Caeda: Into the Shadows
by demented20
Caeda begins her training and is honed by the most dangerous man in the world. (Part 2 of 4)

"After loss, mercy must be applied to the assassin as heat to a dish: not enough and it remains cold and hard, too much and it becomes soft and useless, but if removed from the searing flames of mercy at the proper time, the assassin becomes yours to command.", François du Pluum, Grand Master of the Sword and Shield, 13th Century.

Amaris Johanssen sat quietly inside the spacious limousine as it traveled down a state highway. She had never seen a car so nice. The leather was soft and warm to the touch. The carpet on the floor was nicer than most houses, and the wood panels on the doors and compartments shined like glass. She looked out the window at the early winter landscape of south western Pennsylvania. Part of her wondered where she was going, but over the last year and a half she had moved so often that she was used to not knowing. That year and a half had turned Amaris into stone. Her body had gotten stronger again from training hours a day at gymnastics, but more importantly her emotions had hardened. It was nearly impossible to get a rise out of this 12 year old. She hadn't seen much of the world, but she had seen the extremes of human beings from the loving kindness of her parents and brothers, to the complete evil of the people who had killed them, to the utter betrayal of her aunt, to the apathy of everybody else. She no longer cared what happened to her. The line between living and dying was becoming very blurred inside her head. She didn't say a word until she saw a sign that read: Welcome to West Virginia the Mountain State. Amaris' curiosity got the better of her.

"Why did you take me from that group home?", she asked as if she really didn't care about the answer.

"Would you rather me take you back?", he asked in his strange accent.

Amaris shrugged. "That depends on where you're taking me."

Dimitri smiled. "Smart girl."

"That's not an answer."

The man nodded and smiled. "You are a very special child, and I always help children like you."

She rolled her eyes. "There are a lot of people who don't think I'm very special." She thought about her aunt.

"They can't feel what I can feel."

Amaris squirmed a little. "I don't understand."

Dimitri folded his hands on his thigh. "Of course you don't. There is no reason for you to know, but you are a very special child, a singular child."

Amaris just looked up at him blinking her eyes. There were a lot of people who would have disagreed with him. There was nothing singular about her.

He chuckled and pulled a ruler from a compartment next to his seat. He handed it to her. "What's this for?", she asked.

"Get its shape in your mind, its length especially."

"Wow, its 12 inches long, imagine that." Amaris took the ruler and dropped it on the seat.

He tapped her on the shoulder and pointed at the stump of a tree in the distance. "How far away is that stump? Quickly! Use the shape in your mind! How far!"

Amaris' was startled by his sudden enthusiasm and change of tone. She looked out the window while he urged her. Her first thought was to say that she had no idea, but she did. As they moved past the stump, she did know. "It was 497 feet. Now its 561 feet." She sat back in the seat.

For the first time since he had seen her, Dimitri saw the face of a child. "How do I know that? How do I know I'm right?"

"Pull the car over", Dimitri ordered his driver. The man pulled onto the gravel shoulder. "Let's test you. Do you see that road sign ahead?" Amaris nodded. "Tell me how far it is from the front of this car."

She squinted and looked, but more than looking, she felt. "Its 3169 feet 2 and three quarter inches", she said with certainty.

The Broker told the driver to move and count off the readings on the odometer. When they got to the sign he stopped. ".6 miles"

Dimitri smiled broadly. "I don't have to tell you that you were right. You're smart enough to do that math in your head."

"How do I know that!", Amaris demanded.

The man chuckled. "You know where everything around you is. You can feel it all. That is part of what makes you special." Dimitri told the driver to continue.

Amaris was silent for a time. "How did you know I could do that, or is it some trick?"

"Its no trick. Just like you being able to walk up sheer walls is no trick."

"How did you know about that!", Amaris yelled angrily. She had tried to put that out of her mind. Her hands balled into fists, and her face flushed. "Did my aunt tell you about that? Did she!"

"I have not spoken to your aunt, and I have no specific knowledge of any episode that would cause you to get so angry. Your ability to adhere to surfaces would have been the first manifestation of your powers."

"How did I get these... powers?"

"You were born with them, but we will speak about this at a later date." He dismissed any further questions with a wave of his hand.

