--10 days after that night--

The Hawk’s Nest had gone back to the regular chaos everyone expected. Dr. Hawk was ecstatic to get his car back, as it was mostly unharmed, and let Dominic off the hook for borrowing it. Truthfully, Dr. Hawk just forgot about it and went back to day drinking and lounging around with Rico every day. Lyle and Lisa went back to studying about their respective subjects, and the patient inflow and outflow stayed the same.

A few reporters had come by trying to ask questions, but the answers they got were always the same:

‘I have no idea what happened. A group of people in black clothes followed a person named Mick Holden into our clinic and killed him. He broke in, so we don’t know what happened.’

The police accepted the answer without any trouble, so it was pretty clear someone high up was trying to keep the entire situation quiet. Nobody in the Hawk’s Nest got much from blabbing about the truth of the night, so they just acted like everything was normal. And for the most part, everything was.

Save for one thing.

Late at night, Dominic, with his head down and covered by cloak, left the building.

He walked down to an alleyway where he couldn’t see another person, then removed his hood. From the shadows a person emerged, happy to see him.

***

--That night--

As her hand was slipping from the metal railing, Owl knew it was the end. Her life had already flashed before her eyes, and she had accepted it. It was a pretty shitty way for an assassin to die: falling from a stage roof because you accidentally cut your hand, but in the end, she’d be dead, so it didn’t really matter.

Oh well.

She let go.

But didn’t fall.

Slowly, she opened her eyes to see Dominic, tears in his eyes, trying hard to hold her up. He had grabbed onto her wrist and was hanging halfway from the walkway, and it looked like he was trying to pull with all of his strength.

“What are you doing?” Owl asked, her voice totally monotone. “You do realize I just stabbed you in the back, right? Betrayed you, then poisoned you, and I even stepped over your body like trash. I did that all not even a few minutes ago. And if you save me, I’m just gonna go kill Mr. Dames. This just seems stupid, if I was looking at it from your perspective. If I were you, I’d ju-”

“Please b-be quiet,” Dominic said, interrupting her. He had to huff out every breath as tears streamed down his face. “I’m trying hard to pull you up...but you’re kinda heavy…”

“Did you just make fun of my weight? That’s the absolute worst thing you could do to a girl. Are you some kind of psychopath? A natural born monster from the loony bin asylums the Institute runs but combined with the evilest demon in the world? Because only someone at that caliber of evil could say something so cruel. In fact, I’d rather you just drop me, right now, so I can die a humiliating and painful death rather than hear something like what you just said. Alright? You understand? Good, so please let me go.”

“No.”

“What? Why? I’m telling you, let me go. If you keep holding on to me, you’ll fall to, and then we’ll both die. It’d be pretty funny for me if I got to kill two of you, so no matter what, if you want to beat me, you need to drop me. Even if you save me and I get sent to prison, I’m not going to repent my sins or anything. I’m not going to change at all. So, if you save me, I’ll just stab you again, and then I’ll kill Mr. Dames. Is that what you want?”

“No...I don’t want that at all…”

“Then let me fall.”

“But I don’t want that either.”

“Why not?”

“Because everyone can have a change of heart. You’re wrong when you say you can’t. As long as you’re alive, you can become a better person.”

“Wait, you just contradicted yourself. You said I was wrong when I said I wasn’t going to change, but you just admitted only living people can do it. So, if I die, then I can’t. Actually, okay, what about this. I changed my mind; I’m a good guy now. But if you keep helping me, I’ll turn bad, so the only way to save Mr. Dames is to drop me.”

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“No, you’re lying…”

“Well duh. That’s obvious. Geez, alright, I have a pretty good resistance to my own poison, so I guess I’ll survive.” As she said that, Owl swung her unharmed hand up and grabbed Dominic’s shoulder. By using it to pull herself up, she climbed up his body and got back onto the flyspace walkway and looked down at him. “Damn, if I had my kusarigama, I’d kill you. But oh well, I guess I’m just going to run away now, but I won’t change my mind or anything. I’m still an assassin. Bye.”

Then she left him, even though he had already passed out before she climbed up his body.

***

Since then, Owl had stalked Dominic, and one night, when he was out alone getting groceries, she approached him and pulled him aside into a dark alley.

“Hey,” she said, pressing a knife up to his throat. “I survived. Looks like you did too. But I killed Mr. Dames. Sorry about that. No changes of heart here, thankfully.”

