"Damn," he said as he hit another dead end. He would've been better off just waltzing through the front door for all the good he was doing now. This 'he' was Ilkinor, or Il for short, as his friends called him. The press however, and the public as well, knew him only as Xephyr. Originally the cops had termed him Chaos Zephyr (some of the public thought it would be better spelled as Xephyr) because the only times he struck was when the community had finally settled down from his last attack. Now, you may be wondering....What is it that Il does? Well, he's an assassin to put it in most blatant terms. He'll strike down someone of higher power in order to cause chaos. And chaos is the only reason he does what he does best.

Il scratched his head in irritation. It was a night of the new moon, and he was in the middle of a very large maze. Well, he probably hadn't even progressed to the middle yet. It was about eleven o'clock and it was near pitch black. His current target was an extremely wealthy man. How wealthy? He had a huge mansion, a twenty-four hour security team at the front gates, and a maze of a square mile blocking entrance from the back. So much money, and yet so little spent on the ones who really needed it. No, he did not fancy himself as a modern day Robin Hood, but somehow he'd also gotten that nickname since his main targets were the rich, wealthy, and powerful.

With a sigh, Il turned around and started back, trying to remember which direction he'd come from. Picking up a small branch with a few leaves on it, he tossed it up, only to have the leaves land pointing in the direction he'd just come from. "That's no help," he mumbled as he made a right. "I would've been better off going straight through the front and taking out anyone who tried to stop me, but nooo, "go through the maze" she says," Il mumbled as he continued walking where he hit another dead end. With an irritated sigh, Il shook his head. "Screw it. I'm goin up," he said as he grabbed hold of one of the vines. The wall was a good 15 feet high or so, but he'd climbed higher on less than vines before. After about five minutes of steadily climbing, he reached the top, and the walls were pretty solid, so he could stand on them without falling. Tripping on the other hand was a whole different matter. Looking around, he spotted the house off in the distance to his left. He was alot farther away than he thought. He looked at the gaps between the walls and wondered if he'd be able to make the jumps. "Well, here goes nothin," he said, stepping back to the edge of the wall he was on, running the few feet forward, and jumping onto the next wall. One wall closer to his target. After a few more jumps, he stopped as he heard someone walking. Dammit El, I thought you said there was no one patrolling the maze, he thought as he stood completely still, hoping whoever it was wouldn't hear him breathing. His hope was in vain as the person appeared without warning on the wall in front of him. Il's eyes widened as he saw the person. He was a freakin giant!! Even if Il could only see the outline, it was enough for him to be able to tell this wasn't a dude he wanted to mess with.

In an almost invisible movement, the giant man threw several projectiles at Il. What they were he couldn't quite tell. Stepping to the side several different times, Il dodged the projectiles. Unfortunately, he wasn't watching his footing and slipped off the edge of the wall, falling off and landing on his back with a thud. "Ughhh, damn," he groaned as he quickly got up remembering his situation. After a moment the giant man jumped off the wall Il'd just fell from and landed in front of him. Il took a step back. "Oh crap," he said under his breath as he turned and hightailed it away from Tiny. "Crap crap crap," he repeated as he ran turn after turn through the maze. He was astounded that he hadn't run into any dead ends yet, but he could hear that Tiny was still on his tail. He didn't have time to climb up a wall again, since the guy seemed to be much faster at it than he was. Assassinations shouldn't really have been a good matchup for Il since he was truly a coward at heart. He stopped and looked for a moment, hearing his assailant about to come around the next corner. Remembering he was wearing all black, Il pressed himself to one of the walls and held his breath. He still stuck out of the wall, but just enough to look as if he were an overgrown tree trunk. He heard Tiny turn the corner and then stop as he saw no sign of his prey. He then heard the big guy curse under his breath and continue on in the hopes of finding him.

When he was sure the guy was long gone, Il let out a sigh and came out from his little hiding spot. Maybe taking the high route wasn't such a good idea, but how many of these guys was his target really gonna waste on a square mile of twists and turns? Taking his chances, Il started up the wall again, but not before looking at his watch. Twelve oh-five. He didn't realize he'd wasted that long in the maze. Well, he had another six hours until sunrise. Plenty of time to complete his objective. But if he got caught, that was a whole nother ball game. Reaching the top again, Il started towards his destination with one thought in mind: El, you better've been right about the security systems this guy has.

Il figured it must've taken him about twenty minutes to get even half way there. He sighed. "This is taking forever," he said under his breath. He'd already had to stop several times again because he'd heard several more Maze Guards. So far none of them had spotted him, but he hadn't taken any chances and everytime he'd heard them he jumped off his wall silently. Another twenty minutes passed without incident as he jumped closer to the mansion, one wall at a time. There were only a few walls left, and Il was dripping with sweat. Not only was it difficult to keep jumping like that, it must've been about 90^o outside.

With a deep breath, Il stopped on the last wall before the backyard of the mansion. His shoulders dropped. The backyard was wide open. And worse than that, it was big. Really, really big. There was no way he'd get by unseen. But according to El there weren't supposed to be any guards in the back. But there were camera's. El'd given him the blind spots, but it would still be tricky. This would be all about timing. With another deep breath, Il jumped down from the wall and quickly ran behind the large garage that was probably only the guys tool shed. With his back against the wall, he jumped as he heard El's voice in his earpiece. "In five seconds the camera will be blind to the left side of the garage. You'll have another five to get by. The next blind spot it the tree 20 meters to your northwest," she said. Another second later, Il made a sprint for the tree that she'd specified. With his back to it, he put his hand to his earpiece, which served as a two way communicator. "What the hell El, I thought you said you wouldn't be able to make a connection at this distance," he whispered angrily. "I lied," he heard her say with what he knew was probably a smirk.