Amaris had been learning to buck authority, but not with this man. Instead, she fell silent again. She was silent the rest of the trip. After an hour, they pulled off the highway and down a gravel road until they came to a driveway. They went down the bumpy drive for a time bouncing on the uneven ground. Sentinel pines and other trees lined the route like a great green wall. Amaris smirked as she realized for the first time that it was possible to not be able to see a forest because of all the trees. The smirk went away when the limo rounded a corner and crested a small hill. Near the center of that clearing stood a clapboard house. She would have called it a shack, but it was a little too big.

"This is where you live?", Amaris asked with disbelief.

The man chuckled. "No, of course not. This is where you are going to live."

"I'm not going with you? You mean you took me out of the facility just to--"

"Take you here. Yes, that's what I did."

There were a couple of people out in the yard. Amaris looked and saw a boy working on a piece of equipment and a girl off to herself. The boy looked at the limo and turned to his sister. "Go tell Dad that the Broker's here!" The girl ran off towards the house.

The car stopped and the driver rushed to open the doors. His breath showed in the chilly mountain air. Amaris got out and clutched her bag to her chest as she stood near the car, afraid to step away from it. Dimitri came over to her then, and put his arm around had much as her father her done. Amaris didn't realize how much she missed that sort of affection, but she inwardly pushed it away.

A man in his mid 40's came out of the house after a minute. He was solidly built with close set slate gray eyes and dark hair. He moved differently than anyone Amaris had seen before. Each step was perfectly placed and none of his movements were wasted, like a cat. Amaris could tell right away that this was a serious man. He glanced down at her as he stopped, then up to Dimitri.

"Mr. Broker, good to see you."

"And you too Mr. Hesse. The kids look good."

"Yeah, Mary's trying to raise 'em right. Lord knows I'm just a bad influence", he teased, but the seriousness never left him. He looked down again. "So, this must be the girl we've been preparing for?"

"Indeed."

He looked at Amaris very closely. It was the first time she had ever seen a person look at her like this. He sized her up and nodded after a time. "Come on in Amaris. We've been expecting you." He took her hand in his. Unlike Dimitri's hand, Mr. Hesse's hands were rough and calloused. His touch was gentle despite all that. He lead her towards the house and waved over his shoulder at the Broker who was already getting in his car. Dimitri sat in the car waiting for Amaris to make it to the porch and to the front door. He waited while they walked slowly. He agonized as he waited. They stopped walking, and Mr. Hesse called in his son. They said some words, and continued again. Still Dimitri waited. He had a lot riding on this girl. He couldn't afford to be wrong. He waited until the front door opened and Amaris walked inside.

"Yes!", he yelled in Russian and clapped his hands together hard. She never once looked back towards his car as she went into the house. This girl had a chance. She was fearless.

Inside the house, the family gathered in the living room. Mr. Hesse let go of her hand as Amaris saw the family up close of the first time. The two children stood up straight and tall next to their mother who also stood straight with a motherly smile on her simple face.

"My name is Ted. This is my wife Mary." He motioned towards her, and Mary's smile broadened. "This is our son, John. He's 15. And this is our daughter, Ruth, is 13." The girl smiled a little and nodded her head.

"Everyone, this is Amaris Johanssen, daughter of Donald and Annalise Johanssen, sister to Carrell and Errick Johanssen. Her parents and brothers were snatched away from her." He turned towards Amaris and stood next to his family. "We can never replace what was taken away from you, and we will never try. You have come to live with us, and while I can promise you that life will not always be easy, we are here to stand with you, if you will stand with us." Amaris felt alone, but compelled as she stood in front of the Hesse family. Mr. Hesse held out his weathered hand. Amaris stepped forward and took it.

She had a steak dinner with the Hesse's that evening. It was uneventful, and somewhat awkward. She was trying to feel them out while they did the same. She had learned that unlike other foster homes she had been in, John and Ruth were the Hesse's biological children. She was the only foster child. Her bedroom seemed to have been purpose built for her. Everything in it looked new. She thought that was strange, but not nearly as strange as the next morning.

It had been a rare night without bad dreams for Amaris. It was the first time in over a year that she had slept in a room by herself. No more sleeping with a dozen girls who really didn't like her. She had forgotten what a simple joy being comfortable was. She rolled over in bed before she heard the knock on the door. It was just loud enough to cut through her sleep. Amaris rolled towards the sound. Ruth came in.

"Amaris, wake up."

She sat up a little and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She wondered what was the problem. It was still dark out.

