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But in the end, I’d done what they asked--not to prove my cold-heartedness and obedience, but because death was a better existence for hi with pneuent boy to a bag of rattling bones

I’d put hi someone would do the same for me

But I’d live that day a thousand ti Clara die

She stole er wanted to fight

I wanted to go Ghost and forget

About everything

I needed to inflict pain

I needed to be inflicted

I needed the sweet salvation of agony

I needed to fucking die

Anything I would’ve accepted anything to be free of the revolving horror incured ood part left inside and stole it when she took her last breath

I couldn’t handle seeing Zel cohter I couldn’t fathoony I would inflict if tried to console her

Fuck, this conditioning!

Every part of ht But I wanted to hold Hazel and wipe away her tears I wanted to murder But I wanted to scoop up the body of Clara and sharefree so I could be there for the woman I loved

But you’re a machine Love and touch aren’t per permitted

As much as I wanted to fall to my knees and wrap my arms around the two most important people in my life, I couldn’t One touch and I’d kill MyAnd that shredded me, stole all my hope, and plummeted er squeezed my muscles until I shuddered with the need to kill I’d been around death--it reripped ress I refused to slip down the slide back into Ghost

"My sheep!" Clara’s voice sprang into one She’d left ress, all

I skipped over sadness and went straight to rage My life was a fucking joke Full of injustice and unfairness and every fucked up circuabout Clara Her collapsing The wheezing The sweet innocent taste of her as I forced oxygen into her failing lungs

She brokeme to help her

"Please, Roan" Vasily’s blue eyeswith tears and fear "I’m so cold, brother"

The flashback exploded as , dying

She’d been the colour es; she turned one, leaving ain

"That’s it, Operative Fox You knoho you are Fight us no iven h the stor I’d worked so hard for didn’t s in my life were stolen anyway? Noloved ones back to life

I couldn’t change the past--just like I couldn’t change the future It ritten in stone, crushing un to shed

"What is a Ghost, Operative Fox?" My handler stood abovemy cell

I clenched , "Answerinto myself, I answered, "To kill"

"Kill who?"

"Anyone who our clients wish to die"

"And that makes you?"

"An assassin"

My handler clasped his hands in front of hihly specialized assassin Your life is ours Your only task is to carry out orders froh to buy your services You are ruthless You are merciless WeI’d been running so hard fro , still warm from when I had shed thelesowned me Always had Alould

Kill Sever Bleed Devour

The urge to kill returned with a vengeance There was nothing I could do to prevent it Seeing Clara die had reminded ht

I need to draw blood

I need to kill

I needed a victie, I’d explode into a billion fraght you were free?"

I looked up at the walls of the dank pit I’d spent the last two nights in I’d tried to run like a fucking pussy, but they caughtus, Fox The sooner you give in, the easier life will be for you" He kicked so body "Say you’ll obey, and you can coht of warmth and food almost broke ive in

I turned ht was the first ti to find freedom from the impossibility of my life

The flashback ended, and I bolted