1. Apollo
Most people can't become another person, and that's because most people can't lie. Not because something or someone gives them away, but because they can't fully commit to living that lie. In order to lie, you have to want to be someone else. You have to be willing to drastically change everything about yourself. And when it comes down to it, most people can't do that.
But I am not most people. My life is built upon a foundation of lies, I can change everything about myself in a matter of seconds. In order to be an assassin, I have to.
My life wasn't always this way, or so I was told. Up until I was three, I lived a couple completely normal life with a completely normal family, but that all changed when a man broke into my home and slaughtered my family, the only thing he left behind was me.
If it weren't for Alexander, the boss of all the gangs and all the criminals around here, I wouldn't be alive. Alexander took me under his wing and let me into his organization. His empire of organized crime had become my home.
One of my earliest memories takes place when I was five, and on my first job. There was a rich and powerful man that has wronged Alex years earlier, and Alex didn't let anyone get the best of him. When he asked me to kill someone for the first time, I was shocked. My five year old brain couldn't comprehend the fact that Alex, who had been like a father to me, wanted me to take someone's life. But it all made sense when he told me all the bad things that that man had done. All I had to do was slip a fatal poison into his drink. I was the perfect man for the job. After all, who would suspect a child of murder?
After my first kill, I was a mess. I refused to do anymore killing, and called Alexander a horrible person for making me do such an "awful thing". I was so blindsided by guilt that I wasn't able to see that the only reason Alexander was don't these things was to right other people's wrongs.
For years I trained in hand to hand combat and learned how to use all sorts of weapons and poisons. I mastered the arts of lying, deception and manipulation. There first time I killed someone with an actual weapon, I was 10. I remember it clearly. My target was Edward Jones. I hid in a tree by the balcony of a mansion where a big party was being held and waited for him to come out. When I saw him, I shot him. A nice clean bullet through the forehead. Alex was so proud, that he didn't stop praising me all night.
Now that I'm 18, I've gotten used to my job. Alex has lots of people he can call on when he needs to get something done, but he usually chooses me. I know how to get the job done. That's probably why I'm his favorite.
This is why I'm not surprised when someone knocks on my door, telling me that Alex has a job request for me. Alex's job 'requests' aren't really requests as much as they are orders. Not that anyone would be dumb enough to deny something he wants.
I set when my book and climb out of bed, walking to the bathroom and taking in my disheveled appearance. My straight, jet black hair is tangled and in my face. I take a comb and give it a quick brush, trying to get ready quickly. Before I leave the bathroom, I stop and stare at my reflection. My deep, blue eyes catch my attention. Alex says that they draw people in. Maybe that's why I can manipulate everyone so easily.
After brushing my teeth and putting on a respectable outfit, I leave my room and walk down to Alex's office. I knock on the door and a voice calls out from the inside.
"It's open."
When I step into his office, he's sitting at his desk organizing papers, when he sees me he stands up to greet me and leads me to his couch after getting a stack of documents from a drawer in the stand by his desk. Probably notes on my next assignment.
Alex is in his mid thirties, and I have to say, he's pretty well off. He's made a lot of money from the crime scheme.
One we're sitting down, he pushes his dark brown hair out of his face to reveal his green eyes.
"Apollo."
Oh shit. It's never good when he starts off by saying my name.
"You've been working for me for 15 years now, and I have a huge assignment that I need taken care of. This job is bigger than any of the job you've ever done before, and it's going to require months of commitment, but I think you're ready for it."
Months? Most jobs take a day or two for me to finish, a week tops. But if Alex asked me to do it, I would have to. No one ever says no to him.
"What is it?" I ask.
"I knew I could count on you!" He exclaims, patting me on the back a little to roughly.
He pulls out a pice of paper from the stack of documents in his hand and guess it to me. On the paper is a picture of a girl who looks about my age. On the back is written "Fleur Harrison"
The girl in the picture has long, soft looking, light brown hair. Her eyes are a welcome hazel. She's beautiful.
"That's Fleur Haridson, daughter of the famous entrepreneur Jack Haridson. Tomorrow, she is to meet her fiancee. If all goes according to my plan, that will not happen. I want you to kill her fiancee Easton Price and his family and pretend to be him for three months, until you are set to get married. You will marry her and wait a few weeks, then kill her, so that way you will inherit the Haridson fortune. You will then give the money to me and kill her father."
Woah woah woah. He wants me to kill her? I've killed dads, grandmas, sisters and brothers before, but killing her, it just seemed so... so wrong.
"What happens if they ask about his family? What if her dad wants to meet them?" I ask, trying to find all the loopholes in his plan to prevent him from making me go through with it.
"Easy. We can hire someone to play your family."
"Well what do I do when her and her family are dead? Do I just go into hiding?" Did he expect me to throw away my life for this?
"Don't worry about what happens after, just get the job done. Your job depends on it."
He hands me the stack of papers and leads me to the door.
"This job will require you to become a whole new person, it will require you to manipulate everyone around you. But I know you can do it."
Once I'm back in my room, I sit down on my bed and shift through the papers Alex gave me. I take a look at the information about Fleur and begin to study up. She's more of the quiet type, so I'll have to cater to that. The paper also mentions that she's independent, so that'll make wooing her a bit more of a challenge.
I try to memorize her likes and dislikes. She doesn't like being the center of attention, or the typical things you'd think a teenage girl would like. She loves the feeling of waking up in the morning to a fresh start, and quiet evenings in bed with a book. It seems like we have something in commmon.
After I feel that I know Fleur like the back of my hand, I move in to creating my plan to kill her fiancee, Easton Price and his family.
Killing a rich person and his family would be extremely hard under normal circumstances, but Easton and his family aren't very mainstream, and after an hour of trying to dig up information on them, I found nothing. That's good because if anyone noticed they'd been missing for three entire months, I'd be in trouble. Especially if I was supposed to be Easton Price.
I decide the best way to kill them is with a weapon. Probably a knife.
By the time I'm done planning everything out, it's nighttime. I put the papers in a neat stack in my nightstand and take of my shirt, ready for bed.
Tomorrow I will kill Easton, the day after that I'll be Easton.
I don't think I'm ready to kill Fleur. I feel like I know her so well, even though we've never met. Maybe I can find a way out of this.
I've made up my mind. I do not want to kill Fleur Haridson.