Ruth was a little shy and apprehensive as she came into the room holding a neatly folded sweat suit with athletic shoes sitting on top. "Here put these on, and meet us in the back yard."

"What is this?", Amaris asked, still wiping her sleepy eyes.

"You'll find out. Just hurry. Dad's waiting."

Amaris got dressed quickly. She knew better than to make Mr. Hesse wait. He was standing on the back porch with Ruth and John when she exited. "Glad you could join us, Amaris.", Mr. Hesse greeted her with a kind nod. "We'll meet here every morning at 4 am. Its 4:06 now. What time are you used to waking?"

"Umm, about 5 o'clock for gymnastics."

"Good then this shouldn't be too hard to adjust to. Try and keep up. Let's go."

Amaris frowned as Mr. Hesse turned and started running towards the trees. Ruth and John took up positions behind him. Amaris shook her head and followed. She was still sleepy, but the cold mountain air was waking her up quickly. She didn't know how far they'd run, but after a while the thin air was burning her lungs.

"How you doing back there?", he asked her in a voice that was hardly taxed.

"My chest is burning a little", she replied. Her answer completely satisfied Mr. Hesse. It was honest, but didn't have a hint of quit. It did cause Ruth and John to snicker though. Amaris hated being shown up at anything. If her cheeks hadn't been red from the cold air, they would have turned red because of them.

They kept at it, running along a rough uneven trail that snaked up and down hills and around trees and under thick brush, all in the near dark. Amaris had stumbled a couple of times on roots, but never fell and even with her lungs and quads burning, she kept up. The sun was rising now as the four ran through the trees. Mr. Hesse picked up the pace as they came to a hill. He sprinted up it. Ruth and John sprinted behind them. They all had more left in their tanks. Amaris was already running on fumes, but she dug deep and was only a couple of extra lengths behind Ruth as they all made it to the top. She immediately put her hands on her knees.

"Not bad for a first time." Mr. Hesse patted her on the back. "See I told you this girl's a natural athlete. You two thought we'd run her into the ground after a couple of miles. How do you feel, Amaris?", he asked as he handed her a canteen.

Amaris had to drink between deep breaths. "My legs feel like jell-o."

"Good. Good. Walk it off, and drink so you won't get cramps."

Amaris turned and walked around while the Hesse's worked on something behind her. She could hear them talking about something, but she was too far to really understand. Then there was a gunshot. Amaris jumped and her body locked up as the echoes of that single shot bounced off the hills. That shot was followed quickly by another.

"Lucky!", John called to his sister.

Amaris turned to see the Hesse children lying on a big worn blanket with rifles, shooting at targets in the distance.

"Nice control, Ruth, but I need you to come up on the deflection and bring your aim right about half a degree. The winds blowing from the south today."

Ruth nodded and looked down the sights, and pulled the trigger. Amaris jumped again. "Nice shot!", John congratulated his sister, then he aimed and shot. His shot was a little left of center, but not bad since there was a sudden gust of wind as the bullet left the barrel. Amaris was frozen about 100 feet away until Mr. Hesse called her name.

"Why don't you come over here and take a shot? I've got a little .22 for you." Ruth and John were both shooting Remington 700s's with ten power scopes.

Amaris moved towards him slowly. "I can't. I've seen what guns do. They just make victims." Amaris couldn't imagine touching a gun let alone shooting one. It turned her stomach.

Ruth and John looked at each other uneasily. They had temporarily forgotten what had happened to Amaris' family.

"A gun's just a tool. They do what a person commands, and if you can master the skills to use this tool, then you'll never have to be a victim of it."

Amaris looked unmoved from her opinion. She folded her arms across her chest.

Mr. Hesse stepped up and put a finger gently on Amaris neck. She had dressed quickly and forgotten to put anything on to cover her scar. "A knife made this wound and almost ended your life, but you used a knife last night to cut the steak that helped sustain your life. Its all about the will of the person using the tool. The tool has no will of its own." He put his hand on her shoulder. It was so much like her own father used to do.

"I don't have much to give in this world, Amaris, but I can give you this. Some men would tell you that they could make you strong, but you are already as a strong a person as you are ever going to be. No training in the world could harden you more, only hone you. I can help hone you to the point that you would never be a victim ever again. I teach my family these skills, how to shoot any gun on the planet, how to handle themselves unarmed, and how to survive in this world without society to support them. You may never need these skills, but if you learn them, I promise you that nothing like this", he gently touched the scar at the base of neck. "Nothing like this will ever happen to you again."

