Sasha the Assassin Part 3

Sasha had spent the evening stalking Arthur and now he’d finally returned to his home. The place he lived in was little more than a blacksmith’s workshop with a small bed to sleep in. She had scouted the one room of the house and found it more than suitable for her to fight Arthur in. Arthur washed his face from a small bucket of water near the forge as she pushed open the door and walked inside.

“Ready for your beating?” she said as she walked towards him, stopping when she was only a few feet away.

“You’re really doing this?” Arthur replied with a smirk. “You’re really coming after me for a fight?”

“No, it’s not a fight. Its entertainment, cause I could kill you any time I wanted to.” Sasha told him.

                Arthur put his arms up in the traditional pose of a boxer. “Let’s see you get past this defense.” He said confidently. He bounced back and forth on the balls of his feet. Sasha admired his form he likely had fought some in his life.

                “OK” she answered and with that she jumped into a shadow on the wall next to her and reappeared through a shadow on the wall behind him. With a flick of her leg she struck the back of his right knee, dropping him to his knees. Another kick hit home in his ribs, she could feel them bend under the impact of her leg. A forearm to the back of the head sent him sprawling to the ground.

                Arthur made a series of incoherent grunts and groans as he stumbled to his feet. Sasha stood before him with her arms extended to the side and a wide smile on her face. “Finally understanding what you’ve gotten yourself into?” She said to him. He charged her and swung but found only air. Again Sasha was behind him, this time a right hand dug into his liver and a left slammed into his kidney. Arthur crumpled to the ground writhing in pain.

                “Sooner or later, I’ll tire of just hitting you and then it’s going to end real quick for you.” Sasha said as she crouched down over him. “Just stay down and admit defeat.” She told him. Arthur slowly fought to his knees and then dragged himself to his feet.  Raising his arms back in the boxers pose he defied her and sought to continue the fight.

                  Sasha sighed as he slowly lurched towards her. She threw a slow, looping kick towards his side, waiting for him to her leg and pin it to his side. He did as she wanted and managed to grab her leg. Diving through a nearby shadow she carried him with her through the darkness and they came back out falling from the ceiling of the room, Sasha having maneuvered herself such that she was on top of him as they crashed into the ground, her knee driving itself into his stomach and knocking the wind out of him.

                   Arthur gasped like a fish out of water as he lay on his side. Sasha stalked around him as he continued to fight for breath. “So I win yet?” she asked him. A nod of his head signaled his agreement with her. “Good, you’re no fun for fighting, do you have any use?” she asked as she pulled him to his feet and then hiptossed him onto his bed. A quick grab of his shirt tore it off him. She caressed his stomach muscles as he laid breathing on the bed. “You really are a well-built man. You might be some fun after all.”

                   “You really think after all that that I’m going to fuck you.” Arthur asked between deep breaths. Sasha stripped off her top. A tiny white undershirt that did little to conceal her breasts was beneath it. She kicked off her boots as she kept her eyes locked on his.

                   “Yes.” Sasha said as she leaned over to give him a good look at her breasts. She turned and slowly stripped her pants off, showing him her ass as she undressed. The goal of this was to keep his attention away from the pair of daggers in the sides of her pants. She turned to face him as she removed her shirt and kicked her pants towards the bed to make sure she had easy access to her weapons if she needed them.

                    Sasha pulled his pants off and then straddled him. “Do you kill men after you do this?” he asked her.

                   “Yes. I've killed three.” Sasha replied, and her mind drifted away from being with him. She was back in the school with Mistress Melody. It was the sex lesson. The Mistress lay on the ground and beckoned Sasha over to her.

                    “Straddle me my dear." she told Sasha and positioned the young girl on top of herself." You’re going to have sex with many men, this will help you to kill them.” The Mistress said sweetly. Sasha tried to drown it out, to get back to enjoying being with Arthur, she was still straddling his body and she could feel him inside her now and hear his breathing as she rode him. The pleasure of being with him was unsettling with the Mistress still inside her mind, still controlling how she handled having sex.

                     “Remain upright give the man a good show and let him see your body.” The mistress said as she reached up and played with Sasha’s flat chest. “Soon you’ll have breasts. They will be molded by our garments and tricks to be of a modest size, but perfectly formed, so that they will not hinder you in battle but will allure a man when revealed to him. Keep your eyes open and your hands on his wrists. This will prevent anything from happening to you, and he won’t mind it. Men are just into sex for themselves, give them what they want and then you can take your time killing them.” Melody told her.

