The heart was a useless organ, filled with pathetic weak emotions that no one needed. This was how she was trained; to attack her victims, complete her missions, no crying, and no remorse for taking a life. She was to remove any and all emotions from her being. She is the perfect killing machine.

The girl stalked down the long hallway, footsteps padded against the magenta carpet. Before she knew it, the assassin stood in front of a door, with the number on it that matched the room number she was given for the assignment; 857. Stealthily, she hacked her way through the lock and burst the door wide open. It crashed with the opposing wall as it swung. The voices echoed again in her mind, this time louder than ever before, “Stop Leah, you don’t have to do this. Run! Just run away!” The girl did not listen; a machine like her did not run away. She was to carry out her mission, nothing more. She only heard the voice of her trainer, her master, no one else.

The room was dark, two small suitcases stood at her feet by the door. Only moonlight showed through the open sliding glass window, which led out to the balcony, directly across from where the girl stood in front the still open door. Then she saw him. He was standing behind the long sofa and just behind the cold, coal black fireplace. She couldn’t see his face, but could sense his trembling body. She frowned. The assassin hated when her targets didn’t at least put up a decent struggle; to have one more chance to try and defy death. “Oh well, a mission is a mission, and it must be accomplished.” She muttered to herself as a silver revolver appeared in her hand and held up at eye level to the six foot man. “Kill him, my pet. Show me just how strong you are.” The voice of her master was cold and heartless, not caring whether she lived or died, giving no excuse to punish her, making her in his image; a heartless machine. In a flash, blood eyes glowed as her finger pulled back the trigger, sending across the dark room, blinding white sparks of a bullet traveling at the speed of sound. It hit. The man fell to the ground, lifeless.

Leah, standing over the body, kneeled down to check his pulse. She held his hand in her own. Leah could feel teardrops fall from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks. The clamors of voices are back crying out, stabbing at the crack in the barrier around her heart. “What have you done?! Murderer! Die! How could you?” This was who she was, who she was trained to be. There was nothing anyone could do about it. No one cared about her anyways, so why shouldn’t she kill others. Is it revenge? No one tried to help her from getting kidnapped as a child. No one was looking for her, no one tried to save her. Now it was too late.

Dropping the unresponsive hand, the girl stood composing herself again. Blood red eyes hardened. “Let nothing, no one, stand in the way your mission. You know what would happen if you should fail.” Her master’s voice echoed hollowly in her ears, threatening her again with the promise of death if she failed a mission. The assassin rushed to the balcony, upon hearing concerned shouts and nervous screams coming from the hallway. She jumped up to stand on the edge, and somersaulting down to the soft green grassy ground from her eighth story standing. Then she disappeared once again into the night.

Leah sprinted down the down the dark street. Eerie black shadows crept and slithered, against the red brick of the numerous buildings surrounding the city, free to roam without the condemning eye of the bright sun restricting their territory. The wind blew harshly up and down through the empty streets, cleaning away the used dirty smog, to get the town ready for a new dawn. It blew through the golden strands of hair, which swept across the young girl’s porcelain pale face. She didn’t bother brushing them back. She was covered head to toe in leather; pants, shirt, and jacket, all black as the starless night above the town. Soon she became faced a large abandoned warehouse. She approached the heavy steel door. Her blonde hair shook side to side as Leah glanced over her shoulder, making sure she wasn’t followed. Then quickly slipped through the door’s cracked opening and disappeared from judging outside eyes.

Leah dashes as fast as her legs can carry her through the darkening narrow passageways. ‘I am late!’ Her mind berated herself. She knew her master was expecting her before the sun came up and just before she entered her eyes caught a hint of a distant spark on the horizon.

Deeper she ran on, blindly following the path she knew all too well; her shoes clacked softly upon each steel step as she raced down the numerous stairs, two or three at a times. Nothing could stop her, when suddenly a solid form stood in her path. She didn’t see and crashed full body into it and her back collided with gray steel ground. What stops her path? For sure this way was the right! How could she have gone the wrong way?!? At that moment, a harsh callous hand latched on to a bunch of her long blonde hair and pulled her upward, so that blood eyes were staring into cold as ice blue ones.

