Summary

Jonathan Grey had always gotten everything he desired. Until the night desire destroyed him. Kidnapped after a dangerous encounter in a Tahitian bar, Jonathan wakes to a nightmare where his past is erased and his old life is declared dead. Inside a secret organization known as The Assembly, he is given a new name: Desire. Surrounded by beautiful recruits named after their darkest cravings—Craving, Passion, Urge—he is trained to become a weapon. But the man responsible for his fall is still watching. Wrath. And in the Assembly, desire can be deadly.

1

I woke up with a headache. The room was spinning. When it stopped I threw up. The vomit was in front of me. The room was black. There was only one source of light. There was a flickering lamp overheard that swayed back and forth, back and forth.

“What is your name?”

I hadn’t recognized the woman in front of me. She was a white woman with pale skin. She was beautiful. I had never seen a woman look so stern in my life. I had never seen a woman look so serious. She was tall. She towered over me.

“Where am I?”

I tried to think of my last memory but it didn’t come to me at the moment. I knew I woke up here. I was in this small room and I had no idea how I’d gotten there.

“What is your name?”

“Jonathan Grey…”

She opened the door all of a sudden. It wasn’t until I tried to get up and follow her out of the room that I realized that I was in chains. My body was limp underneath me.

At that moment I had begun to panic. Where was I? What the fuck was I doing tied up. I started to scream after. I started to cry. I had woken up in a nightmare.

Only a few minutes passed when the men came back in the room. They were two men. They were accompanied by her. She stood in the corner of the room. Her face was still cold. It was broken. The men were buff men. They looked dangerous.

“Begin.”

Pain was the only thing that came to mind at that moment. I was so sure they were going to kill me. They’d begun to hit me, taking turns.

The pain was more than I had ever felt in my life and when I cried no one heard me. I cried though. I still cried and it had meant nothing to me. It had meant nothing to me at all.

And I was so sure that I was going to die…

The last memory I had suddenly came to my mind. My name was Jonathan Grey. My parents called me Johnny even though I hated it. I was happy before this. That was all that I could remember even at a time like this. Isn’t that funny? You remember your happiness. I had a perfect life.

“I’ll go to the bathroom baby,” I remembered my boyfriend saying.

We were at a bar in Tahiti in the middle of August. The bar was a local one. Dennis said he wanted to check out the scene and get off the resort we were on. He was tall, brown hair and green eyes. He had a BIG ass dick and he used to eat my ass for hours. He did it anytime I wanted. I had dated his sister two years ago and when I came out as bisexual he seemed more than happy to continue the family tradition.

He was everything that I needed. My mom was a popular cooking television show host. She had paid for a trip for me and my boyfriend to go Tahiti. Sounds like the best trip right. I had turned 18 just a minute ago and my mom was ok with my boyfriend traveling overseas with me. It was perfect.

“Sure.”

“I love you.”

It had been the 8th time he said he loved me. I never said it back but he still continued to say it. I should have said it back. A part of me did love him but I was 18. It felt like my life was just beginning. He was the son of the mayor of the town. He had prestige and he adored me. I didn’t know why I hesitated the way I did.

Spoiled was an understatement for me. You see…I got everything I wanted back then.

Benz? Check.

Boyfriend? Check.

Money? I got as much as I wanted.

Brains? I had 4.0 GPA and I was the Valedictorian in my school. I had been accepted to the top cooking school in the country. I was going to follow in the footsteps of my mother and be a master chef.

Tahiti was the perfect place to celebrate. I was at the bar for a few minutes and Dennis hadn’t come back. I wondered if he was ok. I thought about going to check on him but I noticed someone walk in.

It was a boy. I should have known immediately something was up by how handsome he was. He was my type. He was 6 foot tall. His body was built like some greek god. He was beyond muscular. He had looked like he had just been swimming or something. His hair was wet. He was with his friends. There were a group of them. I felt awkward sitting at the bar alone when they walked in. I noticed his trunks. They were tight, form fitting. They showed off his package and he seemed BLESSED to say the least.

I pulled my eyes back from his dick print to his eyes.

He was staring!

Fuck. I turned around.

I had been gawking at him like an idiot. I did have the perfect boyfriend. I’ll admit it but again…I was spoiled. Being spoiled sometimes made my eyes wander.

I continued to drink. Of course I was drinking alcohol. Dennis had hooked us up with fake ids. It was a waste of time though because in Tahiti the legal age to drink was 18.

“Can I buy you one more of those?”

I turned. Fuck. It was him. A closer look told me this boy was beautiful. Dennis was handsome but this boy made Dennis look like some sort of Basic Betty. He looked like a model. His eyes were friendly. He seemed to smile with his eyes. I wondered if he was a local. I’d seem some pretty dark locals. The thing was he didn’t have an accent. He sounded like he was American. His hair was light brown and almost sandy. It was cut into a curly high top fade.

“Got my own money.”

“I didn’t suggest you didn’t. What does that have to do with me?”

He licked his lips. My god! I’d never seen lips like that before. They were big and pink. The licking had turned into sucking. I had never noticed something so beautiful in my life. My heart was beating a million miles per minute.

“My boyfriend’s in the bathroom.”“Again…what does that have to do with me?” he asked me smiling again with pearly white teeth that looked like they were outlined perfectly.

I turned away. I should have found it suspicious how the bartender was young and attractive as well. I should have found it suspicious how the bartender was staring at me through his side eye. I didn’t think anything about it though. I hadn’t been paying attention. It was my first mistake not to notice that. I had been too focused on this beautiful stranger.

“What’s your name?”

“Baby.”

“Excuse me.”

“You can call me your baby,” he said smiling.

He was flirting. I laughed. I was amused. My cheeks were red. I was young, dumb and horny. I couldn’t do this to Dennis though.

“Look how about we trade numbers. I don’t want to start nothing…like I said, my boyfriends in the bathroom. You know? That’s be. I don’t know. That’d be rude I guess.”

“He’s dumb.”

“Say what?”

“I’d never leave someone so special alone. He get’s what he deserves if you ask me. You know what’d I’d do if you were mine? You’d come with me everywhere. I’d shrink you. I’d put you in my back pocket. I’d take you everywhere with me.”

“Even the bathroom?”

“Even the bathroom. You’d hold my dick while I piss. Here…practice.”

He had grabbed my hand. He placed it on his crotch. I took a deep breath. His dick was semi hard. It was thick. The head was big. I could feel everything. I could feel the veins on it. I looked around making sure Dennis was nowhere in sight. Then I started to fondle him right there at the bar. He kept licking his lips.

I’d given in, “If my boyfriend wasn’t here…I would ride that dick right now…”

“I want to put it in your mouth…you have beautiful lips. Let me buy you a drink.”

“Ok Sandy.”

“Sandy?”

“You won’t tell me your name. So I made one up for you.”

I should have found it weird. I should have said something. I didn’t though. I was so useless. Looking back I knew that I was. I was weak. I wanted him. My desire was what would be my downfall. The fact that I always had to have the best. I had found someone better than Dennis. I had found someone more attractive than Denis. So now I had to have him.

The beautiful boy with sandy brown hair. He had ordered a drink.

And two drinks were brought to us.

I drunk it and that was the last thing I remembered…

I had no idea how long ago it was that I was in Tahiti. Time was flashing by. The beatings continued and got worse. Each day I wanted to die. I wanted my mom. I wanted my dad. I wanted Dennis. All the things that I had before I wanted them back.

“What’s your name?”

It had to have been days later. The lady had come in three times and asked me the same question. At first she would be nice. She would feed me. She would give me water. She would examine me silently. She would give me a bucket and watch as I used the bathroom. All the while her facial expression never changed. Her face was stone. You understand? It was stone. It was the thing buildings were made out of. It was like she refused to make an expression. She looked so fucking serious and it scared the shit out of me.

Was I in hell? Was she the devil?

If there was ever the face of the devil I felt like she was it.

“What’s your name?”

That question again. Each time I had given her the same answer. Each time she would just leave and two men would come in the room after her and they would beat me until I wished I was dead.

Time had gone by. I don’t know how long it was. It could have been days. It could have been weeks. I wasn’t sure any longer. I had begun living in a world where nothing mattered and I wished I was dead. My world consisted of these four walls.

Suffering had a whole new meaning. Life had a whole new meaning.

This day she came to me the same way she had come to me like many times before. Her eyes had no emotion. She stood next to me. She had given me food but I couldn’t eat any longer. My jaw had been broken a few days back. All I could do was drink the water. It barely went down. The pain burned my throat. My sides hurt.

I had lashes on my back because a few days ago they had begun whipping me like a slave. Screaming did nothing to stop them so I had stopped screaming. I had learned that she would never say anything besides those words that she always said. I stopped asking.

I was beginning to forget happiness.

I was beginning to forget everything that I held dear.

All I remembered was the pain.

“What is your name?”

Did it matter? Did my name matter any longer. I was a corpse just waiting to die at this point. I was a corpse just sitting there. I wanted to beg her to kill me but I knew it wouldn’t matter. She wouldn’t’ respond with words. She’d just tell them to come back and beat me. That was her role. It was different men each time but it was always two of them. They’d beat me until I could feel no more and then they would stop.

I had curled up in the corner. I wanted to cry when she asked that question. I didn’t know what to say. A few times I never said anything when she asked it. It was pointless.

I didn’t know if it was a riddle. I didn’t know what to say to her.

My name was…it was…

She got up all of a sudden when I wasn’t answering. She was heading out again to call those men to beat me. She was the devil. I was sure of it. She was the devil and this was hell.

“My name is anything you want it to be,” I stated.

She stopped for a minute and then she left. It was pointless to call out to her. It was pointless to beg her not to have them beat me. She would do it anyway. She had no emotion. She had no feeliings. The next day would probably be the same and the next day.

The two men came in the room but this time they didn’t beat me. They grabbed me. They unchained me and started to lead me out of the door.

It was the first time in forever that I had been out of the room. The air smelled different in the hallway. The walls of this hallway were white. It was the whitest white. The lights were so bright that I had to close my eyes. At this point I was being dragged down the hallway. I couldn’t walk. My legs were bruised. I

A weak thought came to my mind.

Escape.

The thought disappeared as quickly as it had come. There was no escape here. It would be pointless. I couldn’t fight off these men. Even if I did all that was in front of me and behind me was a long white hallway with white floors. I wouldn’t know where to go.

The men took me to the back room. They stripped me naked of all my clothing. It was at that moment I realized how badly I had been disfigured. The skin on my hands were off. My body had turned a burnt brown color from being blood stained. I didn’t know where I was. The room was dark again. It was a much bigger room however.

“Lights.”

I didn’t recognize the voice. It was a man. The lights had turned on. Across from me was a woman with blond long hair. Her hair fell to her torso. She had a clipboard in her hand. She was older maybe in her 60s. Next to her was a black man who may have been 40. While the woman had a stern face the man had a face that was almost completely opposite. It was kind. It was gentle almost. I could have been fooled by who he was. They were dressed in white.

“Good afternoon,” he said.

Was it the afternoon? I had no idea. I had no way of knowing. His face softened as he spoke. It could have almost fooled me when he did.

The woman was up next, “You have been taken…you belong to us now. Do you understand? You will not ask any questions. You will answer yes or no. If you do not comply you will be taken back to the room and beaten until you do.”

Not the beating. Anything was better than the beatings.

Death was better than the beatings.

“Yes.”

“Good,” she stated, with a sterner look, “You are in the Assembly. From now on your name is no longer Jonathan Grey. Jonathan Grey is dead. According to all reports you disappeared months ago in Tahiti and your body was never found. Your mother has mourned you and still mourns you. You boyfriend has moved on with his life. The world as you know it does not exist. Do you understand? Yes or no?”

Months? I thought I couldn’t cry anymore but a single tear managed to fall from my eyes. Good. I was still human. I was still alive even if they had made everyone think I was dead.

My mouth was dry. I chocked on my answer, “No…”

‘Would you like me to repeat? Yes or no?”

“No.”

She was like a robot. She was writing as she spoke to me, jotting something down. My left eye was so black and blue that I could barely see her. The lights were still much too bright for me. I managed to make out her facial expressions a little bit however.

“You’re afraid,” the man said walking over to us and actually smiling, “I know you are and that’s a normal reaction, but let me ask you this: Can it get any worse?”

“No…”

“Exactly,” he stated smiling warmly again, “You can call me Tom. The woman next to me is a Moderator. She is nameless. Who she is doesn’t matter. There are many Moderators here at the Assembly. They work for me. They may seem cold at first but they do their job.”

I nodded.

I didn’t know how to respond to him. This man…this Tom was being nice to me. He was almost being gentle. It was freaking me out really. He was older but actually a quite attractive older man. He reminded me of a Denzel or some sort of star. He had that warm, easy confidence to him.

The Moderator looked up at him. Her face was cold and emotionless just like the woman in the room, “Tom…should we commence with his reconstruction.”

Tom nodded, “Yes, first I’d like him to ask me a question though. You hear that, young one. You get one question. Think about it though. It’s really important that you do. Everyone gets one question. A lot of people waste it. Make sure you don’t waste yours. Ok? You are going to have to make it count.”

“Why am I here?”

“You should have thought about that more. I would have let you know that soon enough anyway,” he said laughing heartily, “Moderator. Tell him why he is here.”

The moderator looked up at me, “You have been chosen. We have studied you for years and you have been chosen to become a member of the Assembly should you survive your training. The Assembly is a new world order and you are going to be one of it’s weapon. “

“Weapon? What do you mean Please…please can I go home?” I asked, “Please! PLEASE let me go home!”

I hadn’t known I had so much passion until that moment. I hadn’t known I was able to still cry and whine or beg until I tried this one last time.

“Uh, uh, uh. I said one question,” Tom stated, “Moderator. Consent.”

The way he said the word consent seemed like he was barking an order more than anything. Tom smiled again and the woman approached me. I tried to fight her off as the Moderator took out a needle. She put the needle in my arm and then all of a sudden there was nothing.

I woke up to soreness. It was all over my face. I started to touch my face at that moment. It was wrapped up in something like bandages. I didn’t know how long I had been out.

“Don’t touch the bandages.”

There was a woman who had been talking to me. She was standing next to three other women. I was hooked up to a machine but it looked like they were releasing me from it. I was in something that looked like a hospital ward but there was nothing else next to me but empty beds. These women all looked the same. They were all dressed in white. They had to have been Moderators. I knew they were before they even said anything.

“It’s time,” one of the moderators said.

“Put this on,” another moderator said.

They had given me a gray suit. The suit looked almost like some regular gray scrubs or something. They watched me put it on. They weren’t embarrassed about watching me get naked and for some reason I wasn’t embarrassed about getting naked in front of them. I mean I was bisexual and usually would get as nervous around women as I would with men. These things called moderators were different though. I could care less about getting naked around them. These women were like fucking robots. They didn’t have a soul. They led me out of the room with the bandages still on my face. By the way my face felt I was sure that I had undergone some sort of operation. I knew they wouldn’t answer what kind of operation however so it was pointless even asking them.

There were hallways then. Massive hallways but these ones were different from the ones I had seen before. I looked to my right and saw the first glimpse of outside that I noticed. There was a courtyard behind the glass.

There were people in gray outfits in the courtyard. I had walked past them too fast to realize what they were doing from indoors but it looked as though they were…fighting. Maybe they were fighting. Maybe they were practicing. I wasn’t 100 percent sure to be honest.

“Hurry up,” one moderator said to me.

“In here,” another moderator said to me.

The robotic women led me into a room. They pushed me inside the room without giving me any further instructions. I realized that the room had other people in it.

There had to be 20 people. They were young. They were all about my age. About half of them had bandages on their faces but the other half didn’t. I stood there looking around. They were just at tables for the most part. It was something like a cafeteria. Most of them were chatting but the room grew kind of quiet when I walked in. They all looked at me and then looked at one another. There was something sad about all their faces. They seemed to give me about 5 seconds of their lives before going back into whatever they were doing. Some of they were talking. Some of them were just sitting there looking lost and confused. A few others were crying.

They were just like me…

I didn’t know what to do. I saw that there was one table that was mostly empty. I walked over to the table. There was a boy sitting there. He was beautiful. I was almost shocked at how beautiful he was. He had on gray scrubs like everyone else in the room. He had beautiful full lips and a naturally contoured nose. When I sat down his eyes gleamed up at me and I noticed they were the most beautiful shade of blue that seemed to contrast with his brown mahogany skin.

“Hello,” I said.

He got up off the table and walked away. Just like that. I was shocked. He walked away and stood in a corner leaning against the wall. He looked away as though not making eye contact with me.

“Don’t worry. He’s like that with everyone.”

Two people had come to sit next to me. The one who was talking to me was a boy. He was white with red hair. He wasn’t my type in the least bit but he seemed like one of those guys that girls in the Hamptons or something would just die for. He seemed like this all American type of guy. He was big too…bigger than everyone else in the room. He had to be an athlete. He was just muscular and huge. I expected him to be an asshole but when he sat down he had the biggest smile that I had ever seen. I had to admit that he was simply drop dead gorgeous.

“He’s beautiful though isn’t he?” the girl asked, “Those eyes. They are as deep as the sea.”

There was a girl who was with him. She must have been Spanish or something. She looked like a young Jennifer Lopez almost.

“Everyone is…” I noticed, “I mean. ”

I looked around the room. There was one thing that all of them had in common. Everyone was fucking gorgeous that I noticed. Even the ones who were crying. There were some who had the bandages but besides that it was like a room full or models or something.

“It’s the reconstruction,” the red haired guy said, “It’s really something huh? I got mine taken off months ago. Don’t worry. You’re bandages will come off and you’ll look like a completely different person. I guess that’s the only good thing about all of this.”

“Speak for yourself. I miss my old face. I look like a goddam barbie now,” the girl stated shaking her head laughing.

Her laugh was uncomfortable. It felt almost like she was forcing herself to laugh instead of just laughing normally.

“How long have you been here?” I asked him.

“A year. Maybe more,” the red head shrugged his gigantic arms, “Who the hell knows in this place? There is this one kid who counts but I think that is such a waste, you know?”

I looked around. The place looked like a cafeteria in some high school or something. Everyone seemed kind of clicked up. The ones that weren’t crying and moaning seemed to be making the most out of the company that was there. Only the beautiful dark skinned boy with blue eyes wasn’t speaking to anyone. I couldn’t help but to watch him. Everyone was fly but there was something about him that was just…everything. My eyes couldn’t stop looking his way even though I was scared to death about my circumstance. There was just something about him.

“Can you stare at him any harder?” the spanish girl said, “He’s mine. You can have him when I’m done.”

I wasn’t sure if she was joking or not. She did laugh after she said it though which made me think that she actually really was. The red haired guy laughed as well. It was so weird that they were laughing. It really made me wonder how long they had been in this place.

“How’d you know that I was—-”

“Bisexual?” she asked and laughed, “Everyone is bisexual here. It’s one of the qualifications for the recruits. You have to be bisexual and you have to have some sort of talent.”

“What do they want?”

The red haired guy and the girl that looked like Jennifer Lopez exchanged looks. They seemed to know more about what was going on than I did but I didn’t know how much they knew.

“Didn’t you ask Tom that question? Most people ask him the same question. They are training us to be assassins or something. Sucks huh? We don’t know much more. We’ve all been kind of just waiting. Some of us longer than others.”

“I cook. I’m not a fucking assassin.”

“Hell none of us are yet. We haven’t been trained at anything. We were waiting. We were waiting for the 20th person. That’s what the moderators kept telling us. You make it 20 kid. Looks like you are the last kidnap.”

Assassin school.

This was a school for assassins.

“You guys were all kidnapped?” I asked.

“You think we came here by choice?” the red haired guy said laughing. It was clear he was a jokester or something, “Hell yeah we were kidnapped. You ever wonder what happens to the little kids on the milk cartons?”

All of a sudden it seemed so real. All of a sudden I couldn’t breathe again. I was panicking. I was missing my home. I was missing my mother. I was the son of a chef. I was a chef in training. I wasn’t a fucking ASSASSIN in training. This wasn’t going to be my life. This wasn’t going to be my world.

“You ok?” the girl asked me.

“No…”

The girl was shaking her head and looked over at the red haired guy, “See, Craving, you fucking scared the kid half to death on his first day.”

Craving?

“That’s your name?” I asked the Red haired guy.

“Yes. I’m Craving…” he said pointing at his shirt where there was a name tag, “My homegirl over here is Passion.”

Craving and Passion. I was confused. I felt like I was in some porn or something. What kind of names were Craving and Passion?

“What’s your name?”

“Jona…” I stopped before I finished.

Half was because of me but half was because of the look that they had given me. Passion seemed to almost jump of her skin when I started saying my name. She immediately put her finger on her lips. No one seemed to notice though but I could tell what I was doing was completely unorthodox by how she was reacting. This thing about names was becoming scary.

It was Craving who pointed at my shirt, “That name you had before. You might as well just forget it. Here. Here’s your name right on your label. Let me see what it says. There it goes. Your name is…Desire.”

2

Desire. It was the name on my shirt. I was confused at it. I didn’t know what that meant. I just took it however. I remembered the Moderator kept asking me what my name was. If I was going to get beat over and over for calling myself Jonathan then I damn sure wasn’t going to call myself that.

Regardless of what they did to me though. I knew what my name was. I wasn’t going to give them that. I wasn’t going to give these people the ability to forget my name.

“Where are we?” I asked them.

Craving shook his head, “Kid. We have no idea. Not everyone even speaks English here. See those kids over there? Their English is super fucking bad. They have special moderators whenever they need something…”

He was looking over across the room at a group of foreign looking kids. They seemed to have their own section. Some looked Asian and some looked really exotic. They looked so exotic that I wouldn’t have been able to tell where they were from if I tried.

Passion sighed at that moment, “We’ve all been here for a while. We’ve been waiting for the 20th and I think we got you. The next steps are soon.”

“What are the next steps?” I asked.

I was scared to know the answer to them.

Passion just shrugged, “No one knows. I guess we meet with the leader of our team.”

Just at that moment there were bells. I wasn’t exactly sure where the bells were coming from but everyone seemed to be seriously anxious when they heard the bells. I saw everyone jump on their feet almost immediately and draw to attention. They looked afraid a little bit. It made me immediately afraid.

“What’s going on?” I asked Craving.

“Get up. One of the 7 deadly sins are coming.”

“The what?”

“They are big dogs around here. I think they started off as one of us, you know but they seem to be right under Tom. They are like the strongest I believe. They are the leaders of the teams. Our leader is one of them. Look I don’t know why but everyone gets a little nervous around them. They are…well they are dangerous…”

I stood up with Craving. It seemed like everyone was piling in the back of the room when the door opened. The door opened and several people walked in.

“Oh shit…Wrath…” Passion whispered in my ear, “He’s fucking nuts. I saw him kill someone with my own eyes on my first day here. It was someone on his team. He just snapped and killed the guy…”

My heart was skipping a beat. She had said Craving was trying to scare me but here she was making me want to almost piss myself. We watched as a guy walked into the room and the face was immediately familiar when I saw him.

It was the guy from the bar. It was Sandy! It was the last face that I saw before I woke up in this place. He still looked the same except now he was dressed in all black. He had on a black suit almost looking as though he was going to a funeral or something. He seemed anxious as he stormed into the room. I was surprised that he was able to just walk around this place freely. He couldn’t have been that much older than I was.

“Where is he! WHERE THE FUCK IS HE!”He had this madness in his eyes. He was walking across the room frantically. He made his way over to a group that was hiding in the corner. As he approached they seemed to get scared. A few of them even screamed. It made me wonder why the fuck they were so scared. Had others noticed what kind of things he was capable of. He didn’t have this crazy look in his eyes when I had met him at the bar. He didn’t have this crazy look in his eyes when he had probably kidnapped me. If only he did I would have known.

He was going to people reading their name tags or something on their shirts. I didn’t understand it.

“What’s he looking for?” I asked.

Passion was close enough to me that she put her finger to her lips to shut me up, “Shh…who knows? Who cares? Stay still. Don’t stand out. You might live another day.”

I took her advice staying completely quiet. It was so strange to see people all so scared of one man. As he approached them they seemed to get really quiet. They seemed to get really shy and just completely seemed to shut down. Some of them even made it their business to try to move away from him but he always seemed to get to the person that he wanted. We had no where to run.

He was rough with people grabbing them up to read the names on their shirts and then sometimes throwing them to the ground when he didn’t find what he wanted.

I realized there was one boy. There was one boy who hadn’t moved. The boy with the blue eyes. He was still leaning against the wall. He didn’t seem to be the slightest bit bothered that this guy was in the room.

This man…this man named Wrath finally made it to my side of the room. It was so quiet when he did. I realized what he was doing almost immediately now. He was checking everyone that had their face wrapped up in bandages. The other people he didn’t bother with.

Then he made it to me.

He looked me in my eyes.

He stared at my name tag.

“You. You’re mine!”He grabbed me by my arm all of a sudden and I let out a scream. I looked back trying to see if Crave or Passion would help me but they just gave me this sad look. It was almost like they looked powerless. I didn’t feel betrayed or anything like that. I didn’t know them enough for them to try to defend me from anything or anyone.

More Bells.

I realized now as the door opened again that it was a moderator standing outside of the door that was ringing the bells. This Wrath man had dragged me halfway across the room and was almost getting me out of the door when it opened again and someone walked in. It was a woman. She was dressed in all black. She had a long flowing dress. She had an eerie feeling about her and this unique beauty. It wasn’t a beauty for everyone but maybe some sort of goth beauty. She had pale skin and dark eyes. Her hair was cut into a bob. She had black lipstick. Her eyeliner was piled on heavily.

“Where do you think you are going with my recruit?” she stated.

“He’s MINE! You hear me you stupid BITCH!” the man Wrath was saying, “You fucking hear what the fuck I am telling you? Don’t you stop me. I swear to God. I got him. Fair and square. Tom sent me to get him! You hear me?”

He was a lunatic. The way he was talking seemed desperate. He was holding my arm like I was some sort of property or something. I didn’t understand. Everyone else in the room seemed just as confused as I was. I had no idea what this man was saying but it seemed like he was more than upset.

“He’s a number. Why are you so obsessed?” the woman said.

“Move Lust.”

“I can’t do that,” she told him, “Tom transferred him to me. Seeing how you are behaving it makes sense why he did. You are far too attached Wrath.”

“Transfers don’t happen.”

“This transfer did. Now will you leave him or would you like me to get the Moderators involved?”

I didn’t know what they were talking about. None of it made sense. I wondered if at some later point it would all make sense but right now I was confused. What was all this talk about transfers? What was all this talk about ownership? The woman seemed cool completely opposite from him. He was shaking. I could feel it in my arm. He was shaking from anger or frustration. I couldn’t tell which. The others seemed just as shocked as I was. It seemed like this was something that they had never experienced either.

He let go of my hand.

“I will have him.”

“Have a good day, Wrath,” the woman stated.

Wrath turned to me. He gave me the same look that he had given me in the bar. It was this look of longing almost. Was I just imagining it? This look was a crazed man. He had to be crazy. No normal person could be like that.

Wrath walked away. His eyes were on me the entire time that he retreated.

The woman seemed just as cool as before. She had a swagger about her. Her walk was almost sexual in nature.

“Go back with the others,” she commanded me.

I didn’t hesitate to do what I said. Compared to him I was much more comfortable in the room. She didn’t seem to make everyone else as nervous but I could tell people were still on edge. I walked to the back wall and found a spot next to Passion that I felt comfortable with.\

“What was that all about?” Passion whispered to me.

I shrugged my shoulders. I had a slight idea because of the fact that Wrath was the sandy haired man that had kidnapped me in Tahiti. I wanted to explain all that but I figured this wasn’t the best time with this woman Lust just standing across.

Lust looked over at someone else taking her eyes off the rest of us. Her eyes met the blue eyed boy who was still on an opposite wall.

“Are you too special to stand with the others?” she asked him.

He didn’t speak. I wondered if he could almost. He simply got off the wall and moved back to the back wall in a slow stride much different from how I sped across the room. As he made his way to the back wall he still stayed away from the others a little bit finding his own little special place on the wall. There was something so beautifully odd about the blue eyed boy.

The woman stood there. She had one hand on her hip and the other dangled loosely from her side. She was a beauty the more I looked at her. It was almost like one of those models that was so strange looking they were beautiful. The more I looked at her the more I realized she was strange looking. Her eyes were much too far apart. Her lips were too thin. However she was unique. I would have loved to take a picture of her odd face.

“My name is Lust. Do you all know who I am?”

It was a girl across the room who raised her hand.

“Our team leader.”

Lust nodded, “Yes. All you have been named in associate with a lustful trait. Those are your names. Your code names. Your only names. Do you know why you are here?”

“We were fucking taken…” I stated.

Passion’s elbow went into my side. I was shocked that I was talking like this but Lust didn’t have a harsh reaction like I thought she did. She actually smiled. She had a sly smile and almost seemed amused by my outburst.

“Correct,” she replied, “ You were kidnapped. You all were watched from puberty by the man who owns this Assembly. Most of you have met him. His name is Tom. We were brought here to kill for Tom.”

They repeated the same thing. It was almost like that was all everyone knew. We were supposed to kill. We were going to be assassins. Was that why they would steal children from their homes? It had been months since I had seen my family. It had been months since I had seen my friends.

“Who is Tom?” I asked.

“You are a question box aren’t you? It’s ok. I’d expect that from the newest one here. Tom is someone who has a lot of…let’s say resources. He’s someone you don’t want to fuck with. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way. Listen. I would lie if I told you all that there will be comfort in this. There will be no comfort. There is no escape. If you attempt to escape you will be hunted down. You will be given a punishment. I have seen this punishment. The punishment is worse than death. Much worse. You understand? Your lives belong to Tom now. These will be the worst days of your life. The only thing I can say can make you feel better is that I am not leader you could have. I have a heart. If any of you do decide to kill yourselves…you can do it at any point. I will not judge you….”

No one moved. She studied out faces.

This was the comfort she was giving us? The option of suicide.

My heart raced. I wasn’t the only one.

There was someone across the room. The person was wrapped in bandages like me. She must have been new like me.

“If we do what you say. If we kill for…Tom…will we ever get to go home?”

It was a fair question.

Lust paused. For a moment I could see humanity in her even though she seemed like she was trying her best to seem tough and deliver our fates with a cold hand. She wasn’t like the moderators out side. If she had gone through the same thing we had I could definitely hear it in her voice.

“No. You are in the Assembly until you die. Whether that be an old woman or in a few days…”

I didn’t know what that meant but it scared me none-the-less.

Lust had left us after people asked a few more questions. Most of the questions were hopeful questions. Someone asked if we would ever be able to contact our family to tell them we are fine. Someone asked if we would ever be able to live a normal life again. The answers to all of these questions were no.

By the end of it all nothing seemed any more clear to any of us but it seemed like the first person that I’d met that was actually truthful and actually seemed to be human. It wasn’t like those soulless Moderators and it wasn’t the fake smile that. At the end she left just as she came.

The moderators came moments later to take us away. They took us to what looked like sleeping quarters. It was really just a big room with bunkbeds. The boys and the girls were together. I guess it seemed pointless to separate people by gender if we were all truly bisexual. The moderators locked us in the rooms as usual. I noticed how they turn the lock and made sure it was locked.

“Welcome home,” Craving stated.

The beds were all basic. It looked like some army camp or something really. There were two windows that outlooked the courtyard. On the other side of the courtyard there was another building. I tried to see if I could tell where we were but it was useless.

“Craving, can you stop being a dick for once? Desire, come over…sleep here,” Passion said, “Near us.”

Desire. The name was still so fucking foreign to me. I sat on the bed. It was hard as hell. The lights had gone out in just a few minutes.

It actually felt good to know I wasn’t the only one in this position. There were others. I don’t know why I found solace in this in some sick way.

Craving was on the bunk above me and Passion was across from us. Craving went to sleep almost immediately. There were others who seemed to follow suit. I couldn’t tell how people could sleep here. I couldn’t tell how it was even possible. I had a powerful feeling of anxiety across my chest. There was a girl above her but the girl seemed more interested in crying than having any sort of conversation really.

“Was this the first time you guys all met our leader?” I asked.

Passion nodded, “We were waiting for our last member remember? It took them the longest to break you I believe. You must have really loved your name…”

Break me. Is that what the Moderator was trying to do when she kept asking me my name and beating me? It had to be. They were trying to mentally break me until I didn’t own that name any longer.

“She seems…decent.”

Passion nodded, “We’re relatively lucky. I’ve seen the other leaders. They are worse than the moderators. I’ve seen them beat their members to near death. There has to be over a hundred kids here. The 7 deadly sins each have a team. Wrath is one of the worst. The other teams have already gone on to the next stage. We were the last.”

“Has anyone tried to…escape?”

Passion looked around. I knew there were no moderators in the room but she still seemed extremely uncomfortable, “You should go to sleep. They wake us up early.”

It was like she was too scared to comment or something like that. She seemed so terrified. I figured she would be. The fact is they already beat us to a pulp over and over again. What else were they going to do to us. What else could they possibly do to us?

I couldn’t sleep. I let Passion lay down and sleep but I found myself walking across the floor. Most everyone was headed to sleep now. In the back there were lockers and behind the lockers were showers and toilets. I found myself looking in the mirror.

It was best that I removed these bandages. I had no idea how long they had been on. I slowly started to unwrap my bandages.

My face was unrecognizable.

I couldn’t tell if it was better or not. My lips seemed like they were bigger, perhaps too big but clearly they must have been swollen from surgery still. My eyes had been reconstructed as well. I still had stitches on the side of my face. It seemed as though my skin has been stretched. My face was so sore that I could hardly move it. I knew it would take a while for me to heal but right now I looked ridiculous.

I heard someone moving, walking out of the shower.

It was him.

It was the blue eyed guy. He was completely naked. He had a towel but it seemed like the towels they had hanging up were too small to really wrap around your waist. He didn’t seem shy or nervous to be completely naked though. His body was PERFECT. He had a long torso. He had a v in his waist. There was no flaw in sight. I had never seen abs so tight in my life. He must have had an 8 pack or something. His waist was so tiny.

Then there was this dick. It wasn’t too big. It wasn’t small by any means. It was the perfect size. Had they done surgery on his entire body or something? He looked like a work of art.

I was gawking. Again!

“Sorry,” I told him shaking my head.

He didn’t respond. He just walked over to mirror next to me. There were a row of mirrors. There were a row of toilets. There were a row of sinks. Everything was in a row just like some sort of military school. He was ignoring me almost completely but I couldn’t help.

Immediately all I felt was this sense of longing. He was bisexual. They said that all of us were bisexual. I had to stand a chance. I couldn’t believe I was wanting this at this moment but Dennis was no where to be seen. I would never talk to Dennis agin.

“What is your name? You know…your code name?” I asked him. I waited so long for an answer that I decided to ask again, “I’m Desire. What’s yours?”

“Urge.”

He was short with his answer. Urge was fucking gorgeous. He was brushing his teeth at this time. He didn’t even give me a second look. I could understand why he didn’t. He was so beautiful I couldn’t take my eyes off of him but I looked like somebody’s science project right now. His side profile was just as beautiful as his front. He has a FAT ass. Maybe it was the fact that his waist was so small. He had these huge dimples in his ass.

“Nice to meet you Urge,” I said nervously, “How long have you been here?”

“Long time.”

He was being short with me. I wasn’t used to it. I always got what I want. I always got WHO I want. This guy was different. He seemed so uninterested and for some reason that was just making me want him even more.

“You have beautiful eyes.”

“Ok.”

He didn’t even say thanks. He just said ok. He hadn’t looked at me the entire time he was at that mirror. He was being so short that I felt like he didn’t even know I existed or something.

“Where are you from?”

“Does it matter?”

“No, I guess it doesn’t,” I said forcing a nervous laugh, “I guess we are all here now. You know? We are all at this same place. Our person a little hell. It’s nice that we aren’t alone though. I’ll tell you that. Whatever happens next, at least we have each other. You know?”

He had walked away while I was talking.

I could feel my face get red with embarrassment. I had never experienced someone straight up walking away in the middle of a conversation before. I think it was at that moment that I realized I really wasn’t Jonathan Grey any longer. I wasn’t the guy who had it all. I wasn’t the guy who got whatever he wanted any longer. Now I was Desire.

Desire was fucking ignored.

“You are obsessed,” Passion said.

She had caught me looking at Urge from across the room.

Urge never spoke to anyone. He stayed completely to himself and Passion was right. I found him fucking irresistible. I had come to literally obsess over him and I think everyone who was around me for more than ten minutes noticed.

It had been a month that we had been in the room. An entire month. It was sad because I was beginning to get used to it. I didn’t want to get used to it but there was nothing else that we knew. Time had gone by so quickly. I had met a lot of new people but always seemed to stick to Passion and Craving. Yearn was the girl who was above Passion. She cried all the time even a month later. Then there was Ardor. He was the guy who kept the date and the reason why I knew what time it was. Lust hadn’t come to visit us in two week. The only thing that we had were strange books. The books were different everyday. A lot of the times it was geography books. There were history books. There were books about technology.

I read them all, not because we were forced to but because there was hardly anything else to do. It was like being in our own personal prison or something.

“Why don’t you just go talk to him?” Ardor asked.

Ardor was skinny, slim tall model looking guy with blonde hair and blue eyes. His eyes were blue like Urge’s eyes but they were a nice tint. He had told Passion a week ago that he found me attractive but Passion told him not to even bother because I was so obsessed. The sad thing is that she was right. So Ardor ended up being with Craving instead.

The two of them made a sort of cute couple. They were always around each other. They even managed to somehow sleep on that tiny bed together above me. In a week you would have sworn they had lived a lifetime together.

“I don’t know what you see in the guy,” Craving stated, “I mean he’s attractive but let’s be honest. The guy is the most anti-social motherfucker I ever met in my life. He thinks he’s above all this or something.”

Passion rolled her eyes, “You hear what you said though. He’s attractive. He’s attractive as hell…ok?”

“He doesn’t even know I exist.”

“You know what…let’s change that.”

“Passion wait! Wait what the fuck!”

It was too late. Passion walked over to Urge. I had just looked away. My face was red with fury and anxiety when I saw her talking to him. I couldn’t have been so embarrassed. I heard Ardor and Craving laughing above me at what Passion was doing. I looked in the corner of my eye to see that Urge was staring back at me.

He said something to her and she walked back over to us.

The look on her face said it all.

“Yeah,” she started, “He’s TOTALLY not interested.”

My face was red with embarrassment. I couldn’t believe she had done that. Passion was a cool girl but at times she was a little bit. I don’t know. She was a little bit willful or something.

“Thanks Passion. Thanks fucking a lot!” I said.

I was surprised when Yearn walked over to me and patted me on the back.

She was a small girl, extremely short and fragile looking. She looked like some child popstar. It was rare that she spoke to the group. She usually spent time crying but I realized she was a sweet girl and every time she spoke I did tend to realize it was something nice.

When she patted me on the back she said really kind words, “Oh c`mon. You are an attractive guy. It’s his lost. Do you see that face?”

She was right. I had to admit it. My face had healed in the last month completely and I had changed completely. I felt like now I fit in with the beautiful people. They had given me a nose job and some other facial reconstruction. I looked like a completely different person but I couldn’t find a single flaw on my face. I couldn’t find anything.

“Does anyone wonder why they do the reconstruction?” I asked, “It can’t be cheap…”

“Tom has resources, remember?” Craving stated, “And who cares why they do it? We are fucking beautiful. Even if no one is around to see us.”

Passion shook her head, “We’ll get out into the real world one day.”

“You think?”

“How else will we kill people for Tom?”She said it in a relaxed way. It was almost too relaxed. It worried me a little bit just how relaxed she was.

The thought of killing someone was something that I was slowly forgetting but every moment there was that reminder. I wasn’t studying for college here with these books. I was using these books so that I could become a better killer. That was what all of this was about.

It was two weeks later. It had been a month and half now. Lust was still not to be seen. We had started to think of her like some sort of legendary creature. Everyone seemed to be on edge about when she would actually show up until one day she finally did.

Bells.

Everyone got up immediately lining up in the front of the room. I think there was excitement this time more than fear. There was excitement because everyone was getting idle. People wanted to do something. People wanted to be a part of something.

