It was nearing the end of fall. All the leaves had fallen and covered the ground in a blanket of color. As I drove down the dirt road everything was silent. Nothing stirred or rustled this night. It was almost as if the forest was holding its breath. The bare trees that towered overhead were enough to scare any sane person out of their mind, day or night. Not me though. To me, this meant home and safety were that much closer, but tonight was different. It wasn't the forest that was causing my hair to stand up on the back of my neck though, it was the fact that everyone was silent. Normally I liked the quiet, but Ivy and Ellie hadn't said a word the whole way home and that wasn't normal. Hopefully it was just the fact that they were tired, or maybe they felt the stillness too and didn't like it.
The job Jed asked us to do was successful. Everything had gone smoothly just as it always did. Ivy and Ellie preferred to do the behind the scenes work as usual. They dug up the dirt, found the location, and handed me the picture. I never minded getting my hands dirty. The girls always came in the car just for back up. There were never any kinks that needed to be smoothed out, they always did a thorough job, but one can never be too careful in these cases.
It was about 11:30pm when we pulled up in front of the house. As I stepped out of the car I felt how icy the air was as it burned my lungs, and pulled my coat tightly around me. Ivy and Ellie walked up to the darkened door and I followed. Ellie unlocked the door and we all stepped inside. "Jed, were back" Ivy said. There was no answer. "Jed?" Ivy called. She walked into the study where he usually waited for us to come home. She came back out with a worried look on her face. "He's not in there," she whispered wonderingly. Ivy and Ellie stood by each other and looked at me expectantly. "Jed?" I called. Again no answer, maybe he was somewhere remote. "JED!" I yelled. No reply.
"Stay in the study, lock the doors and don't come out until I come back." I instructed, "If I don't come back in about thirty minutes, take the car and leave." Nodding their heads vigorously, they walked swiftly into the study and locked the door. They knew what this meant and they were prepared for it. I pulled my gun out of my belt and cautiously began to make my way to the hall. Everyone had been expecting something like this to happen. When your profession is to kill innocent people for money, people get angry. There was no doubt in my mind that some friend or relative of a victim finally traced something back here and came in revenge. I always thought one of us would be recognized on the street and shot or something, but I never expected the person to go after Jed.
As I was thoroughly checking the rooms, I realized how fast my heart was pounding. It seemed to be taking over all thoughts and senses. Calm yourself Kathryn. If you lose your head everyone will be a goner. Your not afraid, just anxious. Taking a deep breath I continued with my search. Swiftly I kicked each door open, checked the place out with my gun in hand, and then moved on to the next room. Nothing, not a single soul or any evidence of one ever being there that shouldn't. As I approached the last room in our small home, Jed's room, a bad feeling washed over me. It was too silent. If Jed was in there......
I kicked the door open and stepped inside. I secured the closet and bathroom and turned to the rest of the room. I froze. I couldn't stop staring. Kathryn cut it out, your still in danger! But no matter how hard I tried I was rooted to the spot, staring with a blank, emotionless face. There, sitting on Jed's bed, was Jed himself. With his back against the headboard, hands at his sides, and legs stretched out in front of him; he stared right back at me. Except something was wrong. Jed was dead. With his eyes wide open in fear and skin drained of all color, he stared at me, and I couldn't do anything but stare back. Move! Do something! But I couldn't. I wasn't afraid of the lifeless body, I had seen many before. What gave the chills was that Jed was afraid. Jed's number one rule was to never show any emotion. Who or what had been so terrible that he let down his guard and showed his fear? Still with a blank expression, I walked over to Jed's body and checked his pulse to be sure. Yep, he was gone, so I closed his eyes. It was then I realized that I wasn't sad or even angry over his death, and why should I be? He never showed any emotion towards us so we never really felt anything in return, except for respect. All of us respected him greatly. Ellie and Ivy would probably morn his death though. We should bury him tomorrow.
All of the sudden, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and I whipped around with my gun extended to face a man taller than me. His dark black hair was long and shaggy, and his cold blue eyes were like ice. He stood where he was and stared back at me with an expressionless face that mirrored my own. He had two friends standing behind him as well: one with spiked blonde haired and chocolate eyes, the other with shaggy brown hair and green eyes. The first man looked to be about 25 while the other two looked like they were closer to my age. All four of us were frozen in silence. There was something eerie and unnatural about them. "Who are you?" I questioned. The man with black hair answered, "I am Damien and this is Chris," the blonde guy nodded, "and Michael," and the brunette nodded. "Is this your handy work?" I asked, nodding my head to the body on my left. Damien nodded. "Why?" I questioned. I never broke the eye contact between Damien and I. I knew these men were dangerous, but hey, so was I. "Because he wouldn't give us what we wanted," he replied casually. I paused. "And what do you want?" This time he paused and seemed to be thinking about whether he would answer me or not. "We would like to stay here for an indefinite amount of time."
That didn't seem too unreasonable. I was smarter than to think that they just needed a place to crash. They were running from something, and were obviously willing to kill to stay in a secluded and isolated place such as this. "And what did he say?" once again nodding towards what once was Jed. "He tried to say no." Damien said with a smile. Jed said no, and he was dead. Of course I had a gun, but the look on Jeds face earlier told me that it wasn't going to make any difference. I might as well find out what would happen if I agreed. I nodded my head as I lowered my gun, "Okay, you can have this room." I made my way over to the door, "Leave Ellie, Ivy, and me alone. Don't disturb Jed's body, well bury it tomorrow, and if you ever make an attempt on your lives you'll wish you've never been born, got it?" Damien smirked and inclined his head to indicate that he had understood, and with that I closed the door.
I didn't trust them, I didn't like them, and I didn't want them living underneath this roof; but as it was, the only other option was death, and if I chose death they would still get our house in the end. All I needed to do was give them a room and maybe some food, but it's not like I need to talk to them or be pleasant to them. I didn't want anything to do with Jed's murders, but as long as we went unharmed, I wouldn't resist them staying here. Jeez, this is messed up. So I went to go tell Ellie and Ivy the news of our mentor's death, and of the new pests that would be intruding our home.
