Hello again everybody, it’s that time again, another writing contest. Same prizes as before. It will be a bit like the last bit with a little twist this time around. Start with the following opening and run with it the only difference this time is end it with your best whisper as you finish the job. The contest will run until next Friday. Best of luck to everyone, I look forward to checking out all the entries!
 

I kept to the shadows, hugging the wall in the darkened alleyway as I watched the general public stroll by without any knowledge of my presence. That was one of the best parts of working out of a major city, the way I could keep anonymous. There were just certain things that worked better if I went unnoticed. I learned a while back that most people didn’t want to notice anything out of the ordinary. They were content going about their own lives, not worrying about what was lurking around the corners.

I had only been there for a few minutes before I saw the sedan pull up in front of the cigar shop. The portly fellow was already chewing on the end of a half finished cigar, heading inside to stock up for his next week. I wasn’t exactly sure what he did or why he made the wrong enemies, I wasn’t going to ask any questions when the boss handed me the file folder and told me to take care of it.

I kept to the shadows, hugging the wall in the darkened alleyway as I watched the general public stroll by without any knowledge of my presence. That was one of the best parts of working out of a major city, the way I could keep anonymous. There were just certain things that worked better if I went unnoticed. I learned a while back that most people didn’t want to notice anything out of the ordinary. They were content going about their own lives, not worrying about what was lurking around the corners.

I had only been there for a few minutes before I saw the sedan pull up in front of the cigar shop. The portly fellow was already chewing on the end of a half finished cigar, heading inside to stock up for his next week. I wasn’t exactly sure what he did or why he made the wrong enemies, I wasn’t going to ask any questions when the boss handed me the file folder and told me to take care of it.

After continuing to lie low for a few minutes after the man, flanked by two large guards, had gone inside, I sprint across the street and head into the bakery next door to the smoke shop. I walk up to the counter, and say to the lady working there, "Hey there, is there a backdoor here? I'm in a hurry and don't want to walk all the way to the corner of the block." The lady, looking at me a bit weirdly, points to a door in the back corner of the shop. I thank here and go through the door.

I find myself in a narrow alley between the shops facing the next street over and the one I have just exited. I look next door and see a door that leads to the cigar shop. I try the handle, but find it locked. Looking around, I see an old nail on the ground. Hoping it will serve my purpose, I pick it up and insert it into the lock. Success! It clicks and I ease the door inward, making sure not to give away my presence. To my relief, I find myself in a stock room. I make my way through the stacks of boxes and crates to the door to the shop. Luckily, it is unlocked and even has a small window. I can see the large man that is my target standing near the counter. One of his guards is picking up large boxes of cigars, while the other stands behind him, alert.

I pull out my gun and prepare to fire through the window, but then think better of it. The window is made of double glass, the first bullet might not get through. That would increase the danger. Therefore, I think of a new plan. When one guard goes outside with the smokes, and the other guard is looking away from me, I throw open the door, and fire into the guard's torso. He falls, blood spouting out of the two holes in his abdomen.  I jump behind a display of cigars as the other guard and the driver charge into the store, revolvers in hand. The portly man points in my direction and then turns towards the door. The fellows with the guns raise them and begin firing at the display. After they have each unloaded, they look behind it. They look shocked when they see nothing there.

I jump out from behind some shelves to the right of the display and fire 2 more shots into one of the guard's head. The other guard lunges at me with a knife, but I kick him in the neck. Blood spurts from his mouth. I hit him on the head with he butt of my gun, leaving a nice indentation, and then run out the door. The target it opening the door of the car. I kick him from behind, and he falls into the front seat. He heaves himself over, and the freezes with fright. I raise my gun, point it at his heart, and say, "Smoking's bad for you," before squeezing the trigger.

I kept to the shadows, hugging the wall in the darkened alleyway as I watched the general public stroll by without any knowledge of my presence. That was one of the best parts of working out of a major city, the way I could keep anonymous. There were just certain things that worked better if I went unnoticed. I learned a while back that most people didn’t want to notice anything out of the ordinary. They were content going about their own lives, not worrying about what was lurking around the corners.

