Who Is the Real Monster? Part 3

“What the hell is going on?”

“Cassie-”

“Shut the fuck up, Jen! You're aiding a traitor, both of you have to die,” The gray-haired woman hollered.

“Traitor?”

“We can’t have any evidence,” The man stated coldly. He pulled the trigger but the gun clicked instead of the “pop.”

“When did you last clean that gun,” The gray-haired woman snapped

“About several months ago.”

“Damnit, Jordan.”

I do not know the man but I know the woman. She is Lynea Castor, leader of the Assassin’s Union. She is well-known for her short-temper and her drive to complete every mission. She did not care for policy but she stayed because of her connections to financiers.

I ran out of the house while they are distracted. One of the useful things that the organization gave me was great stamina. I do not turn back to look at my pursuer but I hear his steps. I pick up the pace running down the hill toward the river, I know where to swim so I did not get swept up in the tide. I dove in the river and swam as quickly as I could toward the other side. I look back when I reached the shore and see the man standing on the other side. I sigh in relief, he did not get much swimming training.

I ran into the trees and hear a loud popping followed by loud shrieks, I did not want to think about what happened. I feel a chill go through my body from my wet clothes and the dropping temperatures. I see some lights and I keep walking toward it to see a small gas station and a motel! I run across the road, double checking for any vehicles that may spring out. I am lucky to have cash in my pants pocket that will hopefully be enough for the hotel room . I walk up to the reception desk where a man with a receding hairline wearing a white shirt, a worn-down robe and pants was reading a porn magazine. I ring the little bell on the desk, the man looks up from his magazine and stands to greet me.

“What d’ya want?”

“I would like a room for the night.”

“It’s 95 dollars. Your name?”

I think about using my real name but reconsider it.

“Stacy Jones.”

The man raises an eyebrow, looks up to see my damp clothes but shrugs it off.

“Here, sweetheart. Have a good night,” the man says as he is handing me my room keys for a ‘209’, I give him the 95 dollars.

“Thank you, sir,” I reply and trot off to find the room I will be staying in.

I found the room on the second floor, and entered quickly so that no one could sneak up behind me. I quickly strip off my damp clothes and hop in the shower to warm myself up. The heat from the shower was what I needed most, especially from running all of those miles.

My head still swam with those last moments at the house, what me and Xavier did and at the cafe. It still confused me, what did I do besides watch an assassin die? I couldn’t help her since I was in the arms of our “enemy”, but it felt so good to be in those arms and when I danced with him. My stomach turned into knots, I needed to see him again even though my mind was telling me the opposite. I dry myself off after I have my fill of the hot water. I wash my clothes in the sink and leave them out on the small chairs in my room. I fell asleep very quickly when my head hit the pillow.

The next time I open my eyes, it is morning and I still feel groggy and exhausted. My body feels sore, this was possibly due to all the running, tripping, and swimming I did the night before. I rose slowly from my bed, checked to see if my clothes were at least dry enough to wear. They were not completely dry but it was less than an hour until check out and I had no time to wait so I rushed to get my clothes on, cringing at the dampness that still clung to my shirt. I grabbed whatever items I had including the room key and ran down the steps to the reception desk. I give the man my keys and with a quick wave of goodbye before heading out the door.

The sun beams down at me as I walk along the side of the road, hoping that I could get just one person to give me a ride to the nearest town. I carefully walk backwards with my thumb in the air until an SUV slowly stops close to me. I walk up to the vehicle and see that it is a family with a small child in a car seat.

“Hi, where do you need to go,” the woman gleams.

“Just the closest town, I am…trying to run from an abusive boyfriend.”

“Oh, honey I am so sorry. Get in the back.” The woman thumbs to the back seat. I quietly go in the back seat, making sure not to wake the baby. The man put the SUV into drive and back on the road, toward the closest town.

“How rude of us, My name is Gertrude, and this is Sam, my husband. That is our little one, Leonard.” Gertrude said, pointing to the baby.

“My name is Cassie.”

“It’s lovely to meet you, Cassie. So, just curious: Where is your family in all this?” Sam asks with a tone of concern.

“I..am not talking to my family very much. My boyfriend really ruined that relationship for me.”

