Creak. Creak. Creak. Slam!
My eyes snapped open.
There was noise—too much noise.
I turned toward the clock beside my bed.
[4:44 A.M.]
That number again. My heart sank.
"...That can't be good."
I crept toward the door, pressing my ear to the wood. Faint voices echoed down the hallway.
"...Project...General...Master...Orders..."
The voices didn't belong to anyone in this house.
I cracked the door open and peeked out. Large shadows loomed in the hallway—men in black gear, armed and searching. My breath caught.
Suddenly—
Bang!
My door burst open. A hand like iron gripped me and hurled me across the room.
I crashed onto the floor with a gasp. Pain exploded through my back. I tried to rise, but the man seized me again—massive, built like a tank, sword strapped across his back like a butcher's cleaver.
"Let go!" I screamed, kicking and flailing, but my strength was nothing compared to his.
He dragged me to Ma's room.
No light.
Only moonlight through the curtains, casting pale shadows on the floor.
They were already there—four strangers. They didn't wear masks, but that didn't make it better. It made it worse.
One was tall and lean, carrying a blade too elegant for someone with eyes that cold.
Another, more wiry, spun a gun on his finger like it was a toy.
A third, obese and dressed in a white lab coat, crouched near Ma's body, carefully handling something inside a dry ice container.
The last—a woman—stood beside the bed with a whip that hissed like it was alive.
They weren't just intruders.
They were predators.
"Hello. Miss Llyne, was it?" the swordsman spoke.
I glared. "Never heard of her."
I tried to stand, but the giant behind me forced me to my knees with a single push. The floor groaned beneath my weight.
"Do you know what's in front of you, Miss Llyne?"
"You?" I said flatly.
He stepped aside.
The blood drained from my face.
My mother lay on the bed, still and pale, her chest unmoving. The Doctor was doing... something to her body. Replacing parts like he was swapping out batteries in a machine.
"She's dead, child," the swordsman said.
The words struck like ice.
No.
No, no, no.
This had to be another nightmare. I had to be dreaming.
My knees wobbled as I fought to breathe, fought to think—but reality had already broken through.
I pinched myself. Hard. The pain came. The nightmare didn't end.
Everything inside me screamed, collapsed, shattered.
Ma—my fierce, stubborn, warm-hearted Ma—was gone.
Gone.
I bit my lip, hard enough to draw blood. I wouldn't break. Not here. Not in front of them.
I breathed in, trying to quiet my heart.
This wasn't the end.
I wasn't going to die here.
I glanced at each of them, memorizing details. Faces, postures, even how they breathed.
They weren't assassins. They were contractors. Cold, calculated. Professional.
The swordsman turned to the Doctor. "How long?"
"Just finished, Master Khun."
Khun. So that was his name.
Khun crouched next to me. "Any last words, Miss Llyne?"
I forced a smile. "Can I ask something first?"
The gunman grunted. "Why do you—"
"Sure," Khun interrupted.
The gunman—Master Jay—clicked his tongue and turned away.
I sat in the chair he pulled up, playing my role: a child, scared but curious.
Inside, I was calculating. Watching.
Looking for a way out.
"What happens next?" I asked.
Khun smiled, almost pityingly. "We stage a suicide. We've even forged a note in your handwriting."
He showed it to me.
It was uncanny—my exact cursive. My art-style loops and flourishes.
Chills ran down my spine.
"Who are you people?" I asked. "Why us?"
Khun glanced at the others, then back at me. "Your mother never told you?"
"She only said she and my dad had enemies. That's it."
Khun nodded. "That's true. Your family made more enemies than most. But we're not here out of personal vengeance. We were paid. Contract killers. Your whole family... was the target."
My mouth went dry. "What... did you put in her body?"
The Doctor answered without shame. "Artificial organs. Our own custom designs. Hyper-realistic. Almost indistinguishable from the real thing. Impossible to trace."
Disgust churned in my stomach. My Ma's body... defiled for a lie.
I looked out the window.
"If I die... let me at least die next to the window."
Khun raised an eyebrow. "Dramatic. But it suits the scene. Alright."
He nodded.
The others began setting up the "scene": a rope tied from the ceiling, a chair dragged under it. One of them stabbed Ma's lifeless body. Blood soaked the bed.
"A tedious charade," the woman muttered.
"We agreed on this," Khun snapped.
I swallowed my nausea.
"Why Ma's room?" I asked.
"Didn't you read the note?" Khun replied.
"I did. But... have you seen my handwriting? I can't even read it."
A pause.
Khun blinked. "How do you study?"
"Badly."
Jay stared. "This brat…"
Khun looked visibly betrayed. "Your mother raised you like this?"
"Yup. And she scared me with her nagging more than any of you ever could."
Asha gave me a disgusted look. "Seriously?"
"Her nagging made me wiser," I said solemnly. "I age every time she does it."
Jay gagged.
I kept going. The more I talked, the more they lowered their guard. A distraction. That's all I needed.
"Stop wasting time," Khun said. He stood and hauled me up onto the chair. The noose dangled above me, waiting.
"I'm afraid of heights," I whimpered.
Jay rolled his eyes. "You're about to die. Just deal with it."
"Can you open the window?" I asked softly. "I want to feel the air one last time."
Khun hesitated. Then opened it.
A breeze washed over me.
Now.
I didn't think—I jumped.
Crash!
Glass shattered as I launched through the window, rolling across the tiled awning and dropping into the garden below.
"Oi!!!" Jay's voice screamed behind me. "Brat!"
"She jumped!" Asha snarled.
Khun's voice cut through the chaos. "After her! Don't let her get far!"
Their henchmen swarmed like shadows. Orders flew, guns were drawn. But I was already moving—through hedges, vaulting fences, feet bleeding, lungs burning.
And even as I ran—
Even as the night screamed behind me—
Even as grief clawed at my chest like fire—
I didn't stop.
I couldn't stop.
Not now.
Not until I found out the truth.
Not until someone paid.