Judas

by Caleb Meeks

  I walked out onto the downstairs back porch. It overlooked basically the same thing as the one attached to the bedroom upstairs, but from a different angle. This one overlooked the road that led up to the house, as well as the plains that extended around the property. It was a nice place to sit down, especially at night. The landscape practically changed from day to night. During the day it was a normal plain landscape, some plants, rocks, the usual things you’re used to seeing outside. But at night, the darkness gave the objects a different life. It’s hard to describe, but it changed the way it felt. Almost like I was sitting on a different planet.

  It wasn’t long before I decided to return to the confines of the house. While that evil presence that was there earlier seemed gone, there was still a subtle unease that came with being in the open environment. It’s ridiculous, because if he wants me dead, he’ll find a way to me, no matter where I am, but it still seemed better to be indoors.

  I walked back into the house, and walked up the stairs. It felt like something was following me, but that wasn’t uncommon, especially on a night like this. The stairs led up the second floor, and I walked down the hallway into my bedroom. It was still pitch black inside, but I intentionally shoved the thoughts that were crowding my mind away. I didn’t have the time or desire to deal with any of them right now. It was one of those nights where I was unsure if I could sleep, but a few hours of sleep were better than nothing, if possible. At this point, any kind of reprieve was welcome.

  I collapsed into the bed. It was so dark that it was difficult to determine whether or not my eyes were open or closed. After a while though, I must have slipped away into some state of rest.

  ▪

  Something unexplainable shook me from my sleep. I could tell that I was still in the same position I was in when I came to bed. I was just about to sit up and look for my phone, which I had foolishly left downstairs before I came to bed, when I heard something foreign. It faintly sounded like footsteps.

  Now, I’m aware that I carry a lot in my mind. I’m aware that sometimes things in my mind represent themselves in tangible ways. I’m also aware that footsteps are a hard thing to imagine, especially when they are walking down the hallway towards your room.

  Without giving it much thought, I rolled over the side of the bed, and rolled underneath it. While it wasn’t the greatest hiding place, and is also the most cliché place to hide, it was the best I could do on such short notice. My mind was still foggy from waking up so suddenly, but I was already cataloging dozens of questions. The greatest of which being, Who is in my house? And even more pressing, How did they find my house? I heard the footsteps come into the room. Based on the stomping, it sounded like a large man. He walked around the room for a moment, undoubtedly checking to see if I was in here.

  “He’s not in here.” The man carried a thick Russian accent.

  Due to the silence in the room, I could hear the voice on the other end say, “He’s there. He couldn’t have gone anywhere else. Keep looking.” The voice seemed to be a native English speaker. The Russian man agreed, and looked harder throughout the room.

  Fortunately, it seemed like he didn’t acknowledge under the bed as a viable hiding place. After all, who actually hides under a bed in real life? He spent a few minutes looking throughout the room, and eventually stepped out onto the porch. He took a moment to glance at the surrounding scenery, then stepped back into the room. Once I heard his footsteps walking away from the room, I rolled out from under the bed. My gun was just on the bedside table, but this wasn’t a situation where a gun would be optimal. At least until I figured out how many were in the house with me. I opted for a quieter approach, and pulled a knife from the contents of the drawer in the table.

  I walked to the edge of the door, which opened into the hallway the guard just exited from. His footsteps just barely resonated, but I could hear them two rooms down the hallway. He was in a guest room, but it was completely unfurnished. As I said, I’m not a materialistic person. Just as I was about to step into the hallway, I saw a gun barrel poke out from the room. He stepped out, looked up and down the hallway, and then moved on down the hallway. While his back was turned, I stepped out and made my way into the cover of the enclosed stairs. I made my way down them very carefully and quietly. It didn’t sound like anyone was immediately in the vicinity, but that’s not always a trustable sense.

  I know that under normal circumstances, like the Jackson meeting, I wouldn’t have had a problem dealing with them. However, if what I feared was true, these men weren’t your standard assassins.

