• The End

    tab I had been working with George a week and had gotten nowhere. All I could find was descriptions upon descriptions of those missing. There were more than a thousand files describing those gone. I worked diligently the entire time, some times more than eight hours a day. During George’s absences, which were most of the day, I had opened every drawer in his desk, looked in every nook and cranny to find no information. There was however countless pictures, wanted posters, bags of chips and beef jerky. George had walked in as I was looking in one of his folders. He pretended he didn’t notice, but more and more people filtered through his office to borrow this and that, or just to walk by. I figured he suspected me. I should try to come in at night, I thought to myself as the twentieth person came in to borrow the tape. My plan disintegrated when George spoke to me later that morning as he stapled some papers.
    tab “You look oddly familiar. I have no idea where I’ve seen you before though. It’s like Déjà vu, it’s infuriating,” there his face changed slightly, as if he were trying to remember something long since forgotten, that was when he left. I knew it was time to leave. Today would have to be my last day. I would need to move to a quiet small town, perhaps. Small towns were a good place for investigating. The people there never missed a thing.
    At two George came in and asked if I wanted to eat lunch with him. After telling him countless times that I had other engagements, he convinced me to come with him. I shook slightly as we walked along in the cloudy streets, he seemed perfectly at ease, even happy. There was something on his mind, but I dared not ask. I wasn’t entirely sure that this was a smart idea. Today he had dawned on his black attire again instead of the usual brown pants and white shirt he wore at the office. He was the man in black once more, which sent tremors of fear down my spine. He took me to a nice restaurant, not too fancy but still better than fast food. We small talked while we waited on food. He asked me about my favorite books and movies and whether or not I had been watching the news lately. He even commented on the weather and how he wished it would actually rain instead of all the cloudiness.
    tab After about ten minutes of mindless chatter, the food came. I had ordered spaghetti with meat sauce while he got a hamburger. As soon as I placed the first bite of spaghetti in my mouth he hit me with the real reason why he brought me here.
    tab “I know you’re Jessica Riddle,” he said quietly, waiting patiently for me to stop choking, “it was all too easy. After catching you snooping around, I knew something was up. I told my men to watch the security cameras outside the salons in case you changed your identity. We got you on the cameras walking into the salon and coming out like this. You got guts kid I’ll give you that. Now why in the world would you come straight to us when you knew it will be the death of you?” he asked, never raising his voice above a silent whisper though I could catch every word. They dripped with a malice he had concealed the entire time I had known him. I stared into his hate filled eyes and realized that there was no escape.
    tab “I’m not telling you anything,” I said, his face contorted with anger, growing redder, “I know something’s up and I’m going to find out the answers and there’s nothing you or anybody else can do about it,” I whispered, trying to sound as malicious and dangerous as he did. There was an angry grunt across from me. I saw him jump up, and throw a large bill on the table before he grabbed my arm roughly and dragged me out of the shocked restaurant. I was lucky to grab my purse before he took me out. I fumbled in it to make sure that the gun was in there. I had loaded it this morning. Always be prepared, I had told myself as I put six rounds in the gun, clicking the safety on.
    tab He headed for a long, deserted alley way and threw me into the wall, making sure the scene was completely obscured by a dirty Dumpster. Pain overshadowed my fear when my head came into contact with the wall. My vision blurred and stars came into sight as I slid down into the trash. I hoped I would still be able to aim my gun, because miraculously, my purse was lying a foot away. I tried to reach towards it, but the man in black got to me first. He pulled his gun out and cocked it against my head freezing me into place with my arm outstretched.
    tab “You want answers? I’ll give you answers. I’m sick and tired of this crap!” I reach my hand into my purse, “I don’t know why the government suddenly decided to have a conscious and try to kill all you guys without getting their hands dirty. Trying to get you to kill yourselves so nobody could be blamed. Whatever happened to the good old days when you could just plain murder somebody, no questions asked?” I find the gun and turn the safety off, “Now with forensic science it’s impossible to get anybody killed without the blame coming back to you. Well, I’ll just have to take my chances with you. I wish I could kill you and everybody like you myself. I hate every single one of you,” I slowly begin to pull the gun out of the purse, never taking my eyes off his, they were blazing with madness, “Completely pointless idealists who want to be different, who want to be special. All of you ruin the system. This country only works if everybody does what they’re told and obeys orders. You and people like you are a nuisance and obsolete. See ya in hell kid,” I fire the gun before he can finish his last word. He fell silently, a bullet in his head. He hit the ground. The man in black was dead.


