The vampire and the assassin

Have you ever thought to yourself, how the hell did you manage to get yourself into this position? I know I do it quite regularly, and this is no exception. I guess I should tell you a bit about myself before I launch into the chaos that is my life and everything else I'm going to end up finding myself doing on my journey to God knows where, doing whatever it is I'm told to do.

My name is Rosetta Crowe, and I'll be the first to admit that I absolutely hate my birth name. That's why, growing up, I introduced myself as Rosa. I know my parents hated it; as they put it, that was the birth name they gave me, so I should appreciate it; however, I didn't, and I still don't. I got bullied a lot over my strange name when we moved, which is why I preferred to go by my nickname. At school, when we moved, the bullies soon learned I wasn't just a simple pushover. I would fight back when they started. Yes, I got kicked out of school a few times for it and often got grounded and everything taken away to teach me a lesson, but it never worked like it doesn't for most kids, let's be honest. I mean, how did I expect my strict parents to listen to me when I was being bullied and fighting back to teach them not to mess with me? That wasn't a reason to be in fights with boys; that's what I was always told, but I didn't care. I still fought with people; it seemed to be the only way to make them understand that I wasn't messing around.

As I got older, I got the feeling that I had turned into a disappointment to my family—well, to my mother and sister more than anything else. My dad seemed to try and reason things out with me; he wanted to understand why I was being the way I was. As much as he was strict, he was about the only one who showed me any type of love. When I was younger, we lived in a small farming community where everyone knew everyone. That was before I started fighting. I loved my life there; I had friends who accepted me for me, who would use my preferred name, and who understood why I went by that name, as most of them had strange names too. My dad used to work for a farmer, and it was enough to keep us fed with a roof over our heads; however, the farmer fell on hard times, so we had to move to a city, and that was where I'd gotten bullied. I hated it, and I was the first to admit that I missed that quiet little village where my friends had been, but all I was told was that if my older sister could make new friends, then so could I. So that's what I did. I made new friends; my only problem was that I made friends with the wrong kind of kids.

I made friends with the type of people your parents warn you about—the ones who are nothing but trouble. I had teachers come to me and ask how a sweet girl could end up being friends with the wrong type, and I always told them the same thing because I wanted to. I knew that if I admitted that the bullying was the real cause of the trouble, then nothing would be done. Nothing ever happened when I tried to tell my story; the school and teachers never did anything to save that sweet girl. It was almost like they threw me to the wolves and didn't care after that. If that's what they wanted from me, the stubborn part of me told me that we wouldn't let them down, and I didn't.

When I got a little older, my parents didn't know what to do with me; I'd really fallen through the cracks. I'd argue and fight with them, and I would stay out till all hours because I knew if I went home, I'd simply get called every name under the sun. I wasn't into drugs, and I certainly wasn't into drinking when my friends were. I still had some respect for myself, but all of that changed when I was hanging out with a group of my friends and I was introduced to this guy, whose name was Liam. I wish at that point someone had turned me around and kicked me out of the house I'd met him in, as my life seemed to go downhill after meeting him.

Liam was older by about 3 years. Yeah, yeah, I know, there should have been a massive red flag over him saying trouble was heading this way, but I was 18 when I met him, and by this point in my life, my parents had pretty much given up on me; even my dad was getting close to giving up on me. He had dark black hair and deep blue-grey eyes. I could see that behind his caring manner there was something else, but me being me, I had to know what that something was. I thought I could be the one who calmed his wild nature, like everyone thinks when they meet a bad boy. So Liam and I started dating after three months of knowing each other. When my mom and dad found out, they went crazy, and that was the final straw for both of them. They kicked me out. Liam, being my sweet and caring boyfriend at the time, let me stay with him. He held a job, and he looked after me. He even said he'd try to help me get things sorted with my parents again, and he did try, but they simply told me that I was a disappointment to them and that I should have been like my sister.

It really hurt to hear my family say that to me. I think that was the part that tipped me over the edge and sent me on my last dive into the dark abyss. Liam had told me to take a little time to heal over what I'd heard; he'd still played the concerned boyfriend, but I could also see other things creeping in. I knew he was still hanging out with our friends and a couple of my friends, who had seen the darker side of me. They had all warned me to be careful as Liam had begun asking questions about me and what I was like, and one of them had let it slip about him asking about the fights even though I hadn't fought in years. Again, I can hear you screaming at me, Red Flag!

Yes, I agree—now at least. When he found out about that, it began to feel like he was on purpose trying to get me to fight him. One day, though, he got what he wanted, although not in the way he'd expected.

