[C h a p t e r 4 1]

- Seven Years Ago -

“How was your stay in Chicago, ‘Amber’,” teased Kris with a small smirk as he came to grab Amber’s bags outside the front of Lee soo Man Mansion. Even though there were plenty of other servants around to do just that, Kris had insisted on being the one to grab her bags.

Amber threw him an irritated glare as she silently walked past him and into the building. Kris was fooling around as usual. He had been in Chicago for the past month with her, helping her sort out the affairs of the real Amber Liu ’s parents’ death until he had to return to Korea first a week ago. Their bodies had only been recently found, buried in the middle of a forest for three years. It was assumed that they had been the unfortunate victims of a hit and run, except the culprit had taken the effort to hide their bodies. But they knew better; Lee Soo Man had had them murdered long ago, the bodies having only been found now that he had deemed Amber’s training was complete.

She was about to head down the familiar route towards her room in the back of the mansion when Kris suddenly jogged to grab her by the arm.

“Lee Soo Man has given you a new room, now that you’re actually living in his house under the name of Amber Liu.” Staring at Kris with an expressionless look, Amber allowed him to lead her up the stairs and towards a room located several doors past Key’s room.

Her eyes darted at the closed door as they walked by. She remembered the last time she had seen the spoilt brat, gladly seeing him off behind Lee Soo Man at the airport. After all, he had been the one who told Lee Soo Man about the bird she had kept hidden in her closet, thus leading to her being sent to Xaphan for those horrible months of animal cruelty. A slight shudder ran down her back as images of animals being tortured at the vile hands of Xaphan returned to her mind.

Kris opened the door to her new room, waving Amber in. “This is the room Lee Soo Man has had prepared for you, Amber. After you have settled in, he wants to see you in his office.” He stepped in to place Amber’s bags inside before leaving the room, patting Amber on the shoulder.

Amber peered over her shoulder as Kris closed the door behind him, turning back to stare at her new room. It was far larger than her previous room, which had been a small rats nest compared to this lavish abode. She strolled over to the window, glancing over the large queen sized bed to the shelves that adorned the walls. Stepping up to the window that sat behind the large ebony desk, she stared out at the magnificent view of the gardens. With a bored expression on her face, she turned to peer at the desk where she spotted a handwritten letter lying in the middle.

‘Welcome back, my dear Amber.

I hope you will find this room suitable for your tastes, a gift of sorts for your devotion and hard work all these years. There is a secret hidden in this room, a secret only meant for you, my dear. In the shelf directly to your left lies a secret compartment carrying an arsenal of weapons that now belong to you. Look around a little and I am sure you will figure out how to access it.

Once you have found it, come to my room instantly.

Lee Soo Man.’

Amber picked up the letter, folding it up neatly into a small square. Then, taking a small, silver lighter out of her pocket, she set the piece of paper on fire, throwing it in to the metal wastebasket beside the desk. She watched as the corners of the paper blackened and curled, turning away to face the shelf only when the flame had begun to die down. Taking a step towards it, Amber began studying the shelf, walking up and down its length as she pondered how the secret compartment would be opened. As she was about to pace back towards the window for the third time, a small irregularity under one of the shelves in the corner of the wall next to the window caught her eye. Walking over to it, Amber peered closely at it to find that a switch was hidden in a small hollow in the wall, invisible to anyone unless they were looking for it. Extending her hand towards it, she pressed the switch, stepping back in surprise when the whole shelf suddenly swung out, waiting for her to open it fully.

She went to pull the shelf door outwards, revealing the horde of weapons Lee Soo Man had promised would be in there. Her eyes travelled over the swords and daggers, guns and knives, with a mixture of disgust and fondness. Every single item that sat in this compartment was a weapon Amber was trained to use, although her skill with some of them was mediocre at best and she had yet to improve on them. A thought suddenly entered her mind and she strolled over to her suitcase, hefting it up onto her bed where she began hurriedly ping it. Pulling out some of her clothes as neatly as possible, she finally reached what she was looking for – the metal tin that has been with her for nearly her entire life. Slowly, she picked it up, her hand softly tracing the dents in its lid before she turned to carry it over to the hidden compartment where she hid it amongst the other tins of similar appearance.

