Pretty Assassins

Pretty Assassins Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Hello..."

I'd just found at the Willful Ignorance has been the one behind the attempt by Greed to take my life. Greed has paid for it, of course. Dearly. She's laying in the fetal position in the living room counting stars right now. When I open the door on the kind Dr. Ward I can see him shudder a little bit. He's afraid. He should be.

"My son..." he states.

"Don't call me that."

He was a monster. Hearing the things he had done to his son were sickening to say the least. He looked like a good man. Like some guy who was maybe a little bit weird and watched cuckold porn when no one was looking. You can look at him and tell he was a bit off. But he doesn't look like the type who would experiment on someone he truly believed was his son.

"You look more like me. I don't know how I didn't realize it," he states, "Willful Ignorance did a number switching out my son. Goddamn bitch."

"She'll pay for it," I assure him, "You can die knowing that."

"Oh yes. My real son is going to kill me. Did he tell you? He wants to take me to where it all began to kill me?"

"You deserve to die old man. You're lucky he thinks your special enough to wait. I would have just slit your wrist and let you bleed out on the carpet over there. No funeral. That's what you deserve."

"Tough talk," he smiles, "I'd heard rumors from people still in business with Tom that he was starting a new team. I'd also heard he made a mistake by picking Ardor----a small little nothing from nowhere. They were wrong, I see now. You're so much more."

"I'm different."

"You are great. And Tom is a threat to you."

"I know the monster Tom is, you don't have to tell me," I state.

I remember what Tom did to the people who I thought were my parents. I can imagine right now they are still in mourning. They loved me and I'm missing and now my poor father was dead. That's what Tom did to people. But this thing in front of me was no better than Tom.

"He's dangerous to you."

"Aren't you his acquaintance. You two have been working together for years. What changed?"

He pauses. He walks over to a window frame that has mildew from the rain on it. And in the mist he squeezes out three letters. T.O.M. He looks at it as though feeling some type of way about it.

"I found out that he was the one who set up Willful Ignorance to seduce me. I found out she switched out my real son so that I couldn't raise you to be a threat to hers. All she cares about is Desire. You know that don't you?"

I shrug, "Not looking for a mother figure. I have a mother."

He smiles, "She will help her son kill you. You do realize that right. You realize what I was going to meet up with Desire to tell him. Why do you think Tom wants me dead. I'm going to tell him the secret to defeating Tom once and for all."

"What secret?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

I am desperate at this moment. If this man had a secret than I needed to know it.

"I can kill Tom. Me and your son. We can do it. We don't need Desire. Tell me your secret. I'll carry it out for you."

"If I tell you, then you're going to have to kill me after," he states, "A quick death. Promise. I'm not sure what the CREATURE has planned for me. I don't want to find out. So deal? A deal for a deal?"

I pause. I couldn't kill him. Pride ---- or the CREATURE as his own father called him------would murder anyone who took away his revenge. I wouldn't be that person. I supported him.

"Fine. Keep it to yourself," I state, "My loyalty is to Pride."

"I'll tell you anyway," he states, stopping me in my tracks. I turn around to a smile and a salty comment, "You. You are the weakness."

"Come again."

"I was going to tell Desire that he needs to kill you before you get too strong. Before he can no longer stop you."

Laughter is followed up. Sick, uneasy laughter that just rolls out of his mouth and gets stuck in my ears. It strains out of his mouth like water in a colander. So Victor Ward felt like I was Tom's secret weapon and he was going to share that with Desire. What would Desire do with that information? He seemed nice when I knew him. He was sweet. Surely he knew that I was working for Tom against my will. He wouldn't kill me because he would know I hated being in the Assembly as much as he did before he escaped.

"Desire would want to team up with me," I state.

"You think?" he asks raising an eyebrow, "You REALLY think the two of you are friends. You think Willful Ignorance will allow her son to team up with you. She wants him to be great."

"That's her. Not Desire."

