“You understand I never wanted this to happen, I never planned for me to become what I have ended up being.” The shadow seemed to shimmer before Johns eyes, whatever the drug was that coursed through his systems seemed to dull his vision and muscle control, but not his fear.
“This is very odd for me, to actually talk to someone about what I do and you need to understand how special that makes you, very special indeed.” The shadow continued to talk as it paced before him. The voice itself was calm, with no malice or intent, but still the terror was there and a tear ran down John’s cheek.
“I was an accountant believe it or not.” The voice laughed. “Just an average Joe working in an average company, but then the cuts came. I was one of two thousand let go, with no other profession under my belt I applied for an online course. Can you believe it, there was a booklet and everything, even a fake ID card. Well, obviously it wasn’t that good, but it gave me the confidence to complete my first job.” John watched as the shadow sat down before him. It was impossible to believe that he had got past all the building security. But somehow he had, he’d made it to his floor to speak to him, the stories were obviously true, he was the best.
“That first job was messy. I wasn’t proud of what I did, I felt guilty for a long time over his wife, but she just walked in, she’d had nothing to do with the redundancies, but she saw my face, and what else was I to do... What would you have done, John? Do you mind me calling you John? Actually, you can’t answer, so I’ll just presume you’re okay with it. I know your wife calls you Big J but I don’t feel that’s appropriate here.”
John’s attention changed, the fear he felt for himself was quickly replaced by the fact this man not only knew where they lived, but must have been in their bedroom, the shadow seemed to sense the change and walked closer.
“I’m sorry if I stepped over a line, but I promise your wife and child will be safe from me, I don’t do it for free anymore, and they have no value to me. But I had to find out what you knew about me, after the questions you’ve been asking I couldn’t exactly walk passed now could I? I just had to pop up and say hello.”
John could feel drool running down his chin, but that was a good sign. He could feel. Maybe the drug was wearing off, maybe he would be able to get to the emergency button and call for help. He tried to breathe a little quicker, in the hope of flushing his system clean as the shadow continued.
“It turned out you see that I have a natural talent for not being seen. At school I was always the invisible one, the one everyone ignored, that turned out to be my greatest gift. My parents would be proud now. But obviously, they couldn’t be allowed to continue either, they made me weak, vulnerable. That kill was actually easier than I thought.” Keep talking you fool, thought John as he watched his little finger shift slightly on the arm rest of his chair.
“Over the last four years… Wow, to actually say it, it’s quite a short time scale, but yes, over the last four years I’ve completed sixty terminations. Perfectly clean, all untraceable to me…or, so I thought.” The shadow stopped and looked at him and John froze. “I’ve taken the liberty of removing the file you had on me from the computer and the mainframe, and the paper copy from your house, and the USB drive you kept in the shed, I can’t be having other coming looking afterwards now can I.”
Breathe faster, thought John as he tried to force the drug through his veins. A couple of minutes more and he could trip the silent alarm and have security here in seconds. He could feel his heartbeat increasing now as it forced the blood quicker round his system and beads of sweat started to appear on his forehead and the pain started to build in his chest.
“I do thank you, John, for this opportunity to talk, it’s been…calming.” The shadow moved towards the door, pausing as it reached for the handle. “I am sorry about having to drug you though, but It will at least look like a heart attack, save your family from any, problems later with insurances. It’s a shame you struggled really, I would have liked to have talked some more.”
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