“We are very sorry. We hope you find your people.” Gertrude lamented.

“Yeah, Gertrude used to be in a relationship like that too.”

“But I got out of there, thank god. We will help you in any way we can.” Gertrude says, reaching for my hand.

“Thank you,” I mumbled.

The sight of trees gives me a sense of calm but there is still that lingering feeling that someone is following me. I wish that I was that baby in the car seat. Sleeping soundly, not worrying about the outside world.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The blonde-haired man leads his hostages into the storage room where all the weapons and equipment were kept. The other assassins are picking through whatever they feel like taking and the other members of the Black Bears are on their knees with their hands behind their heads.

“You do not need all of our shit, you already get what you need from the pigs.” Xavier says sharply.

“Shut it, you damned thug,” The blonde-haired man shouts while hitting Xavier with the butt of his gun. Xavier falls to the floor, his ears ringing from the blow. He hears shouts of his name and orders to not move or they will all die where they are sitting. A ringtone echoes around the room and the blonde-haired man answers the phone.

“Hello? Ms Castor I- She ran? And Jen? Alright, understood. And these thugs? Understood.” He hangs up the phone. “Change of plans. We are taking all of these ruffians hostage. That bitch had escaped.”

The assassins grab everything they can find while the hostage takers lift their victims to a standing position. Xavier smirks to himself at the thought of Cassie escaping them so easily, a klutzy, anxiety-ridden wreck like her outsmarting them was the most hilarious thing he had heard in his life. He gives a low chuckle and one of the assassins, a tall bald man, must have noticed because he glares at Xavier and gives him a hard punch to the gut.

“What’s so damn funny?”

“You dumbasses let her escape, that’s what’s so funny,” Xavier coughs.

“We don’t wanna hear another damn peep out of you unless you are answering our questions!”

“But I was answering your question,” Xavier retorts.

“Enough, now get off your ass.” The bald man lifts Xavier to his feet and shoves him forward.

Xavier is blinded by the sun when he is led through the steel double-doors and into a large container with his crew. The assassin slams the doors shut and he hears the lock coming down. Xavier blinked to help his eyes adjust to the darkness but he cannot see his crew in the dark. Xavier falls backwards when the truck juts forward, almost hitting the door on the way down.

“Xav, you alright, man,” A voice he recognizes as Drew.

“I have a pounding headache but I am okay, Drew.”

“What are we going to do, boss? '' Another voice cries out. That one belongs to Charles.

“You will need to figure it out, I have a headache and I won’t be able to help when my own head won’t shut up,” Xavier grumbles, rubbing his forehead.

“Well, we have to figure out something otherwise those fuckers will take us all out like roaches,” Drew shuddered.

“But, Xav is usually the one to come up with a plan,” Rodney whispers.

“Well, he ain’t gonna be much help with a headache now, is he,” Charles snips.

The container goes dead-quiet as the group tries to come up with ways to get out of the truck but when it is made out of solid steel, there would be no other option but to wait.

“Wait, what happened to Bridget and Sasha,” Drew utters.

“I don’t know, hopefully they and Marcus are okay,” Xavier stated with worry in his tone.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Okay, Micro-dick, you are going to tell us where that bitch is,” The blonde-haired man circles around Marcus like a wolf on an injured deer.

“All I know is that Cassie, or who I believe to be Cassie, was at the same place that the other signal was.”

“And, how do you know this?”

“The trackers not only respond to the body temperature of those close by but they can also detect genetic similarities between the targets as well. The only thing the tracker knows is that the two other targets had the same genetic signature and that’s it.”

“A smart guy, such a shame that you aren’t building such technology for us. We have been watching you too for a while. Don’t look so surprised, we had cameras close to this building. Watching those that come and go from there.”

Marcus was really starting to sweat now. He thought that he at least steered clear of being detected but apparently that was not the case.

“Look, these guys helped me in my toughest time. They are not the people you think they are.”

“Don’t try to give me a sob story about how rough you had it!”

“It’s true! They are trying to help their community when no one else could, they give them everything they ne-”

Marcus couldn’t finish his sentence because the blonde-haired man punches Marcus on the side of the head. Marcus felt a sharp pain shoot through his head and his vision blurry as his glasses fell to the floor. An assassin was about to step on them when the blonde-haired man shouted. He grabbed them from the floor then put them on Marcus’ face.

