It was a cold, bright afternoon in the suburbs of Seoul.
Emily was tensed up with the cold air lightly passing her cheeks. She held her mask into place and squeezed down her cap. This was the first actual mission she was assigned to. The first kill.
She was lucky that the executives even gave her someone to pin down. Her failure was imminent just before her senior opened up the opportunity to prove herself. An opportunity for her to move up the ladder.
The mission was simple. Snow White protocol; ‘BRING US HER HEART.’ Emily made sure the address was correct: Seoul, Seocho Preston Apartment. 23rd floor. Her pulse increased as she walked through the automatic doors after inserting its password. She stood in front of the elevator and waited. The tension inside of her was rising. Her heart was pounding, half with ambition and half with fear, as she entered the elevator that carried her up to the unknown.
All Emily knew about the target was her name and her status: Ashley Breeze. She was an AWOL agent and cut off all communications with the headquarters a few weeks ago. Emily was sent to notify the price of such insolence. She exited the elevator and turned to the door on the right.
It was almost exciting. Emily hadn’t felt such tension and nervousness in years. She never knew field work would be so intense during her years of training. She only hoped that the effects of the strength serum wore out for Breeze.
Emily, after a minute of calming herself down, pressed the mechanical doorbell. It had a lovely tune, a bit too much for one who was about to be murdered in broad daylight. Likewise, there was about 30 seconds of complete silence. Emily could feel her heart beating inside of her. She focused on it; pushed her combined three fingertips on top of her own left breast and felt it beat triumphantly between her two lungs. She could feel gentle push on her soft flesh every time the blood pumped through her core. She always thought that this phenomenon hid the importance of the human heart within one’s body.
She then felt it skip a beat as she heard footsteps from the apartment.
“Who is this?” It was Ashley. Her voice was trembling and extremely sensitive. She knew that she had to pay somehow.
Emily squeezed down her cap further and looked away from the camera installed into the mechanical doorbell. She now realized why her seniors always disliked working in Korea. These people had high-quality security cameras installed right into their doorbell. However, like it or not, Emily had to say something.
“Insurance,” she mumbled. “AWOL Insurance protocol..” The AWOL Insurance protocol could be explained straight from its name. A rogue protocol that could make AWOL agents disappear from any headquarter server.
To her surprise, Emily heard Ashley turn the door handle and push it open.
This was the moment.
Emily pulled the door ajar and grasped Ashley’s bare throat. Ashley gasped for air after such sudden assault and struggled to push Emily back. It was no use. Emily stood her ground and pushed Ashley into her own house. The door automatically locked itself as it closed.
Emily then threw a firm punch toward Ashley’s head, knocking her down to the white rug in the center of the living room. Ashley groaned as she strove to stand back up. Emily quickly took off her hat and attempted to pin her prey down, just as she was taught at the academy. Yet, Ashley was no easy target.
Ash expected the move and shot out her legs toward Emily’s stomach, making her fly back down to the ground. Emily began to panic. Her heart began to pound faster and faster as her limbs fought back the urge to shake.
“Who the f*ck are you?!” Ashley yelled, pulling herself back to her feet.
“Agent,” Emily stated. “You may now stop your resistance and surrender your life to the headquarters.”
“To hell with your headquarters,” Ashley replied. “I don’t need any more sh*t from you all…”
“Well, we’re not done yet, Breeze.” Emily ran toward Ashley and elbowed her to the big window. The glass shattered, making Ashley fall through and have glass panes cut and snip through her back. Emily could see the blood slowly flowing out of her victim. Ashley groaned and picked up the machete that she kept in her veranda.
“You’ve made a bad mistake, sister,” Breeze mumbled as she approached Emily. Emily took out the knife she had on her belt and held her combat position. There was no need to fear the size of the blade if the wielder was not intimidating. The machete swung in front of Emily as she dodged, but realized the blade cut through her clothing, making a big gash on the chest of her sweater. Breeze gave a nasty smirk.
“Nice bra, you dog,” she taunted. “Must be a B or a C?”
Emily felt enraged at the humiliation Breeze was giving her. Her clothing was being a nuisance. She grabbed and ripped the sweater even further from the gash and took it off completely. She now only had her amaranth sports bra protecting her flesh from the machete.
Breeze laughed and unzipped her own tracksuit and held up her chest triumphantly. Her back was still bleeding, but she did not give a sweat, as she was confident in defeating a newbie agent who was too emotional to kill her.
