Assassin's Girl

MERMAID?

Mermaid.

Her words rung in my mind. 'Only one word, Madame. Mermaid.' Out of all the names I had imagined in my mind, she told me it was a mermaid. A f*****g mermaid. I paid her an amount of seventy two thousand freaking euros to just hear the name of a half animal, which does not even exist. I curled my fingers in a fist as I glared at the woman in front of me. She took another drag, looking at me, observing my reaction and I could feel my insides burning in rage. She thinks all of these is a damn joke.

"Are you f*****g me right now?" I growled and she simply rose her brows at my outburst, not really affected by it. "I paid you a complete seventy two thousand euros and you tell me that it's a freaking fish who killed Zara Larsson?"

She laughed, gripping her knees as tears rolled down her eyes and I felt dumb. She looked up at me, still laughing as she shook her head.

"Oh, Madame. I told you, Zara Larsson is the biggest complication. And you actually thought a freaking fish killed her....... Oh my God." She again started laughing but I was no where no amused.

"Then who is Mermaid?" I asked and she smiled, her lips curling in a dark smile.

"You paid me to know about Zara Larsson, Madame. Those seventy two thousand euros you paid me were for her, not for the Mermaid. Pay me another ninety thousand euros and I'll tell you everything I know about them."

This woman!

"This isn't fair! I paid you for Zara Larsson and this mermaid is related to her. You can't leave me hanging in between!" She tilted her head, taking another drag of her cigarette before she looked at me with the same amusement before she clicked her tongue.

"I am not hanging you in between, Madame, pay me the amount and I'll tell you about them too."

"I—I don't have more money." I confessed and she went silent for a while before she sighed as she took a step forward, her finger suddenly stroking my face and I took a step back, not liking her touch on me, especially from what she had told me just a few minutes ago. 'I wished to abduct Zara Larsson.'

"You're beautiful, Madame. A little fierce and wild but still appetising." What am I a food? "But not even your beauty can get me to reveal the highest bidded information, free of cost. We're done for today, formally but we can still spend some time, informally."

I suddenly felt nauseated and I jerked out of her hold, taking a step back as I glared at her. If only I had the liberty enough to kill her, I would've. But killing an information seller would attract too much of limelight, I so wanted to stay away from. I closed my eyes to get rid of the anger and disgust that crawled my skin. And she again let out a laughter, taking a step back.

"Don't worry, Madame, I won't force you. I hope to see you again with a hundred thousand euros though. And hopefully we could spend some time together too. You're...... different."

I ignored her last statement and rose my brows at her.

"A hundred thousand euros? But wasn't the price of Mermaid— a ninety thousand euros?" I asked and she smiled yet again.

"Mermaid is...... well, the new talk of the market. With every passing day, the price of his information increases. So come as early as possible, Madame. I'll be waiting for you, beautiful lady." I rolled my eyes at her. She was so freaking greedy.

"Insatiable lady." I muttered under my breath and she simply chuckled, and somewhere I knew this wasn't our last meet. We were meant to meet again to get information about the mermaid who had made the plan of killing me. Who were they? What were their intentions in killing me? Who were involved in mermaid? Were they just one or were they many? I didn't knew. I wanted to know. And for that I had to earn more money and that meant I had to blackmail Benjamin to get me some more money.