"Whatever, I'll deal with that later, just tell me when the next blind spot is coming," he said, peaking around the tree. "Pull your head back in you idiot!" she yelled at him and he quickly pulled back. "How did you-?" he started, but she cut him off as she always did. "I tapped into his camera's. If I see you, they see you." Il got a bit irritated at this. "What the hell, why don't you just make a recording and set it onto their monitors then?" He heard her sigh angrily. "What do you think I am, a wizard? I'm only picking up their signal, I can't broadcast anything to them or we'd be busted. They'd find out where I am in a heartbeat with the kind of technology they have!! There's another tree another 20 meters to your left. Go now!" she said urgently. Il made a break for the next tree, his back to it. He was alot closer to the house now. One more run should've done it. "This one's gonna be tricky Il. There's two camera's watching that area. You might have to wait a few minutes for your opening, and it'll only be a few seconds. You'll have to hightail your butt over there and give the digital combination to get in all in that few seconds. Here's the combination: 63 174 52 11. You got it?" she asked. El had always been the brains of the operations, the hacker, the planner. Il just did the dirty work. She enjoyed cracking complicated codes as much as he loved causing chaos. "Yeah, gotcha. 63 174 52 11, got it."

"Good," she said. There was a few moments silence. "Go!" she said sounding rather excited. Glad you're having a ball with this, he thought as he turned around the tree and ran to the glass door, typing in the entry code on the metal box that jetted out of the house. "Access granted," the box said, and Il opened the door silently, slipping inside. There would be no more problems from here on in. This guy was too confident in his security systems to believe that anyone could get in. He was home free. "I'm in," he whispered quietly.


Ilkinor
Elisia

Keep going it's getting good.

She looks like an older punk version of Aoi.

Me likes this.

Keep going. I wanna see more of El. She's awesome!

(Oh, trust me when I say, if you think this is good, wait for the plot! And you'll get more El, just wait for it, it'll come next segment)

Il took a few seconds to memorize his surroundings. He had something of a photographic memory, and in spots like this it served him well. This place looked like it'd be harder to get through than the maze was, and this time there were no walls to climb. He couldn't talk to El from this point on, or he might be heard. It seemed like the very walls of this place would rat him out if he made even the slightest noise. It was obvious even without noise that these walls would probably echo even his thoughts loudly. Il made sure his gloves were on well enough so they didn't fall off while he was doing his job, before heading up the stairs to where there seemed to be a source of light.

He went up the stairs as silently as he could, glad for two things at that moment: 1) that he was extremely light weight, and 2) that rich people never bought creaky stairs. To Il's satisfaction, there was a wall separating the staircase from the next room. He stood on the second top step, his back to the wall. With a slow movement, he peaked his head around the corner, only to see his target sitting at a large mahogany desk with hi back turned away from the stairs. Looked like the man was working quite hard. Probably made a bad investment and was trying to find a way to get his money back, greedy bastard. Sure he may not've been a modern day Robin Hood, but he did hate rich people.

He stood there for a moment, watching the man until he was sure that he was concentrated enough on his work that Il could sneak behind him. Il also checked around the room for mirrors and saw none, thank goodness. With a silent deep breath, Il took the last two steps quietly in a single step and swiftly and silently walked up behind the guy, putting his hand over the guys mouth. Il moved his head next to the mans face with a small smile. "Don't worry. You won't feel a thing," he said. He knew the man knew who it was, because immediately his eyes had widened and he started trying to shake his head as if pleading, trying to speak through Il's hand. Il patted his free hand on top of the guy's head. "Aren't you happy? You lived a good life, didn't you? And think, if you weren't so greedy, this wouldn't be happening to you. I hope you take as good care of yourself in the afterlife as you did in this life." He heard the guys pleading getting louder through his hand. "Shhh," Il said with almost a grin. "It's time to go to sleep," he said, twisting the guys head, making a sickening crack as his neck snapped. Il couldn't help but give a small chuckle. As messed up as it was, he gained a sick pleasure from hearing them plead.

Turning and leaving the guy in his seat with his head lolled to the side, Il headed for the stairs quickly, going down just as fast. "El, when's the next blind spot for the back door?" he asked quietly into his earpiece. "You really are sick Il," he heard her say. "The next blind spot is 10 seconds from now, so hurry up and get out." He gave a nod, mostly to himself since she couldn't see him. She never really understood why Il got such a sick pleasure from killing people, but if she got complicated puzzles to solve, it took her mind off it. When he got to the glass door exactly 8 seconds later, Il silently opened the door and shut it in the remaining 2 seconds. This job was all about timing. Il then ran to the tree he was behind before. He had to get out of there quickly before the guards noticed the guy was dead and notified the Maze Guards.

With El's help, Il made it past the cameras within a few minutes, and made it to the maze. He had to go in to avoid the cameras at first, but then he could take to the wall tops again. And that was just what he did. He knew El was sitting at home now drinking some kind of alcoholic beverage celebrating another job well done. Il'd probably have something when he got home too. Either that or he'd pass out on his bed from exhaustion. He'd be dead tired by the time he'd gotten home, especially after taking on the maze for a second time. He looked at his watch. It was about 1:30, give or take a few minutes. At 2:12 A.M. Il got out of the maze, with no encounters, and headed for the street he'd parked his car on, which wasn't too far away. About 15 minutes later Il arrived back at the apartment him and El shared. As he walked in, El walked up to him with a grin. "Jeez, took you long enough to get back." Yep. She was drunk again.

Il shook his head slightly. “Well excuse me if I didn’t have a map for the maze,” he said rolling his eyes at her. El gave a fake pout and went over to Il, putting one arm around his shoulder playfully. “Oh come on Illy, don’t be so mean I was only jokin,” she said, giggling. Il sighed in irritation. She got kind of annoying when she was drunk. “El, you should go to bed before you drink til you puke again.” El took her arm from around him then jumped on the couch. “Agh, that was a fluke last time!! It was a bad batch of beer, that’s all,” she said, her face already flushed.

Il just looked at her blankly for a moment. “Alright, it’s time for you to go to bed,” he said simply. She gave another false pout. “But I don’t wanna!” Il scratched the side of his head slightly then looked at her. “Don’t make me take you up there.” Even though right now Il was acting like the older one, they were both the same age- 22 years old. El normally acted like a child in most situations, but she could be really mature when she wanted to. She just never really wanted to. El looked at him. “Oh please, you’re not gonna do anything,” she said with a giggle. Il raised his eyebrow at her. “Oh you think so?” with a small grin, Il walked up to her and hoisted her over his shoulder. “Bed time little El,” he said as he started walking up the stairs towards her room. “No, I’m not going to bed, Il put me down!!” she yelled, pounding on his back. He’d definitely have a few bruises there by tomorrow morning. Oh well, he’d just sleep on his side then.