The two swung and dodged for at least half an hour, destroying practically everything in the house. Mirrors were shattered, the sink hose was cut down, and a few doors had menacing scars left on them, each with blades stuck into them. Emily and Ashley panted and sweated eagerly, throwing punches with the hope of at least subduing one another.
“AGGHH!!!”
Emily stuck her knife into Ashley’s hip and pushed further to make sure it stayed there. Ashley panted in fear and pain as the blood leaked out. Emily climbed onto her victim’s body and swiped out the blade. Ashley whimpered and her eyes were bloodshot as Emily pushed her left knee hard onto the knife wound.
Emily clapped her hand onto the left side of Ashley’s chest. She pushed down hard to feel the pounding more clearly. It was like art. The hammering beats were almost machine-like, as the organ tried its absolute best to supply its owner with more blood.
“This little girl has more of a will to live than you, you weak mongrel…” Emily mumbled as she lowered her head to listen to the panic within Breeze. Ashley whimpered and gasped for her life as Emily pushed her ear onto the bosom. Emily enjoyed every last beat. She could almost hear the blood rushing in and out of the soft, fleshy muscle as Ashley’s numerous wounds bled out fast. The pumping of Ashley’s fast and strong heart exposed how much of an emergency she was in. Emily could hear all of it.
“You know what the strength serum does right?” Emily started. “It allows me to become at least three times stronger than a normal man. As far as I know, you still have that serum flowing through this little organ..” Emily pushed Ashley’s breast to let her know how fast the heart beating by feeling its force through her flesh.
“But did you know that it doesn’t necessarily make your skin and bones impenetrable?”
Emily swiftly pulled back her right arm and fueled her triceps to submerge her hand inside of Ashley’s chest. Ashley screamed in agony as the Emily’s hand puncture the flesh in the center of her chest, devastate her rib cage, smash through the pericardium, and seize her beating heart all in one go.
“So this is what it really feels like…” Emily murmured, giving Ashley a little heart massage. “Do you like it? You’ve never felt it yourself, but now I have. Have you ever fallen in love before? Has anyone been able to break your heart? Its pumps are so powerful.. I can feel all your losses and experience.”
“Nnngh.. No.. Just do it..! I don’t need any… Uggh! More of your.. Huck..!” Ashley struggled to speak as Emily continuously squeezed and loosened her grip around her terrified heart.
Emily paused the massage and grabbed the organ tightly, feeling the anatomy.
“Do you want to know what your heart consists of?” she murmured, enjoying the scene of her prey struggling within her arrest. “This right here is your right ventricle, this here is your left. This part pushes all your oxygen-rich blood through your aorta which is… Let me see.. Oh, here it is! You feel that moving? Here, let me pinch it for a moment to let you know..”
“Huck..! Huff.. Huff.. Huff.. Let me go..!”
Emily loved such mockery. It hurt Ashley’s dignity and name to have a newbie murderer force her hand inside her chest and lecture her the parts of her most important organ, first-hand.
“I know that you might have been a professional, Breeze, but now, so am I. Your time is over. This is your payment. Your heart not only pumps your blood, but it holds onto everything you fought for. Everything you lived for. Your passion, your dignity, pride, literally everything. I believe that’s why it’s so hot. And without it? You’re nothing. Just a cold, dead body with an empty cavity in its chest after a humiliating defeat.” Emily mumbled, tightening her grip around Ashley’s struggling heart.
“Mmf..!” Ashley felt the anger fuel her heart even more, but could also feel the blocked and faint pumping within it as Emily’s hand squeezed it tight. “Let me.. go..!! Get your hand.. out of me..!! It’s my heart..!! Let go of my heart..!!!”
Emily let out an evil laugh as she heard the most pleasant words drop out of her victim’s tongue. Ashley was pleading for her life. Emily had never felt such power before. To be able to hear her prey’s grovelling by threatening to end her life without a single ounce of effort.
“Too bad, senior.. I don’t even have to try in order to take this thing out.” Emily whispered. She leaned over and rapidly pushed her mouth to her victim’s, preventing Ashley from properly breathing by giving her a pleasant, deep smooch. Emily felt Ashley’s heart skip a beat. As soon as Emily finished her smooch, Ashley desperately gasped for breath, slightly feeling Emily’s tight grasp around her heart as the lungs expanded after inhaling.
Within that long gasp, Emily took the time to pull hard, splitting Ashley’s heart from her veins and arteries. The force was so powerful that it made Ashley’s rib cage stick open and properly give her the look of a lady who just had her heart pulled straight out of her breast.
