1.01: Mission Impossible

Love is a bunch of bullshit, a scheme to make the world spend billions every year on chocolates and flowers and little red pillow hearts. It’s even got an entire day devoted to it — Valentines Day.

However, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t the one thing my dreams have revolved around since I was a little girl — since well before my life started looking up.

I’ve always wanted what my mother never had. Being able to wake up next to somebody every morning who makes my heart flutter, sitting next to somebody at breakfast who makes me smile and laugh and dries my tears, standing by the one who reminds me it’s okay to be weak sometimes…

It’s so stupid to dream about such nonsense. I mean, who am I kidding? Why even try to find something I can never have? Who could possibly love a criminal like me? Only the creator knows just how much blood I’ve shed to even keep myself alive, let alone get where I am now. And creator help them if they ever lose their way and end up on my target list.

It’s just the cost of the game I play, I guess. I can have anything I want — anything, except for love. In this game, rules are meant to be broken, and there are no winners — only those who either live with the guilt of what they’ve done or those who got caught in the process.

This wasn’t where I imagined my life to end up when I was a little kid. Of course, who plans for their loving, doting parent to abandon them in a freak accident and leave them with absolutely nothing and nowhere to turn? Writing was fun, but it didn’t pay the bills, and nobody would hire a child — not even to do their dirty work.

That’s where they stepped in. Aside from writing, I had a knack for snatching things under people’s noses, and they’d be none the wiser until their precious items were halfway across the world and the sales locked away.

I was nine years old, and the golden flowers looked pretty. While the adults were drinking, I picked up a flower and tucked into my hair. I thought nobody noticed, but of course, one pair of eyes caught me. Instead of lecturing me and telling me to put it back, they simply smiled and motioned for me to follow them outside.

Next thing I knew, I was out of that pathetic orphanage and raking in the cash doing little odd jobs for some powerful people in the town. I was working for faces that showed up in every single magazine and crossed the television numerous times.

Come to find out, my parents were big in the business, and must have passed more than just their looks. Just like them, I can swipe a heavily guarded possession and have it halfway across the world before anybody notices it gone. I can take out a person without leaving a single trace, and have been known to do so on many occassions. I can make the biggest of messes and still not be caught with any blood under my nails.

Maybe that’s why I was chosen to go across the world and take out the most well known group of criminals on their home turf, alone, with nothing more than a mini refresher of everything I knew about Germany.

Willow creek was starting to get boring anyways, but my only problem with this was the lack of information I was given. “Take down Scarlet Thorns. Training starts tomorrow, and you leave in three days. You have one year after that. Don’t disappoint me.”

Not only was Roderick my German trainer, but he also graciously agreed to become my informant on this mission. Normally, I’d have no problem doing the research on my own, but it might look a little suspicious if the new girl in town started trying to dig up dirt on the Scarlet Thorns. That’s when questions start popping up.

It took a while, but eventually Roderick managed to find something on the Scarlet Thorns. Every time they attack, they leave one person alive — somebody to explain why everybody else is dead. Out of dozens of known attacks, there was only one case that stood out.

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There was an open-invite party going on that night, but below ground in the basement, there was an auction being held — one that was highly illegal. All it took was one little tip for the Scarlet Thorns to show up.

Of course, the guests of the party were none the wiser as the Scarlet Thorns made their way into the basement and killed the guests. However, when the police arrived, there were no survivors, only two bodies unaccounted for — Thomas Bemix and Evelyne Marones.

After that, there was not three, but four members of the Scarlet Thorns spotted at each attack. Not only that, but Thomas had been spotted several times in random locations looking… Different. But he was unable to be found, no trace left behind and no schedule to his random appearances. Evelyne, however, was nowhere to be found.

There’s only one person who could help me solve this mystery, and that would be Thomas’s dear sister, Sarah Bemix. The only problem is that it’s nearly impossible to get in contact with her. Nearly.

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I bet you’re now wondering who I am. My name is Paige Wilkins, aspiring author and undercover mastermind. I’m meant to break the strongest of hearts with the mere stroke of a pen while neutralizing any and all threats to my boss. It’s all in a day’s work.

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Previously | Index | Next Time
Extras | Beginning