She had made her way into the room and stood there. Today she had on a black suit similar to the one we had seen Wrath in.

“Good evening everyone,” she stated.

“Good evening!”

We had all said it like once almost like a class. Lust didn’t give us her smile. She had in her hands a stack of papers and in her other hand was a thing of pens.

“You have all been given books,” she stated, “The first part of this is going to be a test. For an assassin, mental prowess is probably one of our initial necessities. Take your time on this test. You have an hour.”

I wasn’t nervous at first about a test. I didn’t think it was a big deal or anything for some reason. I don’t know why. I had always knew a lot about tests. I was a perfect student in school after all.

When she had passed out the material I realized this was the hardest test I had ever taken in my life. It went from calculus, to geography, to history, to philosophy and covered everything in between. There were general questions about writing. I had never in my life sweat so much that I was sweating now looking at these questions. They were hard. I could see how people were fiddling around next to me. Everyone was struggling. Everyone seemed to be having a hard fucking time doing this.

Urge was finished first. He handed in his paper before anyone else was. Seeing him finish first made me even more nervous. I was luckily in the front of the pack of handing my paper in. By the time I was done I was sweating in places that I didn’t know I could sweat from.

“You’ll be ok,” I heard Yearn say next to me.

Passion also gave me a thumbs up. It was so odd that these people were actually becoming my friends.

When everyone had handed their paper in, Lust left.

After hours she came back and we were lined up. This time when she came back she wasn’t alone. Moderators were with her. We rarely saw the Moderators. They only came in to bring us food and reading supplies this entire time. Everything else was in the room. There were 10 moderators in all. Each of them had a black plastic bag in their hands. I was suspicious of the plastic bags.

“What’s going on?” I heard Passion ask us from behind.

No one answered but it made me nervous seeing this many moderators. All the moderators were women and they were all dressed in white suits. They all wore that same strange stone facial expression that we all recognized.

“If I call your name can you step forward,” she started, “Indulgence, Tempt, Enthrall, Fascination, Entice, Coax, Seduction, Pleasure, Intimacy and…Yearn…”

I figured they were about to read their scores or something. As Yearn got up I coudln’t help but to smile at her and give her that same encouragement she gave me.

“Good luck,” I said.

She smiled back.

The ten walked forward.

Lust wasn’t smiling when she saw them, “I’m sorry but ten of you all have failed the test. You will not be moving forward.”

She turned so fast that I knew something was wrong. Yearn. Yearn.

I stood up when I saw Lust almost running out of the room.

I was about to go to Yearn but it was a hand that pulled me down. I looked over to realize whose hand it was. It was Urge. He was giving me this hard look.

“Don’t be stupid,” he said.

I didn’t know what he meant but then I realized what it was when I heard a scream. It was Yearn. It was Yearn screaming.

The Moderators had pulled out 9mm pistols with silencers out of their bags. My mouth had dropped open. Urge had pulled me back to the ground but I was watching. This was a nightmare. This was some sort of bad dream. It had to be. One day I’d wake up. I’d wake up and this would all be a bad dream. Only it wasn’t.

There was shooting.

There was blood on the floor.

9 bodies lay dead on the floor. Yearn was one of them.

The last girl was this Asian girl named Enthrall. I hadn’t said two words to her since I met them all. She barely spoke English. She was running across the room. She was running towards the door. A part of me hoped for her! The moderators seemed busy with making sure that the 9 others were dead underneath their feet. When Lust had left she had left the door unlocked. She couldn’t lock it like the Moderators could.

A part of me held my breath for her. They didn’t notice her running!They didn’t notice her almost at the door!

Go Enthrall! You can make it. You can make it!When she opened the door however it was Lust behind it. Lust had a gun in her hand.

Lust shot the girl in the head. There was no silencer on the gun that Lust used. The gun made a loud bang causing the rest of us to jerk.

Lust stepped over her body. It was at that moment that I felt like just because she cared she wouldn’t spare any of us. Caring didn’t mean a goddam thing now. Her shoes were wet with Enthrall’s blood by the time she came to the other side of the room.

“The next part of your training will be much longer. It will be much more intense. Please pay attention. On my team I only have room for four people. The remaining six will die…”

3

I was throwing up. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I crept in the back room later that day and I was throwing up. I kept thinking about Yearn. I kept thinking about all those young people who were just shot. Shit had gotten so real now.

“You should do that more quietly.”

I turned my back to see Urge standing there. He didn’t have a shirt on. He was leaned up against the wall of the bathroom stall. His hands were stretched over him and rested on his head. He stared at me curiously with his constant cool personality. He was so calm and so focused. How could he not be panicking after he saw what we saw.

“I’m sorry if I bothered you.”

I was embarrassed. I couldn’t stop throwing up though. I let it out in the toilet. Every part of me wanted to tell this boy to get away from me. I didn’t want the boy I’d been crushing on this entire time to see me like this. It couldn’t have been attractive to be gagging over a toilet in the way that I was doing.

“You don’t want the others to look at you as weak.”

Was Urge having an actual conversation with me? I was shocked by it. He had gone around ignoring me and pretty much everyone else this entire time but now he was actually having some sort of conversation with me. It was strange to see him standing there talking to me in the way that he was.

“Did you not see what happened out there?”

He nodded, “I saw. No need to sit around and feel sad for them. Look at it this way. Those kids are probably better of than we are.”

It was a sad idea that he was saying. He had no sadness behind his eyes though. He seemed cool and collected. If anything the emotion that came to mind was annoyance. He seemed annoyed at this entire situation.

I wondered about Urge. Who was he? Where had he come from? What was his name before this and how had he been kidnapped. He was such a strange and captivating person and I didn’t know anything about him.

The only thing I could manage to say to him was a weak, stifled, “I suppose…”

“Good night Desire…”

He knew my name. It was the first time I had heard Urge speak to me. He was short as usual not holding much of a conversation but at the same time I was blown away by him. That was all it took . I wondered if his short conversation was Urge’s way of providing some sort of comfort to the situation we were in. It didn’t matter though. Nothing mattered.

I was woken up early in the morning. It wasn’t by Passion like I usually was though. It wasn’t even by a moderator. I was woken up by Lust. She was standing over my cot with slanted eyes. I almost jumped out of bed when I saw her there. My heart beat. I don’t know why I got so nervous and so afraid when she stared at me. It was still darkness. The sun was just now rising in the sky.

“Come with me.”

I didn’t say anything else. I just followed Lust down the hall. I noticed the way she walked as I followed her. She had so much confidence in her walk. We walked outside of the dormitory and into the hallway. There were moderators passing back and forth. They all looked busy. None of them seemed to call into question the idea of Lust walking me through the hallways. It was almost like she had free reign of this place.

Lust took me to a room. It was similar to one of the rooms that I had seen before. A part of me was scared. Would I be beaten? Would I be killed?

Her smile spread across her face. I didn’t know if the smile was full of deceit or not.

“Desire.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“How did you sleep last night?” she asked, “I hoped you slept well. I would understand if you didn’t, especially with the deaths. Witnessing death is especially hard for the new recruits. I still remember the first time I saw it. Again…it won’t get better, but you’ll get used to it.”

“OK ma’am.”

I didn’t know what else to say. Was this some sort of fucking psychiatric breakdown or something? She was responsible for the deaths of ten people because they failed a test! I didn’t feel like having a conversation with her. I was nervous. My stomach turned in the chair I was sitting it. It kept going.

“Let me get to the point,” she stated, “That stomach of yours. I can tell your nervous. I wish I could tell you that you shouldn’t be but I’m not sure yet. Maybe you should be very, very nervous. It all depends on how you answer this question I’m about to ask. You ready?”

My stomach turned again.

My eyes stuck on her. I dug a hole into her forehead. I had never felt so afraid in my life. What the fuck was about to happen to me?

“Yes ma’am.”

“Then here it goes. Did you cheat on the test I gave you yesterday?”

My stomach turned again. It was louder now. I wanted to throw up again. I wanted to use the bathroom. I didn’t know where she was coming from with this but she seemed to intense with her eyes.

“Absolutely not,” I told her.

She had papers on the table. She was looking at them. I looked down only for a second to notice what the papers were. They were the test that I had taken. It was all 20 pages of that extremely hard test.

“Interesting. You received a perfect score.”

“I did?”

“Yes.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“Perhaps,” she stated crossing her arms, “You see there have been many people that have taken the test. Getting to the second level or training isn’t an easy thing. However there has never been someone who got a perfect score before. How did you do it?”

I didn’t know. I didn’t think I had gotten a perfect score. The test was hard. I was sure that I had gotten some of the questions wrong.

“Um…”

“Desire.”

“Yes ma’am?”

“Do not lie to me. I will know if you are lying to me.”

At that moment she moved her hand under the desk. When she brought back her hand she had a gun. The gun was pointed at me. It was a pistol. Lust looked at me. It was almost as though she was trying to read my facial expressions. I was sweating. I was sweating so much at this moment. This lady was going to kill me. She was going to kill me just like she killed Yearn and the others.

I paused, “Ma’am. There must be a mistake. There were a few of those answers that I didn’t know. I didn’t receive a perfect score.”

I was being honest. It was the only thing that I could think to do.

She moved her hand towards the gun. I held my breath as she grabbed it. I was going to die here! God I was going to die here!

I crossed my hands over my eyes.

“OK,” was all she said.

I turned to her, “Ma’am?”

“The tests are graded by the 7 deadly sins. I believe that your test may have been somehow tampered with.”

I was confused. Lust no longer had the gun out there. Her eyes weren’t as intense as they were before. They had softened a lot. She looked different now.

“Why?”

“Someone wants you alive. I’m assuming there was a good chance that you would have failed the test. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been tampered with. For reason I believe Wrath is responsible for this.”

Wrath. Sandy. I shook my head. I didn’t know whether to be thankful or freaked out. He had kidnapped me and brought me here. Now he was cheating on tests for me.

I felt sick all over again really. I would have died if he hadn’t cheated on me. I kept thinking about Yearn. I kept thinking about Enthrall running for that door. I could have been one of those people laying in a pool of my own blood. I wasn’t ready to die.

“Are you going to tell the Moderators?” I asked.

I was afraid of the answer. For some reason I was under the assumption that we were all disposable. Maybe they would test me again. Maybe they would cut their loses and just kill me right at that moment.

“No. I won’t. Don’t tell anyone about this,” she stated, “Go get dressed and join the others in the courtyard today. Your training begins.”

I wanted to thank her. I wasn’t sure how she would respond to that. I felt like this lady was doing me a huge favor somehow. However there was something about this Wrath guy that was unnerving. It seemed to be unnerving her and I didn’t know why.

“Where’s you been?” Passion asked me.

I had joined the others in a courtyard. It was cold outside after all this time kind of felt good. I didn’t mind the cold really. Passion, Ardor and Craving were standing in a circle waiting for me. Everyone was grouped up with their usual friends. Not too far I could see Urge. He was standing by himself as usual playing too cool to really get along with everyone.

“I had a meeting with Lust.”

The look on Passion and Craving’s face made it clear that it was odd. Hell I knew it was odd myself.

“We thought you were a goner,” Craving stated.

“I don’t know how to respond to that? Sorry to disappoint, I guess,” I stated.

Craving laughed. I was trying to sound confident but honestly I was scared out of my mind just a few minutes ago.

“Here she comes…”

We all got extremely quiet as we heard the bells. It was Lust. The moderators were walking up with her. There were ten moderators. It made me nervous every time I saw them. They were all pushing wheelbarrows. The wheelbarrows were full of these rocks. I looked down at them and I could feel my heart.

“Congratulations to all of you for moving on to the second round of training. The physical training starts today. I know most of you are nervous. It’s OK. Use those nerves. Take hold of your fear. Use your fear of death to push you further than you’ve ever gone before.”

“She sounds like Abe Lincoln or something,” Craving whispered in my ear.

“Shh!” I elbowed him.

Craving shut up. At that moment Lust was in my face however. She stared me up and down. I wondered what she was thinking.

Her mouth opened and she screamed so hard that I jumped back, “Three times! Three times a day you are all to carry your weight up the path and back. Do not leave the path. You are all preparing yourself. Not all of you will make it to the 3rd ranking. Good luck.”

The first two days were the hardest. By the end of the third week it had become a little easier. Each day we walked up a path that lead through a mountainous area. I figured we had to be somewhere in the North. I wasn’t sure if we were in America though. I saw no signs of civilization anywhere around us. We were cut off from all of it. The rocks were heavy as fuck. We only had book bags to take them up the mountains and our shoes weren’t really worth much of anything.

I could tell there was a huge difference in the group. It seemed a lot more competitive. Before we all seemed to want to help each other out but now it seemed like everyone had split themselves up into four groups. You helped your friends. That’s how it worked.

I had become close of course to Passion and Craving. Craving’s boyfriend Ardor was our fourth. Ardor tended to slow us down most of the time. He wasn’t as physically strong as the rest of us.

“Today is the test. The last two of you that come back will be cut,” Lust had announced at the end of the first week.

I had to admit that we were prepared. I had done the path so many times. My legs had become conditioned to it.

We started out. Moving fast. The path was several miles through woodland. We would have to climb rocks and everything. We weren’t given water by the Moderators until we completed the task. We were in the middle of the pack as we moved. I felt like we would have been in the front of the pack if it wasn’t for Ardor once again.

“Get your boyfriend moving,” Passion stated.

Ardor was close enough to hear Passion’s words. I knew that people were changing. I remember when I first met Passion she seemed much kinder. Lately she had been getting antsy. She was changing and she was changing for the worse. I think we all were actually at this point.’

“He’s moving as fast as he can,” Craving stated.

Another group of four passed us in the next few minutes. It wasn’t a team game but for the most part we all knew that only four of us would survive all of the training. I wanted my friends to survive.

“If you don’t move, I’ll fucking leave,” Passion stated.

“Then leave! We don’t have to stick together.”

“Everyone calm down,” I stated shaking my head, “There are still others behind us. We need to stay calm and keep moving forward.”

As though someone was testing me I could hear thunder clap in the sky. Passion and I exchanged looks. A part of me was wondering if I should probably leave with her. Life and death was different from friendship. I liked Ardor but was I willing to risk my life for him? No I wasn’t. I wasn’t willing to do that at all. Passion looked like she was having the same thought.

“Rain…” she stated.

In the next moments as she said that the rain started to come down on the path. The woods were thick but somehow when it rained they seemed to get so much more miserable. I had only walked the path once in the rain and it was the hardest time I’d done it. The rain beat up against us as we made our way through the woods.

“What’s the point of this anyway?” Craving asked, “When do we get to shoot a fucking gun or something?”

I think he was making small talk because of the fact that it was his boyfriend that was slowing him down. Passion didn’t seem the least bit interested. She was leading us up the hill.

“Maybe that’s next,” I told him.

I turned back. Ardor was struggling as usual. He was going extremely slow. It was so odd to me. The rest of us had gotten so strong but he hadn’t. How the fuck do you do a task three times a day and still not be good at it. I could feel so much frustration in my blood as I looked back at him.

“Do you think there is a way through these woods?” Craving asked me, “Maybe we drop this load. Maybe we run off. The moderators are miles back. By the time they catch up to us. We’ll be dead.”

Passion rolled her eyes, “Can you concentrate on keeping your fucking boyfriend moving and stop with the chit-chat?”

“It helps us,” Craving stated, “Hope. You know?

“Where would we go? We don’t even know where we are,” I replied, “It just doesn’t make sense if you think about it. You got to be reasonable.”

“I suppose your right. They probably have cameras in these trees watching us right now. Who knows when they are watching us.”

I wouldn’t be surprised. The Moderators were so comfortable in the fact that we wouldn’t try to run away. Maybe that was a test.

“We should keep moving,” I told Craving.

The conversation was getting on Passion’s nerves. We kept up the hill. Craving would start talking every once in a while though as he usually would. Passion would be annoyed as she usually was. Ardor was still struggling behind us but we we had made our way to the top of the path and were heading back already.

As we made it back we saw two people walking up. I recognized them. “How many people do you think are behind us?”

“Two…Carnal and Sensuality,” Passion stated.

I recognized the names but I had never had a conversation with the two of them. It was strange to know they were behind us. Besides Craving they were two of the bigger guys in the group. They were always together but again I hadn’t had much to say about them.

“We’re cutting it close,” Craving stated.

“Are you prepared to leave Ardor…if you have to?” Passion whispered to him.

I looked back to see where Ardor was. He was about twenty feet behind us. He was just dragging by his side.

“He’s fine. I won’t have to leave him. Carnal and Sensuality are strong but they are dumb as rocks,” Craving stated, “Trust me. I work out with them at night. I know them. They’ll probably get lost in these woods five times over.”

Craving shook his head. The look on his eyes that he was giving Passion was something different. Things were definitely changing. Everyone was on edge. I thought about trying to make an intervention again but more and more I began to realize that it wasn’t the time nor place. It was clear that Passion and Craving were getting on each other however. They were clearly not getting a long.

“We aren’t here to fall in love,” Passion explained.

“Relax OK. Look. There goes a third person we passed. We’ll be fine…”

“Urge…ain’t that funny. I could have sworn he was number 1 before,” Passion stated, “Funny how the tables turn…I guess Ardor is going to make it after all.”

It was Urge. He was alone as usual. He was the only one who didn’t belong to a group. He was down on the mountain path. I could see him struggling with something but I didn’t know what it was. He noticed us walking past him but he didn’t call out for help. He just continued to struggle with whatever he was struggling with. I was confused. What the fuck was he doing down there?

“I got to go help him,” I stated.

“What?” Passion asked, “Are you fucking crazy? Help him. This is a competition Desire. What the hell is wrong with you people. Am I the only one who wants to live?”

“She’s right. Desire leave him. Sensuality and Carnal aren’t that far behind. You remember that the last two don’t make it. You know what not making it means don’t you?”

I was being stupid. I knew I was being stupid. I had no idea what Urge was doing. He was off the path in a ditch. There was a boulder right next to him. How the fuck had he gotten down there? The rain was beating faster and faster. It was just coming down heavily.

“You wouldn’t leave Ardor would you?” I asked Craving.

Craving looked at me with a strange look, “Ardor is different. Urge is a fucking asshole. Don’t you see the guy working out all the time? Plus he doesn’t talk to anyone. He thinks he’s above us. We all have a better chance of getting to the final four if he’s gone anyway.”

“I’m going back.”

I stopped and started going back.

“Wait. Wait we’ll come with you,” Craving stated.

“Come with him?” Passion asked, “Fuck that. Desire grow up. Stop thinking with your dick. He doesn’t want you. He straight up has said that he isn’t interested. Leave him a lone. We are running out of time!”

Time.

“Go. Leave me.”

“We aren’t going to fucking leave you.”

“Go all of you. Get Ardor out of here!” I told them.

Craving was hesitant. He definitely had a heart. I guess that is what I liked about him. He talked a lot. He joked around a lot but under all that muscle and power there was a heart. Passion shook her head and said something about being disappointed but I didn’t hear what she had to say. I was already headed towards Urge.

When I looked back I realized that Craving, Passion and Ardor had gone on ahead. I figured if I was doing something stupid I was glad that I wasn’t going to let it affect my friends as well.

As I got closer to Urge he seemed surprised that I was there.

“Are you stuck?”

“Are we the last two?” he asked and when I thought about it he quickly screamed out in a louder stronger voice, “ARE WE THE LAST TWO!”

“No. No we aren’t,” I stated shaking my head, “There are two others behind us. They aren’t that far back. Do you need some help? I came back for you…”

He gave me a suspicious look almost like a wounded animal cornered somewhere. He seemed like he didn’t trust me. His eyes squinted. Even while he looked like that I had to admit this boy was fucking beautiful. I had never seen someone so beautiful before. He was so resistant however. Even while I was trying to help him he seemed like he didn’t trust me at all.

“Stay back!”

“What? Are serious?” I asked shaking my head, “I came over to fucking help you. What the hell is the matter with you?”

Urge paused for a moment. He was stuck between that rock and looking up at me. His eyes were gleaming at me with this strong distrust. He watched every one of my movements even as I put my hands up to show him that I meant peace.

“What’s your motivation?”

“Motivation? This isn’t a goddam Broadway musical,” I said shaking my head, “I don’t know who hurt you in your past. I don’t know what you been through. Hell I don’t know ANYTHING about you. No one does. All I know is that I’d like to help you but that is up to you. I can help you or you can sit here and be a dickhead.”

His face calmed down. The look of panic seemed to slowly drift away. He still seemed cautious but instead of watching me he had gone back to struggling. I realized what he was struggling with as I got closer. His leg was stuck between two boulders.

“I fell…” he stated, “I was running. I was trying to make it back first…I was in the lead. I got a little fanatic and slipped.”

“What’s the point of making it first?” I asked confused, “You just had to make sure that you weren’t the last two…here let me help.”

“I need to be first…always.”

I didn’t know what he meant by that. It was a strange comment. Did he take some sort of pride in this? I had no idea. I didn’t take any pride in it.

“Personally, I am fine with just getting by. You’re a strange one Mr. Urge,” I told him shaking my head, “You think you going to win an award or something for being first? I don’t think the Moderators are really much into huge praises. But what do I know…”

“Are you going to chat me up all day or are you going to actually help?” Urge asked, “We can’t be the last two.”

I sighed but reached over to help him. He handed me his hand and I started to pull. I pulled a couple times hard. I pulled one time really hard and I could feel him starting to wiggle free. He put his other foot on a boulder and pushed thoroughly.

He tossed his body forward, knocking me over with him!

His body tackled me to the ground. He was free but now he was pinning me down.

He was on top of me. God this boy was beautiful. I was obsessed. He smelled like cinnamon or something like that. The soap they gave us to bathe with was the cheap shit. How the fuck did he smell so good. His blue eyes looked down on me. A part of me wanted to lean up and kiss him right here and right now. Hell, if I died today at least I would have gotten a kiss from my dream boy.

“You smell so good,” I said.

Really? Was that the best I could think of? I used to have so much game before I met Urge. There was something about him that just made me corny. If I wasn’t puking around him I was saying stupid corny compliments in the absolute wrong time. No wonder he looked at me like I was a waste of space.

“You’re ridiculous,” he replied coldly pushing off of me.

“And you’re welcome.”

“Look. Let’s get moving. I do NOT want your blood on my hands.”

We started up the hill at that moment running as fast as we can holding the rocks in our book bags. I was sure the others had probably made it mostly there by now. As we made it up the hill I felt like Urge was literally dragging me behind him.

“Are you OK?”

Urge was bleeding. His foot looked like it was sprained. Every step that he made his face grimaced a little bit. It had to have been bad but there was no slowing him down. He was actually pulling me behind him as we crossed through the trees.

“I’m fine,” he stated, “There. Two others.”

He was limping from his foot but somehow he still managed to move fast. What the fuck was this boy made out of?

“Those are the last two,” I warned him.

They were ahead of us. They weren’t far ahead of us but they were ahead of us. The way that Urge was moving though and dragging me along I was sure we’d probably pass them.

It was Carnal and Sensuality. Carnal was the bigger of the two. He was built like a mountain. Sensuality was about the same size and Craving. They were really big guys and had that whole football player thing going for them. I was sure just like Craving that they had to have been in some sort of sport before we came here. Maybe they were off to do college football or something when they were kidnapped. I’d never asked.

I could see the end.

It was about a quarter of a mile down the hill. I could Passion. I could see Craving. They were screaming out. I knew they weren’t damn well rooting for Urge. They were screaming for me.

“Keep moving. Don’t slow down. No matter what don’t slow down.”

“We’re going to pass them…we are!”

“Shut up. Don’t slow down.”

My feet felt like they were glue. I had never run the path before. There was something about Urge driving me though. It was almost like he was guiding me to push myself to my limits. I wondered if this was what Lust had meant. The fear of death made me do something inhuman. I was moving so fast and soon we were neck and neck with Carnal and Sensuality.

Carnal made eye contact with me on the path.

The finish line was close. My friends were screaming out for me. Hell, I think Craving was about to break his vocal chords or something. He was screaming that loud.

“Get them.”

I thought I misheard for a second but then I realized I was wrong. It was Carnal that came at me first.

He hit me on the path tackling me on the ground. My hands slipped from Urge. I had no idea what the fuck was going on. I just felt myself going down. I banged hard on the ground from when Carnal tackled me.

My head had hit a rock below me. There was blood gushing out of it. The cold chilling rain was falling over me and that was probably the only reason that I didn’t black out.

“What the fuck? What the fuck? You fucking HIT ME!” I told Carnal.

He hit me again. This time he kneed me in my rib cage. I let out a strong bellow. I had no idea what the fuck this was about. The world seemed to go gray. All I heard was the screaming of Passion and Craving. Lust and the Moderators were there. They were watching me get attack.

I saw Carnal pick up a rock. It was a huge rock. He lifted it in the air about to smash my head in! What the fuck was going on!

Didn’t anyone see him? Why was Lust and the Moderators letting this happen!

“I’m sorry,” Carnal stated as he was about to lower the rock over my head.

Just as he was about to smash my head open he struggled. I noticed why immediately. It was Urge! Urge had jumped on Carnal’s back. Urge was wrestling him now. Urge was almost half Carnal’s size but he had managed to start choking him. Urge managed to take him down. Urge pushed him to the ground and Carnal was gasping for air.

I watched behind me as Sensuality joined in the fight. Sensuality tried to go after Urge. They squared off for a minute. I was so dizzy from Carnal’s surprise attack that I hadn’t even noticed.

I knew that Urge had come back for me though.

He could have crossed that line without me. He didn’t though.

“Urge. Be careful!” I screamed out.

“Get back now!” he instructed me.

I tried to get up. As I pushed off of the ground I felt a hand grabbing at my feet. It was Carnal. This big motherfucker wouldn’t stay down. He was still gasping from air from being chocked out by Urge but he managed to be able to grab my feet.

I did the only thing I could. I kicked him, stepping my foot as hard as I can into his face. I brought my foot back. I delivered another kick to his throat.

I watched as he started to choke. I kicked him one last time for good measure.

“Urge!” I screamed out.

He wasn’t listening to me. I had realized that him and Sensuality were now in a boxing match of some sort. Urge was fast. He had raised his foot off the ground and was only standing on one foot. I had never seen someone fight like that.

Sensuality flailed wildly at him, “Stay still motherfucker!”

Urge kept moving around, winding his body back and forth with the wind. He jabbed Sensuality twice and Sensuality seemed to be taken off guard by Urge’s quick punches. Sensuality made a noise of frustration.

“Come on. Come at me,” Urge told him.

It seemed to push Sensuality over the edge. He started towards him. At first I thought he was going to tackle Urge. I even screamed out for Urge. Urge managed to get free through, reversing Sensuality’s grasp. Then he did something that I didn’t expect. He got behind Sensuality. He kicked Sensuality in the back of his legs.

Sensuality fell to his knees facing out towards the woods.

Urge put put one hand on the back of Sensuality’s head. His other hand was on Sensuality’s chin. Then he did it. He snapped his neck.

Sensuality’s cold dead body hit the ground at that moment. Urge didn’t pay it any mind. I looked at him realizing what had just happened. Urge was breathing heavily. He started towards me but didn’t stop.

Sensuality was dead and Carnal was still too weak from getting attacked to stand up.

Urge was limping on one foot. He was walking past me.

I didn’t know what to feel. I guess the first feeling was shock. The second feeling was not much different from the first. Urge had just killed someone.

As he walked past me he stopped just long enough to say, “Now we’re even…”

4

“That’s one cold motherfucker man…” Craving stated.

It was the next day after the second test. Passion had an ice pack on my head from where I was hit over the head. Craving was talking about Urge. He was eating a cold deli meat sandwich in the dormitory. Urge on the other side of the room alone as usual. He was working out. It was strange to see because his leg was probably still injured but he was still managing to do crunches as if 8 abs were enough.

“I can’t believe he just killed Sensuality.”

I still remembered it. I still remembered how Urge had stepped behind Sensuality and just snapped his neck. He just snapped his neck like it was nothing. It made me wonder even more who Urge was before this. It made me wonder how he could be so cold.

“He was attacked first,” Passion defended him, “It’s not like we have a choice here. This is who we have to become…”

“Right…still though…”

“Sensuality would have died anyway. You saw how quick they killed Carnal for failing.”

She was right. Craving and I both knew that Passion was right. As soon as Urge and I passed that finishing line the Moderators went over to Carnal and put three bullets in his head. They hadn’t even given him a chance to say any final words or beg for his life.

“It’s different. The moderators are all brainwashed,” I stated shaking my head, “We should still be human. You know. We shouldn’t do whatever to survive. He could have knocked Sensuality out or something.”

Craving was nodding with me. I knew he understood what I meant. He took a deep bite of his sandwich.

Passion wasn’t having it though, “Those sound like the words of a dead man.”

She was still probably right. That’s the fucked up part of it. I wondered if I could do it. I wondered if I could kill. I knew that I would have to. That is why I was here, but I wondered how it felt. I wondered what Urge was going through. He hadn’t stopped working out since he came back. It was almost as though he was more focused now then ever. It was almost like having come so close to losing had made him more desperate then ever.

Passion had walked away. She was heading for the bathroom. I didn’t mind not being around her. She was getting colder. I knew I wasn’t the only one who was beginning to notice the chance in her personality. Craving was still staring over at Urge.

“Do you feel it bro?” he asked me.

“Feel what?”

I had an idea what he meant but for some reason I still asked.

“How Passion is changing? How everyone is changing,” Craving stated shaking his head, “Man I’m not trying to turn into a monster. You know. I’m like religious. I don’t want to kill no one. I’m not about that life.”

I nodded. Craving definitely didn’t seem like he was.

“This is our life now.”

“I was drafted into the NFL before I was kidnapped. I had it made man. You know how many teams wanted me? It’s fucking ridiculous,” Craving started shaking turning around, “One day I went out with a bunch of groupies. You know who was in the group. Lust. I thought was she was so fucking attractive. Then I wake up here…I can’t even say my fucking name man…”

“This is our life now…”

“Is that all you’re going to say Desire?”

I laid back down. I didn’t know what he expected me to say. Maybe it was just easier. Maybe it would have just been easier to be like Urge. Maybe Passion had started to figure it out. Not caring was so much easier than caring.

It was a month before our next training began. In the meantime we had been doing reading. I noticed how hard everyone was studying this time as compared to the first time we were handed books. This time we studied the books as though our lives depended on it. The truth was our lives probably did. It was good having Passion and Craving still around. Ardor was even a good study partner when he wasn’t busy with Craving. I knew from the contents of the books what we would be learning almost immediately.

“Welcome to the 3rd Rank,” Lust said to us, “There are 8 of you now. Half of you will make it. The other half will not. The next part of training will be the most intensive. Hand-to-hand, weapon handling, pain suppression, poisons, bomb techniques and others will be covered. Unlike the past training this one will be scored daily. Each of you will be assigned a moderator who will study you and score you based on your progression. A cumulative average of your scores will decide how who will be moving on.”

The books we had been given were on all these different combat techniques.

In the morning we would do cardio, then we would do weights.

Then the eight of us were taken to a gym where we would practice hand-to-hand. There was a bigger emphasis put on that than anything.

By midday there was lunch.

In the late afternoon more weights.

Every day in the evening there was a different specialty.

On Mondays we did the assault rifle and sniping rifles. On Tuesdays we practiced the standard pistols as well as other ones.. On Wednesdays we did knives. On Thursdays we bomb techniques, poisons and other specialty. On Friday there were specialty things like breathing techniques, chameleon techniques and varied forms of secrecy. The weekend was somewhat downtime but really it was used for just getting in shape.

It was the third week of lessons. It was a Monday when Lust brought us in. Almost every day we had been dealing with hand to hand combat.

“What is Ninjitsu?”

I wondered if it was a trick question. We had been doing it for about three weeks now. Everydaywas the same thing. Kick like this. No…not like that. Put your arms like this. Circular motion. Now punch. Now kick.

I had to admit that I was getting bored with the repetition. Repetition was so big here. The Assembly seemed to want to drill something into you until you got so tired of doing it that you did it second nature. We were in a gym when Lust asked us. The moderators were all around us in the gym. They had their pens and paper out. They weren’t always around but every time they were we were on our best behavior. We all believed we were getting scored. It had been almost half a year that I had been with the Assembly now. It had been almost half a year that I had known what to expect.

The eight of us were sitting Indian style in the gym. I wasn’t the worst at the hand-to-hand but I definitely wasn’t the best.

It was Allure who raised her hand, “Ninjitsu is a systematized Japanese martial art used for the specific purpose of espionage.”

Allure was a pretty girl with curly hair. She was Russian. She had a thick accent, with brown hair that fell to her shoulders. She looked innocent but I had seen how fierce she could really be just from watching her train at things. She was one of the top in the class for damn sure. There weren’t many that were bad though. Ardor was probably one of the weakest but for the most part it seemed like the Assembly had chopped off the extra fat from the group. Everyone seemed good at one thing or another.

“Good. Today you’ll be sparring with one another. Practice makes perfect. I want you guys to take advantage of this training time. The moderators will be watching as normal looking out for technique.”

Lust walked away. A moderator walked over to her and whispered something. Just at that moment Lust stopped.

“Oh. There’s one more thing,” Lust stated.

One more thing was usually bad when it came to Lust.

“You’ll be sparring naked. In oil…”

My mouth dropped. The gym was huge.

I looked around wondering who I would spar with. Passion had matched up with Allure. Craving had matched up with Ardor. That left Romance, Urge and Glamour.

Romance, Glamour and Allure all usually hung with one another. They were three girls that were somewhat inseparable. A lot of the times it seemed like it was my group against their group. Urge was always in the middle with no group to belong to. For some reason it just seemed like it would be my friends in the final four or them. There was this sense of competition that was going on.

I was making my way towards Romance. She was a talk black chick. She had short hair that was shaved. Craving constantly joked that she was some sort of Amazon or something.

“You want some Desire?” she stated.

“You know I do gorgeous,” I said.

There was light flirting going on between me and her honestly. I was attracted to girls to be honest but Romance was no where near my type. She was way too big. It was nice flirting with her though. She blew me kiss and then made a fist as I approached.

Just as I was about to approach her though I noticed Glamour step up. Glamour was the most basic looking out of all of us. She had gotten into an accident in one of the training classes and broke her nose. Sometimes it made me wonder if they need to reconstruct her face again. They didn’t however. Maybe they were waiting to see if she was worth it.

Glamour grabbed her friend before I could get to her and pulled her away, “No way I’m sparring with Urge.”

Romance shrugged her shoulders, “Sorry Desire.”

I turned over to see Urge. There was a reason that no one paired with him. Urge had a way of…embarrassing people in the last three weeks. He wasn’t like Allure who answered all the questions during all the classes or anything like that. He was more action than words.

Urge was on the other side of the room. His eyes immediately connected onto me. I walked over toward him and tried to smile. I knew he wasn’t going to return the smile but I tried anyway. He didn’t even look back at me. He had on that serious Urge face that honestly scared the fuck out of me. I had a feeling I was in for a world full of pain.

“Everyone’s scared of you.”

“Stop talking and get undressed,” he told me being really short, “You don’t stand a chance against me anyway…”

“Don’t get so cocky. We are all beginners anyway. Three weeks isn’t that long to be doing this…”

Urge didn’t seem interested in what I had to say. He was already undressing. I couldn’t help but to watch him taking off his gray scrubs. He took of his shirt first. That body was on 100%. I mean within the last few months my body was on point as well. It had to be. I didn’t know any of us who had more than a tiny bit of fat on them. Craving was probably the heaviest but he wanted to be that way and he was far from fat just husky. The rest of us were lean and strong. Urge was probably the king of it however. His body looked chiseled like he was designed in a workshop somewhere.

I was immediately intimidated as he started to rub oil on his naked body.

The oil went all over his thick legs. He rubbed it on his chest. He rubbed it all over his neck and face.

“You just going to stare at me all day or are you going to get ready?” Urge said.

He wasn’t even looking up but he seemed to know that I was staring at him. Hell I was always staring at him. It had to be common knowledge to just about everyone including Urge by now that I was infatuated with him. He paid me no mind as usual however. He acted like I didn’t even exist.

Urge had one goal and one goal only.

He wanted to be the best.

“Yeah I…uh…yeah…”

I undressed and started to oil myself up from the oil the moderators supplied. I was nervous doing so. I could already hear some of the others beginning their sparring matches as the moderators watched from a distance. All you heard was all these crazy screams, moans and war cries across the room.

I had practiced though. I was ready.

“Urge! TODAY!” I heard Lust scream from across the room.

I hadn’t even noticed that she was watching us. She was so far away.

Urge took that almost literally.

He ran towards me. I hadn’t even seen him coming. I saw him immediately come for me sweeping me off the ground. I fell backwards and was about to land on my ass but somehow luckily caught my balance.

“Good balance,” he said.

“Thanks.”

“You want to show me what you got now?” he asked.

There were only a few things that I knew. I walked over to him probably slower than I should have. Jujitsu was something that I learned in the first week. As I approached him I attempted to grab him. I didn’t know how the fuck I managed to be so clumsy with the oil though. I slipped and he disengaged my grapple.

Immediately he turned me around. His body was pressed up against mine. I had to admit it was sexy feeling his manhood pressed up against me. His dick only inches away from my ass covered with nothing but oil. I don’t know why I was thinking like this. His dick could probably slide right in if I had bent over a little bit.

“You got to be joking me with that move,” Urge said in my ear. His breath was against my cheek. I felt so fucking turned on by him.

“No I meant to do that. I just wanted to grind on you.”

He pushed me off all of a sudden away from him as if he was disgusted. I looked at Urge amazed that I had been wrapped up in his arms even if it was in the midst of fighting practice.

Urge looked annoyed by my light flirting, “See and this is why you’ll never be able to beat me. Your mind is always in the gutter. You don’t know how to focus. That name that they gave you was perfect.”

“Desire.”

“Yeah. That’s all that you’re about.”

I shrugged my shoulders, “Whatever man. I’m human.”

“Human’s die. That’s your problem. You shouldn’t be human anymore. You should be a weapon.”

It sounded robotic when he said it. It was almost something like a moderator would say or something. He ran over to me while I was in the midst of replying. I was mid sentence and again I didn’t expect it. He grappled me. He put me into a hold. Then he tossed me onto the ground.

I attempted to get up but he pinned me to the ground. He held me there pinning me with his knees. He was sitting on me. His ass was resting on my chest. With his knees pinning me I was useless.

“OK…this is really turning me on. Maybe we should stop,” I stated.

I had made it sound like a joke but I was dead serious. My dick was getting hard. It was getting extremely hard feeling Urge on top of me like this. This dude could blink his eyes and it would turn me on. He was that sexy.

He didn’t move even when I tried to struggle, “You do realize you’re losing points right? The moderators are watching…”

“It’s worth it.”

“I’m worth dying for?”

“Maybe. I don’t know yet.”

He seemed confused when I said that as though not getting me. I used that opportunity to lift my legs up at that moment and grapple him with my feet. I used my thighs to pull him down. All the leg weights I had been doing on a daily basis were paying off. I managed to hold him down with my legs even if for a second or two. He disengaged the grapple I had on him and slithered away.

“That was better.”

“G’dam your quick,” I replied.

I had put all my energy into that and only managed to hold him for a second. The oil made it harder to keep someone in a hold. My legs had slipped and Urge was already on his feet. He had a smile on his face.

“Instead of trying to pin, go for the strangle.”

“Are you helping me?”

“Are you listening?” he asked.

I was confused. Urge didn’t help people. He was all about himself. I had seen him in classes. He only cared about being number one. He didn’t stick around to have conversation or to actually help other people get better. The fact that he was helping me now seemed strange. I felt suspicious almost as suspicious as he was the day I saved him on the trail.

“Yes.”

“I’m going to come for you. Instead of trying to pin me go for the strangle. Strangling panics people. Instead of just trying to break a hold they are trying to fight for their lives. They forget about the basics. So strangle me? OK. You only got one shot. I’ll make you look good. I promise…”

He came at me at that moment.

He tried to strike me or at least I thought he was trying to strike me but he was much slower than he normally was. I grabbed his arm, twisted it around him and pulled him to the ground. I was about to pin him but then I remembered what he told me. He told me to go for the strangle. I wrapped his arm around his neck and used his own arm to begin to strangle him.