                      “Why do I have to have sex with them? Why don’t I just kill them right away?” Sasha asked.

                       “Oh my child, there’s so much to intrigue and deception. Gently smother an old man with a pillow and the fools will think his heart gave out after a night of being with you. Run a knife across his throat and folks ask questions, questions your master or your future employers would not want asked.  We kill people exactly the way we are told to kill them. If our masters demand the room be covered in blood then we cover it in blood. Should they ask us not to spill a single drop of blood, then we can do that also. The assassin is capable of anything that is requested of them.” The Mistress told her. “Besides why not give them a little joy before their lives are ended? I like to think of it as the assassin’s gift to their victim” she said with a smile that unsettled Sasha when she was a child and it unsettled her now.

                        She fought to drive Mistress from her mind and returned to staring down at Arthur. He did seem to be enjoying himself and Sasha wondered if she was good at performing sex even just as a reflexive action or if men were just really easy to please. Sasha removed her hands from his wrists and drove them into the bed on either side of his head. His hands remained by his sides as he continued to writhe beneath her. She continued to watch them, waiting for them to spring into action to strangle her at any moment but they seemed content to just remain where they were.

                        Slamming her eyes shut she decided to focus totally on just enjoying having sex, on trusting this man not to kill her. A moan escaped her lips as she felt the pleasure of him sliding in and out of her body. His hands grasped her breasts and she felt like having boobs was almost cheating, giving his hands a place to be such that she could keep track of them even with her eyes closed. Her head lolled back as another wave of pleasure overtook her and then it was over. Sasha stared down incredulously at Arthur, who responded to her gaze by falling asleep. She quickly decided against killing him at least for the moment and got about getting herself dressed. She knew she had a long distance to travel to intercept the convoy that was bringing the ring to the capital and while this little distraction wasn’t going to hurt her mission, she knew that spending hours waiting for him to wake up to try the whole sex thing again would be a problem.

                       After getting fully dressed Sasha tapped Arthur on the cheek with the back of her hand, he startled a little bit and was in a daze when he responded.

                      “Huh? What?” he mumbled.

                       “We will be doing this again.” Sasha whispered in his ear.

                      “Are you going to kick my ass again?” he asked, his words slurring together, she wondered how much damage she had done to him in the fight.

                      “Of course, that’s the only part I enjoyed.” She told him as she left.

Sasha The Assassin Part 2

Sasha walked the three miles to the sprawling estate of Lord Brown. The manor had been in a constant state of remodeling and repair for the last five years as the Brown family had decided to start making the place look nicer to get ready for their impending return to power as the Lords of the Southern Lands. Sasha slinked about to the back of the estate since there was no way a slave, even one as powerful as Sasha was to be permitted use of the front entrance.

Pablo, one of Lord Brown’s many staffers saw Sasha entering the building. “Sasha my dear, the Lord expected you would be a little bit later. I shall alert him to your hasty arrival.” Sasha liked the old man and she studied him as he left the room, rail thin with little white hair on the sides and back of his head, he didn’t shave his head as most people did. A few moments later Pablo waved her into another room.

“Sasha, look at them, are they not beautiful?” Lord Brown said in his deep booming voice. There on the table where eight of the ten rings of the champion. The metal in the rings rippled with energy giving them a luminous glow. “We are so close my child, only two rings stand between us and finally being able to reclaim the power that was stolen from us four hundred years ago.” Sasha did all she could to pretend she was listening to the speech. Ever since she had left Mistress Melody and became a servant of Lord Brown all she’d ever heard about was how the Champions had stolen the Browns throne and that now the Browns were going to get it back.

She was personally responsible for three of the rings having been obtained. The others she didn’t know about and didn’t care to know about, the folly of all this was that none of the rings did a damn thing till all ten were on the hands of one person and the tenth ring resided deep inside the castle of the capital city. Sasha had no idea what insane plan Lord Brown had in store to try to pry that ring from the Champions grasp, but she felt confident it was very likely to kill her.

“And the day of the great assault just happens to be the last day of your service to me.” Lord Brown said, the words snapped her out of her stupor. “Just think that I will once again restore the Brown family name to its rightful place on the final day of your bondage. In less than a month it will all be over. ” He said it with such joy that it chilled her bones. She was going to be walking into a trap and he was insane enough to believe she’d make it out OK.

