Falling for the Ace Assassin

Target

Connie turned and took off running. Of all things to run into, damn it! She hoped that the killer didn’t see her face properly. She hoped there weren’t any goons around either.

She stumbled over uneven ground and went flying across dirt and gravel. With a groan, she picked herself up and continued despite the pain in her arms and knees. Grabbing her bag and shoving whatever she could see on the ground into her bag, she started running again.

It felt like a millennia before she found herself on an open road with a few cars. Finally, civilization. Every part of her body was burning and her vision swimmed from the fatigue but she couldn’t stop. She had to be farther from the scene. She dug into her purse and rummaged around for her cell phone. For a second she considered calling the police but then thought against it. If she reported it, it was basically standing under huge neon lights that spelled ‘I SAW YOU’ with a huge arrow pointing at her head. Snitches get stitches or in this case, slaughtered.

Connie stood under a street sign and called an Uber driver adding an extra tip for priority pickup. She crouched down and made herself as tiny as possible hoping that no one but the Uber driver would find her.

***

Shit. Someone saw. Ace sliced the throat of his target and let him die early; a mercy. It was another human trafficker that went under every radar but his.

He took a water bottle washed off the blood from his razor-sharp ace of Spades card and put it away in a card holder. He pulled out a paper Ace tossed it on the floor in the pool of blood and walked out of the dilapidated compound. The layman thought he was some twisted personality that took a page out of a comic book or something. Little did they know the trauma he went through and the semblance this damnable card meant to him and every target he went after. Pushing out his Suzuki SV-650 that he hid in the dark he put on his helmet and threw a leg over his ride.

He needed to go after the woman who had run off. He never killed anyone who didn’t deserve it but he had to make sure she wouldn’t talk. As he started the engine, the headlights of his bike caught a glint on the ground about 20 feet away. Ace squinted at it and rode slowly over to find an eye-piercing pink wallet with a teddy bear chain a little off the path. He opened it to find a young woman’s driver’s license.

***

Connie arrived home exhausted. Rushing into the shower she washed away her stress and carefully scrubbed the open wounds on her palms, elbow, and legs. She had gone down hard as evidenced by the stinging pain.

When she came out, she applied some medication and bandaged herself up as well as she could. Then she ran downstairs to double-check the lock and windows before going upstairs and curling up in her bed and closing her eyes.

The gentle hum of the fan that normally lulled her reminded her of the buzzing light in the warehouse. When her eyes closed, she could see the metal lamp swing back and forth dramatically like a pendulum. Connie’s eyes snapped open and she stared at the ceiling.

“Sleep. Sleep. Sleep,” she chanted but it did nothing but make her thirsty.

Connie got up and went back down to grab a cup of water and a sleeping pill. She never liked the feeling of swallowing pills so she threw it in the water to dissolve and took it back up to her room to drink before bed.

***

The next day, Connie called in sick and remained in bed only getting up to eat or relieve herself. Going through multiple news stations, she realized no one found the body yet. Good. Very good! That means the killer also knew she didn’t snitch. By night time, she was scared again and triple-checked the lock at the door before bringing a glass of water and sleeping pills to her room.

When Saturday rolled around, Connie was terrified. Her dreams were plagued with different versions of how she was found dead. She spent the day listening to the news again, but nothing on the murder. Victory! Maybe she was just mentally tormenting herself. The killer knew she was no rat or maybe thought she didn’t see anything useful and wouldn’t bother with her.

She decided to go out and buy some more groceries so she took a quick shower and put on something casual. She rifled through her purse for her wallet only to find it gone.

Connie felt her heart drop to the pit of her stomach as she dumped the contents of her purse onto the floor. Then she looked around the house, hoping she misplaced it.

Shit. s**t! s**t!!!!!!!!

She collapsed onto the floor and stared at the ceiling with vacant eyes. She was as good as dead. If the killer didn’t find it, the cops would. Either way, she was dead. She lay there on the floor wondering if she should just call the cops and go into witness protection.

Connie rolled to her side looked at the clean floor and sighed. Maybe she should write a note to her parents so they wouldn’t be so sad when she is gone.

Fuck it. If she was going to die, she was going to make her cousins’ lives miserable.

She pulled out a paper and started writing to her parents letting them know how much she loved them and how shitty her cousins had been all these years, stealing her food, pulling her hair, breaking her toys, and throwing her into the pool with clothes on.

Make sure to beat those bastards at my funeral. That would make me really happy.

She ended the letter with lots of hearts.

When night came, she did the same routine of going downstairs to get a cup of water with a dissolved sleeping pill but she heard a car engine outside. Connie glanced at the clock; it was already 1 am, no one in this neighborhood drives around this late. She hurriedly put the cup down, turned off the lights, and dived behind the sofa hoping it was just her paranoia.

***

Connie broke out of her recollection. The brain really does go a mile a minute when you’re about to die. She held both hands up first before she stood slowly from behind the sofa.

“Well, the bedroom is upstairs. Follow me.”

Ace said nothing as he stood there in the darkness. Connie grabbed the water cup and walked up the stairs as calmly as she could and he followed silently behind her. A sudden thought hit her and she decided to try her luck.

“Well, I’m going to just shower first.”

“You’re in pajamas.”

Why couldn’t he have been dumb?

“Well, I got really scared earlier and now I’m all sweaty and sticky…”

The man said nothing; Connie took that as a good sign.

Setting the cup on the dresser, Connie turned abruptly and bumped into Ace’s chest. He caught her before she fell but Connie kept her eyes down, away from his face. Even when the room is dimly lit it was a surefire way to increase her chances of survival if she didn’t see his face.

“Uh, I am going to shower now. Make yourself comfortable. You can have some water if you’re thirsty.”

Connie ran to the bathroom and closed the door. She turned on the water to the shower and then crept back to the bathroom door and opened a slit so she could see.

She watched as Ace took a drink and then laid down on the bed. She waited for what seemed like an eternity and thought her water bill would skyrocket this month.

After a while, Ace relaxed and his chest moved up and down rhythmically. Connie couldn’t believe her luck. Fist pumping the air she hurriedly shut off the water to the shower and walked up gingerly to Ace.

His face was covered with a mask so she looked into the eyeholes to make sure he was asleep. Running to her desk she took out a pad and a pencil and quickly scribbled a small note.

I didn’t see your face. I won’t say a word. You’re asleep and I could have killed you but I didn’t so please spare me!!

Placing the note and pencil on the nightstand she decided to change quickly and run out of the house while he was asleep.

Connie quietly slipped into the bathroom with a change of clothes but suddenly she had to pee. Of all the times, her bladder decided to fail her. Maybe it was because she was so nervous. She quickly finished her business and changed into something appropriate before slipping out of the bathroom.

She was glad she didn’t try to hold her pee because she would have wet her pants.

Her bed was empty. Ace was gone.