In a luxurious apartment located near Miami Beach, a group of four individuals were enjoying their well deserved and earned vacations after a brief yet intense season of wetwork.

In a small room that was equipped to become a workshop, a woman was working on her main weapon, the one weapon she needed to complete her job, because her body was strong enough to compensate and triumph over any adversity the perils of modern combat situations could throw at her. A unique weapon only she knew how to craft and no one else had bothered in trying to device a similar gadget.

In another room, their personal gym, there was a big hulking man performing his daily workout routine, lifting around 270 Lbs. in bench press, reaching slowly but surely to break his personal record. It was a good thing the room was sound proofed, otherwise the others would have to tolerate his growls and animal screams as he lifts the bar.

In the living room there was another man, smaller and quieter than the rest, performing his weekly maintenance of the tools of his craft: an assortment of different short and long range weapons such as an L96 and a Glock 17 equipped with a laser sight. He was preparing them just the way he liked it, for these weapons were an extension of himself.

Finally, their leader, who was not necessarily more capable or lethal than them, but still a prolific assassin, was resting in the kitchen, serving himself a glass of his favorite wine. That day would have been unordinary until they received an incoming call through the work laptop.

The leader approached the laptop near the couch right next to the sniper, because he could never bother to pick up a call when he was focused on his maintenance work, and accepted the call. It was their handler, or rather, the person that passed the contracts to them, she preferred to be called “Rose”.

“Rose! I think I thought we agreed that we would get three months of paid leave and no disturbances.” – Said the leader. – “What do you want?”

“I know you are enjoying your little vacations, Luis, but I thought you guys would be interested in this one.”

“Come on, if the job being interesting was enough, we’d be doing contracts for mere pennies all year, and we don’t want that. What else you got?”

“Just look at the initial price and tell me what you think”. – Said Rose and then sent him an email with the initial offer. He took a very close look to it.

Those were a lot of zeros, and apparently it was a serious client. He was speechless for a moment and then regained his composure. The sniper took a look at the screen and grinned before going back to his business.

“Well…we are listening.”

“I knew you’d like it.” – She sent him the details through another email, this included a dossier, some photographs and a map of the hunting grounds. – “You aren’t going to go too far from home. The target is in the business, just like you, but this one is a bit more peculiar than usual. Goes by the name of Alicia Amber, also known as The Butcher.” – Luis took a look at his photo and for a moment he thought this was all a big and elaborate joke. – “Careful, Luis. She may look young; however, she’s got a very extensive record, I recommend you give it a read.”

He took her advice and opened the file and was met with a long list of names and summaries of the circumstances of their assassinations. Most of these names he recognizes as high-profile individuals from the middle east, eastern Europe, India, and some countries abandoned by God himself, but there were a few names that stood out the most.

“No way, she’s the one that killed Glass?” – Asked Luis, leaning forward in his seat as he kept reading. – “Goddamn, she erased him from this planet. She also took out that sheikh, Bilal…is this profile authentic?”

“That is correct, Luis. This girl appeared out of nowhere around four years ago, the source says that she operated as a child soldier in Iran during the conflict under a mercenary company known as the Crimson Rangers and quickly demonstrated to be very capable. Then she went on to take on lucrative yet suicidal jobs elucidated in the file, and pulled through every single one, leaving a trail of corpses behind.”

“A girl…a child soldier?” – Luis brushed his hair backwards with his hand, feeling a laugh surfacing through his throat. – “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It’s unprecedented, yeah, but it isn’t impossible, as you can see. She’s recently severed her ties with the Crimson Rangers and went on to work for one of our competitors. The client has done his best effort to take her down employing some mercenaries and she killed them all. However, she’s now stranded somewhere in Oregon after an aerial accident, so we assume that she’s not in her top physical condition at the moment.”

“We’ve got ourselves a real hunter.” -Said the sniper. – “I’ve heard the stories, about what happened in Iraq, so she’s the one?”

“That seems so, Carl.” – Said Rose. – “Regardless of that, this is a very lucrative job, and it may be so for a reason, so it’s best for you guys to take it seriously and proceed with caution and be discreet.”

“Who we killing this time?” – Said the woman walking into the living room having heard a fraction of the briefing.

“The legendary Butcher, Kalina. I’m sure you’ve heard the myth.” – Said the sniper, and she approached to take a closer look to her photo.

“Hmm…I was expecting a Rambo type…She seems dangerous though, those scars really amp the intimidation factor. Poor thing, it must be hard to live when you have to walk around looking like a Frankenstein.” – She took a look at her profile, specifically at the estimated kill count. – “Though it seems comparing her to a monster may not be too far off. Damn…I’d like to have a kill count with three digits like that.”

“You don’t Kalina.” – Said the big muscleman walking into the scene. – “At that point you wouldn’t be considered a professional assassin, just a bloodthirsty fiend, and she’s just that. How tragic, seeing innocence tarnished that way.”

“You are such a softy, big man.” – Said Luis, then went back to talk with Rose. – “Alright Rose, we’ll take care of this one, we’ll even arrange the funeral ourselves with that much money.”

“Glad to hear that. Remember, don’t get too confident, or she may get the drop on you.”

“Yeah, yeah…we’ll keep that in mind.”

Rose ended the call. Right afterwards, Luis turned towards his merry crew. – “Seems we are coming out of our vacations early.”

“We couldn’t have asked for a more interesting challenge.” – Said Kalina.

“I’m not very amused by the idea of assassinating a minor, Luis.” – Said the big man. – “Are you sure about this?”

“She’s not just any minor, Igor. If what Rose sent us is true, we are dealing with one of the most prolific mass murderers to ever walk the earth. We can earn ourselves our free pass to heaven and, on top of that, get paid while at it.”

“That might be true. But you three will deal the killing blow. Severing such a young life is unacceptable.”