“You know, you’re gonna decay here anyway, so…” Emily grasped Ashley’s head and yanked as hard as she could, tearing off and shoved it right into the hole in her emptied chest. Emily smirked and stood back up on her feet as she saw Ashley’s bloodshot eyes roll up inside the eye sockets of her ripped head, with her long, blonde and beautiful hair now filling the gap between her two dead lungs.
It was a very silent night. It had to be, since there was nothing around the motel but dark, dead woods where ravens nested.
All the lights were off except for the single street light shining so dimly that it seemed to of no help to those driving in the darkness.
A perfect environment for a silent kill.
Sophie strolled to the motel with her flashlight and carefully shone it on the front doors of each room.
‘She’ll be in room 999. It’s her usual room. Next to the bed will be a boot knife that she always keeps with her. You must be quick if you don’t want to become the victim.’
Recalling what the contract notified her, Sophie quietly began to pick the door with her hairpin. The old, smelly motel was such a cooperative place. It was built around the 80s without a hint of renovation but the painting.
Sophie levelly entered the room. She continued to remind herself that this was no easy job. Her target was what people called the “Angel of Death” during her active years. Sophie cringed at such epithet when she had first of it.
There was no one in the living room. No lights on, not a sound of a breath.
Seeing the bedroom door slightly ajar, Sophie swiftly but cautiously peeked inside.
A woman was sleeping silently with her blanket thrown on the ground. She seemed to be roughly in her mid twenties. And as her contract mentioned, Sophie saw a black boot knife on the cupboard beside the bed.
Sophie saw the chance.
She quickly pulled out her own blade from her belt and encroached upon the woman. Sophie lifted her knife as she aimed at the gap between the collar bones.
“Boo!”
Sophie’s heart skipped a beat as if she had seen a dead body come alive. She froze out of shock.
“Got ya!”
The woman grasped Sophie by the throat and pinned her down on the bed.
Sophie struggled to free herself from the woman’s weight, but the woman’s legs were too strong to push off with just the strength of her elbow tendons.
The woman’s sharp knees pushed her arms onto the mattress, almost blocking the blood flow towards her hands.
“Now what have we got here?” the woman mumbled, grabbing her knife from the cupboard. “Fresh prey…”
Sophie whinged and shook her body violently to free herself from such uncomfortable force.
“Shhhh…..” the woman whispered, placing the sharp end of the blade on Sophie’s pounding chest. “What were you going to do to me?”
Sophie kept her mouth shut and glared into the woman’s eyes, feeling the cold blade as the woman rubbed the metal on her flesh through the opening of her deep v neck.
“Do you know why I keep my knife here?”
“F*ck you..!” Sophie spat, her body still quivering in shock.
“Darling, I have the upper hand now. You’d better respect me before I shove this blade inside you.” the woman snickered. “I love your body… Your flesh is so soft.. Softer than my little kitten’s belly..”
The woman forced her hand inside Sophie’s shirt and bra in order to feel the pounding on her bare breast. Sophie shook her body even more, as she felt the humiliation rushing in with the hand feeling her heart race inside her chest.
The woman chuckled and thrusted the knife into Sophie’s left shoulder.
Sophie screamed in agony as the cold blade swiftly entered her body and left, leaving a cold and stinging sensation.
“Imagine that feeling but on your chest,” the woman said. “My name’s Nancy, by the way, if you haven’t heard from your contract.”
This woman named Nancy knew all about Sophie’s contract. It wasn’t the first time a killer had been sent to extract her living heart. She knew exactly how to punish such petty criminal.
“I know exactly how to punish you,” Nancy murmured, now placing the blade on Sophie’s shuddering lips. “Yes.. Quiver in fear… I feel your whole body shivering… Why would that be? Because you have no idea what I’m going to do to you.. People are always afraid of the unknown.”
Sophie’s whimpered and her eyes filled with tears as Nancy harshly massaged the wound on her shoulder, almost as if she were rubbing in the pain.
“Your warm blood is leaking out of your shoulder. This means your heart’s going to beat at around 120 beats per minute to save your body from bleeding out. Exactly the speed that I like when I listen to little girls’ hearts like yours..”
Nancy then stabbed Sophie’s other shoulder, incapacitating her prey from doing anything wicked.
Nancy took her knees off Sophie’s arms and lied on her body, placing her ear on Sophie’s left breast to hear the boomy pounding.