I had only been there for a few minutes before I saw the sedan pull up in front of the cigar shop. The portly fellow was already chewing on the end of a half finished cigar, heading inside to stock up for his next week. I wasn’t exactly sure what he did or why he made the wrong enemies, I wasn’t going to ask any questions when the boss handed me the file folder and told me to take care of it.

I sat for a few minutes, while they started to make their way out of the shop. I began my approach to the man that I was told to take care of. I unhooked my knife from my belt and quickly wailed at the closest guard to me, the blade sliced into his ear. He fell to the ground screaming, I start to pick up my pace as I charge them.

Taking a deep breath as this is what I have trained my whole life for. I am a bred warrior and I will not let my people down. The other guard grabbed the man putting him behind himself as he began to open fire at me. A few bullets hit my armor, but these creatures weapons could never pierce my beskar armor.

I make to the bodyguard, I could see the target behind him was pissing his pans. I smacked hard down on the bodyguard's arm to drop his gun, my other hand reaches down and catches it. Spinning it around my finger then placing it under the bodyguard's chin as he looked over to target, my gaze focused on him. The bodyguard began to mumble and I pulled the trigger, he fell to the ground. 

The target turned to run, without hesitation I shot the back of his calf, watching him fall to the ground. Walking slowly up to him as he tried to crawl away from me. I make it to him kicking him over, stuttering, "What the fuck are you?" 

I looked at him through my visor, I could tell he was coward. I began to speak it sounds quite mechanical, "This is the way." Squeezing the trigger, hitting him between the eyes. 

I kept to the shadows, hugging the wall in the darkened alleyway as I watched the general public stroll by without any knowledge of my presence. That was one of the best parts of working out of a major city, the way I could keep anonymous. There were just certain things that worked better if I went unnoticed. I learned a while back that most people didn’t want to notice anything out of the ordinary. They were content going about their own lives, not worrying about what was lurking around the corners.

I had only been there for a few minutes before I saw the sedan pull up in front of the cigar shop. The portly fellow was already chewing on the end of a half finished cigar, heading inside to stock up for his next week. I wasn’t exactly sure what he did or why he made the wrong enemies, I wasn’t going to ask any questions when the boss handed me the file folder and told me to take care of it.

"He's a little too careless for someone making enemies around," I thought as I saw him alone, with no bodyguards accompanying him. He walked into the store. I observed the area around carefully. Nope, no cops. 

I was about to walk out of the corner when a sudden announcement caught the attention of all the pedestrians and led them to the other end of the road where it originated from. Finding the circumstances to my advantage, I let down my long hair and stationed myself against the car parked outside the shop, waiting for the target to come outside.

Soon enough, he exited the shop with hands full of boxes of cigars. He peered at me for a while. I smiled and walked towards him to help him carry the boxes to his car. Knowing his character well, I knew he would fall into my trap...and he did.

"I don't let ladies work," he said, smiling back at me. 

"What a gentleman," I giggled and shook my head, to look more ladylike. I moved closer to him and whispered softly into his ears, "Someone told me I would find a lonely man here. Looks like it's true." He grabbed me by my waist and led me to his car.

"But not anymore, am I?" He opened the door to the passenger seat and asked me to get in. I did.

"One step closer," I told myself. 

He seated himself on the driver's seat and started the engine.

"Must be my son who told you, isn't it? He surely knows what I like," he said as he examined me from head to toe. 

I let my fingers softly trace down from his arm to his hand and held it. I leaned towards him and said, "Take me to your favourite place."

He drove me to the nearby beach. It was surprisingly empty, with no one around. We stood on one of the wooden docks, admiring the aesthetics of the setting sun. He held my hand.

"This is my favourite place. No one, except you and I. A place for us only." 

I leaned my head on his shoulder and prepared to pull out my gun, but before I could, he grabbed it. I chuckled. 

"So you knew."

"You are cute, but you chose the wrong person," he said as he held the gun at the back of my head.

"And you'll miss this cutie," I gave him a last smile before slashing his throat with my other hand that was behind him, "because you won't live to see me again."