“Oh and we know of the ninth ring’s location.” Lord Brown said. “It’s being transported to from the Northern Mountains to the capital city. It’s a standard escort, and likely a trap, but I’m sure you’ll figure out how to handle it.” He finished with a matter of fact tone.

“Did the Greens give you this information?” Sasha asked.

He studied her for a moment. “Yes they did, why are you so distrustful of them?” he asked her back.

“Cause they are giving you power beyond measure. Once you have claimed all ten rings you will be an unstoppable killing machine. You know the stories of what the Champion did.” She knew he hated hearing that word but she said it none-the-less. “If you wanted to slaughter the whole Green family and purge their bloodline from existence you could do so. There is no contract you can’t cancel, no oath you can not break once you’ve obtained these rings. To trust anyone in such a situation is madness.” Sasha replied.

Lord Brown laughed his jolly laugh. His brown eyes had a spark of joy in them that illuminated his round face. He rubbed his bald head as he smiled as Sasha. “My son is married to their daughter. They are having their first child in three months. The Browns and Greens have been allies since this nation was founded and together we shall rule the Southern Lands. My child, do not worry of such things. Worry only about your ride to the Northern Road and the slaughtering of the king’s men that you shall be doing to get me that ninth ring.”

He sat down in front of the table holding the eight rings.  “You want it messy?” she asked him, surprised at his request.

“Yes. I honestly think the crown is testing me. Taunting me with this ring and seeing if I have the nerve to go after it. So you might as well strike hard and show them that I do mean business.” Lord Brown responded.

“Will the crown declare war on you? Will the Champions unleash their armies upon you?” Sasha asked. To brazenly assault the king’s men as Lord Brown intended would provoke a response.

“If they do, it will be too late for them by the time they are ready to strike. I am sure they will do things to try to meddle with us, but we’ve been planning this for a long time, we have everything accounted for,” Lord Brown said, his smile that of a true believer expecting to enter paradise. “Your horse is waiting for you. It shouldn’t be more than ten hours of riding to make it to the North Road. The convoy is well north right now.  It will be easy to find them and set up a proper ambush.” Lord Brown told her.

“I will not fail you.” Sasha told him as she turned to leave.

“Sasha” Lord Brown said, stopping her in her tracks. “You were rather quick to answer my call. Were you causing trouble in the market again? He asked.

“I didn’t kill anyone, but there was a blacksmith who insulted me. I might kill him later.” She told him.

 Lord Brown sighed. “Just don’t do it in public.” He told her as he sat down and stared at his rings.

Sasha knew she had time to kill before she had to get to the north road. She was going to meet up with the blacksmith this evening, and she wasn’t going to kill him in public.

Sasha The Assassin Part 1

The crowd of people crossed the street rather than walk past her. Sasha loved the fear she inspired in people. Walking along the street of the town market she stared down various people in the crowd and the guards standing watch over the more expensive carts, nobody dared return her gaze. She walked over to a kiosk where a jeweler had fine golden necklaces and other items for sale, the man nearly jumped as she approached.

“Can I help you?” the man stammered. Sasha merely smiled at him, both of them understood she could take anything she wanted and the man could do nothing about it.

“Oh that’s pretty.” Sasha cooed as she looked at a silver bracelet. She closed her eyes for a moment and let her glamour take over. Blood red irises balefully stared at the merchant when she opened them again.

“Please. Do not kill me.” The man whimpered. He waved his hand at his wares, pleading with her to just take whatever she wanted.

“I was just looking around. Thank you.” She said sweetly as she walked away. Sasha spied a free standing building across the street and decided to see what it had to offer. Entering the building she saw cheap pottery and other bobbles on the shelves. Behind the counter three men were shooting dice, she could hear them yelling for different numbers to come up.

“Service here is lacking.” She said mockingly to the men.

“Fuck you bitch. I got a week’s pay on a nine showing up.” One of the men yelled back at here.

Sasha knocked a pot off a shelf and sent it crashing to the ground. It shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces. “Oh I’m so clumsy.” She said.

“You dumb cu.” The man stopped cold when he turned and saw her standing before him, clad head to toe in black, with a black robe covering her upper body with a hood that shrouded her face in shadow. 

“Assassin” the man hissed and grabbed a small knife on the floor near him, the other two men spun around and grabbed knives themselves.