“You are such a softy, big man.” – Said the sniper.

“And your heart is cold, Carl.”

“Anyway.” – Interrupted Luis. – “Let’s not dwell on that matter any longer, let’s get to work, we’ll have to take a flight to Oregon and track her down. This is the most boring part of the job, but for a bounty as generous as this one, it’ll be worth every second of it.”

Alicia didn’t know it, but after what happened that night with those three strangers who killed a girl, her mind would keep dwelling in the ideas she preferred to keep in the back of her head whenever she was trying to relax.

She dreamed of Africa, something that hadn’t happened in a very long time, she remembered this one almost perfectly.

The Crimson Rangers had raided the complex of a certain warlord whose name she had forgotten already. It happened right before dawn, they sniped the sentries from afar and when they infiltrated the complex, Alicia and Anya proceeded to take down the guards throughout the eastern wing of the complex, as silently and swiftly as possible using knives and fiber wires, also a silenced pistol if they needed to do it quickly.

Alicia had caught a slaver in his sleep and proceeded to suffocate him with his pillow, she had always wanted to try that method and scratch it off her list.

The warlord noticed that his men were being slaughtered way too late, and before he realized, he had been surrounded by a gang of disciplined and well-armed mercenaries in his office.

They didn’t kill him immediately because the client wanted him to be made an example of first. So, that very same morning, they tied him up to a pole and recorded the event on camera. The commander gave Alicia a club and ordered her to give that man a serious beating for the posterity.

There was a constant in all of her dreams. No matter the context, she was always covered in blood before and after the action, and she could never find out whose blood was it, if it was hers or someone else’s, but she always figured it had to be the latter.

And that was not all, the subject of her apathetic cruelty was also deformed, his or her eyes both pebbles of absolute darkness and his mouth emitted a guttural sound that couldn’t be considered human.

The nightmare transformed them into demons to throw her cruelty back at her, but the only thing that was left was to actually ask her if she even gave a shit.

She proceeded to beat this demon bloody until his head hung low, all life had escaped from his carcass.

“You are a thorough-bred killer!” – Said Anya, her words echoing through her mind as her consciousness drifted away, marking the end of a dream that pretended to be a nightmare. It was almost as if she didn’t comprehend herself completely.

Alicia opened her eyes and was met with something unusual. She wasn’t alone in that bed. It was that ghost again, as blue and dry as always, lying next to her and staring into her soul with those pale marbles she called eyes.

“Aww, I didn’t scare you again. I suppose you have nerves of steel, or they are too fried to send any fight or flight responses up to your brain.”

“What do you want?”

“I was just having fun watching you, you are fascinating, even while you sleep, you know? I saw what you did to those stupid fucks last night, simply marvelous, and you didn’t even spill a single drop of blood. I personally would’ve shot them and called it a day, but you went the extra mile to avoid getting your clothes dirty.”

“Blood is hard to clean, you know?” – Said Alicia, raising an eyebrow. – “Was that everything you had to say?”

“Not everything, I just wanted to talk with you, it’s a bit lonely here in the limbo, much more when all the others know you are a killer. I think some of them saw me do my job while I was still around, you know what I mean?”

“That’s your problem.”

“It can be your problem too if you aren’t careful, especially knowing the way you are.”

“What do you mean by that?” – Alicia sat down on the edge of the bed, she noticed that Nyx’s neck was bent to the right, a consequence of hanging by a rope for so long.

“There were times where I didn’t work alone, jobs that required some backup. Sometimes men, sometimes women, sometimes bad shots, sometimes crack shots. Some I loved, some I killed myself, but unfortunately even the good ones died. They made terrible mistakes and retribution fell on them. They all had a different reason to kill, some did it just for the money, others did it because they loved it, others did it because they didn’t have a choice. For me, it was an act of vindication, and I wanted to get it from everyone I came across. In which category do you think you fit in? Love? Money or duty?”

Alicia just looked at the door, trying to get that question out of her mind. As if she was going to talk about those things with the ghost of a psychopathic bitch that thought could compare to her for some wicked reason.

“Don’t worry, that was a captious question. I already know the answer. You just can’t help yourself, can you? You have to kill, it’s not merely a hobby.”

“I have to?”

“Have you never thought about it before? why you seem to always be thinking about killing? That thing inside you pushes you to do it, yes, why? That I don’t know, but you can’t resist the call, in fact, you don’t want to.”

Alicia looked back, stabbing the ghost with her rageful glare, but that didn’t intimidate the ghost. How could it? she was dead anyway.

“Maybe you were born for this or you came to be like this, but that’s how it is. You are not merely a blood junkie, it’s a part of you, your nature.” – She raised up her fist and clenched it. – “There aren’t many predators like you in the business as far as I remember, but they exist, and they are the best of all of us.”

“(A predator?)” – Alicia looked down to the floor, that word bringing her train of thought down to a grinding halt. Nyx was right, when she faced off against that trio of weirdos, not even for a single second she thought about trying to suppress them and avoid herself any hassle that may come with killing someone, nor did she think about disengaging and losing them, then try to approach the situation from another angle. Her first thought and conclusion were the best and quickest way to kill them right there and then.

“Thinking about it is not pretty, yes. But it had to happen at some point, and I don’t regret making you aware of it. And I wouldn’t try to contradict it, by the way, you might end up getting angry with yourself, and that’s not good, all things considered.”

The same alarm that echoed through space the first time they talked rang once again. – “Seems my time is up, nice chat. I didn’t learn anything today but, maybe if I keep talking with you I’ll get somewhere.”

“…Don’t be a stranger, I suppose.” – Said Alicia. She heard as Nyx took the safe off her pistol and the next thing she knew, she had lost consciousness once again. Nyx had shot her in the back of her head; that was her way to say goodbye, or to cut the line, so to speak.