“We can’t break his glasses, my friends. He will need them in order to help us and to build our little machines for us.”

“I won’t do that. I refuse to betray my friends like that.”

“Now, cut the crap! They got you all wrapped around their finger, especially that Xander bastard.”

“Xavier, his name is Xavier.”

“What-ever the fuck his name is. You are going to find Cassie or your little thug friends are going to meet their demise. Is that understood!?”

Marcus did not want his friends to die a horrible death, they were the only family he had because both of his parents died from an overdose a few years ago. The Black Bears made him feel safe and like someone who was being listened to for once in his life. He also did not want Cassie to be found, Xavier would want her safe and who knows what these assassins would do to her if they found her.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The SUV pulls up slowly to a mini-mart with a big green sign, and wide open windows. I get out of the SUV carefully and stretch my cramped limbs for a few moments. It had been a couple of hours since I got picked up by Gertrude and Sam, they were a lovely couple and I feel terrible about possibly putting them in danger. I take a quick scan of my surroundings for anyone who I might recognize and I don’t see anyone. I walk inside the mini-mart with Gertrude right behind me, wanting to get snacks and drinks while Sam takes baby Leonard to the washroom. I really want to get my own things and I look over the display and pick out a few frozen meals that I can eat for a few days.

“Hey Cassie, you don’t have to stop here. You can continue on the road with us. We are just on our way to my mom’s for a visit.”

“I really can’t, I would feel really bad if my ex was to find me with you. I would be putting you in danger”

“Oh, my mom would be able to handle someone like him.”

“You don’t understand, he is very dangerous. He has friends in really high places. They could be tracking me down right now.”

“Honey, don’t worry about it. Why would your ex do something like that?”

“Hey Trudy! Leo is all ready to go,” Sam calls out from the store door.

“Awesome, I got the snacks we wanted. Just gonna go and pay for them,” Gertrude turns to call back, Sam waves in affirmation and walks back to the SUV with Leonard in tow.

“Trudy, please. You are not safe with me,” I whispered.

Both Trudy and I walk toward the register with our items. I was going to pay for my food but Trudy insists on paying for it and I relent. We grab our bagged food and walk toward the SUV. I still have a sense of panic like there is someone watching us from afar and I couldn’t see them; the training that I received from the assassins was to know when someone is watching us.

“Cassie, come on. I am sure there is no one there,” Trudy shouts from the window.

I get into the vehicle and shut the door, Sam reverses from the parking spot and reaches the end of the driveway waiting for other vehicles to pass when I hear something pierce the windshield, and Sam suddenly lays limp in the driver seat. Trudy screams out Sam’s name, hoping that he would wake up from the bullet to the head. My mind races trying to figure out what happened but we have no time to think.

I jump to the front, hitting the gas pedal like a bug on a sidewalk, and quickly turn to the road, knowing that whoever shot Sam is going to pursue us. I put all of my focus on the road, trying to find roads or streets that will take us out of sight. I look at the rearview and see two women with sunglasses following closely behind us, I curse under my breath and skid to the left. All of this while Trudy was crying out of grief for her husband and Leonard crying in the back because of said commotion. It is difficult for me to come up with a plan with all this racket but I push through it for them. I finally find an exit out of the town and keep barreling down the road until the assassins give up. The highway, as it turns out, has a lot of people coming in and out of the town today.

“Okay, perfect.”

“Why is that “perfect.” Trudy tries to say through tears.

“Because we can lose them if we try to find a backroad.”

I swerve in between vehicles of various sizes while Trudy is grasping her seat for dear life; the assassins are not missing a beat either in our escape dance. I am getting even more frustrated with it all, they got even smarter since last time.

