Elsie
Frank smiled at me. I couldn’t help but feel the comfort from it, as I always had.
“Here we are,” I whispered.
My heart was going wild, the dominance of a man that had taught me everything I knew stood before me with his three blades, twirling them in his fingers.
“I can’t say I’m not disappointed, Elsie.”
I nodded, agreeing with him. “Me too, Frank.”
“And, so, it comes to this.”
“To this,” I echoed.
I watched his every move, anticipating every single thought in his head. It was ironic, the man I was about to fight would use every move I would, he would think every thought I would, and he would put as much of himself into this as I would. And, by rights, that’s exactly how it should be.
There would only be one left breathing at the end. And, both our lives would change from this one last fight together.
“You were the perfect student, Elsie.” His smile was still wide, filled with a reverence he always displayed when he was talking about my training. “You were the toughest Weapon, nothing fazed you, and you kept going until every skill was mastered.”
“You’ll be pleased to know, before you die,” I grinned with pride. “That I finally learned to control my heartbeat.”
His grin was blinding, the whiteness of his teeth, always garnering my attention. “See, I always said it would come when you needed it the most.”
Sadness had seeped into me since I’d woken on Frank’s own couch that morning, my body already aching from the blast. He’d surprised me, how he allowed me my fight. I wasn’t sure if it was arrogance on his part, thinking I was foolish, but he conceded and instead of giving me a quick and painless death, he approved my request for combat. Most probably hoping that he could make it as agonising as possible, and that I deserved every bit of it.
I refused to think about Euan; the worry would be a disability when I needed to be completely focused.
I couldn’t help but feel I was also standing here, fighting a man that I loved for him too. And, yes, I’ll admit to loving Frank, and not because it had been cultivated in me, but because I genuinely loved him. He had been my family, along with my Sisters, for the majority of my life. Apart from the gruelling training, he’d nurtured every one of us into who we were today. And, I would forever respect him for that.
However, there was one thing that had been recurrently bothering me over the last few days.
Frank, his ability to read me, asked, “What is it, Elsie. If you need to ask something, now is the time to do it, or you’ll take it to the grave with you and forever wonder.”
“It’s not so much of a question,” I muttered, “More a thought.”
He nodded, allowing me my moment.
“That night, all those years ago.”
Knowing I referred to the evening he took me, he answered, “Yes.”
“You said to me that I’d never be alone again.”
He looked puzzled, the wrinkles around his eyes deepening with the intensity of his frown. “You never were alone again.”
I chewed on my bottom lip, musing over his statement, attempting to come to the same conclusion as Frank had. “But I was,” I stated honestly. “We all were, Frank. Every single one of us who have come through your front door as a child. You took us away from our families, families you professed to be dead. You took us away from our mothers and fathers, our brothers and sisters. You took our childhood, and you made your own family. Was it loneliness, is that why?”
He snorted, my question amusing him. However, I saw the way his eyes flicked to the side as he tried to hide the truth from me.
“Or, perhaps, it was just selfishness and greed?”
He moved to the side, and I could feel the kick of adrenaline to my heart with the movement. I was goading him, angering him. He was battling with one of the rules he’d always drilled into us.
‘Whatever, whatever, you never allow your adversary any influence over your emotions. You’re a weapon; you don’t have emotion!’
And here he was, allowing my disgust to offend him.
“I know you paid us all well, Frank, we never wanted for anything. However, I have to wonder just how much you gained from us all over the years. Is that all it was? Fucking money?”
He looked shocked for a moment, but then he smiled. “I taught you well.”
“You did,” I agreed. “That’s how I can read every thought in your head, through your eyes. I see the way your pupils flickered when I asked if it was loneliness. But then I saw the truth at my question about money. What exactly did you want from all of us, Frank? All four hundred and eight of us that have come and died, or have come and fought. What did you want?”
Smiling genuinely at my question, he looked me straight in the eyes. “Power, Elsie. Surely, you’ve worked that out by now. Money is just physical; loneliness is emotional. But having that power over someone’s every breathing moment is formidable. It doesn’t feed the emotions, or the pocket for that matter, it feeds the blood, how your heart beats, and how your brain alters into something magnificent.”
Sadness crept over me, and I shook my head in disappointment.
“You were willing to give me your last breath, Elsie. I called for your death, and you were accepting of it, agreeable even. Can you imagine having that power over another human being?”
“I can,” I nodded in acknowledgement. “But it doesn’t mean I’d want it. You told us all that the people we executed were deserving of it, bad people. Now I have to face the fact that I may have taken the lives of so many innocent people. And I will have to live with that for the rest of my life.”
“Maybe, God will have mercy and not give you long enough to think about it, Elsie.”
I chuckled, sighing at his boldness.
“I always knew you’d change my life, Elsie. The moment you were born, I watched your mother and father raise you into this… This remarkable, energetic child. You’d fall and get back up again. One time, when you were around three, you broke your arm on the swings in the park. You never shed one tear, at three years old! You were simply incredible, your inner strength stunning to see. I had to have you!”
Now he was winning, goading me and drawing emotions from every angle.
Taking a deep breath, I calmed my soul and sent it away to where it belonged, with Euan.
The icy wrath that I relied on never let me down, and each fibre of me that it spread through began to twist with brutality and a thirst for violence.
“There she is,” Frank murmured, just before he flicked the first of his knives.
I dodged it so easily I wondered if he’d lost his touch.
