Mirror

City of Caleria, an unclear time of the night.

While the center of the city was full of people visiting shops and out for dinner, the city hid its criminality in the abandoned buildings that constellated the city's perimeter.

It was known, of course, but there is nothing the citizen could do about it, as to their unknown the criminals were helped by very high corporates which used them for their own goals, even acting like they were workers under the precise orgnizzation.

In particular, an abandoned hotel in front of a lake. Its entrance was facing the lake, while the back stared at the lights of the city at night.

The inside of the hotel was of course silent. It already was empty at day, why wouldn't it be at night too? Well, soon, it changed.

Not clear noises, followed by a voice, suddenly filled the hotel up with sound.

"So, did you hear about the deal with the boss?"

"Yeah, he's gonna be in the room for a while. That's what happens when you try to sell him to somebody you don't even know"

"I don't know about you, but I do believe the guy should have been executed right here and now, head off."

"What? No way dude. It's too quick"

"Who cares? We are risking our asses by taking more time."

"He's filming this one. It has to be sent to the big leader later to show everything is fine and good."

"Wouldn't the head alone be enough, as a sign of safety?"

The two men heard a scream coming from inside the room they were guarding.

"You know how the group is. They are constantly afraid of being betrayed so if one actually does. . ."

"I guess you are right then, the Circle after all has clear methods it follows no matter what."

"Anyway, I think we should be done soon. I can't wait to leave this abandoned hotel and go back home to my private pool."

The guy suddenly stopped speaking and made a sign to the other to be silent.

As they started listening, the sound of heavy steps started filling the hallway, which at first might have felt like the place just falling apart, but it was quickly confirmed to be actually steps.

At almost midnight, in an abandoned building.

The guy looked at the other, his expression slightly, but only slightly, worried.

"Did you hear that noise??”

The other guy hoped his companion was not gonna say anything, meaning that was just a sound that actually didn't exist and he simply tricked himself.

"Of course I did." The other answered, loading up his gun.

The second person pointed the torch with the left hand to the end of the hallway.

It was extremely dark, because of the time, and because the place clearly had no way of letting any form of light from the outside in, as the windows were shut to avoid weather ruining the inside of the building.

Just as a slight sense of fear started forming in them, the sense of unsafety from the place and the terrible anxiety forming from the wait gave life to their terror right in front of them.

A human shape slowly took form in front of them, leaving both of them speechless.

The figure of a young woman walking towards them finally became visible, and it gave them creeps, despite its very slow movements.

One man gave in to the fear for a moment and shaked.

It couldn't be a normal person at this time of the night, right? And a police worker wouldn't have been here, alone, without torches and just walking around like nothing. . .

Was it a ghost? What sane human would ever be singing at this hour of the night in an abandoned hotel?? This question kept hammering their brains.

There was no sound coming from the figure outside of their steps on the cold and filthy floor.

"HEY YOU! STOP MOVING AND GET ON YOUR KNEES, OR I WILL SHOOT!”

The girl just kept advancing, and was now only 10 meters away from them.

A bluish color had made itself visible to the two men where her pupils were supposed to be. The idea that she was a ghost felt more and more like a true possibility, as every second passed.

A minute, maybe two or even three passed, and the moving figure didn't stop, now creeping closer than ever.

The armed guy reached his limit of tolerance. He was starting to get scared of such a defying attitude despite the conditions, so without telling anything else, he shot. The two of them saw the girl fall back, hitting the floor.

The bullet must have hit her hard, they thought, since the body was now back 10 meters away from them. . . Or that confirmed her moving was just part of their imagination. But they didn't even want to try and think about that, and rather focused on the pool of blood which was forming on the floor, under her body.

"Go ahead and tell the boss I am done for tonight, for my sanity sake. This place is giving me the creeps and it's way too unsafe here now.”

The other man pointed at him with the torch.

"S-Sure. Go on and make sure she's dead, will you?”

The other man let down a gulp and felt the fear finally leave his body as a false sense of courage filled him.

“Tsk, o-of course I will go check her. After all, it's just a dead corpse. Nothing easier.”

The man started walking to the body, taking slow and well calculated steps. Once he was finally close he let out a wimp.

"I asked to NOT be bothered," a voice inside the room asked “is that so much to ask??”