Alicia woke up once more in her bed, but this time there was no blue corpse breathing cold air down her neck right next to her. She couldn’t determine if this was all a fabrication of her mind or if there was a real ghost haunting her. Alas, all she could do for the moment is to expect that the next time she goes to sleep, she won’t have to tolerate that cadaver’s presence.

She sat up on the edge of the bed once again, going over her words.

She had never thought about those things, she always allowed herself to go with the motions. Alicia was content with killing the degenerates and savages the commander had allowed her to kill, and now it was the MTW who was employing her to take down a different flavor of parasites, but parasites all the same.

Alicia remembered the first one she killed, that dirty man the commander tricked into going inside her cell to try and harm her. She could see right through him, he was a monster, like many others, someone that for any reason had discarded his humanity in order to harness the pleasure of having power over innocent beings, no matter how small. The commander said “rape her” and he obeyed; he had to die.

But now she was wondering if that was all there was to it. in any case, she couldn’t think about the matter for much longer, she had a day to get through.

Turns out the Bradleys were running out of groceries, it had to happen at some point, so they got dressed to drive to the town and go to the supermarket. Naturally, they invited Alicia to tag along. Hector thought that even if she had a “broken arm” she still could carry something with the healthy one with no difficulties. Alicia agreed, just so because she wanted to see the town up close and compare it to the one she saw back in Mexico. She wouldn’t get her hopes up, at that point, she already had an image of what civilization was: mass graveyards full of weak people, ruled by savage degenerates, something that could be destroyed by her with ease.

She sat next to Hector who was driving, Jane and her son sat behind. Few vehicles coming and going, even the desert was a bit livelier than this. Alicia shook her head subtly, she tried to avoid thinking about that place as much as she could. She preferred to stay in the present and sometimes ponder about the future, but the past was a can of rotten food that was better left sealed.

“So, Sofia, what kind of music do you like?” – Asked Hector. – “I normally put on the news but you can tune in whatever you want.”

“Hm?” – It had been a while since she had heard music. Regardless of that, her taste in music was not something she was willing to share with anyone, like with most things about her.

Everyone’s taste for music within the Crimson Rangers was very homogeneous, and after spending some time with them, their tastes became her tastes, however, from time to time, something would catch her attention that wasn’t characterized for bombastic guitar riffs, trembling drums and growling voices.

“Music huh?” – Alicia reached for the radio’s knob to tune in on a station that was broadcasting any song she found familiar. When she turned it on, she stumbled upon a news radio.

“…four corpses were found in the forest outside Forest Grove, the police believe…” – She changed the station rather quickly. Hector just assumed that she wasn’t interested in hearing about news of any sort. Afterwards, she stumbled upon a rock and metal station, they were playing children of the grave, she knew that song pretty well, Aiden had the full album from where that song came from.

However, she didn’t feel in the mood for that. Next station, this one played lighter songs regarding their rhythm.

“Hey, hey…wouldn’t be great, great if we could just lay down…”

“(Slowtown!)”

Alicia turned off the radio, keeping that neutral expression on her face to not reveal her excitement.

“What’s wrong? Nothing to your liking?” – Asked Hector.

“I thought you’d like hard rock and metal like most mercenaries.” – Commented Jane, going over the multiple soldier stereotypes she knows about.

“…Not really. I’ll try again later.”

Hector was no genius, but he didn’t need to be to know that she was playing her cards as close to her chest as possible. She didn’t like to talk about herself, but he knew that was normal given the nature of her line of work as a whole.

The ride to town would continue for a few more minutes. When they were close to the town’s limits, Alicia felt that itch again, on her left arm. That itch under her skin, even under her flesh, unreachable and annoying, accompanied by that taste of iron in her mouth.

“Something wrong, Sofia? Are the slats bothering you?” – Asked Jane.

“No, it’s ok. Just an itch.”

“Oh boy, don’t tell me, this again?”

The same as the day before, but now there was that taste of iron. Ten couldn’t see it, nor feel it, but within Alicia’s heart, that crimson spirit was moving around again, getting restless, scratching the walls of her soul.

Alicia was doing her best to keep her composure, but every minute it passed, it became more difficult. She had no idea why she was being tested this way, or what it meant for her current condition, but she did know what would happen if she didn’t do her best to control herself.

For one, blood bursting out of her scars was inconvenient at the moment, to say the least.

Alicia had her own idea of what all civilized towns looked like, but this one was far different than all the others.

The cleanliness, the order, the way the sun shone over the streets as if this town and it coexisted in perfect harmony, the way trees adorned some blocks to provide shade to the townsfolk. Clean and well-maintained cars coming and going, there were even some children playing around the neighborhoods too.

Both Alicia and Ten had never seen something like this before. Such luxuries weren’t commonplace in the countries they had been in, and if they were, they didn’t last for long, they were all a bombing or a raid away from becoming yet another mass graveyard or ghost town to occupy and use as a hideout of sorts.

“Look at this! so this is the American dream? No wonder every other asshole wants to come here.” – When they stopped at a red light, they took a moment to watch over a group of kids playing soccer in a distant avenue with a ball and two improvised goals. – “You know, it’s a bit weird seeing children play around in a place that can’t be considered a war zone.”

“(It’s weird, yeah.)” – Alicia remembered watching a group of children play a similar game in a derelict little town up in Chechenia. Carefree and happy, despite the ruins they lived in. She often wondered why they could be happy with so little and not remotely good, if anything at all.

She couldn’t understand those that had that capability, but she didn’t know if she envied them or pitied them.

Why not seek strength and find a better place for themselves? And that was not a question she had for those children, but for those that took care of them.

“I see that you are liking the town, Sofia.” – Said Hector noticing her marvel. – “It’s not the most modern, but it’s very nice. I have a little shop around here if you want to pay a visit soon.”