It had occurred to her that hiding her tin in this compartment would be for the best, better than having to carry it around with her and hiding it in her belongings, a habit she had developed when Key had snuck into her room one night to go through its contents after he had caught her going through its contents once before, which had caused Amber to break the ceramic water whistle. Throwing one last look at the tin, she pulled the compartment closed with a final click.

Amber was forced to wait patiently behind Lee Soo Man’s desk while he sorted through his paperwork. She took this chance to meditate, remembering the last time she had been forced to wait as a test of her patience. Finally, after nearly an hour of waiting, Lee Soo Man put his pen down to look up into Amber’s serene face, her eyelids closed.

“An improvement from the last time, Amber,” he said with a small smile.

Amber opened her eyes to stare at him blankly, bowing her head in deference. “Thank you, Master .”

Lee Soo Man waved off her formality, leaning back in his chair as he studied her. “It has been a while since I last saw you, Amber. Close to… five months?”

“Around that, Master ,” replied Amber. Prior to leaving for Chicago, Amber had been spending several months in Japan under the guise of an exchange student. And an exchange student she was, but not at the school that was written down on her visa. She had undergone a brief course by an elite cult of assassins, where she had been able to cultivate her love of the sword and dagger. Lee Soo Man had planned on Amber staying in Japan for a longer period of time but certain things had come up and he could not wait any more.

Lee Soo Man went to grab a black file which lay to his left, tossing it over to Amber’s side of the desk. “I thought you might be interested in this piece of information, the reason why I decided to have you properly take up your identity as Amber Liu.”

Amber eyed the file curiously before reaching out to pick it up and open it. Her blood ran cold when she saw the picture and read the name of the woman she dreaded the most. “Rachel Wang …” whispered Amber through gritted teeth. Her grip on the file tightened slightly.

Lee Soo Man smiled nonchalantly at the reaction he had evoked from Amber. “That page you are staring at now is just her basic info, but the next page holds some more interesting info about the woman who murdered your mother.”

With slightly trembling hands, Amber turned the page to scan the notes. Her eyes widened when she read that Rachel was now the fourth in command . There were notes about what aspects of the gang’s business she was involved in and these Amber briefly skimmed over.

“Interesting, isn’t it? Although I believe your training is far from complete but if we delay the matter of your revenge any longer, it will perhaps become increasingly difficult for you to accomplish. At the present level you are currently at, I believe you should be more than capable of assassinating the fourth in command , without too much difficulty. What do you think, Amber?”

Amber turned back to the first page of the file, staring at the picture of the woman who had murdered her mother pointlessly. Rachel was a large, rough looking woman, a cold, brutal glint in her eyes which was still present even in a photo. A tattoo of a snake began at the corner of her right cheek, curling all the way down her neck and onto her back. Just staring at the picture ignited the thirst for revenge which had been driving Amber through all these years of training.

She glanced up to look at Lee Soo Man, remembering to control her emotions. “If Master Lee believes in my capabilities, I am more than willing to abide by your wishes,” she replied with a bow of her head in a calm voice which hid the excitement that had coursed through her only moments ago.

Lee Soo Man nodded his head in approval. “Very well, you may go and make the necessary preparations with Kris, who will be assisting you on this mission. Her routinely activities are detailed within that file and I would like to wish you luck with your first, true killing.”

Amber looked up to meet Lee Soo Man’s eyes for a second, noting the dangerous glow he had in them before averting her eyes elsewhere. While it may be true that this would be her first professional killing, she had killed many before in the past three years, which consisted of mainly those who had been sent to train with her or were deemed useless to Lee Soo Man or the other gangs she had gone to train with.

She stood up realising that Lee Soo Man had dismissed her, bowing to him before turning to leave. However, she was stopped by the older man as she was halfway across the room.

“Have you thought about the question I left you with before you left for Japan?” he suddenly asked.

Amber slowly turned back around to face Lee Soo Man, her head still bowed low. “Yes, Master . I have finally decided on my alias.”