The guy that remained behind answered back, with a subtle tone of annoyance.

"Boss. . . We are getting tired here and I think we just killed a homeless person that lived here or something like that. Are you done with the video to send to the Circle?”

"Yeah, almost, give me a moment. Open your eyes man, come on!” he ended up asking the guy inside the room with him.

Meanwhile the other man reached the body and pointed the torch at it, his fingers tightly grabbing onto his single light source.

It looked like it was a young woman, with short black hair, not really well kept at all.

And while she didn't seem to have any kind of sense of good clothing, the guy was now convinced she definitely was not homeless nor a police worker.

So that begged the question, what was she doing here? And why didn't she listen to them, if she was here by mistake?

He slowly kneeled down and looked at her. The bullet had gone right through her forehead and ended her in a single moment. Maybe she didn't even suffer, he thought.

“Well, that's it. Should have opened her ears at last.”

Not without letting out a relieved sigh, he turned around and started walking back to his position.

A sudden cough froze the man through his way back, and at first refused to even turn around.

He waited as he heard more noises coming from behind him. Did he make a mistake and blinded himself into thinking he hit her in the forehead when maybe he didn't?

He didn't want to turn around and check. He really did not desire to, but he couldn't risk her escaping, could he?

His ally finally left the room and looked at his colleague, who he was expecting to be ready to leave. . . But instead he was standing halfway in the hallway, while not moving at all.

“Okay, the video is done. Goodbye.” The boss left the room too, after cleaning the bare minimum to hide his traces, and as he came out he was expecting his men to have already left, after all they seemed to be very scared and tense, and it was very late at this point for them to keep working.

His face lost color as he heard a scream, a scream so loud it froze his blood. He had never heard such a sound come out from a human, not even while being tortured.

But the scariest part was that, despite how the scream was morphed, he could understand who was letting it out.

As he stopped forward in the dark hallway he was wondering why he let them go off. Now he was alone, alone and in the dark, so if there was actually a threat. . .

No way! He shouldn’t think about that now, after all the only issue had been gotten rid off by them. But still, he heard that scream, right? Well it could have been a hallucination from the fear, and it would have been of very much comfort now knowing if that was actually the truth.

Suddenly, a figure came forward in the darkness. The man took a step back, taken by a moment of fear. He had his fingers on his gun already, but luckily he held himself back! In fact, it was totally not a monster, but rather a human that was in front of him now.

A human he also knew very damn well.

"BRIAN."

He called.

“Brian, damn you, was it needed to scare me like that? I was so sure you two had gone home, after all I gave you the permission. . .Oh, you have the torch with you. That’s great news. . . where is Mike?”

The man started looking around, and thanks to the torch he was for sure able to see much better than before.

But the other man, Brian, fell to his knees, taking the light away.

“Boss, my boss, we are not safe here! The pay back for what we have done in our life has finally arrived and. . .it’s here to kill us”

The man sighed. “Brian, you are just tired. I don’t know what you are talking about. Come on now, make some light so we can both go home, whaddya say?”

Brian got up, looking defeated, and pointed the torch down.

The man in front of him was about to scold him for not making enough light around, but as he opened his mouth Brian let out a scream of absolute terror.

As the man’s eyes lowered, it became clear what had happened. A hand had stabbed right through the man's gut, and in front of his view had also pulled out from behind. Brian fell backward and was pushed to the side by a woman looking entity. Had he left the room before when they were talking about her, maybe he would have saved himself.

The young woman, who had stolen the gun from the other man, shot at the torch.

The man started running, screaming in fear.

His only hope of survival was leaving that damn hotel before that terrifying thing reached him, because yes, to top it off it was now following him.

Judging by the sound of her breath and steps she was definitely a human, but no way he’d stop behind to ask her!

He ran through the hallway and as the way divided he had to gamble which was the actual way out of that hell. He picked right.

And as he turned right, he realized he had made a grave mistake. Indeed, after some stairs, where every step was echoed by the girl, who surprisingly hadn’t shot anymore, he arrived on the rooftop.

The lights of the city welcomed his view, and it was definitely an amazing sight. But not this time, and mostly not for him.

He turned around, pulled out his gun, and using said lights waited for the enemy to come out from where he had arrived.

And as she did, he saw her right in the face.

