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Joseph enters the home of his father. Daniel, Beverly, and Natalia were all waiting on him. They were not at all happy to see their family return alive. They wouldn’t get to enjoy it very long.
“What have you done boy?” Daniel asks. “What I’ve done is take a stand against those that wish to control us forever. I will not be a pawn in the game of murder father. We’ve got enough blood to the family name. I think it’s time we’ve redeemed ourselves and get our souls back. I don’t want to be an assassin father.” Joseph says looking him in his face with defiance.
“You are no longer part of this family then. Get out of my house.” Daniel says. Joseph walks out of the house immediately. His mother angrily looks at her husband.
“Daniel… he made a choice between doing the right thing and the wrong thing and you want to kick him out for that? Daniel… you were like him once.” Beverly tells him. “I was… once. But I know the IOSTA. I’ve known them all my life.” He says to her. “So have. I was in this mess when I married you, remember? It’s not wrong for one of us to have some morals. Be proud of your son Daniel. This could be our last moments. You tell him he did the right thing. We can’t go to the grave like this… angry at him. I mad… but not because he choose to kill us… because we are going to die.” She says to him.
Daniel looks down. He gets up and opens the door. He sees Joseph sitting on the sidewalk. He sits beside his son and Joseph looks at Daniel.
“You did what you thought was right and I have no right to be angry at that. I should be angry at the men coming now to kill us. It’s not your fault.” Daniel says. “Yes it is.” Joseph replies looking down at the asphalt.
“Oh come on son! I should have done the same thing when I was young. I had the same doubts as you but I refused to listen to myself. So I put the man down and since then, I have murdered more people than I care to admit to. My life is shameful. I’m going to the grave with that shame in my mind and heart. But you, you have the best way to leave this world… with moral cheer.” Daniel says.
“Dad…” “Uh-uh son. Forget about it. Right now, I need you to protect your sister. I’ll protect the family, you watch your sister. Go talk to her. She needs it. I’ll use this time to think about what our options are.” Daniel tells Joseph.
Joseph gets up and leaves his father sitting on the sidewalk. In his heart, Joseph knew that his father was making a bad decision, one that Joseph would never agree too. But his father had been around longer. He had more options to think about than Joseph had. So he was going to do as his father asked. He was going to talk to his sister… see if there was any saving her from an honorless death.
He knocks on her door and she opens it. She looks at her brother. Her face said nothing at all. She was neither angry nor happy… just blank. It was as if she didn’t know how to feel.
“What do you want big brother.” She asks him. “Princess, I have a sensitive question for you. I need to know what you did.” Joseph tells her. “What in the world are you talking about?” she asks him.
“Nats, who did you kill? I know you passed with flying colors. I’ve also noticed that you’ve retracted yourself to your bunny. You used to talk to me more. What did you do that spoiled you?” he asks his sister. She looks at him with a blank stare. She turns her back on him ignoring him.
Joseph grabs her by her shoulder and spins her back around to him. She looks into his eyes with anger in her own. “No Joseph!” she yells at him. “Tell me.” Joseph demands. “NO!” she refuses. “Natalia, you need to tell me! Don’t hold it in your anymore.” He throws at her.
“I can’t and I won’t Jas! I just won’t!” she says pulling herself away. Joseph grabs his sister lifting her in the air then pins her to the wall. He stares into her eyes. “Let me save you! Who did you kill?!” he demands. “NO!” she yells at him.
An explosion of fire comes between the two blowing Joseph away from his sister and burning his skin away slowly. Natalia turns to her stuffed bunny. “STOP! STOP! He’s only trying to help! Leave him alone and put him back the way he was right now!” she screams in its direction.
The area slows down. The fire is withdrawn. Joseph’s skin heals but he is still flying through the air. Time returns to normal speed and Joseph tears through his sister’s door. He gets up groaning, wondering what in the world just happened to him.
He moves his eyes up from the floor, seeing his sister sitting on her bed crying. She wiped her eyes slowly. Joseph gets off the floor and rubs his aching back as he returns to his sister. He sits by her and wraps his arm around her, hugging her close.
“It’s okay Princess. You can tell me what happened.” Joseph says to his little sister. She looks up into his calming eyes then looks back to the floor.