Amaris heard the passion and sincerity in his voice, and yet she knew that she had the option to say no. She remembered the helplessness of the night that had ruined her life. She remembered that for the last couple of years, life had happened to her. It was time for her to take some control of something. She reached up and took the rifle from Mr. Hesse's hand.

He smiled broadly. "Good choice. Now come over here and let me teach you a proper stance for..." Amaris' life had changed right then. She wouldn't think about it for years, but she had made a choice to fight back and no longer allow life to happen to her.

Amaris hated going to school. Adults who knew Amaris' story felt sorry for her and only gave her pity filled looks, but kids could be cruel. That was why Amaris was so scared when the bus stopped in front of the middle school. As she had looked around the bus, she knew that she was completely different from every other student, and she knew that she was slightly weird on top of all that. She dressed differently. She talked differently. She thought differently, then there was the problem of her past. She was the last surviving member of a murdered family, had been rejected by some of her last living relatives, and had spent the last eighteen months in institutions. There was plenty of meat on the bone for teasing or outright cruelty, and Amaris knew herself well enough to know that she wasn't going to take any of it. At the same time, she didn't want to mess up what was at least a comfortable life with the Hesse's. Amaris had learned to respect and appreciate the small things in life. As the brakes of the bus screeched to a halt, Amaris was dreading the next few hours.

Ruth Hesse was seven months older than Amaris, but luckily in the same grade. She lead Amaris to the office and then to the classroom. All the paperwork of her transfer had already been done. It seemed that the Broker had set everything into motion already, and Amaris had been the last to know.

Twenty sets of eyes followed Amaris as she walked meekly into the classroom for the first time at this rural school. She hated being the center of attention like this. It was as if her every flaw was on display before them. The scar beneath her red and yellow choker began to itch, but she dared not scratch it, and show it to the kids in the class. The teacher greeted Amaris warmly and the kids did too. Amaris guessed that the greeting had been standard. She knew that at lunchtime she'd get the real greeting by her fellow students... good or bad.

To her surprise, the kids were very welcoming of her. Amaris didn't realize it, but as she approached her teens, she was starting to grow into an attractive girl. The guys were picking up on it, and to the girls, she represented a sophisticated city girl. It would only take a few days for every girl in the school to start wearing chokers around their necks, and multicolored tights on their legs under the denim skirts that were the rage at the time. Some girls even cut their hair shorter. Amaris had started three trends in the small community in as many weeks. She would never tell the kids why she kept her hair short, and they wouldn't find out about the scar on her neck for a quite awhile. They also didn't know that Amaris often wore tights under her skirts because they hid the bruises on her legs from gymnastics training. It didn't really matter. She was at school and everything was going smoothly.

Mr. Hesse taught Amaris along side his children in a firm, but fair style. He liked changing things up. He never wanted anyone to get into a routine. With Mr. Hesse the unexpected was the only routine. After a month at the Hesse home, Mrs. Hesse informed Amaris that she had been accepted into a very nice gymnastics academy about 35 minutes from the house. It felt great to be competing and training with normal people again. The teacher was nice, but had low expectations of Amaris before the 5'1" twelve year old had stepped onto the beam. Amaris' balance was perhaps the best that the teacher had ever seen. She told the woman that she never fell, and the instructor would put that trait to good use.

Amaris trained at combat skills in the morning and at gymnastics in the afternoons. Her trips to and from the academy were one of Amaris' favorite part of the day, because that's when she really got to know Mrs. Hesse. Mrs. Hesse was a licensed nurse practitioner and a master of holistic medicine. She knew the name of every plant in the woods. She explained to Amaris and to her own children how each plant had a use. Some could be eaten, some could be used as medicine, and some as poisons. Sometimes after practice, Mrs. Hesse would take Amaris out for long walks through the forests around their home. Amaris had never had an interest in plants, but Mrs. Hesse had opened a new world for her. She taught Amaris how to live an overall healthy life and not to rely just on medicine.

