Chapter 5: A Spark of Light
The city always looked different at night. Neon signs flickered like dying stars, and the streets hummed with the steady, lifeless pulse of a world that never truly slept. Lia moved through it like a ghost, blending with the shadows, every step precise and silent. Another mission. Another name. Another life she would have to take.
It should've felt normal by now. But it didn't.
Her earpiece crackled. "Target confirmed. Move in."
Raiden's voice, sharp as ever, rang in her ear. She acknowledged with a click of the earpiece, her fingers tightening around the concealed knife at her side. The mark was a middle-aged man, known only to her as a name and a face on a grainy photo. There was no reason and No details. It was just a job. A job which has a mission, a mission that must be fulfilled. That's how it always was.
But something inside her had changed since that first kill. The guilt had never left. It clung to her, an invisible stain she could never wash off. Like an invisible chain, tying her down. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the faces, the faces of those who she had killed, their bodies which were lifeless because of her. Every time she drew her blade, her hands felt heavier. Heavier with the blood that stained her hands. It grew heavier as she kill.
Her body felt heavier and heavier as she continued to kill. Her guilt, regret grew day by day.
She didn't want to accept what she had became.
And then it happened.
As she moved down a side street toward her mark's usual route, a burst of laughter reached her ears. A small, bright sound in a world of grey.
Lia paused.
Across the street, a narrow park sat between two buildings — a small, fenced-in space with rusting swings and an old slide. The kind of place most people passed without a second glance. But there, under the flickering glow of a broken streetlamp, a group of children played.
She watched them, hidden in the shadows.
There were four of them. A girl with tangled hair chasing a boy with scraped knees. A toddler clumsily wobbling after a ball. And a boy sitting on the swings, staring up at the night sky like it was the beautiful scenery one could ever watch.
Lia's breath hitched.
For a moment, the weight of her world cracked open. She could hear the faint echo of her own laughter, from a life which was long gone — the life in orphanage, the orphanage's courtyard, rain falling in thin silver strands, the feeling of mud between her toes and the rough warmth of the children and people around her.
She blinked, and it was gone.
The city was still dark. The mission was still waiting. But the image of those children clung to her mind like a spark of light, in this cruel darkness.
They don't belong in this world, she thought. Not in this world. Not in mine.
Raiden's voice cut through her moment. "What's your status, Lia?"
She swallowed hard, tearing her eyes away from the park.
"Moving in," she replied.
But her hand shook.
And for the first time in years, she felt afraid — not of failure, not of punishment, but of herself. Of what she'd become. Of how easily she could slip between shadows, how quickly she could make a life disappear. She thought of those kids, how easily one of them could be like her, taken and reshaped into a weapon.
Her stomach twisted.
This has to end.
No more children should suffer like her—like them. They should live happily with their friends, family.
The words formed unbidden in her head. A plan, not a rebellion yet — just A refusal. A refusal to accept it.
The Little courage in her heart which had sprouted long ago was ignited, ignited by this little spark.This was the first crack in the walls of her heart which, The Order had built around her heart.
The mission ended as they always did. The man never saw her coming. And he died.
But when Lia returned to the compound, the park still lingered in her memory, and so did the faces of those children. And for the first time since her first kill, Lia lay awake in her cot, but this time, she was not haunted by the dead — but by the living.
The thought of those little childrens who were laughing happily, those who had a family, friends, people who love them. They were also someone, who could be taken by The Order and be reshaped as a weapon.
She didn't want this. She didn't want other children's life to be like her, to be a killer.
She thought what was she living for? Who was she living for? Why she tried so hard to survive? Just to live killing like this. No, now she realised that it didn't matter what she wouldn't do this.
She now had a goal — a clear goal to destroy this place. To destroy this organisation — The Order.
A little spark ignited her.
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End of chapter 5.
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