As he got up to her room, Il plopped El down on her bed, then turned to leave. “Now go to sleep El-,” he started, but stopped as he felt she had a hold on his hand. “Come lay with me Il!” she said. Il stood there for a few seconds without answering. Their relationship was nothing like that, but it was extremely hard to resist when she got like this. He didn’t want to be with her in that way because it would’ve only made things more complicated than they already were. But still…With a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, Il turned around and sat next to El on the bed, his legs hanging off the side. El had this triumphant look on her face as if she’d won. “You know what El?” Il asked softly leaning in so that he was sure El could feel the heat of his breath. That triumphant look that captured El’s face a moment ago was gone as her eyes seemed to be transfixed to his. “What?” she said almost inaudibly. A small grin spread over Il’s face. “You really need to get yourself a boyfriend,” he said with a chuckle as he got up and started towards the door. He loved teasing her like that. Though he hoped he’d never get carried away with it.

El’s face seemed to glow a bright red in the darkness. “You jerk!” she yelled, throwing her pillow at him. Il only laughed as he went out. “Go to bed El,” he said still chuckling. With a sigh to keep himself from laughing anymore, Il walked to his room down the hall. He was too exhausted to even change, so he just fell down onto his bed, falling asleep a few seconds later.

Il didn't have any dreams that night, which wasn't unusual for him. If he had had a dream, that would be unusual. He was glad he didn't have dreams anymore because he was sure they'd be nightmares. Like I said earlier, Il's truly a coward at heart. Il jumped awake as he heard his alarm start going off. That's right, today's Monday, he thought with an annoyed groan as he hit the off switch on his alarm. Well, he hit his alarm a few times before actually finding the off switch.

After about 5 more minutes of just laying there, Il sighed and got up. He got dressed in a pair of shorts and a plain white shirt. He never dressed up when he went to work. Going into the bathroom, Il washed up and brushed his teeth and hair. He walked down the hall and peeked into El's room to see if she was still sleeping. He shook his head with a slight smile when he saw that she was sprawled out on her bed. He walked quietly downstairs and poured himself a quick cup of coffee. It was only 7:00, and he had to be at the broadcasting station by 8:00. He wondered if Xephyr would be on the news already. He gave a soft chuckle at the thought.

Il worked at a news station downtown as a cameraman. It didn't pay a lot, sure, but it paid enough so that Il could take care of the bills and buy food. El worked repairing computers, and she made decent wages too. Of course, she also worked as a hacker and was caught several times, each of which Il was able to bail her out of jail, but just barely. Il sorta felt bad for El after he pulled his kills though. She always got herself drunk right after, saying that she was celebrating, but Il knew better. He knew she couldn't handle the fact that she was assisting murders and more than once Il said that she was welcome to leave, that he wouldn't do anything to stop her. He thought that maybe she was scared of him because she simply refused to leave.

Before Il left at 7:30, he'd had 2 cups of coffee and a quick bowl of cereal. He drove to the station, not in much of a rush. He always loved how the morning air felt in the summer. Sure, occasionally it was humid, but it was always warm. When Il got to the station, he walked in, giving a 'hey' to anyone who said good morning to him. Il was almost eager to get to the casting room because he wanted to see if anyone had suspected Xephyr of another attack. Il'd made sure that his M.O. was the same everytime he killed, so that he had a trademark. As he walked in, he saw one of the directors and went up to him. "Anything interesting happen?" he asked. The director looked at him as if he were an idiot. "How many times do I have to tell you, you have to wait and see just like the rest of the staff," he said before turning and talking to one of the writers. Il sighed and turned around, going over to his camera to make sure everything was in order. You're lucky you're not rich you cocky bastard, he thought angrily.

A few minutes later, everyone was in their spots and the director was counting down to filming time. "We're on in 5....4....3....2....1...." he said, then motioned with his hand. "Good morning, we're here with your 8o'clock news, brought to you first. Making the headlines this morning is the death of millionaire Richard Screevy, head of the newest automotive group, GA. Screevy was killed in his study late last night. Police say that he was alone in his study before someone came in. The chief of police Allan Kinsley says that this may be the work of reknowned serial killer Xephyr....." The broadcast went on, telling about the weather, other news events, grand openings, and other such nonsense. When it was done, Il went out to a quick breakfast with a bunch of the other guys. The main topic of discussion, or debate in this case, was what they would do if they ever met Xephyr. A few of them said that they thought he was doing a good thing ridding the world of all those greedy bastards, and another few called them sick and said that they'd kill Xephyr if they got the chance. Two others, Il and this one guy Hid, said they didn't know what they'd do if they met Xephyr.

After they got done eating and talking and joking, Il headed home. He wanted to see if El had seen the broadcast. By the time he got home it was almost 10:30. He figured she shoulda been up by then. El never slept in. As he walked in the door, he looked around. It didn't seem that anyone was home. "El? Hey El, I'm back," he said, then when he got no response he shrugged and walked towards the living room, stopping when he saw a note on the kitchen table. He walked over and picked it up. "Hm? What's this?"

Omg, this is getting better and better. Since I didn't comment on the previous one I really thought he was going to kiss her. And poor El.

Second Il is stupid. He'd kill the director if the guy was rich. Nice.

Did she get kidnapped?

(.......Shush Pheonix.)


Was all the note said. Il looked at it blankly for a few moments. "Is this some kind of jo-?" he started, but was cut off when his cell phone started ringing and vibrating. Il blinked and sighed. "What the hell's goin on," he said more of a statement as he took his phone out of his pocket and looked at the caller ID. It said El on it. Il answered it with an annoyed tone. "El where are you?" There was a moment of silence. Then a voice spoke, but it wasn't El's. It was a man's voice. "Xephyr. We have Elisia Tarence. We will not return her until you meet our demands. Do you understand?" Il stood there frozen for a moment. They had El? Who was 'they'? "Yeah, I get you," he said. "What do you want, and better yet, how do you know that I even am Xephyr?" he wasn't about to play stupid with these guys, but at the same time he wouldn't admit he was Xephyr because if this guy was a cop, then he would've been busted.