“What kind of shop?” – Asked Alicia.

“It’s a gun’s shop.” – Said Jane, with a tongue like a hammer. – “Hector used to be in the military, then became a hunter and some years later decided to make a living selling guns, he made good use of his contacts.”

“Hehe, you say it as if it is a bad thing, baby.”

“What kind of guns?” – Asked Alicia, turning back towards him.

“Well, mostly civilian stuff.”

“Mostly.” – Remarked Jane.

“Yeah, yeah. I have a few customers that commission higher grade stuff, but it’s all completely legal, I made sure of it.”

“I see…” – Alicia made a mental note of this, maybe it would be useful in the future.

In any case, that was enough sightseeing, after a few blocks they had arrived at the mall, and the surprises and wonders would keep coming.

The abundance Alicia saw within that market was something that Alicia had only seen in some movies and read about in books, and the real deal lived up to the way they were depicted in fiction.

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Rows and rows full of food and other products, she was afraid to admit that she felt overwhelmed for a few seconds.

She followed the family close by while they took care of taking the groceries they needed. Stuff like flour, coffee seeds, eggs and milk. From time to time someone would glare at Alicia with a puzzled look, wondering what could have happened to such a young girl to end up wounded like that. The honest truth would certainly surprise them if they were to hear it.

Jane looked back at Alicia, noticing that she hadn’t asked to take anything. – “Come on, Sofia. We have enough money to spare, if you want to take something, go for it; put it in the cart.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely, you’ve helped us with a lot, so I’m sure the least we can do is buy something for you.”

“I see.”

Looking over the products it was hard to choose, she didn’t know what she wanted, but after a few seconds her eyes posed over a pack of cocoa powder. She had only tasted it once, and knew how it was prepared, it had been a very long time since she had a cup. So, she grabbed a pack and two cartons of milk.

Jane giggled. – “Despite your looks and background, you are just a girl, like me, and all the others.”

“Believe me ma’am, when you get to know her she’s such a lovely cat.”

“(Shut up.)”

That was a new one for Alicia. No one had ever told her that she was “like any other girl”, it confused her plenty. Because of the way she thought, she didn’t know if to take offense to that comment or just not heed it any mind. Either way, it sounded and felt weird.

The Bradleys kept going with their shopping, at one point Alicia separated from them and decided to explore the mall. Without really looking for it, she made her way to the electronics section where they sold all sorts of televisions, home radios, computers and similar trinkets.

She was walking past a Tv that was being on for demonstration purposes when suddenly she heard three loud bangs coming from her right flank. She quickly assumed position and reached for her gun unconsciously, just to realize that the source of those three gunshots was a commercial in the sample television.

“This fall, the wild west comes back to the television in a special charged with lead and silver.” – Said the announcer on the commercial, followed by the neighing of a horse. – “Clint Eastwood, in his stellar role as the man with no name…” – Alicia stopped paying attention after that.

It was just an ad; she had gotten edgy for something as silly as that. Worst yet, she was unarmed, so she clutched at air when she heard those gunshots. This too was something new, but not good at all.

“See? You are as scaredy as an actual cat.”

“(I was not scared. That’s just how you react when you hear gunshots.)”

“It would’ve been appropriate if you had a gun, but I saw you grasping at the concept of one and I couldn’t help but laugh.”

Alicia was fixated on that area’s peace and quiet for some reason. She felt uncomfortable with it, as if it wasn’t natural at all, at least for her.

But this event gave her an idea as to why. She scratched the back of her head and moved on, trying to pretend that didn’t happen.

The Bradleys were done with their supply run, and of course, they included the items Alicia chose in the cart.

After coming out with the cart full of products they went back to the car to place the items in the trunk. Alicia looked around, keeping an eye on the surroundings while they finished packing everything up; old habits die hard.

She could even feel the frame of a gun inside the palm of her free hand. Being far away from combat and the quietness were getting to her in a way she didn’t expect.

“Honestly, seeing you so paranoid over nothing can be funny, but it overstays its welcome. There’s no sniper aiming at you from one of the buildings nearby, do me a favor and relax.”

Alicia sighed. – “(I know, I know.)” – She brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. – “(I can’t seem to get used to this peace.)”

She kept looking around until her nose caught a certain scent. It smelled like ribs marinated in barbeque sauce, hot and out of the frying pan; simply irresistible, Alicia drooled at the exposure of that essence.

Alicia looked back, towards the origin of the scent, and it was closer than the last one. She saw a group of six men at the bottom of the parking lot, wearing hoodies and backward caps, they were laughing at their hearts’ content but Alicia couldn’t quite determine what they were talking about. Taking a harder looked, Alicia determined they were armed, judging by the handle of a beretta 92F peeking out of the pants of one of them, another one kept a forty-five under his shirt.

No doubt about it, they were a gang, and that was enough for the crimson spirit to get restless again.

The spirit caught Alicia off-guard and made its way up to her brain. Her sight became reddish and her legs moved by themselves. Alicia witnessed as the spirit took over the qualities of her mind that made her effective as an assassin on her own.

She saw white silhouettes, a dozen at a time, rush towards the gangbangers and attack them from multiple angles, she knew herself and knew the spirit enough to know that if its planification was put in action, any of those attack courses could become a reality, but the result would be the same: the gangsters would die, and she would end up exposed; she had to stop it at all cost.

Fortunately, she wasn’t alone on this one. Ten interrupted the connection between the spirit and her mind, starting a struggle.

“Oh, no, you don’t get to do whatever you want ya’ bellend. Get back to your fucking corner!”

Alicia closed her eyes and focused on reassuming control. Slowly but surely her muscles relaxed and she regained control over her legs.

She slowly opened her eyes to discover that her sight was not flooded in red anymore; she had successfully resisted the influence of the entity.

