The Girl Who Was Bound To Die

There’s that ringing sound again. It’s coming from my earpiece. I know who is contacting me and why they are contacting me. I lick my lips and the call is received. That’s how this earpiece system works.

I hear some muffling in the background as the voice on the other end says, “We need you again.” Then it hangs up.

So that’s it. Come to the location, go on missions and get money? Well, that’s how the Nightcrawler Network operates. They provide you with a room to stay in that has nothing except a box containing tools. You receive food every day and your chores are done by your private assistant. All you have to do is go on perilous missions. If you succeed, then bingo, you would be welcomed by a suitcase containing your monthly earnings, but if you don’t pass, then say goodbye to everything.

I get up from the dusky bed and open the wooden box resting on my table. I pick my night vision goggles, mini camera, flashlight, gun, motion sensor, binoculars, and a magnifying glass and put them in the secret pockets of my coat.

It’s all designed for spies, I mumble.

When my personal assistant glimpsed me getting up from my bed, he came rushing towards me from another room. He’s got a room like me but a smaller one which contains daily needed objects.

“Are you going on your mission, sir?” he questions me politely. They’re trained to act like it’s no big deal. When I go out, they will receive my exact location and by what time I will be back so I just say nothing and get outside after nodding. I take out the hat from the secret pockets inside my coat and carefully put it on my head.

When I make it to the gate of my apartment, I glance around and spot a mini-black suburban outside. It’s there to take me to the headquarters. I show my ID card to the guards and they let me outside the gate.

I sit inside the suburban and lay down peacefully since I know what’s coming next. As the gas spreads, the world around me fades to black.

When I wake up, I find myself lying on a bed. One blanket covers my body up to my chest. I stand and find my seniors in another room talking about something. When they saw me enter the room, they stopped talking and greeted me. I notice that everyone looks tense.

“Good morning. This is Sandio Evans. What’s my mission for today?” I ask, ignoring how tense everyone’s faces look.

A senior named Wicter Mendoza locks his eyes into mine and speaks, “Nice to meet you again Mr. Evans. Today, your mission is…well unexpected.”

There’s a pause. What do they mean by unexpected?

My thoughts are disturbed by Wictor, “There’s a female named Hannah Parker. She’s 16 and lives on Wickerken street. It’s 23 blocks away. The order we have received from our seniors instructs that you are assigned to kill Mrs. Parker by 10 A.M. which is 40 minutes from now.”

Everything goes silent around me. The sound of infinite silence fills the air. Everyone looks down and pretends that nothing happened.

After some time, I can’t hold it back anymore. “You want me to kill her? Hannah Parker? You know who she is! How did you even think I could kill her? She’s my everything. I cannot kill her. Change my mission. I don’t know what she did. Just leave her alone. I am begging you. If you don’t obey me, then I would resign,” I scream at them.

Then I glimpse something. Anger. There’s a flash of anger in their eyes. That’s when I know I have crossed my limits. I would have to kill her. I would have to kill my daughter. She doesn't even know I exist. My wife and I got divorced because she wasn’t happy. Then she married another guy. After some months, she sent me a letter saying that she had a daughter. I knew right away that Hannah was my daughter. Her last name changed because her husband thought that she was his daughter. From that day, I had lived unknown to my family because I never wanted to meet my daughter and interrupt her happy life.

I snap back to reality when Wictor states, “Mr. Evans, you already know we can’t do that. If any spy wants to resign, it means that they’re inviting themselves to be killed.”

That’s how they scare us over and over. By threatening to kill us. I nod forcefully and leave. I am already trained on how to do kill missions. Go to the mentioned location only after checking that no one’s around. Kill the person without leaving any clues. Go back to your apartment and receive cash.

It takes me exactly 35 minutes to reach Wickerken street. I try hard to hold back my tears. Even if Hannah doesn’t know me and I haven’t seen her, I have feelings for her. Strong feelings – feelings that are unlikely to fade over time.