    Double Agent

    tab I brought myself slowly to my feet, unsure of what to do. I turned my eyes from the lifeless body before me, blood leaking out of his head. His face was in shock and his eyes were still open, gazing into nothing. The scar was not visible, making his face more innocent. It was as if his malice was flowing out with the blood. I slipped the gun into the back of my jeans, sure that I would need it again. It was then that a voice sounded at the entrance of the alleyway.
    tab “Jessica? What are you doing? Where’s…? Wait… Is that? Is he dead? What happened?” I turned, there was surprise and alarm in Richard’s eyes. His concern for the man was almost as if he had known him for years. I could utter no sound as I turned to face him; there were some things that you just could not explain in words. I couldn’t even begin to marvel at how he found me here, or what he was doing in this dirty alley. As time marched on and I still hadn’t said a word, his face changed as realization hit.
    tab “You shot him,” he said pointing his finger, condemning me. I couldn’t respond, my mouth opened and closed a few times, but no words came out, “Did he tell you anything?” he asked pulling a hand through his hair. He was no longer in a constant state of motion, he was surer of himself, which was slightly unnerving in the present situation.
    tab “He told me everything,” I said breathless. Richard’s face contorted in anger, though I had no idea why, “he told me about the government trying to make people commit suicide. It didn’t make any sense. But I won’t give in, I’m not committing suicide. The government is just going to have to kill me themselves.”
    tab “That’s the idea,” he pulled out a gun from behind his back and pointed it at me. I barely had time to blink before my doom was staring me in the face.
    tab “What are you doing?” I asked, taking a step back. His eyes were empty, they held no pity.
    tab “Taking care of you. I told them not to let George deal with this, he’s too emotional. It would be easier if I just handled you myself. But they wouldn’t listen. They never do. They thought you would never do anything illegal or dangerous, no matter how much I inspired you. So they just took me off the case and put George back on. Idiots. If they went with my plan you would be dead or rotting in prison and George might still be alive. I’ll just have to kill you myself,” he said cocking his gun and taking a step forward. I was in shock. I swayed dangerously as my former crush moved closer. I still couldn’t believe this. Everybody was turning on me.
    tab “Why are you doing this? I thought we were friends,” I whispered at him. I wanted to shout as loud as possible, maybe even throw something, but my body was not responding. I was pressed against the wall, and a hard object pressed uncomfortably against my back. The gun was still there. I reached my hand slowly back as I kept my eyes on the traitor. He caught my movement.
    tab “I know you still have a gun on you, so throw it on the ground now,” he said, not taking his eyes off mine, and never lowering his gun, “We were never friends,” he added. It was as if he had already shot me without even knowing it, my heart felt like it had cracked. It was then that I knew there was not a chance of me getting out of here alive, might as well take a traitor with me. I smiled slightly, adrenaline and instincts taking over.
    tab “Goodbye,” I whispered yanking the gun out and firing a shot. Then another. My arm was still raised after the sound from the two shots had left my eardrums, I heard a body hit the ground. I realized after a minute that my eyes were still closed. I opened them to find Richard on the ground, a gun shot in his chest. He was still alive. His eyes were wide and he was staring at me in shock. He reached a hand out towards me, and I went down on my knees to take it. It was then that I realized that my stomach was in immense pain. I looked down and my shirt was covered in blood. My blood. A shot had gone through my stomach, leaving a wreck of pain behind it and it was no shot of mine. I looked at Richard, his fired gun was still in his hand.
    tab “I’m sorry,” he said, and then his hand went limp in mine. It fell from my hand and landed on his chest, never to be moved again.
    tab “I loved you,” I told him, not that it mattered, he would never know. My breath quickened and tears flooded my eyes. I was a killer. Sirens echoed in the distance. I had to get out of here. I stood up, throwing my gun down beside Richard. George and Richard’s blood mingled together in the alley. It looked as if they had shot each other, maybe that’s what the government would tell everybody. I took one more look at the bodies before I hobbled away.