I'd been out one day looking for a job to at least try and get my life back on track, and I'd come home—well, to Liam's house—to find clothes had been thrown on the floor and perfume was smelling the house out. It wasn't my perfume, as I'd only worn a rose-smelling one; this specific perfume smelled cheap and not nice, and the clothes on the floor were not mine, as I still had mine on. I went into the bedroom, already aware of what I was about to see. I know I could have just simply walked out of the house before I'd even witnessed what I knew I'd witness, but I just couldn't. I opened the door to see them in action. My anger got the better of me as I picked up a vase that was on a shelf near the door and threw it at Liam as I screamed. I remembered the way he looked at me with a wicked grin on his face, as if he'd been pushing me to get that reaction, as the woman jumped out of bed and began to look for her clothes. I moved out of the way to let her out of the room, as I'd screamed at him again. This had all been his fault.

Liam had simply laid back in bed casually and told me I'd been hiding that fighter side of me. He told me about how he thought people had been lying about my anger and past, but now that he'd seen it for himself, he knew it was all true. I remember digging my nail into my finger to keep myself from crying, as I wasn't letting him be the reason I'd cried. I hadn't ever wanted that part of me to come out again. When I'd been with him, it had felt like there hadn't been a need for me to do it anymore, but I was clearly very wrong. He told me that he'd needed to provoke a reaction from me, and since my parents' attitude towards me hadn't provoked me, he knew he'd needed to do something more extreme. I remember screaming at him that he had to do something extreme, and I'd give him something extreme. He sat up, looked at me, and asked if I was serious about wanting a job. He told me his boss was looking for new blood, and he wanted to know if I'd be interested.

I'd just laughed and walked out. No job had been worth catching the one person who I thought had my back in bed with someone else. Liam told me I wouldn't get too far as his boss had eyes on me and he'd said he wanted me, so even if I said no, his boss would get his own way. I turned and asked him what he wanted from me. Liam had grinned at me as if he were the devil himself and told me to go wait for him in the living room, and he'd introduce us. I won't lie; at that moment, I was terrified for the first time in my life. My parents had been right; Liam had been every single shade of wrong for me, and now here I was about to pay the price.

Liam had come out of the bedroom on his phone as he passed it over, and I spoke to the person on the other side of the phone. He told me he had a job position for me, and it would be good money, but I had to do as I was told, otherwise it would cause trouble. I asked what he meant. The male on the phone had said he didn't want me working as a mistress; he needed me as a distraction for Liam. I was merely to talk to people while Liam did his job, and then when Liam gave me a queue, that was when we were to leave. I looked up at Liam, worried about where this business job was going to go, but I could see from the look on Liam's face that I wasn't going to say no, as he wasn't going to let me, so I agreed.

To begin with, I simply did what I had been told to do. I sat talking with rich business people, and sometimes if Liam told me to flirt, he didn't seem to mind when he'd commanded it, but when I'd done it on my own because conversation had begun to turn to that, he'd get angry with me once we were alone, and things often got physical between us, with both of us getting hurt very often. Liam seemed to enjoy those fights between us; I, on the other hand, didn't. Why didn't I walk away? I couldn't; I had no where to go, as by this point my friends had all shunned me. I had no idea what I'd done wrong, and I'm still unsure to this day, but I'm sure that Liam had a part to play in it. However, he almost seemed scared to lash out at me fully, and that was when I started questioning what I was really doing.

One night, Liam asked me to go and get him and a gentleman a drink from the bar. This had been the first time I'd done this, and I'd found it a little strange. I'd ordered the drinks and then came back; when I got back to the table, our guest had gone to the bathroom. Liam had given me a tablet and told me a story that the man had a headache, and Liam had offered him a headache tablet; however, he'd declined it. Liam had finished up by telling me that if I offered him it, he might be more willing to take it from a beautiful young lady and to make out that I'd taken it out of my bag. I asked him what it really was, as I simply wasn't buying the answer of just a headache tablet, and Liam had begun to get a little angry with me, but his attitude had changed when our guest had arrived back at the table. Not daring to anger Liam tonight, I did as I was told. I watched him take the tablet and looked at Liam, who had kept his gaze on me the whole time, as if telling me to say nothing. I couldn't stand it any more, and I'd got up and excused myself from the table, telling the guest that I needed a little air as it was stuffy in the bar we were sitting in. I went outside and stood with my back to the wall as I took a deep breath to calm myself. What had I just done? I had no idea, but I was terrified, as I had a feeling that very soon I'd find out, and I knew I wasn't going to like it in the least.

Liam came out with a grin on his face as he stood in front of me, pulled me into a hug, and whispered that I'd done well and that my boss would be proud that I was ready to move on with my training. At that moment, I knew I'd sold my soul to the devil, and that was Liam.

In the days that followed, the man on the phone spoke to me and told me all about what he was doing. Teaching me to be an assassin. At first I was in denial, but Liam just laid it out, asking what I thought I was doing when I was being a distraction to him. I told Liam I wanted no part of that, but I had no choice. I'd already helped him, and I knew I was already an accomplice, and I now understood what I'd done that night at the bar. Liam had told me if I felt uncomfortable about it all, I could remain his assistant and he wouldn't mind, but I did. I really didn't like the way he'd made that comment, and I figured if I learned something along the way, then I might be given the trust to get away from Liam and get away from it all. I'd honestly thought I could learn the skills I needed to escape and start over again.