"Desire will do whatever it takes to protect the people he loves," Dr. Ward assures me, "I hate to break it to you, Ardor, but you aren't one of the people he loves. You never were."

He had a point. I walk out of the room as though he's lying but he had a point. I didn't want to have issues with Desire. He was a good guy. A really good guy.

But what if he came after me?

I'd have to defend myself.

~

I find Pride outside. He has his eyes closed and he's soaking in the sun. I noticed he does it a lot. I assume it's because he spent so much time locked up. Every time he's out in the open he always seems to really be enjoying it. I hate to disturb him but I feel like it would be weird not to give him an update about the meeting with my real/his fake father.

"Did he tell you that he was going to add you to his will?" he asks, realizing I'm walking up on him.

"Didn't know you were capable of comedy," I smile, "You surprise me every day."

"I spent a lot of my life in solitary, but I was able to socialize through reading and talking to Tom."

"You and Tom joked?"

"Sometimes."

He pauses. He seems stressed and it's' clear he doesn't like talking about that time in his life. Who would? As I approach him he grabs me and pulls me close. He licks me up against my neck. It's cute in a way. It's as though he doesn't have any awareness that I'm my own person. To Pride, I belong to him and if he wanted to lick me he'll lick me. I'm shocked he doesn't turn me around and do anything else especially when I look down through his slim black ninja pants and notice his dick is slightly hard.

"Is Tom on your kill list as well?" I ask.

"Who told you I have a kill list?"

"You spent time locked in a fucking cell for no reason. You definitely have a kill list," I sigh.

He laughs. Heartily. Moments like this make him human. Moments like this make us seem like a real couple. He leans in kisses me so close to my lips that I wish he'd just tongued me down. For some reason he turns me on by just not even doing anything. My heart is fluttering. Every moment passes and I realize coming back to the Assembly may not have been that bad after all. I got to meet this amazing guy who seems to really like my stupid smart mouth.

"He's on it. Willful Ignorance as well. She spent a lot of time trying to poison me. Felt like I was a threat to her son...I believe his name is Desire..."

I nod, "Yep. Now she sends Greed, because she thinks I'm a threat. Clearly I'm seeing a bit of a trend here. According to your father...Desire should be on our kill list as well."

He turns to me, "Our?"

"We're a team."

He smiles. He enjoyed that. He lets go of me but keeps holding my hand. It looks like he wants to look in my eyes. When our eyes are locked he squeezes my hands a little tighter.

"So tell me, Ardor, should Desire be on our kill list as well."

I think about it.

Desire was a threat. Not because he hated me. It wasn't because I did something to him like how I killed Lust's family. Desire was a threat because he was powerful. He was against Tom and I worked for Tom. His mother was a bitch. He probably didn't even know she was doing all the things she was doing to keep him unthreatened. It wasn't like Desire was having mother/son chats with Willful Ignorance. He wasn't the threat, she was.

"No, not in the lease. " I state, "But I need to really practice. Now that I know I'm a Bloodborne, I need to be ready for anything."

And Desire was definitely included in anything.

"I'll go kill my father. Return the Assembly without me. Keep what you are capable of lowkey. When I return, we practice. We perfect. Then you have to kill Lust. Then we kill Willful Ignorance. Next is Tom. That's our kill list."

It was quick and easy to him. Simple. I liked his plan, but there was one thing that I didn't like.

"I wanted to go with you to kill your father. It is OUR kill list remember? In all honesty he is my father. Not yours."

"He didn't TORTURE YOU! He TORTURED ME!" he screams.

He was pissed. There was still raw feelings there. There was still hurt.

"So are we going to talk about this topic. Clearly we need to..."

He is thinking about it but shakes his head, "Not now. When I get back. Right now I need to focus on my father and I need you to be a good partner. Go back to the Assembly with Greed. If the others aren't here now they've probably assumed I killed him by now. So I'll have the privacy to take my time and kill him. The idea that Willful Ignorance switched us at birth meant that Tom will be irritated it's taking too long. We can't risk it."