He struggled for a bit to break free but slowly I took hi down to the ground. He started to tap at that moment.

Lust had walked over. It seemed like she was surveying people as well.

“Good work, Desire,” she commented before moving on to Romance and Glamour.

I didn’t know what this meant. I hoped it meant something that Urge was being nice to me but who knew. He could have just been in a good mood. I couldn’t help but continue to look at him even when he was out of my hold. I think it was at that moment seeing him but naked in oil that I knew that there was nothing else in this world I desired more than him. Nothing. Not even my freedom.

I didn’t admit my feelings to everyone else. They already knew that I liked Urge. They didn’t need to know how much I liked him. I couldn’t get him off my mind either. Wasn’t that stupid? I was here training to be an assassin and the only thing that I could think about was this boy. I felt like a fucking idiot.

“Damn you suck…” Craving said.

We were at a shooting range when he said it. It was the 8 of us. Passion didn’t seem to hang around Craving and I as much. I wasn’t sure why. She seemed to be getting focused. Hell everyone was getting focused except me. The only thing I was focused on was Urge. It had been weeks now that I had been practicing with a gun and I wasn’t getting any better at it.

“Can you say that any louder?” I stated shaking my head, “The Moderators didn’t hear you….”

Craving sighed, “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but um…they notice. It’s only 8 of us. You didn’t make a single shot. Why you acting like you scared of the gun or something?”

“Because I am scared of the gun…”

I had always been scared of guns. I hated the things. I had even protested in high school against guns. I had held a whole entire FUCKING protest against guns.

“All guns though? What about the pistol. You’re the worst at them out of all of us…”

“I know…

“This is really going to bring down your score…”

“Craving…I know…”

He wasn’t helping. I rarely hit my target with the rifles or the pistols or the revolvers. Tom was definitely wasting his ammunition on me. The moderators if they had expressions would definitely not be amused by this kind of shit. Luckily Lust didn’t usually attend most of the gun lessons.

I wasn’t so lucky at the fact that others were noticing. I noticed Glamour, Romance and Allure laughing their asses off. I wasn’t 100 percent sure they were laughing at me but I had an idea that it had to be about me. Even Ardor was better at me then shooting the gun.

“Maybe you should ask Allure for help. She barely misses. And you know there is always Urge too. He’s good at everything though. Fucking bastard.”

As much as I hated to admit it Craving was right. Urge was good at everything he put his mind to. The guy was a fucking killer already. I wondered if he had been a fucking Hit man or something before he was kidnapped. It would make sense. How else was this guy so fucking good at this shit. It was almost like he had been doing this for a lifetime.

“I’m not begging for help. There are other things I’m good at.”

“Like what?”

“Poisons,” I answered, “I made the poisons the fastest.”

“Times up. Back to the dorms,” a moderator stated.

At that moment Passion started walking past us. It had been a while since she had serious conversations with us. I had noticed her staring at me when I was missing the target.

“Hey Passion, can you tell your friend about himself? He thinks being an expert at poisons is going to get him by…”

“I don’t bother with the weak.”

I was shocked when she said it. I wasn’t the only one. Craving had raised an eyebrow. I heard him about to go say something to her but I pulled him back. It was pointless.

“Leave it alone,” I told him.

“Do you believe her?” he stated, “All of a sudden she is too good for us? We all started this shit together. Now that she’s skated her way to the middle she’s too good to fuck with us?”

He was pissed. I could tell. I wasn’t though. I had seen signs of it coming from a mile away. Passion was distancing herself from us. I watched as she went over to Glamour, Romance and Allure. She was starting to be around them. Allure was the number one marksman. Romance was great with hand-to-hand combat. Glamour was an all around threat with almost everything. She could learn from them. What did we have? Craving was strong as hell but that wasn’t really a skill that could be learned. Then there was me. I was good at … poisons…

“Fuck it. Fuck her,” I stated, shaking my head and turning to Craving, “Look I’m going to take a gun with me to the dorms.”

“What?”

“I just need to get comfortable around them.”

“I’m pretty sure that is against the rules Desire.”

“They never said that.”

“I’m pretty sure it is implied that we can’t go around taking guns whenever we want to…”

“No one will no. The moderators aren’t even paying attention.”

I grabbed one of the pistols. I had to get better at them. I knew that it was probably a dumb move but I had to get better. I was going to die anyway if I didn’t figure out a combat that I was good in.

Passion had moved her bed over to Allure and her Allure’s sidekicks. The four girls gossiped back and forth. I was pretty sure I may have been brought up a time or two. Allure was pretty much the ringleader over there. She was bragging I was sure about her ability to shoot a gun and not be able to miss a thing. Allure seemed to have the ability to keep people really engaged in that way. I couldn’t take it.

“Hey, you guys, I’m going to the lockers…” I told Ardor and Craving.

They weren’t even listening to me. They were kissing. It was the usual between them.

I had to admit that they made a cute couple and I was fucking jealous of it. I had never met two people that were so into each other as Ardor and Craving. It was weird that they were able to find each other in circumstances like this. They seemed stuck in their own world. Nothing mattered to them. All that mattered was one another. All they cared about was being around each other. They loved one another and even in this hell they had found hope.

As I walked past Allure and the others I saw them staring. Then there was the little girl laughter that I was slowly becoming accustomed to. I can’t believe that I was becoming the laughing stock here.

I made my way to the back where there was the gun that I had.

“You don’t need it…”

“What?”

Urge was in the locker room. I hadn’t even heard him walking up to me. He was quiet. He was extremely quiet.

“You don’t need the gun.”

I hadn’t even taken it out of my gym bag that had all my dirty gray scrubs in it. The moderators usually came to pick up the old scrubs every Sunday in the gym bag and brought us some fresh ones every Tuesday.

“Why do you say that?” I ask.

“You are more comfortable with knives. I see the way you hold them. You’ve been focusing so much on the gun that you haven’t focused on the knives. What were you before this?”

“I was about to go to cooking school.”

Urge nodded.

“Exactly. The knives.”

“Craving says I need to be good with the guns. Because of the scoring…”

Urge shook his head, “No offense, but your friend is an idiot. Every one needs a major and a minor. One offensive and one skill like hacking, bombs or poison. You are good with poison already. I noticed. So you need one offensive. The offensive should be something like knives. Something you are comfortable with. You should put everything into your knife skills and you’ll be fine.”

He was helping me again.

“Urge.”

“Yes?”

“How do you know this?” I asked.

He turned back to me. He was such an odd guy. He knew way too much. How the fuck did he know how the moderators were scoring us? He wasn’t guessing either. He knew for sure. I could hear the confidence in his voice. There was something there that seemed to say it all. I didn’t understand it.

“This isn’t my first time training.”

That didn’t make sense.

“What? How is that possible?”

He crossed his arms.

“I am a … special case. The only one there will ever be here,” he explained., “God why am I telling you this. I can’t believe I am telling you this…”

I was nervous to know what he was talking.

“You promise not to tell anyone?” he asked me, “If people find out who I am…it’s an issue…”

“Yes.”

“Promise…”

“I promise.”

Just as he was about to tell me we heard bells. What the fuck was Lust doing here at this time of night? I turned over to him. Urge seemed to snap out of this sharing moment all of a sudden. He seemed like he was back in his own mind state.

We walked over to the front and joined the others who were already lined up. Lust were there and she had three moderators with her. The moderators weren’t the only ones there though. There were gentlemen…bigger gentlemen. I was sure they were assassins maybe from another team or something that the moderators had called. What the fuck was this about?

“There was an audit of the guns,” Lust stated, “One of them is missing. Which one of you took them?”

I was an idiot. Why wouldn’t I think they audited the guns? Why wouldn’t I think these robotic ass fucking people would take daily audits of everything?

I was about to step forward but I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked to my side to notice it was Urge. What the fuck was he doing? Before I was about to step forward he grabbed me and he stepped forward for me.

“You are going to kill the person who took the gun without consent aren’t you?” he asked her.

Lust nodded, “Yes. Tom has strict rules about this.”

“Then it was me…”

Lust nodded.

“No…no wait!” I screamed.

It was useless though because of Craving. Craving had put his hand over my mouth and was pulling me back towards the back of the dormitory.

All I saw was them taking him. The men started hitting him all of a sudden and when he was limp underneath them they started to drag his body. Urge didn’t even fight back. All I saw was them taking Urge. Why had he done it? Why had he sacrificed himself for me!

5

Urge was dead.

If I couldn’t focus before now all I could do was think of him. He had sacrificed himself for me. Just like that. It was me who had broken the rules. It was me who had taken the gun without consent. Why the fuck did he take the fall for me?

“I’m sorry,” Ardor had said to me.

He was next to me rubbing me on my back. Craving was the one who really had the face that was making me feel sorry for myself though. It was almost that face that said he didn’t know what to say. I wished I had stepped up. I wished I had been a man and raised my hand to say something about taking that gun. That wasn’t the case though.

I had allowed them to take him away. Lust had explained to us that the person who took the gun would be killed.

“We should get going. We’ll be late for our lesson,” Craving stated looking down at the floor instead of at me.

He was right. I had been friends with Yearn when she died but it was still early in the process. Now losing someone was taking it’s toll. I hadn’t slept at all the night before. All I remembered was Urge’s limp body being dragged off. That was all that stood out in my mind.

The day went by slow. I couldn’t focus on hand-to-hand combat and I was beaten by Ardor of all people. Ardor was pretty much horrible at everything but I still managed to let him beat me. I was the slowest in cardie and hardly lifted any weights.

I wondered if it all mattered.

Later that day it was knives. We were in a bright lit room. To the right there were long pieces of wood carved in the shape of human beings. We had many knife training classes before but I had never focused on any of them. I was so concerned with guns that knife was secondary. I don’t think anyone really focused on knives, not even Lust.

Lust described knives as, “A good last effort in case you run out of bullets in the field.”

She never described what “the field” was or explained just what kind of missions we’d be going on when or if we made it out of the training school. Everything was above our rank or a question that we should have asked Tom when we first met him.

For right now we were training to kill.

No one had any idea of who we were training to kill but based on this kind of training the target definitely had to be hard to kill.

“Good job with the spinning on your knife throw,” Lust stated stepping behind me.

“Thanks.”

“You’re tense.”

You just killed my friend you stupid bitch. Yes I was tense. She said it as though she was concerned. I hated the fact that she seemed like she cared sometimes. I wished she was just like the moderators. It would have made things less confusing.

“Sorry…”

“No, don’t apologize,” she stated, “It’s a good thing. Use it. Channel whatever anger you have when you are throwing that knife.”

I stepped back behind the line. I was given a rugged, drop point knife similar to the ones everyone else was using as well. The target was a wooden plank across the room. There were different stations set up for the knife throwing and I was trying my best to get the most out of everything. I had completely decided to put all my energy into using the knife.

“Get to know your life. Feel the handle. Understand the length of it,” she explained, “Fine a comfortable way to hold it so that it rests in the palm of your hand. Now throw…”

I flung it across the room sending it spinning. It hit the target almost dead center.

“Fuck.”

“No. That was good,” Lust stated going over to retrieve the knife for me, “You only have a 50/50 percent chance to hit your target if it spins. You should practice making sure your knife does not spin.”

I nodded taking her advice as she walked away. A part of me watched her walk away. I wanted to throw the knife right into her back. I wanted to so bad. I could see my hand clutching onto the knife. She was responsible for Urge’s death. She was the one responsible for it. I could feel my hand on the handle just how she stated.

Then I released throwing the knife making sure there was no spin on that knife. I wanted the knife to hit it’s target dead center.

It wasn’t at Lust though. It was at a target not far from Lust. A completely different wooden stick that wasn’t even assigned to me.

Lust seemed startled by it, but turned around and smiled almost warmly, “Well done. You are going to be racking up the points on this knife training Desire.”

I should have done it. I should have thrown it at her. I had been afraid. I was too afraid. Maybe the knife wouldn’t kill her. Maybe I’d miss. Even if I did kill her, did it matter? Was she the real reason Urge was dead. Was it bigger than her? Were it the moderators? Was it Tom? Was there someone even above Tom? I had no idea. I had no idea who I was or why I was practicing to throw knives for hours in the day.

“I saw that…”

I turned to see Passion standing behind me.

I ignored her and walked to the next station. The next station showed some good points on the dummy outlined so that you knew where to stab to puncture the vital organs.

There was so much to take into account when stabbing. The size and length of the blade you were using. The trajectory you were stabbing. With a knife you had to be precise. You had to know where you were stabbing someone. You had to make sure that you got it right because you may not get another chance.

“You seem focused,” Passion stated.

“Is there something you want?”

“Kind of wanted to know if you could teach me how you throw the knives like you do,” Passion stated, “You’re really good at that.”

She was using me. She was trying to at least.

“Get away from me.”

“Are you really mad?” Passion asked shaking her head, “How are you taking any of this personal? Look where we are. Survival is everything.”

“Look girl. I’m not going to say it again,” I stated shaking my head, “Urge was killed, OK? I’m not in them mood to have convo. I just want to learn what I need to learn. You need help? Go ask Allure or one of those other girls you’re ass kissing. You know what. Because even if they help you, you won’t be as good as them.”

“So this is about Urge?” Passion asked, “Why be upset? I don’t get it…”

“Because he was a good person.”

“So what? Yearn was a good person. Carnal was a good person before he was killed,” Passion responded with this annoyance in her voice, “People die all the time. You know what you should be happy about? You should be happy that there is 7 of us now and not 8. You have a better chance now…”

I couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth.

I didn’t know what came over me. I found myself taking the knife and charging at her. She tried to fall back but it didn’t work. I broke through her defense and had the knife her throat. I could easily rip her throat open right now if I wanted to. I should have. I couldn’t believe Passion had become such a bitch.

“Get away from me.”

It was the first time that I felt dangerous. Passion nodded backing away without saying another word. The feeling was enticing. The feeling was…more than I could ever imagine. The power to make someone pay for something they said if you wanted to. The power to hurt someone if you wanted to.

It was the first time that I actually felt like I was good at something here. The way I felt when I held that knife made me know that I was good.

It all made sense now. Me being in the kitchen I worked with knives all the time. It was second nature to me. I could dice up an onion in less than 5 seconds. My mother had taught me how to use this knife and how to be comfortable with it. I knew for sure that I was one of the best people I ever knew with a knife.

The only thing is that I thought I was good with a knife when it came to cooking.

A week had passed. We were in guns class. We were learning how to put together a silenced .22 pistol. The moderators were on the side of the room as usual taking notes. They were using their boards. I saw one looking my way and jotting down notes.

“You not even going to try?” Craving asked me.

He was standing next to me at the work table. I hadn’t even touched my gun. Craving on the other hand had taken it apart and put it back together three times. Everyone was except me. Ardor had managed to break his and needed a replacement. I let him use mine.

“Urge gave me some good advice. You know…before he…”

It was hard to even say the word. It was hard to even think that the best student out of all of us was not longer even around. The feeling burned my chest really.

“What good advice? Sit around and get low scores and die?” Craving asked him.

I leaned forward closer to Craving. I knew it was risky telling him while the Moderators were around but Craving was damn near my best friend here. If I could share this with anyone then it had to be him.

I whispered closely to him, “He said we only need one combat specialty and then one miscellaneous like poison….”

“How the fuck…” he said before lowering his voice and giving me a stern look, “How the fuck did Urge know how we are being graded? I don’t get it.”

It was a good question. It was a fair question. Every night I thought about Urge. Every night I wondered what he was going to tell me the night that he was killed. He seemed like he was about to tell me something important about himself. He said that this wasn’t his first time in training. I thought about telling Craving but what was the point? I didn’t know enough about it anyway.

“Do you have something you’re good at?”

“I’m good at pressure points for my miscellaneous. I guess for my combat I am good at the assault rifle. But I’m good with these .22 pistols too. Shit I don’t know. I haven’t even thought about it. I’ve been trying to learn everything. OK. Maybe the assault rifle. I go off when I get one of those things. Think I’m one of the best in the class…”

He was listening. I felt bad that I wasn’t telling the others but this wasn’t a fucking fair world. I wanted my friend to survive. That was who I cared about. The more and more I thought about it Passion was right. She was right about the fact that only 4 of us were survive. Craving was that ride or die friend that had stuck it out with me this entire time. I had to make sure that Craving was one of those four.

“That’s not good enough. You need to be the best at it.”

I wasn’t sure if Craving was taken it in. I was worried that he wasn’t. k

“That’s not important, the important thing is tomorrow is my day,” I stated shaking my head, “I’m going to make sure that I stand out with knives.”

“Yeah. You’re like the best with those. You think it’s going to be enough though?” Craving asked, “I mean do you think you could have trusted Urge. Maybe he was just making stuff up. It’s not like the moderators have small talk or something.”

I looked to the side of the room at the moderators. He was right. They were never much for the small talk. They just stood there staring like ghosts in a shell, taking notes and making sure that no one broke any rules. That was their job. They had no souls. They had no personalities.

“I trusted Urge.”

Craving sighed rolling his eyes, “You crushed on Urge. I don’t think that’s enough to put your life on the line…”

“It’s my decision.”

“All I’m saying is you are a good friend of mine. I don’t want to see you go.”

“I don’t want to see you go either.”

He grabbed my hand. It surprised me. There was something true about Craving. It was a weird friendship we had. In the real world I don’t think I would have spoken too words to him. He was a jock. He was corny with his jokes and had this whole “bro” mentality. I used to be a snob. I used to put my nose up to guys like him and think they weren’t smart enough to hold conversations with me. Maybe that was why I missed out because Craving had literally become one of the best friends that I had ever had in my life.

I nodded shaking my head, “Let’s promise each other. Let’s promise each other that we’ll both make it to the final four.”

“I promise. I got your back. You got mine. No turning on one another…no matter what these make us do.”

We shook on it.

“Broke another one!” Ardor screamed out at that moment, “FUCK!”

For some reason it made Craving and I laugh as his boyfriend dropped the gun. It shouldn’t have been funny but I guess shit was getting too serious for us and we just needed something to release from. We just needed something to make us feel better about life.

Knife training was the next day. My favorite day. I had memorized all the vital points that day. My technique was perfection. I was trying to teach Ardor for Craving but he was a lost cause. He cut himself a million times. He was clumsy as hell. I thought trying to teach him would slow me down but it did just the opposite really. It made me think about things that I wouldn’t have thought about. I had worked so hard that I was sweating from every part of me.

After knife training I was exhausted. Ardor handed me a towel as Craving came over. We knew the schedule by now. Any moment a moderator would come over and announce that it was time to head back to the dormitories for dinner.

That didn’t happen though.

Bells instead.

What the fuck was Lust doing here? She usually only came for the hand-to-hand. I figured that had to have been her specialty or something when she was in training because that is what she seemed like she was best at.

Lust looked serious, “You guys are halfway through rank 3. From now on you have more disciplined freedom.”

“What does that mean?” Allure asked.

She was asking the question that all of us were afraid to ask.

“You can now train however you would like. There is no set schedule unless a moderator lets you know. If there is a weapon you would like to focus on you can spend all day focusing on that weapon.”

A lot of people looked worried about that idea. I wasn’t though. I was thankful. I wanted to spend as much time as I could training with knives as possible. I wanted to make sure that nothing would get in the way of me being the absolute best at that…

Not just the best in my team.

The best the Assembly would ever know.

Lust continued breaking up the conversation that was happening, “That isn’t all. You are now able to eat in the dining halls with the other training teams….”

We all looked at one another. There was talk immediately. It was excited talk.

“Holy shit,” Craving said.

I knew what he meant. I loved these guys but seeing the same 6 other faces everyday was getting kind of annoying. I was getting annoyed at everything. I was annoyed at the way the girls followed Allure around. I was annoyed with the way Passion tried to use everyone to get ahead. I was annoyed at the way Ardor managed to fuck things up. Ever since Urge was killed everything seemed to irritate me even more.

I just needed something new.

“Don’t embarrass me,” she stated looking at Craving as she spoke.

“I’d never think of it,” he said raising her hands.

I was shocked when Lust smiled back and then offered a cold hard, “Follow me.”

She lead us down the hallway. I wished I could take a shower or something before meeting new people. I had literally put my heart into the knife training. It had paid off however.

We passed moderators who always seemed so busy. We walked in a straight line. That’s how they liked us to walk. It was stupid as hell. We had gotten so used to walking in the straight line that it seemed like our feet were in sync like in the army or something. There were no army chants though. There was no fatigue. We weren’t in the goddam military. We were something much worse.

“Our table is on the end,” Lust stated, “I have to go find Tom about something important.”

I wondered what this important thing she had to go find Tom about but I didn’t wonder for long. I looked into the room and there was nothing but amazement.

The room was full of faces. A lot of them had faces like us. It was more like a high school lunch room then a dining hall for assassins. I was nervous all over again just like my first day in high school.

“Come on,” Craving said.

It was clear that he knew I was nervous. Everyone was. We were still walking together in a line. Allure was at the front of the line like she usually was. She guided us to the back table where there was just enough room for all of us to sit.

“This is fucking crazy,” I heard Ardor say.

It was. People were talking. People were laughing and joking and gossiping. There had to be more than 50 people in the room. There were flirting going on. Guys were flirting with girls, guys were flirting with guys and girls were flirting with girls.

Moderators had brought out food for us when they noticed we were sitting down. I didn’t know what the Moderators roles really were. It seemed like they wore many hates. They cleaned, they did our laundry, they scored us, they fed us and every once in a while when we failed they just so happened to kill us. It was like they wore every hat.

“Oh my god…real food,” I stated.

No more cold sandwiches. I looked as I saw what they had put down on the table. It was enough to make Urge smile if he was still alive. I think Romance and Glamour was clapping at the end the end of the table. I was pretty sure that Passion was in tears. I felt like Christmas or something.

I watched as they brought steak out. They brought okra. There was chicken if we wanted that. I noticed a few people trading around their dishes. I stuck to a fish dish that seemed healthy. It was what Urge would do if he was here. He would want to eat healthy regardless of what they gave us.

Then I saw one moderator bring out my weakness. They brought wine. WINE!

When I tasted it I realized it was strong and good. No wonder the dining room was so hype.

“Everyone is fucking sexy as hell. Oh-my-lord,” Craving said leaning over on the table.

He was right. If there was ever a positive to being a part of the Assembly it was the fact that everyone looked beautiful. There were a few people like Glamour who had fucked up their faces but even they looked fucking way more attractive then the average individual. It was like all of the most attractive people in the world had been pulled into the same room at the same time.

“Hey, hey, hey…” Ardor said.

Craving elbowed him, “Relax. I meant there are a lot of sexy folk in here; for Desire. I got my peace.”

“You see anyone you like?” Ardor asked me, nudging me a little bit, “Don’t be shy Fornicating isn’t against the rules. You know how many times me and Craving got caught fucking by a moderator?”

“Oh my god! I do not want to hear that,” I said shaking my head.

The two boys laughed. Even now they were all over each other. I had to admit that I wanted the same thing. I wanted the feeling of closeness with someone. It was because of the lives we lived. We lived such cold lives that any comfort seemed to be good. I wished I could have that…even a little bit.

Craving shook his head, “He has to get over Urge one way or another. You know what you need Desire?”

“What?”

“A big nice long…DICK.”

I got red in the face. Ardor and Craving laughed at me at the moment. I couldn’t believe he was talking like this.

“Hey you…HEY!” Craving had called out to a guy walking past.

He was tall, with lean muscles. He was a sexy black dude that had a shaved head. He reminded me a little bit of Dennis my boyfriend from back home. He looked like some male model or something fresh off the press.

How the fuck did Craving know my type?

“Yeah?” The boy asked.

“You think my friend here is cute?” Craving asked.

The boy looked at me. He looked me up and down. I couldn’t believe Craving was doing this! I would have been embarrassed but no one was really paying attention but us. Everyone was drinking, talking, eating and just having the first good time that we’d had since we came to this place.

“Hell yeah,” the boy said.

“Would you fuck him?”

The boy’s eyes got wide all of a sudden. I could see him licking his lips.

“Hell yeah I would,” he said, “I would tear that ass up!”

The boy was excited. I couldn’t help but to bury my head on the table. Craving winked at me. That was the type of person Craving was. He was such a clown and he dreaded being serious. I couldn’t help but to laugh as the boy just stood there.

“We’ll hook something up,” Craving told the boy before the boy nodded, flashed me over a bright white smile that made it clear that he was excited.

Ardor nodded, “He was hot. His name was Conceit. I read it on his name tag. Wonder whose team he is on?”

“It sounds like he might be on Pride,” I said.

Craving laughed, “Yeah definitely Pride. He seemed conceited too with that smug look on his face. He was just waiting for someone to stop him. But he was hot. We have disciplined freedom now. He can meet you in the back of the knife training room and give you his knife…”

“I’ll pass.”

“Still stuck on Urge huh?”

“Maybe.”

I sighed. I couldn’t even admit that I wasn’t. It had been a whole week since he died but I was still stuck on him like a fucking loser. I found myself drinking my entire glass of wine. Before I even put it down a Moderator was over to refill it.

I found myself getting a little tipsy. Craving and Ardor had gone back into each other. Seeing themlike that didn’t make the depression that I had any better. I knew Craving wasn’t trying to shove their relationship in my face but that is how it came across. I wanted someone to kiss. I wanted someone to hold. Not just anyone though. I wanted Urge.

Why the fuck had I been so obsessed with him?

“I hate to fuck up your little drunk memory,” Craving stated, “Don’t look now but that guy Wrath just walked in. He looks like he is sitting with his team or something. He keeps looking over here…”

I didn’t look. I could feel eyes on me though. I had no idea

“He is fucking sexy too and he’s one of the seven. He has to be powerful,” Ardor stated, “Yeah, Jesus Christ he is staring a hole at you.”

I didn’t look back.

“He’s the reason I’m here. He seduced me and drugged me,” I told them.

“Fuck.”

“That doesn’t explain why he’s so obsessed. Lust took us. You don’t see her sitting on the other side of the room and staring at us like we are something to eat.”

“It’s a little creepy,” Ardor responded.

They were both right. It was beyond creepy. I couldn’t even enjoy myself the rest of the dinner. I could see his eyes staring at me. I was too scared to look but Ardor and Craving confirmed that he hadn’t moved his eyes off of me even a second. Ardor was telling me that he was sure that Wrath wasn’t even blinking. Craving kept telling me, “He is cute, though,” as if that should have made it any better that this man was so fucking weird. I mean I was obsessed with Urge but there was something… just…off about Wrath.

It wasn’t until the end of the dinner when all of us were walking back to the dormitories that I finally had the guts to look over at him. He was sitting at his table. His table was the loudest group in the lunch. They seemed like they had no discipline at all. One of them was standing on the table. I guess that wasn’t against the rules though because the moderators didn’t say a thing. A few of them seemed like they had started a mini food fight or something. Corn was thrown right past Wrath. He didn’t move though. He didn’t even flicker.

Wrath was just staring at me. He had these deep, killer, psycho eyes that seemed to pierce me. I felt my heart beating harder and harder. He didn’t look at me. Was he really the one who had cheated on that written test so that I could pass? Why did he even care?

We had gotten back to the dorms. Everyone was in high spirits. It was the first time that everyone was smiling. Maybe it was because the majority of us were drunk off of the wine that they had given us. It was the first time all of us were having a group conversation as well.

Allure was going off at the mouth, “I think we are going to be government agents. You know…like the KGB or something. Hopefully we work for Russia..”

We were gathered around Allure’s bed. For some reason people seemed to flock to her. It was probably because she was the top of the class now that Urge wasn’t around. Everyone seemed to know it and want to hang off of her every word like she was the next coming or something. I stood to the side not wanting to crowd her space.

“Girl you are the only one in this place who has a Russian accent,” Craving told her causing laughter in the group.

“Maybe we are CIA,” Romance suggested, “Americans.”

“Why not Africans?” I suggested.

That got the most laughter out of everyone. Even Passion seemed to laugh. We still had our beef but it seemed like everyone was bonding. I had to admit that I liked these people. I liked the fact that Allure was tough. I liked the fact that Glamour found everything funny. I loved the fact that Romance flirted every chance she got. I was beginning to get used to the fact that Ardor was a klutz. It was hard to realize that only 4 of us would make it through this.

The rest of us would be killed off.

“Africa really?” Ardor asked, “I know you trying represent, Brotha, but I doubt we are working for any African countries. It’s cold as hell outside.”

“They could have a base somewhere else. We could be working to kill off the terrorists. You know there are a lot of terrorists in Africa…”

“We are the terrorists…”

No one heard the person come in. The person was silent. He had sneaked up on us in a way that caused Ardor to scream out a little bit.

A bunch of us jumped on the beds shocked to see what was standing in front of us. I was shocked most of all by what the person said but how they looked like was disarming.

Two swollen eyes. Bruises were all over the persons body. They looked like they had just been in a car accident or something.

And yet the person was still attractive…

No. It couldn’t be.

“Urge?”

He sat on his bed. It was him. I could tell. He had been beaten up but it was definitely him. He was the only one that could sneak right up to you and you not notice at all.

“Ardor,” I ordered almost immediately, “Get some ice out of the mini fridge in the back. Ardor! Wake up! GET SOME ICE!”

Ardor had just been standing there staring like the rest of them. Everyone was shocked that he was still alive. How was it possible? I was breathing heavily.

“How is he? How are you…still alive?” Passion asked.

“Can you guys give him space?” I asked.

Ardor had come back with the ice. He just stood there with it though and looked at Urge. They were staring at him like a ghost or something. We had all just known that he was dead. There was no doubt in our minds. I had mourned Urge. I had fucking mourned him but he was here right now. He was beat up but he was alive.

I grabbed the ice out of Ardor’s hands. I started to apply it to him. I put pressure on wounds. I watched as he scorned a little bit twitching as I applied the ice.

He seemed defensive.

“I won’t hurt you,” I told him.

He nodded and just stood still. The others watched him and watched me apply ice to him. They had given him his space for a while but they all seemed confused. They all seemed suspicious.

It was Allure who spoke first. She had the most suspicious look out of everyone. She seemed unwelcoming. Allure crossed her arms, “Lust said that whoever stole that gun would be killed.”

She seemed annoyed. Now that Urge was back she definitely wasn’t he best in the group any longer. Maybe that is why she was looking so defensive. You would think that it was a bad thing that he was still alive or something. I had never seen a reaction to life be more negative than a reaction to death before. When they thought he was dead they seemed so OK with it.

“I’m different,” he stated, “It’s the reason I took the fall. I knew they wouldn’t kill me.”

Craving asked, “Who are you? Why are you different?”

Craving must have been thinking about what I shared with him earlier. He must have been thinking about the fact that Urge knew how we were being graded by the moderators. He had to have known.

“I’m different because of who I am?”

“What?”

Urge seemed to hesitate.

I knew he would drop a bomb worse than anything that we had seen in bomb class.

“Well I am different…I’m different because of who my father is. My father is Tom.”

6

Urge had just admitted that he was Tom’s son. Tom was the leader the Assembly. He was that handsome middle aged black man that I had met when I’d first come here. He was the reason that we were were all here. I couldn’t believe it but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.

“He’s lying,” Passion stated, bluntly.

“He’s not lying,” Allure responded.

Allure was smarter than Passion. I knew that for sure. She crossed her hands. Her thick Russian accent echoed through the dormitory. She had this cold look on her face; a silent, deadly Nikita.

“How do you know?”

Allure responded coldly, “Before I came here I was a sniper for the armed forces of the Russian Military. I was top in the country serving directly under the Defense Minister. For three years I trained. I should be the top in this class. I’m not. Urge is. He’s done this training before.”

It all made sense now why Allure was so talented. She was in the military. I didn’t think it was fair. She was in the military and I was about to go to cooking school to be a chef. Really? How the fuck did they choose me?

Allure accepting it seemed to make everyone else accept it too. It was clear that she was one of the strongest and people looked up to her. Passion eyes glared at him. She did it in a way that made me suspicious really.

“She’s right,” he said, “I’ve done this training before…twice…”

“How the FUCK is that fair?” Passion went in.

I didn’t understand how she thought this was about being fair. I didn’t understand how she was even thinking right now. None of this was fair. Us being removed for our lives and trained as assassins wasn’t fair.

“My father isn’t a fair man. Or a good man. He doesn’t work for any of the governments directly. He’s sponsored by the worst men in the world. Once we get out of here we will become the bad guys. We will be the terrorists…”Shit.

I knew we had been just drunk talking. I suspected it. I didn’t see any government training their operatives by kidnapping them. I didn’t see that happening.

“Why did you train multiple times?” Craving asked.

“ I never made the team. I was on Gluttony’s team first. My codename was Greed then. The next time I was on Envy’s team. My codename was Jealousy. This is my third time trying out for a team. Unlike the others I’m not killed if I don’t make the team. I am just recycled through the process because of the fact that my father is the leader of this.”

I thought it was fucked up really. I thought it was all fucked up but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t have the chance. I was on my guard for some reason. I was on my guard because I noticed that Allure had a look in her eyes. I had seen the look before.

“Interesting isn’t it Allure?” Romance stated.

“Yes,” Allure stated with a smile on her face, “Tom’s son right here. Why don’t we send a message to Tom. Why don’t we let Tom know that I was the WRONG BITCH to kidnap. Romance, Glamour…”Shit!It was an attack.

Glamour was the first to try to go for Urge. She had jumped on the bed next to Urge and was attempting to leap on him. Urge wasn’t moving! He wasn’t moving!I was though. I was moving before I knew my body would. I didn’t know I was so fast. I found myself right in front of Urge before Glamour could get on top of him. I hit her midair, delivering a high punch to her abdomen.

She was tossed back by the impact.

Her body slammed into the cart behind her.

Romance was next. She followed up making an attempt to come at once she realized that I was defending Urge. I wished I had a knife. I didn’t though. I had to pretend like I had one. For some reason I was holding my hand the same way that I would hold my knife. It made me feel more comfortable.

She came at me with long legs. She was barefoot and delivered kick to my face. It barely grazed me. I backed up. I was breathing hard.

Romance was strong! She was good at the hand-to-hand.

She came at me again not giving me the chance to really think about it. This time her leg tried to kick me in the stomach. I blocked it with my arm. I blocked another kick that was low trying to sweep me. She looked frustrated. I was getting to her. She started at me doing a jump kick that seemed like it was about to be aimed towards my head again.

I didn’t know I was so fast as when I caught her foot. She let out a scream when she noticed she was mine!

I put my weight into her body, My palm slid to her knee caps. I put everything I could into the toss. I flung her body across the room further than I ever expected that I could. She flew on the floor sliding.

“Damn Desire!” Passion stated.

She was shocked. Hell I was shocked too. I hadn’t realized that I had become so good at hand-to-hand. It had to be the fact that I wanted to protect Urge. I wanted to protect him with every fiber in my body. I was a lot faster due to my knife training as well. I could see openings a lot easier. I had taken out Glamour and Romance in just a few moves!

Allure addressed me with her thick Russian accent, “Don’t do this. Tom kidnapped us. He took away our lives. Don’t you get that? How could you defend his son? We can get even right now Desire. We can make him pay.”

Revenge was in her eyes. I could tell it was.

“You’ll have to go through me if you want him,” was all that I said.

My voice was someone that I didn’t recognize. I was cold, alert and ready. I wasn’t that little boy who was scared of his own shadow anymore. I had been training for months to fight. My body was in the best condition it had ever been.

“Fine…”

Allure started towards me. Allure was different though. She was a lot tougher than Glamour and Romance. She was probably tougher than the two of them combined. I knew that as she approached me. A part of me was sure that Allure was dangerous. A part of me knew that she would kill me if she needed to just to get revenge on Tom. Maybe she was right. Maybe it was the only way to get revenge on Tom. Maybe it was the only opportunity we had. I couldn’t kill Urge though. I couldn’t allow Urge to be killed either.

Allure stopped in her tracks though. I noticed why she had stopped. I wasn’t standing alone anymore. Craving was right next to me. He was a lot bigger than I was. His fists were balled up.

“You’ll have to go through both of us to get to Urge,” Craving told her.

She had stopped moving.

Allure laughed. It was a cold, distant laugh that seemed to have so much malice and hatred behind it, “You guys are idiots. Fine. Have it your way. Protect the son of our enemy. When Tom orders his zombies to put a bullet through your head it’ll be your fault. You had your chance to make him pay. Just make sure that you sleep with your eyes open…”

She walked away.

Passion stayed surprisingly.

“Are you ok?” she asked.

I ignored her. I could care less if she stayed around or not.

“Get out of my face,” I said.

I continued to apply the ice to Urge. Passion knew I was stronger now than she thought I was. I think now they all knew that I was stronger by how I had handled myself against Romance and Glamour. Allure was a different story though. She was fucking dangerous and I knew that. Having her around wasn’t going to be easy. She could come at me at any moment. That look in her eyes said that she wanted to come at me too. She wanted to do something and it was just a matter of time before she tried…

With the fighting that had gone on there was clear separation. Passion had rejoined Allure. The other two girls were licking their wounds and their egos on the other side of the room.

Craving had moved our beds closer towards the back locker rooms. Urge was in the furthest corner. I looked back at him as the lights went out which was usually the instruction that it was time to go to sleep.

“Thanks for protecting him,” I told Craving.

Ardor had gone to bed in the top bunk. Craving was standing next to me. Our eyes were half way looking at what the girls on the other side of the room were doing and

Craving looked at me, “Let’s get this right. I didn’t do it for him. I did it for you. Besides what’s revenge going to accomplish? You know.? We’d still be here…”

He was right. That didn’t make sense to Allure though. She was on the other side of the room. She was rocking back and forth. She looked like she would make a move any minute now. They were talking among themselves but I had no idea what they were saying. We were too far away. Allure was dangerous. She had danger written all over her.

“We should do shifts, at least for tonight. They seem worked up; they may try something.”

“I can take the first shift,” Craving offered, “You need some rest after kicking all that ass today and I saw you going extra had with the knife training…”

“No…I’ll stay up first. Get some sleep.”

Craving nodded. He wasn’t going to fight me on it. He walked over and cuddled with Ardor.

I noticed that Urge was still up. I couldn’t help but to make my way over to him. I was standing over his bed for a second and he scooted over. He didn’t offer me to sit down but him scooting over seemed to mean something.

I took a seat next to him. It was awkward being so close to him but I didn’t mind.

“Why did you stop them?” he asked, almost in a whisper, “They deserve to be mad. They deserve to kill me…”

“Did you have anything to do with us being kidnapped?” I asked him.

“Of course not…”“That’s why then,” I stated shaking my head, “Looks to me like you are in the same situation as we are. What kind of man forces his son to do this?”

“A bad man,” Urge stated shaking my head, “You guys don’t know what this is. It only gets worse…it never gets better.”

Urge was beautiful even with the scars all over his face. It was clear that even though Tom was his brother he wasn’t above discipline. They hadn’t killed him but they had beat him up real good. I didn’t care though. He was alive. That was all that mattered to me. He was actually talking now too and not just saying the necessary words to get his point across. It was strange that he was doing this.

“Hopefully your face get’s better,” I stated, “I might lose my crush on you. Allure might just get to you then…”He laughed.

I was shocked. I was joking of course. Nothing could make me lose the crush I had on him. I had flirted before but he never took the bait. Now he was actually smiling as though he was amused. It was a warm smile.

“I can take her…if I wanted to,” he said.

“Why don’t you want to?”

“I’m tired I guess,” he replied shaking his head, “I’m tired of going through this over and over. You know how many friends I’ve had. How many people I thought were good people that ended up dead?”

I could only imagine. I shook my head. I felt bad for him. Going through this once was enough. If I didn’t make the team I would be killed. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing at least I knew that was the end. It was different for Urge. If he didn’t make the team he wouldn’t be killed. He would just be recycled into another team with another name. I couldn’t imagine that. I couldn’t imagine having to go through this kind of intense training over and over and over. I felt so bad for him.

“You’ll make it this time,” I stated crossing my arms, “You’re the best.”

He should be as many times as he went through this.

“I’d like…I’d like you to make it as well…”

“You would?”

He sighed.

Urge sighed, confessing me to me, “The last time I was in training I promised myself that I wouldn’t get to know people. That is why I’ve been distant from you. That’s why I’ve been distant from everyone.”

“You saved me though. If it weren’t for you I would have been killed for stealing that gun,” I stated.