“You can do better than that, Frank. Don’t be soft on me.”
He pursed his lips, “If I were to go soft on anyone, it definitely wouldn’t be you, Elsie.”
“Good.”
I strolled around the room, slowly conserving my energy for the fun part, as Frank consciously waited for his best move.
“Don’t be boring, Frank. At least allow me some fun.”
“You want fun?” he asked, and when I nodded eagerly, he laughed. “Okay, let’s do this like professionals.”
I frowned, misinterpreting him, until he held up a hand, telling me to hold on a minute.
Clicking his fingers, the door to the training room opened, and two of the girls walked in, each with a samurai.
My heart squealed in delight at the sight of mine, the one I had stolen from Peter’s office. It was like she had been made for me, moulded specifically for the palm of my hand as I took her from Hilary.
“She was made for you,” Frank divulged, once again reading my thoughts.
“What?” I huffed out in astonishment.
He grinned. “Peter knew exactly what you would become, Elsie. He had that made for you many years ago. He was just waiting to find you.” His laugh angered me. “You were so easy to manipulate. So easy. Peter had been an adversary of mine for so many problematic fucking years. He was too high-profile just to take out. Yet, a whisper here, a word there, a lie or two, and there you were, at your fucking best. You were the ultimate Weapon, Elsie. The way you made your way through his house, obliterating everything that dared get in your way was fucking righteous, like God shone down on you. And I gave you that title, just to take out Peter O’Keefe and end the stupid reign he had over everything.”
“Jealousy?” I scoffed. “You were fucking jealous of him?”
“Not jealous as such.” He shrugged, totally casual about every truth that came from him.
Something occurred to me, and I stumbled back in shock. “You planted that file about the prime minister’s husband and the sale of a slave, didn’t you? You made sure my mother found it!”
“Sometimes you always were as stupid as your mum. I’m surprised it took you this long to realise.”
“She ran because you made her scared of her own father. Why?”
He held out his hands as if I should have already figured it out. “You, Elsie Grey. You. I knew your father would crumble after your mother left, it was just a matter of time. I needed you to be grateful for my intervention. I needed you to trust me.”
“To worship you, you mean!”
“You have grown into a dangerous Weapon, as I knew you would. I wouldn’t have ever allowed you to pass by.”
“Jesus Christ!” I breathed out, my heart stampeding and restricting my lungs from oxygen.
Give him that, Frank knew how to play the game. My shock impeded my senses and, at the last second, I jumped back, out of the line of his swing.
He grinned, a great big dirty grin that he’d never allowed me to witness before. A master of manipulation, always hiding the truth, even who he genuinely was from us all.
I hissed when the edge of his blade slashed through my upper arm. Not like this. I wouldn’t allow it.
Shutting off my mind, I refused to allow him any more control. It was time for the real me, not the monstrosity that Frank Reynolds had created.
There was one thing I had over him. I had fallen in love. And that in itself gave me the extra fuel to do this, the extra reason to come out of this breathing. I wanted a life.
And it was time to fight for it.
Some more girls had slipped through the door, watching in awe the battle of their Master and his best Weapon. I knew I had to do this for them too.
“May the best Weapon win,” I bowed my head slightly.
Foolish cunt.
He actually thought my attention was elsewhere, just because I bowed.
Swinging widely, I ducked and sliced straight across his shins as the whole of his blade skimmed over the top of my head.
He spun around, unfazed by the deep gash in his legs, and brought the samurai back through the air.
I moved around, dodging strike after strike. He was old, and that fact didn’t go unnoticed when I noticed him start to tire.
Still, I allowed him a few swipes, some catching me off-guard, but others mainly to watch the exhaustion take over his old body.
I was agile, he was cruel, the two brought a good fight, and I had to admit I was as proud of my tutor as he was his student.
Sweat dripped from me the more I leapt and bobbed out of the way. However, bit by bit I carved him up, the strength in my few strikes superior to his many weakened quick attacks.
Blood splattered the tired, run-down brick walls, and I couldn’t help but feel saddened by the fact that I would never once again fight in this very room.
If I won – if – then I would smile through every brick that would be pulled down. This place wasn’t a home; it was a prison, a building that would hold so many ghosts in the future if I didn’t stop it. It was up to me to free those ghosts.
He stumbled back when the samurai glided across his chest, opening up the flesh that protected the chunk of stone that lived in there. The wall at his back broke his fall when I drew the blade across his stomach. His legs buckled when I lightly carved into the side of his thighs.
But he pushed himself upright and stood before me, awaiting his death.
“May you find your peace, Frank,” I whispered. “The end isn’t just delivered from me, but from every single Weapon that you have forced to fire your bullets. From every single mother and father that you’ve taken their precious child from, and finally, from my own mother. Let’s pray, that now you’re gone, she can finally stop running, be happy, and fall in love without fear.”
He bowed his head, knowing it was over. “As I said, I always knew you’d change my life, Elsie.”
I laughed coldly. “No, Frank. I’m not changing it. I’m ending it.”
One of the girls squealed when I brought the samurai down in the centre of Frank’s head, and split him in two.
He always did have two personalities. And I set each free to be themselves in hell.
It wasn’t until I collapsed to the floor that I noticed Tehni and Ebony race over to me. It wasn’t until I saw the soft, relieved smile of Euan Sinclair bend towards me that I finally allowed the restful sleep to consume me.