Off in the distance, I see a large valley approaching and a sign that indicates a campground close by. Without much thinking, I take the right into the campground, moving to and fro to avoid any campers that were passing through. I see a sign that points to a mountain path and I make that quick turn, not caring that the mountain path would be narrow as long as we lose the assassins. I know for a fact that the assassins are not outdoorsy people, the assassins only do city work. I keep driving until I see a gap in our path, it looks a bit far but I am going to risk it anyway. I was driving fast enough to avoid them but I pump the gas to maximum, praying to every available deity that we make the gap. The background noise is almost deafening and I scream even louder as I reach the end of it. The front of the car is able to reach the edge of the gap and we are about to fall backward due to the weight, but I quickly shift the gear to the front-wheel drive and we speed off after passing the gap. Not looking back at our pursuers until I look up again and see that it was dark outside, we are in some very dense forest.

Trudy tries to get some type of cell signal on her phone but no luck. Leonard has already exhausted himself from all the crying and is fast asleep. I looked down to check the gas tank and saw that we are one bar away from being empty. I try to scan the dark for any road that would take us out but nothing.

“Trudy, we are going to have to camp in this vehicle for the night.”

“But, my dead husband is in the car with us!”

“Good point,” I sigh.

I turned back and Sam’s corpse lay on the floor of the SUV. We have to find a funeral home for Sam and bury him but that could be for another hour and we do not have the gas for it.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sasha paces back and forth in an interrogation room in her trademark leather pants, gray sweater and 4 inch heels. She was captured by the assassins and separated from her boyfriend, Charles along with everyone else. She cannot not believe her luck, that stupid asshole Xavier had to go and get all googly-eyed for some clumsy girl and now they all had to look for her and get everyone into deep shit.

The only door finally swings open, and a man with dark-hair enters the room with a yellow coloured envelope and a clipboard.

“Hello, Sasha Benter?”

“Yeah, that’s me. What do you want?”

“I just want to ask you a couple of questions regarding your involvement with the Black Bears and Cassie.”

“Alright, shoot,” Sasha says as she sits down.

“Did you know the suspect, Cassie, before all of this?”

“No, I didn’t know her. She sounded like a worthless idiot, she almost got our boss killed while also trying to kill my boss. I couldn’t give a single damn about what happens to an assassin.”

The dark-haired man smirks at Sasha’s answer but keeps going.

“Were you aware that the Black Bears were distributing contraband to the elderly, children, and families?”

“That contraband, that you call it, is everything that the people need to stay alive. You fuckers and your social services don’t do shit for us. We are all dying out here but you wanna just sit around and come up with more ways to screw with us.”

“Calm down, Ms Benter. No need to get upset,” The man says with a raised hand.

“I am upset because you people dragged us into something that YOUR person did.”

“She assisted your friend in the murder of one of ours and now we need to put her to justice for the crime.”

“What the hell? She was thrown to the ground, how could she have been an accomplice?”

“That will be for us to decide but for now, I am the one asking the questions.”

“So why do you have me separated from everyone else?”

“It’s because we have discovered that both you and Cassie have something...in common.”

“What the hell do you mean by that?”

The dark-haired man grins at Sasha with full teeth, he leans forward.

“Cassie was friend’s with your sister, wasn’t she?”

“What?”

“Nina Benter, that was your sister?”

“Yeah, Nina was my sister. She got hit by a drunk driver. Why are you bringing this up?”

“Because the Cassie we are seeking, is the same Cassie that was friends with your sister. We may also have some evidence that points to Cassie being at the scene of your sister’s death.”

Sasha froze in her seat, she wondered what the hell is this guy trying to do. Sasha remembered that night, she was away with college friends in Puerto Rico when she got the call. She never really met Cassie but Nina would not shut up about her ever since they became friends. Nothing about this made sense, this guy is claiming that Cassie was there at Nina’s death but the police reports said that Cassie was not there.

“We were hoping that you can be of assistance to us during this investigation, more than answering a few questions.”

Sasha had nothing to lose after this, she did have questions as to how Nina got killed by that driver. Nina was always careful when out at night, and there were not many witnesses at the scene of the accident. The police report also did mention how the positioning of her body would not be consistent with someone just crossing the road. Someone might have shoved her into the street and fled the scene before anyone saw them. That driver also did not get a very strong sentence after the court proceedings. That driver only spent a decade in jail and got out on good behavior.

“Okay, how can I be of help to you?”

“You point to us the suppliers for the Black Bears, and you can finally have your justice.”