Chapter One

A Sped Up Clock

She was on borrowed time, the inevitable would happen sooner or later. It seemed now that with each heartbeat she ended, her clock was speeding up. It was going to stop entirely at some point, the only question was when.

Dawn disappeared into the shadows, already swallowed up and gone by the time the authorities arrived. It had become easier with experience, this dance she did was becoming more and more predictable. The outcome was always the same, just as it always would be.

At least until her clock stopped.

She ran through the empty halls, feet quiet and quick. Her breathing was shallow but she kept it muffled behind a face mask covering her mouth. The mask wasn't there to hide her identity(she was too good of a killer to leave a witness behind). Instead it was to stifle her pain. A pain that was still reflected in her eyes and it glowed in the unshed tears that she refused to let fall.

She ducked into an empty room and hurtled through the window, landing soundlessly in the alley behind the office building. Her breath hitched on impact but she sprang up immediately, her body all too familiar with the movements of this dance with the devil.

She turned the corner, slowing her pace slightly as she came up to the car that was awaiting her arrival, headlights off and the engine quiet. She slipped inside and without a word the driver took off, following a memorized trail that would lead them away.

Dawn tore her mask off as soon as they were in the lit street and her eyes adjusted to the artificial lights. She gulped on air, allowing her body to relax slightly now that the job was complete and they were in the clear. But she refused to let the water in her eyes drip down her cheeks, no matter how much of a relief it might bring her for a few moments. It would end quickly.

There was always another job. There always would be. Her tears wouldn't free her of the lock she had on her heart and soul.

The driver hadn't glanced at her once throughout the whole ordeal, the sight familiar to him. She knew he wouldn't judge her for showing weakness, he was after all in the same fucked up situation. If anyone could understand her pain it was him. But he never showed it, not once since the time the contract was signed.

The silence inside the car was normal. Dawn looked at him from the corner of her eye. His were on the road, narrowed and unwavering, almost as if he were staring down a mortal enemy. And in a way he was. Dawn supposed it was his way of staying completely composed, something she couldn't do even after an entire year. But she had known Paul for years; his composure was so straight, never breaking. It made him strong, invincible in a way, being able to submerge himself in this hell on earth without drowning. It kept him sane, it kept him alive.

It also unfortunately made him an incredible assassin.

A beeping disturbed the quiet and Paul immediately dug in his pocket for the cell phone, eyes never leaving the road. The sound itself was quiet but at the same time it was the loudest sound Dawn ever heard. Every time that beep sounded, it felt like she was losing air, suffocating.

She wanted more than anything than to throw the phone out the window and tell Paul to drive and never stop, never look back. But she couldn't. She had learned that a long time ago.

Paul fished the phone out and answered, putting it on speaker as she took it from his hand. Before either could say anything, a voice crinkled through. "Is the target gone?"

"Yes." She answered robotically. "A single shot to heart, he died instantly."

"Good." The voice on the other end spoke in a flat tone, absolutely no emotion whatsoever. "There's another job for you two that came in today."

Dawn's mouth ran dry and out of the corner of her eye she saw Paul's grip on the steering wheel tighten. It wasn't a surprise that there was another job immediately after this one, there almost always was. Dawn couldn't remember a time where she had more than a week between kills. Perhaps maybe at the beginning when she was learning the ropes, her anguish was harder to hide back then.

Gripping the phone harder, she turned to face the window. "We understand sir, we'll review it once we return to base."

"It's an important job so make sure you study it intensely."

"We will."

The call ended and Dawn lowered the phone from her ear. It used to be that her hand would tremble and shake whenever she was on the phone with her "boss", so much so she used to drop the phone. She used to be so scared, she still was, but now she has accepted her fate. She's now aware of her ever ticking clock.

The silence stretched on as they drove. Even before their lives changed, Paul was never a very talkative person. It irritated her when they started this job, his silence only allowing her inner thoughts to plague her every waking moment. But now it comforted her because nothing he could say to comfort her would be true.

It had been a year ago. Only a year ago.

She and Paul were close friends, or at least as close to Paul as you could be. It had been a normal day for them; they were leaving a bar on her birthday, she being to drunk to drive. She hardly ever got tipsy and even though Paul didn't drink that night, he could hold his liquor well. She figured it was a special occasion, you don't turn twenty two everyday. But looking back on it, it was the worst thing to do.

They had been attacked in the parking lot. Paul was a mixed martial artist and Dawn knew self defense, but being drunk and being attacked by seasoned killers, she didn't stand a chance. They got her first and forced Paul to comply when they held a knife to her throat.

They were kidnapped in order to be groomed as assassins. Both of them had been willing to fight back. Even if they died trying it would have been preferable than killing other people for no reason. But that stopped when their "boss" grinned wickedly and said the worst thing imaginable.

"If you did that, then your families wouldn't be around to mourn your loss."

The accompanying surveillance pictures were the final nails in their coffins.

Suicide wasn't even an option for them. They had to kill others in order to keep their families safe. At this point, the best thing that could happen to them was to get killed by their target or the police.

But they were too good for that to happen.

Paul steered the car into an alley and turned the engine off. The quiet was louder than ever. Dawn could feel his eyes staring at the back of her head.

"Five minutes." He said monotonously.

The one thing Paul could give her that could be anywhere freedom was time, but only a few minutes here and there. And for that Dawn was eternally grateful.

She nodded without saying anything, the tears finally escaping her eyes.


Thanks for reading! Chapter 2 up soon.