Her blue eyes did not speak, they screamed. For fear, not because they felt it, but because they set it in him.

It was just like when, as a kid, one sees a movie that he shouldn’t, and from that point on the look of the monster is stuck forever in their soul.

This situation was just a mimicry of that, with a single difference.

He was much quicker than her. And as she walked to reach him, he shot her in the head.

He dropped to his knees, tears falling from his eyes, from the exaggerated emotions he had just gone through. It was like a spirit, an actual one, had just hunted him. It was a terrible feeling which remained attached to him for about some minutes, before he pulled out his phone.

“A-Am I speaking to the Circle Member? Great, just great. I know you said to search for a girl of some kind, correct. . .

Oh yes, black hair, blue eyes, around 20 years old. Well, it’s our lucky night.

Not only did I find her, but I killed her! Just amazing! A single clear shot nobody has ever seen like this!

Uh? I am sorry, I am not following you. . .Immortal? I am sorry?”

A gunshot hissed, and he had to drop his phone.

He looked at his hand, and then his jaw dropped to a thousand pieces.

The girl had gotten back up, and was now rubbing her face, seemingly in pain.

The man screamed in fear, the feeling of danger back in control of his soul, as the enemy stood in front of him.

Again the eyes, two natural blue sources of nightmares, stared at him.

A memory, about a documentary he had seen as a kid, telling him blue was the natural color for danger in nature, echoed in his whole body like mid day bells.

Barely ten seconds passed, and nothing had happened. Rightfully, the man suddenly broke in half from the tension, and all fear inside him escaped.

"YOU!!! WHat THE HELL are YOU?! A ZOMBIE?! A SPIRIT?!"

"Shut up can you?"

The girl answered, she did sound quite annoyed.

"W-What is it that you want from me then??"

The girl sat on her knees, now just barely away from the man.

“Information, kindly, about the man you were talking to before.”

“No can do, not about him!”

The man was sweating. He felt his life rushing in his mind, as sweat filled his clothes and pain in his body.

"Mister Edward Hamin, can you fly?"

The girl asked, still sounding incredibly calm.

"E-Eh? What? No! What do y-"

The girl then proceeded to grab him by the arms, and move him off the roof.

The man had no more screaming left in him, it was like his throat had been swallowed by a wild beast.

After some minutes the girl left him up, and looked him again in the eyes.

“Did that man say something about leaving? Escaping perhaps? Anything, tell me anything.”

The man put his hands together.

“YES! YES, HE JUST TOLD ME! HE’S GONNA LEAVE WITH A TRAIN, TOMORROW!”

“It wasn’t so hard remembering something he just told you, was it? Good man, I think I could let you go. I really could.”

Edward felt a sphere of guilt being swallowed and spit back out of his stomach.

That kind of behavior. . . it was typical of him. He had used it against the man in the room, and it was his way of being a bully in general.

Make hope grow for one more moment before cutting it heartlessly.

“But let me ask again, Edward. Can you fly?”

Not even a few minutes later, and the girl was leaving downstairs the building, knowing tomorrow was gonna be a very long day.

She almost ignored the red spot which the fall of a body had created on the ground in front of the entrance of the building.

She didn’t smile, nor felt proud about it, but after all he deserved it, he deserved it like almost every man she had killed while in pursuit of her goal. She wondered with all the blood she had shed, how many pools could have been filled.

Probably many, she came to this result.

She put her hands in her jacket's pockets and walked on a street which eventually joined with the main one in the city. It was such a beautiful starry night and a lot of people were outside, enjoying dates and dinners with friends. It didn’t matter that it was late! It really didn’t! Nor did it matter what she had just done. Outside of very specific people in this city nobody knew the battle that had taken place in the side they refused to fix despite all the laws on it.

Nothing like the city she had lived in so many many years ago. There, all the old geezers would have complained so much the hotel was gonna be back in use in about a week. But what could she do? This city, for how beautiful and lovely it could be at night, still couldn’t be her city.

She walked and walked, taking her time before going back to her apartment, mumbling songs over songs, never being able to remember how they ended. She should have asked her sister about some of them, as it was an extreme bother not knowing their end.

She tried to look up at the sky, but once she reached the centre of the city the multiple skyscrapers started to cover up such a starry view. And, as this wasn’t enough, a final joke from the sky popped off, and snow started coming down.