“Boys, let’s not be tense here. I was just trying to get some service and then I accidentally dropped this vase here. I shall make repayment for that.” She finished with a wicked smile as she walked towards the men.  She reached into her robe and all the men flinched before she produced a coin purse and dropped three large coins on the counter. “This should compensate you for your troubles.” She said. The money she put on the counter was more than ten times the cost of the pot.

One of the men stepped towards the money. “Don’t do it, it’s a trap, she’ll kill you.” One of the other men shouted.

“I can kill her.” The man replied, but his actions didn’t seem to back up his words as he didn’t step take another step towards the money.

“You need to quit harassing people little girl.” A voice said from the entrance. Sasha turned and saw a large man, maybe a foot taller than her, standing in the doorway. His arms and upper body were covered in muscles, he was clearly a laborer. His hair was shaved nearly to the skin which was a light bronze his brown eyes stared at her with supreme confidence. “Now get out of here before I have to do something I’d regret.” He told her.  

Sasha laughed. She couldn’t believe somebody could be so foolish as to threaten her. She pulled her hood off to reveal her hair it was cut into a bob it was white except for the sections that framed her face was black. She stared at the large man for a moment as another glamour took hold and turned her hair from a black white combination to now a pink and blue combination.  “Do you have any idea what I am?” she asked the man.

“You’re a slave who knows a couple parlor tricks and you dress in all black to scare people who believe in nonsense.” The man said. He could see the collar around her neck, the one thing Sasha couldn’t control. Right as he talked about it she could feel the blades inside it pressing on her neck. Her master was pulling her leash and she had to obey him, had to go to him. Thankfully she was much closer to his keep than she normally would be so she could bother to banter with this man for a few more minutes without earning a second more painful reminder to see Lord Brown.

“There are three men standing behind me with knives. Yet none of them dare attack me, even with my back turned, why do you think that is?” she asked the man. She gestured as if she was going to throw something behind her back and two of the men flinched, the third threw himself to the floor.

“Cause they are idiots who believe in the boogeyman. Now get you pasty white ass out of here before I have to drag you back to your master.” The man said as he gestured to the door.

“You’re a blacksmith I’m guessing.” She said to the man. “What’s your name? Who could be a man so foolish as to not understand that he lives and dies by my whim?”

“I am a blacksmith, and my name is Arthur and a little thing like you couldn’t kill me. Well maybe if the sex was too good.” He said with a grin.

Sasha walked towards the door. She didn’t kill anyone in the room mostly because it would piss off Lord Brown who hated her even being in public, body counts meant bribes had to paid and he did so hate parting with his money when it wasn’t part of his insane quest to take over the kingdom. “Arthur, I will find you sometime soon and I enter your house and beat the shit out of you. I will make you beg for mercy and if you are very lucky, I will not kill you.”

“Whatever you say little lady.” Arthur replied. He slapped Sasha’s ass as she walked away. Sasha could not believe how incredibly stupid the man was. She shook her head as she walked into the street and then she decided to mess with his a little more, she turned and blew him a kiss. She didn’t know exactly how she felt about him, but she figured that she would have a better understanding of that once she had left him in a bloody heap on the floor of his home.

Writing Prompt: A shy girl who can read minds finds out the most popular kid in school is also a mind reader.

"Only what they say, not what they think." Rebecca said into the mirror. It was her daily mantra before school. It had been two weeks in her new school in LA and so far things had gone a lot better than they had in Vegas. She had lost twenty pounds and gained a cup size over the last year but none of that really changed her opinion of herself. All she could think about was the party.
She and her friends got drunk and she started mouthing off about being able to read minds and then she backed up her talk. The next week she became known as the witch. It hurt so much to go to school every day and hear them thinking about her, how she was evil, a freak, a monster. She heard it all without even focusing on anyone, just a constant static of negativity and insults always floating inside her head.

She quit drinking and vowed never to mouth off about her powers again. Then luck had it that her dad got a promotion and raise at his company and he had to move out to LA for it. Leaving Las Vegas was a blessing for Rebecca and so far she hadn't screwed up anything in the city of angels.
She walked into her second period class with Mr. Mills with an air of confidence, she loved tests since all she ever needed to do was to find the nerds and parrot their answers. Tim and Greg were to be her ticket to a high 90's score. She sat down and watched them file in, behind them was Randy. Randy was gorgeous, short curly brown hair, golden eyes that were so expressive, cute dimples when he smiled. She remembered an impromptu dance off held one day after school and he just jumped into the middle of it and had everyone cheering by the end, he was so graceful and fluid in his movements. If not for the constant sexual comments she heard in boy's thoughts she'd have felt worse about her gender's reactions to Randy that afternoon.

