“I told you not to look into this.”

She stared down at the girl, innocently sleeping. Her hair was splayed across the pillow, harsh against the stark white, and her hands were bunched up in the sheets, pulling them close to her chin.

“I told you to mind your own business.”

The girl shuffled a bit, nearly bumping into the barrel of the silenced P7. It dipped a bit, but she forced it back into position, a deadly snarl upon her face. Her arm tensed, nearly shaking with the effort, but she made sure to be steady.

“And now I have to kill you because you just didn’t. ing. Listen!"

Her finger tightened on the trigger, a quiet rasp sounding out as the mechanisms readied. Her face shut down, totally devoid of emotion as she readied herself. She couldn’t stop the tremble in her knees.

As if on cue, the girl snuggled into her pillow, slipping the tip of her thumb into . She on it gently, totally unaware of the mortal danger she was in. A quiet hum rose from , and it took the assassin a moment to realize that she was snoring. She snarled, forcing the gun forward to press against her temple…

…and let her arm fall. Who was she kidding? There’s no way she could do this. Not to her. Never to her.

She sighed, looking around the room. The window, as her entry point, was open, the curtains fluttering in the slight breeze. Other than that, it was pretty scarcely decorated, as expected of a woman barely making ends meet as a reporter. She could probably fit everything of importance in a large bag.

Would she really do this? Would she really force this perfect soul into what was essentially imprisonment, just so she wouldn’t have to kill her?

Yes. If you asked her a million times, she’d still say yes. There’s no way she could ever snuff out the most beautiful soul she’d ever seen. She’d rather die herself than commit such a heinous act. She didn’t expect forgiveness, or even gratitude.

Spying a large suitcase half hidden behind the dresser, she grabbed it, propping it open against the wall. She filled it with the meager wardrobe, piling in items that looked to be of any sort of importance, and finished it off with an obviously well loved quilt, folding so it fit just perfectly in the lid. Once it was full, and the one room apartment even more depressingly empty than before, she zipped it shut, hauling it out the window and putting it in her car, parked half a block down.

When she came back for the girl, she wrapped her in her own sheets and picked her up as if she were a burrito. The girl pressed herself closer to her heat, still sleeping despite the movement.

Once she was firmly strapped into the car, she started it, thanking the quiet engine for not waking everyone in a two mile radius up. Glancing over at her passenger seat, she gave a small smile.

"Pleasant dreams, Yuqi,” she murmured, holding back the urge to pat her head. “Please don’t hate me too much for what I’m doing.”

So she drove, and drove, getting farther and farther from the city. The silence was nearly unnerving, if it wasn’t for the soft snores.

All the while, Yuqi slept on, unaware of her fate.