Prelude: Unknown Female: Silent Killing

Silent Killing

Somewhere in Arizona

Unknown Female

I had finally found my prey.

My next unfortunate victim.

She was racing through the foliage of the Arizona woods, hastily trying to break away from me as I also raced through the foliage trying to keep up with her, so I could surprise her and end her life, for accidentally letting slip of who I was-and who I was connected to.

Like a blur the trees moved past me; past us, and still silently I went undetected as I crushed my way through ground beneath me, my hair gleaming off the light of the moon, yet still not enough to for this poor girl to see who I truly was.

And the monster that I was capable of being when people like her had pissed me off.

I loudly shouted out her name, trying to, even hoping that she would turn around long enough to slip up and trip over something. Anything, however, as I found during this chase through the woods, she was also hellbent determined to stay clear of me.

Accidently I tripped over my feet, grunting in defiance, yet managing to quickly rebound and keep pace with this woman.

Her ignorance?

She thought that she had the upper hand over me since we were running through the woods, so she thought that I would probably get lost.

Yet, I knew these woods like the back of my hand, I regularly brought my girl here, so this place and all its winding trails were of no concern to me. I would take a route that she didn't even know existed and it would simply bank itself back towards the mainland.

Which was where I wanted her to go.

I was unknowingly pushing her closer and closer to her death, and she didn't even know it.

I tripped over my feet again. Fuck.

My adrenaline thankfully kept me upright as I picked up speed, running faster and harder through the woods.

Everything was blowing by me, the details now, insignificant as I rounded right on her trail.

I was even generous enough to give this little girl a head start, since she would need it.

Since I was already ten times faster. Since I was already ten times stronger.

I could've killed the poor wretch back in her home, without any witness and just set the place ablaze. But no, I wanted to get out.

I wanted to run, and this wretch gave me exactly that opportunity, so I ran with it. Literally.

My athletic body had been honed over years of training, so this was nothing for me. I did, what I was doing now for a living.

This girl just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Quickly, and silently, I jumped up on to the side of the tree and launched myself towards the girl since the distance between us was getting close and it was a now or never mentality.

Reaching out, I lunged for the girl's ankle, trying to trip her up, and at first I only heard her yelp, but that minuscule, split second sound was enough to distract me as she hastily got to her feet and dashed off through the woods, trying to shake me.

Foolish girl; only if she knew that she was doomed, and hopelessly fighting for her life with every crunching sound she made against the ground.

I paused for only a moment, as I was leaning against a mossy covered rock, as I silently caught my breath; I checked the sides of my jeans and felt my daggers. Two of them, and honestly that would be just enough since I would only need one to finish her off. Even in the moonlight, the faint gleam wasn't enough to give them away.

I also kept my ears wide listening for anything slight of sound that would be made.

The crunching of rocks underneath.

The cracks of tree branches falling or snapping.

My eyes predatorily scanning, trying to seek her out, or to see where she would have tried to keep herself hidden.

At this point, I guessed she was either out of breath or nearly there. Which was another advantage over her that I held.

My years of training made it for me to be nearly outdone by most mundane, yet I wasn't the type to dwell with mundane.

They weren't my type.

And I was a person who had a type.

My senses reacted to the sound of something not to far in the distance.

I could also hear the starts of what I could guess would be water running.

Picking myself up, I dashed off in the direction of the sounds, allowing me to follow it, so it could carry me right back to her.

My shoes, thudding faster and faster against the ground, as I blindly crunched the ground beneath me, cracking the sounds of twigs and leaves underneath.

Rounding a corner and following the trail further, I was once again right on her tail. Once again, I had her trapped, since I could easily jump in front of her, catching her off guard.

I could do that, yet I had something better.

I banked around another trail that would lead directly to the sounds of running water I had heard not even seconds ago.

It was a downhill trail that had gotten steep in this part, steeper than the entire rest of the trail. Again, though, when you were like me, and regularly ran through forests like they were your backyard, no trail was too much.

The end of the trail did in fact curtail into the water, and it wasn't a river at all.

It had been a lake, which even better. It would make disposing this wretch's body even sweeter.

Jumping over a fallen log, I continued my haste and decided that it was now or never.

Either the girl died here, or she would have the chance to escape, and tell even more people about me, about my existence.

And that was something that I could not allow. I would not allow this bitch to expose me or my girlfriend.

She had to die.

I was bound to kill her.

I was taught to kill her.