The tests were handed out and she glanced at the first question about one of the issues the colonies had with the crown. In this case she knew it was the Stamp Act but was thankful that Tim confirmed it for her. Tim helped her breeze through the first five questions before he started fumbling for an answer as to who was the British commander who lost at Saratoga, thankfully Greg was confident it was Burgoyne.

Eric helped her for the next two and then he was drawing a blank on who was the foreign officer who helped drill US troops at Valley Forge. She went back to Tim and he was also puzzling it out, but something was weird, she could feel something fuzzy going on in Greg's head, like she had on headphones that were giving feedback. Almost instinctively her head turned to the right and then her eyes locked with Randy's.

They stared at each other and she could barely breathe. She closed her eyes and winced trying to fight off a panic attack, her heart pounded in her chest.

"He figured it out, it's Baron Von Steuben." Randy's thoughts filled her mind. "You stick to Greg. I'll stick to Tim so we don't screw each other up."

She looked at him and he gave a quick smile and went back to the test. In almost a catatonic state she filled out the rest of the test based on Greg's answers and then turned the paper in. Was this real? Was her mind messing with her? Never before in her life had she fought to keep thoughts out as hard as she did after finishing the test, she felt like she was having a nervous breakdown.

The bell sounded and she had to fight the urge to run screaming from the room. Instead she timed her exit so she got to the door just behind Randy.

"Can you hear me thinking about you?" she thought, waiting to see if Randy would respond.

"Yes I can. As you can hear me." he thought back to her. "Have you ever met anyone else who can do this?" he asked.

"Nope. This is so strange. I can't believe this is happening." she thought back to him.

"James, my man!" Randy said as he clasped hands and hugged one of the captains of the football team. James and Randy started small talking and Rebecca felt weird and started walking away. She kept her focus on Randy's mind to see if he kept trying to message her.

"Sorry about that. James is all smiles on the outside but his home life is rough. I do what I can to help him." Randy thought. He disengaged from James and followed her. "So, did you get every question right?" he thought to her.

"All but one. High eighties is the goal after a bunch of high nineties. Keep them from thinking I'm a cheat." She replied.

"You aim high, I just pass, straight C's and no stress." he retorted.

"What about college? A good job?" she asked.

He started laughing out loud it would have been jarring if anyone had been paying attention to them to see him burst out laughing while just walking down the hall. He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Rebecca right? Hate to be talking in thoughts and getting your name wrong. Are you kidding me? We're mind readers, we know anyone's thoughts, ATM numbers, safe combinations, there's no secret that's safe from us, the world is ours."

Rebecca pushes his arm away. "That's dishonest. We can't just steal from people!" she wished thoughts could yell as she thought that.

"Then just get into a big company, show your power to the right people. How much would Bill Gates pay to have a mind reader in the room with him when he's working on a deal with some other CEO's? What would the government give to find out what other world leaders are really thinking?"
Rebecca looked at him and felt stupid. Her whole life she'd let herself abide by the same rules the rest of the world followed, but they were not her rules, she was different and special and could do practically whatever she wanted with her gift so long as she used it wisely.

"Maybe we should have kids. Imagine how powerful they could be." he thought to her. She jerked out of her stupor and looked at him, his handsome smile on his face.

"Hey, it's just a thought." he said to her as he winked and walked away.

writing prompt "The heroes who saved us, 40 years later."

Gary never liked the monument. He had avoided it for many years, but now with his wife dead and there really nothing to do with his days he spent his time walking along the park and feeding the birds.

There the four of them were, captured in bronze. Will and him ducking over as they were scampering to the enemy line, Jim behind them kneeling with his gun ready to fire. Zeb the centerpiece of the monument, standing and pointing at the enemy. Rifle slung over his back and his other hand holding the flag of the republic.

Heroes and legends they were. The four brave men who led the great charge that broke the enemy line and won the battle that turned the war. He shook his head. If only people knew the truth of the men on in that monument.

Will was a sex addict, he couldn't help himself, consent wasn't really required when it came to women he came in contact with. If there was no women the animals would do. He jerked off constantly when he had nothing else to stick his dick in. Gary was just thankful he never tried to screw any men in the company or it could have ended badly. He was glad he never heard about any corpses being defiled.

