Chapter Text
The Empathetic Assassin
By: Reece Ellison
Ali never had an easy life, that much she knew. Things started well for her. She was born with beautiful scarlet hair, with even more beautiful crimson eyes. In a society where having no power was rarer than having power, she was blessed with a special ability. Her power was that she could feel someone’s emotions by touching them. Her empathy was multiplied. The human subconscious is something that probably will never be truly understood, for everyone is different. Ali however, could understand how people feel, why they felt it, and help them to overcome their hardships. She could have been a good hero, someone who uses their powers for good, fate had other plans.
Ali’s mom was a beautiful woman, a smart one too. Her power was not nearly as powerful as Ali’s. Ali’s mom had some sort of telepathic ability where she could make small things like mugs or pencils hover in the air. The only time it mattered was when they cleaned the house. Powers got stronger further down the family tree, and they were influenced by genes. Ali’s mom’s power could have been stronger if she had trained to be a hero, she just wanted to be a mom plain and simple.
Ali’s father was abusive, not to Ali but to her mother. He drank a lot too which fuelled his rageful outbursts. Ali’s father’s power was that when he was angry if he slapped somebody or clapped his hands, a shockwave would result. It was a weak shockwave, but it didn’t feel too weak to Ali’s mom when Ali’s dad would hit her. Ali always wondered why her mom didn’t leave him. She even asked her this question once as they hid in the closet. Her mom responded: “He wasn’t always like this. He used to be a kind, even soft soul. Something happened, I think it was a death in his part of the family, and his personality switched. I know things are bad Ali, believe me, I know. I just… if I leave him he might fall apart, or kill himself. I don’t want him to do that to himself, I just hope that somewhere under that facade, my husband is still in there.”
One day, when she was ten years old, someone knocked on the front door of their house. They never had visitors. They knocked on the door again, this time louder. Ali and her mom were playing in the living room, Ali’s four-month-old baby brother lay in his crib asleep, and Ali’s dad was asleep too, not drunk this time. Ali hid behind her mother. She kept telling Ali everything would be alright, but Ali wasn’t sure. Finally, someone kicked down the door. Four people with guns stormed into the house. They were in body armor. Ali was scared to death. A fifth man walked into the house. Ali’s heart nearly stopped. She had seen this man on the news. This man was feared all around the country. He went by many names, Ali’s favorite, and the one she feared the most was The Demon King. He wore a black suit and tie, he had a black mask that hid his face. Ali held her mother tightly, she was trembling.
“Hello Ali,” He said, his voice being far more terrifying than the guns aiming at her head. “I’ve been looking for someone like you for a long—long time. You will be of much use to me.”
“You won’t lay a finger on her, you monster!” Ali’s mom screamed. In a sudden burst of power never seen before by Ali, her mother used her telepathic abilities to fling the guns out of the henchmen’s hands. She then grabbed a knife and charged The Demon Lord with pure rage in her eyes. She was just three feet away from him when he pulled out a pistol and shot Ali’s mom in the throat. She fell to the floor, spitting blood.
Ali ran to her mother, tears streaming down her cheeks like a hurricane’s rain. She couldn’t lose her mother. She wouldn’t lose her mother. She grabbed her mother’s hand so that she could feel her mother. She felt her fading away, the tears fell faster than ever before. Her mother reached up her hand and stroked her cheek with a smile. She spoke so softly that Ali had to lean closer to hear what she was saying.
“Whatever you do—don’t let him turn you into a monster. You have such amazing power. I—love—you…” She died right there. Ali couldn’t feel her mother anymore. It scared her, she had never felt someone while they were dead before. This must be a nightmare, this couldn’t be real. However, it was real, a tragedy. The Demon King walked toward her and grabbed her by the hair. He then injected a needle into her neck. She drifted off to sleep. Her father never even noticed anything had happened until the next morning.
