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"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." —Lamentations 3:22-23
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"VERMIN, good work again today!" she said in her usual cheerful voice to the man beside her. They were on one of the tallest rooftops of a famous building in their city as their work was set in that place.
Vermin was a guy who had been with her since she was sixteen. They joined the organization together and around the same age, which was why they got closer compared to others as well. Aside from that, Vermin and her were the youngest people of the group, which was the reason why the older members only treated them as teens in their rebellious phases in the past.
Well, she didn't know about Vermin but the work in the organization had become her main source of income for many years after she stopped studying for a while when her adoptive grandmother died from a heart failure before she became a teacher.
She didn't know Vermin personally so she was not really sure about his situation at home but as it was seen, she was just a poor orphan with a dream of being a nursery teacher in the past before she joined the group.
Vermin was just a codename that she knew as he never told her anything about his private life outside the work. Whenever there was a job for two people, they always did it together since they were sixteen. It was either they would steal something or they would kill a personality that was put on the job requests; they might be either a criminal, politicians, underworld bosses and even actresses who were involved with rich yet married old men.
At night, she would be Lantana, the seductress of stupid men and a killer. Whenever her side job was done, she would be just the simple yet gorgeous teacher named Brianna Gomez, the name that was given by her late grandmother which she really liked since she never had a name in the orphanage.
"You've done your job flawlessly again, too," he replied.
What he meant was her job of stealing an important file from a clueless high-ranking official after she seduced him earlier. While Vermin, on the other hand, his work was to silence the target which he had done perfectly.
Not that she was weak. In fact, she could do what he could, too. Whenever she worked alone, she would do all things from start to finish. Just that, when the job was by pair, she would just really let him do the killing since it was really troublesome for her.
"Lantana..."
"Hmm?"
All of a sudden, his cold voice captured the woman's attention, leaving her with no choice as she turned to him in reflex. Vermin, who stood not too far away from her, still had his sniper rifle hanging around his shoulder.
Lantana's eyebrows furrowed as he slowly walked to her direction.
Her eyes slowly roamed in panic because of his sudden change in attitude until their eyes finally met. He looked at her with his piercing cinnamon eyes, and just like his voice, they were blossoming with coldness. They reflected uncanny emotions that she wouldn't like to name.
"Lantana…" he said, as if whispering in the wind.
And as he stopped in front of her, the cheerfulness and the excitement that throbbed inside her because of her successful mission that night felt as if they were robbed by something wicked.
She didn't know if he felt how the carefree expression on her face changed since she was wearing a whole-body black suit that covered every part of her body which only left her eyes free but she immediately sensed a kind of danger that her body was instinctively telling her to avoid.
"I no longer wish to live in silence. This time, I want you to know my feelings…" Her eyes grew in terror as he slowly kneeled on the ground and pulled a box from his pocket.
With a hopeful pair of eyes, he looked at her as he opened the box—which revealed a golden ring with a large diamond stone shaped in a heart.
"I have loved you for a long time now. Will you spend the rest of your life with me?"
Her mind went blank at the sudden turn of her night. She treated Vermin as her dear friend, although they only interacted within the organization or in every of their jobs together. She hardly knew anything about him but she definitely knew that he was a dangerous person! He was one of the organization's top killers—even better than her. He was also an assassin like her, but there was always an ominous aura around him that would make people feel creeped out once they felt in, and that was what she was feeling that moment.
She didn't want to die, but she also didn't want to be with a psychopath like him, although she was a sucker for romance. Who would be willing to accept such an imbecile offer anyway? Definitely not her!
But hell! How was she supposed to reject him when words no longer wanted to escape from her traitorous mouth?
"H-Hey… Why are you looking at me like that?" His voice that cracked pulled her out of her hysteria.
"I'm sorry…" she said indirectly, although her life was already in danger.
Well, she guessed she lived enough already. Aside from that, there was no relationship left with her anyway that would wait for her to go back home, so it was not like there was still a really big reason for her to live.
She was just living because she was still alive despite her dangerous job, and she didn't want to kill herself either.
