For the whole time that we sat in the orphanage, all the nun would do was talk about how much of a blessing Heclan was.

One time he did this, one time he did that. "Without him these children would be a lot less cheerful." she said.

Heclan would come and adopt children, he'd play with the ones inside, he'd make treats for them. "He's made a very big impact on these children, I'm glad that he's around." I could feel discomfort in the other two when she said that. The orphanage didn't know about his crimes, they didn't know about his past. If they knew, they would've never let him adopt a single one.

"Well, it's been a while, we've got to get going now, thank you." Henry said.

"Yes, please say hello to him for me." The nun waved goodbye to us.

After leaving the orphanage, we went straight for the gates. The houses lined up against the streets, closely knit together as if to prevent any openings for one to run through. In the hour that had past, many more people had awoken and were taking to the streets, going about their daily lives. Multiple guards, numbering in the high tens, stood on the wall. Each were vigilant, all looking out for potential dangers.

The three of us, after leaving the town, started to make plans.

"Do you think he's done anything bad to those kids?" I ask.

"I can't imagine him not doing something to them." Hannah says. "He's a killer who's gone into hiding, the murders were pretty brutal. I doubt that he could've settled down after doing things like that." she takes a stick and starts drawing on the ground. "These are the number of people that the investigators believe he killed every year."

Etched into the ground was a ten. The details struck me as strange, he killed ten people every year. The weird thing is that one year was just nothing, it's not like the numbers slowly went down. Normally, the numbers would go up as the killer got more confident, at least that's what I've seen. The better you get at something, the longer you go untouched, the more you're willing to try.

"Why did it suddenly stop?" I ask. I could understand if the numbers slowly went down every year, but it just suddenly stopped. After one year, without warning, there were no more murders that the investigators linked to him.

"It's possible that he changed his way of killing people but that's unlikely." Henry says. "People like him who purposely left the dead bodies in a spot where it would be found wouldn't switch to something less public."

"How infamous was he? Did it ever go down?" I ask. If he were a showman then if he started losing the interest of the public then he might've stopped.

Hannah shook her head, "No, his fame was growing every year." she sighed. "It's not like he could gain any more fame from stopping. Unless he wanted to hear how relieved everyone was that he was gone that is."

Why would he, a killer at his prime, stop? He's adopting children, did he really settle down?

"Has anyone seen the children?" I look between the two. "If they haven't then he's probably still killing."

"That's the thing, from the informant, some of the children are with him when he's selling food. The only thing that's suspicious about the children is that they're all hesitant to speak to people." Henry tells me.

So is he threatening them? They've lost their parents, they might not be willing to throw away their life line. No, it's more likely that they're just socially awkward, they don't like talking to strangers.

"We'll figure out nothing at this rate." Hannah shakes her head. "We've got one mission, that's to kill him. Whether or not he's still killing doesn't matter." she points to her left. "I'll go over here, we'll reconvene in an hour."

"Got it, I'll go this way." Henry chooses the opposite direction.

I take what's left. Hearing Hannah say those things makes me wonder if she cares more about the mission. Saving lives is my priority, not the mission. The only reason I took on Nack was to prevent him from killing more people. I also had to start taking steps forward.

I enter the forest. The grass is still a lush green while the leaves are turning amber. Unlike the town, it smells like actual trees out here, the earthy smell makes me want to run around the forest and search for things. Something that I enjoyed doing as a child. If I remember correctly that was the only time my sister and I got along. We'd play in the woods near the house and explore. I had to go find her once, she was lost and crying when I found her. For an hour we walked, her hand clutching onto mine, refusing to let go.

To cheer her up, after getting a little lost myself and having the walk take up an entire hour, I gave her a "treasure." It wasn't anything more than a glassy colorful rock I found in the river. She held onto it for the entire day, the next day though, when I tied a string around it, she absolutely refused to wear it.

