Perhaps one of my sillier attempts, but this story, about an assassin who is not only afraid of blood (The goal had been to write a comedy... I apparently can't write comedy), but wanted out of the life she had been raised to pursue. Despite my attempts to be funny with the story, the more I delved into the background of my protagonist, LynnLee McKay, it became very obvious that she was raised in a more "Hunger Games" like scenario.
The original had been a short story for a competition entry and while that had managed to remain relatively light hearted, taking the story and building LynnLee's world, I had discovered something much, much darker and I was torn between trying to maintain the light hearted comedy I was trying to write and the darker, more thriller style story that was emerging.
The second inspiration, and maybe even the one that sent the story down the darker route was a song by Take That, called 'Eight Letters.' I love the song but lines like "Expendable soldiers smiling at anything" and "All of that distance, 'cause I fell in love with the enemy" inspired the characters, the assassin and the Interpol investigator and of course, "Eight letters, three words, one meaning" refers back to the title and the relationship between the two main characters.
The plans are sill there to finish LynnLee's story, what I've got are bits and pieces of the rest of her life, with and without Henry. I hope to finish it one day, but right now there are so many half-written stories that I really need to focus on one thing so that I'm actually producing, rather than floating between projects. Below for the story excerpts is perhaps one of my favourite things that I've ever written. I hope you like it too!
Story Description
LynnLee McKay is an internationally renowned assassin. Her work brings in top dollar and every law enforcement agency in the world wants their names on her arrest record.
If only they knew who she was...
If only they could catch her....
But what wolud happen if Lynn, while in the midst of a job, met and fell for an Interpol agent? It's a relationship that could never work...
Henry Van Der Zee is an Englishman attatched to Interpol after years of service with London Metro, soon after his tenure with Interpol started, he noticed a pattern in several descreet and prominent assassinations. He's spent his career chasing the unnamed assassin across the world, but will his life be turned upside down by a chance encounter with a beautiful woman at a party he never wanted to attend in the first place?
He's sworn to catch her and she's never been caught...
Story Excerpt
Lynn could feel it. The life, slowly drifting away. It was a feeling she had become used to. When the struggling stopped, and the victim accepted that their fate as inevitable. The surge of power that went through her at that moment was enormous.
She knew better than to remove the pillow at the first sign of a slack body. She’d been caught once, when her target had played dead, held his breath and waited for me to let go. She supposed that was what you got for trying to suffocate a champion swimmer. Still, she’d never fallen for the trick again and now always waited an extra minute after the body stopped moving.
She started counting the minute, “One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four-” It was a childish habit which had irritated her instructors back in the day, yt sh’ed continued to do it, despite repeated reprimands for it.
An instrumental version of 'Mack the Knife' began to play and she paused her counting to curse. She had forgotten to turn her phone to silent. Still holding the pillow over the face of the man she was straddling, Lynn reached into her pocket for the offending device. Looking at the screen, she felt confused.
'Unknown Caller' was blinking back at her as if some sort of cosmic annoyance. Here she was, in the middle of killing a man and a damned telemarketer was probably ringing. Probably to find out if I wanted some snazzy new insurance policy or to donate to some charitable fund, where they made you do it by making you feel guilty for enjoying a cup of coffee from an upscale coffee shop. She ignored the call and dropped the phone onto the floor beside the almost dead man. She needed to finish.
Lynn resumed her count, “five Mississippi, six Mississippi, seven Mississippi, eight Mississippi, nine Mississippi, ten-”
The phone started ringing again and she sighed, knowing it wouldn't stop. Although, telemarketers weren’t that persistent. So, who could it be? With one hand on the pillow she reached out and pressed accept. She then switched it to speaker phone and returned both hands to her project.
“Yeah?”
“It this LynnLee McKay?” A female voice asked. She was older, British and from the sounds of her accent, upper-crust.
Lynn really had no idea who the hell this woman was or what she was doing calling her and asking for her by name. “Yes,” she replied. “I’m Lynn McKay.” Few people actually called her LynnLee, it was sort of the same as being in trouble with mum or dad or the school principle. Only something that got used when she was in trouble or formal situations. “Who is this?” Lynn asked, keeping her eyes on her project.
“My name is Emily Van Der Zee,” the woman announced. “I’m Henry’s mother,” she clarified.
“Oh…” She paused, the call had come out of the blue. Henry had mentioned the potential for meeting his mother, but Lynn had been putting it off. She didn’t exactly have a family she could bring him home to or do the whole ‘family’ dinner thing with both families. “Umm… Nice to finally speak with you Mrs. Van Der Zee… What… What can I do for you?
This was going to get mighty awkward, mighty soon if she didn’t get off the phone with the woman soon. “I was hoping my dear, that you and Henry would join me for dinner tonight.” And there it was. The dinner request. Why? Why had she started dating? He was relentless, gorgeous, charming, oh… she could go and on… That was why.
“Tonight?” Lynn asked. “What does Henry say? I think he’s got a case…”
The woman on the other end of the phone line laughed. “Funny… He said ‘I don’t know Ma, I have to ask Lynn… She might have a deadline.’ So, here I am, calling you to see if you’re free my dear. Because my son has been denying me the chance to meet you for months now.”
Lynn looked down at the body was she sitting on. She really didn’t want to have to be dealing with this right now, but what choice did she have. If she blew the old woman off, it would reflect badly on both her and Henry. She was his mother after all. “Tonight would be lovely, Mrs. Van Der Zee,” she finally answered. Lynn decided that enough time had passed and pulled the pillow away from the man's face.
He was dead.
“Oh, wonderful!” Mrs. Van Der Zee announced, and Lynn awkwardly looked around. She knew that there was no one around. She never would have walked into the house to take the target if there had been somebody around. Still, it felt awkward to have the mother of the man she loved on the phone using words like 'wonderful' over the body of a dead man.
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