Bloodied Hands

Bloodied Hands

Chapter one: Branching Out

A young boy of no more than sixteen sat in the bathroom of a modern apartment, one with a grand view of the river Thames and the city of London. The boy wore clean casual trousers without a shirt on, leaving his bruised and bloodied upper-body exposed. His face and arms had a layer of grit, dirt and blood, his torso was also covered in bruises and small cuts. The boy handled a small bath towel and using it he cleaned his body, he then followed to use antiseptic to clean the cuts and apply plasters to the worst of them.

This slow process of cleaning took about half an hour to complete and by the time the boy walked out of the bathroom the sun had retreated beyond the horizon and the moon was peaking up from beyond the opposite side of the world. The city didn’t stop though and the streets were already full of nightlife and people having a better time than the boy. Periodic helicopters flew over the city and police cars scuttled throughout the city, all of them looking for that boy.

The boy slipped on a black T-shirt and black hoodie, before lying down on the bed. The apartment was clean and modern, but also carried no real personality. That was fine with the boy as he didn’t want to be judged by any kind of personality at that moment. He always felt a little bit like this after a job, but more so tonight because of his cockup.

On the wall in front of the bed was a TV with a small table below, the boy contemplated turning it on but he didn’t want to see the aftereffects of his actions. So instead he rolled onto his left and stared out at the city. It was a beautiful city but also carried many crimes; few people really know that the biggest crimes are often carried by the most beautiful parts of the city. It was these crimes that the boy hated and it was these crimes he wished to stop.

The boy lay there for a long time and his only interruption the ringing of the bedside phone. The boy sighed, he had been expecting this call and he feared what it would mean. Sitting on the edge of the bed he reached out and lifted the receiver to his ear.

“Hello Alex” came the gentle feminine voice of the woman who always gave him his missions, “seems that you made quite the bit of mess”

“Don’t give me the lecture, how else was I supposed to know that he was having an affair” Alex responded, his voice was quite but he spoke confidently.

“Don’t worry, we don’t blame you for the mess, intelligence should have picked up on that.”

“It would have been a clean hit if that whore wasn’t hiding in the en suite. Of course she came out to find his body and raised the whole roof with her scream” a little bit of anger had slipped into Alex’s voice but he took a breath and calmed down. “It was a shock to see here there screaming at me. I had to ditch the body and get out before I got killed, and I did that barely.”

“Like I said don’t worry, we don’t blame you for it.” Despite her reassurance worry was still etched on Alex’s face. “It’s too risky for you to stay in the UK. We’re going to put you on loan to a smaller group in another country; one of their correspondents is going to meet you in a moment. It is still your choice as to whether or not you wish to go with them, but unless there is another group immediately available we’re going to have to exclude you from the organization.”

Alex gave a nod, while he still had a choice there weren’t many favourable ones being offered to him. He also knew what being put on loan meant, if you were lucky you were only away for a few years, but most likely he would end up working with that new group the rest of his working life. That option did seem to inch ahead of the option of being left alone with an entire country after him.

“I guess this is goodbye then.” Alex said to the woman, his voice cracking a little from the thought of no longer hearing the woman’s voice which he had heard for many years. “Funny after all these years and I still don’t know your name.”

“For what it’s worth it has been an honour working with you Alex, you have quite a good moral compass considering what we do and I hope you retain that while you’re away” the woman’s voice could be heard to crack a little with the emotion. “And my name is Alice by the way”

“Is it really?”

“No, it’s not.” She said with a chuckle “for security reasons we can’t give our real names so we say fake ones”.

Alex to let out a small chuckle, “well goodbye, if I return I look forward to working with you again”

“Goodbye Alex” and with that the phone was hung up. Alex was probably never going to hear that voice, and if he did it would be a long time till that moment.

Still things could be worse, a lot worse in this line of work. “Well that representative will be arriving soon might as well make a meal while I wait” Alex said aloud to himself. So Alex went into the kitchen and started whipping up spaghetti Bolognese, one of his favourite dishes.

While cooking Alex let his mind wander and he felt himself thinking about how he had gotten into this business. He thought about the first day that lead to everything in the last few years, the day his parents were killed, the day when he first killed. He would never forget that day and those moments would forever be burned into his mind. His parents never deserved their death, they had simply been trying to expose the truth, but those fuckers didn’t want that exposure. So they hired some gang to kill them, make it look like a mugging gone wrong. He still felt his blood boil when thinking about those that were involved, but there was nothing more to do to them, they had already been shot, stabbed and neck snapped. Then later on he was approached by…

KNOCK. KNOCK.