She’s my only daughter and I can’t kill her. I have decided that and this is going to be the first time I am going to disobey the Nightcrawlers Network’s orders. I am going to end this for good.

I swiftly open the car door and look around me. The first thing I notice is how quiet this street is. No noise – pin drop silence. The next thing I notice is that no one is nearby. I stroll normally to the house of my daughter, Hannah. It’s a one-story house.

I peek at every window and I witness no one. But at the last window, I catch the sight of a beautiful girl reading her composition notebook. Her appearance is just like me – blonde-headed, hazel eyes, straight nose, and pink lips. She’s precisely like me.

She’s my daughter, I talk under my breath.

After having my moment and wiping some tears, I realize that I am being tracked. I still have the memory of the day they installed a tracker into my forearm. It’s under my skin. I would have to make a cut using the bayonet knife connected to my gun. I understand how much pain it would cause and blood to bleed but I must do it to keep my daughter safe.

I reach for my gun inside one of my secret pockets and pull the bayonet knife. I make sure not to close my eyes while cutting so that I don’t go deeper down the skin.

Blood starts flowing rapidly and I quickly tug out the tracker – a small black square box and throw it into the yard of the house next door. I take some bandages from my left leg pocket and wrap them on the cut. Hopefully, it will be enough till I rescue Hannah.

For a second, I am not sure if I want to break the window or ask Hannah to open the door. But Hannah would never trust strangers, so I decide to go with breaking the window.

One thing I realized after breaking the window is that Hannah is completely oblivious to this situation. She seems so calm that I make up my mind she’s done nothing wrong.

Hannah does not scream when I enter through the window, she seems to be aware of what to do in these situations. Even though Hannah just sits on the bed with her composition notebook, I put my finger on my lips and shush her.

“I promise Hannah. I mean no harm to you. I am here to save you. You have to trust me,” I request Hannah.

She does nothing except stare silently into my hazel eyes and it’s only after a minute that I realize I am doing the same.

“Dad…?” Hannah whispers.

There. She’s so clever that she’s figured out I am her real dad. I hide the appealing look on my face with a stern look and shake my head. I’ll pretend to be a rescuer, not her long-lost father.

“You are clearly lying. Don’t think I don’t know how to hide expressions,” I hear her lovely voice say.

“Alright. What if I am. Yes, I am your real dad and you need to come with me. Right now,” I firmly say.

She nods and says something unexpected, “I knew someday my real dad would come to me. I don’t look like my mother or my stepfather. My personality is also different from theirs. I was waiting for this day forever.”

That’s why she didn’t attack me. I begin, “Hannah-” but cry. “How are you 15?! You’re still my little girl. I never saw you.”

She understands what I feel and I do too, so she comes forward and embraces me. It’s a warm, passionate hug. She’s there, right in front of me, I say to myself.

I pull away first and am about to tell the plan when I listen to some loud sounds.

Then it happens too fast. I am only able to warn Hannah to hide somewhere but I am too late. The security guards from the headquarters are already in the house. They must have had suspicions about why the tracker wasn’t moving and they immediately sent the guards. How could I forget about that? I am so dumb.

Hannah doesn’t make it to the closet in her room or any other room because the security guards arrive in the room. They push me away and hold me hostage, while they drag Hannah to the living room. I fight – not for my life, but Hannah’s life. I am lucky to make it to the living room.

Some guards hold Hannah still while more guards come from behind me and clasp me.

“What’s the order?!!” I hear one of the guards holding Hannah, screaming. As I attempt with my entire body to break away from the soldiers, I pick out a voice saying, “Shoot her and take the Sandio guy to the headquarters.”

“No!” I recognize my voice out of the screaming of Hannah.

Then the same guard who asked what the order was comes forward, holds out his gun, and points it at Hannah’s face.

As Hannah wails for me, the guard pulls the trigger and the bullet hits Hannah’s forehead.