I can't really understand children, more like girls. I have to assume my master's one too, he's way too hard to read. Just joking here, only my master and a few people are mysteries, but I wonder how she's doing.

Trekking though the great woodland for an hour yielded me no results. The only promising signs were a few trails of blood, an animal's of course. Does he hunt? He sells apples but that doesn't mean that's all he eats.

It's probably not over here. Feeling the need to not be so stiff, I interlocked my fingers and push them into the sky. Stretching feels really good so I make sure to get my legs in on it too. After doing what I would normally do in the mornings, I made a quick return to the place we said we would meet. Already waiting there is Henry.

"I thought that you would be the first to make it back." he says.

I tilt my head, "Why's that?"

"Just because you're younger." he responds while drawing in the dirt. His drawings are lacking in detail, just sticks with circles where their heads should be.

"Are you saying that because as someone younger I have more energy? Or is it because I woke up the earliest today?" I ask also dropping down to draw. Mine are superior to his, mine at least have faces, you know, a smile and two lines for eyes. I'm not exactly one for art.

"A little bit of both." he glances over at mine and proceeds to add hair to his. I follow suit, but instead of short easy hair, I make it long like Hannah's. It flows as if there is a wind to blow it.

While looking at the others we add more and more things. Soon enough our drawings are complete as we can't add anything else. We hear a rustle from the bushes and Hannah emerges.

"I found- what are those?" she points to our pictures.

"W-well, we kind of got into a competition and started adding more things to our drawings." Henry looks down at his. "And they got a... little bit messed up."

"I'd say that they were more than a little messed up."

"So who's is better?" Henry asks, smirking at me.

"The thirteenth's."

"HAhahahahaha. I knew it!" I stop and lean close to Henry. "Kukuku, don't worry, you'll get it next time." I laugh evilly. Henry wasn't much better than my master.

"Pfft. You only won because the judge is biased." he glares at Hannah.

"Only a little bit." she returns his glare with a smile. "Anyways, I found the cabin. It's just straight down there." she points in the direction.

"Did you check to see he was there? If he's gone then we can go and get the children." I say. If he were to use them as a shield then we'd be in trouble, double that if they don't see him as a bad person. We have to kill him quickly before he can do anything.

"He's not there, neither are the children." she puts to fingers to her forehead. "We'll have to wait until night to eliminate him." Hannah paces back and forth impatiently, there isn't much to do. We could go inside the town and wait until it's dark.

I decide to ask the question that's been hanging around in my mind. "What's the reason for you two to be here? Carlyle said it was to supervise me but is that really true?" now's as good of a time as any other, might as well ask now.

"He told the truth. We're here to watch you and assist if you need it." Henry responds.

"You mean in finding him?"

He shakes his head, "In killing him. He targeted emotionally weak people," *growl* there it is again. "but he might be unexpectedly strong. It's also a precaution because of what happened last time. Carlyle... and I are worried that you might not be able to kill him and he'll end up getting you instead."

I think for a moment. It makes sense. The last time, I couldn't end Nack's life right then and there, he could've had something hiding away. But, when I saw him crawling towards his dog I couldn't just end him right there. I nod to Henry.

"I understand."

He lets out a sigh, "Phew! That's good." he does some stretches while walking back towards the town. "I'm going to go take a stroll around the town. Let's meet again out here at seven."

--------

At five the sun was already starting to set, at seven it was close to pitch black. The moon's not going to be showing itself for a while, I walk through the dark town to where we said we would meet again. Unlike the night streets of the city, I feel much more exposed here. The closely knit houses, instead of relieving the tension, actually give rise to it. They feel like some large worm-like beast just sleeping. The people are still moving about but the noise isn't what I'm used to, it's a lot quieter than the city.

I reach the place outside of the town. The both of them are already there. Henry and Hannah stand there looking frustrated. Has he not shown himself yet? Is he still working?

"What's up guys?" I ask. The look on their faces show me that they were thinking about something really hard.