In the year that followed, Ali was trained by The Demon King. He had a very special power, he could take other people’s powers and give them to other people. He did not take Ali’s power though. He did give her more powers. One power she received increased her stamina and made her extremely acrobatic. Another power she was given allowed her to make tendrils come from her body. She thought at first that these tendrils were tentacles, but they were sharp and moved through the air and across the ground like vines. The training was hard, especially for a ten-year-old girl. It pushed her to her absolute limits, but she did grow quite a bit stronger as a result. She could now influence other people’s emotions to what she wanted. She could make people forget things, or remember things that they forgot. She could make people fall unconscious. She was trained on how to fight. As she trained in combat her power began to evolve. Turns out the ability to feel other people’s emotions was a psychic ability, which led to her also being able to make things float similarly to her mother. The major difference was that Ali’s telekinetic powers far surpassed her mother’s. Still, with all of these powerful developments, she stood no match against The Demon King. He made sure of that, he didn’t want his prized weapon to escape. He tortured her sometimes and beat her when she didn’t follow instructions. Ali lost all of her willpower, it became buried underneath her subconscious. She just began to do whatever she was told.
For the following five years, she was his finest assassin. She could manipulate people without them even knowing. The combat training made her an expert fighter and an even better marksman. She was good at using a sniper rifle. She killed a lot of people and hurt even more. She felt bad, of course, she didn’t want to do it. The Demon King had a hold on her, if she resisted, he would kill her baby brother.
Ali was sixteen when she met James. Her mission was to kill a hero who had been causing a lot of problems for The Demon King. She had to blend in so she registered herself at a school. She had been there for nearly four months, it was one of her longest missions yet. James was one of the unfortunate souls who was born without power. He was bullied of course for what he lacked, how else would the others make themselves feel good? Doing good in the world, no. James noticed that Ali wasn’t like the rest though, she was different. She was more understanding, and more considerate. Ali was James’ best friend, however to Ali, he was just a part of the grand chess game. That is what she told herself at the start. Without even knowing it she had been developing feelings towards him. One night they were on the roof of the school looking at the stars. Ali leaned over and kissed James softly on the cheek before leaving for the day. James turned red, he felt loved for the first time in a long time.
One night James invited Ali to his house, he said that his mom and dad were away and his older brother was doing work. They talked for a while but then James went to buy them some food. Ali had a device that she used to keep in contact with The Demon King, if she didn’t her family would die. So as soon as James walked out the door, Ali went to his parents' bedroom and activated the device. The Demon King’s mask was shone in a holographic blue hue above the device.
“ I have great news for you, Nightshade.” Nightshade was Ali’s codename of sorts. “Your target is related to someone who you are around a lot.” James’ face took over the blue hue. Ali was shocked. “A deal is going to be made tonight. We made the clues very obvious on where it is going to be made. That hero will be there, this is your opportunity. Take the shot, and return to me, I will give you your next assignment.”
“Yes sir,” Ali said. That was all she could muster. She felt a lump in her throat. Why did it have to be him? Why was it his brother she was tasked with killing? She heard the door creak behind her. She saw James’ blue eyes looking through the door crack, he had heard enough. He backed away quickly and hoped that Ali hadn’t seen him. She charged through the door knocking James down and spilling the food everywhere. In her hand was a knife. She had to neutralize the witness. Tears were going down James’ face, he was confused, and he was angry. How could the Ali he knew, the kind, empathetic Ali he knew be working for such a monster?
“You played me like a fool didn’t you?!” He screamed at her and pushed her off of him. He kicked her in the stomach and punched her in the face. Anybody else would have been dead by now, but Ali was so caught up in her own emotions that she was being sloppy. She kicked James into a glass table, which broke and cut him with the resulting glass shards. She then picked him up and threw him into a wall. She pinned him against the wall and put the knife to his throat.
“Was any of it even real?” He asked.
“More than you could ever know.” She said and then went into his mind to make him go unconscious. Tears had begun to stream down her face, but she dried them, she had a mission. The deal was in five hours, and she needed a vantage point.
She climbed the roof of an apartment building. It was about fifteen stories high. The Demon King had given her two hairpins. One of them when touched morphed into her sniper rifle, the other into a bo-staff with electrically charged spikes on the ends. She prepared herself to kill the hero. The meeting had already started. The villains had already been apprehended by the hero. He had gotten there faster than expected. Suddenly a new figure appeared and ran to the hero and looked as if he was pleading for the hero to run away. It was James of course, trying to save his brother’s life. Ali looked through the scope of her gun and aimed at the hero’s exposed head. As she did, memories of all that she had done with James flashed through her mind. She hadn’t been there that long but those memories, deep down, were special to her. She took her finger off the trigger and sighed. BANG!! A shot still rang out and the hero collapsed dead. Ali looked over to her right where the shot came from and noticed another sniper. She quickly aimed and shot the other sniper in the head which caused them to fall backwards off of their building. Ali then jumped off of her building and used her telekinetic powers to float her way down safely. She ran over to James, he was crying of course, he had failed to save his brother.