The man fell to the ground, with blood spraying out from his half decapitated throat. The blood pooled around him before dripping into the sea. I wiped the blood from my knife on his clothes and looked at it. Good thing I had sharpened it the night before. This man wasn't so dumb after all.

"But you were dumb enough to think I'd come without preparing." I picked up my gun and wiped it. Little did he know, it wasn't even loaded.

I kept to the shadows, hugging the wall in the darkened alleyway as I watched the general public stroll by without any knowledge of my presence. That was one of the best parts of working out of a major city, the way I could keep anonymous. There were just certain things that worked better if I went unnoticed. I learned a while back that most people didn’t want to notice anything out of the ordinary. They were content going about their own lives, not worrying about what was lurking around the corners.

I had only been there for a few minutes before I saw the sedan pull up in front of the cigar shop. The portly fellow was already chewing on the end of a half finished cigar, heading inside to stock up for his next week. I wasn’t exactly sure what he did or why he made the wrong enemies, I wasn’t going to ask any questions when the boss handed me the file folder and told me to take care of it.

I'd be lying if I said this guy didn't deserve what was coming to him. His file didn't give much away, but it did indicate that he was extremely dangerous and was known around the area to be particularly brutal in his dealings -- there were actually rumors abound that he once skinned someone alive and the thought alone sent shivers down my spine. Personally, I loathed getting my hands dirty so I preferred the cool touch of a Smith & Wesson .38/44. It gets the job done quickly and effectively, and it also saves the victim from unnecessary pain. One click and it's over, just like that.

The strategy today was to keep my distance: get in, get the job done, and get out. The man only had one bodyguard with him for this particular errand, so it should be fairly easy in theory -- click, dead, click, dead. I waited in the alleyway near the door of the shop, tapping my foot impatiently. Seriously, how long does it take to choose and pay for a pack of goddamned cigars? Just when I was considering storming the store just to get this whole thing over with, the man steps out closely followed by his bodyguard and I take aim from the side. In seconds, a loud bang was heard and the bodyguard dropped dead with a gaping hole in his temple. I stepped out of the shadows and approached the man, looking him in the eye and seeing his jaw drop as I pulled the trigger.

Click.

Nothing happened. "Fuck!" I shouted, quickly realizing that my gun jammed and I was now in deep shit. The man's expression went from fear to surprise to anger as he reached for the knife tucked away in his belt. Lunging towards me, I managed to sidestep him but not before his knife grazed my arm. I let out a cry of pain as I weighed my options -- I was here with a jammed gun and no other weapons trying to fight off a man that's twice my size... the only logical thing to do is run away, but my boss made it clear that that wasn't an option.

"Not so strong now without your little toy, are you?" The man goaded as he was preparing to strike again, a sick smile on his face. "This is why I prefer knives over guns. Knives would never let you down -- all you need is brute force and a little bit of sociopathy." Faced with this torturous maniac, the only advantage I had over him was my agility, and I was not about to go down without a fight. As he took another swipe at my neck, I ducked down and kicked his kneecap with as much force as I could muster which caused him to buckle and fall to the ground, losing his grip on the knife as he growled in pain, clutching his knee. I quickly grab the blade from the floor and with shaky hands and brought it to his neck. Instead of cowering in fear, his smile grew wider as he continued taunting me. "Go ahead, sweetheart. I'd like to see you try. You look like you wouldn't hurt a fly, can you really drive a knife through someone's heart?"

I recoiled in disgust as it seems like he was actually enjoying this -- getting off on the situation. Standing over him, I kicked him in the gut over and over again, wanting him to shut up but it seemed to entertain him even more as he started laughing. "Face it, sweetheart. You don't have it in you. Might as well just stop whatever it is you're doing and become a housewife or someone's whore. If you help me get up, hell, I'll even make you my whore," he said with a sleazy smile. "You'll never make it in this world, you're not a monster, are y--" his words were cut short by the sound of him choking on his own blood as I bent back down and sliced his throat open in one fluid movement. I watched the life drain from his eyes as I held my face inches away from his with nothing but pure disgust in my eyes. Again, I hated getting my hands dirty but no one calls me a whore and gets away with it. 