"Don't worry about how we know, worry about the fact that we do know. After this call disconnects, a list of names will be sent to your phone via text message. You will dispose of each of these people in two weeks, and you will get no extensions on your time limit. If you fail to do this, Elisia Tarence will be dead, and her body placed in your residence as proof. Do you understand Xephyr?" Il stayed silent for a few moments. "Yeah. But I wanna know that you really have her. Lemme hear her." After a few seconds, Il heard the voice that the phone belonged to. "Il?" Il's eyes widened slightly. "E-El, are you okay?" Il didn't really think that these guys had her at first, but....hearing her voice was proof enough. "Yeah, I'm fine, but I don't know where they have me Il, they have me blindfolded." Il swallowed. "Are they cops?" he asked. "No, it doesn't seem like it." Il stayed silent for another moment. "Don't worry, I'll get you back home before you know it," he said, trying to sound reassuring. El didn't really sound all that scared now that he thought about it. "El, can you-" he started, but was interrupted by the man's voice. "There. You've heard her. You know we have her. If you wanna save your girlfriend here, do as you're told," the man said. In the background, he could hear El yell "He's not my boyfriend you moron!" Il couldn't help but give a small smirk. As feisty as she ever was, even if she had been kidnapped. Il sighed. "Yeah, I gotcha. Two weeks to kill the people in the text. What happens then? Am I going to meet you or what?" Il asked, hiding the rage that he was feeling.

He heard the man chuckle. "Of course not. Elisia will be returned safe and unharmed back to your residence." There was a moments silence. "Take care to not get caught Xephyr. And it would be wise of you to keep the authorities out of this." With that he hung up and not a second later Il received a text. Il opened the message and looked at the list of names, his eyes widening. There were seven names on the list. How the hell was he supposed to kill seven people in two weeks?! He needed time to plan out his attacks, time he didn't have. And El was the one who orchestrated all the plans, not him. How in the hell was he going to pull something like this off? Clenching his fist, Il punched the closest wall. "Dammit!!" he yelled angrily.

OMFG! Nooooo! They can't just go kidnapping her like that. Il needs to kill them! Just who are these guys. Go ahead and write the next one. I live for this now.

(lmfao Jay. And I apologize for the long wait. I know this is just a cut scene and it's not very long, but try to bear with me here, something good happens next chapter)

What was he supposed to do now? Killing seven people in two weeks was impossible, especially without El! She planned out all his moves, hacked into the targets’ security systems, made sure that he didn’t get caught. This was something Il never thought he’d have to do. Sure, he’d figured that he’d lose El once or twice, but never did he dream he’d be forced to kill in order to save her.

Il paced over the kitchen floor for several minutes before deciding he had to start doing research and finding out just who these people were. He looked at the text on his phone for the first name. “Richard Renerdd,” he said out loud. He went over to El’s computer in the other room. She always kept a password on it, but Il thought he knew what it was. He thought he knew, but she alternated between different passwords every few days. And if he didn’t get it right the first few times, the computer would lock itself. That’s how she programmed it. He knew the one today was an anagram of her name. It took him a couple tries, but he finally got it: 3L!$!@T@R3N[3

It only took a few minutes for the computer to load up. When it did, Il opened a web browser and searched the name Richard Renerdd on Google first. That was where he went for just about everything. He knew that El had her own sites that she went to and after he found out the basics, he’d look at her browsing history for those sites. He clicked on the first site he found with the same Richard Renerdd. Turns out the guy was a multimillionaire in charge of a multibillion dollar corporation. The guy lived in some big mansion in the country not too far from where Il lived.

Did the kidnapper pick this person because it was close to Il? And why would the kidnapper have picked this person anyways? Killing this guy would likely shut down the company, getting rid of hundreds of jobs in the United States. This guy was supposedly a genius that ran the whole show. Maybe this kidnapper was some kind of terrorist? But the U.S. hadn’t had problems with terrorists for decades…. Il sighed and looked up the rest of the info on the guy. He had minimal security with really basic cameras around his house. Maybe this job wouldn’t be that difficult, even without El’s help.

I'm alive again! I've been waiting months for this!
*fangirl scream*

Post the new chapter! Pleaseeeeee!

El sat on an old couch in the middle of an old, rundown, abandoned warehouse. She didn’t know where she was or what was outside the warehouse, because they’d blindfolded her when they’d taken her. In her opinion it wasn’t really necessary. It’s not like she was gonna say anything once they……well, if they released her. The guy who’d taken her didn’t play games, and she knew it. When he said no time extensions, he meant it. If Il couldn’t do it without her, she was as good as dead. Not hearing anyone around her, El tried to take the blindfold off, but someone took hold of her hand. “Now why are you trying to do that Elisia?” a man’s voice asked.

El sighed. “Listen, you have me here, obviously in an enclosed space, just let me take this damn thing off, willya?” she asked in irritation. “Fine. Go ahead. But nothing funny.” El took the blindfold off and looked at the man, only to see that it was Him. “Jeez Grand, ya couldn’t have told your men to be more gentlemanly?” she said fiercely. “If their hands traveled any further south, I woulda had to kick their asses!” This man wasn’t exactly a friend of El’s, but she knew him well enough. Grand only laughed in response to her complaints. “You can’t really blame them, can you though?” She crossed her arms, her expression of nothing but anger. “Yeah. Yeah I can actually.”

Grand sat down on the couch next to El, and El moved to the other end of it. “Back off,” she said. He raised an eyebrow at her. “Calm down, I’m married, remember?” he said, lifting his hand and pointing to his gold ring. El rolled her eyes. “Sure, you won’t cheat on your wife, but you’ll have people killed for your own gain. You’re a real moral man,” she said sarcastically. Then she sighed. “You really think he’ll kill them?” she asked, looking at him with her arms still crossed. “If he doesn’t, then that means you didn’t do your job, and I keep my promise of having your corpse delivered to his home,” he said with a shrug. El didn’t look intimidated. “He’ll probably need more time, he’s never done a job without me, let alone seven in such a short amount of time. I don’t even think I’d be able to orchestrate that many that quick.” He looked at her and laughed. “Well then you’d better be prayin’ for a miracle, huh?” El said nothing. How could she respond to something like that? This guy had made her a deal! And part of that deal did not include her dead on Il’s rug.