Dominic knew she hadn’t. The violinist was safe.

“But I was thinking about it, and I’m too caught up with all this emotion and don’t know what to do about it. So much passion, burning in my chest that it flows throughout the rest of my body, causing me great pain. Can’t you tell the horrible agony that’s overtaken me, even in this moment of time right now?”

She was completely monotone and emotionless, so he couldn’t. But Dominic nodded anyway.

“I was joking, you know? The reason I grabbed you and pulled you aside was because I wanted to kill you. Get revenge on you for saving my life. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? Well, there’s a reason for it, if that matters to you. If I must explain: in the underground world of assassins, letting yourself get saved is a sin. You need to be ready to die at any time. And I should be dead. So thinking about it mathematically, you stole my death, which means I need to kill you to get it back. That makes sense, right?”

“I don’t really get it, but I’m sorry...I guess?”

Owl blinked. She wasn’t wearing her strange mask, just regular glasses. Apparently, those weren’t part of her disguise.

“That was another joke. You’re not very good at reading people’s emotions, are you? That’s pretty sad. Acting like that will make you alone forever. Zero friends, zero lovers, just a few dusty plants and maybe a cat, but that cat will probably have cancer. You’re the type of weirdo who is going to live like that, so, if you’ll give me my death back, I’ll kill you and spare you from such a fate. Sound good?”

“No, n-not really,” Dominic said. “I haven’t achieved my dream yet. After that, I’ll never be alone.”

“Dream?”

“I…”

It was difficult to put into words, but Dominic forced them out anyway.

“I want to run a farm,” he said. “With animals, like cows, and pigs, and horses and stuff. But not one of those farms that makes animals just to be eaten. I like animals, and I want to help them. Even if I don’t have friends, if I’ve got those farm animals, I won’t ever be lonely.”

It was such an astounding thing to say in the face of death that Owl couldn’t even reply. After a few seconds went by, she lowered the knife.

“Are you saying you can speak with animals?”

“...no, i’m not saying that at all…”

“In that case, I’ll put your execution off for today,” Owl said, hiding the knife away in her pocket. “But you need to come and meet me every night from now on. Just to make sure you aren’t causing problems. And don’t let anyone else kill you, because I won’t let my death go anywhere else without permission. So, in the meantime, change your mind about that dumb dream stuff so I can kill you, okay? Promise me that you’ll try.”

“Um...I suppose I’ll try? I guess.”

“Good. Then for now, farwell.”

And the assassin crept back into the night.

Since then, every night, Dominic went out and talked to her. At first, it was mostly just Owl trying to convince him to let her kill him, but then they began talking about other things. He would explain his day, and she would explain how she stalked him throughout the day and tell him things he missed. It was strange.

It all changed on that final night. As Owl came up to him for their usual talk, he handed her a bag.

“Huh? What’s in the bag?”

“Just l-look. I think you’ll like it.”

Inside the bag was a small plastic bowl, and inside the bowl was a vine, attached to a wooden stick. Owl looked at it for a while, not exactly sure what to make of it. It wasn’t a flower or a normal plant or anything, it was just some strange vine with a few spiky leaves sticking off. She put it back in the bag and raised an eyebrow to Dominic.

“Um, so, what is this?”

“Well, I was just thinking about it,” Dominic started. “And when it comes down to the wire, you could’ve killed me like so many times. So, I just thought I should do something as a way of saying thank you for not killing me.”

“Thank you for not killing me?”

“Exactly! So, I tried hard to find this, and sent Lyle to do it since I know if you saw me buy it the surprise would be ruined. Uh, when you were talking so much about poisons, I figured that you might like poisonous plants too. And I just thought you might have fun raising it, and growing it. Kind of like I want to do with animals. Like, it would be like starting a garden or something.”

Owl looked again at the bag and slowly nodded.

“Oh...I see. Okay, I think I understand now. You want me to grow a garden?”

“Yeah! Exactly!”

“And when you say you want me to grow a garden, you mean you want me to grow one so that when you have a farm, the animals will have a place to eat, right? This is basically an engagement ring and you’re asking me to marry you? That’s very forward for only knowing me for about two weeks, but okay, I’ll accept.”

“...huh..!?”

“Then we’ll talk about this later,” Owl said, turning away to leave early. “Thank you for the plant. I’ll do my best to grow it.”

She had some strange squiggly smile on her face she couldn’t control like normal as she walked away.