I sat staring at the black void that filled my room. I turned to my bedside table and glanced at the time. 12:00. Sighing, I swung my legs off my bed and walked to the bathroom. I accidentally stepped on something that felt oddly like a human body. Gasping, I squinted in the dark, trying to identify the object littered on the floor. Finally, I admitted surrender and continued to walk on. A strange scuttling noise was coming from the bathroom. I was never one to be frightened, yet this noise made shivers run down my spine. I pushed open the creaking door, and I noticed red liquid was oozing from the floor. A putrid odor filled my nostrils and I almost puked in response. Glancing around the bathroom, I found the switch and flicked the lights on. What I saw made me gasp in surprise. The entire bathroom was--was--was covered in that red liquid. It was a deep maroon and I knelt down to examine it. As soon as I touched it, I immediately knew what it was: blood. I was going to feel sick. Everything around me blurred. My vision swam and all I could see was blood. Blood, blood, blood. Everywhere, there was no escape. It was closing in on me. Nothing else mattered. I dimly remember falling back on the floor, my blood mixing with the already stained floor. A voice from far away whispered, Shh. And I subsided into a black void, but I could feel them shoving something into my mouth before I went completely unconscious.

I awoke, screaming into the night. A cave surrounded me and a man was standing guard. I couldn't properly see his features because the only light source was coming from a dim candle. Somehow, the man sensed that I had aroused. He turned toward me and smirked. I tried to smirk back and it was then that I realized the blood pouring out of my mouth. A cloth was shoved in my mouth to quench the bleeding, but it was in vain. He seemed to notice that I was in pain, so he whispered, "Shh. Go to bed. The Ritual will aid all of your problems. Shh." And with that, my eyelids drooped down and I saw blackness again.

I awoke once more, but this time, I was strangely calm. I was being carried on a stretcher past many staring eyes. It seemed like a whole village was watching me as I passed. Finally, the men carrying me lowered me to the ground. All around me, people chanted, "Demis Creatus, Demis Creatus," over and over again.

My senses sharpened and suddenly, I was watching the scene unfold outside of my body. My body was on a plateau, and next to me lay a bubbling cauldron. The cauldron was spewing green liquid. A crowd of people surrounded my body, while hundeds upon hundreds of people chanted below the plateau. The people seemed to be preparing my body for an immersion; they were wiping down my body with what looked like blue paper. My body lay on a stone slab and I was strapped to the stone. My body's eyelids were shut tight, and I seemed to be breathng heavily. A swooping sensation swept through my spiritual body, and I felt myself soaring back toward my body. My head spun and the people around started chanting, "Lemos, Lemos, Lemos" over and over again. I tried to keep my eyelids open, but my body felt tired. I felt my body go limp, and I was slipping away...I jerked awake just in time as a woman started picking up my prone body and sliding me into the boiling cauldron. I tried to escape, but to no avail. I squirmed and thrashed around, but a comforting voice whispered in my ear, "It will soon be all right. Just relax..." My muscles loosened and I felt the bubbling liquid enter my body. Some people above me forced me to drink a weird green liquid that tasted sour and bitter. I felt my body melt away...and there was just my soul.

I don't remember what happened after that, it really was a fuzzy blur. I remember lots of hands and washing. After that, something strange happened to my brain. I could feel them soothingly talk to me, but I had the strange desire to kill. I've never been the same way since.

Here I am, the best assassin in all the land. No one knows what hits them and none live to tell. It's part of my motto: Dead Never Tell. Anyway, I had never really remembered all of those details until tonight. Strange...perhaps it is because I murdered a specific someone? No, I had murdered my own mother and none of these memories surfaced. Of course, that was when I was hunting a bounty. This time, I had killed out of pure spite. I remember it so vividly.

A man named Demotatus was walking merrily one day to visit his wife, when he stopped and turned toward me. I had always been one to hide in a crowd, so expertly that even my own targets didn't know I was their death until the time came. Anyway, he turned toward me and shouted, "Oi! Look at this filth! Why I've never seen an uglier girl, blimey, I think my eyes are dying." Others were starting to stare now, and I was becoming redder by the second.

"I mean, you would have be positively mad to want to marry her. Oh, my dear wife, she would scorn if she had ever met anyone as ugly as you. I mean, look at your complexion. You look like a ripe tomato. I--" I quickly grabbed him around the shoulders and hoisted him off into the woods.

"Gerroff me, you mad dog!" and "Help!" were some of his frantic cries.

I twisted his arm into a painful position and whipped out my dagger. The man, meanwhile, was oblivious to everything. He was shutting his eyes and whispering, "No" as if sure he would wake up and none of this would be happening. Yeah, tough. I quickly sliced my dagger down his throat and it was done. He limply fell to the ground. I stood there, staring at him. Then, deciding it would look suspicious carrying a dead body out of the woods, I picked up the body and started yelling.

"Help! This man's been murdered! My poor uncle's been murdered!"

At once, the entire village swarmed around me. A man, clearly head of the village, stepped in front of the crowd and asked, "What happened?"

"I merely brought my uncle in for a word. He muttered something strange and began to walk off before I could stop him. When fifteen minutes had passed, I went to search for him. And that's when I found him, dead!" I started sobbing and hid my face underneath my hands.

One woman, his wife I guessed, suspiciously questioned, "How come he has never mentioned a niece before? Huh?" I inwardly sighed to myself. There's always one in every bunch.

I tried to pull it off by sobbing even more, then looking up at her with swollen eyes. "H-He never told you? I suppose he was too ashamed of me! You heard him call me filthy!" I broke once again into hysterical sobs. The woman was about to say something, when an older looking woman interrupted, "Agatha, the poor dear's been through enough already. Stop pestering her." After that, Agatha stopped criticizing me and started to croon over me.

I sniffed loudly and wiped my sleeve. "I-I was just visiting him to say hello. I-I think I'll go home now. It's not far from here." I turned to go.

A woman stopped me, and hissed, "It's her! It's her! The murderer!"

I hiccuped once, and whispered, "I-I don't know what you are talking about."

The woman smiled a wicked smile, and took me by the arm. "Come back to town with us, surely you won't mind." I forced a smile and shook my head.

At town, posters of me blanketed the filthy walls of the town. I kept my head down, but then I realized that we were going to the police. I squirmed against her firm hand, but she was just too strong for me.

She opened the door, and tossed me in a prison cell at once. I glared daggers at her, but she didn't care. She was too busy at the front desk, telling the man that she had caught the murderer.

I swore under my breath. She had caught me.

The man looked at me, and dismissed the woman with a wave of his hand. She grinned wickedly, and unlocked the jail cell. This was my chance.

I sprinted past her, and shoved open the door. I took in a breath of fresh air before running for my life. I could see the woods. I was almost there. A hand came out of nowhere, and tugged on my shirt. I felt my hope slipping through my fingers.

She dragged me back to the police station, and grabbed a foul smelling vial. She ran outside, and yelled at the top of her lungs, "The murderer's here! She's here!"

People ran out of their houses, yelling and shouting at each other. They swarmed around me, forming a rough circle.  The woman raised her hand, and the mumbling stopped.

"This woman has killed many people, some you know and hold dear to your hearts. And so, her punishment shall be death." No one objected. I glanced nervously at the crowd.

"I have here a vial of poison. Does anyone object?" The crowd was silent.

I pleaded, "Please, they brainwashed me and forced me to do it. Please believe me!" My voice turned to shrieks as she uncorked the bottle and shoved it in my mouth. A taste that reminded me of barf overwhelmed my senses. People around me cheered and hollered with joy. They're as cruel as I was, I thought. I laughed weakly.

And then, I felt nothing...