement rushing up before him, and before hed fully understood what was happening, he felt a sharp pain on the top of his skull, and darkness consumed him.