• That day was just like any other day to her. She went to work for an unappreciative boss. She worked three hours later than she was required in order to finish the work the others had missed, skipping lunch and leaving far past dinner. On her way home she stopped at her parents. Her father was drunk like usual. He screamed profanities at her mother as he threw empty bottles against the wall. It didn’t really matter. This wasn’t anything she hadn’t seen a hundred times before.
    After eating a cold meal and helping her mother clean up the broken glass she set on her trip to her apartment. She avoided the landlord on her way up the stairs. She couldn’t pay the rent. She didn’t have the money, and she wasn’t going too any time in the near future. She put her key into the lock and with a great heave she pushed open the door into her apartment.
    It wasn’t much. It fact it wasn’t anything. It was a four-walled box, decorated with gray walls and broken down furniture. It looked like a dump and smelled worse but it was home, and in those four drab cell walls was the most important thing in her life, the only good thing that had ever happened to her.
    He was tall and thin with brown hair and green eyes, a normal looking man in his mid twenties but to her he was a god. He was an angel that had fallen from heaven and right into the hell that was her life, the one that made her suffering worth it. And most of all he loved her. Loved her with all his heart. This sweet, caring, beautiful man had given his heart to her, someone plain and ugly, and someone who didn’t deserve his love. But she had it and she was glad for it, for him.
    When she walked into the room he was already getting ready to leave. While she worked days he worked nights so the time they spent together was priceless. He saw her reflection in the mirror where he was combing his hair and immediately brightened. He went to her and held her in his arms for a moment, for that was all he could spare before he had to leave. They were both working as hard as they could. They hoped that in a few short years they would have the money to get married, move and start a new life. That was their dream, a dream they were both working hard to accomplish. A dream that she was willing to do anything to get, even kill.
    She heard the door shut and his footsteps fade. When she was sure he was gone she quickly slid out the window and onto the fire escape before she snuck down two flights. She came to a dark window, a heavy drape preventing any light to escape through the glass. She leaned down and tapped on the pain gently three times. The window opened a few inches and a case slipped out with an envelope on top. She knew what was in both.
    The case contained a gun, the envelope a location and a target. The job was simple. Go to the address, kill the target, collect the paycheck. There were no names involved. She knew the target would be alone which prevented any confusion. She didn’t want to know who these people were. She didn’t want to know if they were sons or daughters, mothers or fathers, husbands or wives. She knew if she did she wouldn’t be able to go through with it.
    She lifted the lid of the case, and took out the weapon inside, griping it tightly. She could remember the first time she had held it; the first time she had used it. Every time her skin touched the metal, she could hear the scream of the child that had been in the next room, and smell the blood of the politician that she had just gunned down. Since then she had done everything she could to purge herself of the guilt she had felt. With each job more of the woman she had once been left, until she saw her reasonless killing as just a job. A job she could do, for him.
    She put the gun back and opened the envelope. There was only one tonight. Apparently some big shot wanted to get rid of some poor office boy who knew too much.
    She couldn’t help but grin at the description, big men would pay a lot to keep their secrets safe. The job would be easy; the client would get the target to the location where he would become a sitting duck. All she had to do was pull the trigger and collect.
    The location wasn’t far from her apartment. It was on the twenty-forth floor of a cheap hotel in her area, room 241. Getting there wasn’t hard. In fifteen minutes she was in the building and in twenty she was in room 242. She had to be quick so she stealthily went out the window. She climbed along the wall till she came to the next room. Breaking open the window without a sound was quick and easy work. She slunk like a cat into the room and then into the hall of the suite. Her target was somewhat clear now. She saw the man. She couldn’t tell what he looked like but she didn’t care. She raised the gun and then…
    The job was done. One pull of the trigger and he went down, a bullet embedded deep in his skull. No one beside herself would know about it until morning, if anyone cared. Halfway to the window something struck her. She had to see the victim’s face, she didn’t know why, but some force compelled her to look. She turned and walked back to the body. The man was face down on the ground, blood soaking the grimy carpet below him. She reached out and touched him; the body was still warm. She had to see. See the face of the man that she had killed, just this once. She slowly turned the body over and gazed upon his face.
    It was a face she knew. A face she knew better than any other, even her own. A face that she had spent hours memorizing as she gazed upon it as he slept. A face that she loved more than life itself. The face of someone that she had been working so hard for, sacrificing everything to make a life with. They had been so close. But now…now he was dead, and she had killed him. Her life was insignificant now, utterly worthless without him. There was only one choice for her now, a choice she made for him.
    The next morning the hotel was flooded with police after a maid reported the dead male body in room 241. They found him face up on the bloodstained carpet, the gun that had killed hi at his feet. It wasn’t until three hours later that they found another body. The corpse of a woman twenty-four floors below, whose head had been smashed in on the pavement. It didn’t really matter. This wasn’t anything they hadn’t seen a hundred times before.