About a minute later a tall man with a bald head walked in. “No one’s around, but there’s a news van across the street from us,” he said to Grand, then winked at El. “Keep dreamin’ Chrome Dome,” she said, then gave him the finger. Okay, so it was a bit immature. She was an immature person. And not to mention, she wasn’t gonna take any shit from these guys. They hadn’t even warned her that they were coming for her. She leaned back on the couch with a sigh. This was gonna be a long two weeks. Please be able to do it Il…

Just saw this up here and it made my day after a dramatic night. Thank you Kinny, you're a life saver and this is getting better and better. Looking forward to seeing more.

(That's right, it's back again!!!)

Il got up the next day, same as always. Got dressed. Cleaned up. Coffee, breakfast, then headed out to work. He decided that he should continue going to work, rather than making up a two week long illness and having to go through the bull shit of having to have a doctor tell his boss he is unable to work, then missing out on pay he desperately needed, and aside from that waste both his vacation time and the little trust his boss had for him. He sighed as he drove to work. He was in a bitter mood and he was constantly thinking of how he was going to get into this Renardd guy’s house. And plus, he couldn’t kill like Xephyr normally did. He’d have to make it look like some other serial killer in order to throw the cops off. The cops couldn’t know that someone had found out who Xephyr was. If that happened, Il would be in a shit load of trouble.

When he got to work, one of his co-workers noticed the change in his mood. “Hey Il, something wrong?” she asked, walking up to him. He was a little bit early today. He didn’t feel like rushing to get his camera set up, but he had a few minutes to talk. He put on a small smile. “No, just didn’t have the best sleep last night,” he said with a shrug. She looked at him curiously. “Something happen?” she asked. Man, this girl just didn’t know when to quit. Good thing Il was a quick thinker or he’d be in a sticky situation here. He hadn’t thought of anything for when people asked him what was wrong. In fact, he hadn’t even really thought anyone would notice. But since he was more upbeat than this most of the time, he should’ve known better. He mentally scolded himself for being so oblivious. “Not really. El had her music on most of the night though,” he said with an annoyed shrug. It was common knowledge that El lived with Il. She was actually pretty well known around here, having taken care of some technical problems for the station on several occasions. But only a few people believed Il when he told them that there was nothing between the two of them.

After the broadcast had ended, Il went to breakfast with the guys like usual. Unfortunately, they noticed his not-so-enthusiastic appearance soon after they got to the restaurant. He went with the same line as he had with his other co-worker. “I’m just tired, El kept me up all night with her crappy music,” he said with a laugh. If he wanted, Il could’ve probably made a living as an actor. But he never had the motivation to actually try something like that. The rest of the guys laughed a little. “Sucks to be you,” Hid said. Hid was one of the guys who was a bit more comfortable with speaking his mind than the rest of the group. The rest of them pretty much said whatever the rest wanted to hear. Il covertly gave Hid the finger behind one of the menu’s, and Hid laughed while the rest of the guys looked a bit confused.

After breakfast, Il told the guys that he wouldn’t be coming tomorrow because he’d have something he needed to take care of at that time. They asked what, he shrugged. “Nothing real big, I just got an appointment I need to keep.” The guys gave sly smiles and exchanged looks. “What?” he said. Franky, a slightly gray-haired individual grinned. “Cheatin on El already, eh?” he asked. Il sighed. “You guys are hopeless. I already told you-” he started, but was cut off by the guys saying in unison “There’s nothing going on between you and El.” Hid grinned. “Yeah yeah, we know.” Il cast them a sharp glare, before giving them a dismissive wave and turning to walk out. “Later.”

When Il got home about 20 minutes later, he immediately set to work. He got a bag of things ready, but not before putting on black gloves. He couldn’t afford for his fingerprints to be all over these things. He put an unregistered gun in the black bag, with a silencer of course. He put a black outfit into the bag. He’d need that, considering that it’d be pitch black when he went out, and not the city kind of black. The middle of nowhere kind of black. He put a flashlight and a crowbar into the bag as well. Those would both come in handy. He got his keys ready for a separate vehicle he was gonna take. That was probably the only thing he was excited about. He’d bought it a long time ago, just for use by Xephyr. Normally he didn’t need to because El would make sure no one saw his normal car. But considering that El wasn’t here, he finally got to put it to good use. He smirked. Maybe this would be fun after all.

(DOUBLE FEATURE)

Il walked out of the house with the bag slung over his shoulder and the black gloves still on. It was about 11:00, not much traffic out, and the road lights illuminated the streets in something of an eerie glow. Il walked down the street for several blocks before coming to a rundown old garage that looked like it used to be an auto shop. The windows were boarded up, as were the doors. No light escaped to the inside, and from first glance there was no way to get in. Not even the gangs used the place anymore because it was so rundown. The perfect spot for Xephyr’s motorcycle.

Il walked around to the back and took a quick glance around. He had to make sure that no one followed him. Otherwise…well, it wouldn’t have been very good for someone to see him, leaving it at that. Il crouched down and took the crowbar out of the bag. It was dark back there, but Il couldn’t take out the flashlight just yet. Sticking the flat end of the crowbar into the ground, he pushed down on it, a small metal trap door rising up slightly from under the dirt. It had been completely covered and invisible to those who weren’t looking for it. Il pulled the door up, put the crowbar back into the bag and dropped it down. He climbed into the hole, closing the door after him. He dropped down to the floor of the cellar. He then went to take out the flashlight, and turning it on, looked around. There wasn’t much here. In fact the only thing still in the basement was the furnace, which was attached to the floor. Il went upstairs, the bag slung over his shoulder again.