The family filled Amaris with so much new and interesting information that she didn't have time to think of her own problems. They gave her an entirely different way of looking at the world and looking at problems. She had always looked for solutions inside herself, but the Hesse's looked for answers there sometimes, but mostly they relied on each other. There weren't many outward signs of affection between Hesse family members. They were rather austere in that way. Not many hugs or kisses, but that was fine with Amaris. She had grown out of her need for those things. She had learned that hugs and kisses like so many other things were often hollow. The Hesse's family had something real. They supported each other, and were always there when the other needed help. This support extended to Amaris as soon as she decided to join the family, and it was infectious. She found herself supporting them and helping them too. In that support Amaris found something that she had not had since her family had been killed. The idea that no matter what she did, that she was wanted. Amaris had missed that feeling so much that she had to keep from getting emotional when the thought about it, but it scared her. As much as she wanted to feel needed and wanted, Amaris knew the pain of loss. She didn't know if she was strong enough to take getting hurt like that gain, but in the end. She wasn't strong enough to resist that affection either. She needed it. She just hoped that the Hesse's wouldn't abandon her the way everyone else had.

The Hesse's were very active in their church, and they took Amaris with them to Sunday service and often to Wednesday prayer survive too. The Hesse's belonged to a charismatic Pentecostal church that had a style as different from what Amaris was used to as different could be. The church was full of singing, crying, shouting, and testifying when the Spirit filled the church. It took Amaris a while to adjust, but just as she was starting to almost get used to the Hesse's church, Mr. Hesse changed up on her again. He enrolled her at a Sunday School at a Catholic church. At first Amaris had objected, but Mr. Hesse had explained that as her foster father, it was his duty to honor the wishes of her family. He would make sure that she continued her education in faith until she reached the age of reason. Amaris didn't like being set apart from the rest of the family. After that first class Amaris came out the see the Hesse family sitting in a pew waiting on her. They stayed through the mass without understanding any of what they were doing, but they were there to support Amaris. All the talk of church had been a formality for Amaris because she hadn't thought about church or praying for a long time. The truth was that Amaris didn't know what to think about God. With the Hesse's though, she gave it all another chance. She gave praying a chance, and she gave life a chance.

After more than a year, Amaris' life had settled into a new normal, a good normal. She trained in combat skills in the morning and gymnastics at night with school and a smidgen of a social life squeezed in the middle. She had qualified and become an Elite gymnast during that time. She wished her mother had lived to see that happen, but Mr. and Mrs. Hesse had been there with Ruth, John, and half her class at school to support her and cheer her on. She had also progressed in the training that she was getting from Mr. Hesse. She could not only rattle off the muzzle velocity of every firearm she had ever seen, and calculate windage and elevation like a Marine sniper, she could throw knives with a flick of her wrists with either hand, and she could beat the hell out of any guy in her school, but it wasn't necessary. Amaris didn't need those skills in her everyday life, she only needed the feeling of confidence that those skills gave her. She no longer thought about that emptiness darkness that had haunted her since her family's murder. She had even gotten strong enough to visit their graves to plant flowers and tend to them. The pain was still there. It never left her, but she didn't think about it often. She had begun building a new life atop the ruins of her old one.

Amaris' new life wasn't quite as happy as her old one. She had lost her innocence, and while that wouldn't come back, she was making the best of her situation. She was liked around town, and quite popular with her classmates. She loved the small town feel, and it didn't even matter at all when her past became common knowledge. No one looked at her any differently, although the information did answer a few questions about her past that Amaris wouldn't answer herself.

It had been a while since she had thought about the man who had rescued her from that group home a year and a half earlier, but one Friday afternoon after gymnastics practice she found his white limousine sitting in the driveway. The Hesse's called him the Broker to his face even though they knew his real name. The man got out the car and spoke with Mr. Hesse for a time. Mr. Hesse got a serious look on his face. Amaris worked hard at not being nosy. The conversation ended quickly. Mr. Hesse gave Amaris a quick look before he and Mrs. Hesse went back into the house leaving Amaris alone with Dimitri.

"You've been here more than a year, how have things been Amaris?", he asked her with his strangely accented words.

"Good, Mr. Alexeyev." He was sitting on a bench just to the side of the Hesse home. He look out of place in this rustic setting with his fine tailored suit.

He smiled at her gently. "Call me Mitya. That is what a friend should call me."

Amaris shifted her hips taking the weight off her slightly sore right leg. Dimitri noticed that this 14 year old was starting to change from a slim little girl into a budding teen. "Why do the Hesse's call you the Broker?", Amaris asked after he had inquired about her grades and friends.

