Desperation was the only thing Kane could feel now, for all intents and purposes he was completely alone. Certainly, the pilots wouldn’t lift a finger to help him, they were too busy piloting that flying mass grave. For all they knew, he was just another corpse.
But that desperation kept talking to him, clutching at his heart, telling him what he needed to do; Desperation gives bravery to the cowards.
“Fight her, Harold. You have to fight her! stop hiding in this room and fight! There’s no other way, Harold. Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” -His desperation had acquired a voice, echoing through each and every single drop of sweat sliding down his brow.
There was a loaded magnum .44 on the table right in front of him, he could do a lot of things with that. 6 shots, he could kill himself 6 times with it and still feel like killing himself at least 30 times more. On the other hand, he had 6 chances to take that demon down, at that distance and in such a closed space, 6 bullets should everything he needs to make justice, not only for himself, but also for each and every single mercenary that died trying to take her down.
He decided to listen to desperation. He grabbed the magnum and waited.
He could hear her approaching, her heavy steps walking over the corpses hindering her through the corridors. She suddenly began whistling, that whistle bounced through the corners of his mind, going from one side to the other of his psyche, settling there as a new but temporal entity. What was its purpose? What was it planning? He had no way of knowing, nor a way to get rid of it.
Kane vaguely recognized that tune, he had heard it somewhere before, but he had never paid attention to it. It appeared in movies, tv shows…and funerals.
But while he was thinking about that song, he made his first mistake, he had let her get too close, she was now three steps away from the door, ready to kick it down and catch him. If he had to act, he had to do it now.
Kane gritted his teeth and kicked the door open.
“DIE! DIE! DIE, YOU WHORE! DIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” -He unloaded the mag on her, the six shots came out flying from the magnum, each bullet determined to lodge itself on some part of her body.
If bullets had feelings, the six of them would have been very disappointed at the realization that they would never fulfill their duty as they were meant to.
He kept pulling the trigger, being soothed by the sound of the click that would be dreadful for anyone else in that situation. The smoke cleared out, and hopelessness settled when he saw her there, right in front of him, still standing and relatively unscathed.
“…Is this your first time holding a gun? No wonder you can’t aim for shit.” -She said, right before kicking the gun out of his hand.
“H-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h…HOW!?” – Kane felt like smashing his head against a wall. – “HOW IS IT POSSIBLE!?”
Ten kicked him in the gut, forcing him down to the ground once more. He was getting swollen around the pelvis.
“From the very beginning, by allowing me to have a spot within your mind, rent free, you gave me access to your conscious and unconscious, so determining your moves was way easier than it usually is and thus I could use my bag of tricks on you. Ain’t that wacky? Haha…!” – Ten stretched her arms and legs, feeling sore. – “Suffice to say, maybe wearing ear plugs would have helped your case and made the game harder, but you didn’t think of that, and thus, here you are.”
Kane stayed on the ground, holding onto his stomach, knowing that there was little to none he could do if he stood up to fight once again. The only thing he could do now was to speak.
“…Why…why do you do this?”
“Huh? That’s like…the oldest question in the book, you know? I could have a thousand reasons to do what I do and you would still bitch and moan about it.” -She kicked him in the gut once again, but he endured it.
“You began in Iraq…then Afghanistan…then Syria…then Siberia, the Netherlands, Africa… you keep killing, and killing, and killing, and no one is able to stop you… why? Why do you kill people? Why have you killed so many people? Do you like it that much? If you were to go the US or even England, would it all be the same to you? Would you kill anyone you came across just because you feel like it…? -He looked up to her, on his knees, shaking with powerlessness.
“(He’s mine, Ten. Back off for now.)”
“(Fiiiine…I’ll go take a break now.)” -It was time to give the wheel back to Alicia. – “Look, man…it’s not up to me to answer that question, so I’ll let you hear it from her instead. Bye bye!”
“What?”
Kane couldn’t believe his own eyes. Right in front of him, Alicia went through some sort of transformation.
Scars drew themselves across her arms, fading into existence as if God himself drew them on her body, stretching and separating the good skin with marks. They appeared on her arms, then her neck and finally three long ones appeared on her face, one extending itself over the bridge of her nose from her left cheek and the last two crossing over one another over her right cheek, forming an X-like mark.