  I made my way to the end of the stairs, and still hadn’t seen anyone else. It was incredibly unlikely that only one killer was sent, but I suppose not impossible. It just didn’t strike me as very likely. When it comes to me, people who want me dead generally send a small militia, not just one man.

  I walked out into the living room, and still found nobody. That didn’t last long, however. Once in the living room, I could hear what sounded like multiple voices whispering in my office. I approached the room, and peeked around the corner. Three men were standing in the room, their backs turned to me. They were all standing in front of the desk, speaking as quietly as possible. From what little verbiage I could pick up, they were going through the contents of the desk. What frightened me about these men was their ability to discuss my history of bloodshed without even an ounce of detectable fear. Usually, when others discuss those details, you can hear the quivering in their voices. These men discussed it like it was casual small talk. It was things about my attack strategies, and how they could use them against me. It was obvious that these men were specialized, which furthered my fear about who sent them. In order to handle this situation, I would have to be more tactical than usual.

  So far, there were four confirmed people in the house with me, but that didn’t necessarily mean there weren’t more. The man who was upstairs with me was dressed in heavy black combat gear. Two of the men in the room shared that same attire, but the man in the middle wore a much less combat ready outfit. It was a simple black t-shirt and black combat pants. No armor, nothing of the sort. It either meant his was painfully underprepared, or that he was intentionally underdressed. The latter seemed both more likely, and more frightening.

  I walked away from the room with the three men in it and walked to the front door. A quick look outside through the peephole in the door revealed a fifth man standing just on the outside of the door. I silently made my way to the porch on the first floor. After a quick inspection, I saw another guard walking the back perimeter of the house. That made six in total. So far, fortunately, they were relatively spread out. It would have been easier if I had my phone, so I could call Dominic and let him know what was going on, but that wasn’t a possibility. I’d have to take this one on my own.

  After thinking for a moment, I decided to go for the guy upstairs first. He was the most isolated, and would likely be the easiest to take down. One thing was for certain, there was going to be blood on my hands.

  I made my way back into the living room, and made sure the three men were still in the office. The house was still shrouded in total darkness, which gave me an edge. The men didn’t appear to be wearing night vision glasses either, so the two combined gave me hope that I’d make it out easier.

  I made my way back up the stairs, making sure to pay extra attention to the presence of the detectable footsteps. From what I could tell, he was back in my bedroom. Guess he was starting to second guess himself. Fortunately for me, my bedroom was one of the darkest rooms in the house. I walked into the room behind him, making sure each step was completely silent. Again, due to the silence, this part was especially important. To make sure it didn’t get messier than it needed to, no bullets could be fired. That meant I needed to wait until he wasn’t prepped and ready to fire. These men were trained to fire at the drop of a hat, which meant even if I could get my hands on him without him noticing me, he would pull the trigger just to alert the other
men to my presence.

  After standing behind him for a short time, he gave me the opportunity I needed. He released his two-handed grip on his weapon, moving the hand gripping the trigger to readjust the mask on his face. That was just what I was waiting for. I flipped the knife to readiness, and advanced toward him. In one fell motion, I reached around him and gripped his chin, pulled it to one side, and slid the knife along the exposed tissue. He didn’t even have time to make a sound. All he did was go limp, and I caught his body before it could hit the ground. I quietly laid him along the side of my bed, so he wasn’t in plain view from the door. That left five more.

  The blood from his throat had oozed onto my hand. I wiped it off on my shirt as best as I could, then tried to ignore it. Until then, I was completely unaware of the temperature in the room, but for some reason, the hot blood on my hand made me aware. Chills shot from my hand up my arm and across my chest. I couldn’t let that distract me, though, as there were more pressing matters ahead of me.

