The Assassin | Dreamcatcher

Chapter 39

"I will."

"She's going to be fine." JiU reassures and hands her her handgun, seeing Siyeon without hers.

Muttering a thanks, Siyeon reloads her rifle, putting it back in her back as she takes the handgun in hand.

She rushes back into the open without a backward glance, immediately spying Handong struggling to lift the shutter at the other end of the warehouse.

Running away.

The coward.

Siyeon sprints straight for her as the shutter crashes back down between them. With Herculean strength fuelled by adrenaline, Siyeon lifts the shutter and rolls under. Handong is several yards away, sprinting. Even from behind, she looks desperate.

"Handong!" She cries angrily and gives chase up the road. The woman ignores her calls, head looking around madly at her surroundings, seeming lost.

"Give up!" Siyeon calls, knowing her words wouldn't encourage the action.

"Never!" She reaches the gates and pushes through, the lock already forced by the assassins.

Is she leading her somewhere? Perhaps into an ambush?

But that's impossible - the woman looks like she's finally out of tricks.

Handong runs for the empty reed fields opposite, pushing her way through the waving stalks. Siyeon follows. It could have been over by now. She could have already shot Handong hundreds of times in this futile escape.

But she desires to confront her and force the evil woman to see the full force of her wrath.

In the centre of the waving expanse, the reeds die out and there is a worn patch of flat ground, trodden with animal prints.

"Let's stop running." Siyeon announces breathlessly as she steps out into the mud.

Handong halts and turns, hair sticking to her face with sweat. "Why?"

"You've already stopped." Siyeon snorts without humour. "I want to talk."

"What? So you can act as the psych, trying to discover why I've done this?" She crosses her arms, eyes glaring into hers.

She doesn't back down. "That's a good question. Why have you done this? You've ruined so many people's lives...for what? Getting rid of competition? Becoming the best of the best?"

Handong lets out a tight breath and she appears to deflate. "Yes. I want to be the best, alright? I just had some rivals."

"Dami."

"And your parents." She adds. "It never used to just be Dami running the company. They were too."

Refusing to let her shock show, Siyeon simply comments. "What?"

"You don't know? Yeah, they were. I saw them as a threat. So I needed to get rid of them."

"You killed them. You left me to suffer in the wake of their deaths!" Siyeon shouts, venting her frustration, feeling the emotion welling up inside her raw self.

"Would you have preferred I killed you there and then? I certainly do." Handong scoffs.

"Sometimes. I used to think that, in the beginning. But I learnt to hide it away, burying it away. You ruined my life."

"Why should I care?"

"I'm not asking you to."

"They were a threat to me! I killed them. Dami didn't try and try and take my company down after like they were trying to. I felt safe again. For many years," Her hand creeps behind her back with snail-like speed.