How to Escape an Assassin

As I walked side by side with Vivian to the bathrooms, dressed in matching assassin uniforms, I started having thoughts about how much I detested her as a person. After all, she was pushing her brother Tristan to kill me. She didn't appear to regard human life as valuable outside of her elite circle. Not to mention, she was a psychopath just like her eldest brother Felix. There was no doubt in my mind after the time when I accidentally witnessed Vivian and her husband torturing and decapitating people in her garage. Yet here she was next to me with the appearance of an ordinary person—if you overlooked the bodysuit that looked like a Marvel's Black Widow cosplay, that is.

Sadly, I would have to rely on her to break us out of this government facility. "Do you know what made them capture Tristan so suddenly?" I asked her quietly.

"Fel' reported him," Vivian answered. "Such a damn idiot. He even tried to file a claim directly to the level one disciplinary committee, but the one who validates incoming claims is none other than yours truly. Obvi', I shut that one down."

"Why would Felix do that to his own brother, did he not know it would turn out this badly for Tristan?"

Vivian paused, apparently having an internal debate before responding to my question. "This is gonna be really complicated to explain, so pay attention. As I think you already know, Tristan has a different mom from me and Felix. Tristan's mom is an immigrant from Colombia and when she came to the country she was young, could hardly speak English, and didn't know anyone. Our dad was much older than her and he was already married to my mom. He and Tristan's mom met at a bar, and she became my dad's temporary mistress—this was before I was born obvi. My mom found out about my dad's affair with Tristan's mom when the lady was already pregnant with Tristan. My mom wanted Tristan's mom to get an abortion, threatening to get her deported if she didn't. But, our dad was standing up for his mistress and he told my mom that he would divorce her if she didn't stop."

"But what does this have to-"

"I'm getting there; let me finish. My mom somehow ended up on Tristan's birth certificate, not his biological mother. Our dad and my mom raised him with full custody. But since my mom was so damaged from how my dad cheated on her and had a child with his mistress, she only took advantage of raising Tristan to be able to control and punish him as revenge against his mother."

Knowing this made my heart break for Tristan.

"Felix hated Tristan for what he saw as 'forcing his way into our family'. And he knew our mom was heartbroken from our dad cheating on her, so in his eyes Tristan was the cause of our mom's pain. And remember, Felix is four years older than Tristan. He was always bullying Tristan, taking his toys from him and beating him up when the adults weren't around. I was the youngest and I had no idea why everyone was so mean to Tristan—to be clear, my mom and dad stayed together after he'd cheated on her, and then they had me three years after Tristan was born."

Whenever I thought I couldn't hate Felix more, he always managed to prove me wrong. Always. I imagined myself with my bare hands around his fat neck and strangling him to death.

"Our dad was too busy with business to notice what was going on. He always came home very late at night. My mom kept Tristan's mom in check, only letting her visit Tristan a few times a year. But there was a period of like 6 years when Tristan's mom didn't come visit at all. That was when my mom made Tristan's life a living hell. She would lock Tristan in the closet and she wouldn't give him dinner. She didn't let him play with toys or have friends. I would sneak food and toys up to him. But if she ever caught us, she would beat Tristan senseless. That's why I st- dude, relax. This happened a long time ago." She placed a hand on my shoulder, giving me a strange look.

My face was covered in tears, and my entire body was shaking with rage while I listened to Vivian recount the story of Tristan's childhood. "Sorry, I... it's making me emotional."

Vivian handed me a tissue. "I won't talk anymore, then. You're just going to draw unnecessary attention to us. Weirdo."

"But I really want to know," I urged her. "How long did this go on?"

She rolled her eyes. "At some point, Fel' actually started to accept Tristan as his brother, and from that point he protected Tristan from my mom's crazy abuse. Then when Tristan reached high school and started assassin training, he became distant and eventually shut me and Felix out completely. I think Felix has always secretly resented Tristan for that. Tristan poured his everything into being a great assassin. He instantly became a star once he joined our agency, and everyone wanted to be his friend or date him. It was a literal 180 from when we were kids, how he grew up as a punching bag at home and invisible in school. But Tristan didn't entertain the new fame. It was probably too overwhelming for him since he never socialized before. He still doesn't even f*cking know how to have a normal conversation."

"Wow," I whispered softly to myself. Even though I still hated Vivian, I now had a much better understanding of why Tristan was the way that he was. "What made Tristan stop talking to you and Felix back then?

"Probably his douchebag mentor from assassin training. He was really manipulative. He'd say things to Tristan that really f*cked with him, like, 'you're the worthless scum of the earth. Type of people who are the best at this job. No hopes or dreams of tomorrow. You'll probably be dead by then anyway. No one will miss you when you're gone. There's nothing beyond the miserable life that you see in front of your eyes.'"

I snorted. "That's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. I mean, just look how the universe and time stretch on into infinity. We have the tiniest glimpse of it. Or like I told Tristan the day that I met him, look how the ocean extends past the horizon."

Vivian stopped in her tracks. I turned around, confused. She tilted her head slightly. "Hmm, that was probably the exact moment that he became obsessed with you, then. Good for you, 'Emily Dickinson'. It's a shame that he has to kill you as soon as his body recovers."

I winced at that comment. Vivian continued walking, and I fell in step with her. I thought of the message on the gemstone that I gave Tristan when we first met, "What appears to be the end is just the beginning". Maybe it had a stronger impact on him than I ever could've guessed.