“Hey Sofia, what are you doing? We are done with the groceries, let’s go back home.” – Jane called out to her, and that seemed to relax her a little bit.

“…Yeah, sorry, I’m going.”

The crimson spirit didn’t seem to understand concepts such as keeping a low profile or subtlety, jumping like a hyena at the first sight of a prey, but how could it? it wasn’t even human, of course it isn’t going to care about what humans think, nor about the consequences of its actions, after all, it won’t be it who has to face said consequences when it decides to retire back to its corner within Alicia’s heart and leave her to take care of the mess on her own.

However, she had to agree on something with it. If there was no one there to intervene or just bear witness, if it was down to only them and her, she would kill them all in a heartbeat.

Before stepping into the vehicle, Alicia looked back one more time and projected her bloodthirst on the gangbangers, it seemed to be amplified by the amount of “hunger” she was feeling.

She imagined she was holding one of her modified pistols and took the shot.

The gangbangers witnessed as their brains were scattered all over the place in a matter of seconds, but in the next blink it was as if nothing had happened, they were completely fine, but that brief and sharp pain they felt moments before their brains were spread everywhere felt so very real.

A moment to feel shocked, afterwards they jumped back and took their guns looking around, trying to piece together what just had happened, uttering questions followed by profanities hoping someone would answer to them why they were killed and then were completely fine shortly afterwards. Alicia didn’t give them a third look and stepped into the car. Having finished with the shopping, the Bradleys took the ride back home. The gangbangers, scared for their lives, decided to get back into their vehicles and return to their homes before a real bullet killed them all, right where they were standing.

“Well, I don’t like completely silent rides, so with your permission, I’m gonna play something.” – Said Hector, reaching for the radio.

Turning on the radio was followed by a very distasteful set of words to be listened by the child sitting right behind him.

“Die motherfucker, die!”

The inside of the car was flooded by the sound of a dozen pistols being shot at the same time. The sound was very real, it had to be. Alicia knew how the sound of a pistol firing was like, as it was natural.

Suddenly she was no longer in the car. In a second she was standing in a cold and gray landscape, surrounded by tall trees and the torrential pillars of smoke raising up to the heavens at the distance. Chechenia, where slavers go to die.

She had been surrounded by a group of nine men armed to the teeth. They were thugs running after a container’s worth of women, or as they called them “merchandise”, that she had stolen from their group two days before. The commander had told her to create a big distraction while the main group was after their leader, some fat and old man that did all the usual slaver stuff for a living. Turns out, Conrad’s plan didn’t go as he was expecting, and the target actually ended coming after her. She never cared to learn his name or motives, but apparently what she had done was harmful enough for his business that he decided to come personally to solve the issue and make an example out of her.

“…We’ve got you surrounded. Give us back the merchandise and we won’t…” – The crimson fire burst out of her scars, she drew out her pistols and in less than two seconds, she had dropped the men surrounding the objective before they could raise up their rifles, and used the last two bullets left in the mags to shoot them into his gut, making him kneel and groan in agony.

He tried to reach for his gun but she kicked him in the chin, sending his magnum flying out of his hand. Once he was on the ground, Alicia dropped her pistols as well and proceeded to punch his face as hard as she could. His face was battered, disfigured and finally reduced to a bloody pulp.

“Sofia? Sofia are you ok?” – Asked Hector, snapping Alicia back to reality. Turns out she was staring at a single point at the front, sweating profusely; the sweat was ice cold.

“Oh! Yeah, yeah…sorry, I’m not used to this climate yet.” – She said, improvising some excuse.

It wasn’t even that warm, or at least that’s what Hector thought. He didn’t like that music either so he changed the station immediately before Jane complained about it saying it wasn’t appropriate for Paul to listen to it.

Alicia had managed to keep the situation under control, at least on the exterior. In the interior however, there was someone she could never fool.

“Crap, another one of those. I thought ya’ had gotten over them after Siberia, what happened?”

“(Hell if I know.)”

“I think the doc back with the rangers mentioned it once. A term used to encase these symptoms.” – Ten rubbed her temple, trying to remember. – “What was it? some psychology mumbo-jumbo… Shellshock?”

“(It’s not shellshock. I’m ok.)” – Insisted Alicia. – “(Why the fuck would I be shellshocked if I was never bothered about what I do?)”

“Well, the doc said that it’s not born from guilt.”

Alicia couldn’t believe herself. She always assumed that she was above all of that, that her brain was wired different in order to wage war against her enemies with little to no issues. And now that the silence and peace had made a spot for themselves in her daily life, a bunch of bad thoughts she didn’t know they existed have come to haunt her.

“You know, I’m actually not surprised. You have always kept your mind busy with prep work, training and then engaging in combat with whatever asshole we gotta take down. We are young ladies, ya’ know? It’s no wonder you’ve developed some issues righ’ up here.”

“(Shut up, don’t patronize me.)”

Alicia may be very good keeping a composed expression on her face, but it was not hard for Jane to know that something was wrong with her aside from the broken arm and those cuts. That was something she wanted to address soon.

A few hours later, Alicia sat on the house’s porch, staring at the distance while holding a cup full of warm chocolate in her hand. It was as tasty as she remembered.

Her scars tingled as she saw the sun about to set behind the horizon. The crimson spirit was becoming more and more restless by the hour and she already knew what it was demanding of her to appease it.

What was it anyway? Both Alicia and Ten were sure it wasn’t a demon, otherwise it would aim towards killing innocents and wouldn’t be so cooperative to heal her and support her. It was something else, and by the looks of it, something more powerful than a mere demon.

In fact, was she even human at this point? There was no way to be sure, but Alicia personally wouldn’t mind if that was the case.

She stayed there, drinking her chocolate in silence until the sun set, the night fell upon the country, she was about to go back into the house when Paul approached and sat beside her. He was holding a sketchbook and a couple of pencils.