This was the way that I fought for my survival; by eliminating those people who threatened my very existence. No matter what the cost, or how it had to be done.

Including those pesky Valkyries. Oh, how those warriors were the complete bane of my existence.

They prevented my race of warriors from coming out of the shadows that we were perpetually trapped in.

They had taken everything from us, and now, I would work to undo everything that they stood for.

They were the reason as to why I was here.

They were the reason....

For everything.

The girl scared herself and screamed out in horror as she nearly collided into me, and instantly tried to buck up and turn around running back up the trail, but I could tell that her body was too tired to keep going.

Which made this moment all the moment sweeter.

Since she wouldn't be able to really fight me off. Her blood would be easier to spill since she wouldn't put up much of a fight.

As she tried to escape once again, I blindly moved in front of her, my dagger in my palm now, as I shoved her to the ground; my athletic frame towering over her as I smiled acerbically sauntering towards her.

I roughly shoved her down to the ground as I continued to draw near, tilting my head from side to side, with my dagger underneath my neckline.

She scrambled on her feet, trying to run, yet she was trapped.

Behind her was a huge oak tree with branches that were so long and sharp enough that I could impale her with them if my daggers didn't do the job.

I was blocking her path forward and closing in on her, slowly enveloping the distance between us.

To my left, was the lake that if I needed to, I would just drown her there and that would be the end of it.

But the drowning felt soo boring. In such a cliché sort of way.

It didn't warrant the kind of slow torture that I wanted to inflict upon her, little by little.

She tried to back up some more, yet my hands reached out from the darkness and grabbed her, savagely holding her in place, as her fear totally paralyzing her in place.

I could hear her heart thrashing on itself as she was probably no more than just a few heartbeats away from her death.

I smelled her fear, it smelled wonderful as she tried to fight me off.

She failingly tried to kick at me, yet I had used my well-developed legs to not only block her strike, but also hold her in place, as I harshly threw her into the oak tree.

I crept closer to her. "You made a huge mistake tonight." I smugly told her as I drew a wide smile.

She only whined, trying to beg for her life. She frantically trying to convince me to spare her life.

"You know you won't be spared, so just tell me where she is." I arrogantly told her again, dropping to my knees, and leveraging my dagger against her neck, using it to turn her head as I saw that my throw caused her head to bleed slightly. "You tell me, and I'll make it quick. Painless. Efficient." My tone was controlled, even. I knew how to control my emotions in these moments. I could always control myself during these situations. "Just tell me where the girl is, and I'll be on my way. You won't even remember that I was here."

"No..." the girl struggled to say as she also fought for those final hard breaths. "You'll never get them. You won't find the Valkyrie. I'll go to my death just to make sure you can't have their power."

I chalked up a huge smile. I predicted this would happen.

I predicted that she would be hard to get. Which was fine.

She was a means to an end.

She wasn't needed anymore. I knew someone else who could help me.

Someone who would be more than willing to bring down the Valkyries right by my side.

Before she could scream again, I slashed her throat clean with a clean, swift stroke of my dagger. Her blood spilling everywhere.

I wiped my dagger clean of her blood and check her body for anything that I could use to see who this bitch was.

Surprisingly, I didn't see this earlier, but she had held her purse against her body, and as I ransacked it, I found her ID and her cellphone.

The first one I could use. The second one I didn't need.

My own phone had been kept tightly in my shirt, between my breasts.

Putting away her ID in my back pocket, I dragged her lifeless body towards the lake water.

I had to wipe away the sweat from my face to keep it from getting my eyes. This girl also had a hair tie that I snatched from her and used to tie off my matted hair that was damp from all the running.

Once I had managed to get her dead body, I turned to rolling her dead body in, as I watched the current carry the body away.

It wasn't my cleanest kill-but it had solved my problem all the same. I had tied off a loose end.

Now I just had to work on tying off the others.

I reached for my phone that was in my pocket and dialed her number.

It was the only number I wanted to dial.

"Babe," I called for her through my end. She had answered the call instantly. "It's me."

"It's about time," she replied, sounding ecstatic to hear my voice. Her voice cracking. "I've missed you too."

"We'll then, lets fix that and meet up." I smiled wide.

"Deal, here's where we can."

She gave me the name of the place of where we could meet up and told her to watch her back and be safe.

She told me to do the same, and I would. For her.

As I walked out towards the city, I knew that I would have to reach her faster, if she was going to live through...what was to come.

I had hoped that I wouldn't be too late.