Her glare also recovered that grim shroud she had when he first talked with her, the real look of a murderer.
“Wh…what…what are you!? What the hell are you!?” -Asked Kane, trembling like a jelly.
Alicia stretched again, getting in full control of her body. – “…Not even I can answer that question.” -She said. – “I just am…”
She approached him, and he stumbled backwards and backed off towards the wall behind him, like a child cowering away from his angry mother.
“If it was up to me, I would kill anyone whenever I felt like it, wherever I pleased…” – Alicia stopped walking and tilted her head, averting her gaze from Kane. – “But…I made a promise…two promises in fact, and those promises have something in common…” -She looked down to her hands once again, the blood staining them was real this time, but she could still see the thin layer of imaginary blood right under the real one. – “…And I intend to stay true to my word.”
“And that promise…involves killing innocent people?”
She crouched right in front of him, looking at him dead in the eye. – “You won’t get anywhere throwing those buzzwords at me.” -Without further notice, Alicia threw an uppercut at his chin, briefly propelling him from the ground until he fell on his back. – “Get up.”
Kane stood back up with difficulty, still holding onto his pained innards. That fury that refused to die within him surged back up and gave him enough bravery to try and keep on attacking. – “You…you whore!” – He threw a punch at her, which she easily deflected and countered with a jab and sweep, sending him back to the ground.
“Get up.” -She said, and indeed he got back up, though it was harder this time.
Kane responded with a roundhouse kick, which she caught midair and gripped at his muscles, making him scream in agony before sending him back to the ground.
“Get up.” – She said once again.
“Shut up!!” -Kane rushed back up and threw a flurry of punches at her. But of course, by this point the outcome was obvious.
“I thought that playing with your food was not your style, Ali.”
“(I just can’t stand people like him.)” -Alicia deflected his punches effortlessly, until she caught his right arm snapped it out of the elbow, making Kane fall to the ground in anguished pain once more. – “(I wanted him to get the message.)”
Kane’s back was against the wall once more, holding onto his disabled arm. Alicia was still there, throwing a glare at him he could only define as demonic.
Alicia was disappointed, he had promised he would take her down, but once more, arrogant people are all talk; she could never expect a happy ending from one of them. – “I’m done playing with you.”
Alicia breathed out all the air in her lungs, feeling the calm beat of her heart, achieving absolute concentration. She was about to give Kane a punishment she seldom used because of the great effort it required to pull it off.
Kane was panicked, defenseless, he looked around looking for something that would give him the slightest chance at survival. There to his right, he saw a spare knife the mercs had left behind.
He grabbed it and rushed at her, using the last ounce of courage he had, prepared to swing it down on his face to at least do some damage.
One, two, three, four steps. Kane was about to make it, if heavens were on his side, he would be able to cut down Alicia with that knife.
The crimson glow burst out of her scars instantly, but not only through the ones on her face, it manifested itself through her arms as well. Alicia stabilized her balance, focused on Kane’s chest and moved her fist forward, like a karate’s punch, aiming at it, intercepting his chest with her fist.
If you had blinked, you would have missed it. In a fraction of second, Kane was pushed back once more against the wall, leaving the mark of his shoe grazing the ground before him.
Kane wasn’t feeling pain, but instead he was feeling an overwhelming cold manifesting itself all over his body.
He looked down to discover a huge crater piercing his chest. He looked back up to see Alicia’s bloodstained punch extending itself forward. It was clear what had just happened, but he couldn’t articulate a single word to explain it.
Her fist was powerful enough to pierce his thorax, all the way to reach his heart and destroy it with her raw power.
He trembled one last time, trying to grasp at the hole in his chest unsuccessfully, reaching out to her as he fell on his knees and finally bending over backwards, his life escaping through that very hole.
Alicia swatted the blood on her hand away and closed her eyes, savoring this moment, savoring Kane’s soul.
“…So…was he the one?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Alicia spat on the ground. – “Too bitter…he was just pathetic.”
Now there was no one left to get in her way, she only needed to greet the pilots and give them some new instructions.
Or at least that’s what she intended to do at first, before hearing a grenade’s pin popping off its grenade.