He nodded.

“You owe me now. It’s your turn again to save me again,” he said.

He was talking about the endurance challenges. He was talking about the fact when he saved me after he saved him. It was getting kind of amusing though. We just kept saving one another over and over. I just wished that meant something though. It made sense why he didn’t let me in.

I just wished he was letting me in now, even a little bit. This was the most that Urge had ever said to me.

“No I saved you from the girls remember?”

“That does NOT count. I told you I could take them.”

“Fine. Fine. I owe you.”

Urge was smiling, “Well I’m about to go to sleep. Tired as fuck. They beat the fuck out of me back there man. But Desire…”

“Yes?”

“I’m invested in you now. You better make it…”

I got up off my cot. I let the words sink in. In the night I just stayed up watching as Urge went to sleep that moment. For some reason it meant so much that he was saying that to me. The words hit me like a ton of bricks.

Someone was invested in me and I was going to make it.

“…So the moderator just takes away my gun. Allure starts laughing. She’s so high and fucking mighty I swear to god,” Ardor was saying.

It was the next day and we were in the mesh hall Allure clearly wasn’t around or there was no way that Ardor would be talking like this. Ardor was telling Craving and I stories about his horrible experience in gun training. He always had a horrible experience. It kind of made sense. He used to sing and dance before this. He was on his way to Broadway. This wasn’t the kind of life for him. Then again I was a goddam cook. I don’t think I had much room to be speaking.

“I don’t mind Ardor,” Craving told his boyfriend.

“Are you serious? She’s a pompous little bitch. She thinks she’s can’t do any wrong. Can’t take her goddam Russian accent. Communist cunt. I swear that’s what she is goddam it. Stuck-up Slut! She thinks she’s good at everything.”

“Maybe it’s because she is good at everything.”

“Why you taking her side?”

I tried to laugh. Craving started to apologize to his boyfriend but truth be told Ardor was just having another one of his gigantic whine fests. He was complaining and it was annoying as shit. I looked over to my right not realizing that someone was walking up to us. There he was…Urge. Urge had the sexiest face on that I had ever seen him make. Damn this boy was beautiful. Tom was a fucked up individual but he knew how to do make one thing that was right.

That thing happened to be Urge.

“Can I sit, you guys?” Urge asked.

Craving gave me a look. I knew Craving wasn’t the biggest fan of Urge. Hell Ardor wasn’t a big fan of Urge either. No one was a big fan of Urge. The thing about Urge was he wasn’t a likable person. Now that he was Tom’s son, people just seemed to straight up want him dead. For some reaosn he seemed like he was at least trying.

“Sure,” I stated.

I knew I was going to be the only one to agree.

It was awkward seeing Urge actually try to join a group. He seemed shy and nervous. He seemed completely out of place. I thought it was so cute. Guns and blood didn’t make this guy shy or nervous but being around other people in a social setting did.

Ardor went on bitching about Allure before starting to bitch about Passion. I wasn’t even listening at a point. I was just looking at Urge.

I smiled at him.

He gave me a half smile back…very Urge-like.

I was paying so much attention to the fact that Urge was around that I didn’t notice the person walking up to me. It was Sandy…Wrath.

My heart stopped and everyone stopped talking including Ardor. Ardor was in mid-sentence when he stopped and just stared.

“Desire…I would like to speak to you…if possible.”

He was so strange. He was such a strange person. I had to admit he was attractive though. The sandy hair and the slim beach body.

I got up at that moment.

A voice came almost so low that it was a soft whisper on the bench, “Don’t do it.” ‘

It was Urge. He hadn’t even looked up at the table at Wrath and I but I knew he was talking to me. The look on his face was serious again. He was such a socially awkward person not seeming to know how to communicate with people at all.

Urge wasn’t the only one on guard. Craving had gotten up from his seat. He looked like he was just waiting for the word to do something serious. Wrath seemed to find it funny how my friends were guarding me like that. He actually laughed. He had a cold odd laugh. He had a stare that was SO similar to Urge that it was scary. They were twins in the eyes almost. The stare was so intense that it seemed to go right through me.

Wrath gave me his hand. He was soft and gentle, almost completely opposite from what I expected.

“I’ll be back,” I told them.

Urge finally turned his head and watched me leave with Wrath.

“I’d like to show you something,” Wrath was telling me.

I was nervous. I was scared.

“You tricked me. You brought me here…”

“I don’t choose the targets but yes it was my actions that finally brought you here,” Wrath told me as we walked through the hall, “I know you won’t ever forgive me for such a thing. I would like to you to though. I’d like you to forgive me.”He was being so gentle. It was so different from all the things I had heard about him from Lust. Sure he looked crazy how he always stared at me from across rooms and things. Sure he had kidnapped me. I wondered if forgiveness was something that was in my cards though.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Yes…”

“Rank 1 was a knowledge test. Did you cheat on that test for me so that I could get a perfect score.”

“Of course.”

He smiled at me as though that was the most normal thing in the world to do.

“Why?”

“You was tasked with grading by the Moderators. You weren’t do so well on it. I decided to help you,” he stated and smiled, “You would have been dead by now if I hadn’t.”

I stopped. The thought of what he did weighed heavily on me. Maybe this guy wasn’t so bad at all. Maybe Lust had gotten wrong. Maybe the way people stared at him as though he was the scariest thing in the world was just a misconception. He kept smiling at me. I could tell he seemed happy to be walking with me. I wondered why.

“What do you want with me?” I asked him.

“What do you mean? You’re mine.”

His face changed. That was when I realized he REALLY was the crazy motherfucker that Lust was telling me about. I started getting nervous almost immediately.

“Excuse me…”

“You’re mine. You’re all mine,” he stated nodding, “From the moment I saw you I knew you were mine. Don’t you get it. Normally procedure is to watch someone for a month before stealing them so not to compromise the mission. You were a little different. I watched you so much longer. I watched you for years. Two years. Two years I spent in your shadows. I watched you shower. I watched you have sex with that thing you called a boyfriend. I hid under your bed. I hid in your closets. I watched you cook, every single day. I tasted all your food when you stepped away. My favorite dish was your scallops…”

“Oh my God.”

I stopped walking. I wanted to run back. I was scared for my life at that moment. Why the fuck did I walk over here. This motherfucker was a stalker! HE was crazy. I kept thinking before I was kidnapped about all the times something was out of place. I used to think it was nothing. I used to think it was just my imagination. A lot of the times I thought I was home alone. That was impossible, I had thought. It was impossible!“ “I know right, isn’t the best opener to our romance?” Wrath asked.

“I should go back.”

I started to walk away but immediately I felt Wrath grab me. I tried to toss him. I tried to lock my legs around his right leg and toss him but it didn’t work. He didn’t even budge. He just held onto my shirt leaned me forward and shook me violently as though shaking out any will I had to do something stupid. Then he used his arms to tie me up. I NEVER had my hands twisted around so quickly as he did it.

I had thought I was powerful. I had thought I had learned to defend myself after all this time but Wrath was treating my body like a toy.

“Why would you leave?” he asked, “Isn’t that rude? I wanted to show you something. I wanted to show you something special…”

My heart was racing. I wanted to scream but I knew no one would hear me except the moderators who were in the hallway. What would they do? They had noticed us scuffling in the hallway but they didn’t seem to give the slightest fuck.

I was freaked out. I was nervous.

Wrath pulled me into a room after a while. The room was completely black. There was this strange noise in the room. There were these moans.

“Oh my God. OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!”“I know! Surprise. Do you like?”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were people in front of my hanging from hooks. I thought I was in some sick twisted fantasy. About five people my age were hanging from these hooks that were stuck in their bodies. They hung upside down. Next to them were students just like me. They had on their gray scrubs and tennis shoes. What they were doing to the people hanging upside down was what was scared the fuck out of me.

They were flaying them!

“No. Oh my god, no…no…”

It was worse then anything I could ever imagine. I never imagined in my life I would see something so vile. I never imagined in my life I would see something so disgusting.

They were flaying them like you would a dead animal, peeling back their skin. All of the people hanging upside down were still alive. One boy was so bad that he had no skin left all except on his face. The person cutting him went deeper. Deeper and deeper. I could see bone. They were AWARE of what these students were doing to them the entire time. None of them screamed. It was like they had no more will. They just let out these low, sad moans.

I wanted to cry for them.

I hit the ground…too weak to stand.

There were dogs on the ground. The dogs were Rottweilers. The Rottweilers licked up the blood of the flayed victims as they hit the ground.

“Isn’t this great?” Wrath asked me, “We have something in common see. That’s why I wanted to show you this. You know what my specialty is? Guess…oh come on. Don’t just look there surprised. Guess. You’re not going to guess? Huh? It’s ok. I’ll give it to you. I’ll do anything for you, you know? Well here it is! Look how sharp it is. Its the knife. Just like yours is. I thought you would like to see how I was teaching my students knife work.”

Knife work?

Me and him had nothing in common. I had no idea things like this happened in this place. I thought I was in hell before. I was wrong. There was a different hell. There was a hell SO much worse then anything I could imagine. I thought a moderator was the devil.

No…Wrath was the devil. Wrath was the only devil there ever was.

My voice was weak hidden by tears, “These are your students?”“Prospective, silly,” Wrath stated, “You see Lust just shoots the people who don’t make it. How basic and boring is that? I use the people who don’t make it to the next rank to teach the ones who do. Isn’t that so much better? Huh. What do you think, Desire? Isn’t this much better than Lust?

He was sick. He was deranged man.

“Teach them what?”

He laughed, “I told you silly. Knife work! You should have been on my team. You and me with our knives. I love the way you cut things. I have the biggest crush on you. We could have done great things, you know?”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to vomit again. I wanted to cry. I kept looking away. I kept looking away until Wrath turned my head.

“I know. It brings you to tears doesn’t it? You never seen anything so beautiful? It’s amazing. I knew you would like it. I knew this would make your day. I know, it’s too soon for marriage between us. It’s ok. This is just the beginning of us. I’ll show you beautiful things like this all the time when we get married. We’ll flay things together…”

I was hyperventilating. The smell of blood and flesh was making me want to pass out. Wrath’s students that were doing the cutting didn’t even seem to be phased by it. They must have been doing it for such a long time. They had become maniacs. They had become crazy. This could never have been me. This could never have been me.

“Listen I’m on Lust’s team. I’m going up for her team. I may not even make it. Maybe…maybe you shouldn’t plan for the future just yet.”

There was no other way to talk to someone as crazy as Wrath. I had to try to reason to him. Wrath was whispering something to himself all of a sudden. I wanted to cry again. I felt like if I didn’t keep my cool I’d end up like one of these people hanging from hooks.

“Lust doesn’t deserve you. She’s weak. You know her whole team is dead except for her protege. That’s why she is recruiting for four people. I am just recruiting for one. It should have been you. It’s ok. I’ll still marry you. We’ll have kids…and teach them how to cut.”

“Can I leave now? Please?”

He seemed confused. He literally seemed confused. I tried to get up and I was kicked in my shins! I was kicked so hard that I came crashing down on the floor. He was strong. He was fast. He was probably faster then Urge. I hadn’t even seen him coming. I had never seen someone move so fast! It was almost not human how fast he had kicked me!

“No. I want to spend time with you,” he told me.

“We should wait,” I stated shaking in every part of me, “We should wait, you know, for a while. Until I’m done with training. Until I can use a knife really really well. Then we can use our knives together. You know. Wouldn’t that be so much better?”

I would say anything to get out of this room.

“Oh my god. You’re SO right. See, that’s why I love you…”

He’d let me go.

I walked into the room horrified. The others had tried to say something to me. Craving had called me over to him. I didn’t say anything back to them though. I just kept walking. I walked until I went to the back of the bathroom area.

I laid down on the bathroom floor and I cried. I cried and I cried.

When I looked up it was Urge there. Had he known? Had he known this entire time what kind of person Wrath was? Urge didn’t have any emotion as he stood over me watching me. Urge wasn’t the type of guy to pat me on the back. He wasn’t the type of guy to whisper sweet words of endearment to me. He wasn’t the type of guy to baby me and tell me that everything was going to be ok.

Still I felt some sort of support there. He stood over me almost like a guardian angel or something. He let me get it all out and him being there just seemed to be the most.

It was then that I knew him just standing there was Urge’s way of showing that he cared.

When I finally cried so much that I couldn’t cry any longer he nodded at me, “I told you not to go. Stay in the back here and cry. I’ll keep guard. I’ll make sure that no one sees you. Make sure you let it out. Whatever Wrath showed you today, make sure that you let it all out. Make sure that you cry until you can’t cry anymore. It’s important that every tear is gone. Ok. Let it go. Because in the morning you’ll never cry again. I’ll make sure of it. You’ll never cry again.”

I nodded, weakly.

This was his way of showing compassion and I wouldn’t have had it any other way….

He stood at the door standing guard. He wouldn’t let anyone see me this weak.

“In the morning your training intensifies.”

7

Urge’s voice was fierce and his command was loud.

“Again.”

I threw the knife. Perfect target.

“Again.”

I threw another knife. Perfect…

“Again.”

Perfect.

“Again. Again. Again. Again.”

Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Shit…off target.

“What the fuck was that?” Urge asked me, “Are you joking me right now…that is almost an inch from the target. Since when do you miss by an inch?’

It had been months. I wasn’t sure how many but if I had to guess I would have said eight. It kind of scared me to ask for the date. The date meant time. It meant time in the outside world that I was losing. It meant time that I would never get back. We were still in rank 3 and still mastering our weapon skills. Sometimes I thought Rank 3 would last forever. I didn’t think it was possible that I could get any better with my knife skills. I didn’t think it was possible that anyone was better than me…anywhere. When you do something over and over again everyday you tend to be the best at it.

“I’m sorry,” I told him.

“You think the moderators care if you’re sorry? You know who else is sorry? Yearn is sorry. Carnal is sorry. There are lot of sorry-ass dead people. And you know what? Don’t think an inch doesn’t matter. It does. Everyone is getting better. Not just you. Do you want to make it to Rank 4 or not?”

The moderators were right behind us taking notes on my performance. I had been throwing knives across 20 feet distances all day at wooden target with an extremely tiny target outlined by it. Urge had removed the regular targets and hung up the expert level targets. I could have mentioned that to him. I also hadn’t missed in weeks even by an inch in weeks. I could have mentioned that point to Urge as well but I knew it wouldn’t matter to him.

“I’ll be better,” I corrected myself.“Better?”It wasn’t good enough for Urge.

“I’ll be the best.”

He nodded. He put a comforting hand on the back of my neck. Every once in a while he would touch me…even a little bit. It meant the world when he did though. Just a soft touch that let me know that he cared. It was more then he gave anyone else in the world.

A soft touch was all that I needed from him.

“C`mon let’s hit the showers…”

He had gotten out of the showers at the same time as me. We spent a lot of the day together. Craving was pissed about it. The most I saw Craving was in the mesh hall. I spent most of my day training intensely with Urge. I felt stronger. I could do anything now. I was living weapon and I knew it.

“That water never gets fucking warm,” I complained and turned around to see him, “It’s like—”

Urge was drying off his skin. Seeing him naked never got tired. My mouth dropped. My eyes just stared at him. I just watched his carved torso and his round ass. He had the deepest V’s everywhere over his body. There was a deep V right above the arch of his ass. There was a deep V in his back when he flexed. There was deep V in his abdomen area. His dick was beautiful. It had a slight bend to it that I always thought was the cutest thing in the world.

Yes I was still in love with him even after all these months. I was more in love with him than ever and I didn’t know if that was possible.

Urge caught me staring.

“What?”

“Huh?“You said ‘it’s like’. You just stopped talking mid-sentence.”

Yeah. He still didn’t care about how I looked at him. He had to have noticed. I wasn’t the type of person who was scared to look. He had to know by now how I felt by him. He had to know I worshiped the ground he walked on. Urge wasn’t an idiot. He knew.

“Sorry.”

“What did I say about apologizing?” he asked shaking his head, “Just finish what you were saying. C`mon. It’s like…like what?”

“Winter.”

“Huh?”

“It’s like winter and the water is so cold. What is the date?”

“You never ask the date,” he noticed shaking his head clear all of a sudden before squinting his eyes in deep thought, “It is December 12th.”

I smirked.

December 12th.

Urge didn’t think anything about it. He went over to the sink. He was about to brush his teeth. I was obsessed with him. I loved the way his teeth were so fucking bleach white. I loved just watching him brush his teeth. The more I thought about it the more I realized I was become obsessed with Urge. It made me think about Wrath sometimes. Wrath was obsessed with me in the same way. Luckily I hadn’t seen Wrath in months. Maybe he was over it and would leave me alone.

Something was off.

Immediate action.

My feet moved faster then my brain. My left hand jerked forward to slap Urge’s wrist but he caught me. I managed to be faster moving my other hand knocking his toothbrush out of his hand.

Urge seemed pissed. As soon I slapped his wrist and knocked his toothbrush out of his hand he grappled me up. He put me up against the wall. His naked body was pressed up against my naked body. My legs were parted. I could straddle him just like this. I wanted to. I wanted to make love to him just like this.

“There better be a good fuckin’ reason you just did that.”

“Is your life a good reason?” I asked him.

“What?”

I took my time answering. I didn’t mind this position at all. Hell I would needed to smack Urge more often when he was naked if this is the reaction I was going to get. I was so turned on right now. “The toothbrush. It was laced in Belladonna. It’s a poison plant used the middle ages. A single leaf is lethal if consumed.”

He paused. He still held me up against the wall.

“You’re sure?”

I didn’t know much about being an assassin other than two things. I knew my knives and I knew my poisons. I had spent months focusing on just the two. I couldn’t help but smile.

“I was a chef, remember? My sense of smell is second to none.”

Urge dropped me. I thought he was going to examine the toothbrush but he just reached into the storage cabinet that was in the back of the bathroom for a brand new one. The moderators stocked the storage cabinets from time to time so people wouldn’t have to keep bothering them for supplies.

Urge wasn’t going to thank me. It was ok. I didn’t do it for thanks. I was just glad to see his face when he realized I had noticed something that he completely missed.

He rolled his eyes muffling off an accusation as he brushed his teeth, “Allure.”

“She’s still trying to kill you?”

“Sure is. Everyday.”

That Russian bitch had resolve. I had to give it to her. She had kept trying to kill Urge every chance she got in the first month after she found out that he was Tom’s son. I thought she had finally given up though. I thought she’d realized that Urge wasn’t the type to just lay down and die. I guess I was wrong…

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

He continued brushing his teeth. He didn’t seem too worried about it. He was even taking his time to answer me as though looking for a good enough reason. When he was done brushing his teeth he rinsed his mouth out with water. He smiled in the mirror. A perfect smile. It was a shame he hardly ever used it.

“What’s the point?” he asked, “What were you going to do about it?”

“Maybe help save your ass like I just did.”

Urge rolled his eyes, “I didn’t want to bother you about it. Allure has her reasons to want to kill me. It’s understandable. Maybe one day she’ll succeed. Maybe not. We’ll see I guess. I’m not going to stress over it though. I’m not going to let it rule my life.”

“That’s not normal. You know?”

“What killing people?”

“Yeah. I mean I know your dad is some psychotic madman but being an assassin isn’t normal. You shouldn’t get used to it.”

“What’s normal then, smart ass?”

I shrugged.

I hadn’t thought that deep into it.

“Look. Whatever. Let’s not get off topic,” I stated shaking my head, “Allure is trying to kill you. Gdam it. We should go do something. We should kill her first.”“Oh please…”

“We can take her, I’m stronger now.”“And so is she. Look. I’m not interested in her. I’m interested in me being the best and you know you I’m interested in you being second.”

He didn’t smile or anything like that. I knew he was trying to be a smart ass. A few months ago I didn’t think Urge had a sense of humor. That wasn’t the case. Urge did have a sense of humor but he was just socially awkward. He was REALLY socially awkward. He had no idea how to communicate with people. I was the only one he really ever talked to even now. No one else really heard him say more than a few sentences at a time.

I smiled at his teasing, “I saved your life. You know what this means don’t you? You know what this means?”

“No… I don’t know what this means.”

“We’re even!”

He rolled his eyes.

“Jesus Christ, I forgot about that.”

“How can you forget? That’s our thing. Now it’s your turn to save me. You have to save me again. I’m glad cause hell maybe I’ll need it. It’s my birthday after all.”

He turned to me. He raised an eyebrow confused.

“It’s your birthday.”

“Yep. December 12th. Crazy huh?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You didn’t tell me about Allure killing you, which is a little bit more important,” I told Urge, “Besides. I’m not that guy anymore. I can hardly remember that guys name. You know my name? My name is Desire. Plain and simple. No last name. No birthday. Just my knives and my poison. And on a good day a knife dipped in poison.”

He winked at me, “You’re getting dangerous aren’t you?”

I smiled.

“You have no idea…”

=========================================================================

The day was going by relatively quickly. Poisons training was my favorite really. People hated poisons so it was a lot of time to myself. I rather would have preferred Urge to be around. Usually he never left me alone too long. He’d even come to my poison training and he would sleep in a corner. He wasn’t there today though. I felt lonely a little out of it.

I dove into my poisons though. I loved natural poisons more then the chemical derived ones. I liked to mix poisons together from nature and come up with new poisons. It was interesting…sort of like finding new recipes for meals. More and more it kind of made sense why I was chosen to be here in a sick way. Even though I wasn’t trained in battle, knowing how to cook to the level I did gave me some unique skills.

I was dug in that day, cutting through poisons and using the scapel to dissect leaves to get out the poisonous parts. I had become very good at it. It was chemistry really. I had to understand everything about these poisons. Urge thought it was super boring.

Footsteps. Not moderator. Not familiar footsteps. Nor Urge. I never heard Urge coming.

Sneaky footsteps.

Someone was sneaking up on me!

I grabbed my scalpel. I dipped it in poison. I slid across the table turning around at the same time. I was across the table away from harms way and I sent the scalpel flying across the room in one quick toss.

The boy was cut across his cheek and the scalpel ended on on a back wall barely missing a moderator scoring me in the back who didn’t flinch even a little bit when the scalpel lodged in the wall next to her head.

“I missed you on purpose,” I told him, “I could have sent that scalpel right into your esophagus if I wanted to. I’m not the one, bitch boy.”

I recognized him but only barely. He had a sneaky face. He had a face that couldn’t be trusted. I hadn’t been introduced to him before but I had seen his face in passing. I scanned my memory. Where? I wished Urge was here. Urge had a great memory. He never forgot things. I wasn’t Urge though. I forgot things all the time.

“I know. I’ve heard amazing things about your skills,” he stated.

“That scalpel was dipped in a lethal poison,” I told him, “In 2 and a half minutes your throat will close up. You will begin to gag. You will lose your sight at 3 minutes. At 4 minutes most of your major organs will collapse. At 5 minutes you’ll be dead. All this unless I give you the antidote.”

He smiled in a sick way. It was super sick.

He wasn’t attractive like most of the assassins here. His face looked like he had been somewhat disfigured. His smile didn’t go all the way up. The fact that he was smiling after I told him what was on the scalpel pissed me off.

Did he think I wouldn’t let him die?

His eyes twinkled a little bit, “You’re so impressive. I’m so glad I’m talking to you. You are as good as he thought you would be…special…”

There was something so odd just about the way he was talking. There was something so odd about the way he was looking at me. It was almost like he was…obsesssed. It started to click who this boy was all of a sudden.

I crossed my arms. I was NOT the one to be fucked with. Not anymore. I was not a victim in this.

My face was serious. The most serious face I could make.

I smiled back at him, “2 minutes until it begins. Do you feel the tightness in your throat? Now do you plan on telling me who you are, why you were sneaking up on me and why your hands are behind your back?”

“To surprise you silly. It’s your birthday! Duh! My name is Temper.”

Temper? I was able to pair that up with one of the 7 sins almost immediately. I would have known who he was even if he didn’t tell me. There was something familiar about the sick way that he spoke.

“Wrath sent you. You’re one of his students…”

“The last of his students. The others didn’t make it past rank 3,” he said laughing.

He thought it was funny. It was rare to see another student in these parts. The moderators had separated the training teams out completely. I guess if he was the only one to make it though he wasn’t just a regular student anymore. Temper had made it on Wrath’s team. Wrath had a protege in Temper. Temper seemed to be like Wrath Jr. or something. He had that same twisted stare. He had that same scary, disgusting look etched on his face.

He made me just as nervous.

“You answered two of three questions. Answer the last and I’ll let you live,” I told him, “What’s behind your back.”

He smiled.

“Roses SILLY. It’s your birthday,” he stated and smiled calmly, collectively, “My throat is closing up. It would be an honor to die to the man that loves Wrath so much, but Wrath wanted me to return, see…”

It freaked me out how kept calling me silly. It freaked me out that he had been poisoned and was about to die but his main concern was the fact that Wrath wanted him to come back. He was sick. He was twisted. He sounded just like Wrath. He was using the same words as Wrath. I could only imagine how sick he could have been to be the only one to survive Wrath’s training class. I didn’t want to be near him.

“Leave the roses. The antidote is on the desk I was working on. Green syringe. Take the entire thing.”He smiled. He kept his eyes on me with this almost loving look. It was almost a look of admiration. This motherfucker was crazy and Wrath was STILL stalking me.

He pulled flowers from behind his back. They were red. Roses.

Temper took the antidote, turned and walked away smiling the entire time like he was someone who had just gone on a impressive date instead of someone who was just minutes away from losing his life.

I looked down at the roses when Temper had left the room. Something was off about the roses. Something was DEFINITELY off about them. I touched one of the leaves. It seemed as if they were soaked in something. They seemed a little too red.

Blood!I dropped the roses immediately, breaking the vases underneath me.

“You ok?”I turned. I hadn’t even seen Craving walk in at that moment. My guard was down. That wasn’t good. I had let the blood soaked roses get to me. Craving was standing behind me. Out of everyone I knew Craving had heavy footsteps. I should have heard him coming. Urge would have been pissed if he knew I was slipping like this.

“Yes…”I stood in front of him. Blocking the flowers. The last thing I wanted to do was having Craving worry about me.

“You sure?” he asked.

I nodded smiling intently, “I’m great. Look. What did you need?”“Urge wanted to see you.”“He sent you.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s a little odd. You hate Urge.”

“Look you going to come or not. Geez.”

I laughed. I trusted Craving with my life and more. I followed behind him glad that I was leaving the room. I wanted to be far away from any thought of Wrath.

We made our way back to the dorm room. I kept wondering what the hell Urge would have wanted with me really. I didn’t question it though. It wasn’t until I got to the dormitory that the lights flickered on and I realized what was going on.

“SURPRISE!”I had put my guard up and tripped Ardor who was running towards me.

“Wow. You almost killed my boyfriend,” Craving replied, “Remind me never to throw you a surprise birthday party.”

“Oh my god.”

That was exactly what this was. It was a surprise birthday party. I was shocked. I immediatley helped Craving pick up Ardor off the floor. His nose was bleeding. I had tripped him really hard. It made sense now that he was just running towards me to give me a hug.

Everyone who I knew was there. Passion, Allure, Romance, Glamour, Craving and Ardor were around me. They were waving streamers around in the air. Glamour even had blow horn. I had idea how they got these things.

Where was Urge?“Look at this…it’s a cake…” Ardor stated, “I cooked it up in the kitchens behind the mesh hall. I didn’t even know I could do it but the moderators didn’t stop me so I just kept going! I know it’s not up to your standards…you being a chef and all but you know. It’s ok.”I hugged Ardor. He was the sweetest guy.

“Craving is lucky to have you man.”

“He’s lucky to have you too. AS a friend. Don’t get no ideas trying to steal my man.”

I laughed. He was standing there with a huge chocolate cake. It had candles it in already with the numbers 19 written out. I was shocked. I almost wanted to cry really. I had birthday parties before. I had surprise birthday parties before but this was different.

The craziest year of my life and I still managed to get a birthday cake. I felt like that old Jonathan…the one who wasn’t trained to be an assassin.

For the first time in almost a year I hadn’t felt like Desire.

Craving came upt o me next, “Ok. My turn. This is for my best friend in the whole wide world. I want you to enjoy your birthday. I want you to turn up tonight and forget about where we are. I want you to be happy. You hear me. Tomorrow we are assassins…but tonight we are teenagers…”

Teenagers.

The idea seemed like such a foreign concept to me.

He handed me his gift. It was wrapped up sloppily in only a way that Craving could wrap something up. The funny thing is was that it was pretty good for craving.

“Did you eat the packaging baby?” Ardor asked.

Craving pushed him, “Shut up. It’s the thought that counts.”

“You’re right,” I stated unwrapping the gift, “The thought…is….really Craving? Porn?”

They were porn magazines. There were male and female in there. A lot of them had both. Bisexual porn with the guys fucking the girls while sucking another guy’s dick. I couldn’t take this. I laughed so much that I started to cry at that moment.

“Now you can stop beating your dick to Urge in the showers. They are starting to get really fucking sticky.”

“You KNOW about that?”“I’m your best friend dummy…”

I felt embarrassed but at the same time, fuck it. It was my birthday. It didn’t matter. Everyone knew by now that there was nothing I liked more than a little bit of Urge. I sure did beat my dick to him every time I got the chance. And I loved it too. His memory of seeing his tight body was way better than any porn that I could ever watch.

I had noticed that the girls were laughing at everything but they seemed a little standoffish. I guess it was the fact that there had been this huge tension between us all. I was protecting Urge. Craving was protecting me. Ardor was, well…Ardor was on our side trying his best, I guess.

Allure came over to me. She had a present. She had it wrapped up, “This is from me and the girls. You know we may want to kill your boyfriend but we believe it or not…we actually like you kid…”I couldn’t help but laugh. Allure stood with her cronies behind her. Glamour, Romance and even Passion were just smiling on watching as I started to open her gift. I opened the gift to reveal that it was weed.”“Really? Drugs?”“We got it from poisons. We told the moderators that we needed it to make some very potent poisons,” Romance laughed.

“Hey. It’s for all of us. We deserve something to take our mind off of this shit.”I was smiling hard. I missed weed, “Well fuck it. Light it up!”

They didn’t even wait for me to say another word. They started lighting up the weed. The blunts were already rolled. The stuff was potent. They had put a wet towel under the door to hide the scent. It was definitely some potent stuff.

“Smoke! SMOKE! SMOKE!”I heard the chants.

I took a big puff of the weed. It went straight into my nostrils and into my brain. Fuck. Yeah. I needed that. I felt an immediate high come over me. I started coughing my lungs out at the minute and watched as everyone else around me started to laugh.

“That’s that Cali Kush,” Romance said.

We passed it around in circles. We were immediately getting high and everything seemed funny. I hadn’t seen Craving and Passion share a laugh in a minute but all of a sudden they were all joking around.

And I was happy.

I was more than happy.

My heart felt warm. I felt like even in times of sadness. Even in times of tribulation there was still that one glimpse of hope. There was still those people who would go through it all with you. They would battle you. They would argue. In our world they would even try to kill you, but the struggle was real. The struggle brought the relationships. The struggle brought the respect. I respected these people. I respected everyone, even Allure. Even Passion. Even Ardor.

These people may have not all been my friends.

But these people were my companions in this fucked up place called the Assembly.

And sometimes that meant more.

“Bring your mouth over here,” Craving stated, “I want to try something.”

“Don’t let Ardor kill me,” I laughed.

Ardor laughed. He knew that Craving was far from my type though. Craving took a hit of the weed held it in his mouth and then blew it into my mouth. There was laughter again. I found myself doing the same thing to Ardor next.

“You’re worried about my boyfriend being jealous…” Craving whispering while laughing, “You might want to take a look over there.”

Urge was on the other side of the wall. He was leaned up against it. His eyes were intently watching me give and get shotgunned. Urge didn’t get jealous though. Did he? As usual you didn’t even see him walking in. You didn’t know he was there. The perfect assassin. When he noticed me staring he turned and walked back towards the locker rooms in the back.

“I’ll be right back.”’

They hadn’t even noticed I was leaving. It was cool with me. Everyone was having a good time. They deserved it. We all deserved a party once in a while.

I walked over to Urge who was sitting in the back. He had a ever so slight smirk on his face. His shirt was off and his pants were a little too big. They sagged right underneath the V line etched into his torso. He was so fucking sexy. He had this quiet, awkward SWAG about him that just drove me crazy every time I saw him.

“You having fun kissing your friends?” he asked me.

I almost wanted to tease him about him being jealous but I knew that was impossible.

“It wasn’t a kiss. It was a shotgun.”

“What?”

“Jesus. You never did a shotgun.”

He seemed confused, “What are you talking about? You know I use shotguns all the time. You watch me use the Semi-automatic shotgun and the M500 Pump Shotgun almost every…uh, oh shit. Wait. You didn’t mean an actual shotgun, did you?”

I laughed. He was too cute. I was pretty sure that he’d never done drugs in his life.

“No, Urge. No. Not at all.”

“I’m not good at those things.”

“What things?”

“Those social things.”

“You seem fine to me. You just need to get out there and communicate with people more. Stop being so damn shy.”

He shook his head, “I’m fine with talking to you. Just you.”

I smiled. It was flattering and sad at the same time. I didn’t know how Urge was raised but I could only imagine that it had to be difficult. He probably never knew a world like I knew. He never got to experience that normal life that the rest of us did. I could tell by how he was so awkward even though he never went into great detail.

“You can get out there. You know how to dislocate an arm in 20 ways. Having a conversation isn’t hard. You do it with me all the time.”

“You’re special.”

Urge wasn’t trying to flatter me. I knew he wasn’t. I wish I didn’t take it as that though. I wish I didn’t hear him say something that was just a flat out fact in his mind as him him trying to flirt. I sighed. I was so in love with this guy it was kind of pathetic.

“I’ll take it.”

“Look behind you. To the right. I got you something,” he stated.

“Are you serious? Oh my god. I wasn’t expecting it. I mean I probably would have expected it from the girls who wanted to kill us even before I expected it from you.”“You’re pushing it…” he said bluntly.

“Sorry. Sorry! Oh my god. I’m so excited.”

I couldn’t even imagine what it was. I opened the box.

“A knife…”

I didn’t know why I was surprised. I didn’t know why I thought it would have been something a little bit more personal like the others. Immediately I felt like I was snapped back into the world of an assassin.

“It’s a Kyoketshu-Shogei knife made from one of the bests blacksmiths in Japan. The blade material is 440 stainless steel with a gut hook. If you keep digging in the bag you’ll find the black satin sheath and a chain.”

“A knife.”

“Don’t worry you won’t get in trouble for having it. They don’t get mad unless you take one of their inventory. I was able to bring this here with me. I wasn’t kidnapped…well not in the same way as everyone else was. I was able to bring a few items with me from my personal life.”

“Oh…ok…”

He got me…a knife.

“There’s a chain too. 20 foot long chain. So when you throw it, stab somebody all up real good, you can bring it back. Adds that level of complexity. You know.”

I was out of it, “Oh. Yeah. Complexity.”

“What’s wrong? Do you not like it?”

I smiled. This was Urge. What had I expected? This was his way of showing affection. This was his way of showing that he cared. I let go of the feeling of disappoint immediately. It was the thought that counts was what Craving had said earlier.

“I love it.”

He smiled, for real this time, “Good. To be honest it was hard to part with. It was the only physical thing in this world that I ever cared about. But I guess I’m giving it to the other only physical thing I ever cared about…you. Maybe you can keep each other safe. You see, it means a lot. It was the only thing my mother ever gave me before my father killed her.”

He had no emotion. Just fact.

“Oh my god.”

Bells.

I hadn’t even had the time to think about what he had just said. The fact that Tom had killed his mother or the fact that he was giving ME the only thing his dead mother ever gave him. All of a sudden I was holding onto this blade a little harder than before. It had sentimental meaning. This wasn’t just any knife. This was everything to him.

We were back in the room now. As we looked at the other side of the wall we noticed who was standing there. It was Lust. At first I thought we were going to get in trouble. The weed smoke was still in the air. The moderators were with Lust. Had someone reported us?

No.

Lust had that face. She had that face of sadness which I had come to know to well.

“No. Not now,” I started to say under my breath.

It was useless.

Lust had a gun in her hand, “It’s time to make eliminations for the next rank…”

8

We all knew who was going to go first.

Craving was crying.

“You have 1 minute…” Lust stated.

It was kinder than I had ever seen her be before.

I couldn’t imagine what he was going through. I just wished we would have had more time. I wished there would have been some sort of miracle to give us more time. To give HIM more time. We all knew though.

I tapped Craving on his back.

No…it wasn’t Craving.

“Ardor, say your goodbyes…”

Ardor and Craving went into a corner. There was something about Lust however. There was something human about the way she was doing it. She gave them their time. I watched as they hugged. I watched as they kissed. I watched as they cried. I wanted to tell Ardor there was a worse way to go. I wanted to tell Ardor what I had seen with Wrath.

I wanted to give him some sort of comfort but in the end really I believed that Craving had been given him comfort this entire time. Craving and known that it was only a matter of time before Ardor was going to go. Ardor knew it just as well.

I closed my eyes when it happened.

I didn’t look when it happened.

“Don’t you dare cry,” Urge told me.

“I won’t.”

“You cried enough.”

Lust had told the rest of us to line up. It was clear that Ardor wasn’t going to be the only one to not make it to rank 4. It was clear there was going to be another one when she asked us to line up. She passed Craving. She passed Passion. She passed Allure. She passed stopped at Glamour.

“No…no…”

Glamour was the next one to go. I had wondered if it was going to be her but I hadn’t been paying too much attention to whether she had improved or not.

Glamour didn’t take it sitting down. She tried to attack Lust.

Urge stated, “Idiot…”

She didn’t make it very far. She two steps and got two bullets to her brain. I looked away again. It was getting easier unfortunately. Even with Craving still shedding tears, it was getting easier to see people die.

We were all surprised when she KEPT walking. It couldn’t have been Romance. Could it? No. She walked past Romance. Romance’s eyes got wide as she let out a deep breath. It seemed like she hadn’t even realized her best friend Glamour was dead until Lust past her.

What the fuck?Lust kept walking down the line.

She walked past Urge. She walked past me.

She stopped.

She took a step back.

She was standing in front of my face! She was fucking standing in front of my face! Craving seemed to start crying almost immediately. Lust was staring at me. Her eyes seemed to say it all.

“No…you’re wrong!” Urge stated going off.

Everyone was kind of shocked. It was unlike Urge to lose control. When Lust was staring at he seemed like he was about to do something rash and crazy. I was breathing hard but my breathing was controlled. I was calm in this situation. Even facing death I was somewhat calm in this situation, but Urge wasn’t having it.

“Your scores barely passed, I’m deciding if you’re worth it,” she stated.

“Barely passed?” Urge stated, “That’s bullshit. He got perfect scores. I made sure of it. I trained him myself.”

Lust seemed to not want to communicate directly with Urge. I wondered if it was because Urge was Tom’s son. Maybe it was something else. She continued to look at me. Maybe it was the fact that she just wanted to figure out whether I was really worth it or not.

“The scoring has changed. Instead of being scored on on two skills you are now scored on three. Desire it’s true you had perfect scores with knives and poisons but you have no scores with everything else.”

I had focused on knives and poisons. Urge had said…

Urge had said….

I was trying not to panic. I turned to Urge trying to figure out what this meant. He was looking at me. He wasn’t crying but he was panicking. It was Craving in the background crying that seemed to hurt the worst. Seeing my best friend cry like this was worse than being put down like Ardor was.

“Since when were the scores changed? I’ll talk to my father. Let me talk to Tom.”“It’s Tom who changed the scores….just for Desire.”

The shock had made everyone turn their heads. I was looking to Urge. I was looking for him to defend me but he seemed just as confused. It was the first time Urge didn’t seem to have a clear cut plan. It seemed the first time that he just looked lost.

His face wrinkled up at that moment. He was breathing heavy. I saw him breathing heavy. Craving was panicking and Urge was losing it!Would today be the day I died?At least I wouldn’t be going alone.

At least Ardor would be with me….we’d go together.

“Why would he? Why?”

It was pointless. Lust wasn’t even listening to Urge. She had lifted her gun again. She had pressed it to my dome.

“I can’t change the rules,” she stated so low that it was almost a whisper. It was almost like she didn’t want someone to hear. It was almost like she didn’t want anyone to hear. Was this her apology?