The only reason she didn't want to die earlier was because she hadn't experienced romance yet but maybe she was really destined to be an old maid until death so she would just accept that fate instead of having to live with a scheming assassin with the eyes of an obsessive psychopath.
She didn't even know how that guy fell for her when she didn't even do anything excessive towards him. Like, duh, did she unintentionally send him mixed signals? She didn't think so. She was not the type of person to mix business with pleasure, so she would never really associate herself with any of the members of the organization romantically. Uh, just imagining the conflict it would bring to her if she was in a relationship with someone from the group and they ever fought or broke up—no thanks.
"Are you planning to reject me?" he said slowly with a cracking voice.
The corners of his eyes immediately formed a sparkly liquid very familiar to her. Because the night that day had a brighter moonlight, it was reflected in the guy's eyes. Compared to the scary person that he was, that night, he had the look of a kid who got his favorite toy stolen that would cry any moment.
Soon after, he looked down as his shoulders went up and down.
She thought that he was trying to hide his tears. However, in a quick movement, he lifted his head again, which showed his full face that she only saw at that deadly moment.
He didn't look bad, but he was also not her type. For someone like her who had a mountainous standard—who only wanted the best—the guy's face was just average.
A few seconds passed by and his pale lips pursed and trembled as if he was trying to suppress a laughter before he looked at her with his eyes that were earlier about to cry yet were at that moment, smiling as it flickered with an intense killing intent.
She tried to take a few steps back to avoid the danger in front of her but to no avail, he immediately took a few steps towards her until the only thing left behind her was the edge of the rooftop with metal railings that were only in a height reaching her stomach. One push, and it was a straight kill.
Once she was pushed there, she would definitely die. Well, anyway, she would rather die. She just really wished that the guy wouldn't keep her body with him. That was just too freaky. He seemed a little too insane like some of the guys in the novels she had read before, so he might just really do that but—oh, please! Before she knew it, she was already praying to the god she never really believed in.
'Oh, please, if there's a God, please, never let the psychopath succeed in taking my body. That's my only wish before dying. I know I'm a sinner, a killer, a liar, and a thief. My attitude is definitely not good. But please! Have mercy on me!' After praying like that, would someone even listen to her?
Hah! It was just really too bad that she didn't experience other things in life aside from her daily routine, especially falling in love. Her grandmother used to tell her that it was nice to fall in love. She always hoped inside her, wanting to experience what her grandmother had experienced, too, but well, it was really the end.
"Lantana, if you're not going to be mine, then no other person is allowed to be with you! I have loved you with all my heart, yet you're just going to toss it away like trash?! I've been very patient with you for the past ten years, yet this is all that I'll get in return?!"
"I never asked anything from you, so don't try to slap that on my face. Hah! Well, whatever I say, I'm sure I'll still be killed, so I'll just reject your proposal. Come on, kill me right now," she taunted though she was trembling.
He gritted his teeth as the veins around his forehead almost popped in anger because of her words.
"You should be happy that you'll die from the hands of the only person who loves you the most. You should die if you can't be with me! No one can have you if I can't!"
As Vermin's angered voice thundered, a silent bang echoed through the peaceful night where she thought she was victorious, piercing through the air and immediately went straight to her chest that entered her heart painfully, breaking the silence of the night.
However, it seems like he wasn't satisfied yet, and another bullet pierced her body like a needle going through various types of fabric. The next bullet pierced her forehead. Then, she felt a large amount of blood lump on her lungs as she vomited it subconsciously.
A bitter smile arose on her lips upon realizing that what her partner used to kill her was the same thing he used to kill their target for that day.
Feeling near to her end, she closed her eyes as she bitterly accepted the fact that she would never have a boyfriend anymore.
'However, Vermin, there's one thing you're wrong. You're not the person who loved me the most. It's only my grandmother and not you, who probably thought of me like an object during those years we've been together. Hah! I guess this is a goodbye. If ever there is hell, I hope I'll never see you again.' She thought deep inside as her eyes slowly closed.