She looked back to see one of the mercenaries, alive and standing, his mask was broken and eyes bloodshot. He was that mercenary Ten got out of her way quickly by destroying his mask, of course that wouldn’t be enough to kill him.
He didn’t care about payment nor survival anymore, all he cared about was seeing Butcher dead, and there was no better way to do it than with an explosive.
He threw the grenade at her with shriek and she kicked it back just in time for the explosion. There was no helping it, so both she and Ten embraced the results.
The explosion created a hole on the plane’s side, sucking everything out of it. the pilots couldn’t keep it flying under these conditions.
In a matter of a few minutes, the plane crashed, destroying everything at its wake.
Some time after the Crimson Rangers found Alicia inside that crate of apples, the commander had an interesting idea. He didn’t know why he would even consider doing this, but every time he looked at that quiet young girl, sitting idly on a corner and gazing into the void, with such an animalistic and craving glare, he had a feeling there was a deep untaped potential within her broken and abused frame.
He approached her one day, she was sitting around, as usual, but she was in an unusual place: in the backyard, staring at the body of the prisoner Aiden had executed an hour before.
Her expression had a deep shroud above her, the commander couldn’t guess what she was thinking at all. She was looking at that poor bastard’s corpse so intently, staring at the hole the bullet made as it pierced through his forehead and splattered everything inside on the wall, the commander had never seen a child so fixated in something as horrid as death.
He felt as if, during one night, the lights were to go out, she would go out and hunt the first person she saw.
But no matter what, at that point, that was only his imagination playing tricks on him because of the unnerving presence of this weird, creepy girl. SO, he finally made up his mind, and talked to her.
“Tell me something, brat: you wanna work with us?” -He asked. – “I can’t say it’s a decent and honest lifestyle, but at least that way you’d be winning your day’s food and even some money, you can…”
She nodded soon after he made that question. She didn’t need to hear the perks and benefits of being a mercenary.
“Hah! You crazy bastard, are you absolutely sure you…?”
She jumped back to her and kept nodding so intently the commander took a step back unconsciously.
He was used to seeing this level of enthusiasm on golden hearted recruits back in the states. However, he frowned once more and looked down on her. Yeah, she had the enthusiasm, but he needed to find out if she had the determination to back it up. – “Alright.” -He said. – “Then let’s put you through a little test.”
Next week, the crimson rangers were settled in a secret base located near the southern border of Siria, they had been hired by a local magnate for protection while a deal was taking place.
It was all well and good, the payment was generous as well, but the commander had accepted that job for another reason. Syria, or rather, the entirety of the middle east, was plagued by the worst kinds of degenerates and criminals the human race had to offer. The perfect practice for their new promising recruit.
He commanded two of his men to put Alicia inside a cage underground and tell her to wait there. When everyone in the company learned about this, many of the soldiers questioned the commander about what he was aiming to do, but he just said: “Don’t worry, I’m just doing a little experiment.” -The tone he used to say that didn’t inspire any trust in his men, and they began to doubt his sanity.
Then all tensions finally arrived at a boiling point when Conrad ordered his bodyguard, Colin, to bring a man, any man, from the local town near the base, the more belligerent he looked, the better.
Aiden was the first to step out of line and met him at his office, holding him at gunpoint.
“I have no idea what kind of plans you are devising in your head, you sick motherfucker, but this is going too fucking far…” -He said. – “I don’t care about your little experiments, but you are not going to hurt that little girl!”
“Relax, Aiden, I’m…”
“No, no! I’m not relaxing, this is a little girl we are talking about. You are going to bring one of those fucking animals here to hurt her, right? And what in the actual hell do you want to accomplish with that!? What’s the point!? If you found some sick new perversion, I’m killing you right now and that bastard next.”
He raised his hand to try to appease him, even if only a bit. – “No, Aiden. This got nothing to do with that, I don’t want that kind of thing to happen in my base. If things were to go wrong, I will protect her.”
“Then what the hell are you thinking?”
Just then, the commander’s found chirped, and he answered it. – “Colin, did you bring anyone? – The next thing he heard was the distinct sound a piece of duct tape makes when you peel it off, what followed after was a man yelling all sorts of expletives in Arabic. – “Very good, take him to the basement and wait there.” -He put the phone down. – “Follow me.”