Understanding what I meant by that Henry responds, "We're thinking of a way to kill him without him getting the chance to use one of the children as a shield. We've thought about a sneak attack but one of the kids might run away if we scare them. The woods here aren't as kind at night as it is in the morning."

"Can't we just knock on the door and get him when he opens it?" I ask.

"Yeah, we could do that..." Henry looks to the ground to think again. "Yeah, it's probably best."

"I don't want the children to see their father die in front of them" Hannah interjects. "I still vote to kill him if his children are there though, even if they have to witness it. I'd just rather they didn't is all."

At that moment a tall man and five children walk out of the town. The three of us hide in the overgrown bushes. From here we can't hear them but we can see their silhouettes, one child jumps up and down with their arms up. The man, Heclan, lifts the child up and into his arms. We watch as they make their way down the way where his house is.

"Let's go." Henry waves us forward.

Following them without being noticed is hard. Even though I've been taught how to walk silently, the grass makes noise every time I put my foot down. But, because of my training and careful steps, we make it to the cabin without alerting them. They go inside.

"Wait for an hour," Hannah holds up her arm. "we'll give some time so the kids can fall asleep." I could sense determination from her, she's not like her usual self.

---------

Heclan Nelson, a notorious killer, in his heyday, in addition to his killings, he would constantly drive fear into strangers at night wandering by themselves. One day, so long ago, he had wanted children but never found a lover, mostly thanks to his hobby of murdering people he befriended. If he were to ever have a child he would raise it to be like himself, not like a killer but a confident person.

His eyes had just set themselves on his next target, not for scaring but for a murder. She wasn't anyone special, she wasn't one of those people that he had been trying to befriend, but just a random lady taking a stroll at night.

Heclan could hear her sobbing. He smiled to himself, these were his favorite targets, the weak ones. The ones who were emotionally hurt, the ones who were breaking down. He thought to himself, how should he kill her today? Befriend her and then betray her trust? No, he didn't have the energy to talk to others in his usual fake manner. She was going to be a quick kill.

He drew out the knife from his belt and quietly approached her from behind. She had no clue what was about the happen. Like he had hoped, he was able to drive the knife into her neck without a problem. A muffled cry could be heard but only by Heclan.

"Shhh." he put his finger to his lips. "It's okay now."

When she fell to the ground, he started to walk away.

"Waah!" he turned around when he heard the cry.

It wasn't the woman's he just killed. It belonged to a child, a baby. He was about to ignore it when it cried out again.

"Waaaah!" he couldn't ignore it. He turned back to see that the woman was holding something. A large bundle of cloth.

As he approached it, the crying grew louder. He unwrapped it and saw a baby boy. A new born, had the girl been kicked out because of him? He reached out and picked up the baby, it had no one else in the world now. Heclan had just killed his mother and his father obviously didn't want him.

Despite what the people said about Heclan, he didn't kill children. Unlike adults they were young and didn't deserve misery. To him, those were the best times in his life, sure children could be cruel but that would be the faults of the adults. Hearing the wails of the boy in his arms he decided to take care of him.

Three years later the boy had grown up splendidly. He was walking and talking, he loved to help around the house. Heclan still continued his murders, only at night so the boy didn't know. Over the three years Heclan had grown attached to the orphaned boy, he was respectful at such a young age and listened to whatever Heclan asked. One day the boy asked a question that shook him.

"Why don I hafe a momwy?"

Heclan felt a horrible feeling well up inside of him. The little boy he had raised, wasn't his. He was stolen, Heclan had killed his mother. He waved off the question, "She's just not here anymore."

That night when he went to kill his tenth victim for the year he thought about what the boy, what his son had said. Heclan was already dressed in his killer's garb and had the woman in an alleyway. Killing was important to Heclan, but he couldn't get over the feeling that he got when his son looked at him with adoring eyes. It ate him from the inside. Killing had been the only way he felt joy, a sick twisted kind, but it was the only time he felt alive. That was until, he started raising the boy.