James looked at Ali with a look that was a mixture of hate and betrayal. That look shook Ali to her core. It would haunt her for the rest of her life.
“I-I didn’t kill him, James,” She said. “There was another sniper.”
“Yeah sure,” He said and scoffed. “You’re a monster, Ali.” The word monster replayed in her head for longer than it should have.
“I’m sorry,” Ali said quietly.
“I hate you,” James said. “Now leave me alone.” Ali did just that, she left James and found an abandoned building to contact The Demon King.
“You hesitated.” He said when his holographic head appeared. “I taught you never to hesitate. However, you did keep up your facade for a long time so I’ll forgive you this time. Come back to me and I’ll give you your next assignment.”
“No!” Ali screamed. “I am done with your missions. I am done killing people. I am done working, no not even working, serving you. I am never coming back to you again.”
“Very well. Don’t blame me for what happens next.” He said and the conversation ended. The Demon King had taught her how to drive at age eleven, and he provided her with a car to get to where she needed to go ever since then. The car had a bomb though, so she couldn’t go where she wasn’t supposed to. Unknown to Ali, the bomb was deactivated.
Ali saw the smoke from twenty-five miles away, and she drove even faster to get home. Her worst fears were realized. The house was burning, it had been burning for a while. The fire was slowly disappearing due to the lack of things left to burn. When the fire went out Ali walked into the wreckage. Inside her childhood home, she found two charred corpses. One was bigger, clearly a male, her dad, the other was smaller, also male, her six-year-old brother. She stayed there for two hours and cried. Before she left, she used two pieces of wood to mark the ground where she buried their bodies. On those pieces of wood, she put her father’s name and her brother’s name.
There were many schools where one could learn how to hone their abilities to become a hero. Ali drove many miles to find the best one. A famous hero, recently retired, taught at this school. Maybe here Ali would find a new start. Half of the first year had gone by, but the teacher gave Ali a wondrous offer. There was one student, who had an “interesting power” and a horrible personality. Almost everyone in the class wanted him gone. If she could beat him in a fight, she would take his place. Ali agreed to this challenge.
The student that she had to fight was about as tall as an average second grader. It wasn’t even a competition. She used her telekinetic powers and her tendrils to pull him in, restrain him, and make him go to sleep. The teacher was impressed. She had earned her spot. He walked Ali and the student who she was replacing to the dorms. The dorms were put in place due to a rising number of villain attacks recently. The students left in the dorms were informed that a new student might be added to their roster. Ali felt a huge wave of nausea as the teacher let Ali inside. The students looked at her with anticipation and excitement. The students said goodbye to their former peer and welcomed Ali with open arms, which to Ali, felt too open. The teacher asked if Ali had any stuff from her parents or her old house to bring with her. She told him that she didn’t. The teacher then told her to prepare for some training tomorrow, and with that, the teacher left.
Ali nervously sat down at the table that the rest of the students were sitting at, she didn’t want to feel out of place. She noticed a boy with green hair and freckles. Then there was another boy with red hair styled up into spikes with sharp teeth, she noticed a small scar over his right eyebrow. There was a boy with sandy blonde hair, who seemed like someone with an explosive personality, she wasn’t far from the truth. Then there was another boy who walked over to her. He had bright blonde hair, with yellow eyes. She noticed he had a little black lightning bolt in his hair, she assumed his power had something to do with electricity. He introduced himself. We will refer to him as D from now on. D asked her what her power was and she nervously told the students. She said her power was that she could feel other people’s emotions and thoughts by touching them, and that had evolved into telekinesis and other abilities. D reached out his hand to Ali.
“What are you doing?” She asked.
“Hold my hand, I want to see if you are telling the truth.” Some of D’s friends said things like he was already flirting with the new girl on day one. “Don’t listen to them.” He said. “Please.”