Lee Soo Man’s eyebrows rose as he smiled, a curious twinkle to his dangerous eyes. “Oh?”

She raised her head up to meet Lee Soo Man’s eyes. “I would like to be known as Dawn.”

“Really…?” The smile on his face slowly faded as he pondered the alias. “Care to share the reason why, if there is any?”

Amber lowered her head once more. “Dawn… is the ideal time for an assassination. It is a time when everything is at its quietest, a time when one least expects someone to come and end their life. It is also the time of day when the sun is about to rise, trying to shed its light to alleviate the gloom, but barely filtering over the horizon.”

A melancholy silence fell in the room as Lee Soo Man absorbed all of what Amber had said. Suddenly, he went to pick up his pen and retrieved one of the files from his never ending pile. “Then so be it. From this day forward, you are now known as Dawn by night and Amber by day.”

Amber lay in wait, leaning against the wall beside the door on the inside of Rachel’s bedroom. She and Kris had come to the conclusion, after going through Rachel’s activities thoroughly, that the best way to catch her off-guard would be to surprise her within her own room in the expensive apartment she owned in Korea. Her lock picking skills had finally been put to use as the woman did not have the time yet to see to it that the security for her apartment was upgraded, now that she was recognised as being one of the higher ranked members of the gang. An arrogant mistake which will definitely prove to be fatal...

A faint cackle was heard from her earpiece as Kris’s voice transmitted up from his post below. “The target has finally entered the building, Dawn. This is your time to shine.”

Amber closed her eyes as she leant her head back against the wall. The moment had finally arrived. In a few minutes, Rachel Wong, the woman who had murdered her mother for no reason, will be stepping through the front door, through that door to her right…

Her eyes flew open as she heard the click of the front door opening and then closing. Amber stiffened at the sound as she counted the number of footsteps it would take to reach the bedroom door, the grip on her short sword tightening as her heart beat wildly in anticipation. Her eyes darted down to the doorknob which had begun to slowly turn and Amber readied herself, waiting for the right moment to launch her attack.

The door finally opened and as Rachel was about to about in the darkness to her right for the light switch to the bedroom light, a flash of steel suddenly caught her eye. But the warning the momentary glint had given her was not enough for the woman to react. The blade cut quickly and cleanly through the woman’s tendons in her elbows and knees, Amber’s movement too quick for the large woman to follow. She fell to the ground, her limbs rendered useless as blood oozed from the wounds, staring up in fear at the black clad woman before her.

“Wh… who are you?” she stuttered, realisation dawning on her as she realised she was about to die.

Amber went to remove the mask that had been covering her face, staring down at the woman with a furious hatred burning in her eyes. “I am Dawn, the daughter of the one you murdered for no reason in jail. You probably don’t remember her, seeing as it happened nearly four years ago. But consider this as payback for all the crimes you have committed, Rachel Wong.” With that, Amber stepped over the crumpled body, turning back only to shallowly cut the woman’s throat before walking over to lean against the back of a sofa to watch the woman to slowly bleed to death before her eyes, an empty feeling in her heart.

- Present Day -

Henry’s grip on Amber’s hand had steadily grown tighter as she continued to tell him of her first murder under Dawn’s name. She let him squeeze her hand tightly, not uttering a single gasp of pain as the circulation to her fingers dwindled. Only when Amber had finished talking had Henry realised how tightly he was gripping Amber’s hand and he loosened his grip. Amber looked up at him in understanding before turning to gaze away.

“Now that you have heard the confession of Dawn’s first murder, what are you going to do about it?” She took in a deep breath, closing her eyes as she savoured the night breeze. “I am completely at your mercy, Xian Hua. To be honest with you, I no longer want to continue this two-sided life, the life of an assassin. If you want to arrest me, then do so now.” Amber suddenly held her hands out for Henry to handcuff her.