“Where have you been?!” The man half screamed at her. Leah tried to hold back her oncoming tears as they welled up in her red eyes. ‘No please don’t fall; it will only get worse.’ However, gravity had other ideas as crystalline teardrops trickled down her pale bony cheeks. A hard slap came down across her face, imprinting the tear stains by a bright red stinging mark. “Don’t ever look at me like that! I thought I taught better than to show any of those weak pale emotions!” The dark man threw the girl to the floor so hard, her back smacked against the cold steel. It made her pale back look just like her slapped cheek; red. “It looks like I’m just going to have to teach you again the importance of keeping your emotions under control,” growled her master, low and menacing. He reached into a small handle bag that hung low at his hip, and pulled out a long, coiled up black whip. He stretched it out, flexed it, preparing the device for its own mission. Leah closed her eyes and lowered herself to her hands and knees, head down. She couldn’t let him see the more tears that had unleashed down her face, cooling the hot stinging skin as they passed. Without warning, a loud crack and snap resounded through the endless halls, again and again. All the while, Leah was trying not to wince. An assassin knows no pain that is what she’s taught; to abandon all emotions from her thoughts. The sting of the lashes overtop of the remaining blood encrusted scars reminded her of that. This was her life. She would never escape. She could not run or hide without being constantly watched. The girl was born an assassin and she will die the same way.

Leah had just about lulled her body to sleep in order block the oncoming blows when just as quickly as the lashes came they stopped. Red eyes opened cautiously to black silence. Her master has left her lying in the middle of the hallway. She had no idea how long she was out for, but the numerous fresh marks etched on her back told how long he had lashed her. Twenty-five lashes with maybe a pause here and there to rest his sore arm.

The girl crawled to a nearby wall and, with her palms, pulled her broken body upward. She was so tired, but dared not show such, for He was always watching her every move. With each footstep, a shock of agonizing pain coursed throughout her body. After what seemed like hours she made it to her room, her haven; the only place her master did not set up hidden cameras. Leah knew this for she had thoroughly searched it out several times. A pale hand grasped and turned the cold metal knob, allowing the thick steel door to slowly swing open.

Her room was small and bare. The odor of dry and fresh blood filled the room, covering the four claustrophobic steel walls, but the girl ignored it. She was used to the smell since she was five. Her leather boot-clad feet trudged across the room, careful of the discarded broken glass that lay scattered all around the floor, then just seven steps from her original place she stopped. Leah stood in front of a small bed where white cotton sheets were disarrayed upon the blood soaked mattress.

The moon’s sparkle reflected within swollen red tear-filled eyes as its face shown down through the small gray-barred window, which was cut out high above Leah’s 5’3” reach, and too small for her to get through. Leah couldn’t escape; she had tried that many times before, and they always ended in her capture as her master lashed at her with leather whips or metal spikes, anything he used had left permanent scars on her back and shoulders. Kicking off her boots, giving her poor feet some room to breathe, the girl fell next to her bed and pull knees close to her chest. This was the only place she could be alone; no one knew where she was. Quietly beneath the veil of darkness, Leah closed her eyes and dreamed. She was far away; away from her master, no more missions, no more blood, she could just be herself; a normal girl.

Just then, the door handle started to jiggle. Leah was jerked from her useless dreaming, her hand hastily wiping away the oncoming tears. Her trained red eye glare narrowed upon the door, however, she was confused. What would make her master come down here so soon after he just saw her? He was definitely not the forgetful type; he always knew what he wanted and demanded immediate perfect results.

With a clang the thick steel door swung open with great speed as if one used dynamite to blast through a sealed mine. There in the shadow of the doorway stood a young man, it was too dark to see him but Leah assumed he was about her size. The thing she saw stand out of the man’s silhouette were glowing crimson red eyes piercing through the dark and directly into her glaring and confused blood red ones.

The man’s tense posture relaxed and he breathed an anxious sigh. He stepped forward walking as if in a daze toward the crouched figure. His black shoes kicked away at blood encrusted glass. His red eyes were wide with disbelief wondering if this was real or another dream.

“Is…it you?” the young man murmured, not yet trusting his surroundings, “Is it really you this time?”

The strange male approached Leah, stretching out a hand toward her only to have her flinch away from his slightest touch. For all she knew this man was spy for her master and any minute he could rush in. The man frowned and bent to one knee, matching red eyes gazing intently to one another, they could see their own reflection in the other’s pupils. His pale hands came up to cup the girl’s face. Leah tried to struggle but for some reason his hands felt as if they paralyzed her by some strange sensation, of which she had never felt before.