I was confused but I knew Lust wasn’t a monster. I used to think she was a monster by how quick she pulled the trigger but I didn’t think she was any longer. I knew the real monster was Wrath who just didn’t pull the trigger. He made his people suffer.

“It’s ok. I forgive you. You were me once,” I stated.

Lust looked away as she put her finger on the trigger. It was the first time she ever looked away. I looked at Urge at the same time. Urge was staring at me. It was the first time I saw his face break character. He was…emotional.

It was emotion that was in his eyes.

Was it? Yes…tears.

I could die happy. Urge shed an actual tear for me.

The GUN went off almost the same time I heard a sound, “Wait!”

I was shot…but I wasn’t dead. I wasn’t dead. The gun had just touched my ear. It was Urge. He had pulled me out of the way. I hadn’t even seen him coming towards me.

Urge had me on the floor huddled up at that moment.

“You can’t have him.”

Lust turned the gun over towards Urge and I.

“Are you an idiot?”

What was Urge doing? He was blocking me with his entire body. He was willing to give his life for me. I was completely behind him and he had his hands outstretched. If she shot me she would have to shoot through him.

Lust’s hand was shaking. She was turning towards the moderators as though looking for some sort of sign or something. She was nervous. The cool and collected Lust seemed confused now as to what to do. Should she shoot through Tom’s son to kill me. I felt bad for her really. I felt bad because I knew now that she was nothing more than another weapon. She may have been a high ranking weapon but she was just another one of Tom’s weapons. Lust wasn’t the enemy. Lust was never the enemy. Tom was.

“Enough,” a moderator said, “Tom has the information he wanted. Desire has moved on to Rank 4.”“The information?” Urge asked.

The moderators ignored him. They called in the clean up crew. The crew took out Ardor and Glamour’s bodies. They literally had to claw Craving off of his dead boyfriend. The moderators had been taken notes as if this was some sort of test or something. Who were they testing? Were they testing me? Were they testing Lust? Were they testing Urge? I didn’t understand it. I don’t think anyone understood…not even Lust. She was just shaking her head after the clean up crew left.

Urge seemed so frustrated. He had lost his cool. He had this emotion now and he had a hard to concealing it now that it had come out, “What information! What INFORMATION! Don’t just walk out, Lust! What fucking information did my father want?

Lust didn’t turn back, “Everyone acts so weird around him?”“Desire?”

“Yes. I don’t know what your father wants. He changed the rules…just for Desire. He wanted Desire to fail. He wanted me to kill him. I think. I thought. I don’t know. Listen. I just follow the rules. That’s it. I just follow the rules,” Lust stated.

I struggled to get to my feet, “Lust…”

“Yes.”

“I meant what I said,” I assured her, “I forgive you.”

She nodded. Her face was down to the ground. I know she heard me. I didn’t know if it really sunk in but she heard. After seeing what Wrath was capable of I knew that I was ok with Lust. It wasn’t the best of circumstances to be here but if I was here I rather serve under her. She hadn’t been pretending like she cared about us…like Tom did when I first met him. She actually did care.

I turned to Urge.

He was shaking.

He looked around. His face was red. The others were all looking at him. Allure was included in that.

“That took guts, Urge,” she stated, “You standing up to them like that. I didn’t think it was possible. Maybe I’ll stop trying to kill you after all.”

I thought it would make Urge happy. It didn’t. He looked disgruntled. He looked even more upset then ever. He was breathing heavily. He was angry.

“Urge are you ok?” I asked.

I tried to reach out to him but he hit me.

Urge punched me hard in my face. He punched me so hard that I fell to the ground. Craving got up immediately and was going after him but I held out my arm to stop Craving before he got to Urge. Urge looked down at me with this angry look.

I was so confused. What the fuck was going on?

“Don’t you ever fucking put a hand on me again,” Urge warned me.

I was confused. He saved me. He risked his life to save me only to punch me in the face like this. I didn’t get it. Of course my face hurt when he hit me but that wasn’t the pain that hurt the most. It hurt when I saw how he looked at me. He looked at me like he hated me.

The others looked on seeming just as confused as I was. I was embarrassed. I was the only one Urge had let in this whole time and now he had just straight up socked me in my face like I meant nothing to him.

“Urge, calm down. What’s wrong?”

He grimaced at me, “Don’t speak to me…you worthless piece of shit. Stay away from me, ok? Do you hear me?”

Urge started to walk away from me but I couldn’t take it. I was panicking. There was this huge fear of dread that came over me. It was almost like I had gone so far to really having him trust me but he was withdrawing again.

“Why?” I asked getting up and walking towards him. I cornered him leaving him no where to go.

“What? You want to fight? You want to fight. RAISE YOUR WEAPON!”“My weapon? Oh this thing. The thing you gave me that belonged to your mom because you supposedly cared about me. Right? That weapon. What made you change your mind? Huh. Now all of a sudden you want me to raise my weapon to what—fight you? Seriously Urge? What is going on? Why are you acting like this? I’m NOT fighting you.”He turned away.

It was all too embarrassing. I knew that Craving was going to get involved even before he did. Craving tried to grab me but I shook away from him.

“Let him be…” Craving told me, “Fuck him…”

Craving had said it loud enough for Urge to hear but words didn’t effect him. I could care less what he said though. There was this emotion all in me to see Urge treating me like shit all of a sudden. I found myself walking up to him.

I grabbed Urge and pleased, “Why are you acting like this?”

I don’t think I ever pleaded before. He had moved his hand again. He was about to hit me again. I could see it coming. I could see the back hand about to slap my face when all of a sudden Craving caught his arm. Craving grabbed his arm and tossed Urge’s arm to the ground.

Urge and Craving squared off. Craving’s face was fierce when he threatened Urge in this intense way, “Desire won’t come near you. I’ll make sure of it. Since that’s what you want. Fine. It’s done. But don’t you ever put your hands on him again or believe me…believe me, I’ll kill you. And no offense, Allure, but I’ll make sure I get it done.”

Craving had an intensity I had never seen before. Maybe it was the fact that Ardor was dead and I was all he had left. I knew Craving wasn’t playing and I think Urge took him seriously as well. Regardless of whether it was possible that Craving could beat Urge, we all knew Craving was upset. Craving was more than upset. He was the one who was so against killing but he was basically telling Urge that is exactly what would happen if he put his hands on me again.

Urge showed no emotion now. His face went back to the same old Urge and I felt like I was losing him. I felt like I was losing him all over again.

I felt like shit as Urge walked away. A part of me wanted to go after him again no matter how many times he hit me. I knew that it would complicate things with Craving standing there though and that’s the only reason I didn’t.

Allure shook her head, “Was it something I said?”

That night we had a memorial for the dead. We all gathered around in the corner of the dormitory. Romance had gotten weeds from the courtyard. It was the closest thing we could find to flowers. We laid them out. One for each person that had died. We said kind things about them. We tried to remember them. Of course Urge was no where to be found. He all of a sudden wanted nothing to do with any of us…me in particular. It would have been nice if he joined us. It felt like someone was missing from the group. We had all been through so much.

Allure was the one who spoke about Glamour, “She wouldn’t want us crying over her. That kind of thing embarrassed her you know. She’d want us to take her strength and use it. She’s not dead you know. Neither is Ardor. None of them are dead. They live through us. Our brothers, our sisters through the worst times of our lives. Even if we weren’t close to them, we knew them. We had grown to know how they laugh, how they cry and we had grown to know how they sweat. And we all sweat. We all sweat goddamn it. And we deserve better than this and one day we’ll earn it. One day we’ll get what we deserve. There will be justice for the dead.”

Justice.

Allure had balls. Talk like that probably wouldn’t have gone over well with the moderators but then again no moderators were around to hear what she was saying. She dropped the weed and walked away. There was so much strength in her and in a way I admired her. It was easy to see why people like Glamour followed her. She was a natural born leader.

Romance prayed a few minutes later and Passion pattered her on the back. Passion went over to Craving and gave him a kiss on the cheek. She smiled at me lightly before walking away. That was all she could really do I guess.

It was just Craving and I. He stared down at the memorial we made.

“You ok?” I asked.

I was rubbing his back. It seemed to help a little. When I rubbed his back he stopped holding back his tears and let them cry a little bit. I was there for him the entire time. I didn’t know much that I could say to help him with this. I knew he just wanted me to be there for him and I would be. I would be there for Craving no matter what.

Craving shrugged, “I loved him. You know? Even when it was stupid to do so. Believe me, it was stupid. We all knew he wouldn’t make it. He knew he wouldn’t make it. And I loved him anyway. Do you think that’s stupid?”

“You can’t help who you love…” I told him.

“Like you and Urge…”

Craving knew me. We had spent so much time together. There was no point in denying what was going on, “Yes like me. Not Urge though. I think it’s clear he could care less about me. But I guess it doesn’t matter. I loved him anyway. It’s like a bad religion, loving someone who doesn’t love you back.”“Don’t drink the punch,” Craving stated.

“The punch?”

“Yeah, you know. Those bad religions that they make you drink the punch and you end up in a body bag. Don’t drink the punch,” Craving stated giving me a slight smile.

I knew he was trying to crack a joke and be lighthearted even now. It came across as awkward but it made me smile none-the-less. I removed my hand from his back.

“Too late…too late…”We went to bed late that night. Craving had spent time talking about Ardor. He was just reminiscing really about all the times they shared. I listened. I was there for him. Every once in a while I would notice Urge. He had gone to sleep early that night and moved his bed away from Urge and I again. He had pulled his bed across the room away from everyone else. I would have been so distraught about it but right now all I cared about was being there for Craving. I cared about being there for my best friend.

Going to sleep that night was hard. It was extremely hard to sleep. I kept having dreams of Ardor. They kept waking me up in the middle of the night. I felt almost like he was pulling at me or something like that. It was almost like Ardor was haunting my dreams trying to warn me of something. I couldn’t tell what it was though. I found myself awake in the middle of the night.

A FACE!Someone was right in front of me!I tried to scream, “Oh shit!”

It hardly came out though. I felt the person put something over my head. A bag. I was gagging. Was the person trying to kill me? How didn’t I see this coming? How! I felt something being injected in me. A needle. My body got light. I felt sleepy.

“How you doin’?”

My eyes opened. It wasn’t a person. It was a television. The Wendy Williams show. I turned sleepily.

I woke up in a bed. I looked around confused. Where the fuck was I?

It was a normal home. It wasn’t my home but no…it was a normal home. The walls had this ugly wallpaper on it. There was a television stand at the foot of the bed. The room even smelled like some teenage boy or something. On the wall there was a photo. I walked over to the photo. It was a portrait of Urge and…a woman. The woman was middle aged. It had to be his mom. I could tell by the features. Urge looked no more than 4 in the picture but I knew it was him by those beautiful eyes. I could see now that he had gotten those eyes from his mother who had eyes that looked almost like a beautiful deep ocean.

Why was Urge’s picture on the wall?

Was I dreaming?No. I wasn’t.

I turned to the right. There was a bookcase. I turned to the left. A window. A window!

I ran over to the window all of a sudden and looked out. I was in a normal community. Houses were lined up all around the block. There was a little girl riding her bike. There was a guy next door that was watering his garden.

I tried to open the window. I tried my best but it didn’t move. I found myself tapping on the glass trying to get the attention of the man who was standing out there.

He looked up.

“HELP! HELP!” I was screaming at him.

The guy didn’t hear me.

I banged hard against the window three times.

“HELP!”The man finally looked up. He looked confused when he saw me standing there. His eyes darted to me.

“HELP ME! HELP ME PLEASE!”

Just as I said that I heard footsteps. Shit. Fuck. I ran back to the bed and lay down. As I got back in the bed the front door opened.

“Good morning, sleepy head.”

Tom.

Tom was standing there. He had on a bathrobe. I was breathing hard when I saw him standing there but he looked so….so NORMAL. I almost felt like I was in some strange twilight zone. No moderators. No training facility. Where was I? How far from the training facility was I now?

“Are you letting me go?” I asked.

I didn’t know why I thought that. I guess it was wishful thinking.

“No. Walk with me.”

Tom had a coffee in his hand. I looked in his cup. It was black coffee. He had on black slippers with feaux fur. He looked like he handn’t shaved and when I got close I could smell the morning on him. He looked like a regular guy. The average joe.

I just kept breathing heavily scared out of my mind.

“Where I am?” I asked him.

“My home. I had you brought here. Do you like it?”We were walking down a hallway. He was smiling. He was smiling like some average guy and not some maniac who kidnapped kids to turn them into assassins. The house didn’t even look big. This wasn’t some mansion. This wasn’t some secret head quarters. This was some three bedroom, two bath home in Anywhere, America.

“You have a lovely home?”

There was a dog that came up to me. It wasn’t some Rottweiler or vicious attack dog. It was a wiener dog. It licked at me feet kindly trying to invite me to play with it. It rolled over on it’s stomach until Tom lightly brushed it away.

“You want some coffee? Something to eat. I just made some eggs?

“I’m ok.”“You sure. My eggs are amazing. I’m telling you, Desire…they are a real treat. I learned this new recipe off Pinterest where you put the southwestern seasons in there. A-mazing.”

You wouldn’t have known. You wouldn’t have known what this guy did by looking at him. His smile was honestly friendly. He looked like a regular middle class man who did a 9 to 5 came home, fed his weiner dog and maybe watched CNN until he fell asleep. He looked like a boring, kind hearted man. I knew different though. I knew this was the devil. My nerves were on edge. My body was shaking. I felt so nervous around him.

“I can’t eat,” I said too nervous to even look him in the eyes, “My stomach is a little…messed up. You know. From drugging me.”

“Oh I’m sorry about that. Kind of like to keep a low-profile you know? You’re the first assassin to come to my home you know?”

Why? Why was I in his home?

I looked around. There were knives in the kitchen which wasn’t far from where I was sitting. They were sharp…chef knives. I could go for them. I could stab him. I could do it in less then 10 seconds.

Tom seemed almost to read my mind, “You can go for them, like you are thinking. You can go for the knives and try your luck. You won’t succeed. I’ll probably kill you if you do, but not quickly. I’ll do it really slow. That’s just ruin breakfast though wouldn’t it? I just got my carpet done. 30 bucks per room. Isn’t that a steal? Well…you probably don’t care about deals do you. Why don’t you just sit down?”

I got nervous. A part of me wanted to go for the knives still. A part of me knew I wouldn’t get far. A part of me knew it would be stupid to go for the knives now.

I sat.

He walked over and sat next to me. He had a newspaper. A fucking newspaper in his hand. My eyes darted to it. CTPost. We were in Connecticut. I didn’t know if I could use that later but somehow I made a mental note of it.

“Why am I here?” I asked.

“I’m deciding…whether to kill you or not.”

He smiled to me. You would think he had just asked me how the weather was by how casual he was being. I felt like I was talking to fucking Bill Cosby instead of some murderous madman by his image.

“The assembly never rubbed me as a group of people who hesitated to kill,” I stated, rolling my eyes at the betrayal in his remark.

He laughed, “You’re confident now…very different from the person I met. That’s good. I like it. I guess I thought it was smart to get to meet you before I decided to kill you or not. Just to see what all the fuss is about.”

“Fuss.”

“Fuss. Big. Fuss. I don’t like fusses.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m talking about my son. You’re familiar.”

Urge. This was about Urge.

I nodded at that moment getting slightly nervous but keeping a straight face, “Yes. He is a friend of mine.”

“Don’t be coy with me,” he replied, “He loves you.”Loves me…

I almost broke out laughing at the remark, “Um…”

“Something funny?” he asked with a smile that almost made me wipe my smile off of my face.

“You got the wrong idea. I don’t think your son loves anyone…or ever will…”

Tom’s smile got wider and even more friendlier if that was possible, “He loves you. I’m sure. He’s said it many times. Over and over even. It gets a little annoying. It has become an issue. You see. A big…issue…”

I was surprised. My heart fluttered a little bit. Urge was telling his father that he was in love with me? The idea of this blew my mind. He treated me like shit. He had just literally attacked me the day before. Now he was in love with me? It didn’t make even a little bit of sense.

“Why is it an issue?”

“See when I’m gone my son is going to be running the Assembly. Usually I don’t intervene in matters of the heart with my assassins but my son is no normal assassin. He will lead us. So love…that’s an issue. People like us aren’t supposed to fall in love. That’s why I killed his mother. You understand? Love complicates things for people like us. You are a bad distraction…”

He was giving me this look. He still had this smile on his face mind you. It still had this mask of friendly easy going man but his eyes had something behind them. When you look deep in them like I was looking now you could see it. You could the darkness. You could see the malice. You could see the desire to kill.

Had he made up his mind.

“So why don’t you do it? Just get it over with.”

Did he think I would beg him for my life? No. Maybe death would be an easier way to go. After all of the people I knew that he had killed one more would be nothing to him. Maybe death would be good. It still scared me how he would kill me more than if he would kill me. I kept remembering Wrath torturing those people. It was the worst fear I had.

“My son would be extremely upset if I did. So you see. You and I. We have us a…dilemma. What am I going to do with you Code Name Desire? What should I do with you?”

He was really thinking.

Just at that moment the door bell rang. He seemed surprised by it. I could tell he probably didn’t get a lot of guests by how his head jerked over. He turned to the door bell and excused himself from the table, “One moment please.”

He walked over to the front.

Just as he did I found myself running towards the kitchen and grabbing one of the knives from the countertop. I shoved the knife in my pants. I could use it. I could use it to kill him.

I noticed voices from the front. I crept over behind the wall. I peered around the corner. When he came back I would go for it. I would stab Tom. I would stab Tom right in the chest and I would run out of that door. I would find a phone. I would call my mom. Fuck. What was her number? I had forgotten my mom’s NUMBER! No matter. I would call the cops. I would call the news. I would call anyone who would listen to my story.

But what would happen to Craving if I did that? What would happen to Passion? What would happen to the others. I hesitated. Maybe the knife wasn’t the way to go.

My eyes turned the corner where I saw Tom. He was standing at his front door looking outside. I could see who he was talking to.

It was the neighbor.“I could have sworn I saw someone in your window…a boy dressed in gray. I know your sons. This boy didn’t look familiar.”

“Are you sure?” Tom asked the man.

The neighbor gave him a friendly smile even though he still seemed confused, “Pretty sure. Tom, I know this will sound crazy. You know. I mean trust me I thought long and hard about what I saw. But GOSH darn it, I think I saw the boy was screaming for help. Isn’t that crazy?”

This fucking clueless ass man. He had heard me but he didn’t call the cops? He didn’t go for help? He decided to FUCKING come to the house and knock on the door! What the fuck. We just had to be in the suburbs somewhere.

I found myself not thinking and running around the corner. This would be only my chance. I leaped on Tom’s back but it didn’t get me anywhere. I was trying to strangle him.

“RUN! GET help CALL THE COPS!” I told the neighbor, “RUN!”

“Holy shit!”The neighbor ran out of the door. I knew that me holding onto Tom was just a way to give the neighbor enough time to get away. The street had looked busy. He would get away if he could run fast enough and the way he had turned around made it seem like that was exactly what he intended to do.

This may work. This may work.

Tom backed me up and slammed me into the nearest wall. He had slammed me so hard that I could feel my body crumble.

I fell to the ground. Fuck this old man was strong as SHIT!“Now why did you have to go and do that?” Tom asked me calmly not breaking out of his character, “Do you know how much it’ll cost for me to get that wall fixed?”

I could hardly move. I had thought training was hard but Tom had literally slammed my body into a wooden wall and completely broken the wall. Splinters were outlined on my back. I grabbed my knife out of my pants and I threw it. I threw it as hard as I can.

It was going.

It was going right at Tom’s forehead.

Then he did something I had never seen anyone do.

He caught it. He caught it on the handle inches…no centimeters before impact!

That wasn’t. It wasn’t human! This man wasn’t human!

“Impossible!” I found myself screaming out.

“You should be careful with sharp things sir,” he stated throwing it on the ground.

No…not on the ground. He threw it at my hand. I screamed out in pain as the knife went right into my hand pinning me to the ground.

“Dad! ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS!”A voice. No. No. This wasn’t the right voice. This was a voice that I had grown to fear. I saw all of a sudden as someone walked into the house.

It was Wrath.

Wrath had the neighbor by the neck! He must have been approaching the house at the exact same time that the neighbor was trying to run out!He must have seen the neighbor running. He must have grabbed the neighbor outside.

FUCK! I had been so close. I had been SO fucking close!

The neighbor was gasping as he was hauled back into the house. The way Wrath had his neck made me think that the neighbor had attempted to scream but now he was just struggling to breathe. Wrath threw the neighbor on the ground beside me. The neighbor seemed horrified as slid to the wall. He let out another scream when he saw me on the ground with a knife in my hand.

“What’s going on? Oh God, Tom, what’s going on here?” the neighbor asked.

Tom didn’t seem to be concerned with the neighbor. I felt bad for him. He had no idea what he had gotten himself into. He had no idea who these monsters were. Tom didn’t even seem to be concerned about the neighbor. He was just smiling all of a sudden with this bright smile on. Wrath was looking at me with these eyes. He had walked over to me and was trying to help me pull the knife out of my hand. He yanked it immediately…not being any gentle and causing me to scream in pain as blood flashed on the wall.

Tom turned to Wrath and smiled, “Son, we were just talking about you…”

I was confused.

“I thought Urge was your son,” I stated.

“He is. But I have two…”

9

“Dad,” Wrath stated in his same cold strange voice, “Is this why you called me here? You wanted me to see you hurt Desire? If you kill my boyfriend I will make sure that I go back and burn that training center that you love so much to the FUCKIN’ ground. You hear me?”

“Watch your mouth son, we have company…”

Tom turned over to me at the table. He was also talking about the neighbor. The neighbor was barely alive at this point. I had watched them in horror as they tied him to a chair. The two men cut him open from the top of his chest to his pelvic area. He was bleeding…his mouth gagged by the napkins next to me. These men were sick. They were sick and fucking twisted.

I had no idea how Urge could have come from a family with these two men in it. It all made sense though. It made sense how sick Wrath was when I looked at Tom. They lived in a fairy tale. Tom thought he was the average-jo and Wrath had this make believe relationship with me.

Wrath calmed down, “I love him, Dad.”

Tom turned over to me.

“Do you love my son back?”

Tom was almost testing me. This wasn’t about Urge after all. Him kidnapping me and bringing me to this house was about Wrath and his sick, twisted perversion.

I didn’t know who I was scared of more. Tom or Wrath. The fact that they were father and son all of a sudden made sense because these were the only two people in the world that could make me shake even now as a trained killer.

I chose Tom.

“Your son is delusional,” I stated, desperately, “He is sick and he’s delusional. I’ve never given him any reason to think that I was in love with him. It’s like he just lives in this world where we are together. We aren’t…”

I didn’t know how else I could say that. Wrath seemed really shocked when I said that. The face he gave me was one of utter shock as though he was confused that I didn’t love him. The more I was around him the more I wondered how the fuck a guy like him couldn’t have been locked up in some facility somewhere.

“We had a connection. When I kidnapped you, you can’t deny we had a connection,” Wrath argued across the table.

Tom was being silent as though watching and really taking into the matter. There was no way in hell he couldn’t be able to see that his son was crazy as fuck. There was no way that Tom couldn’t see that Wrath needed to be institutionalized.

“I was trying to fuck you. Wrath. Yes I thought you were sexy. You are an attractive man…until I got to know you. I never told you or gave you any reason to believe I was in love with you. I hardly even talked to you. When did I have the time? I am…I am disgusted by you. This isn’t fear talking. No this is disgust. Every time you’re around me my skin crawls.”

Tom wanted to know what was going on between me and his son. Now he knew. I could see his face just thinking. Was that…embarrassment? Yes! It was. I could almost laugh. For the first time it seemed like something was actually getting to Tom.

Wrath was desperate at that moment. He was holding on to his madness no matter what.

“You’re scared. I understand. You don’t have to be lie because you are scared of my father,” Wrath stated.

“Shut up Wrath,” Tom finally stated.

“Dad. You’re scaring him. You are making him hide his feelings for me. He loves me. We are going to get married. We are going to live together forever…”

Tom had screamed so hard that Wrath jerked afraid. “ENOUGH! Go take the Mr. Mitchell to the basement and finish him off, Wrath.”

Wrath was breathing heavily. There was madness still in his eyes. There was madness and even through all of this he gave me a loving look. Didn’t he hear everything that I had just told him? Didn’t that click in his crazy fucking mind? All of a sudden I was worried about Wrath again? There was nothing that would deter him. When he walked past me he put his hands on my shoulders sweetly as though trying to show his affection.

Then he went over to the neighbor…grabbed up what was left of him and dragged him out. The blood from the dying neighbor stained the carpet.

Tom had calmed down, “Watch my floors, Wrath.”“Fuck your floors! I hate you DAD!”

“Kids nowadays…” Tom told me sighing deeply.

I was convinced that I was in the twilight zone. This was freaking me out so much that I wanted to be back in the training center. Wrath had gone on the deep end a long time ago. Tom kept sighing as Wrath stomped loudly down to the basement and shut the door behind him. At that moment all I kept hearing was screams. Wrath had removed the muffle probably to spite his father. I could only imagine what he was doing to the neighbor downstairs.

Wrath was a monster…

“I was telling the truth,” I told Tom, “I don’t love your son. I am not going to distract him.”

Tom nodded, “I can tell. I guess it was good to get that clear. A part of me hoped that you two were in love so I could just kill you. It seems like the issue is much deeper than that you know. Seems like my son has some sort of obsession with you.”

“You think?”

I was being sarcastic. It didn’t take a genius.

“He has always been a…unstable child. I guess it was my fault. I was always hard on my sons. I sheltered them, you understand.”

I thought about Urge.

“I can imagine.”

“They never dated or anything like that. They are awkward when it comes to love. You are the first person he’s been so taken by. It kind of scares me what he would do if I did get rid of you. But then again if you stay alive you will be an attraction to him, whether you’d like to be or not.”“I won’t distract him. I promise.”

“It may not matter. My other son Urge, you know him I’ve heard.”

“Yes.”

“The moderators report you two are good friends.”

I was nervous.

“Yes.”

“He never had a friend. Not a real one,” Tom stated shaking his head, “Well Wrath may not be fit to take over after me. As an assassin, he is a much better than Urge. Wrath is one of the best assassins in the Assembly. Mentally however…after today…I see Wrath may be the wrong son to take over…”

“I see.”

“The problem with Urge is that he never gets past the 4th rank.”

I found that hard to believe. Urge was talented. He was beyond talented. He taught me everything that I knew really. How was it possible that he didn’t get past the 4th rank…ever. He had done it two other times but didn’t get past the 4th rank.

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked.

I was suspicious.

“It applies to you. If Urge passes this time I will declare him as my successor. If not…Wrath will still be my successor and well, I’d have to kill you.”“Kill me! Didn’t you hear what I just said? I wasn’t in love with him! He’s living in a fantasy in his own fucking mind.”

Tom nodded, “I know. Sad isn’t it? The thing is you would still be a liability whether it was just an imaginary relationship or not. I’d have to get rid of you if Wrath was my successor. Moral of the story is this. Hope that Urge passes. Pray that he does…”

Urge had to past.

“He’ll pass. I’ll make sure of it,” I told Tom.

Tom smiled, “Here. Take this pill.”“What is it?”

“A sedative. You’ll wake up back in the training grounds.”“Ok.”

“I had one more question Desire.”

“Yes.”

“The moderators say that Urge was beyond emotional when you were about to be killed. Is there anything going on between you two.”

Shit.

Shit I thought I was clear of that.

“No…”

“Good. I want you to at least have a chance of surviving. The moderators say you are special. They say you would be one of our best assassins to date.

It’d be a shame.”

He handed me the pill and watched me quietly as I took it.

Tom smiled, his sick…twisted smile.

I woke up in a wheelchair. Two moderators were walking beside me. Three moderators were across the hall. They didn’t seem to pay me any attention as I was wheeled past. The moderators next to me noticed I was away and stopped pushing me.

“Walk.”

The command was cold. It was robotic. All around me I could see the familiar halls of the Assembly. The fluorescent lights and long unwelcoming hallways were so familiar to me again.

Welcome back to hell. Welcome home.

The moderators escorted me to the dorm and then disappeared. When I got in I saw that the others were just lounging around. It wasn’t split into two groups anymore. Romance, Allure and Passion were keeping Craving company. Craving was joking around with Allure when I walked in. There was a light laughter between the two. It was Passion who was the first to notice me walking in. She had jumped up to her feet.

“Oh my god.”

They all ran over. At first the noise seemed to drive me crazy as I saw all of them gathering around me. They were making a fuss. It kind of made me feel loved honestly.

“Wait, guys, one at a time…”

“Where were you?” Craving asked, “What happened to your hand?”“You wouldn’t believe the drama,” I stated shaking, “We’ll need to sit down so I can break it down because you’ll never believe me. How long have I been gone?”

“Two days,” Allure stated and shook her head, “We all thought you were dead.”“I didn’t,” Craving said shaking his head, “I knew you wouldn’t break the promise we had. Remember the promise? We’d make it together.”I smiled, “I’m still kicking, guys.”

“Good,” Allure stated, “We missed you.”

Passion nodded at that moment, “We all did.”

It meant a lot coming from Passion. Even though we hadn’t been on the best of turns with less numbers it definitely seemed easier to try to find a way to forgive her for turning on Craving and I.

I noticed the figure in the background running all of a sudden almost charging. The others noticed it as well. It was…Urge! He was running towards us. At first I thought he was exercising. Exercising was a very Urge thing to do. But then I noticed he was running straight toward us.

Romance was quick on her feet, “Oh hell naw. What the fuck!”

“Hey!” Craving was yelling, “HEY!”

Urge had his eyes on me. He had these intense eyes. He was coming to attack me. He was coming to attack me! The others had cleared away but Craving still stood there. I knew Craving wasn’t about to let that happen. I figured it was about to be that showdown that Craving was talking about. Craving stomped on the ground almost like football players would. I swear I could feel the room shake when he did. He was so fucking powerful. I saw Craving swing his gigantic fist. I had seen Craving hit a bag before. He had one of the most powerful punches ever. Urge was quick though. He missed Urge and Urge juked passed him sliding UNDER him. Right between his legs!

Craving was confused looking to see where Urge went.

Urge had made his way past Craving easily and was…hugging me…

“Aw…” Romance stated.

I thought her saying that would make Urge get off of me but it didn’t matter. Urge didn’t seem to be hearing anything else. He just hugged me even though I was too surprised to hug back. His arms were wrapped around me. He was hugging me and not letting me go. It had to be the sweetest, most awkward thing I had ever had done to me in my life.

The others looked on as surprised as I was.

“We should give them a moment,” Allure stated.

Craving seemed hesitant, “But…”

“It’s ok. Your friend is safe,” Allure told him.

I smiled over to Craving letting him know it was ok. Only then did he follow behind the girls and left the room.

Urge continued to hug me in the room and finally I’d given up being surprised. I felt almost like this was a child. I mean Urge was a beautiful, sexy man but he was hugging me almost like a child would. It kept making me remember what his father had said about him being sheltered. It made sense now.

“It’s ok,” I tried to comfort him.

“It’s not. I said all those horrible things to you. I thought they’d killed you,” Urge stated shaking his head, “I thought you died thinking I hated you.”

“I guess this mean you don’t?”

“No…”

“This is sweet and all but it’s kind of hard to breathe…” I told him.

He let go. He just stared at me for a second and then dropped his stare as though embarrassed and not knowing how to react. He was so beautiful in his standoffish behavior. I didn’t know how to react to him being so awkward. I could tell this was a way that he never acted like before. He seemed unsure of how to show emotion.

“Who took you?” he asked.

He was getting back to the Urge that I knew. Cold and precise almost as though snapping out of the emotion. All of a sudden we were back to facts.

“Your father.”“He hurt you?”

“Yes. After I tried to kill him.”

“Did you get close?” he asked.

I smiled, “Kind of. Knife was so close to getting him.”

He smiled. He had this warm smile all of a sudden.

“Good.”

“He took me to your house in Connecticut. He wasn’t the only one there,” I explained to Urge, “Your brother was there as well. Why didn’t you tell me your brother was Wrath?”Urge walked over to one of the beds. He sat on the bed post. He had his shirt off like usual. His muscles flexed making me thinking he must have been working out a lot to relieve some stress while I was gone.

“I was just a kid when I found out the kind of person my dad was. Don’t get me wrong, things were always off. I always knew he was into some bad shit as a kid but I had no idea how bad until he brought his work home. I still remember walking down into the basement with my older brother. Now my older brother’s name is Wrath. Back then he went by something else. I can hardly remember it. That’s the sad part. Well Wrath and I didn’t mean any harm. We were just trying to welcome him home you know? What I saw there changed my life forever…”

Urge had never opened up about his past before. I found myself sitting next to him. Urge seemed human now. He seemed less like some cross between a Moderator and an assassin. He seemed just like a real dude.

“What did you see?” I asked.

“Death. That was the best way to describe it. My brother…found it fascinating. He was always into some gruesome shit. I didn’t though. I cried. I screamed. My mother came down. She saw what my father was doing. At first she didn’t do anything. The next day she tried to take my brother and I away. Needless to say we didn’t get far.”

“Did he kill her?”

“Not right away. At first he tried to make it work in the name of love but my mother couldn’t love a killer. He got comfortable once we knew about it and started to bring his work home more and more. She blamed herself. See my mother collected weapons. That’s how she met my dad. He was her favorite client. She felt like she should have known. One day I came home and I thought she was asleep. She wasn’t. He had finally killed her.”

I shook my head.

“Jesus Christ. So your father was an assassin?”

“Yes. He was even legit CIA or some government agency at first. He went rogue and got kicked out. He was so angry about it. He ended up turning into some sort of serial killer. He always had this need to kill even when there wasn’t a point to it. He’d even take my brother with him sometimes but I was too freaked out. He had gotten good at it, so good at it that he got sponsors. That’s how it all started. See…they wanted more. They had finally found someone crazy enough to do their dirty work and they wanted to more. Mercenaries couldn’t do what my father did though. They wanted people like my father who needed to kill. That’s how the Assembly started.”

I could tell it was hard for Urge to talk about it. “You don’t have to talk about this anymore.”

“It’s ok. It’s the first time ever I feel comfortable enough with someone that I wanted to talk to.”

“Were you ever close to your brother at least? You two went through the same thing.”

“No we didn’t. I hated what my father did and Wrath delighted in what my father did. We were never the same. He was more like my father and I was more like my mother. He is a madman.”

“Speaking of madmen…your brother thinks we are in a relationship which is why I was there in the first place.”

“Damn. I knew my dad was acting weird, especially when he changed the grading. I thought it was because I was getting close to you. That’s why I was trying to make you hate me…”

“I could never hate you.”

If he thought punching me would do it, I was a lot tougher than that. I’d been in love with this boy for a year now. It would take a lot more than a punch to get me off of him…even if he didn’t love me back.

He seemed nervous when I said that. He always didn’t know how to react when I flirted with him.

He distracted me from my statement, “So my Dad was confronting you about Wrath’s feelings towards you?”

“Yeah. It didn’t deter Wrath. He’s like obsessed at this point.”

“I figured that,” Urge stated shaking his head, “Wrath is…dangerous, Desire. He’s tough. Other assassins and even some of the other 7 deadly sins have better skills but he had madness. Madness is dangerous thing…”

The way Urge was speaking to me made it seem like he had witnessed some crazy shit. I had an idea that if I’d ask what it was he would tell me. I didn’t though. I didn’t want to know.

“I’ll be fine.”

“You sure.”

“Yeah, but Urge…there was something else that your father said.”

It kept playing in my head. If Urge didn’t pass this upcoming rank he would have me killed. His father had threatened that.

“What?”

No. I couldn’t burden him with that kind of thing.

“Nothing. Nevermind.”

Bells.

Love had called us together to introduce Rank 4 the next week. We had gathered around. I had this excitement about it but I had no idea what else we needed to know to be assassins. Romance, Craving, Allure, Passion, Urge and I couldn’t get any more dangerous. We were all skilled assassins already if you asked me. Romance hand amazing hand-to-hand fighting skills. Allure was the best sharpshooter I’d ever seen. Passion was uniquely talented in bomb making as well pistols. Craving was the strongest person I knew and could clear out a room with an assault rifle in a second. Then there was Urge who was good at everything. What else could make us anymore dangerous?

“Espionage, Infiltration and sabotage are what you will be scored on for Rank 4,” she told us.

I looked over at Urge.

He hadn’t passed lessons on espionage, filtration and sabotage? That was hard to believe. Urge had no footsteps if he didn’t want to. That guy could sneak past anyone.

“Good morning recruits.”

A boy had walked into the room. He was pretty. He was extremely pretty actually. It was like one of those pretty boys that if you looked at him in a certain light he could probably look like a girl. He was still muscular though in a way. I had to admit he was an attractive person. He didn’t seem much older than we were.

“He’s hot…” Craving whispered over to me.

“Too soon.”

“What my boyfriend died…not my dick.”

Craving just stared at the guy like he was something to eat.

Lust announced him to everyone calling attention away from the whispers that were going on in the group as he walked in, “This is my protege. His name is Love. He is a member on my team. I brought him in from the field to train you guys in Infiltration which many find to be the hardest of the skills. That is what we will start with.”

Love looked Spanish or something. His skin was a light brown. He had walked over to us and seemed to be examining us. He didn’t seem that dangerous honestly but I knew in the Assembly looks were deceiving. I immediately felt a sort of self-awareness. I was attractive. I knew I was. I was even perfect after the facial reconstruction. Love had this swagger to him. It was that sexiness that Lust had. It was almost as though he was oozing the stuff. Craving almost seemed to be drooling at this point. It made sense that he was her protege.

“Where is the rest of your team?” Allure asked.

Allure was smart, too smart.

Lust seemed to be offended by her question, “Each team has only 5 people. Four of you will be joining Love depending on which four learn his lessons the best. Now can we begin or would you like to continue wasting my time Allure?”

Her team was dead. Why was Lust beating around the bush? How had they died? Allure found it suspicious and so did the rest of us. Lust was definitely hiding something about what happened to the rest of her team. Why was Love the only one left?

Love smiled at everyone.

“Can anyone tell me some ways how an assassin would be able to infiltrate an enemy?” Love asked us, “How would you be able to get close to an enemy. Just throw them out.”“Consealment!”

“Spying!”

“Covert listening devices.”

“Sex.”

Love stopped us putting up his hand, “Sex, who said that?”

Craving raised his hand, “Me.”

Of course he would say it. That was all that was on his mind as soon as Love walked into the room. Love was this bombshell who just seemed to know everything that was everything about seduction almost immediately. Lust looked on intently as Love taught us. Love seemed a lot more approachable then Lust was. He wasn’t closed off. He was almost making it fun.

“Yes, sex. Wet, nasty, unadulterated sex,” Love said, “All the others are right but that is my favorite. People let down their guard during sex. You’d be surprised how many people I’ve killed in the action.”

“You have sex with people to kill them?” I asked, surprised.

Love laughed, “Of course. That’s the best way. We’ll be going over all the other techniques as well but it’s important to understand the art of seducing someone. Even if its not with sex. Just the art of making someone want you so that they let their guard down is powerful.”

“I think we all know how to seduce,” I responded.

“But do you know how to seduce correctly. How about I show someone what I mean? Any volunteers.”

Craving’s hand shot up. Romance shot up as well. They had to be the two biggest flirts in the class. Love walked past Craving. He walked past me. He walked past Romance. He finally stopped at Urge at that moment. His eyes were staring so intently at Urge. I hated how he was looking at him. It was almost like he was undressing Urge with his eyes.

Was this part of it?

“Not interested,” Urge stated.

“I insist,” Love stated.

Lust immediately butted in, “Urge…you need to participate or would you like me to call a moderator in here.”

Urge sighed immediately, “Fine.”Love grabbed him a chair, “Sit.”

Urge sat in the chair. Craving looked over at me. He knew what I was thinking. What the fuck was this Love guy doing? I knew Urge wasn’t mine. It wasn’t some relationship by any means but I was so fucking jealous just from when he started to look at him. The way Love was looking at Urge made me sick to my stomach.

“This is stupid,” Urge stated.