    Caterpillars and Oceans

    tab I wasn’t sure where I would go; I just knew I had to leave. The blood was flowing slowly from my wound. I had no medical supplies, so I just put my hand on top of it, hoping to hide it from people passing by. I had lost so much blood already… so much blood. My brain was ready to quit. It was my heart that was doing all the work. There was something left, I had to do it before I left this world. As I ran, I passed people, some even offered help. I could accept no help. If I went to the hospital and survived this, I would have to answer for the two deaths, and I was already on the government’s hit list just for being alive. There was no other option. The government wanted me dead, and I wasn’t going to give them any satisfaction through my death. I would die doing what I always wanted to do. I was going to try to swim to Europe. There was nothing stopping me. No father and no limits. Not even death. Though I wished I could have seen the sun just one more time.
    tab I found the beach easily, I had memorized the route since I was five, it was a ten minute walk from my house, and an even shorter one from where I was. I ran across the beach, tripping over the sand and almost falling over when the pain became unbearable. I could do this, I told myself as I struggled along the scarcely populated beach. People were staring, but I didn’t care, who cared what people thought when you would never see them again.
    tab I ran into the ocean. The waves drenched my clothes and skin in seconds. The salty water filled my nose and mouth. I had always loved the smell of the ocean. When I was bored I would close my eyes and image I was at the ocean. I would spread my arms out, and feel the cool breeze rush past. If I was going to die, the ocean was the only place I could die in peace. As I was going over my memories, wave after wave washed over me and I could no longer feel the bottom. There was no turning back. I had never been a good swimmer, but I gave it my all. The loss of blood and the pain were taking a toll on me. I was weak and I began to sink. As oxygen leaked out of my lungs my thoughts wandered. My parents. My mother’s death. The two men lying dead in an alley. Richard’s face before he died. Climbing trees and playing with bugs. The poor caterpillars. Only at the end did I realize my cruelty at preventing them from reaching their life’s purpose by becoming beautiful butterflies. My tears were lost in the ocean as I drifted away. I looked up one last time to see the sun break through the clouds and even under the water I could see its radiance, I closed my eyes. I was free at last.


    Epilogue

    tab “So she’s dead right Phil?” the young man asked. Phil nodded, looking at the screen that showed a motionless body floating in the ocean. There was already a team on their way to extract her.
    tab “She killed herself, though I wish she hadn’t killed George and Richard in the process. They will be missed. However, if it weren’t for them, she might still be out there, running amuck,” he said, his voice flooding the room, a trait that the young man had always found annoying. He turned his eyes to the other screen that depicted a man in all black and a man with glasses behind a dumpster lying in a pool of blood.
    tab “Should we contact her family, bring them back? I’m sure they are tired of being at that resort by now. It’s pointless to retain them any longer,” the young man said. He pulled a sheet of paper out, looking over a full description of the Riddle family.
    tab “Yes, make sure we leave them a note telling them that she was killed in a car accident. We don’t want them to feel guilty,” Phil said, pulling out his phone and sending a text message to the letter department.
    tab “Good, now that that’s out of the way, we need to pick some new targets. There is a large number of nuisances still out there that need to be taken care of. One man has even started a website listing conspiracy theories, though you need a password to get into the site. If he’s not taken care of soon the people might start suspecting us, and it’s not good for people to doubt their government. The man’s pretty close to his family, so he probably won’t last long. He’s also an artist, so that shortens his time quite a bit, those kinds are rather over dramatic and do these kinds of things without provocation on many accounts,” the young man said, confident in his system. The older man nodded in agreement.
    tab An old woman, whose face was almost completely covered in wrinkles walked in the door and told Phil that they had recovered the body and that the other six people that had attended the meeting had been taken care of in an unfortunate accident with a gas explosion in one of their secret meetings. Phil thanked her before he turned back to the work ahead of him, he was in complete debt to that wrinkled old woman, she had saved his neck many a time.
    tab Their work was almost done, Phil thought to himself as he allowed the young man to finish the arrangements. The Jessica Riddle incident was regrettable, but irrelevant on the whole. It was for those very situations, the ones who would not take their own lives, that they sent in people like Richard. He was good at inspiring people. His cold grey eyes could convince any one to do anything. He was invaluable, but replaceable, as was everybody. Taking out the few times Richard and other inspirers had to intervene, they had succeeded more often than failed. People were weak without a support system behind them. They were also susceptible to guilt and would believe anything they were told as long as science backed it up. Of course there wasn’t a virus that made people disappear. It was bluntly stated in the law of the conservation of mass that matter could not be created or destroyed. People never paid attention in physics.
    tab Phil smiled. It would all be over soon. It wouldn’t be long before the world was rid of idealists and people who thought they could change everything with their brilliant plans. They would all be dead, and by their own hand too. The world could move forward in peace.