When he got upstairs he looked around for the bike. It was in the main garage, just where he’d left it. Walking up to it he grinned. “Hello beautiful,” he said with a small laugh. “We’re gonna have a little fun tonight.” He dusted it off lightly. It was a sleek black motorcycle with lightning-bolt shaped purple streaks, one on each side. It wasn’t that bright obnoxious violet purple either. It was a deep purple, the color used for kings in the middle ages and in old Egypt. The license plate on the back said C93-7497. Il quickly got changed into the black outfit he’d brought and put the bag in the tiny trunk that was under the seat. Il then took the flashlight back up and looked around the garage. “Now how did I get this thing out last time?” he whispered to himself. He looked at the board that used to be the back door and found that there was silver duct tape on it. He grinned. That’s right, he’d cut out part of the door so his bike would fit through. Il took out a pocket knife and cut the duct tape, removing the board. He rolled his bike out before fitting the board back into place. He’d retape it when he got back. Il jumped on the bike and put on the black and purple helmet that’d been hanging off the handle of the bike. He put the keys in and started the engine up. It purred like a kitten and was as silent as a snake all at the same time. Il sped out of the empty parking lot next to the auto shop and down the street, towards Renerdd’s house.

When Il got to the house, it wasn’t what he expected. There probably wasn’t a neighbor around for a mile in each direction. There was a freakin lake behind the house! This was more country than Il’d bargained for. Sure, he liked the fresh air and quiet and stuff like that, but to have a mansion in front of a lake? That was just ridiculous. Il drove his bike past the house, slower than he’d been going on the way there, taking note of which cameras were where and whether or not they moved. Perhaps this would be a bit more challenging than he’d originally thought it’d be. Il drove past the house, speeding up as he went and parked it a little bit into the woods, almost a quarter of a mile from the house. He got off the bike, turned it off, then pulled his gun out of the trunk and just looked at it for a few moments. He’d never killed anyone with a gun before. It was too violent for Il’s taste. And besides that, there was one other reason… Il put the gun in the pocket of his black outfit and started off towards the house. He just hoped this dude didn’t have any bodyguards.

*fangirl scream from the background*

MORE!

When is the next one coming out?

Sorry for the wait guys, but I'm not too sure. I've been really busy lately.

(Sorry bout the long wait again. If any of you have written stories before, you know what it's like to get bored with what you're writing, so I had to come up with some new ideas to get me interested again)

Il went around the back, using the forest as cover. Lucky for him, there were trees covering the shore of the lake, so he could use that to avoid being seen as he approached the giant house from behind. It didn’t look like there were any cameras near the back. This kinda came to Il as a shock since most rich people kept the highest security they could afford, as ironic as that sounded. He took a few moments and stayed in the trees, his eyes scanning over the house from behind. Most of the lights were still on, despite how late it was. “Jeez, how am I supposed to find him if all the lights are-?” he started to ask himself, but then saw someone pass by one of the windows in a room on one of the upper floors. “How convenient,” he mumbled to himself. With a sigh, he started for the back door at top speed, making it there within seconds.

The back door was locked, but not with anything too complicated. A while back, El had shown him how to pick locks. It wasn’t as hard as most people made it out to be, it just needed a bit of practice, which Il had plenty of. When he opened the door, he only opened it a crack, then peaked inside without a sound. He couldn’t believe his eyes. The room that the back door lead into was like some kind of museum. Il slipped inside without a sound, keeping as close to the door as he could. He closed it silently, with his back to it, and then looked around. He place was huge. The door was a straight shoot in front of him. All he had to do was run to it. Hell, he was sure that he could’ve walked to it. But then his eyes scanned around the walls. Son of a bitch… he thought, a mild horror on his face. This place was loaded with cameras, and from what he could see on the walls, lasers. This, was not good. He swallowed. There was no El to help him this time. He had to find a way around the lasers by himself, before the cameras picked up on him. He had no powder or spray or anything to reveal the lasers either. He wondered how long it would take the police to get there if he bolted through the house and killed the guy without any concern for the security. He didn’t think it would take long, and aside from that…well, these cameras had already seen him, he’d have to wipe those clean before he left, then left some kind of trace that this wasn’t the job of Xephyr. He didn’t know how he could do that without getting caught. Honestly, he didn’t know if he could do this without getting caught. Il looked along the walls for something he could use. The lasers seemed to only be cast as ground level, but walking over them would probably trip one of them anyhow. He had no way to get through this. He wondered if this was one of those alarm systems that wouldn’t call the cops, but left that to the owner. He knew now the reason why there’d been no security in the back or front yard. Because even if someone got into the house, no one would be able to get through it. Il quickly hid behind one of the displays and ducked as he saw the doorknob on the door across the room turn. Dammit, they saw me already, he thought in a panic, pulling out the gun. He’d installed a silencer on it himself, just for occasions like this one. He heard two men come in, talking to each other like nothing at all was wrong.

“No, I can’t get anything off the monitor for these ones,” he heard the tougher sounding of the two say.

“Well, I’ll see what I can do.” The second man. A lot scrawnier sounding. Il figured that the guy was just a techie or something.

“And see what you can do about the laser security, it’s been down the past week,” the tougher one said.

Il peaked over the edge of the display so that his head was hidden behind the glass, but he could still see what was going on. The tougher sounding of the two was a bald, white guy, wearing black pants with a black jacket, and a white shirt under the jacket. The scrawnier sounding of the two wore a blue shirt with jeans, and had shaggy brown hair. He looked a lot like the type of person who was a druggie. He saw the techie nod. “I’ll do my best,” he told him. The big guy looked him over suspiciously, then shrugged and walked out. “I’ll be back soon to check on your progress,” he told the smaller man as he closed the door behind him. Il saw the scrawny guy look around, and ducked back down behind the display. “Man, what a place,” he heard the guy say with a low whistle. What the hell am I gonna do now? Should I kill this guy, since the security is down? No one will hear it, and no one will see it, he thought silently, but his thoughts were interrupted half way through. “Xephyr, I know you’re here. Come out,” he heard the scrawny man say, in a voice that sounded a little different from the one he’d used around the big guy. Il felt his heart stop. What was going on? Was this some kind of ambush to reveal who he was? “I’m an ally,” was what Il heard next.

“How do I know that?”

“The security is down and the cops haven’t been called yet. You don’t have to trust me, but come out so I can explain things to you,” he heard the man say. Il waited a few moments, contemplating his decision. After those few moments were up, Il swallowed and stood up, the gun still clenched in his hand as he stepped out from behind the display. His eyes were narrow and suspicious as he looked the man over. The man looked pleased with Il’s decision. “You’re a lot less scary looking than I expected,” he told him with a smile. Il didn’t get this. “Hey, you can put the gun away, I told you, I’m your ally, not your enemy,” he told Il, eying the gun. Il took a few steps towards the guy.