“Silencio…por favor,” Love replied in his heavy accent smiling as though this was something amusing, “Now everyone pay attention. Turning someone on is a very important task. Watch how I move. Watch how touch this man. I have to admit…someone like this man is so beautiful but these techniques can work on anyone…”

Someone so beautiful? Was he teaching us a lesson or flirting?

Love started to move slowly. He put his hands in Urge’s hair. I could feel my body shake with jealousy as he started to run his hands down Urge’s chest. I shivered.

“This is dumb…” Urge stated.

Lust called out from the corner immediately, “Urge do not move while Love is performing his demonstration please.”“This is a waste of time. I don’t get the point on how this is going to make us an assassin.”

Love put his hands on Urge’s lip and Urge immediately tried to move his head away but Love grabbed it keep his head still. He made eye contact with Urge. He had gotten so close to Urge at that moment that I thought he was about to kiss Urge. His mouth was right next to Urge but instead of kissing him he just inhaled. Love inhaled deeply. It was almost like he was sucking the air out of Urge’s slightly parted lips.

At that point Urge turned around.

“Make sure their eyes stay on you the entire time and if they lose focus even a little bit do something shocking that will bring focus right back onto you.”

Love dropped his pants.

It was a quick motion that shocked the fuck out of everyone in the room. He stepped out of his pants in a sexy way. He had a silk jock strap on underneath. His ass was bare and he was bent over right in front of Urge’s face at that moment. He was spread eagle. He leaned forward, now on his head doing a headstand. He started to move his legs almost like a stripper. When he stopped his legs were spread out completely into a split while he was on a hand stand.

Urge was looking. He wasn’t staring but he was looking as though wanting to see what Love would do next. It made me sick. Urge was breathing hard. I could hear it from here. It would have stuck out but he wasn’t the only one excited by this.

“Ho-Ly shit,” Craving said.

Love was now walking on his hands moving closer to Urge with his ass in the air. His butt cheecks were spread open so wide that his asshole was perking toward the ceiling.

Now instead of just lifting himself with his hands, Love was lifting his entire body completley off of his finger tips.

“I was an acrobat before I came here,” Love told everyone as a few gasps had spread across the room.

“Look. Are we done here?” Urge stated, “I get your point.”

“Not yet sexy, just lean back and enjoy the show.”

This was too much. Way too much!

I started to make a step forward. I had my knife with the chain around my waist. I could throw it right now. I would slice off his fucking fingers. Craving was right next to me though. Maybe he saw me step forward. He pulled me back luckily before I did something stupid.

“Can we speed this up then?” Urge asked.

“You sure?”

Love didn’t wait for an answer before he somehow flipped himself into the air. The way he tossed himself into the air I knew for sure he had to have been in some crazy circus or something. When he landed he was in Urge lap!His bare ass was now grinding on Urge’s crotch. His ass cheeks was resting on Urge’s thighs.

“Damn, I got next…” Craving stated.

Love kept grinding on Urge. Urge was breathing hard.

“I feel it now daddy. It’s ok. I feel it. You excited now aren’t you.”He was acting as though he was riding Urge. He jumped into the air again and this time he was on top of Urge straddling him. His legs were wrapped around Urge. There was no space between him and Urge. The only thing that separated them was a thin jockstrap.

Oh fuck no.

I felt my blood boiling at this point.

“Damn this is hot,” Passion stated, “I feel like I need to throw some dollars.”

At this point Urge was just staring with intention. I could see it. I think everyone could see it. I never felt so jealous in my life at that moment as I saw Love start rocking back and forth on Urge in that chair. He was shaking his ass and making it vibrate in the strangest way on Urge’s crotch.

Love’s bare ass hole was sitting right on the area that Urge’s crotch was, “You like that? How about a kiss…”

He went in for a kiss! He actually REALLY tried to KISS Urge at that moment.

Luckily Urge moved his head just in time but instead of kissing him Love immediately went for his neck. Love started sucking on his neck at that moment.

“Oh fuck…” Urge said, “Oh…oh my FUCKING GOD!”

“What’s going on?” I said, “Urge are you ok?”I didn’t know what was going on. I started towards them. Fuck this. At that point Craving literally had to grab me and hold me back. I would have killed Love. I LITERALLY would have killed this motherfucker!I was so upset until I realized what Urge was doing.

“Oh fuck…I’m fucking…cumming….”

Cumming?

I felt so defeated. I mean I was defeated to the point that I was on my knees. Now all I was doing was watching as Urge’s eyes rolled in the back of his head.

Somehow Love had managed to scale Urge’s entire body and sneak behind him on the chair. Urge was too busy having an orgasm to realize what Love was doing. It wasn’t until Love had Urge in a headlock that he knew what was happening. He tried to get out but Urge could break the headlock.

“You see? You let your guard down,” Love stated, “I could snap your neck right now and you would be dead.”

There was applause. They were all clapping. Craving was damn near whistling and demanding an encore at this point from Love.

Love released Urge. He bowed.

Urge looked at me.

There was a wet spot on his gray pants. Wet sperm was still dripping down. Urge was still breathing heavily. He had nutted on himself. He had FUCKING nutted on himself to this guy right in front of everyone. Urge ran out of the room all of a sudden probably out of embarrassment but the damage was done.

That’s when I realized it. Maybe he may have not been the strongest but Love was going to be dangerous.

10

“You ok?”

The others were practicing kissing seduction techniques. Romance was kissing Allure. Passion was kissing Craving. It was awkward and silly. I hadn’t been doing it even though the moderators had come in the room to start their scoring process at this point. Love was sitting next to me.

He had barely gotten dressed from when he made Urge cum on himself.

I nodded, “I’m fine. I’ll probably work on the whole seduction thing later.”

“No worries. No rush. You guys have a lot of time to perfect it. But I do want to let you know the scoring for this is all going to be based off one performance.”

“Performance?”

“Yes. You got to seduce someone in front of the moderators and make them think that person really wants you. Whenever you are ready you just tell the moderators that you want to be scored. That’s just the seduction part though. That is just for infiltration part though. You still have to pass espionage and sabotage. Seduction is the hardest. It’ll take the longest to perfect.”

“Like you did I’m sure.”

“It was my specialty. I got past rank 3 back in my day well enough, but infiltration and espionate…that is where I shined,” he smiled, “Today was easier though. I had to admit. Lust told me Urge was attractive but the last time I saw him he wasn’t like that. He had a growth spurt this year. He is hot…”

“Yeah…”

“Oh am I stepping on your toes. Are the two of you an item?”

“Why do you ask that?”

“You got this long face on like you’re upset.”

“I’m not fucking upset.”

I didn’t have to respect this Love guy. He wasn’t the team leader. Just because he was already on the team didn’t make it that I had to respect him. I was annoyed.

“Ok if he’s yours, I apologize. You should take it as compliment.”

I knew I was acting like some crazy jealous lunatic, “He’s not mine.”

“Good. I never had a crush on someone. As soon as I saw him. Man.”

“Should you be talking like that?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Just figured you should be you know. Teaching. I just didn’t think you wanted to have small talk with me.”

I was annoyed. I didn’t want Love around me. I didn’t want him in my face or even in my vicinity.

“I think it’s important to get to know you guys if you’ll be on my team. Four of you at least. Is that ok? I don’t mean to rub anyone the wrong way or nothing.”

“It did rub me the wrong way because I think Urge is embarrassed,” I explained, “He asked you to stop several times.”

“Well he seemed to enjoy that nut…never had someone moan so loud…maybe he would thank me…”

I couldn’t believe this guy was talking like this. He was crude and unrefined in the way he was speaking. I shook him off that point. He kept trying to make small conversation but I just kept walking away. It was clear that he thought Urge was attractive. I figured that was ok. I didn’t understand how everyone didn’t find Urge attractive despite his standoff personality. He was an extremely attractive guy. I was just irritated that the first time I met Love he had to do something like that. Even if you did like someone was that how you go about showing that you liked them?

It irritated me even more that Urge did have an orgasm right in the middle of the floor. Maybe he couldn’t help it.

Maybe Love was his type.

Rank 4 seemed different than Rank 3. Rank 3 we learned how to fight like assassins but Rank 4 was a little harder. Rank 4 we had to learn to think like assassins. It wasn’t enough to just know how to kill your target. You had to know how to get close enough to kill your target.

Everyone seemed to struggle. Sabotage involved a lot of coding and things like that. I don’t think anyone except maybe Allure was good at it. Then there was Espionage that involved a lot of sneaking around. There was a special room where we had to do a lot of acrobatics. There was also a room that measured the amount of noise you made. The moderators stayed in these rooms watching how we performed. If we made a noise the moderators would immediately start writing on their notes.

Rank 4 was about going undetected. That was what this was all about. The art of getting close. Love was a pro at this as well. Lust had stopped showing up to our infiltration training classes and so had Urge. The next day was we had more training on seduction and the day after that was more of the same. I knew the moderators weren’t keeping score of this but it was important if Urge was ever going to do the performance. I started to get worried about him.

“Can anyone explain what love is?”

It was day 3. We were in class. Love was standing in the front of the class. He had on a tight black body suit. Romance and Craving seemed to love it. Love definitely seemed comfortable with his body.

“You are Love,” Romance stated smiling.

“Anyone got an answer who isn’t trying to be a smart ass?”

Allure nodded, “Love is an emotion. An intense feeling of deep affection.”Love just stood there at the front of the class. He sighed. Allure was the type to get all the answers right in class. We were so sure that she had gotten it right.

“It’s more than that,” Love stated.

I raised my hand. It wasn’t really my thing to try to outshine the others in training classes. Most of the time it was because I was on the lower half of the class when it came to certain things. For some reason his questions seemed to me to be less of a trick question and more of a question about how you actually feel.

“It’s…it’s um…” I started.

I had been interrupted. I had been interrupted by Urge at the door. He hadn’t entered. The others hadn’t seen him standing there. He was quiet. Maybe he was lost or something. He had been intentionally not showing up to training all week.

“Go ahead, spit it out,” Love stated.

Urge was listening in. For a moment I felt as though I was speaking to him. Maybe he wouldn’t listen. Maybe it didn’t matter to him at all. I still felt like I wanted to talk to him though.

I crossed my arms and closed my eyes, “Love is not being able to close your eyes without thinking about that person. Love is knowing there is nothing you wouldn’t do without that person. Love is not being able to breathe when that person walks into the room. So you know what you do? You hold your breath. You hope that they are looking at you in the same way you are looking at them. You just keep holding your breath until they turn…and they leave; then all of a sudden your life starts all over again. But that memory that they left you with. That feeling that made you think you were dead inside for a quick moment because you never felt so alive; that’s love.”

Urge had left the room again right after I had spoken. Maybe he hadn’t meant to come in here at all.

“Holy shit,” Craving said, “You make love sound kinda serious huh?”

“He’s completely right,” Love told me, “Desire seems to understand what love is. Love is extremely serious. It’s a weapon. It’s a devastating weapon that you can use against your enemies. You tap into their weakness, you can destroy them. From the inside…out.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

They all turned to me at that moment. They all turned to me and looked at me as though I had three heads. I didn’t care though. Love had it all wrong.

“Excuse me?”

“I meant that love was a serious thing but I didn’t mean it was a weapon,” I stated shaking my head, “It’s a blessing. You know? I just don’t believe it’s the best technique to use.”

Love laughed at me at that moment, “You think you know more about this subject than I do? I’ve been on dozens of missions. I’m just 22. Would you like to know how many men and women have fallen in love with me in all of those missions? Dozens. That’s right, rookie. I know a thing about love.”

The others were looking at Love and I. Things were heated between us. It was clear there was tension between us. I didn’t think anyone was surprised by it though. They had all seen how he made Urge nut on that chair a few days ago. They had all seen his seduction techniques. Personally I didn’t want anything to do with them.

“Do you?”

“Yes.”

“How many of those men have you fallen in love with back?”

“Those were my targets. I don’t fall in love with my targets…”

“Exactly. So what do you really know about love?”

Love stood there laughing. I knew the others had found this completely awkward. Luckily there were no moderators standing around in this class or else I was sure I’d be failing the course right now.

“You think you can do better?” Love asked me, “How about you go? Go put on a performance without my training.”

“I just might.”

I didn’t know what I was saying until I got up out of my seat and walked away. I didn’t know what I was doing. I felt immediately stupid that Love was basically kicking me out of the his training. I still didn’t forgive him though. I didn’t forgive how he embarrassed Urge and I wasn’t going to.

I found myself back in the dorm and threw myself on the bed. I hadn’t even noticed that I wasn’t alone until I heard heavy breathing. I looked towards the wall of the dorm to see that Urge was there. He was standing there shirtless. He was doing push-ups with one hand. If he had noticed me walking in he definitely didn’t want to say anything about it.

I walked over to him noticing the sweat dripping off of his sexy body. This man was sexy and every part of me wanted to just watch him exercise all day long.

“Working out isn’t going to help you pass infiltration…”

“I’m not doing it.”

He just kept working out. He was one of those guys who had this perfect body and just always seemed to keep working out even when he obtained the body that most people dreamed of having.

“Not doing it?”

“I’ll get… high scores…. in espionage… and sabotage,” he replied taking his time to answer as he took heavy breaths between push ups, “Do me a favor. Sit on my back.”

“Seriously.”

“What you scared I’m going to sweat on you princess? Sit on my back,” he replied.

I rolled my eyes and walked over to Urge. He was still dripping sweat. It was amazing how his body glistened in the way that it did. I had no problem doing what he said though. I went over to him and sat on his back. He continued to do push ups with me on his back. Urge was so fucking strong. He was so powerful.

“Is this supposed to be proving a point?”

“Not unless you want it to.”

I got off his back, “Look you’re not superman. You failed twice and there is something you aren’t telling me. You aren’t telling me that you never passed Rank 4…”

Urge shot me a stare. I knew I had hit a sensitive spot as soon as I said it. I watched as he stopped doing pushups and walked to the back. I followed behind him making my way to the bathroom. As soon as I got in the back he pinned me to the wall with one hand.

“Stop following me.”

“I’m not about to let you shut me out like you do everybody else,” I told Urge.

He rolled his eyes.

“Fine. I never passed Rank 4. Is that what you wanted to confirm? Who told you? My brother or my father?”

I just shook my head, “You didn’t think that was kind of important to let me know?”

“No. Had nothing to do with you.”

“It does.”

“Why?”

“If you don’t pass. I die.”

I had broke the news to him without really thinking. I knew I didn’t want to put the added pressure on him but I thought that Urge would just shut me out if I didn’t let him know that. Urge’s eyes got serious all of a sudden.

He sat on the sink and just stared at the ground. There was tension in the room. It kind of made me feel special that Urge was reacting like this. Urge didn’t care about anyone or anything but somehow the idea of me dying over something he did seemed to get to him.

When he finally spoke his voice seemed apprehensive, “It’s my dad…isn’t it?”

“He says that he’ll kill me if you don’t pass this. He’s scared that I might be distracting Wrath and a part of me thinks he’s scared I may be distracting you as well. Am I distracting you?”

He stared at me.

“A little bit.”

“Wow…”

“But it’s a good thing!” Urge quickly responded shaking his head, “Just you are making me care a little bit more. Maybe I need to care a little bit more. I don’t have the same motivation as you guys have. My father isn’t going to kill me if I fail.”

“Well he’ll kill me. So can you not fail? Pretty please…”

I laughed at the idea that I was taking this so lighthearted. Urge hadn’t even smiled a little bit though even though I had a wide smile on my face. He wasn’t looking at my face. Urge was still looking at the ground.

“Look, I can’t do Infiltration. It’s not who I am.”“Why not?”

“That test is about seduction. It’s about being social. It’s about getting someone to trust you. It’s about being sexy. I’m not sexy. Ask me to shoot someone. Ok. Ask me to arm a bomb. Ok. Ask me to seduce someone…that’s not my thing. I failed over and over just because of Infiltration.”

“You don’t think you’re sexy?”

Urge rolled his eyes as feeling like the idea of being sexy was below him, “People like Lust are sexy. People love Love are sexy. I’m not sexy. I’m a killer, gdam it.”

“You’re pretty sexy,” I replied, “Hate to break it to you.”

“Stop.”

“Are you…are you getting red?” I asked Urge, “You are! Why are you so nervous? A little seduction is normal. I’m sure that you’ve seduced a couple people in your life. I’m sure that you got into some panties or underwear or whatever you felt like getting into at the moment…”

“I’m a virgin.”

The world stopped at that moment. Urge was a virgin? I was beyond shocked. I didn’t know how to respond to that. I just looked at him. I could tell he was embarrassed when he was telling it to me. Urge didn’t look like a virgin. Not to say virgins had special looks but Urge looked like the kind of guy who walked into a club and girls just came flocking. Then I thought about it. Has Urge even been to a club before? He was so sheltered away from that kind of stuff. He had been trained all his life for one reason. He was trained to be a killer.

I sighed quietly, “I had no idea.”

“Now you see why I’m so awkward,” Urge replied shaking crossing his arms, “I had no social life. I didn’t go on dates. I didn’t have friends. I damn sure didn’t have sex. I’m like those moderators out there. I don’t have a soul…”

“You do have a soul.”

“What makes you so sure?”

He was really asking me as though really wondering. It was kind of sad to see someone like that. It made me hate Tom even more. Tom had robbed his son of any bit of normalcy. Urge didn’t even know what normal was. Urge was so confused and lost. It was all Tom’s fault.

“How many times have you saved me?” I asked Urge.

“A lot…you can’t seem to stay out of trouble,” Urge replied.

“Exactly. How many times has a moderator saved someone. You aren’t a moderator. You have emotions. And if you have emotions you have the ability to seduce and be seduced. It’s still there inside of you. I’m going to help to bring it out.”

He smiled.

“Ok.”

“Ok?”

“Ok. I trust you.”

I smiled back knowing that he trusted me.

The thing was I had no clue how I was going to get him to pass Infiltration.

“Hold me closer…stop being so damn awkward.

Urge didn’t want to go back to train with Love for Infiltration. I didn’t want to go back either. I know stacked the odds against us for passing the test but instead I tried to figure out ways to find Urge’s intimacy as well as intensify my own.

“This is so fucking weird,” Urge stated.

“Being able to hit your mark dead center with a pistol 30 feet away isn’t weird for you but slow dancing is just out of character.”

Music was playing. It was the only way I could think of to gain intimacy. No one was around and I had borrowed a radio from Craving that he’d taken from the gym. The radio was playing an old song. ‘Kissing you’ was the name of the song. It was an old song from the Romeo and Juliet movie but this version was sung by a man.

“Fine. Ok. Where do I put my hand?” Urge asked.

“Here.”

I grabbed Urge’s hands and put it around my waist. I stepped closer to him. We were in each other’s space at this moment. We were so close.

“Man, I don’t know how to dance.”

“It’s not about knowing how to dance,” I replied, “It’s about feeling comfortable next to someone and feeling that intimacy with someone.”

“Ok, how’s this?” he asked.

“Better. Hold me tighter. Pull me closer.”

“Fuck Desire. We can’t get any closer than this.”

“We can always get closer.”

He pulled me in. Both of his hands were around my waist. I looked into his beautiful blue eyes but he was staring away at the door. I could tell he was nervous. We swayed back and forth in the room dancing to the slow song.

“This is soooooo weird,” he said, “What if someone walks in and sees us? They’ll think we are easy targets.”

“This is training remember?” I told him, “Relax. Listen to the song. Just lose yourself for once in the moment. Lose yourself with me.”

“Should I fake it?”

“No. Love fakes it. I’m not going to use his tactics. I want it to be real.”

He finally looked me in my eyes. Urge was finally trying at least. I could tell he was trying hard. We kept going back and forth. Our eyes were intensely staring at each other. I could feel this connection between us even if he was resisting. I knew that this was where I belonged. Even if we were just training for a mission it meant the world to me to be so close to him. It meant the world to me that he trusted me enough to let me close to him.

Urge NEVER let anyone close.

“What’s the song about?”

“I’m not 100% sure. He’s saying that ‘pride can stand a thousand trials, the strong will never fall’. I guess it’s about loving someone but not being able to be around them. You know? It’s the theme song from Romeo and Juliet. The one with Leonardo DiCaprio.”“Shakespeare right?” He asked.

“You’re joking. I hope you’re joking.”

“I know it’s Shakespeare, I just never really seen the movie,” he replied.

“It’s beautiful. The classic story retold in a new way,” I stated, “When I was young I used to love this song so much. I danced to it at my senior prom with my boyfriend. Yeah. I know. I went to the prom with a guy. That’s so weird.”

“I don’t think it’s weird. Not for you at least,” Urge smiled grabbing me up, “You the bravest dude I know. You’d throw knives if anyone fucked with you.”

“Not back then. Back then I trusted the world. I’d let anyone close. It’s how Wrath kidnapped me. I let my guard down.”

“Well I’m here now. So your guard is up.”

“Thank you.”

We continued to dance. The music kept going slow and it was on repeat. We moved around the room. I thought he was going to tell me when it was going to end. After a while I knew this was more about me and less about training. I just wanted Urge to touch me. I just wanted Urge to be close to me. He was letting me in too. He was letting me close to him.

The feeling was amazing. I couldn’t help but to just keep falling in love with him.

“Are we intimate now?”

It was an awkward question. It was an Urge question. I could tell he was never going to win Mr. Congeniality or anything. He was the most socially awkward person in the world and I loved every moment of it. It felt like he was all mine for whatever reason.

“Yup, dangerously so…”

“Hopefully we are Romeo and Juliet close now,” he said smiling but quickly looked away awkwardly before adding, “I meant…that way we’ll get high scores with the moderators.”

“Well Romeo and Juliet die.”

“Shit. They do? That sucks.”

“No it’s beautiful.”

“You think? I don’t see how…”

“We’ll watch it one day. Somewhere far away from here,” I told him, “Just you and me. We’ll rent it. We’ll eat popcorn with extra butter and watch it on surround sound. Like normal people…”

He hands had moved. It was a slow move. I hadn’t even noticed it was happening until it had happened. His hands were now on my ass now. His eyes were staring at me. I just kept looking at Urge. Every moment that passed with this slow music made me fall in love with him. I was desperate. Every part of me was desperate for him.

I had never known a love like this before.

“You think we’ll ever be…like normal people?” he asked.

I smiled, “That’s what I want for you. I want you to be normal. One day we won’t have to train. We won’t have to worry about death all around us. We’ll just be normal. Me and you. Just us two…”

There was a kiss.

The kiss was strong. It was a powerful kiss that took my breath away. I just found myself stuck there as Urge held my head close. He was kissing me with open mouths. It was awkward at first and sloppy. His tongue was wildly licking at my mouth and my lips.

It was clumsy making me aware he had never done this before, but soon I guided him. I showed him to kiss slower. He was a fast learner. He followed my lead. He slowed down. His lips were pressed up against mine.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for a while,” he told me.

“Me too.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Because I love you.”

Shit! I hadn’t even noticed the words coming out of my mouth until they came out of my mouth. Urge was looking at me shocked in a way that I had said what I had just said. He took a step back. I had scared him off. What the fuck was I saying admitting to something like that at that moment? What the fuck did I expect him to do? Did I expect him to say it back to me?

It scared him all of a sudden.

“Desire…”

“You don’t have to say it back. It’s just. I thought you should know.”

Urge nodded his head, “I see. I understand. Desire. I have seen some horrible things in my life. That part of me…I don’t think it exists anymore. I’m not sure if it ever existed in the first place.”

“I get it. You don’t have to explain.”

“But Desire. If I could love. If it were possible. You’d be the person I would have wanted to love…”

I’m not sure what it meant. I wasn’t sure how to take it but I knew that I had to take it. I had understand where he was coming from. Urge had never lead me on. He had never made me think he could possibly give me anymore then he had said he would in the first place. He had never made me believe he was possible for love.

That was all me.

“Love will take you back if you apologize to him,” Craving had been telling me that night.

I turned across the room to look at Urge. He was working out. I knew the others were getting a different kind of training in infiltration from Love. I knew they were probably getting exactly what they needed to pass. Personally I didn’t think it was possible for me to have to go through all of that though.

“Urge and I are doing just fine.”Craving laughed giving me a look of disbelief, “Urge? The only male moderator is doing fine at seduction?”

“He’s not a moderator. He has passion in there. I just got to find it.”

“Man you got better luck of finding a way out of this hell hole,” Craving stated shaking his head, “At that. I’m going to bed.”

The others were going to sleep soon after. Allure, Passion and Romance had all gone to sleep. Urge was laying down getting ready to go sleep. I decided that I would go hop in the showers at that moment while everyone was asleep.

In the showers all I could think about was Urge. All I could think about was how he was holding me when we were dancing. It was almost like he wanted to let go fully but he was just still so afraid. He was so afraid of getting hurt.

Footsteps.

“Hello?” I asked.

I looked at the curtain as the water flowed over me.

More footsteps.

I was confused. They were really light footsteps though, extremely light. I hardly heard Urge but when I did his footsteps sounded like this. Light and quick on his feet. I was compelled by them at that moment. I turned back to the water sure that it was Urge.

Then something happened. The curtain pulled back and he stepped into the shower with me. At first I was stunned.

Then I felt the kisses on the back of my neck.

“Oh my god…” I stated, “That feels so good…”

My eyes were closed as Urge started to kiss me. We were in the water. We were in the warm water and it ran over us. I could feel my body engulfed in it. Everything felt so right. He had that desperate awkwardness of a boy who wasn’t raised around sex and things like that. It was clear by the way he kissed me that he wasn’t used to it, but I could feel the desire in him.

He kissed loser and lower licking my ass crack. His tongue ran up the side of my buttcheek. He separated it just enough to lick in the hole. I found myself under the water leaning over. The water cascaded down my back.

I couldn’t believe this was happening. Was this a dream?

“Yes….god…yes…I love this!” I stated and it only made him stick his entire tongue down my ass at that moment, “Ugh I love you!”

“I love you too.”

The words sounded muffled. They sounded muffled based on the fact that his head was stuffed between my asscheeks. I couldn’t make them out but I was so sure. I was SO sure he had told me he loved me too. My heart began to melt. Every part of me seemed to be there right now.

He was jerking my dick as he ate me out in the shower. His tongue went deeper. Deeper. Deeper. I moaned louder and louder. He kept licking in my ass taking full advantage of my body.

“Yes more…more…” I couldn’t even last, “I’m about to cum, URGE! I’m about to cum!”

“Urge?”

The voice seemed confused!

That voice wasn’t Urge!

I panicked tossing myself to the side of the shower wall so hard I almost cracked my back!

I turned around horrified. That voice wasn’t Urge. It was someone much darker. I let out the scream at the top of my lungs that moment. Urge wasn’t there behind me.

It was Wrath…

11

“Did you just call me Urge? Did you JUST think I was my brother?” Wrath was saying, “Why would you think that? Why would you think I was my brother?”

Wrath had just come in on me showering. He was eating me out in the shower! He was taking full advantage of me. I had thought it was Urge the entire time. Maybe it was because they were brothers and they sounded alike a little bit. Maybe it was because I wanted it to be Urge. I had no idea how I was so stupid.

I reacted quickly.

I kicked off the wall and tried to implant my leg into his chest.

It didn’t work!Wrath was too fast. He caught my leg and sent me flying outside of the shower all of a sudden. I collided into the wall outside of the bathroom stall. My back hit the wall so hard that I thought I was going to pass out. Luckily I didn’t though.

“Why would you attack me?” Wrath asked looking down on me.

He had crazy eyes. I thought I was in some creepy horror film or something by how he was looking at me. His eyes just kept desperately watching me. They were just glued in on me. He was fully dressed. He had been wet from the shower but he was dressed. He had climbed into the shower completely naked and taken advantage of me. I felt so violated.

“You came into my shower and tried to have sex with me!”“You said you loved me!”“I thought it was Urge!”Wrath’s eyes said something else all of a sudden. Just at that moment I noticed Urge standing there. He had run in maybe from the noise. He looked over at me completely naked in the back and then he looked at Wrath.

“What the fuck is this…” Urge stated, “What the fuck did you do Wrath?”

“You stole the man I loved. You stole the man I loved, you jealous cocksocker!” Wrath told his brother at the top of his lungs, “You always wanted to be me. Isn’t that right little brother? You always wanted my spot?”

Urge didn’t even seem concerned about what Wrath was saying. Urge was looking down at me. I felt so stupid naked on the floor like this. How the hell had I not known it was Wrath instead of Urge? How could I make that kind of mistake.

“Did he hurt you?” Urge asked.

“He was trying to have sex. He did have sex. I just. I didn’t know it was him.”

“That’s rape,” Urge said looking at Wrath, “That’s like fucking rape. Do you know that?”“He loves me.”

I wasn’t sure who attacked first. I believed they both attacked each other at the same time. I hadn’t seen Urge move as quickly as he was moving now. He was running towards Wrath and Wrath was running toward him. It was like a clash of titans really. Wrath tried to swing on Urge. Urge ducked it. Urge lifted himself up on the pipes over head. I had seen him do pullups a hundred times from these pipes. He pulled himself now. Quickly situating himself above his brother. He wrapped his feet around Wrath’s neck! I could have sworn Wrath was done for but Wrath managed to shake him off. He managed to toss Urge’s body into the sink.

He had hit Urge so hard that the sink broke.

I couldn’t help but to run over and jump on Wrath’s back at that moment. I started to choke Wrath but Wrath was having it. He clawed at me managing to pull me off of him.

I was in his arms immediately and I saw him tossing me out into the locker room area.

I slid across the floor.

“What’s going on?”

It was Craving, Allure and the others.

“It’s that fucking nut job Wrath. He was sneaking on me showering…”

“Are you serious?”

There was sounds of fighting going on in the bathroom. In just a few minutes though I felt Craving grabbing me. He pulled me back out of harms way just in time.

Wrath’s body had came flying out of the bathroom.

Wrath had landed on Passion.

“You fucking rapist!” she was screaming, “You fucking rapist!”

I had never seen Passion like that. I had never seen her go off like that even during practice. She seemed to be losing it. It seemed like some act that Wrath had done made her extremely sensitive. Passion immediately tried to choke him out as well from underneath him. Wrath was fast though elbowing Passion in her head and retreating a little bit.

“You picked the wrong bathroom pervert,” Allure stated.

Allure and Romance had now cornered Wrath.

“Do you know who I am? I am one of the 7 deadly sins. I am Tom’s son.”

Allure smiled at that moment, “You don’t say. I love trying to kill Toms’ kids.”

It was Allure who attacked first but Romance attacked from the left hand side. They were two tough girls. I noticed how fast Romance’s kicks were. She was like some sort of kickboxer or something. Allure was almost just as skilled. They delivered punches, kicks, jabs and uppercuts to every part of Wrath. Most of their assaults didn’t go through through though. Wrath was fast but they were keeping him busy.

I watched as Urge came out of the bathroom. He looked over at me.

“Are you ok?”

“I’m fine. Help them.”

Wrath had kicked Allure in her shins making her take a nose dive right into the floor. Allure was still up though and seemed to be somewhat holding her own. I had no idea how long she would last though.

Urge ran towards them but there was no way for him to get at him because Passion had taken Romance’s place. Passion was a lot slower than Romance was and wasn’t as good at hand to hands.

They needed weapons. I looked around. I needed to find my knife at least. I could sneak up on them. I could stop Wrath before he hurt them too badly.

Allure was screaming orders but no one seemed to be listening, “Urge! Go to the left. Craving stand back until we need you! Passion let me through! Passion I said let me through goddamn it!”It was chaos. Passion being punched. Allure being sent flying across the room. Romance damn near being hit so hard that she was knocked out again. Craving was trying to find weapons to throw at Wrath from a distance but nothing was useful. Urge jumping over everyone’s bodies to get at his brother only to have all of his punches blocked.

Wrath was kicking our asses.

I was butt naked but it didn’t matter. I got up and went to my bed searching my stuff for the knife and chain. I turned fast enough to see that Wrath had finally gotten Allure. I think it was a solid punch to the jaw that had gotten her. I wasn’t sure. Everything was going so fast. All I could hear was her scream and hit the ground. Fuck.

I finally found the knife Urge gave me.

“Urge move!”

“Wait!”It was Allure who had screamed it but it was too late. My Kyoketshu-Shogei knife was threw the air aimed right at Wrath. It had gotten past Urge. It had gotten past Passion. I watched as it hit Wrath stabbing him in the leg. He screamed in pain. Yes. Yes! I had drawn blood. I had drawn blood. That was exactly what I had wanted to do.

I had attempted to pull it back but I realized Wrath had grabbed the other side of the chain. All of a sudden he yanked it. The knife was still stuck in his leg when he pulled at the chain. I let it slip out of my hands and was almost dragged across the room with it. As soon as it was out of my hands I noticed him take it out of his leg.

Then I saw Wrath stick the knife right into Passion’s chest.

My voice screamed across the room, “PASSION!”It was too late.

Passion took the fall immediately. I watched as she was on the ground. Blood was gushing out of her chest. She looked like she was bleeding everywhere. I watched as Allure ran over to her to try to stop the bleeding. It seemed like time stood still when I saw her laying there.

The last thing I remembered was Craving. Craving had gone absolutely crazy. I had seen him before when he was enraged by something. Nothing could stop him. He was picking up something else now to throw at Wrath. It wasn’t anything normal. No… Craving had picked up an entire bed. I’m talking bed frame, box spring and mattress. He was about to haul it at Wrath when all of a sudden…there were bells.

“ENOUGH!”

I turned to see Lust had walked into the room. She wasn’t alone. There were moderators with her. There were about a dozen or so moderators with her.

“Passion, he stabbed Passion,” Craving was saying.

“Drop the bed,” Lust told him, “That’s an order Craving.”

I had never thought I’d hear someone telling someone else to drop an entire bed. Craving got angry and he was like the hulk though. He had this almost superhuman strength. The normal person would have been beyond afraid, but not Wrath. No Wrath was laughing a sick little laugh. He had been hit a couple good times by everyone. His lip was bleeding. The big wound that Wrath had was the knife in his leg. It was bleeding a lot but throughout all this Wrath was laughing.

“You better listen, meathead,” Wrath stated, “She’s trying to save you before I kill all of you…”Craving dropped the bed making the entire room rumble a little bit. Wrath seemed to find this even more amusing. He started to laugh at the moment and walked away from us.

Lust stopped him. She didn’t touch him but she stopped him as he was walking away from us.

“Stay away from my team Wrath…”

“Or what?”

“How about we let your father decide?”

The threat seemed to hit home for Wrath. He grimaced at Lust. For a moment I thought they were going to fight right there. I was interested to see just what Lust was really capable of. Nothing happened though. He just grimaced as though wanting to threaten her back. I could see the look in his eyes as he just turned and walked away though.

This wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

Passion was dead. There was no saving her. Lust gave us a few minutes with her body before having it taken away. It was sickening really to know that she was gone.

“You guys should have stayed out of my fucking way,” Urge stated, “Next time…stay OUT of my fucking way…”

Urge walked away to the bathroom area after the moderators took Passion’s body away. It was clear he was angry. I was angry too. I was angry at myself. I was so sure the others would blame me. I was so sure that they would but no one did.

“Put this on,” Craving said handing me a robe, “You going to get Romance all hot and bothered…”

I sighed, “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have thrown that knife. I should have listened to Allure.”

Allure shook her head, “We all should have done better. It’s not just your fault.”

Romance smiled next to Allure. They were comforting me. I was confused. These people were my competitors. There were five of us now but only four openings. Passion had just died. Why would they comfort me? They could let Wrath rape me, kill me or do whatever. It would have helped their cause. I didn’t get it.

“He was here…because of me.”

“Passion was molested when she was a kid,” Romance stated, “She didn’t tell anyone but me. Regardless of what we all been through, we are all each other has. She wouldn’t have wanted to see you go through the same thing with some guy trying to force himself on you.”Allure agreed surprisingly, “She knew what she was doing…”

“He’s still out there,” I stated.

“He’s not going to get anywhere near you,” Craving stated, “We got your back. We are all in this together. Even that dickhead Urge. We just never really had to work together before. We weren’t ready for that…not even against one person.”

We paused for a moment. What Craving was saying was right in a way. I could blame myself but all of us were a hot mess in that fight. Wrath had single handedly embarrassed us. He had made us look like idiots. If he had a weapon we’d all have probably been dead, probably even me.

It was Allure who said the words that we were all thinking.

“Everyone get to bed. We’ll be stronger next time. We’ll be ready for him.”

I wanted to believe in Allure sometimes when she said those strong words. The words always seemed to motivate but I wondered if that was really going to be enough.

“Come in…closer the door.”

Lust had called me into room for a meeting that weekend. I didn’t know what this was about really. I was nervous but I assumed it had to be about the fight. What else would it have been about?

I closed the door, “Is this going to be long?”“Urge is standing outside the door isn’t he?”

I nodded, “Yes.”

Urge was getting really overprotective especially since he knew Wrath was after me. He honestly followed me into the bathroom at times and stood watch almost. When Lust had asked a moderator to come to get me I wasn’t surprised when Urge followed me to the room and was standing outside of the room right now.

Lust smiled, “They like you…it’s interesting really…”

“How so?”

She shrugged, “Just good to know I guess. I think that’s what my old team was missing. That care. I would warn against being that only four of you would make the team but I think it’s too late for that. Isn’t it? You guys all honestly care about each other.”

“I think the deaths could have done one of two things. It could have brought us together or it could have torn us apart. I think it brought us together.”

She nodded.

“Two of you seem closer than the others…you and Urge.”“Yes.”

“You love him.”

I paused. The look in her eyes was almost as though she knew the answer to it already. Her eyes gave her away. It made me nervous seeing her ask me things about Urge.

“You brought me here to ask me about my relationship with Urge?”

“In a way…”

“Why?”

“Tom wanted me to kill you if your relationship with his son became something that couldn’t be…disciplined. Do you know what he means by disciplines? He means that control. If the two of you can’t be control I have to take you out of the equation.”

Her eyes were dead. There was no passion in them.

“You aren’t going to do it…are you?”

She shook her head.

“No.”

“Why?”

Everyday I was surprised in the Assembly but today was definitely different. Lust was sitting there looking almost lost at the moment.

She smiled, “Love is a dangerous thing. It is a powerful thing. I don’t believe your affection towards Urge is a detriment to him. I think he is stronger with you in his life. Now he has a reason to fight besides his father’s approval. I see a passion in his eyes I’ve never seen before.”

“I see it too.”

I saw it last night. I saw it when he was fighting Wrath. Wrath wasn’t a push over. Urge was holding his own against one of the most powerful assassin’s in the assembly. If the others hadn’t been there who knew how far Urge would have gotten against Wrath. It made me nervous just thinking about it.

“Help him. Guide him. Urge is the key to everything. You are the key to Urge.”

“What do you mean—the key to everything?”

“Listen. You should go. Just take care of him and keep a low profile so that Tom doesn’t catch on ok?”

Lust was helping me. When there were no moderators around she seemed so human. She seemed just like a regular person. I had always known there was a good side to her. I had always known there was a soft side to her. The way she was treating me right now though. It was real. It was almost too real.

I walked out of the room and Urge was standing there nervously looking on.

“Are you ok?” he asked.

“I’m good. I’m great…”

“What’d she say?”

I turned back to the room still shocked by the fact that Lust was helping me. The idea of it just took me by surprise.

“Nothing. Let’s spend some time together…”

The tables had turned. Urge had trained me in fighting and I was training him. I was helping him to get in touch with his emotions and it was working. It was simple stuff that we did. We learned each other and the more I thought about it the more I hoped this was something real. I hoped that this was something different from what I had known in the past from Urge. He was softening and I think other people were starting to notice it as well. Of course he still didn’t talk to anyone but me but now he would come around when I was talking to the others. If I was talking to Craving or Allure, he would quietly sit at the edge of my bed. He wouldn’t say anything much really to them but this was a BIG step for Urge. Now he wasn’t avoiding people. He was actually around and finding some comfort in the fact that I was there to support him.

“Allure took her Infiltration test today,” Urge stated, “So has Craving. Romance was the first took take hers. We are the only two left to take the test.”

Weeks had passed. Urge was in the back of the acrobatics room with me. We had been swinging back and forth from monkey bars all day. The moderators had graded us. It required a lot of upper body strength and flexibility but it was easy really. Neither of us were anywhere near the skill of Love who could complete all the monkey bars in less then two minutes. We were good though. I felt like we were good enough to pass.

