Contractor: Chapter - 44A Chapter by Outdated AccountThe old new is the new old“I know you’re wondering who it is Dante sent him to spy on.” Amy grumbled between fits of coughing. “And I want to assure you that I don’t know.” “Honestly,
I’m more concerned about you right now.” I sighed from across the room. Our positions
were reversed now. I was alone at the chessboard playing against a ghost while
Amy laid down on the bed and coughed her lungs up. What was previously only a
figure of speech was sounding more and more like a reality with every fit. I
could have sworn I even saw blood dripping from her mouth just as we arrived
back in the den, but it was gone the second I blinked. “Don’t be.
This isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever been through.” The particularly painful
hacking she’d just finished said otherwise, but I let her go on. “And before
you ask, the most painful injury I ever had is a tie between being drawn and
quartered and getting a Columbian necktie.” “No.” I
actually gasped in shock at her response. “No no no. Stop. I do not want to
know about either of those times.” I could feel my stomach turning at the
mention of the primitive execution methods. “To be
honest, they were the only two really gruesome moments, unless you count
fighting the lion, but let’s face it that’s just a great story.” “I really
hope nothing like that ever happens to me.” “Trust me,
there are worse ways to go, though thinking about any of that definitely is not
helping how I feel.” A cringe of pain was now clearly evident on her face. “At least
let me tell Hope about this, maybe she can help without asking Felix.” “No.”
Despite the obvious pain she was in, her voice was very firm. She almost
sounded normal for a second. “What about
Dante?” “Dante
already saw my condition. Not that he’s my go to standard of pride, but it
would be a real kick in the face if I got that disappointed look he’s so fond
of giving you over something like this.” “And when
you say something like this, you mean agonizing pain that isn’t going away and
your body isn’t fixing?” I was having a hard time believing that after
everything I’d seen, she still wasn’t willing to ask for help. “The solution is
so simple, just do it already!” “Your
right, the solution is very simple.” Amy reached over to the bedside table and
removed her knife from where it had been embedded in the ancient wood. “I’ll
just take a nap.” “That can’t
be the right answer.” I stood up, ready to stop her, but she held out her other
hand in protest. “I’m doing
this, even if it isn’t the solution. Maybe you can think of some better options
for me though and I won’t have to wait in pain for those.” I didn’t
bother responding to her, she’d made up her mind. Even if she was in pain I
knew she could mop the floor with me in a fight, so there was no way I was
going to stop her. And then she had another coughing fit. There was blood in
the air, and she dropped the knife at her side. It was clearly much worse than
she was letting on and I couldn’t stand to see her like that. “Don’t
worry, I’ll figure something out, and until then I can’t let you stay like
this.” I grabbed her knife and placed the point over her heart. “But only if
you want this.” “Do it.”
The grunt was faint but clear. As I drove
the knife down I saw one last glimpse of relief before Amy’s body went limp.
I’d never actually killed her before, and even though I knew it wasn’t a
permanent thing I still felt… guilty for some reason. I mean, I had just put a
knife through her heart. I’d killed her. The act was still the act, murder was
still murder. And I was, and forever will be, a murderer. “Well I’m
convinced, Samantha, you are a cold blooded little beast.” I froze. I didn’t
recognize the voice at first, which was startled me. The sudden appearance of
someone behind my back was all but normal now, but a stranger in my own room
was a shock. “Who…” The
second I spun around I shut my mouth. I was frozen again for a whole new
reason. “You’re…” “Eleanor.
Though of course I’ve had several different names in my many years.” She sighed
casually, like she didn’t want to eviscerate me where I stood. “When I wandered
the Sahara, for instance, the few nomads I came to know called me El-Hashim.” “Does that
mean…” “It means
‘the crusher,’ dear.” She was clearly threatening me. “Of course the last name
I had, you stole from me… but, and as much as I want to be otherwise, I didn’t
come to see you about that.” “Then why
are you here? What are you doing in my room? How did you even get in here?” “That’s a
lot of questions for a simple girl like yourself, and a lot of answers for such
a simple mind.” There was a hiss in her voice that had probably been growing
since she first spoke up, but I hadn’t heard it until then. “To put it simply,
I’m here because I want expendable help from someone I’ll enjoy seeing die.” “As fun as
that sounds, I don’t work for you. I work for Dante.” Eleanor cringed at the
mention of Dante. I didn’t even want to think about their relationship. “So
unless you have something signed by him, I’ll be declining your invitation.” “I’m not
asking.” Her glare was monstrous. I didn’t have much experience with mother
figures in my life, but there had always been a constant among the ones I had
met and that was their penetrating glare. “And while I don’t have a signed
release form from that boy, I don’t need one to make you do whatever I want.” “What are
you going to do then, kill me? Because that won’t work, as much as I wish it
would sometimes.” Though honestly, I only said that to defy her. I didn’t want
to die, I just knew she couldn’t kill me. “I don’t
have to harm you at all, or even threaten you.” In a second she was mere inches
away from me. “I just have to take you with me.” The
disorientation I felt whenever Dante took me anywhere had worn off, but Eleanor
must have been doing her thing some other way, because when we landed at her
destination I was more nauseous than I’d been since burning alive. I didn’t
actually think what she’d just done was even possible until she had actually
done it, the thought of it hadn’t even crossed my mind. I’d been kidnapped,
more or less, by the mother of the boy I murdered. A mother who was also a
contractor… and clearly wanted to see me suffer. “I still