Henry stared at her horrified, peering down at her hands. He remained quiet for some time, slowly coming to hold Amber’s pale wrists in the moonlight as he thought over all of what Amber had told him tonight. Then suddenly, he drew Amber towards him in another tight embrace. “How can I arrest the one I love, Josephine? Do you think that I can be so cold hearted as to do that?” He pulled her back slightly, placing a soft kiss on her forehead. “I lost you once before, Josephine. I am not going to lose you again.”

Suddenly, he pulled her to her feet and began dragging her away from the hut. Amber pulled away from him. “Where are you taking me?” she asked.

He came back to hold her hand. “Come with me, Josephine. Don’t go back to Lee Soo Man. Together, we can make Dawn disappear forever.” As he began pulling Amber along once more, she pulled her hand out of his again.

“I can’t, Xian Hua. For you to arrest me is one thing, but if I am to run away with you… it will put us in more danger than we are already in. I… I cannot do that to you,” she finished in a weak voice. She closed her eyes in frustration as she turned away and headed back towards the hut. She hated how weak she was feeling right now, hated how she did not dare to follow along with Henry’s foolish plan of running away.

Henry watched as she went to lean against the post of the hut’s porch, her head resting on her forearm. After a few minutes, he slowly walked over to her, his arms encircling her gently from the back as he leant his chin against her shoulder. “I don’t care about danger, Josephine… as long as I can be with you, nothing else matters in this world.”

He felt Amber inhale deeply before turning around to face him. She slowly raised her hand, shyly reaching out to his face. His hand then covered hers as he leant his face into it. “Xian Hua… I cannot bring myself to hurt you for a second time. I promise nothing will happen to me if I remain by Lee Soo Man’s side but if he finds out that you know Josephine is not really dead… I just don’t want you to get hurt. I love you, Xian Hua, and the fact you have forgiven me so easily is just too good to be true.”

“I haven’t forgiven you, Josephine, but I love you too much to stay angry at you for too long,” he whispered quietly, his eyes darkening.

Their eyes remained locked on one another, an invisible force drawing his face ever closer to hers. Amber slowly closed her eyes in anticipation as she felt Henry’s lips softly cover hers, gently urging her lips apart as he deepened the kiss. She hungrily pulled him closer, losing herself to the momentary bliss and pleasure his kisses brought to her. His kiss suddenly became more devouring in response, as all the passion and longing he had felt for her these past ten years finally surfaced in the hope of being satisfied. Amber felt his tongue suddenly dart into and she met it with her own as Henry slowly began steering her to lie down on the porch.

He broke the passionate kiss then to plaster hot kisses all over her face and down her neck, a small moan emanating from Amber as she felt herself come alive in places she had never dreamt possible. But that feeling was suddenly shattered as Dino let out a loud squawk.

Henry looked up to see the bird standing nearby on the porch watching intently, his head cocked to one side. A small growl slipped from Henry as he was about to shoo the bird, but Amber held him back.

“I think Dino was right to stop us there. We don’t have time for this.” She shuffled out from under Henry, who refused to budge, his head hung low like a child denied a treat he had long been longing for. She couldn’t help but laugh at the image.

Henry peered up at Amber in surprise, a smile curving his lips as he watched Amber laugh. With a sigh, he sat up properly beside Amber, his arm snaking around her shoulders as he pulled her in to lie against his chest. “Alright… but this time only, Josephine, because I finally got to hear you laugh.” Amber’s laughter soon died down and the smile on Henry’s face faded as he realised that they would have to part soon, not knowing the next time they could meet one another. “Are you really going to go back to Lee Soo Man, Josephine?”

Amber nodded quietly beside Henry. “I have no choice, Xian Hua. You should know how powerful the Syndicate is. But for the time being, I am on probation and the only reason I am able to come and meet you is because Kris helped me.”

A sudden gust of cold air blew into the clearing, rustling the leaves of the trees in that raspy whisper of theirs. Dino’s claws continued to clack on the wooden porch as he paced up and down, waiting for his masters to pay him some attention.

“When will I get to see you again, Josephine?” asked Henry after some time.

Amber paused for a moment before answering, “I hope soon.”

tbc.

Well, how was that for Dawn's first offical murder? And that scene between Amber and Henry... *blush* .

Next Chapter: A month has gone by...