“Are you nervous?” I asked.

Urge didn’t respond right away. He was. I could tell that he was.

“I don’t know what to do?”

“Supposedly you just call the moderators in and make them feel like you are seducing someone.”

“No. I mean I know about that,” Urge replied, “I know how it goes. I just don’t know what to do to pass. I feel like I have to pass too now more than ever. It’s so much pressure.”

“Because your father says he’d kill me.”

“My father doesn’t lie.”

I sighed a little bit, “I wouldn’t blame you. You know that right? If you and I don’t pass then we don’t pass. To be honest I’d be happy to die knowing that I just spent some honest time with a real good friend of mine. Your friendship means the world to me…”

I felt like I was being soft. Assassins weren’t soft. Assassins didn’t say sweet things like this to other assassins. I knew that I was letting him in but the good thing about me letting him in is that he wanted me to. Maybe it was the way that he smiled more at me every once in a while. Maybe it was the fact that he loved to sit close to me on beds. Urge was getting closer and closer to me.

“Now,” Urge stated.

“Huh? Now what?”

Urge didn’t look over to me. He turned to the moderators, “Moderators. Desire and I would like to take our test now.”

The moderators were walking out of the room but they quickly went back to their places. They didn’t say anything to us but they did say something in their headsets. Soon more moderators came into the room. I counted six moderators all together in the room. What the fuck was Urge doing? Why the fuck would he tell them that we wanted to take our test now!We needed more time. We weren’t ready!

“Urge, you tripping right now. You can’t just call…”

Urge didn’t wait for me to finish my sentence. He kissed me. It was a hard kiss. It was different from the kiss that had happened before. It was completely different from the kiss that had happened before. This kiss sent shivers down my spine. It was wet. Urge wasn’t afraid to use his tongue. He loved using his tongue, pushing it deep into my mouth and massaging it with mine.

“Damn…” I said.

The moderators were taking notes. The test had begun.

There was this desire in his eyes. He took off his shirt and threw it on the ground below us. “Right now…”

“Ok…”

Below the monkey bars were mats. We were standing on the soft mats. Urge was just looking at me. His eyes just were just staring at me. His body was perfect. His pants hung lower than usual. The way his chest was just glaring there. He had just a little bit of sweat glistening on his chest. He had a big chest too. It was one of those muscular chests. He had these huge beautiful nipples on his chest as well. I just stared, stunned by how beautiful he was. How could this man have ever thought he wasn’t sexy?

“My turn…” I stated.

He didn’t move. He allowed me to walk up to him. His breathing was heavy. I was about to kiss him. I had brought my face only inches away from his face. Urge was breathing heavy. He was breathing so heavy. There was so much desire. I stopped though. Right before I kissed him. His eyes were closed. His lips puckered out. He wanted it. He wanted it bad.

“Damn…I don’t think I ever felt like this. Kiss me…”“No. Not yet. You said you never felt like this? What’s the feeling you are talking about? How does it feel…I want you to tell me?”

The moderators were taking notes. They were scoring us. There pens were going crazy on the pieces of paper. I had never really seen them write so fast.

“It feels like…my heart is racing. My body just wants you. My…damn…my….”Urge was hesitating.

I took a step closer to him. My lips were only inches away from him as well. He was gathering his courage once again. His breath was heavier.

I insisted, “Tell me.”

“My dick. That’s what I was going to say. My dick is hard,” he explained to me letting go of that barrier between us, “It’s so swollen man. The tip of my dick is wet, just from being near you. Every now and again there are quick spasms in my dick.”

“It’s precum…”“It’s amazing feeling,” he said, “Kiss me…please….”

He was almost begging for it. I could see the moderators writing faster and faster. Urge was breathing faster and faster. My heart was beating faster and faster.

I finally leaned in and kissed him. My mouth went over his lips. He was kissing back hard. I hadn’t even noticed it. I hadn’t even noticed that Urge was supporting me. I thought he was just grabbing my ass. He had grabbed my ass but he had grab my ass to lift me off of the ground. I was in the air at that moment.

He had walked me over to the middle of the mattress and while kissing me, gently laid me on the mattress. He was in between me now, in between my legs. His hard muscles pressed up against me keeping me pinned down so that his tongue could keep entering my mouth over and over. The wet kisses turned into licks as he licked my lips. He licked up my upper lip. He licked my lower lip. He seemed to want to outline my entire mouth with his wet tongue.

“My turn,” he stated.

I didn’t know what he meant. I didn’t know what he meant until I felt my shirt coming off from over my head. I didn’t know what he meant until he started to kiss down my body. I could feel myself all of a sudden start to shake. My body was having some what of mini-seizure or something. I had never felt this sensation before.

It was real. This wasn’t just sex. This was something so much deeper.

“Oh my god. Oh my GOD!”“Am I hurting you?”

He was so naive. It was beautiful. He had stopped. The cold killer had become so gentle as he stopped licking my body. Now he was staring at me. His beautiful eyes just calling out and eagerly wanting permission to continue.

“No. Fuck no,” was my response.

That was all Urge needed to hear. He started to lick further down. His mouth deep kissed my torso. He pulled my pants down. I hadn’t known he was going to. I wondered for a minute what the moderators were thinking but at that same moment I realized I didn’t GIVE A FLYING FUCK. The only thing that mattered was Urge. The only thing that mattered was us.

“Your body is so beautiful,” he stated, “Everything about you…perfect…”

I didn’t think he was going to tell me that. I wasn’t perfect. I was skinnier than he was. I didn’t have as many defined muscles as he had. I could continue working out as much as I’d like and it wouldn’t make me any taller. My body wasn’t perfect. His body was perfect. He was the perfect man and somehow he thought of me as the same.

His kisses kept going lower. They were on my thigh. They were on my inner thigh. They were outlining my figure. His tongue covered my body almost licking it as though I had the best taste in the world. He had stopped all of a sudden when he had gotten very low.

His eyes had turned to me again.

He was looking for permission.

“Please…” I told him.

That was all he needed to here.

He had lifted up my legs at that moment. Fuck the moderators. Fuck the test. Fuck everything. All I cared about was the feeling that ran through my body when my legs were lifted up over my head. I was somewhat flexible. I was far from some acrobat like Love however. My legs being pulled so far back hurt but it was worth it. I felt so vulnerable and he pinned my legs back over my head with his strong muscles. My asshole was just facing him, smiling at him.

He looked at it. He thought about it.

Then he started to kiss my asshole. It seemed to be a strange sensation to him as he did it. He seemed unsure at first on how to do it. Soon he got better and better learning quickly as usual probably by my moans. It was when his tongue went into my ass that I moaned the loudest. My eyes rolled in the back of my head.

“You’re so tight,” he stated, “You’re so fucking wet…”His tongue was licking me down harder and harder. Just at that moment I could see Urge pulling his dick out. His dick was beautiful. It was long and hard. Like he said there was precum. The precum dripped from the tip of the dick. Long strings of his manhood fell on the mats below

He positioned his dick. He was aiming his dick towards me all of a sudden.

“Fuck me Urge. Make love to me…”

This was really happening. This was really happening. His eyes stayed on me. His arms kept holding my legs back as he mounted me missionary style. He entered me. His dick thrust slow at first and deeper…deeper. He made his way all the way into me and just held it there.

“FUCK!” we both screamed at the same time at the top of our lungs.

“Oh my god!”

I had turned. It was a moderator. She was grabbing onto her crotch. I was shocked to see that she screamed out like that. The other moderators turned to her to see what the problem was. The moderators seemed almost…regular at the moment. She didn’t seem like some brainwashed robot. She was holding onto her crotch and I could see at that moment that WE HAD TURNED HER ON! She was dripping wet.

The moderator ran out of the room.

“Enough,” another moderator stated, “The two of you have passed. Perfect scores.”It was clear by how fast they had all turned to get out of the room that we had made them uncomfortable. I had never seen moderators uncomfortable before. I had never seen moderators tell us our scores so quickly. Usually they reported to Lust and Lust told us. Perfect scores as well. That couldn’t have been easy.

The room was clear. Urge still had his dick in me though. His eyes were still looking at me. My eyes were still looking at him.

“We did it…we passed…we are on Rank 5.”

He was breathing heavy. He hadn’t pulled out of me.

“Yeah. Rank 5 is the final rank.”

“Congratulations.”

“I wouldn’t have made it if it weren’t for you,” he replied.

“Well, you know what that means. We should celebrate…”

“You have anything in mind?” he asked.

“Maybe we should…practice a little bit more…”

“Practice huh? What kind of practice exactly? Like this?”

He was moving his dick in and out of me. In and out. The huge wet dick filled my ass hole. Yes. Maybe had something to do with passing the test now but it had gone far beyond that. The moderators were gone and Urge was still looking at me with that arousal.

“Yes. Like that. Like that! FUCK. It feels so good Urge. Just— Like—- that…”

He went in deeper, his dick hitting parts of my walls I didn’t even know existed and kissed me before whispering in my ear, “Time for extra credit…”

12

We were in the weight training room. Everyone had made it to Rank 5. For the first time no one was killed off. It felt good because Rank 4 was so hard that I was sure I was going to be losing a friend. If it wasn’t hacking we had to learn another language or learn how to communicate effectively. It literally was the hardest rank so far. I was glad we all somehow passed. I considered all these people friends now.

No one knew what Rank 5 was…not even Urge. Supposedly Rank 5 changed all the time. We were all just getting mentally prepared for it. We worked on endurance. We practiced our hacking. We practiced our weapons. We worked out. That is what we were doing now. We were working out. Urge was across the room. I noticed he wasn’t alone though. Love was standing there in his face trying to chat him up.

I felt annoyed and jealous. Love wasn’t getting the clue. Wasn’t he a trainer? He had already made the team. Why the fuck was he even in here? It had to be for only one thing. Urge. He was all in Urge’s face and Urge looked highly annoyed.

“Hey kid…”

It was Craving. We were across the room on the treadmills. Craving joined me on the treadmill next mine. I hardly noticed him coming up. My eyes were stuck on Urge and Love across the room and the conversation they were having.

“Hey.”

“So…”

“So what?”

“Last night right,” Craving stated, “I mean I fell asleep but I was hearing some…sounds come from in the shower. They were deep man grunts. Now. Call me crazy but you and Urge were the only guys around.”

I got red in the face.

“We were…practicing our infiltration skills.”

“Oh. Right. Right. Of course. Infiltration right. Sounds like Urge has been infiltrating you a lot lately huh?”

I laughed. I was caught red handed. Ever since we had passed Rank 4 a week ago Urge and I had been having sex at least 5 times a day. I didn’t know I was so attracted to someone that I could go like that. We literally never stopped having sex. Urge seemed to be wanting to make up for old times and I was more than happy to give him sex whenever we got the chance. With all this down time between ranks we had a lot of time alone and a lot of time to fuck.

“So the rumors are true?”

“Rumors? This place had rumors?”

“Yes. I was shocked. Allure overheard the moderators finally breaking character and whispering about you and Urge having actual sex to pass Rank 4. Supposedly no one has gone that far…ever. No one has gotten perfect scores either. ”

The moderators whispering. That was crazy! They were fucking robots.

I nodded. I couldn’t lie to him.

“They are true.”

“Supposedly Urge put it down on you.”

“Maybe that’s why Love is all of a sudden all over Urge.”

I was looking across the room. It was clear what Love had wanted. He wanted a piece of Urge. The look on his face was saying it all. He was asking Urge to show him techniques to lift. Urge looked resistant to even talk but he was still showing him. I was fucking annoyed.

“Don’t worry. I heard them talk it’s awkward as fuck. Are you jealous? Oh my god. You are…that’s so cute. Urge, the only male moderator, is making you jealous.”

“Urge isn’t a moderator, stop it,” I told Craving, “But I get what you are saying. He’s stiff. Urge doesn’t understand jealousy. Those kind of things are new to him. It’s Love I’m worried about. Love is probably trying to take advantage of how naive he is.”

“You need to go over there. I wouldn’t let that fly is all I’m saying…”

He was right. Fuck that. This Love guy was getting on my last nerves. He had that hot little Spanish accent going for him. He thought he was some kind of Enrique Inglesias or something. He was really going hard on my Urge.

I walked over towards them and I felt like I had back up when Craving was at my side. I knew Craving would at least have my back. As we approached them I heard a little bit about what they were saying.

“You should teach me your skills with the shotgun.”

“Actually the pistol is my weapon of choice.”

“Oh huh? I’d love to see your pistol.”

Love was really over here being such a hoe. I could see his eyes make contact with me like a deer caught in headlights when I walked over there.

I crossed my arms, “His pistol isn’t for display.”

Love didn’t seem at all intimidated when he saw Craving and I approach him. A part of me just wanted to fight him right here and now. He was beyond disrespectful especially if he had heard that Urge and I had sex. Even if he didn’t think we were a couple he should have known that there was something going on between us. It was clear that something was going on between us…even to the moderators.

Love’s head twitched to the side, “Oh well actually we never know. There are only spot for 4 people on Team Lust. There are only 5 of you. So, I’m sorry to say but you may not be making the cut and then I think his pistol is definitely up for display.”

I wanted to lunge forward. I wish I had a knife at that moment. I would stick it right into his suave ass neck. Who the fuck did this dude think I was?

The look I gave him seemed to say it all. I wasn’t playing this. I really didn’t have time for this kind of stupidity with Love.

Craving seemed to find this enticing for some reason, “Why don’t the two of you just get naked, oil up and go to the wrestling mats. That way I can shoot my pistol off a few times.”

Urge on the other hand just seemed confused.

“Why would you bring pistols to a wrestling mat? I’m confused.”

He was clueless.

Craving started laughing all of a sudden as though making fun of just how clueless Urge was when it came to social things. He had no idea that we weren’t really talking about guns. I elbowed Craving harder this time in his abs making him squirm a little bit.

Luckily just at that moment Romance came in.

“Hey guys…Lust wants to see us. I think she’s going to announce what we have to do for Rank 5.”

Good.

We had been waiting.

We started walking down the hallway. Truth was I was upset. I was beyond upset. I just wished that Rank 5 had something to do with fighting. I wished Love was involved. I just wanted to take knock his face in. I wanted to put him in a headlock and see if his cheer leading ass could somersault his way out of that.

“You OK?”

I hadn’t even noticed Urge right next to me. He was walking down the hallway. Love wasn’t too far. He was on the other side of the hallway still walking with us. Urge had to have been referring to my face. I had never been really good at hiding my facial expressions. Even now that I had reconstructive surgery on my face it still seemed to give me away every single time. Urge had been staring long enough to notice. Right now my face was grimacing.

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t seem fine. I’m concerned. You look stressed and when you stress it stresses me out…”

“Why don’t you get your little Latin acrobat to play with your gun…relieve some stress.”

“That doesn’t make sense. Play with my gun? What? Oh. Oh shit. Fuck. You guys weren’t actually talking about real guns were you?”

I walked away. I was annoyed more than mad at Urge. I knew that he didn’t have the best social skills. He didn’t have friends to joke around with and be sarcastic with. He wasn’t used to saying words that meant something else. He was awkward as shit. It was what I had fallen in love with but at the same time it was what had gotten me so annoyed right now. I could see Love in the corner of my eyes. His face was just staring at us, almost plotting.

We made it to the room where Lust was and I still couldn’t get it out of my mind. It was one of the rooms that we used to do our linguistics training. Some of the places we met were so random sometime. I knew that this probably had nothing to do with linguistics. Love decided it was best if he took a stand right next to Lust as if she needed him there. The more I noticed him around the more he annoyed me. He had this look on his face as though he was above us or something because he was already on the team. Maybe that’s why he thought he could just step in and try to fuck with my relationship.

“You guys are all wondering what Rank 5 is I assume,” Lust began as soon as everyone was in the room, “Rank 5 is going to be a competition. Think of it as capture the flag.”

“Capture the flag?” Allure asked.

“Yes against another training team. You will be brought to a special arena. The moderators will be watching you on screens to see how you perform together. The top four will make the team since I have four openings on my team.”

“That’s it?” I heard Romance laughing.

There were whispers around the room. It seemed a little minor. I could have sworn I saw Romance and Craving give each other a pound in the middle of this. I noticed Urge’s face though. It hadn’t moved. It was still cold. I think at that moment I realized there had to be more to this then some capture the flag against another group of trainees.

“Weapons will be involved. Real weapons,” Lust stated.

There she went.

“Wait. So is…killing…killing allowed?” I asked.

Lust nodded, “It’ll probably be impossible to capture the other teams flags without killing.”

My mouth dropped. I had never killed anyone before. The idea of it was ridiculous. Everything I had been learning until now was leading up to this. It was leading up to Rank 5. I was going to finally become the assassin. You can learn to fight like an assassin. You can learn to think like an assassin. You can learn to act like an assassin, but when it came down to it in order to be an assassin you had to kill.

The cheers and whispers quieted. The room got serious. It got dead serious.

“What happens if we don’t win?” Allure asked.

Lust shook her head, “You already know the answer to that.”Fuck.

Tom wasn’t playing any games. The idea that he used so many resources to have us all come here only to have us possibly be killed on the final rank blew my mind. This wasn’t smart. This was a waste of resources. Even if we didn’t pass rank 5 we could probably still be extremely useful to him. Maybe we weren’t though. We were all expendable to Tom. The only ones that were above being killed through these ranks were his sons.

I turned over to Urge. He was looking out, completely focused. It gave me strength. If I could just have a little bit of the focus and determination that he had I would be fine.

“It begins tonight. If you are here by tomorrow you will be assassins. You are dismissed. I suggest you guys go get some rest,” she stated, “Except you…Desire. I’d like you to stay here for a second.”

I had been almost halfway out the door when she had stopped me. Urge had stopped as well as though wanting to wait for me but I shook my head. I turned back and walked back into the room. Lust was on a desk in the front of the room. She had taken out her compact mirror. Lust was so feminine. She was one of those women that just seemed she didn’t have a masculine bone in her body. The way she sat on the desk and crossed her legs. The way she applied makeup while flicking her wrist extremely gently. You wouldn’t think this was an assassin. You would think she was some Jessica Rabbit impersonator.

Love had just been standing there until Lust dismissed him. He walked out of the room giving me this knowing look. I knew something was up.

When he left the room Love spoke with a calm, yet disturbed demeanor, “You achieved another perfect score on test. Love told me that you and Urge got…very, very intimate. Is that true?”

Fuck. That was what this was about.

I took a deep breath. Lust didn’t worry me. A part of me wasn’t worried about how she would react. I was more worried about having to face this. I knew this would come back to me but I just didn’t know how and I didn’t know when.

“Yes…we did.”

“You care about him. It’s clear,” Lust stated shaking her head, “He cares about you too. That is clear as well. It’s too intimate. Too obvious. Too stupid. You know you and I have something in common. You know what that is? Do you, Code name: Desire?”“No ma’am…”

“We care. I care about my team. Have you wondered why Love is the only one on my team and I had four open spots?”

“Yes. I assumed the others died.”

“Yes, but have you thought about how or why?”

“No…”

She paused. Lust seemed to remind me of a cat at times. She seemed to have this distant nature about her that at times made you think she wanted to be close. Then when she did get close, she got too close. It felt as though she was invading my privacy.

“I pissed Tom off. I turned down his sexual advances. I was young, naive. I thought I had a choice in these things. My body, right? Silly me. When I did that, Tom decided to take away the thing that meant the most to me. My team. He didn’t just take them away. He gave them to his son Wrath as play things. I assume you know what happens to the people that become Wrath’s …play things.”

“Yes Ma’am. I know.”

I was aware. The horrible images came back to my head almost immediately as I remembered. I tried to shake them out. They didn’t go anywhere for a while.

“The motto of my story is this. You don’t fuck with Tom. You shouldn’t, but it’s too late isn’t it? You did. It seems like he already has his eyes set on you?”

“Why do you say that?”

“The team you are going against should have been a team of four, but Tom matched us with Gluttony. His training team has 10 people.”“Ten! Against 5?”

It was clear now. It was clear that Tom had wanted me dead.

“Yes. I warned you. I care. You remind me a lot of myself Desire. I want you to be on my team. If there is a miracle that can happen where you get through this…please do it.”

The words were kind but I knew what Lust’s true meaning behind this was. She was trying to warn me. She was trying to warn me that Tom was after me. As if the regular competition wasn’t enough I had done the very thing that I shouldn’t have done.

I had pissed Tom off.

Night came too quickly. I hadn’t been able to sit the entire time. My palms sweat. I felt nauseous. I avoided everyone and paced the halls the Assembly. The moderators had come for me too soon. They came for me way too soon. They gave me black tights to wear and a tight fitted black shirt. I felt like I was wearing swimwear or something of that matter. When we were called in we couldn’t bring anything. I felt naked without the knife that Urge had given me. I was the last one to be escorted in by the moderators. The sealed the door that we came in from. The room was plain reminding me so much of the minimal aesthetic that I had become accustomed to. There were two entry ways on the opposite wall. There was clock that was counting down ten minutes hanging between the two entry ways. There were cameras…everywhere. I had not seen that many cameras in the Assembly but this room was outlined with them. There were cameras at the two entry ways as well. I figured that was how the moderators would know what was going on in this. There was a flag in the middle of the room. I assumed that was our team’s flag.

The others were already there. They had gathered around a table that was set up. The table had duffel bags in it. I noticed almost immediately what was in them. Weapons.

Allure was immediately speaking out to the rest of us with her heavy Russian accent, “We start in ten minutes. There are weapons in these bags. By now you all know what you specialize in. Grab your weapons and gather around in the middle of the floor.”

“Who made you boss?” Craving asked.

“Do you want to be?” Allure asked waiting for an answer. When she got none she immediately turned and said, “Exactly. Do what I say. We need a game plan.”

I didn’t know how the others felt about follow Allure’s lead but personally I felt comfortable. I had seen her as one of the top people on the team. She was also the only one of us who had military experience in her former life.

I wasn’t worried about Allure. I was worried about whether or not there were knives in those bags. Please let there be. A part of me was concerned that maybe Tom would take them out. Maybe he just meant to completely cripple me.

“I like these,” Craving said pulling out his assault guns. Romance was behind him. She was already punching the air jabbing after having tapped up her hands. That was all the weapon she usually required.

Urge already had two pistols that he shoved in his tight black pants. They fit him extremely nice. I had to admit even now in the moment where I was scared for my life I could still find time to appreciate the form that was Urge. He was beyond the sexiest man I had ever known in my life.

“Pay attention,” Allure stated, grabbing my attention, “We won’t have any of that today. OK, Desire? Here are some knives.”

Thank God!

I looked over as I saw what they had. There were several throwing knives which I stuffed into my tights. Then there was a big knife that looked more like a butcher knife. I held that in my hand. I slashed the air. It wasn’t as sharp as the knife that Urge had given me. It was a little heavy as well. It would have to do though. I didn’t have much of a choice.

Allure gathered us in the middle of the room. She had a map in one hand that she had gotten from the bags and she had a sniping rifle in the other hand which was definitely her specialty. She crossed her arms and looked up at the time. Five minutes. My palms were sweating. Craving was breathing heavy. Romance was pacing back and forward. Urge. Well Urge was just standing there with this cold look almost like a moderator would.

“It looks like a damn maze,” Craving said, “Fuck. I hate mazes…”

“I hate dying even more,” I replied.

“You got a point…”

Craving had been right about the fact that the map looked like a maze though. It was ridiculous.

Allure spread the map out and pointed down at it, “There are two paths. We are going to have to break up. I’ll stay here and set up a sniping rifle to protect the flag. I think that’s the best defense we can have. If anyone gets past you guys on the two paths I’ll cap them.”

“What about the rest of us?” Romance asked, “How do we decide which path to take?”

“We’ll have to split up,” Allure stated shaking her head, “Two on two. See the short path is tighter. It looks like the walls may be smaller. There are a lot of curves. We need our melee specialists in there. That means Romance and Desire. The other path will allow for more shooting. So Craving and Urge can go there. Both path should lead to a room just like this with a flag. We capture the flag…game over. Is everyone OK with this? ”

“No…”

We turned to see that it was coming from Urge. It was uncommon to see Urge speak in front of a whole group. He was always that silent one. When he did speak it was almost like seeing Big Foot or something. Everyone turned to him and was paying close attention. I could tell from Allure’s face that she didn’t like the idea of being said “No” to.

“Excuse me?”

Urge repeated slowly with no facial expression, “No. I’m going with Desire. I’m not going to be separated from him.”

It was cute honestly. I struggled not to smile. I understood fully well what Allure meant by the plan. It made sense to have melee people go down the tight path. It would be hard to shoot accurately in a path like that. Still the idea that Urge wanted to be with me was causing me to blush. The fact that he was saying it in front of everyone just seemed to put a smile on my face.

“We don’t have time for this,” Craving said looking up at the clock, “Two minutes. Two minutes we need to start heading out.”

Allure shook her head at Urge, “This is the best plan.”

“I don’t care what the best plan is,” Urge stated.

Urge was being short and blunt. I knew he wasn’t gaining any social points right now. The others looked highly annoyed that we were sitting here talking about this right now. Craving was even tapping his foot. I didn’t blame them but at the same time I knew I would probably feel more comfortable with Urge as well.

Allure turned to me, “Desire. I don’t know how to explain this better to your robot boyfriend. A little help here?”

I grabbed Urge.

I took him on the other side of the room away from everyone else.

“Urge, let’s just do Allure’s plan.”

“My dad is up to something. I fucking know it. I want to be next to you. I need to protect you?”

“Have you seen me with this thing?” I asked holding up the knife, “Exactly. I’ll be fine. Let’s just do it.”

He was hesitating, “Fuck man.”

“Please Urge…for me.”

“Fine. Whatever. Look though, come closer. Let me tell you something. Closer still. OK. Listen if we are about to win and Romance is still alive you have to take her out.”

“What?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing right now.

“There are only four spots on the team. The fifth person will die. I’m not trying to risk that fifth person be you. Allure is staying back as sniper and she’ll be too far to kill if we have to. I’d kill Craving but I know that would upset you. Clearly, Craving is your best friend. That leaves Romance…”

I shook my head.

“I don’t know if I can do that Urge. Craving is my best friend but I still consider Romance a friend.”

I turned to Romance. She had always been cool. She was a flirt just like Craving. We had started off in two separate groups but we were in the same group now. I respected her. I actually had come to like the tall Amazon looking woman. The idea of killing was still so…unnatural to me. It scared the fuck out of me.

Urge shook his head, “Look if it comes down to the wire and Romance is still alive, it will come down to you and Craving. Allure and I are the best performers. If Romance is still alive and you have the chance of being the fifth…I will kill Craving.”

My face wrinkled up.

“You can’t be telling me you will…” I came closer at that moment, “You can’t be telling me right now you plan on killing my best friend if I don’t kill Romance.”

“If it saves you I’ll do it,” Urge stated.

He wasn’t playing. He had that look in his eyes. It was the look I had seen him have in the very beginning when he went after Carnal. Urge wasn’t afraid to kill. Urge wasn’t afraid to do what had to be done. A part of me understood his logic but a part of me didn’t think it was possible. As if I didn’t need anymore pressure.

“God…”

That was all that I could say. I was praying that something happened. I was praying that somehow I wouldn’t have to make that decision.

Urge leaned in and kissed me. The kiss was hard. The kiss was passionate.

“You will pass Rank 5, no matter what,” Urge stated.

A horn.

“Time to begin!” Allure shouted from the middle of the room. She had gone behind the flag almost immediately and was setting up her sniping station pointing at the two doors.

I saw Romance. Looking in her eyes I felt guilty almost immediately. She was waiting for me at the tighter entrance. I ran over to her taking my butcher knife with me. I looked back to see Urge and Craving go into the other entrance. Craving gave me a light smile and winked at me. Urge didn’t do anything. He just stared at me. I knew what the stare meant though. His eyes made their way to Romance. He wanted me to get rid of her when the time came.

Romance and I was walking down a path. The path zigzagged. It was a really small hallway indoors. I wondered if we were underground because there were no windows. The only lights were the flickering lights over us.

“Can’t believe we made it this far,” I told Romance, “There were twenty of us…twenty…”

I didn’t know why I was beginning to talk. Maybe it was the nerves. Maybe it was because I just figured were about to be attacked by the other team any moment now. They had more people. I was worried about all of us really. What were the chances that all of us would make it out of this alive? The chances were so low.

She turned to me and smiled, “I didn’t think you’d make it, to be honest with you.”I raised an eyebrow.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” she laughed, “I mean I was a kick boxer before this. Craving did football. Allure was in the military. Urge is the son of an assassin. And you are…well…you’re a cook.”

I sighed, “Yeah crazy right.”

“They should have named you Code name: Chef Boyardee or something,” she stated.

I would have laughed if I wasn’t so nervous. Instead of laughing I just smiled. I was looking down the hallway. We turned to the right. We headed straight. We had to make another right, then a left. The hallways were bare. There was nothing in them.

“You got jokes.”“I respect you though,” she stated, “Honestly. I want you to know that. I think it’s important to know that I respect you. You know? No matter what happens, I want you to know that.”She was really stressing it. I smiled back at her. It may have been that moment when she was saying what she was saying to me that I realized I couldn’t kill her. I would have to talk to Urge. We would have to find another way. Maybe it was possible all 5 of us could live. Maybe if we did things the right way we could all make it out of here alive.

Anything was possible. Right?”

“I respect you too,” I stated, “We are in this together.”She smiled, “No you and your boyfriend are in this together.. Your boyfriend and you are too cute by the way. I used to have a little crush on you. I’m not going to lie…”

“I wouldn’t have guessed,” I told her.

She smiled, “The flirting didn’t give it a way? I just wanted to fuck you real good. I wanted to use a dildo on ya….”

“Too much information.”

“Hey we might be dead in a few minutes. Might as well tell you. But anyway. I think you two are cute. I think it’s rare when someone finds the one. I think everyone notices your chemistry.”

“I’m glad. We aren’t in a relationship though. It’s impossible for him to be in love.”

“Really?”

“That’s what he says.”

“No. I doubt it. I think he loves you already. He just doesn’t know what love is yet.”Her words were comforting. I figured she may have been trying to comfort me. Maybe it was because we were about to walk into something so dangerous. I had no idea really. All I knew was that I appreciated it. It’s so weird how people bond in the worst circumstances.

Footsteps!

“Shh…you hear that?”

I stopped her. We were about to turn another corner. There were footsteps. They were moving fast. Two…four…six. Six pairs of feet. Fuck. Lust had warned me that Gluttony’s team had 10 people. I could hear them coming towards us. They were light. They were fast.

“Is it the other team?”

“Gluttony’s trainees, yes.”

“What do we do?”

It was strange hearing Romance asking me what we should do.

“Stand up against the wall, trip up as many people that run around the corner as possible,” I whispered to her, “I’ll throw my daggers at the rest.”

I only had three daggers though and one butcher knife.

Romance did what I said. She moved on the other side of the wall. I stood in the center of the hallway. I would be the first thing they saw. They wouldn’t be able to see her. They were moving fast. They would completely miss her. They had to. This had to be the best plan. If we didn’t take them by surprise we probably didn’t stand a chance in hell of the two of us taking down six people.

If Romance tripped one or two of them, I could throw my daggers at three of them. I was good with the daggers. I would hit my targets. I didn’t have my chain attached though. I would not have the chance to retrieve them once they were out of my hands. That would leave 1 person that would still be coming at me. I had my butcher knife. It would be a fight from there. I would have to kill the guy quickly to help Romance with the other two she had tripped up.

That was the plan.

That had to be the plan.

I waited. Almost with amputated breath. I felt so cut off from the world.

Footsteps. Closer. Closer.

“NOW!” I screamed.

Three of them came around the corner. My first knife hit the first one dead in the head. Yes! My other two daggers came out of my hands relatively quickly. They hit their targets. One in the throat and the other one in the head again. Maybe it was the idea that I had just killed that I seemed to be transported somewhere. I was panicking for a minute.

It was life or death now, Desire!

Snap out of it!Pay attention to what was going on! Had my weapons killed my targets! Had they killed my targets? My eyes were across the other side of the room. I hadn’t meant to hit the throat of the one victim but it was good enough. He was gagging bleeding on the side. The other two that I hit were females. One heavy looking female and the other smaller shaped more like Passion was.

I had three down!

Yes yes!

“I’m sorry…”

The voice was coming from Romance. Three of the six Gluttony team members had fallen down dead but I had paid so much attention to them that I hadn’t realized what was going on. Romance was still standing on the wall. She hadn’t tripped the others.

She was just…standing there! The other three Gluttony members walked right past her. They walked RIGHT past Romance even after noticing her standing there.

“What the fuck are you doing!” I screamed out.

Romance shook her head, “I’m sorry. I really am. Tom approached me. He said that he would make sure that I survived if I let them kill you. I’m so sorry Desire.”

She was crying. It didn’t mean anything though.

She had turned and had ran away around the corner proceeding the maze without me.

That didn’t matter either.

This was a set up.

The three of remaining members of Gluttony’s team were walking towards me. I was completely outnumbered. They all had weapons. One had a spiked club. One had a metal chain. The last one had a a spear. There eyes were intent on killing me.

It’s strange the things you think about when you are afraid for your life. It’s crazy the things you remember. I remembered Lust. Maybe if I had thought more about this warning I wouldn’t be so surprised by Romance’s betrayal. Maybe if I spent more time thinking about this warning I wouldn’t have been surprised that I was now outnumbered with no one around that could possibly help me.

I remembered how she pouted her lips and warned me about what I shouldn’t do.

You don’t fuck with Tom.

13

I don’t know what came over me. Maybe it was the anger from having been betrayed. Maybe it was the will to survive.

Maybe it was the fact that Urge believed in me.

Yes. I’d see Urge again.

“WHY WON’T YOU DIE!” one of the boys screamed out.

I refused.

I was bloody by now but far from dead.

Romance had betrayed me and left me. Three boy had approached me. Two of them had started the attack trying to hit me with their weapons but luckily I had moved. I had stabbed on with my butcher knife. It went up his spine. I could hear the tearing of the skin. It was a sick sound. It drove me crazy hearing it but this was necessary. This was all necessary.

I would never forget his scream, “Oh my god!”

“Greed!” one of his friends said.

That must have been his codename. Greed. Greed coughed up blood as I slit open his esophagus. The name would be ironic when I was done with him. I stabbed him again in his throat. The screaming stopped then. Two left. I wasn’t in the clearing yet. They weren’t so quick to attack now that I had gotten the first one down. Now they knew that I was dangerous. They knew that I had serious skills with the knife.

The one threw his spear at me.

It hit me, hit my arm.

“Fuck!”

It hurt but not as bad as I was making it sound. I wanted them to think that I was seriously injured. Idiots. The other guy who had a club came at me. He tried to hit me with it. I let him. I let him because I wanted his arm closer to me. I wanted him to think he had the upper hand. Yes. Desire. Now! NOW!I stabbed him in the same hand he used to hit me with the club. He tried to choke me grabbing at my neck. I was chocking. For some reason the one who had thrown the spear felt like this was the best time to try to jump in. He tried to choke me from behind.

I felt myself passing out. It would have been so easy. It would have been so FUCKING easy to give up at that moment but that wasn’t going to happen.

Urge. That’s who came to mine.

I screamed.

I let out the most terrifying scream I could think of. It caught off guard. I took my knife out of the one boys arm. I plunged it into the eye of the guy who was choking me. Not enough, Desire. More. More. Hit him one more time. Yes. I managed to get it in his other eye. He fell to the ground scrambling as I blinded him. He wouldn’t be a problem anymore.

One more. One more, Desire. You’re still alive.

The spiked club came at my head. It almost got me. I was bleeding already though and had just managed to be a little lower then usual already so that I wouldn’t choke on my blood. It was nothing to get just a little lower. Just a little bit. He missed me. Yes.

Now was my chance.

I reached up grabbing his neck, snapping it.

Two were dead. The last one was still crawling around the floor looking for his eyes. I thought about finishing him off but that was pointless. All together I defended myself against 6 people. 6 FUCKING people all alone. I walked off. I stared at the camera. I stared deep at the camera. It wasn’t smart what I was doing. It was dumb in fact. I didn’t care though. Maybe it was the adrenaline. Maybe it was the loss of blood.

“Hey Tom,” I told the camera, “I know you’re watching. I just want to let you know that it’s going to take a lot to kill me. Is that all you got, you psychotic piece of shit? Too bad. It’s not enough…”

I was limping. I was bleeding. I didn’t even know how it was possible that I was walking still. It was hard for me to breathe through my nose. I figured somehow the guy had broken my nose when he tried to choke me up. The pain was more than I had probably ever felt before. I just kept moving though. I just kept dragging my feet.

I wasn’t far now. I had made it to the end of the road. The room was in front of me. I could see the light ahead. As I round the corner I could see the flag.

Then all of a sudden I just felt this force at my feet.

I fell face first onto the ground beneath me.

I turned.

I noticed who it was almost immediately.

“Romance,” I said.

She was standing above me. Romance had somehow managed to trip me up as soon as I walked into the room. Funny how she could do that to me who was on her team but she couldn’t do that to the actual people that weren’t. Her face had a confused look on it. I would have been confused if I were her too.

“How are you still alive?” she asked, “How the FUCK are you still alive?”

“I guess you aren’t happy to see me.”

She was breathing heavy. I was laying on the floor not because I wanted to but because I felt too weak to get back up. She was keeping her distance a little though. She knew how dangerous I was with the knife I had in my hand no matter how wounded I was. She wasn’t stupid. I clutched onto the knife hard and I could see her eyes darting between my eyes and the knife.

I didn’t care what kind of kickboxing moves she knew I would make sure she never used those feet again if she was sloppy with her next attack.

“Look…it wasn’t personal,” Romance told me, “Tom offered me a deal and I took it. He wants you dead, Desire. He wants you dead bad. He’s going to get you one day or another. So I just decided why not? I wasn’t going to say no to Tom.”

“I get it.”

Her face wrinkled.

“You do?”

I smiled, “Of course. I get it. I forgive you.”

For a minute Romance thought she was in the clear. She let down her fighting guard. She was standing normally.

Romance nodded, “Look. I didn’t want you to take it personally. I really did like you.”

“Put your guard back up.”

“What?”

Romance was confused. I wasn’t though. I was very clear.

My hand still clutched heavy to the knife, “Put your guard back up, bitch. I said I forgive you, I didn’t say I wouldn’t be killing you. I understand. You chose your life over mine. You chose to leave me to die so that you could be in Tom’s good graces. The cameras are watching now Romance. Put your guard up.”

“You can’t be serious,” she stated shaking her head, “I’m not fighting you…it’s over.”“Put your guard up, BITCH!”“Look at you, Desire. You are in no condition to fight…”

“You leave me to die fighting six assassins on my own and you think I’m done. You think a few wounds are going to stop me now. No. I’m mad as hell. Maybe I’m crazy. Maybe it’s stupid. But thre is only room for four people on that team Romance. You knew it when you left me to die. Only me or you…get ready. M’kay? Here I come…”

I had managed to get to my feet. Romance was shaking her head. The stupid bitch really thought I wouldn’t want to kill her. She really thought it would just be over. We would hold hands walk across the room and grab the flag in victory after I did all the work?

Fuck that.

I started to Romance first. I wasn’t as fast. She saw me coming a mile away. She dodged my knife thrust and elbowed my wrist. The knife dropped across the floor. She kicked it out of my grasp. When I went for it she grabbed me in and tossed me to the ground.

She tried to step her heel into my face but I managed to roll away just in time.

“It honestly doesn’t bring me anything to kill you,” Romance stated.

She was fully charged. She hadn’t been the one fighting this entire time. She hadn’t been the one with bruises. She didn’t have a scratch on her. She was confident that she was going to win.

“You going to keep talking or are you going to come at me?”

Romance didn’t take that lightly.

She started to run towards me. I hadn’t really even been able to get up off the floor. She kicked me again. Her feet were so fucking deadly. The kick went to my back at first. The next kick went to my side. The next kick went to my head. The final kick I finally caught and managed to use it against her. I found myself biting into her leg. BITING!“What the fuck!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. I was desperate. We damn sure didn’t learn that in Jujitsu, wrestling or kickboxing classes. This was me being desperate to stay alive and doing whatever it took. It slowed her ass down but clearly she was angry now.

