EPISODE VI: THE ORB

THE STORY SO FAR...

Lillith and I met on my first hit. We were supposed to take out my parents' murderer, Louise Rentradt, when I was fourteen. I would have been able to kill her myself before she had even gotten back to her hotel, but I was stupid and didn't realize what had happened until I had seen my parents' bodies, and I had to follow her to a hotel. Lillith and I shot her in the chest and left. We became a team, and became some of the world's best assassins. Two years after we met, we received a hit for Louise Rentradt, believed to be dead.

We tracked her down, only to discover that she had escaped, leaving a girl around my age stuck in a very ugly machine. We rescued her, and discovered her name to be Kirina. She pointed out that I had telekinesis, and that she had the power to control other people's minds. She used her power to help us discover that Louise was in the sewers. We followed this lead, and were attacked by giant, wolf-like things. We escaped, and when we emerged, discovered that the entire city had been overrun by the wolf things.

We hid in my apartment and tried to figure out where the wolf-things had come from. While there, Lillith and I decided Louise would be our last hit. Finally, the three of us decided to look in the sewers, since that was where our first encounter had been, and they had appeared while we were there.

While in the sewers the second time, we found a portal-making machine. Kirina revealed that the machine we had found her in had made the power source for the machine. I removed an orb at her advisement.

*     *     *

The pain shot up my arm and through my body. It was the worst thing I have felt in my life, but in just a second, it was gone. The orb had changed color, from blue to black, and I immediately felt more powerful. However, at the same time, I felt exhausted.

"What happened?" Lillith asked.

"Yeah," Kirina said. "The thing changed color right after you touched it."

"I don't know," I replied.

In all honesty, I had no idea. I may be a murderer, but I am not a liar. Or, at least, I wasn't right then. I was too tired.

"Let's go back to the apartment," Kirina said.

The three of us left the sewers the way we had come. As far down as we were, it took us a while to get back to the surface. We flew back to my apartment and sat down at the table. I had brought the orb, and I set it on the table.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb," Lillith said, "and say that that thing is useless now."

"It should be," Kirina said.

"Hey," I said as I realized something. "You knew this was the power source. What else have you not told us?"

"That's it," Kirina said. "I don't know anything else, except that it was taken from my power, and I've deduced that our power is like blood; if you don't take too much, it will regenerate."

"Okay," I said. "Now, we have to find Louise. She is now our main objective. She obviously wants us dead, and she would go so far as too kill everyone in New Chicago to get at us."

Saying that made me wonder why we never tried to leave the city. I mean, of course they had obviously made a border to surround the city, but we could have escaped. It was a random thing that floated through my head, but important, nonetheless. I voiced this opinion.

"It's because we knew Louise was still here, and we couldn't leave her alive," Lillith said.

"That makes sense," I said. "Now, where is she?"

The three of us discussed where she could be hiding. After two hours, however, we had made no progress.

*     *     *

That night, I had a dream.

I was lying in the middle of the street. The sky was black, and all of the buildings were destroyed. There were seven other people on the ground with me, Lillith, Kirina, and Louise included. Also, there was what I can only describe as a demon. Standing over us, there were two other demons. When I tried to get up, I felt that I had no power. I knew I was dying, and there was nothing I could do about it.

I woke up in the middle of the night, screaming, again feeling the pain that I had felt the moment I picked up the orb. Again, within seconds, it subsided.

*     *     *

A week after we began our search for Louise, Kirina burst into the apartment.

Kirina usually got the three of us coffee and cigarettes in the morning. I was smoking my last one from the previous day.

"Oh, my God," Kirina said. "Fuck yeah!"

"What happened?" I said as I got up from the table.

"I found her," Kirina replied.

"What?" Lillith and I said in unison.

"How?" I asked.

"It was complete chance," Kirina said. "I walked into the coffee shop, and there she was. I have somebody following her right now. She didn't see me."

"Well," I said. "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

TO BE CONTINUED
NEXT THURSDAY