I stepped back, my mouth wide open with shock. "I-I'm sorry...WHAT!?"

These guys were hitmen. I was in their headquarters. And they wanted to hire me. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

"Whoa, whoa," the boss held out his hands. "Calm down dude. We're not gonna..."

"You want to hire me..." I held up my hands in defence. "To be a hitman. YOU WANT ME TO KILL PEOPLE FOR A LIVING."

"I mean, when you put it like that..." Preston mused, "it does sound pretty bad."

"It doesn't just sound bad, dude," I yelled, "it is bad, jesus christ!"

"We mostly get contracts on people with the Fever, though," the boss said in defence. "Or members of Crow, or government officials. No one good."

"GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS?!" I yelled. "You kill...okay, nevermind. I'll find somewhere else to stay."

I turned around and began walking towards the door, but before I got very far, a hand grabbed my wrist. I turned around to see who it was and was met with Preston's eyes.

"Trust me when I say you won't find anywhere else to stay," he said. His eyes were alight with something similar to the brightness of fire.

Suddenly my wrist began to heat up where he was holding it. It quickly got incredibly hot, unbearably hot. I could have sworn I heard my skin sizzling as I yelled in pain.

Preston let go of my wrist and I held it in front of my face. As I had expected, it was red and covered in burn blisters. My eyes watered, but I blinked quickly so I wouldn't cry.

"W-what the h-h-hell," I stuttered. I was so afraid, I thought they were going to kill me, or hold me hostage or some shit. My heart was in my throat.

"Guys, what the fleep is going on here?"

A new voice sounded from the back of the room, near the card table. I glanced over to see that the source of the voice was a dude with black hair and a yellow hoodie made to look like a bird. The dude walked into the room with a worried expression. Preston and the boss both looked as though they had been yelled at by their mother.

"Uuuuhhhh," the boss said, avoiding eye contact with the newcomer.

"I burned him," Preston said sheepishly. "It was an accident, I swear!"

The bird guy came over to me and grabbed my arm, just below my elbow, thrusting it up to show Preston. "This doesn't look like an accident," he said.

"Well, it wasn't...actually...an accident, but-"

"BUTTS ARE FOR SITTING!" The yellow-hoodied man said. I stifled a laugh. "Sorry about them. Are you okay?"

The guy turned to me. His eyes were soft and I felt like I could trust him, unlike Preston or the boss. "I'm a little shaken, I guess, but I'm not dead so..."

"Okay, cool. I'm Choco, by the way," Choco let go of my arm. "Now, why the heck are you here? No offence."

"He needs a place to stay," Preston explained, before I could even open my mouth. "He doesn't have any money so we offered him a job and he flipped out."

"Like any normal person would," I clarified. "Can someone help with my wrist, by the way?"

"Yeah, sure," Choco said, eyeing Preston. "I'll show you the empty room, as well."

I followed Choco through the dining room, to the right and into a kitchen. He stood on his toes and began searching through a cupboard for something.

"I'm really sorry about them," he began, "they try to be all intimidating when in reality they're giant babies."

"Giant babies that kill people for a living," I scoffed. "Also, how the fuck did Preston manage to burn me?"

"Yeah, he...does that sometimes," Choco said, pulling out a washcloth from the cupboard. He went over to the sink and ran water over it.

"He just...does it?" I asked. "Like, on a regular basis? He just...burns people?"

"Here," Choco appeared to have ignored my question, and handed me the washcloth. I carefully put it over my wrist. "And to answer your question, yeah, he does that on a regular basis."

Choco pulled up the sleeves of his hoodie slightly to show me several recent burn scars.

"La-I mean, the boss has several as well. Preston's a handful," Choco turned and reached into the cupboards again. This time he pulled out a bottle of painkillers. "That's gonna hurt like hell later. I would recommend taking three."

I took the painkillers, trusting that's actually what they were, and followed Choco up a flight of stairs to the empty room. It had the same mismatched aesthetic as all the other rooms did. One wall, the wall with a window, was brick, whereas the other three were pale yellow wallpaper. The bed had a wiry frame and no blankets or pillows. There was a couch in the corner, similar to the downstairs one, but this one was a pale pink instead of green; and there were two rugs overlapping on the floor.

"This is where all the magic happens," Choco said dully. "We'd find a bedspread and pillows for you, of course, but that's it."

"Four hundred dollars a month for this piece of crap?" I said.

"Well, if you worked for us, it would come out of your paycheck," Choco suggested. "I know it's a lot to ask, to kill people I mean, but we pay decently and we'd provide you with food."

"How do you even know I'd be able to kill people?" I asked him.

"I..." Choco hesitated. "I can...well, I can sense things."

"Yes, great, a bird's sixth sense seems rather reliable in this situation," I said sarcastically. Choco rolled his eyes.

"My thing is on the same level as Preston's," Choco explained. "He can burn things and I can sense things. I know, it seems kind of unbelievable, but I'm not lying, I promise. We've both got the burns to prove it."

I stopped for a moment. He wasn't wrong.

"I know, this must be a lot to take in," Choco crossed his arms. "But we're not doing inherently bad work, I promise. We tend to turn down contracts of more important or innocent people. Important not counting for government officials, of course. Those guys suck. But members of Crow, people who have the Fever...and government officials, yes, we kill them when we have contracts for them."

"Hold up...what's Crow?" I asked. I'd also heard the boss mention it earlier.

"You don't know what Crow is?" Choco said, as though it was on the same level as not knowing what 1 plus 1 is, or what Doctor Who is. "Where have you been living?"

"Well, nowhere, as far as I know," I said. "I mean, I came here because I needed a place to stay, not because I was looking to move into a singular room."

"Well, yeah, I guess," Choco shrugged. "But even if you live on the streets there's no way I'm gonna believe you don't know what Crow is. Those guys are everywhere."

"Alright, don't believe me if you wish, but I have amnesia and I do not know what Crow is."

"Wait-" Choco paused in thought. "You have amnesia?"

"Yeah," I replied, "I woke up on the subway earlier and that's as far back as I can remember."

"Okay, that explains a lot..." Choco mused. "Anyway, Crow is a rather...controversial organization. They're rebels and completely against the current system of government, which most people are, but the way they go about expressing this is in ways that are less than legal. They stage riots, vandalize buildings, all sorts of bad things."

"Makes sense," I nodded.

"Back on topic," Choco gestured to the room, "deal, or no deal?"

"Deal."

I had no idea what I was about to get myself into.

~~~

Me: *says updates will be scarce*

Me: *updates super quickly for no apparent reason*

Honestly I'm just super inspired for this story right now so I'm able to write a full chapter within a half hour and edit it within less than fifteen minutes, so that's forty-five minutes per chapter, and I get an hour for lunch/recess, so...

I have a valid excuse.

Ciao!

~Lia