Feeling that Heclan was having some troubled thoughts the woman reached for her dagger she had bought to protect herself. He knocked it away earlier but now she had a chance, she would kill and end the terror of the infamous person.

"MMMM!"

She aimed for the neck but missed. Heclan moved up and the dagger entered his side.

"GRAH!" with a shout he threw her to the floor and swiftly ended her life. He felt no happiness as he watched the life drain from her eyes.

His left hand was shaking, this was the first time he's been injured. He tried pulling out the dagger but there was too much pain.

"Dad!"

Behind him he heard the quick little steps of a child. His whole body went into stasis.

"Jack! Don't come over here!" but it was too late.

"Wa- wats happenng?"

"Jack, Jack I can explain." the boy fell on his butt.

"N-nnoo. Yo-you cwan't bwe."

"P-please..." before finishing what he was about to say he collapsed onto the floor, short raspy breaths were being taken.

The boy, now hesitant, stopped backing away. His father, the person who raised him, was lying on the floor dying. Slowly he approached, not like how Heclan did but how a child would approach an injured animal.

"A-are you o-okway?" tears started falling down his face. "P-prease don die! I-I'm sworry!"

"It's okay... just pull it out okay?"

The boy put his shaking hands on the dagger and yanked it out. Immense pain racked Heclan's body but he was able to put his hand over it and cast a healing spell. Jack dropped the dagger immediately, shivering all over. Heclan came close and gave his son a hug.

"I'm sorry. Daddy won't do it anymore okay? Shhhhhh."

---------

After putting the children to sleep Heclan went to the couch and lit the lamp. He started reading his favorite book but heard a knock on the door. Who could it be this late at night? he wondered. He put his book down, got up, and made for the door.

When he opened it he saw two people, a man and a woman, both in green cloaks. Feeling that something was off he took a quick step back and threw up a quick barrier. Two knives bounced harmlessly off his shield. This hasn't been the first time someone has made an attempt on his life but this was the first time they had shown up at his house.

"Let's take this outside." the girl said.

"Alright." going outside would be disadvantageous for him, without the door frame to keep them from coming all at once he would lose easily. But he'd rather the children not be hurt.

From the shadows another one came out, he was dressed in black and two knives were in his hands. A bitter smile flashed across Heclan's face, he knew that what he did so long ago was bad and that one day he would have to pay the price. Over the years he'd grown to see how foolish he had once been. He wasn't keen on dying just yet, those children needed him, and so he'd fight.

To his surprise the two in green stepped back and the one hiding stepped forward alone. Heclan noticed that the person's hands kept moving the knives around. He knew a newbie when he saw one, nervous and eager. It was a foolish move to come at him alone, even though he never had to fight his victims, he had prepared for it.

The man threw the knives at him. Heclan ducked and shot out two earth bullets. He nimbly dodged it and shot out two fireballs.

Heclan put up another barrier, the fireballs were reduced back to mana. Moving as if he knew Heclan would do that, the man in black was right up next to him, with a quick flash the barrier was down. Two fists slammed into Heclan's side. As he hit the floor he let out a loud sound.

"GUH!"

--------

A little girl awoke from her sleep. Hearing the sound of battle she slowly started moving to the dimly lit living room where a small light was being emitted.

"D-dad?" she called out timidly.

It's been one year since she was adopted by the kind man she now called, dad. Her parents had died when they refused to hand over money to some thieves. They were kind enough to not end her life but didn't care for her parents.

Being put into the orphanage all alone a tall gruff man came up to her.

"Hey there." he said kneeling. "Are you new here?"

She nodded. Apparently, he was well liked, the other kids flocked around him. The first day she had rejected all his advances to get to know her. Eventually she gave in and started talking to him. He was kind and always listened to her ramblings.

Soon enough, he adopted her into his family, "You're one of us now." he said with a smile. The other children of his weren't related at all but they were closer than any other family she had seen.

"GUH!"