She sighed, as the white came down with a gentle swing. She didn’t care it was cold, no it wasn’t that the rub, her problem was that now the sly was completely covered up.

Defeated in all ways, she focused on her way back home, with no more distractions in the way.

Finally reaching the apartment she was staying at, she opened the door and took the jacket off, throwing it on the couch, showing she had no respect for order whatsoever.

From an outside look it could have been very hard to tell that the apartment was currently being used.

he kitchen had not been used at all, and the table and the chairs were all still in their place. The bedroom was full of unpacked clothes, all the same over and over again black shirt and shorts, forever in a seemingly endless circle.

Her shirt was all red blood, which had come out for the hits she had taken before. Not a problem to her in reality, after all just how the circle of clothes showed, it was just the usual!

Same dresses everyday, no doubts in mind.

She entered the bathroom and started undressing, looking at herself in the mirror.

Her eyes saw the reflection of a girl who wasn't just shot multiple times, but instead just a normal young woman. She wanted to smile, smile at her reflection

. . . But she didn't feel like it. Maybe she felt some form of remorse and like she had lost the actual meeting. Maybe, just maybe, she was supposed to stop killing others. . . Maybe, no, very likely, there must have been a pacific solution to her troubles. . . But where was it? And at this point. . . She was killing criminals. They deserved it, no?

She turned on the water of the bath and set it to warm, and stared at the liquid slowly come out, filling the bath.

After a few minutes she layed in the warm liquid which, once fully submerged in, started to create a sense of comfort no piece of clothing ever gave her, and it finally felt good to be home.

Or well, they could reach such a level of warmth inside, but that would have meant they needed to be full of warm blood and it usually meant she couldn't rest in such a position.

As the warmth of the body of water met her body, the girl was met with a sense of tiredness and her eyes struggled to be kept open, and she felt like the bath was begging her to sink in and leave the rest outside. Tomorrow was a big day, and now was time to rest.

It was a matter of seconds before she fell asleep completely, more or less at the same time as the police found the bodies of the men who had been killed by her not even an hour before.

Time was indeed moving on.

As her mind drifted through the warmth of the bath, time passed by, going from 1 am to reach 2 am.

Terrible and unlucky time in her village tradition!

After all, that is the time when kids who don't sleep are said to be kidnapped by the boogieman. Such incredible traditions she loved so much.

About that time, the girl's eyes opened wide. She got up, grabbed the first towel she found and wrapped it around herself.

“Boogie Man, not what I expected but. . . I guess traditions are always right, ain't them?”

She then stepped out of the bathroom and listened carefully. Her feet were met by the cold ground, and a slight sign of annoyance was readable on her face. Just slight.

After all the problem was now another and went very much past some cold ground, no doubt about it.

She was not alone in her house, not anymore.

Just barely, very softly, a sound which wasn't common to her, made her aware of her now terrible company.

She glanced over at the kitchen, and having left the chairs in place, as well as everything else, from the table to the rest, suggested nobody had moved them off and the way was open to her.

As quick as she could be she went and grabbed a kitchen knife. She then stopped breathing to get a good listen of her house.

The sound of the water in the bathroom wasn't loud enough to distract her from hearing some sounds, which she could tell were voices coming from the room next to her, her bedroom.

Of all the rooms, they really had to finish in her bedroom! She sighed and started breathing again, knowing it was almost time to act.

"She's not there, damn.”

She heard the voice of the intruder and that gave her enemy the confirmation her enemy was a human like all others.

She quickly dashed to her bedroom, her feet quick in motion, where the person was searching up in her wardrobe.

The man must have thought she was hiding there.

Grave mistake!

She very rapidly charged forward and with a silent swing she swiped his legs with a kick and then stabbed his neck, as he let out a painful covered scream, as the sound couldn't make out of his throat.

What terrible scenery in her bedroom, she thought.

She then got on her knees and lifted his jacket up, searching for anything to indicate to his profile.

If they had found where she lived, they must have been sent by her enemy itself. Great chance of knowing more about them even before the big meeting.

"Hey you, stay still! Or I will make sure you stay still ever after!”

