6A/N: So... next chapter up! Very quick up date (for my usual, anyway... I know, it was still slow)... it would have been faster if not for some stuff that happened. Anyway... here it is! Be forewarned, there is a sex scene (I'll let you know before each chapter that has one), if you do not want to read it, skip down to the bottom for a summary of what happens. Also, at the bottom of I'm going to add a little synopsis of the main characters (I realized talking to a friend that there might be some confusion about them).
The dark leaves rustled in the wind around her as she stared into the night from her perch. From her lookout, she could still hear the faint clanking of pots in the distance as a few individuals tried to start the pottering back up again. She had been lucky to be able to time her leap across the exterior wall to the pottering'speak. She had been coming to Minister Lec's home for nine days now and the guards were getting suspicious. Fortunately for her, the echoing ruckus of ladles banging against pots and pans from half the windows of the city (which intensified with each bounce from every mountain peak and building) were able to cover up her less-than-graceful landing. That night, she could be nothing but grateful for the national speech the president had given that day inciting the protest.
In the mango tree of the Lec property Victoria sat, her ninth day keeping a lookout on the residence as the darkness within her grew and raged. The presence encroaching on her heart was a constant reminder of her assignment, which at completion would be no more than another notch in her long list and another drop added to the growing darkness.
She watched from the cover of the tree as the Minister's wife helped her two children finish their homework before sitting with them and their nanny to watch TV. With a bitter sadness, Victoria couldn't help but feel pity for the woman who so unsuspectingly sat with her husband's mistress. She felt remorse for the woman because, had the Organization had its way, Mrs. Lec would have been the widow of a cheater as of two days ago, all thanks to her. But the Organization had not gotten its way and Victoria was back one more night to try and finish her assignment. Perhaps tonight will be the night this woman and her children lose it all…
It was past ten at night when the Minister came home. Victoria was able to catch sight of his car coming in through the driveway and then his proud frame making its way into the house. After a few minutes wait, the man came back into her sight, this time in the kitchen making himself a cup of tea. After his drink was ready he disappeared into his house once more and Victoria was left to wait for him to go to his office or his bedroom to be able to see him again.
It took fifteen minutes of waiting for him to walk through his bedroom door accompanied by his wife. He carried his cup as well as a bored expression and she a thunderous one.
Where were you? Victoria was able to see the woman demand.
At work, where else? The Minister responded. I was earning the money to sustain this family and your life style. Don't complain so much.
So that's your reasoning? You're working this late for your family?
Minister Lec turned as he began to unbutton his coat and take off his tie, keeping Victoria from seeing his response.
What family? You're never here! You barely know your own children! Mrs. Lec told her husband— and judging by her facial expressions, not too softly, either.
The country needs me! The Minister declared enraged.
Upon seeing his answer, Victoria couldn't help but snort to herself. The country needs him? She thought, what good has he ever done? Except maybe to handle Dansworth's dealings with the FARC.
The country? Fuck, your family needs you! She responded just as ardently. Apparently Mrs. Lec shared similar sentiments.
Leave me the fuck alone, the Minister finally told his wife, I'm going to my office.
True to his word, the Minister stormed out of his room and into his office, shutting the door behind him. Victoria watched him pace across the carpet in front of his desk for a few minutes before dropping into his chair. He pulled open a drawer and lifted a glass bottle and a cup from inside of it. He poured some of the amber liquid, most likely whiskey, and downed the cup. He followed it by a second before settling into his desk and turning on the computer.
He worked for a little over an hour, checking information on his computer and making phone calls, when the door to his office opened. Victoria's heart sped up and the darkness around her throbbed in anticipation as she watched the nanny enter the room and lock the door behind her. The woman's presence was making Victoria feel helpless, her eyes began to water and her throat to constrict. It seemed that tonight would be the night she would complete her assignment. Somewhere deep inside, she knew that the sooner she finished her assignment, the better it would be; but she had still hoped to put it off a few days. Taking a life had not become any easier over the years.
The nanny walked further into the room and leaned against the corner of her bosses desk.
You shouldn't fight with her, she said, taking Victoria completely by surprise. She had come to expect many things from the Minister's mistress, but genuine care was not one of them. The children hear you.
When she received no response from the sitting man, she tried again. Would you like to talk about it?
It seemed that was the last straw, the Minister stood up from his chair so quickly that it tumbled over behind him and he grabbed the woman by her arm in a grip so tight, Victoria could see his knuckles turning white.
Why did you come in here, to get fired? He demanded to her as he shook her. Are you going to fuck me or what?
The nanny looked down in submission and nodded.
Good, take off your clothes, he proclaimed with a mirthless smile.
The woman did as she was told, unbuttoning her shirt and pulling down her skirt, while the Minister unbuckled his belt and bared himself. Victoria, from her tree, began to feel even worse than she already did. Not only was the darkness within her bubbling with life, moving in from the edges of her being towards the centre of her heart and intensifying her hatred for her life, but now she was also repulsed at having to watch such a vile act.