“Okay.” She reached out her hand and took his hand and immediately felt his thoughts. He was unsure about Ali but he did think she was kinda cute. Ali didn’t want to pry so she looked for some simple thought that he had so she could prove herself.
“Well for one, my hair isn’t dyed, it's natural.” She said and some of the girls giggled. “For two, my hair isn’t just any old red, it’s scarlet.” D’s face grew red and he pulled his hand away embarrassed.
“Well, you’re definitely telling the truth. Welcome to our class Ali.” He smiled. There was something about that smile that made her feel like she was going to blush. She liked him, not in that way, but for sure as a friend.
Over the course of three months, Ali realized that she loved the sandy blonde-haired boy, who we will call K. There was talk of a god from another dimension who saved the world from an event known as “The Corruption” when blood red cracks appeared all across the sky and demons, true demons came from the cracks. The god and his family fought the demons and saved the world, Ali’s world. That is a story for another time. The main important thing about them is his daughter Moon, or Luna. She had gorgeous pink hair that was natural and pink eyes that you could get lost in. Something interesting involving her hair was that anytime she flipped her hair, every boy in the area besides her family would blush. She had tons of scars all over her body but, again, a story for another time. The main point is that Luna calmed down the explosive personality of K. They both thought they were in love, but some unfortunate multiversal circumstances arose, and they decided to just be friends. K was a bit more reserved after the fact and Ali found that to be fascinating. They got to know each other a bit better and eventually they fell in love. It was going well for a while until something happened, K’s mom died. They didn’t have the best relationship but deep down K still cared for his mother. She was killed by a villain. K decided to unleash his anger on poor Ali. It started as he yelled at her more, and called her names, then it evolved into abuse. Ali could have fought back, after all, she was no longer a little kid and had regained some of her lost willpower, but she just took it. She felt that somehow it was the universe punishing her for the crimes she had done, and she thought that she deserved it.
She would go to D’s dorm after some of the fights. D would notice bruises sometimes but he would just think that they were from the intense training that they were doing. Ali liked it that way, it was less explaining. They would play video games together, watch movies, and hang out while K was asleep or out doing other things. Over time though, K’s outburst started getting more into the rest of the class’s eyes. D picked up on it very quickly and suddenly realized the reason Ali would come over. He ignored it until he realized that he was developing feelings for Ali. Ali unbeknownst to her was developing feelings for D too. Sometimes Ali would accidentally scoot a little too close without realizing, or fall asleep on D’s shoulder, or hold his hand. Eventually, this boiled over into an intense conversation between the two.
It started like any other day. Ali knocked on the door, D opened it, they hugged, and they started having fun. Then after a while, Ali noticed something was wrong, her power had gotten to the point where if she was close enough to someone she could feel a little bit of how they were feeling. She asked D what was wrong, but he didn’t answer. When she asked again he said it was something that she couldn’t help him with. She asked a third time and that was when he began to say what he thought.
“Well, it’s just.” He began and Ali got really quiet. “You always come here when something goes on with K. Then when you're done you just go back to him and make up like nothing happened. He hits you, Ali, sometimes I see blood! You shouldn’t just go back and make up like that. It’s like you're just using me to feel better about him so you can go back for another round. At first I thought it was because you liked my company but, I’m not so sure anymore. It’s hard to see you like that, so distraught. Of course, it doesn’t help that I’m in love with you too!” Ali froze, it was like she got hit by a freight train going one hundred miles an hour. She looked into his eyes, they had that same look as James’ did but this time there was no hate, just hurt, and that made it worse. “Is that what you wanted to hear? Don’t act like you didn’t know you can literally sense how I feel.” He was right, she did know–all along and she kept going. “I-I don’t even know what I should think! K is my friend and I should not be jealous or anything about his girlfriend. At the same time, why do you keep going back to him ? What about me? I wouldn’t hit you, make you bleed, or make you cry. What about me? You lean on me over and over again, just to go back to the same awful situation. That hurts me, Ali, it hurts a lot. You know it’s bad too, otherwise you wouldn’t come and complain. The worst part is it isn’t even your fault.” That was the one thing Ali disagreed with. It was her fault. She was the center of this problem, if she hadn’t gone with K, maybe things would have been better. “I just need some time Ali, to get over you.” Ali started to cry, this was just too much for her to take in. “Hey, don’t cry Ali, I didn’t want to make you cry. I just couldn’t hide this anymore.” He tried to comfort her but Ali got up fast and walked toward the door to D’s dorm. She turned around and said: “I’m so sorry.” Then she opened the door and ran toward the elevator.