Lub-dub.. Lub-dub.. Lub-dub..
“You have such strong heart, Sophie.. You must have trained for a while, as I can see.” Nancy mocked. “But where has that training brought you? To your death. Absolutely embarrassing. If I were you, I would’ve just picked another job.”
Sophie felt even more humiliation as her own target had pretty much changed the tide of the situation, and was the one listening to what her body concealed.
“You’re mine…”
All of a sudden, Nancy drove her knees into Sophie’s arms again and lifted her knife. She then landed the blade right beneath Sophie’s throat.
Sophie couldn’t say a word.
The blade ran deeply into Sophie’s body as Nancy starting pulling down, carving Sophie’s flesh open and her rib cage in half.
Sophie’s mouth gradually vomited blood as the blade opened up her thorax.
Nancy saw the panicking organ pumping inside Sophie’s chest restlessly.
She swiftly inserted her hand inside the opening and trapped Sophie’s dying heart in her tight grip.
“Look, Sophie! I have your entire legacy in my hand.. Do you see now how inferior you are compared to me?”
Sophie whimpered as her eyes open wide with such agony she had never felt before in her entire life. She could feel the strong grip around her own heart and struggled not to whimper any more to conceal her humiliating death in Nancy’s eyes.
Nancy chuckled quietly and held the heart for a minute.
The left ventricle, the right ventricle, the left atrium and the right. The fast flow of blood through the pulmonary trunk. It all excited Nancy. Nancy loved the sight of Sophie’s heart trying so hard to free itself from her grip, just like her owner struggling to free herself from Nancy’s pin-down.
“You’re just a little girl.. Look at your adorable eyes! All the naivety and weakness show just by looking at them. Cute girl..” Nancy commented, rubbing Sophie’s cheek as she continued to squeeze her fast beating heart. “You’re gonna die, little girl.. I want you to feel the pain.. I want you to know and feel that it’s my hand and my fingers that are constricting your heart, and you can do absolutely nothing to free yourself from this situation.”
“Uggh.. No… Mmf… Let go… It’s my heart..! It’s my f*cking heart!” Sophie plead with her mouth full of her own blood. “I.. I can live.. if you just let go.. I need my heart inside me..!”
“Too bad, sweetie.. You weren’t going to show the same mercy..” Nancy retorted, feeling her victim’s heart weaken as her hand blocked the heart from pumping properly. “Do you feel that? Your irregular heart rate. Your heart’s beating irregularly because I’m preventing your blood flow.. How about that?”
Sophie could feel it.
Her heart beating once or twice, or even three times within a second. Then none. A sudden beat after another 5 seconds. Then none. Her heart was clogged by Nancy’s sturdy grip.
“Boo!” Nancy yelled, squeezing the organ as hard as she could for a moment.
“Ughh!!” Another wave of blood flooded out of Sophie’s mouth as the blood was rushed due to the squeeze in her chest.
“Enough.. I’ll show you your own heart,”
“N..No..!!”
Nancy slowly started to pull and noticed Sophie choking and wheezing as she coughed out more and more blood along with her lungs breathing in and out faster than ever, as Sophie felt her living heart literally being forced out of her breast.
“Nnghh..!! Huck..!!”
“You know how in other stories, they say that the victim could see a few veins or arteries holding on to their heart as the hunter pulls it outside their chest?” Nancy remarked as she paused the pull. “It’s not possible. Your veins and arteries aren’t that strong first of all, and they’re not even that long. Do you know what that means?”
Sophie could say nothing. She could only focus on breathing so fast as she could already feel her chest being emptied.
“It means that you’ll just have to see your own without them!”
Nancy pushed Sophie’s heart back in and then pulled hard, ripping the entire bloody organ out of Sophie’s beautiful thorax.
The heart continued to pump Sophie’s blood in Nancy’s hand.
“Your heart didn’t deserve such a weak and incompetent owner like you.. Its will to live seems to be much more than yours..” Nancy whispered, squeezing out all of Sophie’s blood from her heart right back in her mouth.
Sophie looked in disbelief as she puked out more of her blood. She could only slightly tilt her head downwards; and saw her own ribs sticking out of her chest due to the incredible force of Nancy tearing out her organ.
Nancy chuckled and broke off two bits of Sophie’s ribs that were sticking out and stabbed Sophie again in her shoulders.
“I literally stole your heart and human dignity.. Not even pigs are slaughtered like you.. Just letting you know how worthless of a living being you are..” Nancy snapped.