I nod.

No arguing, especially not when he was irritated about the idea that he wasn't even supposed to be the person to live the horrible life that he lived.

None-the-less I try to reach over and kiss him but I see him pull away. His feelings are hurt. He's mad. And I wonder if it's at me. Did he blame me for Willful Ignorance switching us at birth? Did he blame me that he was raised by Victor Ward and Tom, not Idris and Emma Peyton.

We needed to have that conversation when we get back. And we needed to have it bad.

~

The Assembly.

The vast walls. The empty halls. Things have changed since we have been gone. I am standing in a hallway and notice bodies of drugged kids being brought into the long halls of the Assembly. It would be strange anywhere else but not here. Sure I didn't remember when I first came into the Assembly, but I figure this must be how it would be like. Limp, unaware that your entire life is going to change. Either you became effective ninjas for Tom or you die. There was no middle ground.

"He's recruiting," Sloth states, "I've seen hundreds being brought it. This is what happens to the kids on milk cartons. I think we get to choose our own assassin teams. As Tom's seven deadly sins we will have our own elite team of assassins."

I sigh, "If they survive. I didn't."

"You're here now," she states, "That's all that matters. And clearly Greed has been telling everyone you've been lying about being weak since she's returned. What's up with that?"

I shrug, "I don't know. Sloth I have a question."

"Yes."

"When you framed me poisoning Greed...was that your idea or someone else's."

"Someone else's."

I nod, "Cool. Let's go see Tom. He won't like us being late."

"Don't you want to know who hired me to frame you?" Sloth asks.

"I already know."

She thinks about it, "OK. So we good. We still friends?"

I look over at her, "There's going to be a moment where you'll need to prove yourself to me, Sloth. In that moment, you're going to ask yourself that question. If you want to survive that interaction when the moment comes, I hope that you choose to be my friend."

"Otherwise what? You kill me?"

I nod, "That's the idea."

"Can you now? Is that what Greed was saying?"

"We'll have to see, I guess," shrugging my shoulders, "I suppose I can. I suppose you may try to trick me with your bag of tricks, but unlike Greed I'll know it's you. Unlike Greed I'll track you down. Unlike Greed I will kill you."

There is a pause. At this point we are walking to the area that Tom usually has us walk. I know she is thinking about what I said but I don't know what she thinks about it. Is she scared? Is she bothered? Does she not believe me? Does she think I'm joking?

"You're different now, " she states.

And that's all she says. I nod in return. For some reason things don't mean as much. All the worry that I used to have about life and death have disappeared. For some reason now that I know what I am, I don't' feel that worry. It's the opposite.

I feel a lack of worry.

I feel a nonchalant attitude.

And because of this new attitude I really had a feeling that my enemies should be concerned.

~

"What's up?" Gluttony states, "I've missed you."

He walks up behind me. Gluttony is wearing nothing more than some tights. They cling like a second skin to him to the point that he might as well be naked. He has quite the body and quite the look. Unlike Pride though, he seems so sure of himself in a social environment. He is able to slide past me, flirt with me and even discreetly grind on me without a single soul in the room noticing.

"I'm taken now..." I tell him.

"The Creature."

"Yes."

"A joke," he responds.

"You might want to respect that."

"Or what?"

He laughs as though not taking me seriously. I just nod. The poor soul has no idea the types of fire he would be playing with if he tried to take me away from Pride now that he has claimed me. I have no loyalties to Gluttony though. Sure he was one of the few of Tom's Original Sins who haven't tried to kill me so far, but my loyalty wasn't to him. My loyalty was to my partner. Pride.

"Good morning," a voice states.

By now we are all lined up. I take a look at Greed. She has a swollen eye. She is avoiding eye contact with me as though she doesn't want to even look me in my fucking eyes. I smile a little bit. I don't want to enjoy the idea of embarrassing her but the girl deserved it. She was such a show off. She didn't have to take the job to kill me. She chose to.