“I was given the mission to take out an entire line. By the time I had gotten the mission, most of the family line was dead. There was only one person left of the family. He was heavily guarded, so I thought this was a big dog for sure.
I landed on the premises and just killed each and every guard, without a second thought. I went through them as if they were nothing. They just, wound up at the end of my blade.
Getting through them led me straight to my target. It was as if they were a path line, just walking me through the house without me having to work for it. So I reached the biggest guys on the block. They were ex-black ops agents. Still not a match. I thought it was a little fun, toying with them and all. I finally took their lives, still not a drop of remorse.
I readied my silencer gun and walked into the room. I saw my enemy, holding a shotgun… but through blinded eyes. I pulled the trigger without even taking a look at the target. As soon as the shining lights stopped blinding my eyes, I saw what I had done. I saw… I had killed… a child.
And fell on my knees… and cried. I didn’t just cry for the child, but I saw what I had truly done. It only took the murder of kid, now with no prospects to see I killed, brothers, fathers, men… people with souls like mine, lives, like mine. They were only doing their job and I snuffed them out.
I killed an eleven year old Jas… I killed him, without as much as a single tear up to that point. Why did I kill him?” she said with tears pouring out of her eyes. The drops splashed into an innocent puddle of water on the floor.
“It’s going to be alright Princess. I don’t if dad already knew that I knew what happened… but I think you need to watch this. This is what really happened Princess.” Joseph said to her. He hands her an SD card.
She takes it from his hand confused. Joseph smiles at his little sister and leaves. He closes the door behind him and she hurries putting the card into her laptop. She opens up the video file of her sitting in a chair tied up.
The camera moves over to a screen playing the scene of Natalia attacking the men and finally reaching the child. That is when Natalia realizes that it was all a simulation. She starts to cry happy tears as soon as it becomes evident to her.
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Joseph runs in the woods and reaches a clearing in the area. He stands there and bends to his knees looking into the sky. He was there to find his peace of mind, that he had doomed his family.
He continues to keep his head down finding his peace. However, he hears a crack in a twig. His eyes open in rapidness ready to take on whatever had come his way. He sees the culprit under the light of the moon. It was Billy, the guy he had chased down earlier.
With him was his buddies. Billy smiles at Joseph filled with pleasure. “I told ya that I was coming for you!” Billy said to Joseph. Joseph stands up and looks directly at Billy.
“Billy, you don’t want to do this. I’m not in good mood. I came out here to make some peace with myself. Now if you and your buddies could wait till another day or just drop this matter entirely, I would be more than appreciative. Can we do that?” He asks of him.
Billy shakes his head at Joseph. That’s when Joseph knew that there was no getting out of this. He sighs and tightens his fist up. He was going to show them what being in a bad mood for him meant.
“Knock him silly!” Billy says to his boys. They all charge at him. Joseph wasn’t there though. He taps on the shoulder of one man. He looks back and a fist slams in his face. The group all turn to Joseph who shrugs as they look down at the downed buddy then back up at him.
One after one, they come to attack Joseph. Joseph overpowers them all, one by one, knocking them all away from him and knocking them out until there was only Billy left. Billy looks at Joseph with surprise.
“Who are you?” Billy asks raising up his fist. “I told you I was not in a good mood at all! And you just had to fight me! I didn’t want to fight any of your boys or you. I just wanted some peace of mind. I could really get that at home with everyone acting so gloomy. So Billy, turn around now, or pay for it.” Joseph says just standing there.
Billy brings his fists down smiling. His buddies all get up then get behind Billy. Billy looks at Joseph with a daunting look. “You my friend are dead. Enjoy my buddies.” Billy says pulling out a small device. He presses the button on top of it then tosses at Joseph.
Billy and his buddies all take off running in the night. Joseph looks at it. He knows it isn’t a bomb. Billy and his buddies weren’t trying to kill him. It was something else entirely. Joseph hears growling and paws thundering towards him.
Joseph spins around to the east seeing a pack of wolves headed straight for him. He looks down at the device. He knows that it is a homing beacon for trained wolves. He looks at the direction of Billy and his mates… He knew that they intended to kill him now.
Too bad for the wolves… he thought. He really needed a release. He needed to get the ferocity that had built up in him out. What was fiercer than a pack of wolves all hungry for his flesh?