She realized she had made a mistake by considering the man to be all by himself. Indeed, another man, dressed just the same as the other, was right on the bedroom's door spot, holding a gun and aiming at her head, she could feel it.

“Turn around, slowly, with your hands up, and don't try any sudden move.”

She did as he asked and slowly but surely turned around, her hands up, without trying anything, for now, after all he had the upper hand now, right?

She stared at the man in silence, her blue eyes studying him as he tried to do the same, with little to no success.

"So it was right, you are the one that killed the leader of this city’s wing."

". . . What do you two want from me?"

She asked, despite knowing it was just one of them now.

"Well, we were paid to dispose of you, from the big one of the corporation.”

"That is. . . Awfully useful. I need to find that corporation anyway so I could consider this a sign that I am very very close.”

The man sighed while pointing at her head and got ready to shoot his bullet.

The young woman took a deep breath and waited, for a good few seconds.

The man shot her, about time, she thought.

The girl quickly reacted by throwing her kitchen knife, which she had been hiding using her left hand, and threw it at him, which blocked the bullet's trajectory with a terrifying precision.

Bare seconds later she was in front of the man and her hands set on his neck, not allowing him to scream nor breath. She tried to, with great and rapid success, to strangle him, so quickly the man could barely react, but he still managed to, with a giant struggle, and did it by punching her in the stomach multiple times, as hard and as full of hope of survival as he had to give. Just before his eyes closed, he grabbed the knife she had just used and stabbed her in the back, begging his luck to be enough to take her down and put himself on the winning side.

The girl didn't scream and instead threw the man against the wall, taking care of him for good, by breaking his neck for good.

She then fell to the floor, finally letting out a grunt of pain. Annoyed.

She started to struggle and crawl to the bathroom, with the knife hurting more and more with each movement. She looked like a hurt animal searching for a safe spot in the forest.

Once in the bathroom, she forced herself back up and pulled the knife out, just before falling back into the bath with her higher body. Her eyes immediately closed, as even this wound started to vanish really quickly.

Ring, ring and ring. Not even 15 seconds had passed and she had to push herself back up already. This night was a nightmare more than ever. Wet and covered in red, she staggered from the bathroom to the living room, which was on the other side of the apartment, letting out loud offenses, and got hold of her phone, answering the call without any goal of being kind now.

The timing was absolutely terrible, and after all it was getting very late and tomorrow she had to continue her mission on a train, a damn train.

Complete, absolute, hateable absence of sound from the other side. No voice came out from the cell phone and the young woman knew that if she spoke whoever was on the other side was gonna complain right after.

Like somebody forced the other side with all of their strength, or like when somebody is threatened with a gun, the other side finally spoke up!

Incredible! Awesome! Stupidly amazing, being excited for such an obvious event, which she had to wait for with such eagerness.

What she heard on the other side quickly changed her emotions, mixing them up and making her unsure on how to feel.

"Ohhhhhhh, ohhhhhh dear Mathilda! Up so late, your eyes must be in pain! Actually, if you are up now I bet your whole body is in pain, am I not right?

Anyway, in case your mind is, and I am ready to bet it is, having troubles understanding anything at all, this is your beloved sister, speaking up.”

Mathilda looked at the wound as it had left completely, healed up like it never happened.

She didn't even need to reply to the call apparently.

"Well, tomorrow I heard it’s gonna be a very, very, extremely hard day for you. I need you here you know, I hate being away from my sister, so since I know you also have to take the train. . . Let's say I managed to get yourself a seat awfully close to the guy you must be hunting. Since I am not sure though, you might be away from him as well.

But don't we all love a good old gamble? After all even if you are on the other side he won't be able to escape you will he?”

". . . Just"

"Juuuuust? Just what sister? Just make sure you get weapons? I can make sure of that, but-”

“Just let me get to rest now, I beg you. Tonight has been awful, they managed to make me get home late and even attacked me here. I need to rest or I won't be ready for tomorrow. . .”

“Fine I will just let you rest sister, I promise on my word. Oh, Amos just told me to make you aware we will be waiting for you at the city that you will arrive at. So be sure to kill that man and then we can have a meal together mh? It sounds pretty awesome to me.”

Mathilda didn't reply to the voice keeping her up at this hour.