I could hardly stand up straight. All the kicks to the head were causing me to lose my balance. I was staggering back and forth, back and forth.

I hadn’t even seen her trip me.

I hadn’t even seen her trip me until I hit the floor hard. All of a sudden her heel was at my throat. She was standing over me…choking me with the heel of her foot. I was losing consciousness. I was losing consciousness.

I could feel myself dying. Dying slowly…painfully being choked by Romance’s deadly heel.

And there was darkness.

My eyes opened. I was in a different room. There was a window right beside me. I wasn’t in the maze anymore. I didn’t know where I was but when I looked over to me I saw a moderator. The moderator gave me one of her soul-less expressions.

“He’s up.”

The moderator seemed to lose interest in me completely when I woke up. I woke up screaming. The moderator completely ignored the screaming and walked out of the room as if this was normal behavior. I was screaming at the top of my lungs trying to get some air. There was pain all over my body at that moment. I looked over at the person next to me. It was Craving. He was at the side of my bed. He was alive! He was alive! He grabbed me and gave me a hug as soon as he noticed I was up.

“You’re ok,” Craving was saying, “You’re ok. I’m here. Well…we are here…”

“Where am I?” I asked, “How am I alive?”“You’re in the med room…” Craving replied.

I looked at the foot of the bed. Urge was standing there. He was just looking on. He didn’t say anything much. He just stared on. A part of me wished that Urge was the kind of guy who would comfort me and give me kisses. I wanted to kiss him so bad. Instead he just put on a very, very slight smirk. He crossed his arms and just watched.

Luckily I had a friend like Craving who showed me more than enough attention.

“Is it over?” I asked.

“Victory!”

I turned to notice other people walking in the room. It was Love, Lust and Allure. Allure had a flag in her hand. Craving was clapping as soon as she saw Allure. He wasn’t the only one. Love and Lust were clapping as well. Allure had the flag in her hand and was waving it high above her head.

“We won?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Romance she was…”

“Approached by Tom,” Lust explained, “I didn’t know for sure but I had my suspicions. That’s why I warned you.”

It made sense that Lust was suspicious of her. I had figured the warning made sense. I just kept looking at the flag in Allure’s hands. Victory. I didn’t know how to feel. I felt happiness. I felt sadness. I felt scared still. What was next? How was I even here?

“She had her foot on my throat. I was dying…” I said.

“I got there in time,” Allure stated raising her head, “Lust told me to watch your back with her. I paired the two of you up on purpose. I figured if she was going to try something she would try something when the two of you were alone. I stayed back long enough to watch the flag and then I followed behind you guys. I was going to save you in the hallway with those six guys but you were kicking ass by yourself!”

“You were there?”

“Right behind you,” Allure stated, “I had your back boy. I only interfered in the end when Romance was about to get the upperhand.”

I was so grateful. I could almost cry looking at Allure. Maybe it was the drugs that they had given me for pain. I just found myself being so emotional. My face wrinkled trying to fight off tears that I hadn’t been alone in that hallway. I felt so alone. I felt like I had been abandoned. The idea that Allure had been tracking Romance and I made me feel so much better. I felt like I wasn’t alone.

Allure had surprised me. She had shocked me.

Still there was this sadness I had.

I turned to Allure regrettably, “She was your friend though.”

Allure shook her head, “Listen. The way I look at us we are all friends. We are all family. We are a team. Romance chose to go against us when she plotted with Tom to kill you. I wasn’t having that.”

Friends.

Family.

Team.

The words entered my head like a wave really. I just stood there thinking about it.

“We are a team now?” I asked

“Almost. There is going to be an initiation ceremony and you will be a part of my team,” Lust explained, “You’ll have some downtime before you start your missions. The best part about it is you won’t have to stay in these walls anymore. You’ll be able to see the outside world. When you aren’t on a mission you’ll be able to live your life as you choose.”

Craving was clapping. Allure was waving the flag.

Urge was well..being Urge.

Lust was smiling. She was seriously smiling. It was the first time I saw her look actually happy and I knew she was actually happy for us. I smiled back. Her and I had a connection. I wasn’t sure what it was. Maybe I did have similar qualities as her. I just knew there was a soul there. There was a smile there. In a place like this a genuine smile was saying the most.

“We can leave?”

Lust nodded, “With trackers of course.”

“Trackers?”

“GPS trackers will be surgically inserted in your spines once you are initiated into the Assembly. You’ll still have to report in for missions. You aren’t free…no, not free. But there is more of a sense of freedom. You can go out into the world again…”

Trackers surgically inserted into my spine? The idea made me sick.

I saw the look on everyone else. It wasn’t over. It wasn’t going to be over, but it was still better. It was still better then being stuck in the training grounds.

I turned to Urge, “Ayo…we will be able to watch Romeo and Juliet…”

The others laughed. Urge just stared at me squinting a little bit. He didn’t smile with his face but he seemed to smile with his eyes.

I was surprised when Love stepped forward.

“We should probably give these two some time alone,” Love stated.

I thought I was in the twilight zone. He wasn’t hitting on my man but he was actually giving Urge and me time alone to talk. I sighed a little bit.

Craving gave me another hug. Allure laid the flag on my bed beside me before smiling and walking away. When everyone left the room Urge was just there with me.

He walked over to the side of my bed that Craving had been sitting on. He sat on the bed with me. We sat there in silence.

“Six assassins?” Urge finally stated in the silence, “You’re a beast aren’t you? Remind me never to get on your bad side…”

“The murder…the death…I don’t like it.”

He nodded.

“Here. Let me put my arm behind you. I know. I know you don’t like it. That’s who we are now. We don’t have a choice.”

“Your dad won’t stop until he kills me.”

“Let’s not think about my dad now. Let’s just be happy ok?”

We sat there for a moment. I hadn’t even known how to be happy anymore. I hadn’t even known how to really appreciate something like this anymore. I found myself crying. I thought Urge would find it weird when I started. If he did find it weird he didn’t show it. He just continued to hold me wrapping his arm behind my head.

I cried on him. I didn’t know why I was crying. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that I was officially a killer now. It probably shed some tears over Romance. I probably cried because I would finally be able to leave this damn training area and go out in the world. I wondered how the world was. I wondered if there was anything new and exciting out there.

I had cried myself to sleep and when I woke up Urge hadn’t moved even a little bit. He was still just laying next to me…watching me. Guarding me.

“You been up this whole time?” I asked him.

“Yeah…don’t trust my brother really. We can leave soon. He’ll be…desperate to be around you,” he stated.

I didn’t even want to think about Wrath.

“You’ll protect me I’m sure.”

“You already know…”

“So what does that make us?”

“What do you mean?”

“The fact that you are going around protecting me all the time,” I asked, “What does that mean for us? I mean. I ain’t trying to sound like a little bitch or nothing.”

“Shut up. You don’t sound like a little bitch. What do you mean? You know you have to explain things like this to me a little bit.”

I took a deep breath. I knew where I was getting at. I knew what I wanted. I knew what I wanted from him but I just didn’t know how to say it.

“I like you. I more than like you Urge,” I told him.

He nodded, “Kinda clear I feel the same way.”

“So…”

“Spit it out. Why is it so hard? This isn’t Espionage 101. Spit it out.”

He was making me so nervous. I just didn’t know how he would respond. I just didn’t know how he would respond to what I wanted to ask him. I felt like he would just be his regular Urge self. He would just not have that emotional connection that I wanted.

“Listen,” I started, “I want us to be more than we are right now. I want us to define what the two of us are a little bit more.”

“What do you mean by define?”

Anyone else I would have thought they were just playing at me at this point but with Urge I was pretty sure that he had no idea what I was talking about. It was pointless trying to throw soft cues at him.

“People around here keep calling you my boyfriend.”

“Oh yeah! I heard that too. What’s up with that?”

“Well maybe they got a point. Maybe….maybe you should be my boyfriend.”

I held my breath. I didn’t even look in his eyes. My face was immediately turning red. I almost spit out the words. I just stood there trying to find a way to get this to mean something more than it did but I didn’t know if it did. I felt so fucking nervous right now.

“Well…”

Was he hesitating? I wasn’t sure.

I was looking at the floor.

I was too nervous to read his face.

“Well what?”

“I think that would work. I mean. The way things are right now I’d be willing to do anything for you. So if this is what you want.”“I want it to be what you want too though?”

“Listen. I’ll be honest. I never been in a relationship before. The most I heard about relationships were from when I was really young before my dad snapped. I remembered watching television back then and learning. I’ll keep it real, Desire, I am not 100 percent sure what it entails…”

“Well…you’ll have to be honest.”

“I can do that.”

I smiled before putting up two fingers, “You’ll have to be loyal.”

“I can do that as well.”

“You’ll have to put me first.”

“You are already first.”

“You’ll have to have sex with me…anytime I want…”

Urge licked his lips, “Damn. Oh hell yeah. I can definitely do that. This seems easy. Why did it take us so long be boyfriends then?”

I smiled. Urge leaned into me at that moment. He started kissing me. He started kissing me hard on the lips. He bit my lower lip. He pulled me in closer. His tongue went my mouth. I sucked on it. We continued to kiss on and on until we fell asleep again.

Urge was officially my boyfriend and I couldn’t be happier.

“Can’t believe we are going to officially be assassins.”

It was a day before the initiation. Craving was stretching in the room beside me. The four of us had been in good spirits.

“Allure, Urge, you and me…that’s the team,” I stated.

“And Love. Don’t forget Love.”

“Dammit, I was trying to…”

“Relax. I think he let up trying to get with Urge,” Craving told me.

“Shh…”

I didn’t want to talk too loud because Urge had just walked into the room. He had come with Allure. By the looks of the sweat they had just come back from the gym together. Urge was still awkward as hell but I could tell he was trying to be more social. I knew the conversation was probably more than awkward between Allure and Urge especially since Allure has spent so much of her time trying to assassinate Urge at one point. Urge was trying though. That’s all that mattered.

“You so sexy when you’re all sweaty like that?” I told Urge.

“Oh you like it? Come here then…”

He grabbed me on the bed and tried to wrestle me over. He was being a lot more open. He was giving me this sweaty hug and I was trying to pull away. Allure and Craving laughed. The more I thought about it the happier I got. It made me wonder just how long this happiness would last.

Craving sighed shaking his head, “Oh my god. You two are so cute. I’m fucking jealous. It’s annoying. What the fuck? Don’t the two of you have anything more important to do then just lay around and be over each other all day?

“No…”

It felt good. It felt good to say that no…we didn’t have anything better to do.

Craving nodded as though snapping into it, “Right. Don’t you just love that feeling?”

“I wish this could last forever,” I said.

“What?”

“Just us…being happy. Not having to worry about…the Assembly.”

Allure nodded, “God. Since we passed Rank 5 I felt like a weight was off my shoulders…almost like…almost like…”

“We were free?” Craving asked.

“Exactly.”

“We’ll never be free.”

“Is that what you want?” Urge asked, “Do you really want to get out of here? Do all of you want to get out of here?”We all looked at Urge. Urge had a serious face on.

“Of course, don’t you?” I asked.

“More than anything,” he replied.

Craving had his eyes widened like a kid who just offered him candy or something, “You are acting like you know something, don’t hold the weight. I am not afraid to use torture techniques on my bestie’s man.”

I elbowed Craving for the millionth time. I couldn’t take him anywhere.

Luckily Urge seemed to be understanding Craving’s personality a little more. He didn’t take it serious. He did however seem to have something on his mind. Something serious. I think by now he had all of our full attentions.

Urge nodded, “There is a way to escape for good. One way. One chance…”

14

“What do you mean one chance?” I asked Urge.

He was hesitant. I could tell he was really hesitant to talk about it. He looked at me. I wondered what he was so hesitant about really. If he knew a way to escape then he needed to tell us. He needed to tell us now.

“He’s bluffing,” Allure stated shaking her head, “There is no way out. There is no way in hell we get out of this.”

“Shut up Allure, you don’t know everything goddam it, no matter how much you think you do,” Craving replied, “Let him talk.”

I walked over to Urge. I put my hand on his hand. He was looking at the ground. He was so hesitant. He was so scared. A part of me always knew that he must have known something. He was the SON of Tom after all. He had to have had some sort of edge in this situation. He must have overheard something in his time. He must have known a little bit more. I was hoping me coming close would give him strength.

“Urge, please tell me,” I said, “If there is any hope that we can get away from this life. You have to let us know…”

Urge nodded, “Listen. Tomorrow is the initiation. My father used to send me to each team’s initiations. He has it on this mountain. He’s so obsessed with it. It’s really far away. We will be drugged and taken there. He doesn’t like people to know where it is but it is on the edge of a small town in Massachusetts. Well anyway, my dad would take me to this mountain to watch them. He never drugged me though. He let me drive up there. I was thinking straight. A part of me thinks he wanted to shame me. He wanted me to realize how much of a failure he was. You guys don’t care about that though. Well, here’s the point. At those initiations I realized a few things. A few things that can lead to escape.”

“Like what?” I asked.

Allure, Craving and I were staring at Urge. Our eyes were piercing him. We were clearly so interested in what he had to say.

“One…Tom is never actually at the initiations,” Urge stated, “Trust me that’s a good thing. Two. There are usually eight moderators at the initiations. Three. We don’t have trackers yet. Four is the most important. Four is the location. The initiation takes place at the top of a mountain that over looks a river town.”

“I don’t get it. Am I stupid? How do these four things equal escape?” Craving asked.

Craving looked at me as though wanting some sort of answer. I didn’t get it either. I was confused.

Allure was the only one to seem to get it, “He’s saying that it’s our only chance to escape. He wants us to take out the 8 moderators and make a run for it. But they’ll find us. It’s pointless. They will find us.”

“Maybe not. Tomorrow is also July 4th. I know that the town next to here is really crowded on July 4th.”

“We’d be able to blend in with the crowd,” Craving stated.

Urge nodded, “Right after the initiations we get trackers put in us. When those trackers go in us they don’t come out. It’s our only chance.”

“Why are you helping us?” Allure asked, “Why are you telling us this?”

There was no way that Allure could honestly still think that Urge was on his father’s side with this. I knew she was always suspicious though. She was too smart for her own good.

“I’m not doing it for you,” Urge stated, “I’m doing it…for what’s that word…love…”

Urge was staring at me. He was staring right into my eyes.

I wished we were alone right now. The way he was looking at me made it clear that it was about me. The others seemed to realize it too.

It was Craving who broke the silence, “Whatever reason you are doing it Urge, I’ll take it. I’m in. Or should I say I’m out?”

It wasn’t a time to be cracking jokes. I stood at that moment. I stood and looked at everyone.

“So am I. I refuse to spend the rest of of my life some assassin for the Assembly. I refuse to be their killing machine. I refuse to be their slave.”

We all turned to Allure. She had that hard Russian stare. She was staring at Urge like she just wanted to choke him. It was the same look she had given him all those time she tried to kill him. Allure was a deadly woman too. I wouldn’t have doubt it she did take one last try at Urge to stop us from going through with this plan.

Her accent was hard, “This is a stupid, stupid plan.”

Craving smiled at that moment, “Come on. Do it for Mother Russia. Do it for the team. We need you.”

“Clearly!” she said screaming at the top of her lungs before turning away, “You guys wouldn’t be able to do it without me. So I’m in. It’s still a stupid ass idea though…”

It was settled. I tried to smile. Craving was happy. He was all celebrating like we were already free. I wished he would have stopped. I tried to get on his level of happiness that we had a plan to escape the Assembly but I was still nervous. Maybe it was the fact that Urge was still silent, but then again he was always silent. Maybe it was the fact that Allure was over thinking but of course that is what she always seemed to do as well.

I just hoped we were making the right decision but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that we wouldn’t have any chance to make this stupid decision again.

It was now…or never…

The next day we woke up to the moderators. They had lined up. Lust and Love were also there. I noticed one moderator had set up some sort of station. She had a needle in her hand. I looked over at Urge and he looked at me. My heart was beating. I was so nervous. I was so anxious. I didn’t know how this would turn out and a part of me just wanted to go in the back and throw up.

We gathered around Lust who smiled at us.

“Today is your initiation into the Assembly,” she stated smiling at us at the front of the dorm, “It isn’t here of course.”

“Where is it?” Allure asked.

I wasn’t sure if Allure was still suspicious of what Urge had told us or whether she was just trying to play dumb so that the moderators didn’t pick up on anything.

Lust looked over at the moderator as though asking permission. The moderator shook her head. I knew Lust well enough to know that she wouldn’t go against the moderator…or Tom for that matter. Not in public at least.

Lust smiled lightly, “I’m afraid I am not at the liberty to say. You guys will be given a sedative, here…and then transported to the location. Love and I will be here when you return to welcome you onto the team.”

“Why aren’t you coming?” Craving asked.

“I would if I could. In fact there is nothing more I would like, but…I can’t. Unfortunately,” Lust stated shaking her head.

Love was next to her. He had on this cheerful smile that annoyed the fuck out of me, “But you guys should be happy. Take off those worried faces. It’s graduation day goddam it!”Graduation day.

I walked forward, “I’ll take the sedative first.”

I wanted to get it over with.

I walked over to the moderator. She flicked the needle letting a little bit of the liquid out. I was so nervous. I hadn’t been able to sleep the entire night. I turned to Urge. He was staring at me. Craving and Allure were there too. Allure looked worried. Craving looked overexcited. A part of me just wished everyone stayed strong and didn’t crack. We had one chance. We only had one chance to get away and this was it.

I put down my hand. The moderator looked at me emotionless. She waited like some sort of cyborg until she saw a vein and then she injected me with the sedative.

I sat on the bed, next to Urge. He kept looking at me.

The room was getting more and more dizzy.

The last thing I remembered was Lust at the front of the dorm. She was looking over at everyone but she was looking at me specifically.

“I’m proud of all of you…”

“Get up…get up.”

I felt these hands on my shoulder. They kept poking at me. Slowly my eyes woke up. Someone was smacking me lightly as though trying to put feeling back into me.

I woke up to see Craving there. Seeing my best friend’s face first definitely made me feel a little bit more at ease. I must have been the last one up. Urge wasn’t that far from Craving. He had his arms crossed like he usually did. He didn’t have anything to lean on this time so he was just standing there. Allure was beside Craving looking down at me.

“Are we here?” I asked.

“Yes, it’s a mountain…” Craving replied.

Just like Urge stated. He had been telling the truth. I looked around. There were mountains around us. We were right on the peak of the mountain. There was a huge rock there. The rock seemed to be chiseled on the front. It stood at the edge of the mountain. I tried to look over the edge and when I did I was almost thrown off by how high it was. We were among cliffs.

“Be careful,” Urge told me.

Looking at his face was that same disconnected glare that I knew Urge to perfect but I knew better. I knew that Urge actually did care about me.

I noticed the moderators at that moment. They were facing us. They all had guns straps with pistols. I counted them. Eight. Just like Urge had stated.

Just at that moment one moderator walked forward. It didn’t matter which moderator it was. They were all the same really. Different faces but all of them had no personalities. They might as well have been the exact same person. Rather, the exact same robot I should say.

She handed something to Craving.

“Sign the rock with your Codename. When you sign it you should say your name and then say ‘of the assembly’.”Craving nodded, “That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“That is anti-climatic. I thought we would at least get some kind of parade or some shit. Guess secret organizations of assassins must be on a budget huh?” Craving stated.

The moderator looked at him as though she hadn’t heard anything at all. Craving laughed at his own stupidity though. He turned away clearly not getting anything else from the moderator.

I noticed what the moderator had given Craving. She had given him some sort of brush. I watched as Craving walked to the edge of the cliff where the rock was. I watched as he dipped the brush into a bowl that was right next to the rock and he started to sign his name.

“Craving…of the Assembly.”

Craving handed the brush off. Allure was the next person. She sighed. I could almost read her mind. She still thought this was a bad idea. Allure was still over thinking things. Maybe she was right. Maybe she should have been concerned.

“Allure…of the Assembly.”

She walked over to me next. She handed me the brush. For a minute she seemed like she was so pissed that she was just going to throw the brush at me. I knew Allure was beyond mad. I walked over to the rock. I was the third.

I looked at the rock. I started noticing all the names on there. God. There were a lot of names on here. They were all code names. They were all members of the assembly. I looked down at the bowl that was used for the ink. I dipped the brush into the ink. When I brought the brush up I realized that this was definitely not ink.

No…this was blood. We were signing in blood.

I signed my codename.

“Desire…of the Assembly.”

I walked over to Urge. He was the last one. I was about to hand him the brush but he held onto it. He held onto it and leaned in really close to me for a second.

“Get ready. I’m about to go for it.”Urge was serious. He wasn’t even nervous. He was just ready. I felt nervous. I felt nervous as FUCK. I went and stood between Craving and Allure. Craving looked at me and I nodded at him. I then did the same thing to Allure. Urge was about to make a move.

We had to be ready. The time was now. We had to be ready.

“Urge…of the Assembly.”

Urge got back up after signing the rock. He was making his way to the moderator. I could see how slow and steady he walked. He was looking for an opening. He was looking for an opening.

Something was about to happen!

Everything was about to go down. Right now!I felt my heart racing faster. I felt my palms getting more and more sweaty as I realized that something was definitely about to go down. I tried to think of which moderator I would go after. I tried to think of how it would be possible to get to them before I ended up getting shot. I had to see what Urge was going to do first.

I was so fucking nervous.

Urge reached out his hand with the paintbrush in it. He was handing it back to the moderator, “Here…we are done…”

The moderator looked at the brush for a second. Urge wasn’t looking at her though. He was looking at her gun at her waist. I was looking at it too.

I sent a silent prayer out to him. I wanted him to be careful.

“Hey SILLY!”

No. No. No.

The voice. I could hear the sick voice almost immediately.

Craving was shocked by who it was as well. “This is not happening. This is not happening.”

The excitement that he had was completely gone. I felt the same way. My mouth had dropped. It was almost as though all hope had gone out of my body just at that moment.

It was Wrath!

No…not just Wrath. It seemed like he brought others with him. They walked up the hill. They didn’t have weapons with them and they were dressed in gray scrubs. I counted 4 of them with Wrath. What the fuck was this? What the fuck were they doing here? I noticed Rage was one of the people that Wrath was with him. The fact that they didn’t have scrubs let me know that these weren’t trainees. These were actual members. These were the real deal. It was clear that they had to be Wrath’s team.

“Shut up. Nothing changes…both of you act normal,” Allure stated.

It was odd that Allure who had been the most worried now was acting the most calm. She was clealry trying to calm us down. I tried to keep a straight face.

A moderator had walked up.

The moderator was calm and authoritative, “Codenames Wrath, Rage, Anger, Fury and Madness you are not authorized to be here. Leader Wrath, please remove your team from the vicinity.”

“That’s not happening,” Wrath stated.

Wrath looked crazy. He wasn’t even looking at her. He was looking directly at me. His eyes were looking at me with those same crazy eyes. It made me so fucking nervous. This man was out of his mind and the more I thought about it the more I was shocked. The weird thing was he wasn’t the only one looking at me either. The others were looking at me. Rage was who I recognized. There was bigger guy next to Rage that was almost twice the size of Craving and two black girls with long Chinese bangs that covered their eyes. They looked as though they could have been twins and if they weren’t twins then they were definitely sisters. They looked identical.

“Please remove your team from the vicinity,” another moderator said.

“That is NOT happening you stupid ROBOTIC bitches!” Wrath stated shaking his head, “See last night I had sent my boy Rage to check on my soon-to-be husband, Desire. I just wanted to make sure he was behaving before we got married. And guess what Rage overheard. Rage…what did you overhear?”

I was shocked. No…

He had sent Rage to spy on me! What the fuck? How had I not heard him? How had I not been aware that he had sent Rage to spy on me.

Rage walked forward his eyes almost as crazy as Wrath, “They are planning on running away.”

The moderators had turned over to us, “Explain yourselves.”

“Yes…BROTHER!” Wrath stated, “Explain how you planned on stealing away my man. I’ll have you killed. I should KILL YOU, Urge. RIGHT NOW!”

“No. We will take them back,” one moderator stated, “Tom will decide. Urge cannot die. He is now Tom’s successor.”

“Successor?” Urge asked.

“Successor?” Wrath repeated almost immediately, “I am my father’s successor. I AM the oldest son. What the fuck do you mean? Do you hear me you soulless doll? I’m talking to you! Bitch. Look at me when I’m talking to you! What the fuck do you mean?”

One of the robots answered, “That is above your authorization, Wrath.”

That was when Wrath seemed to snap.

He went after the moderator who had said that. He grabbed the moderator by her neck and started running at her. He threw her off the cliff. I could see her falling to her death at that moment.

Just at that moment Urge made his move.

He took his gun from the moderator next to him. He shot her in the back of her head. I watched as she fell down.

“Now! NOW! NOW!” Allure was screaming.

There was chaos at that moment. I wasn’t sure who was attacking who. The moderators seemed to be worried about detaining us and Wrath’s crew was doing an all out attack on anyone within distance.

Allure had gone after a gun. She managed to get it. One of the moderators shot at her but she shot the moderator in the leg and started to run. I could see her feet moving fast. Craving grabbed onto my arm.

“Come on!”

“No I have to get Urge!”

A lot of the moderators were fighting with Wrath’s team but three of them managed to take Urge down. It was clear they weren’t trying to kill him. Maybe it was because of who he was. They weren’t going to kill Tom’s son. Still the bitches were stronger than I thought. I watched as they punched Urge, kicking him and pinning him to the ground. Two of them were pinning him to the ground.

All the while Wrath and his crew were trying to fight through the other moderators to get at us.

“No time!” Craving stated, “Come on!”

“Throw me!”

“What?”

“Throw me at them!”

Craving looked at me like I had two heads but he did what I asked. He was the strongest person I knew. It was nothing for him to pick me up and toss me into the melee that was ensuing.

I landed on one moderator and managed to punch the other moderator in her face. Another moderator had tried to take out her gun but immediately I heard a bang. I noticed that there a hole in the hand that she used to reach for the shot. I looked around. I didn’t see who it was but I knew that it had to be Allure from some distance. There was no one else who had that kind of accurate shooting.

I managed to take her gun out of her hand and shoot the moderator. I watched as she fell.

“Urge. Urge!”

He was out of it. He was squirming. I had no idea what it was from but then I realized that he had been shot. I didn’t know who shot him but luckily it seemed like it was just in his foot. It didn’t seem like a serious wound but it enough to keep him squirming in pain.

We had to move. There was chaos all over but it was only a matter of time before someone came after us again.

“We have to move,” I told Urge, “Urge get up. Get the hell up. We have to move!”

“Leave me.”

“No!”

Just at that moment I felt an arm grab me. It was Rage. He wasn’t alone. He had the two girls with him. The girls were laughing. LAUGHING. I wasn’t sure what the fuck was so funny to them but you would think they were at some sort of comedy show. They looked just as crazy as Wrath was. You had to be crazy to make it onto Wrath’s team it seemed like.

“I can’t let you leave,” Rage was saying to me, “I can’t let you leave Wrath. Can’t you see he loves you? Can’t you see he loves you?”

“Fuck off of him!”

Someone punched him. Someone punched Rage so hard that he went flying on the ground and seemed to have blacked out. It had to have been Craving. I was so happy to see my best friend at that moment. He was standing there.

“Ooo…look Madness,” one of the twins said.

“Yes Fury. He’s a big one. Haha….”

They were laughing amongst themselves. They were approaching Craving. The two of them looked dangerous in some mad crazy way. I could only think about Gogo from Kill Bill when I saw how they just giggled like a bunch of lunatic school girls.

Craving didn’t back down. He balled up his fists.

“Desire, listen to me closely. Get Urge. And get out of here.”

“I’m not leaving you. We can take them. It’s only two. Two of them and two of us.

Rage was getting up.

Rage had that madness in his eyes.

“I’ll hold them off,” Craving stated, “Take them and leave. This is your only chance Desire. If I am your best friend you’ll do what I say. You hear me? You’ll do what I say.”

“No…no…”

Just at that moment I felt Urge grabbing on your arm, “Don’t let him do this in vain.”

I felt sick. I felt sick to my stomach as I grabbed Urge to help support his weight. A part of me wanted to just carry Urge to safety. I knew I had to come back. I knew I had to come back for Craving. I watched as Craving was fighting off not one assassin but three.

He was really holding them back.

Urge and I made it down towards where there were some trees on the mountain. The mountains were thick and there was a lot of bushes in them.

“Hey! HEY THIS WAY!”

I turned. I recognized the voice. It was Allure. She had her gun in her hand. I watched as she got close up to us. The look in her eyes said it all. We looked around. There was no one to be found. Craving must have still been on the top of the hill with the others. I thought about going back. I knew if I went back though I probably wouldn’t have the chance to save Craving…or myself…

“You saved me Allure,” I said, “You shot that moderator in her hand.”

“I told you guys that you needed me,” she stated looking over at Urge, “Is he ok?”

“It’s just a skin wound,” Urge stated, “I’m fine. We need to keep moving.”

“What about Craving?” Allure asked.

I turned away. There was this sadness that I had. Craving. Fuck. He had held them off so that Urge and I could get away during the melee. He had literally saved us as well. What the fuck?

“We can wait for him,” I said, “Maybe he’ll get away…”

Allure shook her head, “I doubt it. He’d want you us to keep moving. You know that Desire. He’d want us to get away. We are almost in the clear now. Come on. I’ll help you with Urge.”

Allure got on the other side of Urge. We started to help him down the hill even further. We were quiet but we were moving fast. All I could think about was Craving. All I could think about was the fact that this was happening. The further and further we got the more I realized that we could really get away. This could really be happening. We were really escaping.

But we were escaping without Craving…

I heard something in the trees.

“Stop,” I stated, “Everyone get down.”

There were footsteps. Not one or two. There were a lot of footsteps. We had ducked behind some bushes at that moment but I noticed what was coming towards us. There were moderators. There weren’t just one or two. There were…dozens.

There were so many that I couldn’t count. It was like a small army of these moderators were combing up the mountain at that point.

“Reinforcements,” Urge stated.

“You knew they would call them?” Allure stated.

“I figured we’d be gone by the time they showed up. Fuck…Wrath showing up slowed us down way too much.”

I noticed how they were walking. They were looking through the bushes up the side of the mountain. They were looking around all the trees. They were looking for us.

I noticed how close a few of them were getting, “They are headed right for us.”

“You guys stay down…for 30 seconds and then run the other way that I run,” Allure stated.

“What?”

“Allure don’t,” Urge stated.

I didn’t know what he was talking about. I was surprised that he was saying something but he seemed to be worried. It was the first time I saw Urge seeming to be worried about anyone else besides himself. Right at that moment he honestly seemed to be concerned about Allure. I wondered why but then I realized what Allure was doing.

“What would you losers do without me?” Allure asked.

Just at that moment she crouched under the bushes. She kept low until she was far enough away from Urge and I then she popped up. All the moderators seemed to notice her immediately.

She started screaming. Allure started screaming at the top of her lungs like a wild woman.

She was doing that on purpose.

She was leading them away from us.

No. No…all my friends were almost sacrificing themselves. This wasn’t the plan! The plan was for us to escape together. The plan was for ALL of us to get out together.

“Stop it don’t you dare,” Urge stated, “You are stronger than that. That is not my Desire.”

He must have noticed me cracking under the pressure. He must have noticed me buckling at the idea that all the moderators were now chasing after Allure.

She had led the small army away from us. She was leading them in the opposite direction. Now once again there was clear path down the hill.

“I’m fine,” I told Urge, “Let’s go.”

We started to move now even more. I tried to hold back my emotions. I tried to be strong. It was impossible though. It was all too impossible.

We had managed to get all the way down the mountain. I could see the people. We were free. Urge and I. We had made it. We had it because the sacrifice of our friends who loved us. They had taken the fall for us. They had sacrificed themselves for us. I wondered if Craving and Allure were still alive. I wondered if they had been captured by now. A small part of me hoped they got away but I knew by the sheer number of moderators that was probably not going to happen.

I didn’t have the luxury to think about what was going to happen to Crave and Urge.

“Not far now,” I told Urge.

“Yeah, right across that bridge there’s a —AH!”

All of a sudden someone had pulled Urge back!

Impossible. No one could sneak up on me! No one was that quiet.

Wait…no. There was one person that was quiet enough to sneak up on me.

“Hey there again silly,” Wrath stated.

He had caught up to us. With one arm he had grabbed the back of Urge’s shirt and tossed him hard into a rock next to us. I heard Urge squirm in pain as he clutched onto the injured foot. It was clear he was in pain. How the fuck was that even possible. He had gotten down the hill so quickly. I reached out my gun at that point and pointed it at Wrath. I was too slow though. I was way too slow. He punched the gun out of my hand and lifted me up by one arm.

“Let me go!”

It was useless. He was so fucking strong.

I found myself kicking and thrashing at him. I managed to hit him in his crotch and felt him finally drop me.

“Now why would you do that?” Wrath stated, “I love you. I’ll take you back to the Assembly. We’ll get married.”

“I don’t want to FUCKING marry you, you crazy motherfucker.”

I went over to him. I punched him a few times in the stomach. He backed up and then backhanded me. He backhanded me so hard that I spit up a little bit. I fell back. I tried to go after him again. This time I tried to dropkick him. God knows how far I thought I was going to get with that. He caught my feet midair and slammed me hard on the ground.

“I hate it when you call me crazy, silly, don’t you know that?” Wrath asked, “I’m only crazy for you. Don’t you get it. Now wait here. Let me go get rid of that brother of mine. I’ll kill him and then we’ll be together…we’ll be together forever.”

He was going after Urge!

Fuck. No. No!I tried to get up. After he had slammed me however my body was almost in shock. It wasn’t responding to me as fast as I wanted it to. I needed my body to move. I needed to protect Urge. I had to protect him no matter what.

The gun. The gun. It wasn’t that far away. I was a horrible shot though. I was useless with shooting. I started to crawl towards the gun as Wrath started to crawl towards Urge.

Urge was in pain still. He was still just holding onto his foot.

“You try to replace me as Dad’s successor, huh brother? You try to replace me as Desire’s man, huh brother? Don’t you know I don’t like being replaced? Huh?”

He was leaning in at Urge.

“Fuck you bitch!”

Just at that moment I felt Urge do something I wasn’t expecting. Hell Wrath wasn’t expecting it either. Urge seemed to get up all his strength and jumped from off the ground. He punched Wrath. He punched Wrath hard in his face.

“You little piece of shit,” Wrath was saying.

“Now! Desire, NOW!”

I shot.

I shot the gun.

I had closed my eyes. When I opened them I realized that I had hit my target. Wrath was bleeding. He was looking at me. The shot had went right into his stomach. He was holding at the blood and looking shocked at that moment. He just kept looking at me.

“Why would you do this?” he asked, “I love you…Silly…”

Wrath fell over at that moment. He fell to the ground in a loud thump. I don’t think I ever was so happy to see someone die in my life. I don’t think nothing made me happier than to see him on the floor like that.

I watched at Urge walked over to me. He was limping but he managed to grab me by my arm.

We had made it to the town. All I could think about was Craving and Allure. I kept thinking that they were ok. I kept hoping that they would survive. The town was busy. All these people walking and back and forth with smiles on their faces. I almost wanted to kiss them. They had no idea what Urge and I had been through. They walked past us not knowing how truly blessed they were.

“Come on baby,” he stated holding my hand, “The bus is that way. We need to hurry up. It’s leaving in a few minutes.”

He had called me baby. I smiled at the idea of it.

It was a greyhound station.

Urge went to the front. I saw him pull out money, “I had this saved up for a while now. I never thought I would actually need money, but figured I would bring it today just in case.”

Urge didn’t let go of my hand. He didn’t seem to want to let go of my hand and truth was I didn’t want to let go of him too. After losing all my friends this meant the world to me to have him here. I smiled as he got close. We were safe. We were away from the assembly. The bus was leaving in a few minutes.

I went up to the ticket agent.

“Can we have two tickets—to wherever that bus is going…”

The further I got from the Assembly the better.

“Actually one ticket,” Urge stated.

I turned to Urge. I was completely confused.

“What?”

“I can’t go with you,” Urge stated.

“Urge. You are not Craving. You aren’t good at jokes. I mean Craving isn’t good at jokes either but you DEFINITELY aren’t good at jokes. You have to laugh when you say jokes. Like haha. You know. Don’t you know that? Why is your face not laughing? You’re still not laughing. What the fuck is going on? Urge…you, you aren’t joking are you.”

I was panicking. My heart was beating faster and faster. Urge just looked at me. He looked at me and then he slowly looked down. He wasn’t joking.

“I can’t go. I have a tracker in me.”

“What?

“My dad installed a tracker in me when I was a kid,” Urge told me not looking at me in my eyes, “If I go with you, they will find you. They will bring you back. I can’t even stay here long.”

“You knew all along…”

My face wrinkled. My mouth dried. My friends had sacrificed themselves so I could get away and now he was sacrificing himself. My heart was in so much pain at that moment.

“Don’t you dare cry…”

He was telling me not to cry but he was crying. I could see it. I could see the tears in his eyes. He was trying to hide them. I didn’t even know it was possible from Urge. I had never seen this level of emotion but the amount of emotion he felt I felt the same.

“You are the love of my life Urge,” I said shaking my head, “I can’t leave without you.”

“You can and you will,” Urge stated, “I did this because I fell in love with you. Kid, you showed me fucking emotions I didn’t think I had. Iwas a male moderator before you. I was a soulless killing machine. You…brought me to life. And I am not going to have you live this life. I want you to live the life you wanted to live. I want you to be free…but it is going to have to be without me…”

We were both crying now.

I know we looked weak. All this talk about not showing emotion and I don’t think I ever showed this much emotion in my life either. I looked at his face. I looked at his beautiful blue eyes as they settled on me. I was so in love with this boy. I was beyond in love with him.

“We can find a way to take out the tracker, we can—”

“There is no way to take out the tracker,” Urge stated, “Look. There is a bright side to this. Craving and Allure are probably captured remember. Tom will kill them. He will kill them unless I go back and talk him out of it.”

“Your father won’t listen to you.”

“He will now that I am his successor,” Urge stated, “I’ll give him whatever he wants if he spares them. Listen. If I don’t go back Craving and Allure are dead. If I go with you, you will be brought back. There is no other choice here.”

“Excuse me. I don’t mean to be rude but the bus is about to leave…if you are going to get on…you need to get on now,” the ticket lady said.

I was silent as I watched Urge pay for my ticket. He held my hand and walked me to the bus. The others were already on the bus. Urge and I just were staring at each other.

“Do you have any bags?” The bus driver said.

“No…no bags,” I said.

I didn’t have a life. I didn’t have anything to take with me. I had been a prisoner. If only they knew my story. If only they had any idea.

“Well we are boarding,” The bus driver said.

I looked over at Urge.

“Is this goodbye?” I asked him.

“I hope so…” he stated, “I never want to see you again. You hear me? I never want to see your face again. I want you to go be happy. I want you get married. I want you go be in love. I want you to have everything that I can’t have. You hear me?”

I nodded.

I leaned over to him. I kissed him. It was a soft kiss. It meant everything to me though. It meant everything to me.

I started to board the bus but stopped.

“Wait…what’s your name? Your real name.”

I had just realized I never knew his name.

“Dominic.”

I smiled. It was a beautiful name. “I’m Jonathan.”

“I love you Jonathan,” he stated.

It had been so long since someone had called me that.

I boarded the bus and looked back at him. I pressed my face up against the cold window. I didn’t know where this bus was going. Did it matter? I was getting away from the Assembly. I had a chance now to live a normal life away from him. I had a chance to start all over. I had a chance to be a normal person. The worst part of it all was I couldn’t even call the cops and tell them where the Assembly was. I had no idea still. They had drugged me before they put me in the van to take me to the mountain. I knew I was in Massachusetts now but I had no idea where that school building was. It didn’t matter where this bus was going. There was happiness but mostly there was pain. There was pain from losing Allure. There was pain from losing my best friend Craving.

And then there was pain from losing the man who saved me over and over again.

He was wrong. I would see him again. I would see him every time I closed my eyes. As the bus started to drive away and I saw Urge staring back at me I knew that I would never forget him. I had really meant it.

He was my one urge.

And I was his only desire…

The end..