He takes out his staff clubs and spins them in his hand. He begins to growl at them bending low. They circle him growling. The first one strikes. Joseph’s club slams into its underbelly. It flies up in the air. Joseph then swings his left into another jumping at him. The club swings into the first one coming out of the air. The wolf smashes into a tree and it doesn’t get up. The fight of Joseph’s life had begun.
Traveling in the woods, Annabelle hears the commotion. She runs through the woods towards the noise nearby. She peaks her head out of the bushes seeing Joseph fighting wolves… the last of them at least.
He was holding one of them from biting off his face, as it had its mouth wrapped around his staff. He places his feet in its belly then kicks it off. The wolf runs at joseph as it lands on its feet. It leaps, then Joseph swings his staff into its side throwing it into a tree. The final two saw what had happened to the one that jumped at Joseph. They both run away. The one that had jumped at Joseph does that same.
Joseph falls on knees looking directly into the sky. “WHY CAN’T I KILL YOU!” He screams into the sky. Annabelle steps out from her hiding place looking at him. “What in the world do you mean by that?!” she asks him.
Joseph looks back at Annabelle who was just looking at him. Joseph puts his staff back together then places it on his back.
“What in the world is going on here? You were fighting wolves and….and… won.” Annabelle said looking at all the unconscious wolves strewn on the forest floor. “Your boyfriend set them out on me.” Joseph said walking past her.
“Billy? Billy is the furthest thing from my boyfriend.” She says to him, “I knew he had wolves but I didn’t know he had this many.” “Yeah, he’s not dangerous.” Joseph says annoyed. “You… what in the world are you doing in the woods like this? And how did you win?” she asks him.
“That is none of your business and it would suit you better if you didn’t know. You just… cut off any contact with my family. It’s in your best interest.” Joseph says as he continues to maneuver through the forest towards his home.
“Some is clearly bothering you Arlington.” Annabelle says grabbing him by his shoulder. He instantly stops, frozen by her touch. He looks at her with softening eyes. “You need talk about it?” she asks him.
He stares into her caring brown eyes and knows he wasn’t really going to get away from her. He really didn’t want to get away from her in all honesty as he admitted to himself. So he sat on a rock, sharing it with her.
“Well, Annie… if you don’t mind me calling you that?” he says. “I like Belle better.” Annabelle says to him. “Well, Belle, I’m an assassin.” Joseph says. “Oh.” She says looking at him with wide eyes. “No… by training I am. But I don’t have in me to take a life.” Joseph says.
“And that is a bad thing?” she asks him. “It is in my trade. My entire family is under the control of an organization that requires us to kill or we are killed. We do as they ask, no questions ask and we continue to live on this earth. If we don’t… we are picked off one by one.” Joseph tells her.
“And I’m supposing you didn’t.” she says. “Right. And now I’m out here making my peace with my choice not to take a life. I was there… I had the gun right on him. It would have so easy and no one would ever know I was there and I had done it. But it wasn’t enough for me. I would have known what I had done. I couldn’t live with that, ever.” Joseph says staring towards Morocco.
“Your first mission?” Annabelle asks. “Yes. And I failed miserably.” “You didn’t fail Arlington. You made the right choice. Trust me.” She says to him. “You’re awfully cool about me being an assassin, by training.” He says with a smile. “Trust me, you’re not the oddest thing in these parts around here. Yeah, we don’t have assassins running about, especially in the form a family, but we have our oddities.” She says.
“Well, now you know why I’m out here fighting wolves. I was trying to relieve some of the tension in my soul. I’m just angry at myself that I didn’t do what I was supposed to, doing something that could have saved my family.” Joseph tells her. “Joseph, I’m not going to pretend that I know you, but I know what you did was the right thing. Killing people even to save your own family isn’t the right thing to do. Sometimes, you have to do the right thing in order to see the other options.” She says.
“What options do I have?” he asks her. “Fight back. There’s no reason you should just give yourself Joseph. Fight to live. You have that right.” She says to him tilting her head. Joseph looks at her and nods his head. “Come by my house tomorrow. I think me and you have something in common.” She says. “What?” he asks. “You’ll see. Try not beat up anymore wolves on your way home. And… thank you for the help the other day.” She says getting up. “No problem.” He says watching her walk away. Then he looks at the woods all around him.
Fight back… he thought as a smile slowly crawled on his features.800Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdY5cXKNXbO