Recognizing the voice the girl ran out of the house through the open door. She ran to the man on the floor.

---------

"Don't hurt my Dad!" she yelled.

Rainen had his hand raised in the air, a knife was in it. Kill him. the thing inside said. Rainen simply ignored it and looked towards Henry and Hannah. Both nodded.

"Move out of the way." he said coldly to the child, the thing inside forced him to say it, thus coming out coldly.

From there Rainen saw the man grin. Kill him! it shouted. Rainen felt a disgusting feeling well up inside of him, the man was just using the children for his own good.

"Move." he said more firmly.

"NO!" the girl screamed.

Henry and Hannah were approached and picked the girl up.

"LET ME GO!" she swatted at their gentle hands. They were trying to not hurt her and so their grips were weaker than it would usually be.

Seeing the man's smile slowly fade, it pushed Rainen again. Now, kill him. It urged. Rainen too had seen the smile fade, the man really didn't care for the children, he thought. He brought his hand back up and swung.

A smile flashed across the man's face.

"DAD!" the little girl ran forward into the knife's way.

Trying to stop another incident like before from happening Rainen tried to stop his hand but it was pushed by an unknown force. At any cost. it said.

"NO!" Heclan put the girl into an embrace and turned.

The knife entered his back, blood started flowing down. Rainen finally regained control of his hand, he looked at it with fearfully, his eyes were wide when he saw where the knife was. In Heclan's back.

Just as surprised, Hannah and Henry walked to them.

"Finish him." Hannah said coldly. "We've got to complete the mission."

Henry nodded reluctantly agreeing.

But Rainen had seen enough, "You guys are here to supervise me right? I'm the one who gets to kill him right?"

They both nodded.

"Then," he dropped his knife. "I won't do it."

Stepping forward Hannah grabbed his shirt and pulled him down.

"Why won't you do it."

"It's my choice. Don't question it. We're arresting him." Rainen said firmly.

Hannah stomped her feet on the ground, "He's killed people! He's, he's killed a lot of girls." Hannah licked her lips. "He needs to be punished!"

Thinking that they were assassins, he pleaded with them to allow the kids to live. "P-please..." Heclan called weakly from the ground. "d-don't hurt the children."

"We'll only kill you." Hannah said with venom in her voice. "Kill him."

You sound like the demon. Rainen thought. "I won't."

Hannah pushed him back and picked up his knife, "Then I will." she walked over to Heclan.

"DON'T HURT PAPA!" the little girl got out and yelled, once again blocking the knife's path.

"Little girl," Hannah looked at her annoyed. "I'll say this one last time, move."

"NO!" she said.

"Why not?" Hannah said frustrated.

"Because he's my family!"

Hannah and Henry froze at that word.

"You're not family." Hannah retorted. "You're not related."

But Henry thought differently. Henry knows better, better than almost anyone, just how flimsy blood ties were. In the few short days he's spent with the thirteenth he already felt far more for the boy than he did his own parents. A family is built by the people and their interactions, not by blood.

"Hannah." he said. "Stop. We're going to do what the thirteenth says."

She looked at him angrily, "He's right here! He's the person I've been looking for!"

"She wouldn't want this."

"What do you know? You never even met her!" Hannah screamed. "You have no right to say anything!"

"Stop, Hannah. He's not even fighting back." Henry said.

"My sister didn't fight back but he killed her anyways!" she yelled. Tears were forming in her eyes. She had done well in hiding her emotions since the beginning but now that the person who killed her sister was in front of her she couldn't hold back. "He doesn't deserve to live!"

"So you're going to kill a father of five!?"

She had nothing to say to that.

"Look," Henry pointed to the girl. "even if he's a monster to everyone else, he's a father to her. You're better than him, so don't do it. I'm going to follow the thirteenth's choice."

"Fine." she threw the knife to the ground and walked away. Her hands moved to her eyes, wiping away the tears that wouldn't stop flowing.