"Good morning Tom," everyone says in unison except for me.

I had no idea we were in a chorus line. All of us are lined up except for of course Pride who was still missing. I guess they'd given up on finding Victor Ward. I honestly believe some people, perhaps Lust and Sloth specifically knew that finding Victor Ward was a fool's errand. I'm surprised Lust wasn't able to track me down. I did notice Pride hiding our tracks as we went. Perhaps that helped. It seems to have pissed him off though because right now he's giving me death looks. The Usual. Before I would have been pissing my pants but not today. Today I'm bored.

I roll my eyes and start zoning out until I realize someone else walks into the room. It's her. It's Willful Ignorance. I can feel her presence. No one else would just casually stroll through the room.

"This is my wife, Willful Ignorance."

I had no idea they were married. I'm sure it was something new perhaps. Maybe after all those years of Willful Ignorance using her body to have kids for Tom and his Assembly, he finally gave her some respect. She was a wife now. Ignorance has that wife look to her. You know the type of woman. She was plump, with a wide welcoming smile and as she approaches us she smells like cookies. I swear to god I see Sloth smile a bit.

"So this is your team," she states, "And this must be your new Wrath."

"Ardor..." I correct her.

She is a really light skinned woman, almost to the point that her skin was pink, but she did have black features. It only made sense now how she gave birth to Desire who is much darker than me. Supposedly she was passing off some guy named Denny as another bloodborne son, but he was her husband's son from his first marriage. Denny was Desire's half-brother, but no son of hers. Word had it she killed him and served him to Desire. Had to be tough for Desire finding out he was eating his brother. But Denny was not blood related to Ignorance, but just another one of her lies.

She only had two sons.

Me and Desire.

The black side and the white side. Literally. Ying and yang.

I mean I was clealry the white side. I considered myself white. I mean I had blonde hair for godsakes. Sure my lips were big and my hair a little curly but I never considered that I may be multi-racial until now.

Until I'm looking at the woman who birthed me.

Tom walks up to me, "Excuse me."

"I go by Ardor, not Wrath."

"Rude..." Ignorance states.

She looks like she's about to say something else. Honor-shame Tom into punishing me or something. She just has that manipulative thing oozing out of her, even when she was trying to act cool as though I didn't bother her. I bothered her. I was the living reminder that her beloved Desire may not have been that powerful force that she raised him to be.

"I like it. Ardor then. No longer Wrath," Tom states, "Besides...Wrath is still alive and I assume he'll get over this stupid infatuation with Desire and return. So will Urge."

"Don't count on it. Your sons are basically Desire's slaves," Ignorance states with a proud smirk that seems to not only irritate Tom, but surprisingly me as well. This woman literally lived her life to flaunt her son Desire. She's like one of those goddamn pageant moms. Desire was literally the gay, assassin version of Honey Boo Boo.

"They'll return. Once the Creature kills Desire," Tom states.

He's not depending on Pride to kill Desire. He was counting on me. I can see that when he looks in my eyes. It freaks me out because even though everyone thinks he's talking about Pride, I know it's me he's referring to. So when he says the word CREATURE is he still referring to Pride..or is he referring to me.

Nah, that was Pride's nickname.

I planned on making my own.

"Where is the Creature?" Ignorance asks Tom, "The one you're so sure could scratch my son."

Tom looks around. His face gets red with embarrassment.

"I'm not sure."

"He's going to kill his father. It's personal. He'll return," I announce.

It's the most I've really spoken at one of these things. I believe I hear Gluttony and Lust whispering to each other. I don't know what they are saying. I can't hear them, but I do know they are discussing me. This mixed with the anxiety that is coming out of every pore on Greed's body makes me realize that the other Original Sins are on to the fact that something has changed. Something is different.

"You let another one escape!" Ignorance says laughing and basically almost throwing this in Tom's face wanting to get a reaction from him, "Good God Tom. Is this really ALREADY happening in your new assembly. We might as well have let it burn down if this is the new Assembly."