She didn’t intend to say anything, but the child insisted in having a conversation.

“I’m going to draw the moon and the stars.” – He said, taking a dark blue pencil to color the night sky.

She listened as he proceeded to bathe a portion of the page in a deep dark blue color, of course, it was preferable than use a black pencil, the blue gives it a bit more life and it’s still valid.

Ten was awfully silent, at times like this she would have something to banter about. Maybe she was asleep, that sometimes happen as well.

After a few minutes, the child stopped coloring and looked at her.

“Why are you so hurt, miss?” – He asked. Silence was his answer, but Paul was stubborn, like most other kids. – “Did a bomb go off near you?”

That question caught Alicia off guard, she looked at him. – “What?”

“If the coyote can survive explosions, then you can too!” – He said, getting a laugh out of Ten, waking her up from her slumber. Of course, since he couldn’t read minds at all, he would never get to listen to her beautiful laughter.

“The…coyote?”

“The coyote and the roadrunner, have you never heard of them?”

“Not really.” – She focused back on the night landscape. – “Besides, that’s not how it works. I just…fell off a high place.”

“Like a hundred stairs?”

Alicia looked down to her “broken” arm. – “Yeah…let’s say a hundred stairs.”

“I fell off a high place once, a tree.” – He said. – “The branch broke and I fell over my arm, it also broke. They had to use an arm cast, I didn’t want to get out of bed for a week.”

“It must’ve been painful.”

“Yes, it was. Very painful, but yours also broke and you are able to do things like nothing happened.” - Paul shook his book in excitement. – “You must be super strong.”

“What a cute little twerp you are, you flatter us. If I was real, I’d prepare more chocolate just for you!”

“It’s no big deal.” – Said Alicia avoiding eye contact. – “That’s what happens when you train a lot.”

“You actually look like a superhero. Many superheroes are very strong! are you one of them!?”

His innocent questions were rubbing her the wrong way, it reminded her of the way Malak and the other kids saw her as a person.

If this continued she would end up loathing the word “hero” altogether. She was a murderer, the legendary Butcher, not a hero, much less a superhero, but many called her that, even if they were aware of all the stuff she did in the desert. Why would they call a person that massacred hundreds of people a hero? Was that actually what heroes do?

However, there was a nuance, and she noticed it in that very moment. When she was brought back to that moment in Chechenia, when she was gunning down those slavers and beat their leader to death, there was an important fact to consider: she not only killed them because they were her enemies, and not only because the man in the middle of them was her target. She was there to protect the women and little girls that were hiding in a house a hundred meters behind her.

She showed her back to the weak and her blade to the strong. She had read books where this event was replicated under many different circumstances. Back towards the weak, blade towards the strong, wasn’t that what heroes do? And yes, how many times has she done that already?

If the world she lived in allowed her to cling to that nuance and not let go, then yes, there was no shame in accepting it.

“…I guess I am a hero…” – She said, looking up to the stars. – “…At least for now.”

“Amazing!” – Said Paul, almost dropping his sketchbook out of excitement.

“Paul, it’s time to go to bed!” – Said Hector from inside the house. Without saying another word, Paul walked back into the house, heading to his bedroom.

Right afterwards, Hector walked out of the house, Alicia was almost done with her chocolate.

“Gotta say, you have a good hand with food and drinks!” – He said, the chocolate she prepared was simply marvelous.

“It’s mere instinct.” – She said. – “I just know the right amount of everything for it to come out tasty.”

“I can see that.” – He leaned on the door frame. – “So, did you like the town? It’s a nice place, truly. Everyone is welcomed to come and do their best.”

“Yeah. It’s a nice place, but I don’t see myself going there often.”

“Why not? I think you’ll love it if you stay long enough.”

“It’s not that I don’t like it. It’s nice and all. It’s very quiet, and it seems I cannot get used to that silence.” – Alicia finished her chocolate. – “I don’t think I fit in such a peaceful environment.”

“Don’t say that. In my opinion, as human beings, everyone needs peace and quiet in some capacity, no matter the path they’ve walked in life, just like how everyone needs to sleep and eat; that’s just part of being human.” – He took a step forward and had a look at the bandages covering her arms, being fully aware of the numerous scars right under them. – “Pardon me for saying it, but I’ve got the feeling you are the kind of person who’s too hard on herself.”

“Ya’ are damn right, Bradley. This chick can’t look in the mirror without feeling bad about it.”

“(Shut up.)” – Alicia looked over her shoulder. – “What makes you say that?”

“We know very little about you, and I figure you want it to stay like that, but you’d be surprised at how much you can learn from a person by observing them.”

“…And what have you learned?”

“Well, I said that it was ok for you to rest, I saw your injuries and I thought that you deserved a break, but no, you decided to make yourself useful right away and help around the house, as if you held yourself to a high standard you wish to uphold, whatever the cost. You also avoid talking about yourself and I saw the face you made when Jane complimented you. Complete puzzlement, that makes me think you seldom get complimented by others or you just don’t know how to react when complimented.”

“I wouldn’t call that a compliment. She just made an observation I didn’t understand the conclusion of.”

“Why? Does that mean that you don’t see yourself as normal?”

Suddenly, Hector felt a weird pressure over his shoulders. This pressure was unnoticeable at first, but it became present as it became heavier and heavier. It became so heavy his knees began to shake. His sweat ran cold and his pupils dilated, he couldn’t think and couldn’t speak; he felt an absolute terror running through his body, even if he didn’t know what he was afraid of.

And suddenly all of these feelings and burdens disappeared out nowhere, just like how they appeared. He looked at Alicia once again, who was staring at him from the sideline. – “I think it’s a fair assessment to say that I’m not.” – She said.

Hector took a deep breath and stood upright. He regained his composure rather quickly, something that Alicia found very impressive. He reminded her of Kirsten, she hadn’t thought about him in a while, she wondered if he was still alive.