"There are so many despicable things about you. You're a psychopath and you're sexist -- you also have terrible breath -- but you know what I really hate about you?" I asked him as I pried his mouth open and cut out his tongue, tossing it on the ground beside him. "You talk too much."

I kept to the shadows, hugging the wall in the darkened alleyway as I watched the general public stroll by without any knowledge of my presence. That was one of the best parts of working out of a major city, the way I could keep anonymous. There were just certain things that worked better if I went unnoticed. I learned a while back that most people didn’t want to notice anything out of the ordinary. They were content going about their own lives, not worrying about what was lurking around the corners.

I had only been there for a few minutes before I saw the sedan pull up in front of the cigar shop. The portly fellow was already chewing on the end of a half finished cigar, heading inside to stock up for his next week. I wasn’t exactly sure what he did or why he made the wrong enemies, I wasn’t going to ask any questions when the boss handed me the file folder and told me to take care of it.

It was well known that he had not done what he was meant to in prison.  He had been paid, a lot, to do the interior design of a number of cells, to make them fabulous.  Big Ape and his gang had decided that the spartan, barren minimalism of their lives had to change, and to this end, they paid this man, an imprisoned interior decorator, to make each man's cell into a palace.  He promised them Weimar Republic style extravagance, with burlesque and dancing figurines fashioned from trays.  Additionally, the man said, he had a "friend" who could provide plenty of much-needed butter, which Big Ape used to prepare his friends before loving them.  

Big Ape had starved himself of gallus and ano est pleasures, and had taken a vow of chastity and silence.  To this end, he threatened to sodomize the governor and earned himself a stay in "the hole."  The point of this was to enhance the pleasure of buttering several of his friends in the splendour of a palatial cell - abstaining, of course, heightening the desire.

But, when Big Ape got out, his friends were sorrowful and embraced Big Ape.  The cells were the same, they said, the interior decorator ripped us off.  He left no butter.  Big Ape said nothing, he had been ripped off and made to look stupid in front of his friends.  He simply asked for Big Andy to join him.  Later, Big Andy's cellie asked had happened.  Big Andy finished brushing his teeth, and then said "I am going to get the interior decorator when I get out."

And now was the time.  Big Andy walked into the Interior Decorator's on The Loop.  Inside a stocking, he has several blocks of frozen butter.  He walked over to the man, swings the stocking round and hits him in the face.  The interior decorator goes down and Big Andy begins to beat him to death with the frozen butter filled stocking.  Close to the end, he whispers into the man's ear "Big Ape says he had to make sure someone got fucked using butter."  The frozen butter filled stocking swings and swings, until the man's interior decorating days end in a pool of blood and butter.

Hey Matt_Murdock...i have a few questions. What is the judging process of this contest? How do you keep it fair? 

I kept to the shadows, hugging the wall in the darkened alleyway as I watched the general public stroll by without any knowledge of my presence. That was one of the best parts of working out of a major city, the way I could keep anonymous. There were just certain things that worked better if I went unnoticed. I learned a while back that most people didn’t want to notice anything out of the ordinary. They were content going about their own lives, not worrying about what was lurking around the corners.

I had only been there for a few minutes before I saw the sedan pull up in front of the cigar shop. The portly fellow was already chewing on the end of a half finished cigar, heading inside to stock up for his next week. I wasn’t exactly sure what he did or why he made the wrong enemies, I wasn’t going to ask any questions when the boss handed me the file folder and told me to take care of it.

I pop open the door to the boss's car and step out letting the fresh air smack me right in the face...I shut the door quietly so I don't attract any attention towards my direction. It was a cloudy day and it felt like rain was coming soon......makes this kill even more sad for him heh...I throw my hat onto a tree branch behind a fence and then I walk up to the BG guarding the car from the looks of it he looked like he was the driver and he was bald hehe I like killing bald people....so I took this as an opportunity to stop escaping from being an option....When I finally reach him I say "Hey umm sorry to bother you, but you seem like a tall guy..." The BG grunts and turns toward me..."But I was wondering if you could grab my hat for me?" He looked annoyed, but he nodded and walked over to the tree and right behind the fence and started climbing the tree...during that moment I take out one of my blades and threw it directly into his skull....watching his body stunned he then loses his grip and with a thud...drops to the ground and along came the hat too.