don’t have to do what you tell me, I’ll just do nothing now… or get Dante to
take me back home.” My response was hindered by the lurching of my stomach, so
it had taken a while for me to deliver my rebellious lines. “And how,
pray tell, do you expect to contact him?” She had a proud smirk on her face
that I didn’t like the looks of. “I just
ask… I guess. I’ve been operating under the assumption he can just hear me if I
call out to him and it’s been working more or less so far.” Though the more I
talked, the less sure I was that he would pop out of the blue and come to my
defense. To be honest though, the likeliness of him actually defending me was
slim to begin with. “Naïve
child.” Eleanor sighed. “Oh to be simple and safeguarded from the scary world
around you, never knowing that your call for help will go unanswered.” “Can you at
least get to the point, rather than try to make a fool of me? I think we both
already know who has the upper hand here.” Clearly she did, but I let the
statement be ambiguous on the off chance I could convince her I had an ace up
my sleeve. “The boy,
the one you work for, has some amateur following me.” She sighed her response,
as though it were a dreadfully boring matter. That didn’t change the fact that
she’d gone to the effort of acquiring my assistance over such a dreadfully
boring bit of business. “I can’t seem to identify him however, all I know is
that he’s following me. I have brought you here,” she motioned around us, “to
do what I cannot.” I finally
felt secure enough to take my eyes off of my captor as she motioned to our
surroundings. We were in a shopping mall, of all places, and strangely we weren’t
drawing any attention at all. Despite our appearances we certainly were acting
casual enough; her in her mom jeans and pale blue blouse, me in my… collector
uniform. No one gave us a second look. Not the teens shopping, not the old
folks lounging on the benches, or the mother of four pushing her oversized cart
loaded with children down the slightly sloped tile floor. “Why would
I do that? I mean, apart from the fact that you’ve presented yourself as my
only option back to my employer,
which doesn’t really mean that much by the way.” “Since you
insist on being so difficult, I am willing to trade.” She paused. I could tell
she hadn’t been prepared to actually have to convince me to help her. “You have
been plunged into a world you could not hope to comprehend and left in the dark
almost completely. I will answer any one question to the termination of its
thread of information. No strings attached.” “Tempting
offer, but circumstance may prevent you from answering my question once I’ve
done what you want. Your payment will have to be up front.” I wasn’t finished,
the second she opened her mouth I picked the negotiation back up again. I
needed her to know I wasn’t in the dark when it came to making a deal. “My
consideration for the trade will be my favorite knife, located in my left boot.
It is one of the very few things I own. You will hold it as collateral until
I’ve completed the task which you have already asked of me, which is to
identify the individual following you, but only so long as it does not compromise
my employers design as I will be unable to do so if this is the case. If your
request cannot be completed, you will keep my knife, which I assure you I will
seriously regret losing, and our agreement will be null and void. These are my
terms. Do you accept?” “What on
earth…” Eleanor’s reaction was satisfyingly shocked. “Why is it that you, a
murderer and a child, think you have the right to contract me? Further, how is
it that you have any knowledge on the matter of contracting?” “Out of
respect, I read all of your son’s novels.” Her expression changed from shock to
rage. As if on signal, all the shoppers in the mall began to leave and gave us
as wide a berth as possible. “They only made me regret my actions more. He was
very smart, and a good kid. I learned a lot from what he wrote.” “Don’t you
dare talk about my son like you knew him. You don’t know anything about him.”
Her expression was wild. If she were capable of killing me, she would have done
so a long time ago. I could see it was taking everything she had not to at
least try. “Like I
said. I did that out of respect.” The room was starting to feel cold, cold in
my mind like it had the first time we’d met and she’d actually tried to kill
me. Something told me that if I couldn’t calm her down I was due for a repeat
scenario. “And like you said, I don’t know a thing about him that he didn’t
write down for the world to read. But I do respect him, the same way I respect
you and what you’ve lost. What I took away from you. Everyone’s lost something
like that, maybe not so horribly, but I get where you’re coming from. Which is
why I know nothing I say or do could make it right between us.” She paused,
and for a few seconds it felt like the world was frozen around us as she
decided how to take my plea. I knew this was one of those situations where
there was no right answer. I’d committed murder, not because I wanted to, but
because I wanted to live more than I cared if some stranger did. That didn’t
make it right of course, but it didn’t exactly condemn me to hellfire either. I
regretted what I did, but I still don’t think I could have done anything
differently if I had another shot at things. “As a bonus
to you, if you accept the terms I laid out before… I’ll give you as much time
as you need to take out your anger on me. I can’t promise that will help you at
all though.” I just wanted this encounter to be over. “Fine. I
accept your terms and conditions.” Eleanor held out her hand. There were no dramatic blue flames, no lights, and no ceremony about it. It was a contract all right, but it was a straightforward and honest one. Everything was normal as we shook hands in agreement. © 2016 Outdated Account |
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Added on October 2, 2016 Last Updated on October 31, 2016 Tags: macabre, novel, full length, serial, death, the grim reaper, grim reaper, business, contract, contracts, contract law, deal, deal with the devil, supernatural, paranormal, fiction, adventure, etc. Author
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