The man’s eyes widened with realization and his smile stretched from ear to ear as red eyes were soon streaming with sparkling tears. “It is you. I know it! I knew one day I would find you!”

“Who are you?”

“Don’t you recognize me? Look at me and tell me you don’t remember!”

“I…don’t remember.” ‘Kill him girl! He has trespassed; he doesn’t belong here!’

Subconsciously her hand drifted to her side, fingering upon a silver revolver all the while keeping her glaring gaze trained on her target. The young man noticed this action from the corner of his eye, and taking a quick glance around the room squinting into darkness, red eyes soon sighted in a far abandoned corner was a large pile of mirrored glass shards, encrusted with dried blood. The man grabbed at the girl’s hand pulled her up and the two rushed over to kneel in front of the discarded pile. He shifted through the glass carefully and soon held up a large piece. He pulled the girl close so they were cheek to cheek staring into the mirror image. Within there were two children who looked nearly identical; blonde hair waving in the faint breeze, deep fire red eyes melting together into starkly pale skin.

“You are…my brother?” Leah asked, trying to imagine that her dream had finally come true. However, another booming voice screamed deep in the depths of her mind. Stop! He shouldn’t be here, kill him girl, now!

“I’ve finally found you!” The young man hugged the girl close, smiling tenderly.

“Why?” He’s lying! You have no family!

“Our parents had been so worried; they would be so happy right now.”

“…parents…I have a family?” KILL HIM!

“Thank goodness; it’s finally over.”

The young man, overcome with joy, flung his body at the girl wrapping his arms around her in a crushing and desperate embrace.

“Who am I? Who are you?” The girl whispered; her red eyes on verge of tears. No one has ever once given her such comfort. Leah had only known throughout her life, a threatening and hard backhand on her cheeks. This stunned her for but a moment. She didn’t know what to do, so hesitantly she placed her hands lightly on the identical boy’s black clothed shoulders.

You are a machine, nothing more!

Suddenly, flashes of bright white lights like from a camera surrounded her self. She no longer felt nor saw the young man in front of her. Another wave of flashes came and red eyes winced, shutting themselves tightly, retreating back to the familiar dark haven. Then a strange sound reached her ears and her eyes cautiously opened. It was laughter. A sound she had never heard before. Soon scarlet eyes fell upon two children, a boy and a girl, no older than two years. They played, nestled on a plush tan carpet within the large living room of a quaint two-story cottage. A long row of mirrored glass windows were set behind them letting the warmth of the bright summer sun within the cool home.

Just then, the little girl looked up at Leah and smiled, stretching out her tiny hand. Her rose red eyes sparkling, as was the silver charm around her neck. Leah gasped staring dead on with equally red blood eyes. Her hand subconsciously traveled to her neck, and wrapped her fingers on a small bump under the clothes. She pulled it out. It was the same silver charm. The little girl continued to smile proudly, at the same time the small boy next to her grasped her hand tightly. Around his neck was the exact same charm but golden. Leah turned her charm to the underside and found some elaborate yet faded engraving on it--- Our children, Alex and Leah, with love.

Leah broke from her gaze again, breathing deeply, this time meeting once more with the gentle gaze of the young man, whom had completely turned her life upside down, and yet she couldn’t have been happier for the first time in her life. Though she didn’t yet know if she could smile, she reciprocated his previous action, by throwing her arms tightly around Alex’s neck, burying her tear-stained face into his shoulder, soaking through his shirt.

“Thank you for finding me Alex. I’m sorry I had forgotten.”

Alex eyes widened and he gasped in surprise as he felt his lost sister’s light weight press against his body. He smiled, returning the embrace again, caressing her black clothed back with gentle touches.

“It’s all right now; we’re together. Nothing is going to tear us apart again, right?”

Leah nodded happily into his shoulder.

The reunited twins lay there upon the glass covered ground the just holding each other, catching up on all the years they’ve missed. As Alex held on to his sister, red eyes glanced nervously around the room, his ears pricked up. Clack of footsteps echoed through the walls, and they were coming ever so closer.