  I walked out onto the patio attached to the room and saw the assailant who was patrolling the back perimeter. He was a brawny man and carried the traditional military temperament along with him. His gun was down at his side while he walked around the area. His focus seemed to be the area of scenery behind the house, which meant his back was turned to me. The patio attached to the room has metal fencing around it. I stepped over the edge of the metal railing and dropped down so I was holding onto just the ledge, and the rest of my body was dangling. I let myself drop, landing the drop almost silently. The man didn’t seem to notice. He was still focused on seeing if I was hiding out in the landscape. For as specialized as these men were, they didn’t seem to be all that intelligent. Still, I knew that if I tried to distract him from where he was, he would alert someone else. Silence was still my greatest weapon here. The darkness was still being kind to me, but since I had no idea what time it was, I didn’t know how much longer I had with it as an asset. Given the openness of my house, it goes from total darkness to daybreak in a matter of minutes.

  The door he had likely come out of, from the back of the house, was shut, which meant he was completely alone back there, and no one had their eyes on him. I slowly crept up behind him. The air was frigid, but I couldn’t let it get to me. I readied the knife in my hand again. The man’s gun was still down at his side, so I was easily able to reach around and restrain him. He went down just as easily as the first man. Not even a simple grunt got out before he went limp. He was heavier than the first man, but I managed to lower him quietly. There wasn’t a place I could quickly put him where he would be hidden, so I made the decision to leave him where he was. I wanted to get out of the open, so I left his body where it was. Blood dripped from the edge of the knife, and my hand.

  That left four more. The man in front of the door, and the three men in my office. That was, if they were still in the office and hadn’t dispersed throughout the house. They’d have to disperse for me to take them down, but that meant I needed to be even more careful, as the three men could be anywhere throughout the area.

  The man in the front of the door would be the next easiest target. The cold had chilled most of my exposed skin. That, combined with the numbing intensity of ending a life, I couldn’t feel much. It felt like my brain had shut off most of my body. I worked my way around the side of the house. The sides of the house were lined with relatively sharp rocks, but I didn’t really feel it. Eventually, I reached the edge of the house. The door guard was just around the corner.

  He seemed very set on staying just where he was, since he hadn’t moved the entire time he’d been there. It was going to be a challenge, since the only way to get to him was by walking right up to him, and he would definitely notice me with that approach. The only way to work this one was with timing and luck. I bent down and picked up a rock. I launched it as hard as I could over the top of the house, so it would land on the opposite side of the house. Just as I hoped, the man turned towards it, giving me just the angle and time I needed to get to him. I quickly moved towards him, and just as I expected, he moved to alert the other people in his unit to the sound. I had to get to him before he hit the button. Fortunately, in order to push the button to speak, he had to release his grip on his gun. I made it to him with little time to spare and was able to grab his arm before he pushed the button. He jerked his head toward me in shock, but I slid the knife across his throat before he could make a sound. I saw the life escape from his eyes, and he fell forward onto me, his head landing on my shoulder. I moved him to the edge of the house I had just come from, since it was out of immediate view. I could feel the blood running down my shirt from how he had fallen. Again, I did my best to ignore it.

  Three left. Dealing with him was significantly messier than the other two men, but it was done. Now I had to deal with the others, and that was going to be the truly messy job.

  The previous man’s body was slumped at the other end of the yard. I needed to get back inside the house but couldn’t use any doors. That meant the front door, the back door, and even the entrance through the first-floor patio were off limits. The only option was to go back the way I came down. The balcony was just above me. It would be a challenge to get onto it, but it was the only option. I slipped the knife in between my teeth and prepared myself for the task. A few feet up on the side of the house, there was a lip, which would give me the leverage I needed to get on the balcony. I squirmed my way onto the lip so that my feet were dug into the wall, and I wasn’t slipping. The sharp pain in my already raw feet tried to convince me to figure out another option, but I was already in the middle of it, so I pushed the pain aside and refocused on the balcony. With an angled jump from the lip on the wall, I was able to grab hold of the balcony’s edge. I was dangling, but I had a solid grip on the concrete slab. It was enough that, with some brute force, I managed to pull myself up onto the balcony. My arms were quivering, but I had made it.