D and Ali’s dorm rooms were on the same floor, Ali’s was just a few rooms down. D found it odd when he heard the elevator ding and heard it go up. He quickly ran out of his dorm and went to the stairs.
As Ali rode up the elevator she cried even more, for she had come to a disheartening realization: She had become just like her mother. The only difference was that K and Ali weren’t married. She even stayed for the same reason as her mother, she wanted to see the good side of K. There was a river behind Ali’s childhood home that led to a beautiful lake. On days when Ali’s dad was asleep, drunk, and before Ali’s baby brother was born, Ali and her mom would take a boat and float down the river to the lake. They would get out of the boat at a tall tree which behind it was a field of flowers that were always pretty. It was at this tree where Ali put a memorial for her mom. One of the times they were at this tree Ali’s mom told her: “Don’t turn out like me, it isn’t a fun life. Promise me Ali you won’t turn out like me.” Ali had promised her then that she wouldn’t and she was breaking that promise.
Ali realized another horrifying truth: She was doing just what The Demon King wanted her to do. Even away from his influence, she was still manipulating people. She had done it to the one person who truly loved her besides her mother. Maybe K loved her at some point, but that love was buried beneath his grief and anger. D was the first person to talk to her. How could she have been so stupid? She concluded that she was a monster. The elevator door dinged, she was on the roof of the dormitory. It was a beautiful night, the sky was clear and the stars were shining. She walked towards the edge of the roof and looked down. There was a twenty-five-foot drop between her and the ground. She wondered if she landed on her head if it would kill her. After all, most monsters got the death penalty, why shouldn’t she? In her mind, this was for the best, that way no one would get hurt by her again. She was just about to jump when she heard D call out: “Wait!”
He had ran up the stairs and found Ali way too close to the edge of the roof for his comfort. “Wait Ali,” He called out to her, Ali turned around tears streaming down her face. That look of brokenness on her face broke his heart and tears started flowing down his face too.
“No!” She screamed. “Don’t cry for me, I’ve done nothing but hurt you. I don’t deserve it.”
“Please back away from the ledge Ali, I don’t want to lose you.”
“You’ll be better off without me.”
“That’s not true, you’ve helped me through many hard times.” Ali had backed away from the edge a little bit.
“I’m a monster, I’ve become exactly what he wanted me to be.”
“Who is he , Ali?” Ali backed away a little more before collapsing to her knees. D ran up to her and held her. She told him everything, about her mother, The Demon King, the training, the torture, the missions, the murder, James, her brother’s death, she told him everything about her past. D didn’t judge her or say anything at all. Finally, Ali stood back up.
“After everything I’ve done, I don’t deserve to be loved by someone as sweet and kind as you. You don’t deserve someone like me to drag you down. I deserve to die.” She walked back over to the edge.
“NO!” D cried as he tackled her to the ground. Ali pushed him off of her with a psychic blast and walked faster toward the edge. D used his power and shot a lightning bolt at Ali, not strong enough to hurt her, but enough to immobilize her. It hit her but it wasn’t enough, he fired two more but she dodged them. She was now at the ledge of the roof, D knew she was going to do it so he ran as fast as he could to save her, and she jumped…
D managed to grab Ali’s hand before she fell, but she was too far off of the building to pull her back up, and he wasn’t strong enough. Ali looked up at him with a look of confusion.
“Why?” She asked. He ignored that question.
“Please don’t go– I don’t want to lose you.” He pleaded, tears streaming down his face.
“You were fine before I showed up. You’ll be better off without me.” Ali looked into his eyes, she never really realized how beautiful his eyes were. She reached into his mind and made him let go of her.
“NO ALI!!” He cried but it was far too late. Ali was falling too fast for him to save her now. Part of her wanted to save herself, after all, if he was trying to save her there must have been something worth saving, right? The other part told herself no, that it was better this way. The latter side of herself won as she hit the ground hard. Everything faded to black, Ali wasn’t scared though, she had seen worse.
End Of Part One