Before the nanny was finished undressing, the Minister pushed her to her knees, grabbed her hand and guided it to him. The woman dutifully worked on him with her hand while his fingers curled around her hair. Victoria could feel vomit rising through from her stomach. She wanted to stop watching but she knew that to do so, it would mean to also end his life. So while she pulled the courage and duty necessary to do what she must around her, she subjugated herself to continue watching.
The man grabbed his mistress's head and forced her to stop using her hand and start with her mouth. Victoria couldn't believe what she saw, through her repulsion, hatred and self-pity, she also felt disgusted surprise. Minister Lec had never been very respectful when he was with the nanny, but he had never been this forceful, either. His hands were driving her head to him over and over again, and keeping her in place longer than was comfortable for the woman—if her throat muscles clenching as she gagged in response to the pressure was anything to go by. Suddenly, the feelings of pity she had felt for the Minister's wife and children spread to the woman with him who, at the moment, seemed just as much a victim as the rest of his family.
She wanted to stop watching it. She wanted to stop it. But the fear of the darkness flowing through her scared her of ending it.
The Minister pulled his mistress away from him and with the same painful grip as he had used before, he hauled her to his feet and threw her to the couch. Victoria, from her perch, couldn't help but find the man menacing as he walked towards the nanny. He was holding his pants up just below his erection to keep himself from tripping as he walked; but it was his expression that brought fear to Victoria. The man still had the same angry look that he had carried all night. It seemed that Victoria wasn't the only scared one, she could see the same feelings in the eyes of the nanny as the Minister approached her.
As she watched him rip the nanny's underwear off from her, Victoria, for the first time since her first assignment so long ago, suddenly didn't care of her actions, she just wanted it to end. The Minister lowered himself on top of the woman and began to violently thrust into her, meanwhile Victoria directed her concentration within herself. She was dimly aware of the darkness within her retreating slightly, but all her focus was directed towards the man she was watching through the window. The nanny arched her back under the man, but the look on her face was one of silenced pain, not pleasure, and it incited Victoria to extend her field of awareness faster.
There, she thought with grim satisfaction. She had extended her field of awareness and found the motor cortex of the Minister, in particular the set of neurons which initiated the signal for the heart to beat. With a burst of internal energy, Victoria forced herself on to a neuron and stopped it from firing. The action was enough to stop one beat, but not enough to finish her job. With subdued awareness, she saw Minister Lec begin to spasm on top of the nanny as she continued to stop the signal from continuing to his heart.
Finally, Victoria retreated back within herself and fully took in the scene through the window. The emotions that had previously been dulled, hit her with full force as she saw the Minister's unmoving body. The darkness within her roared with life as it consumed her from the inside and the pity she felt for herself threatened to overwhelm her as tears formed in her eyes.
With her emotions doubled and raging within her, Victoria watched as the nanny unsuspectingly laid underneath the Minister, no doubt thinking that the man's odd behavior had been his orgasm. However, she soon noticed his unresponsiveness and began to prod him. Victoria saw the growing panic in the woman's eyes as she shoved at his body, unable to move his dead weight from on top of her.
Victoria climbed down from the tree, feeling the darkness in every part of her body; but she did not allow herself to breakdown, she needed to go to see Sasha at the Organization. By the time she heard the first scream ringing from the house, out through the Lec property, Victoria was already leaving. She used the nanny's fearful calls of help as her distraction to leap across the wall and make her way out.
Summary of chapter: Victoria returns for the 9th time to the mango tree outside Minister Lec's house and watches the family interact throughout the night- M. Lec and his wife have an argument and he goes angry to his office. A while later the nanny joins him (he is still angry) and though the Minister does not force himself of the nanny, he certainly isn't very respectful of her when they start having sex. Victoria, from her tree, is repulsed by two things: 1) her assignment to kill the Minister while he is having sex with the nanny (so that his family-and the rest of the world-find out he is a cheater); and 2) by the Minister's disrespectful behaviour toward the nanny. The latter is what finally pushes her to complete her assignment: she extends her field of awareness and kills the Minister by forcing his brain to stop signaling his heart to beat.
Brief Character synopsis:
-Victoria Baron: she has special abilities (we saw a bit of those this chapter) basically related to her field of awareness. She was recruited to work for an international organization (the Organization) from very young and has since been trained and employed as an assassin. Her superior at the Org. is Sasha Kelly Warding. We don't know anything about her parents except that Vic does not like them.
-Randall "Zee" Zimmerman: he has special abilities too (we don't know what these are yet but we know that he is slightly stronger, faster and more agile than normal). He is being trained under a nameless and mysterious teacher to prefect his abilities but the outcome of this training is not clear-I can assure you though, Zee is not training to be a robber/thief. He lives with his widowed paternal grandmother and her caretaker (Nelvis).
-Jasmyn Mitchim: her and her family have an underground, online radio station in which they broadcast the news that the government does not allow normal media to publish. She does not have any "special abilities" like the 2 other characters but she was trained by her father (Ron) to be able to read and understadn people very well. She also has a mother (Sandy) and a brother (Lucas) and works part-time at a newspaper, The National evening edition, as a receptionist/general assistant.