Jim was the definition of a coward. The only reason he hadn't been hung before this battle was he found good places to hide while the fights happened, here he was fighting for the simple reason he had been shot in the foot early in the battle and he couldn't run away. Caught in the maelstrom if the battle he wasn't a half bad fighter, but with that injury he never would have fired a shot in anger the whole war.

Then there was himself, the fight raged on for seven hours and he had spent three of them incapacitated. He remembered fighting and battling and then nothing, just a lost chunk of time. When he came too it was dusk, an enemy fighter was kneeling over him. Gary thought for sure he would be killed. Instead the man offered him a drink from his canteen.

Gary took the drink and nodded to thank the man, and right then a bullet ripped through the man's chest. It was Zeb who shot him, Zeb the murderious lunatic. After the man fell Zeb rushed over and lifted his rifle high in the air and then brought the butt down with a sickening crunch. The man's head exploded and sent blood and gore spraying in all directions. Zeb had heard the enemy displayed their dead publicly as part of their religion. So Zeb wanted them to be as maimed and disfigured as possible. Lulls in combat were skull smashing time. Both the dead and the wounded were fair game for Zeb's rampages. Zeb's gun was always caked in blood and chunks of skull, brain and hair.
And there the four of them were immortalized in bronze for future generations to look up to. The great heroes of the republic, a rapist, pigfucking maniac who kept it in his pants only when his life was threatened. A coward we was forced into combat thanks to injury. Himself a man only alive due to the misguided mercy of the enemy. All of whom were led by a psychopathic monster who was happiest when he was covered in the blood of people he had killed.

The heroes of the republic read the inscription at the base of the monument. Gary wondered if the public had any idea who these men they called heroes really were. As he looked at a group of young people being led to the monument by a teacher. She began explaining the story of the great battle and the final change and all the nonsense that passes for history.

Gary walked away and got back to feeding the birds. People needed their legends. Their tales of great men doing great things. He knew that he wasn't a hero, nor were the others, but if looking at that monument made people feel better about themselves and their nation, then that would be good enough.

Writing prompt. In 1903 a Baptist Preacher stands at a crossroads with a pair of pistols and an axe waiting to fight the Devil.

Arthur Greene stands in the middle of the crossroads. A cool breeze at his back makes him relax a little, but his body is still tense in anticipation of the upcoming battle. He is to defeat the Lord of Flies and end the spread of his evil in the world.

Arthur's old hands can barely open his pistols to check them yet again to make sure both have all six bullets in their chambers. He looks at his withered hands and wonders why he was allowed to live a long life when his sons were taken so young by the war.

As he rubbed his bald head he looked towards the heavens. "Oh Lord, please give me the strength to do this in your name."

"You call to him." a voice said. Arthur's head snapped in the direction it came from and he saw an older Latino man in a white suit. "You side with him against me. Why is that?" the man asked, his eyes an unsettling pale green.

Arthur looked at the man. "You are Satan." he said, trying to conceal his fear.

"Oh I have so many names." The devil said dismissively. "You get called so many insults it's hard to keep track of them. I tell you my friend I am tired. I truly am, fighting God and his lies has worn me out. I have forsworn all my protections and powers. As I stand before you I am truly and utterly mortal, one bullet from one of your guns could kill me."

Arthur drew one of his guns. "You turned man against man, you brought a war beyond imagining to our nation. My sons are dead because of you." Arthur could barely choke out the words as tears filled his eyes. Thinking of his long dead children always hurt him.

"Your sons died in the war. What side did they fight for?" The Devil asked him the sympathy in his voice almost sounded honest to Arthur.

"They fought for the Union. We're proud to have beaten the rebels for their treason." Arthur said.
"Then they fought in my army. Fought and defeated God's forces." The Devil replied. He smiled, his teeth were yellowed and one of his incisors was missing.

"God was on our side. You were the one that turned the Rebs against us, against the Union." Arthur reached for his gun but as he did the bible in his vest pocket jumped into the air and he caught it. It opened To Exodus 21.

"Exodus 21, verses 20 and 21. Explains that if you hit your slave and kill them right away, then you get punished, you have to let them linger in agony for a day or two before they die before God will absolve you."

Arthur seethed. "Don't you be trying to lie to me. Leviticus 25:17 says Ye shall not oppress each other. I know my Good Book." he replied.

The Devil nodded. "Well played, but there are so many chapters condoning slavery or explaining the rules by which one keeps slaves. Why is that? Why were the pulpits of the Confederacy filled with preachers assuring their followers that God was with them and that slavery was blessed by the Lord?"