“Maybe you are not…” – He said, having regained control of himself. That man had an iron will. – “…But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have good things. Everyone is a bit different, again, that’s what makes us human, and that’s not bad at all, so you shouldn’t beat yourself for it. Peace and quietness are here for you just as much as it is for me, and Jane, and Paul, and everyone else in town.” – Hector turned around and walked back into the house. – “So don’t think in terms of whether you deserve something or not.”

“Finally, someone had the guts to say that to your face.”

“(So you weren’t brave enough to tell me that?)”

“Nah, I just figured that you had to figure it out on your own. It’s just that people always tremble in their britches whenever you are close so no wonder they wouldn’t try to give you a lecture on anything.”

Alicia went over all of this in her mind, trying to determine how this entire situation made her feel.

Only two days before, she was in a warpath, leaving a trail of corpses right behind her, she had been stabbed in the back by her employers and she was on her way to destroy everything they had built for daring to cross her. However, she realized that while living with the Bradley family and tending to the house’s chores, getting to know them, she had forgotten about this personal vendetta. It was the first time that she had forgotten about a grievance, as if she had landed in that county by mere coincidence.

Furthermore, the disgust she had felt in Mexico by looking at the way those people lived, that disgust was not present while looking around the town of Forest Grove. It was like night and day; their circumstances were radically different. The people in that town were happy, she could feel it in her bones. In the books she had read, there were some that painted a very positive perspective of civilization, and she was sure that town resembled exactly what they were describing.

This was real civilization; it wasn’t merely a dream or an ill-intentioned illusion created by the parasites who rule the world.

However, judging by that group of gangbangers at the parking lot, even the brightest spots of an orderly and peaceful society seemed to have their own weeds.

Her emotions attuned themselves to those of the crimson spirit, acquiring a finer affinity with it, allowing her to control it better without letting it explode and burst out of her body like it usually does.

Alicia’s eyes and scars under the bandages glowed a bright red. She had to remove the weeds at all cost, but she needed to find the right moment to do so.

Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, another change was approaching, and soon she’d have to wander again.

It had taken some time for Kirsten to organize and get everything he needed to make the journey to the US due to the stalemate between the MTW and Lionel’s faction, but he was finally done making preparations and was on his way towards Oregon. He had successfully crossed the Canadian border, it would be a matter of time getting to the county and start his recon operation on the area.

He wasn’t alone in this task, of course. Charlie was sitting right next to him, using a very convincing disguise of her own having dyed her hair blonde and using blue contact lenses. He had cut his hair and was using round glasses and a baseball cap, as long as he kept a low profile that should be enough. For all that was worth, they were an unassuming father and his daughter on a ride through the US, the operators made sure their fake IDs backed up this background.

They made a stop at a gas station forty kilometers away from Oregon to get more gas and some supplies for the ride.

Charlie went into the store to get the supplies, stuff like snacks and energy drinks, while Kirsten took care of refilling the vehicle’s tank. The tank was half-full when he received a call from an unknown number. He reluctantly answered the call, being wary that it could be anyone on the other side of the line, including Lionel ready to track down his location.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Eyler. It’s been a while.” – Kirsten recognized the confidence and authority behind Conrad’s voice. Why? Out of all times he could have called, he had to choose to do so right there and then? Worst yet, how did he get his number? It was a different phone from the one he uses.

“…I’m as fine as I can be, Mr. Amber.” -He said, trying to remain respectful. – “How did you find this number?”

“I’ve got my ways, just like how I’ve got eyes and ears everywhere, at least where it matters. I like to keep tabs on important matters, and since you took Alicia away from us, I just had to know how you and your group were doing, and from what I’ve seen, I guess you’ve had better days.”

His heart skipped a beat, how could he know? There was no way he was supposed to know about the coup attempt. How long was Conrad’s reach?

“How do you know about that?”

“You’ve underestimated me, Eyler. I may just be the commander of a group of mercenaries, but even I have access to some resources and information, in fact, lots of both of them, both with people and tools. Look around you, one of my men is keeping an eye on you right now.”

Kirsten shuddered and quickly took a look around, trying to spot anyone staring at him from a distance, maybe trying to keep a low profile posing as a worker, a tourist or a trapper, he didn’t care who, he just needed to know if he was saying the truth. But everything he could see around that gas station were trees, the empty parking lot and more vehicles passing by the highway.

Conrad laughed as if he could see Eyler looking around himself. – “Don’t panic, Eyler. Stay calm, even if you saw him, he would disappear before you could even blink.”

“Who-?”

“Remember my bodyguard? His name is Colin. He wanted to stretch his legs so I sent him out on this small surveillance mission. Don’t worry, he won’t be watching you for much longer, he has more things to tend to before coming back. More than checking on your group, I wanted to check on you, since you were the one that convinced her to bail on us.” -The commander drank from his coup and savored the aftertaste on his lips. – “Hmm…and actually, I don’t see Alicia with you. Is she alright?”

“She’s alright, commander. I can guarantee you that.”

“Where is she then?”

“Away, on a mission currently, so she’s not available to have a conversation at the moment.”

“Ahh, I see…didn’t think you’d dare to send her out on a solo mission so early. You must trust her a lot!”

“That I do. You were right, she’s a very competent killer.”

“More than competent!” -Kirsten heard how the commander slammed his fist on his desk by pure raw emotion. –“I know, because I trained her, I made her who she is! She’s one of the most dangerous killers alive.”

“Still feeling resentful about what happened, commander?”

“…Not at all, no. She made her choice; we’ve already established this. But I remind you of this because of a reason. I trained her, and it’s because of this that I know to not let her go too far on her own.”

“What do you mean?”

