Death

Thirty minutes after accomplishing his mission, Zach was now standing in front of a house. This was the address of the man he just killed a while ago.

He was leaning his back on a street wall beside his motorcycle while staring at the front gate of the house as he was trying to figure out how to deliver those items.

'How should I enter? Should I ring the doorbell to meet his family or just break in, leaving the cake, balloons, and the gift inside the house and just disappear quietly without their knowledge?'

Zach cursed inwardly, scratching the back of his head.

"What am I doing here? Did I lose my mind? I shouldn't be here!" Zach scolded himself.

He should have just ignored the man's last wish because as an assassin he should have already used to the last wishes and stopped caring about them. But for some reason, he couldn't ignore it.

He could see himself on the man's daughter. He was only six when both his parents were murdered right in front of his eyes. That day was also his birthday when he lost them.

He became an orphan at the age of six with no relatives who were willing to take care of him. In the end, he was sent to the orphanage where he spent his teenage years.

When his parents were killed, he developed antisocial personality disorder because of trauma. He stopped talking to people and isolated himself.

Because of that, he often got bullied in the orphanage by the bigger kids as he looked so weird to them. He got sick of being bullied and beaten by them so he ran away from the orphanage.

While wandering in the busy streets of the city, he met an injured man who was being chased by the police. He helped the man to escape. He was only 11 years old back then.

That man turned out to be the leader of the Phantom Assassin Guild. The man summoned his underlings to fetch the boy who helped him.

That was the start of his life story of being an assassin. He was trained personally by that man.

Zach was still reminiscing about his past when suddenly someone came out of the house.

A charming little kid went to the gate, peering her eyes at her surroundings as if she was searching and waiting for someone to come.

At that moment, Zach knew that she was the daughter of the man he killed. Her eyes were red and puffy as if she had just cried.

"Where is her mother? Tsk, tsk, tsk… why did she let her child go out of their house by herself?"

The little fella went out of the gate and sat on the ground. She was waiting for her father to arrive.

Zach fixed his cap and put on his black mask, covering his mouth. He picked up the balloons, cake, and the gift. He crossed the streets to approach her.

He wanted to grab this opportunity to give those items to her while her mother was not yet around.

The little girl stood up excitedly upon seeing a guy holding balloons, and a box of cake. She immediately ran towards him and hugged his legs. She was still small so she could only hug his legs.

"Papa! You are late!"

Zach got frozen on his spot the moment he felt her little hands hugging his thighs. Her sweet angelic voice was so soft, very pleasing to the ears.

"Papa! Papa!" She kept calling him papa.

She didn't recognize the man. She mistook Zach as her father.

"It's alright! Mama said it is better to be late than never. Thank you, papa!" The little girl tightened her grip on his legs as if she was afraid to let him go.

Zach didn't know what to feel at that moment. He felt strange as if something was warming his heart right now because of this little kid.

"Papa, are these for me?" The little girl looked up with a bright smile on her adorable face.

Her eyes lit up seeing the chocolate cake and the gift. Zach just remained silent as he didn't know what to say.

"Papa! Thank you for fulfilling your promise! I love you so much, papa!"

Zach could no longer stand it. Hearing her soft voice and seeing her charming smile, the guilt started surging up in his heart. He had to leave as soon as possible before she could further affect his emotions.

"I'm not your father! You will never see him again. He already left you and will never come back. These are his last gifts to you!" Zach pushed her away.

He didn't know what had gotten into him when he said those harsh words to the little girl. Maybe he didn't want to acknowledge the guilt inside his heart. He just wanted to be a villain, maintaining his evil image.

Meanwhile, the little girl was surprised when she finally realized that the man she was hugging a while ago was not her father. In fact, that person was the one who took away the life of her father.

Zach placed the balloon on her little fingers and gave her the small rectangular box containing her gift.

Then Zach put down the box of cake on the ground. They were still standing outside the entrance gate of the house.

Since he had already given her the items that her father wanted to send to her, Zach turned around to leave. He crossed the street, walking toward his motorcycle.

But he didn't expect that the little girl would follow him. He just heard her voice calling him again.

"Mister! Mister! Wait! Where are you going? Do you know where my papa went?! It's my birthday. He promised to bring these by himself!"

The moment Zach turned around, the little girl was already crossing the street. Then he saw a big truck fast approaching her.

"Oh, Shit!" Zach cursed as he darted his gaze between the little girl and the truck.

It seemed that the truck driver had no plan of stopping or decreasing the speed.

'What the hell? Is he blind? Can't he see the little girl crossing the road? Fuck!'

Zach had no time to think. His body just moved according to its own as he ran towards the girl.

He pushed her to the other side of the road to avoid getting hit by the truck but in the end, he was the one who got hit!

*Crash!*

*Thud!*

*Loud screeching sound!*

Zach was thrown a few meters away from the truck. His body rolled several times on the ground, his bones making a cracking sound. He hit his head on the rock and he could feel the intense pain all over his body. Warm liquid started to come out of his mouth, nose and head. He was bleeding.

'Damn! I knew it. Doing good things will not benefit me at all. Now, I met my end! What a funny twist of fate! I killed a man and I died after saving his daughter. Is this my karma?'

Before he lost his last breath, he swore to himself, "In my next life… I swear… I will only do evil things."