"You deceived them! You led them away from God and into rebellion and war. You gave them the justifications they needed to keep people slaves." Arthur replied, his voice was cracking and was having trouble breathing.

"How did I deceive them when they were just quoting God's words from God's holy book? It is the unerring word of God is it not? How could I besmirch it's pages?" The Devil asked.

Arthur didn't know how to respond, he wanted to scream, to run to do anything but he couldn't move. He felt frozen in place.

"And let's not forget the Mormons, and it's not just them honestly. The Mormons who declare black skin to be the mark of Cain, and that those who have the mark are to be servants for all of time itself.
 Let me ask you something Arthur. Do you think a God who loves everyone wrote that, or did a white man write it and just claim God said it?"

Arthur couldn't take hearing the Devil's speech anymore. He didn't even remember pulling the axe from behind his back. He'd never thrown an axe in his life before but somehow it came out of his hand with the form of an expert logger, straight and true into the chest of the Devil.

The Devil dropped to his knees. "I was the one who told you to bite from the apple. I made you humans while he wanted to keep you in ignorance for all of time. I was the one who led you to break the chains of the slaves. I asked you to think for yourselves, and for all this I have been hated since the birth of man. I'm so very tired, I thank you for finally letting me rest Arthur. My work here is done." The Devil coughed a couple times, blood poured from his mouth and chest, soaking his white suit.

"Your work is done?" Arthur asked in confusion.

"You think for yourselves. That's all" he coughed violently. "You'll all see in time what He truly is.
That he's a possessive controlling monster, one by one the scales will fall from your eyes till one day he's tired and finds a man like you to put him out of his misery. He won't enjoy it, the selfish prick will cling to power for every last second that He"

Arthur cut him off with a bullet to the stomach. The Devil grunted and fell on his side and then slumped to his back. After thrashing for a few seconds he went limp.

Arthur looked at the body for few minutes, waiting for something to happen, like a flock of ravens to burst into the sky or for the body to burst with maggots and worms, something anything to symbolize the death of evil incarnate. No signs came, to truths were revealed, it was just Arthur the body of an older Latino man on a street corner.

Arthur walked closer and looked at the Devil's face. The Devil's face was tranquil, his mouth at a smile, his glassy eyes had an expression of relief about them. That face would haunt him the rest of his years, along with the one feeling he never thought he'd have after he'd killed the Devil.
Regret.

Writing Prompt. The outgoing President writes a letter to the incoming President about the horrible truth the public doesn't know.

Dear Mr. President

I was about to write the usual form letter about how this job is tough but you'll get the hang of it cause you got a good head on your shoulders and all that, but well, something came up so this won't be that letter.

You heard the rumors about twelve men who secretly rule the world? Well it's true, the congress and I get our marching orders from them every week. The dog and pony show of Democrat and Republican is all there just to keep the tree huggers and the gun huggers happy, a nice little diversion to let everyone think they are working the system when it's all meaningless.

That was the case until last week. Nobody knows how but one of their meetings was breached. A bomb of some kind got thrown in the room, and these dudes that rule the world are real damn old so they don't take well to a bomb going off, last we knew, seven of them are dead and two more are in rough shape and the other three are at each others throats blaming each other for the attack.
Now I know you're thinking we're leaderless and that's a bad thing, but don't worry about that. The world has run on auto-pilot for periods of time, these guys do need vacations when not micromanaging social issues in India, you and the congress can keep the kabuki theater running for a while.

The real problem is there's seven seats already open at the table, with maybe two more to open up still. Seats that mean real power in this world, the ability to really rule.
Those who know about them and know that this happened. What do you think they'll do to get one of those seats? What about those who fail? Will they just accept it or will they try to topple the whole system?

I'm angling for a seat myself, one of three remaining men in good condition likes me a lot, and he needs allies, so if I'm a bit more combative than an Ex-President usually is, you know why.
Hopefully he'll contact you, his name is Harold. Be polite with him, he might try to recruit you, accept right away, he's not one to tolerate those who dither. You could be the first President since Nixon to sit at the table. Nixon really fucked it up for the rest of us, that stupid bastard.
Just know this, every other world leader wants it too and they'll do anything to get it. Economic sabotage, war, genocide, literally everything's in play.

Welcome to the greatest power struggle the world has ever seen. Good Luck.

Signed, The Ex-President and the Future Chair #6