She wants to piss him off.

"He'll return. He has a reason. He's in love," Tom states.

"With who? Ardor? The wimpy ex-boyfriend of Craving?" she states, "Craving was the only idiot dumb enough to take someone like him serious. Even the Creature knows better."

"Don't you mention Craving bitch," I state.

Everyone looks at me. It's clear things are different now. Sorry, Pride. I tried to keep a low profile but it didn't work.

I was becoming the assassin I was meant to be.

Ignorance challenges me, "Or what?

"Or you pay with your life."

Ignorance is stumbling over her words. She'd always been big shit in the Assembly. I remember hearing stories about all the things she did when I was a younger assassin. She had a cruel reputation of cooking her enemies and serving them. Maybe she thought for some reason that made her able to say anything she fucking felt to anyone she felt like. Or maybe she was parading around the title of Tom's wife.

I'm not surprised when Tom checks her, "You ought to be very careful, my love. If he attacks you, perhaps I will be able to stop him before he kills you. Perhaps not."

It was clear as day. Tom was letting her know not to fuck with me.

And it pisses Ignorance off.

"Don't you worry Tom. I'm not depending on you to protect me. Desire is here for that."

She stops off clearly confident in her son's ability. The weird thing is I'm sure Desire fucking hated her guts. She was that sick of a person.

As soon as she leaves he looks over at me.

"You're crying blood tears."

I hadn't even noticed until I wipe my eyes. I was getting really mad and I felt something coming. Something I probably wouldn't be able to control. A part of me is curious about why I was crying blood tears. A part of me was also curious about what I was about to do to Ignorance. Also by Tom's reaction I was interested in how much he would have let me get away with.

"I suppose."

"So you know?"

He wanted to know if I knew the truth about my birth.

"Yes."

"Are you angry with me?" he asks, "For not telling you."

I look hard at Tom, "Does it matter?"

He smiles. He's enjoying this back and forth. The others in the room have become nothing more than walking manikins. His interest is just in me. And I think the others are really noticing.

Nothing has changed though.

Tom's interest has always been me. The only difference is now I know why.

Tom shakes his head, "No I suppose it doesn't. Pride is the one who is going to kill his father. Did you assist in this?"

"We're a team. I help him with everything," I assure Tom, "But that's how you wanted it right?"

He nods, "That's how I wanted it. An unstoppable team. Like Urge and Desire. That's how I wanted. You did well, my Ardor. Now you have your reward."

"What reward."

"A death. You'll have to decide who----"

"Greed."

I don't let him finish. I know that I got to choose who dies. That was the reward. And he was granting that to me. I think Greed tries to struggle. She tries to say something I think. She doesn't get far. She doesn't even get the words out of her mouth. As soon as she tries I hear a bullet. I hear her body hit the floor. Her brains have splattered all over.

"No more coming back for the dead assassins," Tom says, "Death is finally final."

He's saying that because he had a way to revive dead assassins or at least to revive assassins who are really really close to death. Perhaps even to bring back Greed at one point, even with her insides splattered. Desire had destroyed that technology though like he had destroyed everything else that Tom touched. It was a cat and mouse game with Tom and Desire that was really kind of hilarious if you thought about it.

I look down at Greed and I don't give a damn. I feel nothing. Weird. Before I would have felt so many things. I would have been sad, curious, upset, worried, bothered, scared, anxious and so many other things. Now I just look down at the blood and I'm too lazy to move my feet when it gets to me. I let it soak underneath my dark black ninja soles.

This was the Assembly. Fuck emotions.

"Shit," I hear Lust state.

He has been the only person to speak so far. He's the only one that has jumped back and looked upset. He's not upset because it's Greed. He's shocked that it isn't him. I look over at him and our eyes connect both wondering the same thing.

Why didn't I choose him?

Greed had learned her lesson. She wasn't going to threaten me. Lust was still going to come after me. The smart thing was to choose Lust.