And it was time I paid visit to Carter.

~~~~~

I was cooking us some pasta when Lucian Matthew walked in. His clothes dirty and had blood splattered on his jeans as he walked inside, his hair disheveled and as soon as he looked at me, a malicious and cruel smile graced on his lips. I rolled my eyes as I stirred the sauces and spices before I poured the pasta into the veggies and the rich smell of the barely called supper flooded my nostrils and my mouth watered. I dipped a finger inside the sauce and tasted it before licking my lips clean. Tasty.

"I never thought you'd cook for us without arguing with me." His deep voice said from behind me and I gripped the slab at how close he stood to me. I could feel his breath on me. I pushed my glasses up and turned around, narrowing my gaze at him.

"I was hungry. No need to flatter yourself, it has nothing to do with you." He smiled, snorting out through his nose as he rose his left brow at me.

"Oh, is it? Because from what I am seeing, you were stalking me. Who knew, maybe you are trying to impress

me with all the cooking and charms?" I snorted at his huge assumptions, laughing at his absurd thoughts. Me trying to impress Matthew? Must be the last day of my life.

"Great thought, Matthew. But I am not yet dying to repent all my sins by trying to impress you." He laughed and for the first time it held no malice and I looked at him in disbelief at how beautiful he looked at the moment. His genuine laughter made something to twist inside my abdomen and I didn't knew what it was. But it made my heart to beat loudly.

"Oh, sweetheart, your pupils are dilating again. Don't repent yours sins now. Don't fall for me, now." I blinked back in surprise before I rolled my eyes, smiling slyly at him. Love was no more in my life now. Who knew who would betray me next.

"Don't worry, sweetheart, I don't fall for things that worth even less than a dollar." I said with a sweet smile and his jaw clenched in anger as he grabbed the hem of my shirt and pulled me towards him. His midnight eyes glaring into my grey ones as his lips curled in a snarl.

"Do not test me, Elina Green. Or maybe the next headline would be your merciless death." He threatened me and he looked dead serious. A shiver passed down my spine. It wasn't a normal person threatening to kill me but an assassin who takes money to kill people. And the blood on his jeans and shirt made him look even more deadly.

"Why waste your time in killing a girl who has no bidders, Mathew? Or have your business getting slow now?" I mocked him and he left the hem of my shirt, snorting as he pointed towards his clothes.

"I kill people every day, Green. You are new into this business and I— I have lost the number of crimes I have committed. And one more murder won't make me look any bad than I already am."

His words always ignited a spark of curiousity inside me. Would he really kill me? If I continue irritating him, would he kill me too? And somewhere the answer only made me sad. He was an assassin. His only work was to kill people and yet every day, when he threatens to kill me, I wish him not to. I was no special to him. Neither was Zara Larsson and nor would be Elina Green. Then why every time he says things like this, my heart aches.

Am I just born to be hated? Will no one ever care for me? All the questions bubbled inside my chest and made it ache. I had suddenly lost all my fierceness and went silent. I didn't revert back, nor did I glared at him. And he somewhere felt the change in my mood because all his anger suddenly flushed down as he gazed at me with a tender emotion. Though it lasted hardly for a second before pushed me back and walked inside his room before slamming the door behind him.

I closed my eyes, swallowing down the emotions that wanted to be let out. I shook my head and turned the stove off and covered the pot with it's lid and sat on the sofa, losing all of my appetite in one conversation. I opened my laptop and started logging in before I broke into my system. I needed to make sure things that woman told me were right. And I started to read each and every data I processed. Everything was same. Like nobody had counterfeited with it. But just when I thought, she was lying I found a folder named same as the one I read in the starting. I quickly opened it and my eyes widened in shock.

It had a report of me that claimed I was suffering from the mental disorder. That I was a sociopath. And much to my astonishment, it had my signatures on it. The reports also claimed that I was diagnosed with the same and that I had been medicated for about six months. f*****g bullshit! I never went to a psychiatrist. I was never diagnosed with any such medications. And as I scrolled down, my shock only widened.

Zara Larsson. Age: Eighteen. Suffering from Bipolar Multiple Personality Disorder. Diagnosed for Three years.

And I suddenly couldn't breathe. Everything was a lie. Me being a sociopath and bipolar were lies. A sham! I never realized how people saw Zara Larsson. They never saw me as a normal human being but as a sociopath. As a bipolar person. They always thought that Zara Larsson was sick when in reality I was no where a sociopath. My fingers curled in a fist, around my laptop and I felt everything inside me twisting painfully. Everything felt a lie. Everything was a lie. My whole life had become a joke in front of people.

"Are you obsessed with Zara Larsson or something?" Matthew's voice rung from behind with a dark amusement lacing his tone as he peaked inside my laptop. I felt my insides numbing as I sat there, not reacting.

"I am starting to think that....." He started as he walked in front of me but trailed off when he saw my red and teary eyes.

I was no bipolar.

I wasn't a sociopath.

I rose my eyes to meet his midnight eyes. He had now taken a shower and had changed into an grey t-shirt and an old pair of sweats. His hair were a damp as a strand of them fell on his forehead. And I suddenly didn't care that he was an assassin or that he had been payed for killing me; or that he might be my murderer. I had forgotten all of that. I felt too broken to remember things now. My broken pieces pierced down my heart, bleeding my soul out.

"Do you also believe that I— Zara Larsson was a bipolar? That she was a sociopath?" I asked softly, timidly and something changed in his eyes. An emotion I had not seen in a very long time. An emotion that made my insides to quiver. He opened his mouth to speak something but then he closed it not saying anything for a long time.

The clouds roared outside and rain started pouring down mercilessly. His eyes shifted towards the window before he walked to close them. I sat there, quietly, not saying anything further. Tears brimmed my eyes but I never let them fall as I stared at the space where once Matthew stood.

"I never knew her, Green. I heard of her? Yes. I saw her? Yes. But I knew her? No. She was like that rose of the garden which attracted everyone but not everyone got to know her. She was the only one the town kept talking of. For everyone, Zara Larsson was and still is a sociopath. A bipolar person who has multiple personalities. But all the secrets and the truth of her life and death buried with her, burnt with her in that fire."

I swallowed down, looking at him as his words made my insides to cry pitifully. His face had softened, something I never saw before. I rubbed my fingers against the sleeves of my sweatshirt, the scar on my hand suddenly started aching.

"You didn't kill her." I said and he snorted out.

"Are you asking me or you're telling me." He asked again and I looked at him, pulling my lower lip inside as I shook my head.

"You didn't kill her. You're the Lucian Matthew, known for killing people. But you never did your deeds in groups. You didn't kill her. Then why lie about it?" I asked and he didn't speak anything. The silence reigned amid us for a long time before he spoke, this time a little curtly.

"The dinner's getting cold. And looks like we'll run out of electricity too."

"I am not hungry." I said and his jaw clenched.

"Remember when I made you cook again for yourself, Green?" He asked and I nodded slowly, sniffing as I pulled my knees closer to my chest. I remember that day very well. "If I can make you cook again, I can feed you too."

I gulped as the Elina Green inside me had slipped down and Zara Larsson had surfaced.

"Why?" I asked softly and he kept looking at me intensely as if something was still going inside his head.

"Because I don't like people sleeping hungry."