Chapter 2
BANG! BANG! BANG!
At that moment, when Kira thought she had handled all immediate threats—when she foolishly believed that knocking out one psychopath with daggers was the extent of her problems—a loud series of gunshots resounded through the entire amusement park.
"Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!"
The transformation was instantaneous and horrifying. The happy cheers that had filled the air just moments ago transformed into screams of pure terror. The once peaceful vicinity became chaotic so quickly that it felt surreal.
Parents grabbed children with the desperate strength of people who knew death was hunting them.
Elderly couples who had been sharing popcorn suddenly found themselves sprinting faster than they had in decades.
A teenager dropped his phone and didn't even look back. That's when Kira knew this was progressing faster than she had hoped.
Everyone was running haphazardly, bodies collided, people stumbled as they headed for the exit, and through it all, Kira stood on the platform where she had been performing her show—if you could call being a puppet in an assassin's deadly game a show—frozen in her spot.
Every instinct in her body screamed for her to run for her dear life, to join the fleeing customers of the amusement park and maybe, just maybe, survive this insanity.
Her legs twitched with the desperate need to flee while her heart hammered against her ribs with the mixture of fear and desperation; however, her muscles gave out shortly after.
She was in no place to make free decisions. Not anymore. Not since Vexis had turned her life into something that was his to control.
Her mother, working the day shift at the hospital, probably humming that old tune she always hummed when she thought no one was listening.
Her father, likely asleep in his favorite chair right now since he was still recovering from his illness.
Her little brother, probably skipping school again to play his video games, thinking he was being sneaky.
Her little sister, who still slept with the stuffed elephant Kira had won for her at this very same amusement park two years ago.
If she tried to save herself and give in to the screams in the air from the fleeing customers, then all of them would die. Vexis had made that crystal clear when he had pressed his gun to her head before she had begun the fuzzy bunny hero play.
He knew where they lived, where they worked, and even personal details about them. He mentioned them all to her and warned her.
"Wh... what should I do?" She stuttered in fear through the Shadowbud, her voice barely a whisper. "They are coming to kill me, right?"
"Relax and ease up a bit, will ya?" Vexis's voice finally came through the Shadowbud, casual as if he was commenting on the weather.
His tone was so nonchalant that she wanted to scream. Well... if she came to think of it, her life probably was worth nothing in the eyes of an assassin. She was just a disposable pawn.
"If they wanted to kill you, you would have been dead a long time ago."
"There are riflemen everywhere, in case you don't know," Vexis continued, his voice carrying that same maddening calm. "They're watching you from every vantage point with their guns pointed, but do not be afraid. Even if they shoot, they wouldn't be aiming to kill you."
Kira's eyes darted upward, frantically scanning the Ferris wheel, the roller coaster peaks, the tops of game booths for anyone. She could hear the distant screams growing fainter as people reached the exits, which meant maybe, just maybe the assassins wouldn't be hidden from her sight now.
She gulped in fear.
As if the situation she was in wasn't bad enough, all the children who had been admiring her just a few short moments before, when the world still made sense, came running back to her.
"Fuzzy bunny! Protect us!" They all screamed, their little legs carrying them faster than she'd ever seen children move, running behind her and gripping her costume with tiny fingers. "Protect us from the bad guys!"
Six children. She counted them quickly, her mind automatically cataloguing them. Three boys, three girls. Ages ranging from about four to maybe eight. Two among the children caught her eyes—a little boy with a gap tooth, and a little girl with pigtails whom she recognized.
They looked at her with such trust, such absolute faith that the fuzzy bunny who had just defeated the bad guy would keep them safe. If only they knew that the fuzzy bunny was just as terrified as they were, just as helpless, just as likely to die in the next few minutes.
'I'm in a mess.'
This was not an exaggeration; this wasn't the kind of mess of spilling coffee on clothes or something along that line. This was her about to be responsible for killing six innocent lives.
'Why me of all people?' Kira tried to grab her hair in frustration; however, the bunny head prevented her. 'There are 8.2 billion humans on earth and I am the one who ended up as an assassin's hostage.'
He already knew everything about her and her family. Vexis had probably been watching them for days, maybe weeks, with the kind of information he shared with her about her life, so she had to obey even if it cost her life, for her family's sake.
'My family was already a handful,' she thought, forcing her gaze to look at the children with frustration and guilt. 'But now this... these children clinging to my legs, looking up at me with eyes that held so much trust it physically hurt to meet their gaze.'
"Kira! Kira!" A muffled voice resounded from her ear, calling her name over and over again until she eventually got snapped out of her subconscious thoughts. Vexis sounded almost... concerned? No, that was impossible. He was probably just worried about his plan falling apart.
Then, the sound that completely shattered her was heard, loud and clear, transmitted through the Shadowbud with clarity.
The sound of a motorcycle starting. Vexis was testing the engine and twisting the throttle as if he was mocking her, the engine revving up.
"Over here. Fifty meters to your 2 o'clock."
Kira tilted her head toward the direction, and there he was—the orchestrator of all this chaos, the reason she was about to die along with these innocent children: Vexis, the solo assassin.
He looked so ordinary sitting on that motorcycle. Average height, average build, the kind of face you'd forget five minutes after meeting him. But those eyes... even from fifty meters away, she could see they held no mercy.
"I believe you have learned enough from me today during your fighting performance," Vexis spoke gently with a devilish smile.
He twisted the bike's throttle, the engine responding with a growl, then continued. "Apply the knowledge now. You won't come out too bloodied... I guess."
The casual cruelty of that last comment hit her like a physical blow. He wasn't even sure she'd survive, and he didn't care. She was disposable, replaceable, forgettable.