Or so he thinks. Personally I wanted to deal with Lust myself.

Lust was twice the assassin that Greed was. Sometimes pure power mattered. It's the reason that some of the stronger men like Lust and Gluttony were always put on a pedestal. Women or skinny assassins like me never really mattered outside of Desire. They never really had the same clout as the big burly men. Things were going to start changing though. I wanted to test myself against Lust. That would be the ultimate test of just how powerful a Bloodborne assassin was. And I was desperate to find out.

"Good because our next mission is simple. Kill Desire."

Envy jumps forward almost shocked at this, "Tom you piece of shit. You think it's going to be so easy to kill my friend. You think I'll let you do this?"

It's as cartoonish as it sounds. Any mention of his friends, and Envy turns into some desperate assassin forgetting where he was. At least he was loyal.

Envy is an idiot. He tries to go after Tom...again. It's like he never learns. He does all these flips. Unnecessary bullshit that he thinks would work with someone as skilled as Tom. The funny thing is that Tom doesn't seem bothered at all at the attack. He grabs Envy by his leg while Envy is midair doing some fancy acrobatic free-running bullshit.

Let's just say Tom slams him over and over on the ground like he's getting the dust out of the towel. It's so bad that Sloth looks away. I don't though. Seeing Envy's blood on the ground is quite hilarious. He's always been an asshole to me. But I am taking note of Tom. He's powerful. Really powerful.

Maybe Lust wouldn't be my ultimate test.

Maybe Tom would...

"As I was saying," Tom states, "The goal is to kill Desire."

Lust interrupts, "You promised me that you would send me when it came time to get Desire."

Tom rolls his eyes, "I didn't promise you a damn thing Lust. I'm not an idiot. I know exactly how you feel about Desire.'

Lust shakes his head.

"Master, my loyalty is with you," Lust assures him.

Tom looks him up and down. He's doubting it and he has reason to. Lust is obsessed with Desire. There was no way in hell that he was going to let him go.

"He has a point about Desire," I interrupt.

"Shh..." Sloth tries to warn me.

Tom hears me though. So it doesn't matter. He walks over to me. He doesn't scold me like Lust. He doesn't attack me like he does Love. He just stares at me.

"How so?" he asks.

"You've been tracking him down for quite some time. Clearly he is good at avoiding you. If you can't find him, how do you suppose we will?"

He stops talking at that moment.

"I have someone coming in. Another sin. Greed is dead. She needs to be replaced."

By who?

That's when I see her walking through.

"Hello..." she states.

She seems happy to be here. Which is strange. I know her. She knows me as well. Her name is Allure. She had many nicknames in the Assembly. She was called the Russian Doll. She was called the Sharpshooting Soviet. She was called the KGB Killer. In her past life she took orders from the Kremlin and was being trained to be in their program of young assassins in the Russian military. She was too good for them though. That's when she sparked Tom's interest. She was brought in, drugged like the rest of us. Only she became friends with Desire. For some reason everyone who crosses Desire's path immediately became loyal to him. He kept his friends close.

And I have to admit Victor Ward was right. I wasn't Desire's friend.

This woman was though.

Right?

"This is Allure," Tom announces, "Is everyone aware of who she is?"

Her reputation preceded her. Everyone who ran with Desire had become somewhat infamous. She was part of the legendary team that had dismantled the Assembly the first point.

I notice Envy on the floor moaning. He's confused.

Why was she here?"

How had she been captured?

Or had she been captured?

Was she here of her own free will.

"I know where Desire is?" Allure betrays her friend openly.

"Where is that?" I ask.

"He's going after Pride. He's going after Victor Ward."

And for the first time in a very long time I realize that Desire was going to be a problem. He planned to steal Pride's trophy. He tried to take away my partner's honor kill. Hell no. Victor Ward was Pride's target. And I was going to make sure of that.

Yes. Desire was a problem. His own friend Allure was telling us that now. He was a big problem. One that I had to deal with.

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