“If you have seen her in action, you should know already that she doesn’t care about money in the slightest, one of the many things that set her apart from all mercenaries and puts her in the same bag with the serial killers.” – The commander lit up a cigarette. – “But I think I sold her short when we met. She isn’t only obsessed with hunting; she’s obsessed with war.”

“War?”

“She’s got only one mission, to wage war against her enemies and take the war to their doorstep, to make them feel what she felt there, in the desert, no matter the cost. It’s enough for her when someone puts her in front of the bad guys and is given enough ammo to have fun with. But when she runs out of targets, when there’s silence on the radio, better believe it, she’s going to wander around looking for her own targets, and the mess she’ll cause will only be detrimental to you, and the more time she’s left alone, the more she’ll escalate.”

“Escalate?” – Kirsten felt a shiver down his spine.

“The media tried their best, but they were uncapable of covering the full extent of what happened in Iraq. Let’s start with this: For Alicia, those insurgents, Sadam’s soldiers, anyone willing to blow themselves up to send their enemies to Allah, none of them were human, and she was as alone as she wanted to be; for all intents and purposes, that desert was her ideal playground.”

“Where are you going with this, commander?”

“Let me finish. When we returned to the desert after a year, we found this photographer that managed to sneak his way into the hottest area of Fallujah to take pictures. Some of these pictures depicted a soldier wielding a rifle, and wearing body armor… adorned with bones.”

Kirsten stood in place, his muscles tensed up. Such barbarities were common in the ancient times, thousands of years ago, something like that shouldn’t be done in the modern times, or at least that’s what he thought.

“Shoulder pads and kneepads, and the Kevlar vest was covered with a ribcage, and he covered his face with a black scarf. He looked as if he had jumped out of hell itself.” -He continued. –“…A few days later, we received a message through the radio. It was Alicia, she was asking us to come pick her up. We did as we were told, we found her in the outskirts of the city, sitting on top of a couple of fresh corpses, singing something to herself, and of course, she was wearing that horrible armor.”

Kirsten was completely speechless, he was at the mercy of Conrad’s story, which he didn’t know if to believe or not. His brain was struggling to create a picture of that scene: Alicia, the Butcher, wearing an armor made out of bones.

“We asked her time and time again who those bones belonged to, but she always said she didn’t remember. She did her best to torment everyone in that desert for over an entire year, and I’d say she did a good job crippling the influence of Islam over that region, if not the entire country itself.”

Kirsten remembered hearing something about many Arabians renouncing their fate under the belief that Allah had sent the Butcher down to the earth as punishment for tarnishing his values, cursing the entire religion as a result.

“When she returned to the base, man… she had a glare that would set everything on fire. I’ve never seen such a hateful and grudgeful glare, bloodshot eyes all the time, I thought at one point that she had gotten a weird variant of rabies, but the doc told me otherwise. She never did anything to hurt anyone in the base, unless provoked, but I still felt like she was not ok at all… I thought killing Glass would put her in a good mood, if not downright put her out of her misery, but even then, she still seemed unsatisfied.” -The commander finished his cigarette. – “She won’t stop at nothing until she finishes her war…and we don’t know when that will happen.”

“Why are you telling me this, commander?” – Asked Kirsten, trying to conciliate the concept he had of the Alicia he knew and the Alicia the commander was describing.

“Because I want you to learn of the risk that entails sending her out on her own. If she’s alone, you are giving her free reign to do whatever she wants, and what she wants includes stuff like this. So, I’d say it’s in your best interest to take decisions accordingly. But, heh… I did say that she’ll be your best friend as long as you keep her fed, so I apologize for that.”

“(So that’s what he meant.)” – Kirsten kept his head held high. – “Do you ever regret turning her into what she is today, commander?”

The commander took a moment to think about his response. – “Despite everything that’s happened, not really. After all these years, and seen what I’ve seen, she may as well be the perfect wake up call for all the idiots living on this rock we call our home.”

“I see…don’t worry, if she ever goes out of control again, I’ll make sure to be there and put her in her place.”

“That’s all I’m asking for. Wouldn’t want her to die so early because of her own psychotic recklessness. This may surprise you but, I actually want to see her grow up, you know?”

“Really now?” -Kirsten raised an eyebrow.

“That’s right. I want to see her come of age, see her body develop, her scars heal and close, maybe she’ll start her own mercenary organization and take on big jobs, maybe she’ll finally get tired of killing and go for a more quiet, relaxed lifestyle. She could become a doctor for all I know! And none would know about the murderous little runt she was in the past.” -Conrad puffed out some smoke. – “I want to see that, Eyler, I want to see where she goes.”

“You almost sound like her dad, commander.”

Conrad snorted. – “Maybe I am. Given the state we found her, it’s safe to assume her real father is nothing more than a deadbeat rat. I did everything I could, in my own way, so make sure she doesn’t die too soon.”

“Got it. Thanks for the advice, commander.”

“No problem, and good luck.”

The commander finished the call. Afterwards, Kirsten paid for the gas and waited for Charlie inside the car. She returned a couple of minutes later, carrying a handful of snacks for the road.

“Let’s hurry up now.” -Said Kirsten. – “We’ve got to reach Forest Grove by tomorrow.”

“Well, it’s still pretty far…” -Argued Charlie. – “I doubt we’d make it there by tomorrow, even if you step on the gas.”

“We’ll find a way.” -Said Kirsten as he drove down the highway, eyes on the task at hand.

“Why so worried? Do you think she’s going to burn down the entire town?”

“From all we know about her, she’s quite capable of doing that.”

“Wow…” -Deep inside, Charlie still thought Kirsten was exaggerating. – “She sounds like a real handful to deal with.”

“She really is…”

They would take some time to reach Forest Grove. Meanwhile, Conrad’s warning was dangerously close to become a reality, and this would only be aggravated further by the arrival of the group of assassins looking for Alicia’s head.