I pick up my hat and say..."He'll feel that in the morning hehe...." I then started making my way towards the car and uses the blade from the corpse and slashes the tires, then I head on to the cigar shop and I think on my way here...."perhaps if I kill him...would that get me a promotion...I mean I sure as hell would take any chance to reach the top for sure!" But there was something else on my mind as well....it was the fact that this man that I was going to kill was my....oh look I reached the shop hehe. I walk behind the shop and starts to pick the lock....so yeah like I was saying this man just so happens to be my....fuck I keep finishing my task before I can tell you....Oh well let's get on with it yeah? I creep around listening in on the man talking about cigars and then money "You want our fucking protection, then you're gon' have to pay up ya old fool!" says the lucky man with a date with my metal or perhaps another surprise...."I-I-I well this s-store hasn't been well with profits lately...so I'm afraid I can't afford your protection, b-b-but if you can tell your boss I need more time I'd be happy to-...." The old man stopped talking as the man said "Well now....what if I went back to the boss empty handed and he comes after my ass, then you'd have to pay for that now won't ya!" 

I start to creep out of the back room and behind the counter unnoticed and I pull out my gu-wait....the old man had a shotgun under his counter and was waiting for the right moment heh smart old fart. Noticing the bigger gun I take the shotgun and pop up from behind the counter and say "Well now....not what if you didn't go back to the boss at all huh? What if I ended you right here....ya see this man already paid up, but here you are trying to squeeze him heh such a shame." I shake my head towards the back room to signal the old man to go back there and wait this out. "You don't have the balls to do it Carmine....after all you wouldn't think to kill your own brother." he says with the smuggest look on his face Ahhh see now the secret is out.....that's what I meant to tell you, but ehh I'm quick on my feet and with my jobs....I say back trying not to start shaking "Oh? Well if I were you I'd leave before I shoot you in your damn kneecap or worse otherwise I'll have loads of men come and surround you and we all fire upon your ass! Now this is your last chance...walk away or end your life!" He puts his gun away and walks out the door with his hands up but says "Well fine then brother...I'll leave, but just know this I'll end up killing the boss one day and there ain't nun you can do about it because YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A PUSSY!" I walk to the back and ask the old man "Mind if I borrow this?" He nodded and said with a wheeze "Go kick his butt sonny!"

I chuckle and then I hear a loud noise...so I ran out the room and outside and to my surprise it was raining and oh I loved the rain and how I was able to frolic in the flowers in the fields-errr ummm shh I said nothing about this.....but anyways.....I found a car just rammed right into a light post and I take it my brother noticed his BG was missing and tried to run off, but nope...there he was opening the door and falling out like a wimp. I start my way towards him and he whimpers "N-n-n-no..p-p-please have mercy....I was leaving I swear!!" I shake my head and say "Well you're still in my sight and was that a cry for mercy from someone like you? Ha that's rich!" I get a little closer to his ear and whisper "Who's the pussy now hehe?" I then aim at his chest and I pull the trigger leading to such a thunderous shot and the rain fell harder. I drag him over to a nearby dumpster and plop goes his body....making my way back towards the boss's car I open his door and sits down shutting the door as I do. "Well done I knew you were the right person for the job and now I know that you're going to a become very valuable addition to the team." The boss says with a smirk as he signals his driver and we drive off leaving the bloody soaked body rotting in the rain.

The contest is now closed. Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter, I appreciate the effort and hard work. The winners will be announced shortly.

I was too afraid to join as I had previously been selected as fourth place which surprisingly hurt my self-esteem to levels you just would not believe, but I am happy to see so many are still given these a chance. Hopefully they all receive more luck than I, with my attempts to bring us all together.

Maybe next time I'll have regained enough of my confidence to give it another go, providing of course that no one else enters.

I'm running a fully independent writing contest, Latom and Sisyphus.  I'm looking forward to reading your entries.