"I know what you're thinking, but believe me. I know what I'm doing!"

She sighed in frustration and looked at me more than a little annoyed. Still, I felt like I was getting through to her and although I tried to suppress it, I couldn't help but get my hopes up.

"Don't we have enough information about them already? Can't we just kill them?" I fell silent and merely looked her straight in the eye, shaking my head briefly as if she was making an obvious mistake. She still hasn't learned how to handle silence, how to stand up under pressure. Deep down I smiled maliciously, she was still a beginner.

There was a reason she was paired with me.

"Okay, you got me. But you better end it quick, understand?" I gave her a big smile and thanked her like the most obnoxious idiot ever. She had no idea that she had just saved her life with that answer.

The moment we parted my smile disappeared completely, there was no longer any reason to keep up that facade. To act like a clueless newbie like her. I've been in this business for so long, there's nothing I haven't done and nothing I'm not willing to do. And yet this is my first time.

My fingers tingled with excitement. It's been so long since I've spilled blood and I can't wait to see their faces. The realisation that I have betrayed them will rob them of all their confidence and turn them into mere prey for them to feast on. I will take the time to explain to them that it is not about the money, the fame or any of their countless enemies. It's much easier, to the point where it's almost comical how obvious it is.

I've started to like my target, experienced something like friendship for the first time in my life, and I don't want to lose it. This warm, cozy feeling is something I hold very precious in the cold world I grew up in. And I will do anything to preserve that sensation, even if it means betraying the people who raised and nurtured me. I feel no remorse, after all, I was raised to do nothing else.

And after I wipe them off the face of the earth, sink their last remains in the sea, I will return to my friends. Smiling and laughing as if I had not ended countless human lives because of them.