Conrad guided Aiden to the tunnels under the base, he was still aiming at him by the back. –“What are you trying to do, I don’t get it.” -He said. – “What’s the big idea?”
“Aiden, ever since you saw that girl, haven’t you had the feeling there’s something off about her?” -Asked Conrad. – “When you look at her, don’t you get this…feeling there’s something amiss? As if not everything is in its place?”
“What? Hmm…” -Aiden actually pondered on it. – “…Well, I have certainly felt that there was something off about her beyond what was obvious.”
“That’s right, I too had that feeling, so I want to see what it’s about by myself.”
They went through a door and entered the cage room, there they saw Alicia, sitting on a dark corner of the cage, staring at them like a starved hyena watches a group of gazelles.
“Hello, girl. How have you been?” -He asked. Silence was his answer. – “…I’m glad to hear that. See, it’s time for your first test, if my gut feeling is right about you, this should be an easy task.”
He took his own combat knife out of its sheathe and gave it to Alicia, she held it in both hands; it was clearly too heavy for her.
“A man is going to come into this cell…” -He said, Aiden was more and more appalled by the second. – “…He’s a bad man, he’ll want to hurt you, even touch you in places he shouldn’t, until you die… what you have to do is pretty simple: Kill that man, use that knife to slit his throat.” – He ran his thumb across his neck. – “Stab him in the chest as many times as you can.” – He poked at Alicia’s chest, still no reaction. – “Do whatever you can, what matters is that you kill him. Do that, and you’ll pass the test, alright?”
She nodded.
“Captain you can’t be serious.” -Aiden raised up his gun once again. – “She has no chance against an adult.”
Conrad turned towards him and placed his hands on his shoulders. – “Please, you have to trust me on this one, please…” -He said. – “…If things go south, you are authorized to intervene, now let’s go.”
He pushed Aiden out of the cage and closed it behind him. They stood there for a while, waiting for Conrad’s test subject to arrive. After a couple of minutes passed, two me entered the room dragging a handcuffed man by the arms, he kept on struggling but they were too strong for him.
Once inside they dropped him on the ground. Conrad pulled out his gun and aimed at the local, give him a reason to not struggle and behave, at least for a little moment.
He turned towards his men; Colin was being accompanied by the perfect man for the task. – “Amin, it’s good you came, I need you to translate some instructions for this man.”
“I had a feeling you were going to ask me that.” -He said.
“Alright....” -He helped the local to stand back on his feet, still holding him at gunpoint. – “Tell him that we brought him to fulfill a certain role.” -Amin translated word by word to the stranger. – “The task is simple, I’ll give you money, a lot of money, enough money to eat like a king. See that girl in the cage right next to us? I want you to go into the cage and do all you want with her. Punch her, strangle her, murder her, anything you want. Once you are done, you’ll get the money. What do you say?”
Amin couldn’t believe he would ever translate something like this, he felt sick and wanted to kill Conrad right there and then, but his loyalty was still too strong.
The stranger seemed more and more relaxed by the commander’s proposal. He raised his hand to his chin, then he turned to stare at Alicia, they glared at each other mutually, then he turned back again to the commander. He made a question, of course he didn’t understand until Amin translated it.
“He asks if we’ll give him any sort of weapon.”
“Nope, you won’t get a weapon, all you need is your bare hands, I can guarantee it.” -He responded, Amin translated and the man pondered more on the matter. In the end, he accepted.
After a couple of seconds, he was in the cage, running his tongue over his lips. He yelled at Alicia, most likely calling her a whore, of course she would never get it.
Both Aiden and Amin aimed at the commander. – “If you just brought that man to hurt the girl, we’ll kill you and then him.” -Said Aiden, but suddenly he felt the edge of a machete hoovering over his neck, they had forgotten Colin was in the room; he was that good at hiding his presence.
Conrad raised his hand, ordering Colin to stand down. He retired the machete from over Aiden’s neck and sheathed it as ordered.
