Dagger

He was then bombarded by the lively noise of the establishment. 

The tavern was accomodating drunk customers who accidentally spill their drinks, hungry people who were eating like animals, snoring people with their mouths opened, though there are still organized people, which made up the minority of the customers.

"What are you doing here? If you won"t buy anything then just get out of here.", a young tavern maid probably almost as the same age of Allen looked at him.

Before Allen got to say anything, somebody called out to them, "Hey, that kid"s with me."

The both of them turned around and saw a man with long hair wearing a coat.

"Oh, so you"re with Mr. Sanchez.", the tavern lady then walked away towards another customer.

Mr. Sanchez signaled Allen to come have a sit, the latter couldn"t disagree more for helping him not to get kicked out.

Allen immediately took a sit, after which, Mr. Sanchez said, "So, you"re the kid that the guards been chasing earlier for not entering the town through an official road."

Allen increased his distance a bit from Mr. Sanchez.

"Haha, don"t worry, I won"t sell you off, but of course my help comes with a price.", Mr. Sanchez wrapped his arm around Allen so that he won"t be able to run.

"But I don"t have any money in me.", Allen weakly said.

"Oh, well then, I"m going to make you do something.", Mr. Sanchez paused. "And in fact, I would pay you then instead."

"Really, what is it?", Allen was tempted.

Mr. Sanchez approached his mouth a little closer to Allen"s ear and whispered, "Kill somebody."

"W... what?! No I won"t kill somebody.", Allen immediately replied. He wanted to earn money, but not through killing, because it"s against his will.

"Come on kid, don"t you need something in life, don"t you want to buy something for your family, don"t you want to make your family member"s life comfortable?", Mr. Sanchez whispered.

"I... I want to.", Allen answered.

"Well, this is the fastest way to earn money for you.", Mr. Sanchez paused. "Though if you declined the offer, you"ll be the one receiving the end stick."

"W... what do you mean?", Allen asked while looking towards the ground.

"You"ve already seen my face, if you won"t do this job then... I"ll... kill... you... and your family.", Mr. Sanchez emphasized every word of the latter part of the sentence.

Allen"s body suddenly started shaking due to fear, he wanted to cry silently, but couldn"t do so due to fear too.

He just wanted to earn a bit more for this day so that he can get a gift for William, but in the end, he got stuck into a predicament...

That would change his life.

...

Night came and the customers left the tavern, only leaving Mr. Sanchez and Allen.

The streets of the town are now empty except for guards patrolling due to the curfew. The moon was shining down upon the lands, making the scene more majestic.

"You see kid, I"m the owner of this tavern.", Mr. Sanchez signaled Allen to follow him to the second floor of the tavern.

It has only a few rooms, but it is obvious that this is where Mr. Sanchez also lives.

Mr. Sanchez unlocked the door entered the room with Allen.

"This is the office room.", Mr. Sanchez sat down to a seat.

Allen looked around the room, which had a thick luxurious mahogany desk, two seats at each side of the desk, a window behind the seat where Mr. Sanchez was seating.

"Sit down.", Mr. Sanchez said.

Allen sat down, opposite of Mr. Sanchez.

"So kid, listen carefully to what I"m going to say.", Mr. Sanchez took out a map of the town from under the desk and pointed towards a particular house. "You"ll be killing a middle aged man. The house only has one floor, you can sneak easily into it. The man is most likely in his bedroom asleep and alone."

"Here"s the dagger.", Mr. Sanchez pa.s.sed a dagger to Allen. "Remember, kill that man... or your family will be the one that will get killed."

"O... okay.", Allen reluctantly answered.

"Before you go, wear this mask first, safety first of course.", Mr. Sanchez handed a mask that could cover Allen"s face from his nose down to his mouth.

After which, Allen left the establishment, carefully looking around if there are guards in the area.

...

As it was risky to use the street during night, Allen cut through the town by going through the alleys and occa.s.sionally crossing streets. When he was a pickpocket, he would always use the alleys to escape, now, he knows where each and every alley he would enter could lead him to.

During this time, the alleys are the darkest parts of the town, luckily, the moon was shining down towards everything for this night.

"There, that"s the house.", Allen inwardly said as he saw a house across the street.

As he was about to cross the street, a group of guards suddenly entered the vicinity. Allen stopped at the last moment and thought, "Too close."

Allen let the guards pa.s.s the street before he crossed it, the house was beside an another alley, so the kid already planned his escape route when he saw it.

He slowly approached the house, and saw an opened window. He peeked through the window to check where does it lead, and saw that it was an open kitchen.

Judging from the items in the kitchen, the man must be well-off in his life.

Seeing that there was n.o.body in the kitchen, he entered it through the opened window and temporarily hid at the darkest part of the kitchen.

Allen was sweating and panting quietly, he then continued sneaking inside the house through the spots where it"s too dark to see until he reached a door. He carefully checked if the door was locked, but wasn"t and entered the room while closing back to the door.

Inside the room, he saw a sleeping man on a bed beside the window. Allen sneaked towards the man until he reached him beside his bed.

He looked at the man"s neck, he knew that he could kill the man at anytime but was still hesitating.

"Kill the man... or your family will be killed", Mr. Sanchez"s voice echoed in his mind. 

Allen tightened his resolve and lifted the dagger up... and slashed at the man"s neck.

Blood splurted put from the man"s neck, however, the man didn"t react and died quietly.

Afterwards, Allen suddenly felt like puking due to the nauseous smell of blood.

As the kid was about to leave, the man"s hand fell from the bed and a paper flew down afterwards.

Allen picked up the paper, and saw that there were messy words written onto it, good thing he knows how to at least read.

[Happy birthday father!

I hope that your sickness could be cured so that you won"t be lying down anymore on the bed all day long. 

I want you to take me again to eat my favorite food at an inn with mother when she gets back, I could still remember the taste of that chicken leg that you got for me when you came home.

I hope that you"ll get a long life so you could play with me again and again. Happy birthday!

Love, Edwin]

Allen backed off and dropped the paper down to the floor.

"W... what did I just do?", Allen panted as he thought. 

He immediately went back to the kitchen and exited through the window and ran towards the alley.

As soon as he reached the end of the alley, he sat to the dark corner. 

Allen covered his eyes and quietly sobbed.

He killled the man on his birthday, and he felt like that he has killed his own brother. He also thought about the man"s family specially to his son that wrote the letter.

"What have I done... what have I done... what have I done....", Allen weakly muttered the same words repeatedly.