Snippet #1920218

Aerith rolled over onto her belly as she watched the man smile, the smirk stretching across his face like an invading army; slightly unnerving her as she stared up at him with eyes reflecting familiarity, knowing exactly how the lone assassin was feeling. Hunting, for any killer at least, provided the defining moments for those who partook in it. Chasing a clever target, the pitter patter of fleeing feet, the soft stab into the target's belly; all of these things provided her, and many other hunters, with an inhuman sense of sheer delight. She knew it was wrong, yes, but she couldn't help but enjoy her practice and all of it's trappings. It scared her a bit as well though, the depravity that she now knew like a sibling. Maybe she was never meant to be a normal girl, but it bothered her still, winding down into the shattered remnants of her soul, tearing at them like a beast and it's wounded prey.

"--Te'i Sai is my target."

She could've expected as much; it was only logical to hunt his hunters, ignoring the incomparable danger that it presented. They were a league of killers with too much authority, trained from infancy to slaughter indiscriminately; their hands soaked in blood at ages that she inspired her sub-conscience to delve into memory banks best left untouched. Killing off the Te'i Sai also presented a political angle as well, depriving the greedy aristocrats of their favored "guardian angels".

"And what will you do after that?"

It almost felt inappropriate to ask, but she was too tired to care. She looked down at the ground again as she attempted to conjure up something more relevant, with very little coming to mind.

"Or, I guess--"

She paused briefly, as she often did, before continuing, raising her eyes back up to look at him as she resumed her questioning.

"--i guess I mean: Will you give up on being an assassin, give up on your life? Or will you find some other cause to devote yourself to? I'm sure that you have many enemies, and so will you hunt them as well?"

That sounded right, but only just so. Why was it so hard to ask him questions? Was it his reputation? His crimson eyes? His smile--Her thoughts dispersed as she looked up through a dirty window facing the night sky, the moon shining through; her face the canvas for the heavens. It was a captivating beauty, one that was irreplaceable and unique. It always amazed her, nature's majesty, it's pure, near-unadulterated existence tarnished only by humanities attempt to mimic it. She spoke aloud as she stared, almost completely losing her train of thought.

"I've never seen anything that amazes me more than that." She said, pointing up through the frame and at the stars. "To think that such a thing exists--"

She snapped her mind back into attention. Maybe it was that she was injured, but she felt extremely exposed at that moment; staring into the endless expanse of the sky. It was pointless to recognize beauty, a shallow thing that could only bring harm. Beauty could maim, shatter, destroy, deprive, kill... She knew that, but still...it drew her in like a moth to a fire.

"I wish that...I wish that--"

But she couldn't finish. Knowing herself, she'd never be able to finish that sentence, not in a million years. She had no right to wish, not now...

...and not then either.