  I didn’t have time to rest, though. There were still three men throughout my house, and I didn’t know where any of them were. Fortunately, none were in my bedroom yet, and by the sound of it, no bodies had been found.

  I made my way through the room, and just like I did with the first man, stood silent at the edge of the hallway. I could pick up a very quiet rustling in the empty guest room two doors down. I slipped into the hallway and crept toward the room. My feet ached from the abuse, and my skin was beginning to be irritated from the blood, but I tried to remain as silent as possible. The man was standing in the room, banging on the wall with his ear pressed up against it. He was trying to determine if there was some kind of secret compartment, I assumed. I pushed past the things trying to distract my mind, and stepped into the room. He was so focused on what he was doing that he didn’t notice the foreign presence enter the room. I made quick work of him, and he dropped to the ground. I moved him into the empty closet in the room. Two left, the scales were finally tipping in my favor.

  My body was revolting against me, but I couldn’t let the weakness or pain get in the way. I walked out of the room, and made my way down the hallway to the stairs. Once at the bottom of the stairs, I listened for voices or footsteps. Nothing was immediately detectable. What scared me was the man who wasn’t in combat attire. The fact that I hadn’t seen him since he was in the office meant he was either gone, or more likely, waiting for me somewhere.

  I stepped out of the cover of the stairs, and checked the office. It was empty. There was no indication they just had gear laid out, or that there was even a human presence in it. They were either outside, or in the room with the door to go outside. After quick inspection, I saw the last combat ready assailant in the big open space that lead to the backyard. He was looking out the windows, and by the looks of the room, had turned it over. Still though, no sign of the other man.

  I walked into the room and was perfectly silent. This man, however, turned around just as I was behind him, blocking my ability to dispatch him silently. Instinctively, I ki
cked the gun out of his hand, and it flew to the side of the room, thudding on the ground. The man looked shocked for a moment, but that evil killer look quickly came over him again. It was foreign to see a man look into my eyes and not recoil in fear. Instead of calling out, he just looked me in the eye, ready to kill me if he got the chance. That’s the fortunate part of men like this. They get cocky and selfish, which makes them easier to take down.

  I took a few steps back, and he made the same steps toward me. Quickly, I reached down and grabbed a glass jar from the table next to me. He looked at me with a confused glance, but it fell from his face as I smashed the bottle across his face. It knocked him to the side, as well as lacerated his face. It lacerated my hand as well, but I ignored the pain. I followed through by throwing a kick into the side of his head as he was recoiling from the previous hit. He was now standing up straight, but completely disoriented. I took the chance at his open throat to ready my knife, and then slit the man’s throat. I sharply inhaled as the blood spit on my face and chest. His body dropped to the ground, only making a sound as he connected with the floor. One more.

  I was overcome with fear at the thought of facing the last man. His lack of presence meant he was waiting for me, and I could feel it. The sun had just crested the horizon, so a subtle amount of daybreak light broke through the darkness. At least I could look him in the eyes. Something told me he was waiting on the back porch.

  I stepped towards the door and gripped the handle. The blood on my hands had mostly dried, but some wiped off on the handle as I turned it. The door silently opened, and just as I anticipated, the man was standing cross-armed on the other side of the yard.

  “About time. I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to make it through them. I mean, I only brought them so you could kill them, but I didn’t think it would take you that long.” The man spoke with dripping pride. A toothy smile split across his face. He didn’t look prepared to fight, he looked prepared to go to an informal cookout. “You look exhausted.” He paused to let that the criticism settle for a moment. “I suppose that was the point though.” I stood silent, staring into his eyes. He was ready to kill me, and the look in his eyes proved it. “Oh, before I forget. An old friend says hi.” That last sentence shot fear directly into my soul. It proved exactly what I expected.