“I don’t know that for sure yet, so I think I’ll hold on to it. Now who are you?” he asked, his face showing every bit of the suspicion he was feeling.

He saw the guy take a step back as Il stepped closer, as if keeping his distance. It was obvious this guy doubted as well that he was Il’s ally. He looked borderline terrified. “I’m a friend of El’s. She asked me to help you.”

Il blinked. “El? How’d she get in contact with you?” he asked. Didn’t those men have her in captivity? They would’ve surely taken away her phone. But then again, if these guys wanted Il to do their dirty work, maybe they just wanted to make sure it got done by giving Il a hand.

The guy looked at him. “She used telepathy,” he told Il with obvious sarcasm in his voice. “Listen, I’ll give you the rest of the details on who I am after this job is finished. After I hear a struggle starting upstairs, I’m out of here, got it? Don’t expect me to hang around, but I’ll stop by your place later to tell you more,” he said, looking over his shoulder at the door. “The man you’re looking for is on the second floor, when you go up the stairs, he’ll be in the second room on your left,” he said. “I’ve disabled all the security systems, so get going,” he told Il.

(I just realized, these have been getting longer)

Il didn’t have time to argue with this guy, so he did as he was told and started silently as a shadow out of the giant set of double doors. The first glance at the room would’ve told someone that this guy wasn’t really all that rich. The couches looked normal, and there was a wooden table in front of it with a flat screen television perched on the wall. It surprised Il at first, but he had to keep reminding himself that he wasn’t here to be sight-seeing. He started up the first staircase like he’d been instructed, sticking to the wall of the stairs. The staircase, well, staircases, as there were two right next to each other, both leading up to the same place, was easily seen from the surrounding balconies, so sticking to the wall wasn’t going to be of much help. This particular part of the house reminded him of some kind of ballroom, where the main guest would come down one of two of the sets of stairs in some kind of fancy attire.

As he approached the top, he slowed his step, listening intently. He heard talking, but it was muffled because it was in a different room. The second room on the left, just like the techie had specified. Though he didn’t believe in a God, Il was secretly praying that this wasn’t some kind of trap. All of what had been happening had been so suspicious that he couldn’t help but wonder if this was a set-up. In fact, he expected it to be a set-up. But he’d gone anyways. With a silent sigh, Il looked at the gun in his hand before swiftly making his way up the rest of the stairs and towards the room. He felt a tingle up his spine and the usual rush of excitement before a kill. He held back a chuckle, forgetting for the moment that he wasn’t allowed to kill in his usual way. When he got closer to the room, he heard the talking louder and more clearly than before.

“Mr. Renerdd, I really think that a new security system is necessary,” Il heard what sounded like the big guy from before say.

“I don’t think it is. So ours is going through a little malfunction, this is the only time that it’s happened, we’ll be fine. That is, after all, why I hired you, isn’t it?” Renerdd said. How convenient. Con was telling the truth. Il gripped the gun tighter. It was time to start the kill. He peaked around the corner of the door like some little kid, then went to walk into plain view, but somehow ended up tripping. Seeing this, the body guard pulled out a gun of his own and shot it at the unwelcomed visitor. While getting up, Il heard a gunshot and felt a sharp pain in his upper left arm. He didn’t falter though, because he saw that his target was trying to run out through a different exit. He held his gun with his right hand and shot it at Renerdd. The bullet went right through the guy’s forehead. Il had an almost…superhuman hand-eye coordination.

As soon as Il had shot Renerdd, the body guard was aiming another shot at Il, this one missing his head by mere inches. This was no time to be joking around, but Il couldn’t help but laugh at the man’s foolishness. The head was the hardest place on the body to hit, especially at such a long range.

Adrenaline rushing, Il took a shot at the body guard, this bullet hitting the big man in the chest. As the body guard fell, the pool of blood that was coming from Renerdd was added to. Realizing this, Il stood frozen to the spot, his eyes transfixed on the blood covering the ground. It seemed to be flooding towards him, as if there had been some river of blood built up against a dam somewhere in the house and had now been broken. But in all reality, it was moving towards Il at a trickling pace, mere inches in a minute. It was still several feet away from him. This hadn’t been fun at all. He suddenly felt weak, as if someone had just injected a sedative into his blood stream. This was Il’s one weakness, if it could even be called that. He couldn’t stand the sight of it. It was sickening. In his minor state of shock, he hadn’t realized the gun had been slipping from his grasp. The thing that had woke him up though, was the fact that the blood had almost reached his feet.

Il immediately turned to leave, putting the gun back in its’ place. Heading down the stairs swiftly, he suddenly stopped, a thought hitting him. His blood was still on the scene. But it was probably mixed with the other blood already. Would the cops be able to differentiate the blood? Il hadn’t been in the system yet, not for anything. So even if they did differentiate the blood, would they be able to convict him? They had no DNA of his. He shook his head. He wouldn’t be put in the system, not for any reason, so he had to take precautions. Bleach, that was what he needed. The alarm systems were still down as far as he knew, so he had time. But that didn’t mean he was going to take advantage of it.

Going downstairs, Il checked room after room until he found the laundry room. He could afford to be sloppy with this bit. Taking the bleach, he ran up the stairs and opened it, pouring it all over the pool of blood. He had gloves on, so fingerprints and bleach burns wouldn’t be a problem. He made sure that the bleach didn’t splash on him at all. That would cause suspicion. After he was finished, Il only threw the bleach container into the room and left it, then headed back downstairs towards the back door, but stopped again. What was the motivation of this killing? He had to give the cops a false lead. Robbery. Il went back inside the main room and looked around. He took a few expensive looking things from the living room and put them at the bottom of the stairs, then went up into the guys office, next to the room with the bodies, and opened one of the drawers, breaking the lock in the process. He took out what looked like important documentation, and took a small painting off the wall, taking those downstairs with him as well. He then collected all the items and left with them, going to the lake behind the house. Placing the objects on the ground, Il picked them up, a few at a time, and chucked them far into the lake. With the objects gone, the police would have to suspect a robbery.

