Friendly Fire

“ uhhmm… no. Not again.”Jade thought to herself as she looked at the message on her phone. Her roommate wanted a favor. By favor, she meant to leave the apartment for another week so her roommate - Simone- could bring her ‘potential husband’ home for a “visit.” As the three dots kept on bouncing she knew she had no chance. She would have to leave and sort herself out literally and figuratively. It did not matter that she had to hide, hence living with a roommate because there was no way she was going back home. It was time to move on and be the person she wanted, not what people wanted her to be. The main reason she had a roommate was that needed a “Normal Lifestyle” –  whatever that meant.  Thinking back again made her have a feeling maybe she should have not been quick to make the decision that led her to where she was today. “If wishes were horses”, Jade thought out loud. The rather vibrations of her phone brought her back to the now where she still had to find somewhere to crash for a week. Sighing heavily she picked the call “Hello?, yes...yea- I saw your text. It is fine you can bring him over I had to go see my parents anyway. no, it's not a bother I know they miss me okay see you soon.” Telling the little lie wasn't a problem, regretting it was. The moment she hung up she knew she was doomed for there were no parents or home to visit. Unless the St Benedict Cemetery could bring people back to life. Her parents were dead and she hid the truth from her roommate and basically everyone else. Their death was the reason she chose her current career path. The painful memories of the drive-by shoot-out never subsided. Once the dust settled, she found out she was alone and her parents lay dead on top of her. She did not even understand what happened until waking up in a hospital bed with bandages on her side. It was a gruesome ordeal for her and she could remember from that day was the loud music that attempted to drown out the gunshots from the car and motorcycles that sped by. Days later her aunt, or so she said she was, came and took her home with her and officially adopted her. After her parent's funeral, she has whisked away and things went quickly after that, Auntie as she preferred to be called, was a firearms master, seller, and buyer. She put Jade through school and did all she could for Jade to have a chance at normalcy. At home, Auntie taught Jade everything she needed to know as a child and as a teenager. Once Jade turned 18 and got her driving license, it was time to be let into the family business. It wasn’t like Jade would have chosen a different path even after being given the choice. So began her journey into the mercenary world. She was surprised at how well she handled the firearms. By 21, she would accompany her aunt to “work” and she could see firsthand how to deal with different cases. Taking computer science at the local college came in handy when she had to dig out intel for her aunt’s targets. At 24, she was a professional and her auntie decided it was time to retire and let Jade continue in her footsteps. By 27, she was a much sought-after Hitman going by the alias “blade”.  She had hoped to find the people who killed her parents but she always run into dead ends following leads. Her quest to avenge her parents made her miss out on the best parts of her youth. she never knew how to maintain friendships when she was younger,  she always wanted a best friend, but not many teens liked talking about weapons, neither did the few people she tried dating when she was older. She always craved to have more than just her guns and blades. After getting her accounts in order, it was time to head out and find a place to stay. Being late in the afternoon, the sun was having a field trip and Jade wasn't about to pass out. She threw her backpack over her shoulder, dragged her larger-than-life suitcase behind her, and headed towards the city where she had booked a motel online for a few days. Contrary to many people’s belief, she – as a hitman- never liked living in solitary and that was why she had a roommate, her precious arsenal was hidden away in various storage areas around the country and therefore made it easy to do her job and also maintain college girl cover. This impromptu move solidified her solve to retire early but to do that, She had to execute one more task, one final job and she was out. A new life. A new her, that’s all she wanted, until she got a contract that almost kissed retirement goodbye. A week after gathering intel on her new contract, she knew something was wrong. Her target was not the usual “bad guys” she often put away permanently. No, this target was what she called “innocent”. There was nothing tying the target to anything remotely evil. Nothing to show that they deserved nothing but being un-alive. Yes, un-alive she made up the word. The more she looked into her target the more convinced she was that either  a) she was being set up or, b) her target may be involved in something they shouldn’t be. Either way, she was not going to accept the contract until she knew she was right in both scenarios.  A few days later she had booked a flight to where her target would be, on the same day, she went on ahead and canceled her contract claiming to be faulty. The client was not happy about it and she knew she had to work fast before another hitman was put in her stead. Sitting by the window, Jade could see the clouds floating peacefully over a town she attempted to call home. She would not miss it. There was nothing there but attempts, to be normal, to be happy, to be free. She tried to search for the fond memories but all she got were blue and grey-toned images of her time there. She closed her eyes and whispered a “retirement, here I come.”