Shadow Justice

My life changed when I was just twelve years old. I was woken up in the middle of the night by my parents’ screams. The screaming prevailed only for a few seconds; I rushed out of my room to see how my parents were doing when I heard my twin baby brothers crying as well. Instead of checking on my parents, I went to my brothers’ cribs to console them, and while talking to them to get them to smile, a woman stepped into the room. She wore a hood, and had gloves on.

I stood in front of my brothers, even though my entire body began to tremble. “I won’t let you hurt them,” I said.

The woman sighed and gave a faint smile. “I’m no child-killer, unlike your parents. You’ve got heart, Lia. I hope you grow up to be a good citizen, not be part of a global organisation hell-bent on propagating terrorism and racial supremacy." The woman turned to leave, but paused to say one last thing before disappearing into the shadows. “I’m sorry about your parents, but I had no other choice. There are too many more out there, and at different points of time; my work isn’t done.”

Following the murder of my parents, my twin brothers and I were adopted by my Aunt Dani. Being a widow with no children of her own, she said she was more than happy to raise us as her own. My aunt spoiled my siblings and me, but no matter how at home I felt in her house, I still had flashbacks to the day that changed everything. The assassin’s words stuck with me, echoing in my head. Were my parents really terrorists? Were they really such destructive people? The anxiety surrounding the mystery only grew as I got older.

I confronted Aunt Dani about it, and she stood there speechless for a moment before finally replying. She denied everything that the assassin had said, but there was something in her voice that just didn’t feel right. Maybe I was imagining things, maybe it was my intuition, but there was no solid evidence either way. I didn’t bother her with similar questions after that day, but I did spend time in therapy to figure out my doubts. Years passed, but those doubts never truly disappeared. We once heard that the assassin was taken into custody, but she had disappeared just a day later, leaving no trace behind. Two police officers and their spouses were found dead in their homes the following morning.

Once I graduated, I moved to a different city and started over, wanting to leave that traumatic past behind. I earned new skills and found new hobbies that kept my mind busy, and the new friends I made often invited me to different functions and trips that allowed me to relax in ways that I couldn’t before. However, it wasn’t long before one of my friends introduced me to someone whose sight froze me where I stood. The friend they wanted me to meet was the assassin, and somehow, she looked no older than she did all those years ago. It was then that something she said back then echoed in my mind: “...and at different points of time.”

The assassin said she’d explain everything to me once the function was over, so I waited impatiently for what she had to say. Once we were alone, she pulled back her sleeve and tapped on a device on her wrist that looked like a miniature tablet. The space around us quickly distorted, and seconds later, we were standing a few feet away from my old house, on the same night she killed my parents. Mum and Dad were at the dining table, discussing something in whispers.

“That town must fall for us to move forward. We need to wipe out everyone in it.”

“Agreed, not even a single child of that filth can be spared.”

I couldn’t imagine what I was hearing. They were devising plans to ethnically cleanse people and claim their lands. Their talks were ambitious, as if they were the chosen ones who would inherit the earth, and that all other races needed to be wiped out for them to thrive. They even spoke about recruiting me for their cause in another year, saying I should become the perfect killer. My stomach twisted and my skin grew cold as I heard those words. The assassin led me to the living room and helped me sit down on the sofa. She asked me not to worry, saying that we were stealthed at the time, only being witnesses to the timeline rather than interacting with it directly.

The assassin then tapped on her device again, and we suddenly travelled forward in time to the next day. It was late at night, and someone was sticking to the shadows and moving a secret tile in the bathroom. When I saw who it was, it finally made sense… It was Aunt Dani; she was taking confidential files my parents had hidden.

“Those files went to another family in a different city. I took care of them a week later,” the assassin said.

“Why did you spare my aunt?” I asked.

“She was pressured into getting involved back then; she hasn’t been a part of the organisation’s plans before or since.” The assassin then handed me a device similar to hers. “Now you get to make a choice: you can join our cause and fight against the people that pose a threat to the world, or you can turn back and go back to the life you were living before.”

I couldn’t stand idly by knowing there were people out there like my parents who sought to destroy other people’s lives and steal their homes. I accepted her offer and took the device. The assassin smiled. “Thank you.”