Author:
M.J. Swenson has been writing stories since elementary school and earned a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota. Besides writing and reading, M.J. also enjoys playing music and video games.

I woke up feeling that something had changed.

I blinked twice, waiting for my eyes to adjust, and glanced at the clock beside my bed. It read 6:38, as it did every morning. I slid out of bed and moved to my dresser, where I opened the third drawer and pulled out a dark blue V-necked shirt with short sleeves and a dark blue pair of pants. I changed in front of the mirror and examined myself. I looked just as I had the last time I’d looked in the mirror: long, straight, dark brown hair; blue eyes; an absurdly straight and narrow nose; the slight scar at the edge of my eyebrow. The scar whose origin I still couldn’t remember.

Familiar Assassins

This building was huge and dark. It looked like it had been built from a cavern, with high, uneven ceilings and vast abyssal darkness behind the place where Thane stood. I squinted, trying to see what was past him, but the darkness was too complete.


"Our former leader designated this building as a meeting place for Incipio operatives before he died," Thane said. "We rarely use it anymore, but I told everyone I'd call them here before our final mission."


No wonder people gave me strange looks on my way here. They probably didn't even see Thane, I thought.


"We'll go up to Incipio. All of us together," Thane said. "Then we'll destroy Nero Randall. Replace the leadership. Give the people their memories back. Make sure it won't happen again."


Chapter 36