“Fine, have a goodnight. See you tomorrow, or well, more like today, later, sister. Have a good rest! Or whatever you’ll do~”

Mathilda closed the call and put her phone on the table, without producing any sound from her mouth.

Not a sigh, not a grunt, not a complaint.

She had no force to express herself at this point anymore anyway.

She groggily took her steps forward, one single place she wanted to reach.

She finally joined the bathtub in the bathroom and laid down in it, about damn time she thought.

She closed her eyes, hugged herself and fell asleep in the warm water, now mixed with her own blood and what looked like tears.

She was finally at ease, at rest, at a terrible time of the night, but better late than never she embraced it.

It felt like nothing could hurt her anymore.

She felt invincible, protected by a layer of liquid keeping her away from the outside world, which right now was just the bathroom, but in a bigger perspective was the entire world.

She felt safe and warmly hugged, like a baby in their mother's womb.

Mathilda couldn't have wished for anything else right now.

Peace and calm, where the storm of death she herself caused finally could take a pause.

Blood had been raining non stop for years now. A rain caused by a cloud, whose name was Mathilda, it was her fault, always and ever. . .

Sometimes it felt so insane how her life had turned around in just about a few years, after what felt like endless times of peace.

She hated it, it disgusted her, she wanted to go back to much, but failed to express this, but what she hated even more is the good she felt despite what she did. She didn't deserve it, that's the thought that banged in her mind not allowing her to fall asleep.

"Those were people! Maybe criminals, but they had a family, kids and people they cared about! Who gave me the right to do such a thing?!"

Thing is, she didn't care about such questions while doing it, and it was nothing more than an afterthought.

Like an addiction, it's hard to admit you are doing the wrong and when you realize it, it's way too late.

"I guess. . . I will stop once he has been killed. . . I will bury him with my own hands and then forget about all the rest, I will go back to my city and its traditions, where they will warmly embrace me.

That's what I will do, no doubt, no doubt about it! What matters now is keeping myself together, no? I can do this. He’s just a man after all.”

This was probably Mathilda's longest night, in which she kept hugging herself and shaking from side to side, going from a painful thought to another. And tomorrow she had to meet Julia and Amos! What a pain! Everything was in pain and a pain, right now, and it didn't give signs of stopping any time soon.

Waking up was probably for the best then, and she was very happy when the first ray of the sun of the day hit her face.

Or at least, she pretended she was happy. It felt mediocre, it didn't change how she had been feeling at all.

She finally left the bathtub and started drying herself off, feeling a not small sense of self shame for how she was living now.

Nothing like her past.

She looked at the bloody remains from yesterday with a displeased face, but quickly brushed any remorse off, before all the trip from the night could even dare to repeat itself, and as her clothes were finally put on and she left the apartment, she felt surprisingly almost relieved, almost victorious.

As thoughts tried to creep in her mind she stared at the sky, pretending she could keep them together this time.

She turned around and gave a last look at the apartment, before leaving it, hopefully and also very likely forever. But you never know, and so she didn't as well.

The train station wasn't too far away from there, and getting there was quite easy, as nothing was put between her and her next big step.

What felt uneasy however, were the looks people gave her, or rather, the looks she thought people were giving her.

Disappointed looks, even annoyed or even bothered, like when you make a mistake everybody was expecting anyway.

Nobody actually cared about her but after such a long night it was normal for an already stressed mind like her's to make such silly scenarios up in her mind.

As she passed the final stairs she was at the train station, and the sight revealed itself to be full of people. She waited for around 10 more minutes before the train finally arrived.

The door opened and a well dressed man came out.

"Mathilda Diari, first class"

Mathilda nodded and entered the first class.

She searched for her seat, almost desperate, and after 5 minutes she had success.

She looked down once she was there, and a gun was taped under it. She covered it with her hands, like she had been spotted, and looked around, worried.

Was her sister that stupid? Or was she a master at predicting how things will go perfectly?

She guessed the former.

Mathilda then moved her head back up, and saw there were a few men sitting not too far away from her. If she had to guess once more, that was it, the man she was searching had to be in the group.

After all, if she was gonna guess wrong what was the worse that could have happened? The man was for sure on the train after all.

What was some more blood at this point?

Nothing, right?

The train finally started, and all Mathilda could do was sigh.

The trip had only now begun, and she was already tired.