And that was it. He was off, blending in with the last wave of the crowd as they exited the amusement park in haste, leaving her alone with death coming at full speed and six children who thought she could save them.
Now, surrounding the podium where Kira was still standing even after her performance, Kira felt her knees go weak at the sight of figures that almost seemed like they didn't exist there until she looked at them.
She had been used, betrayed, abandoned, threatened and placed in such a tight corner with children gripping her legs tightly with hope—tying her to this spot, making escape impossible even if it had been an option.
The children's lives at risk, resting in her hands—hands that were shaking so badly she could barely stand.
What could she do? She wasn't a fighter, wasn't a hero, wasn't anyone special. She was just a girl who needed money for her family and her troupe.
All these emotions were breaking her, consuming her with an empty feeling of defeat that was somehow worse than fear.
Knowing she could do nothing—knowing that she was helpless, that her family was helpless, that these innocent children were helpless—was a special kind of torture.
The intruders were all perfectly in sight now. The entire amusement center had been cleared of ordinary folks, leaving behind only the threats for her to see.
They moved with professional precision, spreading out in formation like they'd done this a thousand times before. These weren't amateurs or thugs—these were professionals, and that made everything so much worse.
They were all dressed in black garments, scattered roughly around her; she could count at least twenty on the ground.
Her gaze fell to the ground with that same feeling of emptiness, something she had never felt before so severely. It was like a black hole had opened in her chest, sucking away hope and courage and leaving behind only a terrible void.
Even with her falling, defeated gaze, her eyes caught something that made her blood turn to ice—several red lights pointing at her body. Laser sights, she realized with clarity.
She wasn't so foolish as to not recognize them, not after all the movies she had watched. The red dots danced across her costume, each one representing a sniper positioned to end her life in an instant.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
The sound of tactical boots on concrete ground then cut through the air. The first person among the assassins sprawled across the area, who carried the composure and confident stride of a leader, finally approached her.
He was tall and lean, with the kind of build that spoke of years of training. His face was angular and sharp, with eyes that carried bloodlust that made the maniac she had defeated earlier seem like child's play.
"Vexis, the solo assassin," he began, his voice cold and slow, accompanied by a smirk. "So you weren't kidding when you decided to resign from the organization."
Vexis had been an assassin who quit? That explained so much and yet made everything infinitely more confusing.
The man closed the distance between them until he was barely an arm's length away, close enough that she could smell the leather of his jacket.
"How soft you've grown in a couple of weeks," the man continued as he began to circle around Kira on the podium.
The children pressed closer to her, their small bodies trembling with fear, earning a glance from the man. "You never told me you were trading your career and specialty to become a nanny."
Digging his hands into his jacket slowly, he pulled out something really dangerous as casually as if it were a toy—a simple pistol.
"What else can we call perfect timing, Vexis?" The man's voice grew deadlier as he spoke, leaning close to Kira's ear so that his breath tickled the side of her neck through the costume. "There are six children clinging to you, and exactly six bullets in this gun."
The statement was simple and horrible: one bullet per child, with her left to watch it all happen. Her stomach lurched, and for a moment she thought she might vomit inside the costume, but quickly held herself and played Vexis's role for now.
"Why are you telling that to an assassin?" Kira muttered out loud, her voice muffled inside the doll costume she wore, making it hard to distinguish.
"Oh!" The man exclaimed in surprise, his eyebrows shooting up as if he'd just witnessed something genuinely amusing. "Why are you asking something so obvious?"
He paused for a moment before he continued. "I'll give you the answer anyway, since you want to hear it from me."
As he spoke, he pressed the barrel of the gun against the head of one of the children—the smallest one, the little girl with pigtails who couldn't be more than four years old.
The child shrieked in response, tears streaming down her face in fear, finally realizing the terror of the situation.
"It is because you are a softie!" He screamed his last statement with madness blazing in his eyes. He was breathing heavily for some moments before relaxing again.
'A softie!' Kira repeated in her mind. 'Now that was surprising, because he didn't seem like that to me.'
"An assassin who refuses to kill anyone except those who hurt him!" The man continued. "He doesn't have what it takes to be an assassin."
"Can you repeat that now?" Kira spoke as she ripped the oversized head of the bunny costume off with emotions she didn't even understand. Was it rage, desperation, or some sort of fury that came from being pushed too far?
Her long purple hair spilled out in waves, revealing her face to the world.
The effect was immediate. The man's eyes widened until she could see white all around the irises, veins bulging on his forehead as he saw the face of whom they had wrongfully surrounded.
His expression quickly went through a series of changes—confusion, realization, and then pure rage.
"I knew this was too easy!" He barked, rapidly redirecting the gun from the child's head to Kira's forehead in a movement so fast it was almost a blur. "Where is he?"
His voice was raw with fury, with the rage of someone who had been made to look like a fool. "How dare you play with our intelligence!"
At that moment, for some strange reason, the wind softly caught up with them and began to blow, billowing her long purple hair in loose waves.
Her eyes—those same eyes that had once been the eyes of an ordinary girl worried about rent and groceries—had been traumatized beyond recognition in just a single afternoon.
Now they were the eyes of someone who had seen too much, felt too much, been pushed too far. She fixed her dark purple pupils on the assassin, and for just a moment, she looked dangerous.
"He used me as bait," she said, her voice carrying a new quality that hadn't been there before, a cold quality. "Now, is he still a softie?"
The man didn't reply—not verbally. His answer came in the form of action, the language of violence that needed no translation.
He pulled the trigger of the gun pointing at Kira.
*Bang!*