“Gentlemen, I’m surprised by the little trust you have on me.” -He said. – “I always do things for a reason. Heh, sometimes I even surprise myself, and I think this is one of those times.” – The stranger walked up to Alicia, hiding her in his shadow, trying to be as imposing as he could. – “I think this is the most surprised I’ll ever be.”
“Yeah, right, I think you have lost it, Conrad!” -Said Aiden. – “We are gonna have a problem, and we’ll…”
He was suddenly interrupted by an ear-piercing scream that echoed through the room. Conrad’s eyes focused on the man in the corner, a bunch of blood was falling down from his stomach; Alicia had plunged the knife into his gut as deep as she could, but she was not done, she clutched at the handle and pulled upwards.
The local fell on his back trying to push Alicia away, but she was unyielding, she kept moving and twisting the knife across his torso, showering her on bursts of blood as they flew out of his body.
Amin and Aiden were horrified. Conrad, as he expected, was surprised by himself, he was right all along.
Alicia kept carving him up, a big puddle of blood forming around them, the man kept screaming until all air had left his lungs, then his eyes turned backwards as he convulsed and finally passed out, dying out of massive blood loss and organ failure.
The man had managed to unzip his pants before Alicia took that chance to grab the knife she was hiding behind her back and stab him. He had lowered his guard, underestimated her, as most people in that country do when they torture children. In the end, Alicia was above him, admiring his “beautiful” expression: an expression of absolute pain.
She ran her hand across her face as to clean it up then swatted the excess of blood to the ground. She looked back at Conrad and his men, staying completely still, adding weight to the room with just her presence.
Conrad noticed it, he could see it in her eyes, now that he had fed the starved hyena, that glare looked livelier than ever.
“Now you see what I’m talking about, gentlemen?” -He said. – “This is what we are actually dealing with.”
“Holy…fuck.” -Said Aiden, forgetting completely about shooting the commander. He holstered his weapon. –“She just…killed him, just like that? No hesitation? No fear? What the hell?”
“What is going on, commander?” -Asked Amin.
“Remember the state she was in when we found her?” -Asked Conrad. – “She had a lot of dry blood on her face, arms…that was not her blood. Gentlemen, this girl is no stranger to killing, just like us, and she just gave us a demonstration.”
He grabbed a towel from the locker at the bottom of the room and entered the cage. He thought that rewarding her with a pat on the head would reassure her about what she just did, but the moment he approached his hand to her hair, she slapped it away, surprising the three men.
Conrad felt himself getting angry, but he controlled his emotions. There was no reason to be angry, that was to be expected by someone like her. – “You don’t like human touch, huh? That’s ok.” -He handed the towel to her. – “You passed, little girl, I guess we’ll be training you from now on, and I think I know just the right way to hone your skills…” -He scratched his beard while she was cleaning her face with the towel. – “Hmm…I think you’ll need a proper name. For now, let’s call you…Alicia, like the one in that book. I don’t know why, but seeing you, it just came to mind.”
She didn’t object to the name; she didn’t see a reason to do so.
Thus, before being an assassin, Alicia became a child soldier. Floyd trained her with a regime akin to those reserved for the likes of the SEALS and other elite groups, expecting to break her at some point, but she went through it without complaining, not a single groan of frustration either. Sometimes her progress was fast, sometimes slow, but she never showed any signs of wanting to give up at all. This frustrated the commander somewhat, and his training methods became more and more extreme.
The rangers trained her as well, teaching her everything they knew about killing a man, and Floyd would sometimes take her to train under masters of the craft all around the world, inhumane as they were, and she would use this knowledge in the pit fights Floyd would put her through to test her further, pitting her against the worst scum they could get out of the streets.
First they were simple dregs, then thugs armed with clubs and knives, then delinquents with pistols, sometimes groups of them all at once. In the end, she would pull through them all.
Everyone in the company was convinced she had to be the most dangerous child to ever walk the earth.
Some of the soldiers wanted to protest, but they had the feeling that Alicia didn’t want anyone to defend her when she didn’t need to.
She was where she wanted to be. At some point, Floyd began to smile at the sight of her slashing through the gangs he would bring in to try and murder her. She became his very own personal project, something he never though he would find pleasure in, and something he never thought he was so good at.
However, after Iraq happened, she didn’t take much time to become a thorn on his side.