“Come on Leah, we have to get out of here.” He stood and tried to pull her up with him, but she wouldn’t budge an inch.

“I can’t escape; I have tried so many times and failed every one of them.” Leah said under her breath, “It’s too late for me, you escape while you can and live your life out the way it should be lived.” Bright red sparkled with tears as they rolled down pale cheeks.

“But you’re with me now; you are my life, and together we can beat this. Wouldn’t you give anything to live under the sun and never have to kill again?”

In all her seventeen years that had been the only wish she had ever made for herself. More tears sprouted up as Leah realized it was finally coming true. Standing up, shaking the sleep from her legs, Leah turned directly to Alex and with a definite glare she grabbed his hand and the two dashed toward the door. She was finally going to get out, finally going to be able to live a normal life, no more missions, murders, or punishments. Looking left and right, her head peeking outside into the hallway of a crack in her door, red eyes could sense no displacement or air. It was as quiet as the grave.

As fast as they could, the twins rush down through long corridors and up rusted steel stairs two or three at time. Leah knew they were almost there, she could see the front door of the warehouse from her place 30 yards away. Leah gave an extra boost of speed with a relieved, thankful smile on her face.

Suddenly, she was stopped by a silent gasp behind her. Her hand felt cold from the loss of Alex’s warm comforting glow. Her mind panicked as Leah wondered what had happened. Fearing the worst, she turned her body around, and came face to face with her master. Leah didn’t dare move or even wipe the sweat from her forehead; she was frozen with fear by his icy blue glare. Her master always had that effect on her.

She knew she couldn’t do anything, for in her master’s grasp Alex was trapped with a strong arm around the young man’s neck, on the verge of choking him. Alex tried to struggle away but that only made her master tighten his vice-grip.

“How disappointing Leah, why would think of running away from me. After all I had done for you. I took you care of you, protected you from the outside world. I am like your family here.”

“Shut up! You have done nothing for her but cause pain and fear! Leah! Run, just run away! Save yourself!” Alex gasped, out of his restrained breath.

“Here is your new mission, girl. Kill this boy, now.”

Just then Leah’s eyes became cold and emotionless. She had remembered Alex’s earlier exclamation; it was same words she heard the voices calling to her before, but she didn’t listen. Why should she? After all, a machine receives commands from only its master and executes them perfectly without question. Instinctively her hand flew through the air and in the blink of an eye, the silver revolver, held straight and true, stared down at the two men.

“Leah! Don’t do this! You don’t have to kill anymore! Just run away!” Alex screamed, as he tried to hold back the threatening onslaught of tears.

Her master’s arm tightened around Alex’s neck, making it harder for the boy to catch his breath. He grinned cruelly, watching the pale hand gently squeezed at the trigger. “That’s my girl, I knew you were perfect. Now Leah, kill him.”

Leah froze her movements and chuckled lowly. It happened. The thing that she thought she would never receive, finally after all these years. “Master, this is the first time, you have complimented me.”

“What are you talking about?”

With a smile still on her face, she said proudly, “Goodbye, Michael.”

The trigger was pulled. A shot fired. In the next instant, Michael fell back against a nearby wall, holding his right ear, cursing loudly through clenched teeth. Cold red blood poured out through his fingers. Ice blue eyes shut closed in pain. Leah stood speechless; she did it, she finally was free. The silver revolver slid from her loose grasp and fell lifelessly, landing with clang on the dark floor.

As he felt the grip on his neck loosen, Alex took a moment to catch his breath. Scarlet eyes looked up to see his sister, a smile on her face, standing as lifeless as a doll.

“Leah! Snap out of it, we have to go now!” He rushed over and placed his arms around Leah shoulders in a half embrace. At this, the girl snapped awake and realized they had to leave now, or else Michael’s reinforcements would surely surround them. Leah grabbed Alex’s wrist and pulled away. The twins again started to run. With determination shining within two sets of matching red eyes, they burst through the heavy steel door, together landing on top of one another in a heap, but that didn’t stop them and they continued to run; for they both knew they weren’t safe yet.

The sun was warm as it beat against cold pale skin. Leah wanted so much to enjoy this new feeling, but knew there wasn’t time at the moment. The children kept running; down the street, and away her dark past, not once looking over their shoulders. They headed toward the metro station to begin a new life, one under the uniting sun.