Not bothering to use the forest as cover on his way back, Il only ducked down when he heard a car coming every few minutes. When he got to his bike, he put his helmet on and started the motorcycle, then headed towards the car garage when he saw there were no cars coming.

Getting to the garage, Il did everything quickly, almost sloppily. He put the bike back by using the backdoor, then put the gun into the trunk, taped the small piece of wood back into place with silver duct tape, and hung the helmet onto the bike’s handle. He went out using the small trap door, and started home all in a rush, his thoughts blank, except for the image of the pool of blood lingering in his memory. He took off his gloves as he walked, the backpack with the crowbar in it slung over his shoulder.

He walked into his house blankly, not even bothering to check if anyone had seen him. He threw the backpack onto the couch and walked into the bathroom, slipping his clothes off after he turned the water on steaming hot. He got in and leaned his head against the wall, only then remembering that he’d been shot in the arm. He looked at him arm. It looked as if someone had cut it with a knife, but it wasn’t deep. The body guard seemed to have very bad aim, since the bullet had only grazed his arm. Il shook his head and ignored the somewhat throbbing pain emanating from it as the hot water washed over it. He felt sick. More sick than he ever had after a kill, even his first.

Il didn’t even wash his body or hair off, but only rinsed the blood from his arm when he felt the water running cold. Stumbling out of the shower after turning the water off, Il leaned over the sink, his eyes on the drain and his hair dripping wet. Not being able to hold back from it, Il got sick in the toilet once, then again a few seconds later. Deciding after a minute that he was fine now, Il grabbed the towel off the rack and dried himself off. He walked out of the bathroom and into his room without much thought, the towel wrapped about his waist. He opened his dresser drawer and pulled out a pair of red and black plaid pajama pants and boxers, throwing the towel to the side and getting dressed, not bothering to put a shirt on. Though he no longer felt sick, he still felt himself shaking a bit. He was sure that he’d calm down eventually. His hair was still damp, but not dripping wet, so he slung the towel around his shoulders and walked out of his room only to go plop down on the couch in the living room, jumping when he heard a voice behind him.

(DOUBLE FEATURE)

“So this is the infamous Chaos Xephyr. Kinda sad, shaking at the sight of blood like that,” the voice said, leaning on the wall with a smirk. Il turned to look at the source of the voice, only to see that it was the guy who’d helped him out earlier.

“How the hell’d you get into my house?” Il asked with a glare.

The guy only chuckled and pointed his thumb towards the door. “Front door. You left it unlocked when you came in,” he explained. Il opened his mouth to ask how the guy knew where he lived, but it was almost as if Con had read his mind, because he was answering Il’s question before he spoke. “El gave me the address,” he said. Going over to one of the chairs, he sat down like he owned the place, propping his feet on the table, then taking them off with a sigh as Il glared at him. “Cool it Xeph, I’m on your side,” he said.

“Alright Con, how’d El contact you?” he asked.

“Con?”

“Yeah, you’re a con-artist, aren’tcha? Con. Now answer my question.”

He shook his head. “I told you earlier. She used telepathy,” he said again, with the same sarcasm as earlier. Il’s glare didn’t falter. “She called me, what the hell do you think?” he asked in obvious irritation. He noticed Il’s confused look. “Why? Something happen to her?” he asked, looking a bit worried.

“Yeah. She was kidnapped yesterday,” he told Con, his eyes drifting to the side, not bothering to look at the shocked face of his new accomplice. Before the guy could react, Il was speaking again. “What kind of things are you good at? Besides conning people and pickpocketing.”

Con almost looked insulted. “Conning people includes a lot more than you think. And pickpocketing? ………That’s a story for another time,” he said with a chuckle, quickly getting over the fact that El had been kidnapped. The girl was always getting herself into trouble, why should he be surprised? “I’m not as good at the technical stuff as El is, but I can do most of the basics.”

“I already know the basics, so if that’s all you’re good for, I don’t need you.” No, Il was not in a good mood. So that being said, he didn’t care to be kind to this man he didn’t know. “Hey Con, lemme ask you something.”

“My name’s Jake,” he said in annoyance.

“Whatever.”

Con gave a light growl. “What were you gonna ask me?”

“Who’d want to kidnap El?”

Con looked at him. “Tons of people. Debt collectors, loan sharks, mafia bosses, cops, you name it, and they probably want her.”

Il looked at him. He never knew that El had gotten into such trouble before. “What about people who knew about Xephyr? The people who took El wanted me to kill seven people in two weeks. Anyone fitting that description?”

Con fell silent for a few moments, looking up in thought. “Well…I guess if they wanted you to kill, and knew about you…it could be anyone. It could be a rogue cop, it could be a loved one of one of the people you killed in the past, it could even be some kind of typhoon, trying to climb up in the business ladder. It would depend on the connection between the people that they wanted you to kill.”

Il fell silent. He didn’t know if there were any connections between the people. Some of the names sounded familiar, but he didn’t know who they were. Il looked at Con as he heard the man speak. “What’re you gonna do? Track down El and her kidnappers or kill the victims?”

“Both,” was Il’s only response. “I’m gonna start checking up on the next person tomorrow, but for now I’m gonna get some shut eye, cuz I have work tomorrow morning. Now get the hell out of my house,” he said, standing up. Con just looked at him for a moment. “You deaf?” Il said bluntly. Con just shook his head and stood up, taking out a card and placing it on the coffee table, then turning, gave a wave before exiting out the front door of the apartment.

Il watched the man walk out without a word. A few minutes later (after Con’d left Il had just lounged on the couch), he decided to get up and go have a looksy at the card Con’d left. The card was simple, with a single name on it, a number, and a fax number.

Jake Daniels
Tele: (243)-427-7584
Fax: (243)-574-5739

No job description. No title. No address. No anything. Il was sure that the phone number was that of a cell phone and the fax number was probably either a fake or a fax machine in local downtown somewhere. Figures El would send him help that didn’t want to be found. To add onto that this guy was probably an old drinking buddy of hers, judging by his name. This guy was a con artist, of course his name was fake. Jake Daniels, Jack Daniels. Not that hard to figure out. At first glance, Il thought this guy was an amateur. Il sighed. “Great. I have to save El with only the help of an amateur…”

WOOT WOOT! NEW CHAPTER!