DANGEROUSLY BEAUTIFUL

THE ASSASSIN

BY J. MINAYA

I answer his call for the fourth time this week, and for the fourth time, I do the one thing I’ve never done in my entire career.

“Did you find her?” he asks, causing me to lift my eyes towards the woman sitting a few rows ahead of me in the public bus. This woman is young— too young— and elegant, with a sense of wealth that contradicts her daily decision to ride the bus. The yellow flared dress she’s wearing is immaculate and well pressed, very much like the white scarf that’s holding back her shining, golden locks.

“No, sir,” I lie, yet, again. “I’m still working on it.”

“I thought you were the best of your kind,” he fires back. His tone is now uninviting and quite angry. “What’s the problem?”

“There’s no problem,” I assure him. “I’ll have the job done by the end of today.”

“Good... Just keep me posted,” he demands. The tone in his voice is now much calmer but still annoyed, nevertheless. “And Jack,” he calls out once again. “Don’t disappoint me. I don’t deal very well with disappointments.”

“Yes, sir.” I finish and end the call as a loud FUCK resonates in the back of my head.

How am I supposed to do this? How am I supposed to kill her when she looks so innocent? Perhaps her beauty has clouded my judgment, and I lost track of my mission. Or maybe the lack of evil I see in her is making me second guess my next step. Still, I must get the job done, or the next body inside a casket will be my own.

As the bus comes to a stop and the doors open up, I glance at her once again. The woman comes to her feet and flashes the bus driver the same friendly smile as always. The older gentleman driving the bus smiles right back and waves his hand goodbye. At that moment, I notice the red bag on her seat and rush towards it.

“Hey, miss! Your bag!” I call out, but the woman doesn’t listen. She continues climbing off the bus before she begins strolling down the sidewalk. In an attempt to catch up to her, I rush out of the bus with her bag in my hand. “Hey! You left your bag!” I yell once again, causing her to glance back over her shoulder and meet my gaze. Her deep blue eyes are big and fearless.

And for a brief moment, I saw it. I saw the danger I’d never seen on her.

Lifting the purse, I say, “You forgot this is the bus.”

The woman doesn’t say a word back. Instead, she stares at me in silence, then turns away and continues trotting across the street.

At that moment, a powerful engine catches my attention, and in the split of a second, I find myself running towards her. The red Mustang coming down the block is picking up speed as it comes straight for her. So I move faster and tackle her to the ground just in time before she gets run over. The Mustang doesn’t stop or slow down. It just continues driving past us as if it was purposely trying to hit her.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

“Get off me!” she screams and shoves my shoulder, making me pull myself away and come to my feet.

“Okay! I just wanted to help!” I shout back and put my hand up in surrender. “Here... Let get you up” Moving slowly, I offer my hand to help her stand, but she swats it away from her.

“I don’t need your help,” she says and gets up on her own. “Who are you, and why are you following me?”

My lips fall open as I’m about to answer her question, but a bullet hits a car near us, making me yell, “Get down!” as I pull her hand and force her to crouch.

“Oh, my God!” She screams and scowls back at me. “Who the hell are you?”

“My name is Jack.” I reach for the gun inside my jacket and peek around the corner. “I’m an assassin.”

“An assassin!” she shouts, making me glance over for a brief moment before looking back towards the end of the sidewalk. A man dressed in black is now walking our way while searching behind every parked car for the same woman I’m now protecting. “Are you going to kill me?” she questions.

Looking back into her innocent eyes, I let out a deep sigh and nod my head. “I am... but not right now. Right now, I’m on your side.”

“Good... Because I’m not easy to kill.” Reaching beneath her skirt, she pulls out the handgun strapped onto her thigh and gets back on her feet. “Hey asshole!” she yells at the man on the sidewalk and flashes him a naughty smirk. “Go to hell.” She smirks and shoots him right between the eyes.