Shadow Demon Pt. 06

Sarah looked at her mask. That brute had slapped her mask off in a single strike tonight. She flexed the mask in her hands a couple times, considering it. Perhaps the plastic material of the mask was too rigid. A silicon version would form to her face better, and hopefully not fly off if someone struck it.

Sarah placed the mask in a drawer under the cloths rack, making a mental note to order a silicon version tomorrow. Then she grabbed one of the cellphones off the desk beside the clothes rack and dialed her agent.

When Sarah became aware of the Collective of Assassins, she decided it best to work through an agent instead of representing herself, personally.

The Collective was born from a need for immunity from the repercussions of successful assassinations. As crime became more cutthroat within Winsome Bay, the use of assassin's and hitmen became the standard tools of crime lords. Soon an issue arose when successful assassinations made one or more factions angry and itching to retaliate. Although, if the faction did not want to risk a war with another faction, they instead focused their frustrations on the assassin responsible. Freelance assassins found that the risk for completing a job was becoming too high, so the top assassins, in a sense, unionized. Thus, the Collective of Assassins was born. The Collective offered unbiased acceptance of any assassination contract to the factions, and the promise of retaliation and protection for the assassins, if they should find themselves targeted by the factions.

The phone rang somewhere between four or six times before her agent, Isabel picked up.

"H-hello?" Isabel asked tentatively.

Isabel had a healthy fear of Sarah. Sure, Isabel was a smart girl and could be brave in the face of the crime lords and other assassins during contract negotiations, but what made Sarah scarier than everyone else, was the fact that Isabel had seen a glimpse of Sarah's shadow form. It had been a slip up on Sarah's part. During meetings with Isabel, Sarah would stay in her shadow form under a hooded robe. Her shadow form disguised her voice, and made sure Isobel had no means of discovering Sarah's identity, but one night the wind caught her hood just right and blew the fabric from her face. When the fabric blew from Sarah's face, Isabel got a glimpse of the glowing snake-like red eyes of Sarah's shadow form. Isabel never mentioned it, but Sarah could tell that the sight spooked Isabel. Ever since then, the girl always had a bit of a quiver to her voice when she spoke to Sarah.

"Good morning Isabel. I am claiming the contract on Crackle. Let the contractor know and send the money to account 8273910." Sarah said politely. Her voice likely sounded distorted and ominous to Isabel from the cell phone's voice changer.

"Yes, Dabria. I will attend to it immediately." Said Isabel quickly.

Dabria was the alias Sarah gave herself within the Collective. It didn't necessarily sound very ominous, but Endo told her it was the name of the angel of death, which Sarah found fitting.

"Thank you, Isabel." Sarah said, then ended the call.

Sarah put the phone back and walked out of the room, being sure to secure the mirrored entrance back in place behind her.

Showering for a solid twenty minutes, Sarah basked in the hot water. She was more than happy to finally rinse out the crusted blood and remanence of the white paint from her hair. After she finished, she dried herself, which seemed a chore, as the exhaustion in her body was starting to set in. When she opened the bathroom door the steam trapped inside with her rush out into the bedroom in a thick white cloud.

Sarah shut off all the lights, and jumped onto her bed, her face landing on a pillow that had a faint smell of lavender. The embrace of the comfy bed felt amazing; the blankets so soft. She put her hands under the pillow and prepared for sleep to take her, not bothering to cover her naked form that lay above the covers.