And with that door-knock his train of thought was derailed. Straitening his clothes Alex walked up to the door and looked through the eyepiece. On the other side of the door stood a female figure, she wore a large grey coat that had a high collar and to top it off she wore a wide brimmed hat. She looked like someone in a cheesy detective flick. The hat cast a deep shadow that hid her features and she stood completely still waiting for the door to be answered. Alex reasoned that this must be the representative he was told he was going to meet. So he opened the door

“Good morning Mr Alex” came a soft feminine voice, but one that gave the impression that the voice could cut like a blade when needed. Alex had heard many a voice like it before.

“It’s the Evening” Alex spoke matter of factly.

“Err… yes I knew that… I was just err testing you” the woman’s voice faltered, it was clear that she was new to this, so Alex decided not to stress it further as he didn’t want to offend his possible future employer.

“Would you like to come in?” Alex asked stepping aside and waving hand towards the inside of the apartment.

“Thank you” the woman said before taking a few steps into the room and removing her cloak and hat, revealing her clothes and face. She wore black converse and a pair of jeans that hugged the hips before widening off slightly at the ankle; on her torso she wore a black buttoned shirt. She was also drop dead gorgeous; her face was clean without blemishes but was devoid of makeup, and she had the figure that could have been that of a model. Her hair was long and brown, dangling a bit lower than her shoulders.

Alex felt his jaw hit the floor and only just managed to recover his professionalism before she noticed his gawping. Giving a slight cough Alex asked “So could I interest you to some spaghetti Bolognese, miss…”

“Eclipse” she answered to the question while turning and flashing Alex a smile that most men would fight over, “and no I do not wish to have any food, I have already ate”.

With a shrug Alex offered a seat at the table before turning into the kitchen to grab his food. ‘Can’t do business on an empty stomach’ Alex thought to himself as he served up his food on a plate. Coming back into the dining room/living room he took a seat opposite Eclipse.

“So you are going to be the one employing me I hear” Alex stated before taking a mouthful of spaghetti.

“Yes the group I work for are looking to employ you, because you display traits that the others do not”

“What’s that? Me being sixteen”

Giving a slight smile she answered “no, because you have morality”

That made Alex raise a slight eyebrow, usually people wanted him because of his young age and his ability to get away with things adults couldn’t. Although it was true that he had built up a reputation of only accepting jobs where the target had reason to be targeted, Alex refused to kill in an innocent in cold blood.

“Ok then. It was mentioned that I would be going to another country, which country will it be?”

“Sorry but I can’t tell you the name of the country and I can’t tell you many details about it. What I can tell you though is that we work for the betterment of the country.” Eclipse said with a smile on her face, the kind of smile that someone has when they now a joke that someone else doesn’t. She also occasionally glanced at Alex’s plate of food, Alex just figured she didn’t like Italian.

“So you work for the country, does that mean I have Government backing” Alex asked, “ also if you aren’t sharing details how come the organization I’m with even accepted this loan?”

“Sorry but they consider you a liability now, that last job gained you too much of a reputation, they were just happy to give you over to someone else” she gave a sad smile as she told Alex the news, and with that news Alex’s hopes of returning to the UK were dashed. “Also no you won’t have government backing. We work for the Government, but not with the government, also we have a monarchy.”

“A monarchy?” Alex asked raising an eyebrow, “better not be a tyrannical monarchy.”

“Don’t worry the monarchy is good and I think you will agree when you see for yourself. The main threats are large corporations trying to manipulate the rules and the leaders of the smaller parts of Government below the monarchy.” She said all this with a slight smile to herself, again that smile that hinted at being in on some joke. “So Alex do you accept our invitation to our group”

Alex thought for a moment and then came to a conclusion, not that there was much to conclude. “Yes I guess I will give your group a whirl”

Eclipse smiled joyfully at the answer, “I’m sure you won’t regret it”. She stood up and walked up to the floor to ceiling window and looked out upon the city. “When you arrive head North East and head towards the city with the tallest and largest skyline, and avoid going into any smaller settlements. When you arrive in the city find a small business on the western outskirts called ‘Wagon Wash’, also avoid being seen by the locales. Your own supplies will be provided as well as other equipment, it is only a couple days travel I’m sure you can handle it”

With a nod Alex asked the next reasonable question, “So when we leaving, after the heat dies down”

Eclipse turned to look over her shoulder with a sly smile, again hinting at being in on a joke, and gave a slightly unreasonable answer, “Right now”.

And with that Alex got one last thought before it felt like his body was sucked through a tube, exploded across the universe and compacted into a single atom, all at the same time, and he blacked out. In case you’re wondering what that last thought was it went somewhere along the lines of ‘Dat ass’.

Thanks for reading please leave me some creative criticism below. Also there will be whole lot more ponies in the chapters to come