I bet you're wondering where all of this is going. I promise this story and this tragic history of mine is the reason I'm in the mess I'm in now, and you'll understand in just a minute, I promise.

Not having any choice in the matter, I went along with it, being the distraction, and then one night, everything went crazy. I will always remember that night, as it was the night that both made me and broke me. I'd managed to sneak outside of the house that Liam was living in and get a little fresh air. I wasn't generally allowed out alone, as Liam feared I'd run away from him. I'd tried it once before, and I'd been dragged back to Liam and had received a telling off from the man on the phone about how I wasn't allowed to simply leave no more; I knew too much. Anyway, that night I'd been standing in the garden looking up at the sky as I silently prayed to whatever god or goddess was listening to me. I understood if none of them had been listening to me with all the bad things I'd done when, at first, I noticed what I thought was a falling star. I still have no idea what I saw in the sky. However, a massive crack was heard, and then a boom sound followed. I thought for a moment that the world had ended and my prayers had been answered; I was out of the mess, but then something began to float down to the ground. I held my hand out as I thought it had begun to snow, which I thought was a little weird at the end of summer and beginning of autumn while it was still warm, but as I rubbed my fingers together, I realized it was like ash.

Liam had come to the door and shouted at me urgently. I remember the look of worry on his face at that moment. I had no clue what was going on, but I'd soon find out. As I got inside, Liam gave me a dagger and told me it was made of silver and would kill most things. I asked what he meant and told him how scared I was, and for the first time in a long time, I honestly saw the man that I'd loved all over again telling me it would be OK. He told me he had to leave, but he'd be back soon. If anyone came into the house, I just had to fight them and escape. He gave me my phone and told me that it was just in case something happened while he was away. I remembered that I begged him to take me with him, but I simply got the answer that he couldn't, and he left me alone in his house.

I remember sitting on the sofa, terrified of every single noise that came towards the door, as I held the dagger up in case it was someone or something I'd have to fight. One night I was exhausted from the minimal sleep I'd gotten, and I ended up falling asleep. I'd woken to a loud bang, like something was crashing through the front door in the middle of the night. I held the dagger up and sliced, making the people dodge away from me. I had no idea who or what they were; all I knew was that they were scared of the silver dagger. Not daring to chance my luck against these things, I ran. I had no plan and no idea what was going on. It wasn't until I'd managed to get into the middle of the city as I passed one of the newsboards that was up on a building that I realised just what Liam had left me in. Where normal advertisements advertised the various shops and products, they were now filled with a warning to stay indoors due to mass killings by unknown things.

Terrified, I quickly learned that I had to defend myself. This wasn't about being an assassin or what I'd done in the past; this was about the purely instinctive survival of whatever was going on. I knew how to fight, and I was pretty sure that I'd be able to fight with a knife. Now that I knew that they were scared of the knife that Liam had given me, at least I had something to be thankful for from him.

I ran into a group of people in the city who had taken me into their shelter. There had been a number of attacks from all different things that tried to kill us that they'd told me about, and I'd told them about how I'd killed some who had been hunting or whatever it was that they'd been doing. The group told me how they'd been pretty lucky, as they'd found some weapons. They'd taken me in and given me shelter in exchange for the promise that I would help protect them and teach them to fight for themselves. After I taught them how to defend themselves, we managed to fight them off and kill a lot of them. We soon figured out that the human-looking things that seemed to mostly attack at night had been vampires, and the wolf creatures that had been attacking us had been werewolves. None of us had any idea what had happened; all we knew was that suddenly our worst nightmares and things from horror movies were out and were attacking humans as they pleased. We all guessed that was the reason there had been an alert to stay indoors.

One night, the group had moved on to the next safe zone, and I had been left with the duty of gathering the last useful things together to take to the new safe zone. I'd been careless, and a vampire had gotten into the building we'd been using and caught me off guard. As I'd turned around to fight it, the vampire ran at me and knocked me into the wall, making me drop my dagger. I was winded and pretty sure I'd broken a rib or two with the pain I was in. The vampire had asked me where my master was. I had no idea who he was talking about, and when he finally mentioned Liam's name, I finally understood that this vampire had thought I'd actually meant something to Liam. I tried to correct him and tell him that in all the time this chaos and madness had been going on, I'd not heard a single word from Liam, so he was either dead or thought I was dead; either way, he didn't care. I hadn't managed to convince the vampire, and it shoved me into the wall again so hard that I blacked out, which leads me to my current regrettable situation. That situation being that the vampire that had knocked me out had decided to kidnap me and had decided to chain me up in some old abandoned house... That was where that story was going, and this story is just beginning.