"Most people call me that."

"But why?"

"Because of what I do." He took Amaris by the hands and pulled her closer to him. He looked up at her face. "Just like you, I have a power, and there are people all over this world with powers. We are not alone in this peculiarity of ours. Some powers like yours and mine and quite useful, but other powers are trivial and even mundane. I can do some other things, but mostly I trade powers and abilities from one person to another. I broker powers. That's how I got my name."

Amaris never even thought about her powers. "I don't understand. I don't even know why my power is all that useful. So what that I can climb up walls and tell how far things are away from me?"

He swung her hands a little as he held them and smiled up at her. His eyes looked serious most of the time, but not right now as he sat with Amaris. "I can kill two birds with one stone. I can show you about your powers and mine. Have you ever wanted the ability to do something special, something extraordinary?"

Amaris shrugged. "I don't know. Being able to fly would be cool."

The Broker rocked back on his seat and smiled, reminiscing for a moment before he looked at her again. "Flying is a very popular one, and one I rarely give. Close your eyes."

Amaris did so. His hands tightened around hers, and then they got hot like a toaster. That heat spread throughout her entire body until she was sweating in the cool air. Neither of them breathed, and as soon as it really got uncomfortable, it was over. The Broker exhaled and so did she. As soon as the Broker released her hands, Amaris opened her eyes and nearly toppled to the ground. Everything felt gone around her. She felt like she was falling through space though her feet were firmly on the ground. Her arms flapped, and her hands tried to grasp anything as she started down like a table with only three legs. Her vision wasn't spinning, but it felt like it should have been. The Broker grabbed her to keep her from falling. She couldn't even manage to turn her head to look at him as she demanded, "What did you do to me?"

"I gave you what you asked for. This unsteadiness will pass."

"But I can't even stand up." It did get better after five minutes. The Broker waited for her to regain her equilibrium with a patient smile on his face.

"That's better", Dimitri said as he slowly released Amaris and let her stand on her own. She was still wobbly. "Now you know how the rest of us feel."

"What do you mean?"

"This is what you feel like without the powers you though were so useless a moment ago. This is how every other human gets around the world", he told her like a professor explaining something to a student.

"You mean everyone feels this... this disconnected from everything. I can't even find my nose with my own finger." She tried to touch her nose, and did, but with extreme concentration.

"Your inner ear has been working along with your powers for your entire life until this point. It's having to work on its own now."

"You took my powers away!" Amaris was suddenly afraid that she'd be like this forever.

The Broker took her by the chin and pulled her head towards him. "I could no more take your powers away than I could change those snowflake eyes of yours", he explained softly. Amaris smiled.

"I just gave you what you asked for. Now feel within yourself and release that new force inside. Release it." Amaris did feel something new inside of her. It was foreign and familiar at the same time. When she released it, it felt like the world around her began to sink away. Fear would have been a natural response, but Amaris was more amazed than scared as she realized that her size 5's had left the ground.

"I'm FLYING!", she yelled.

"You most certainly are. That is what I do. I give powers to those who want them or need them, and I make a nice living at it. When I come in contact with a person who has a special ability, I learn it. I learn how to internalize it, and then I can bestow that power onto anyone who wants it."

"So can you fly?", Amaris asked after she waved her arms wildly to keep from floating away.

He shook his head. "No, I can not use the powers I learn. I can only transfer them. There are more people in the world with special abilities than you would realize, but most of the powers like I said, are very weak. Some people however have very useful powers, and some people have extraordinary powers. I can learn them all. People from all over the world seek me out. They pay quite well for the ability to do what you are doing right now, or to have super strength, or super hearing, super speed, the ability to walk through walls, to teleport from place to place, to have telekinetic or telepathic powers, the ability to tell when someone is lying, and on and on."

"How do you find the people with powers?", Amaris asked from a few feet above the ground.

"I have people who look. They scour the world looking for them, and if I'm close enough, I can feel them. When I get near a person with powers it's like a shark and blood. I can smell it. I can feel that person's power no matter how weak it is. When I find someone with a marketable power, I make a deal with them. When a client pays me to bestow an ability on them, I send a large percentage of the money to the person who actually owns the power. I do not own the powers that I have learned. I am simply the person who matches the power to a willing buyer. There are people who make their entire living on the money that I send back to them. It works for all sides."

"But why did my power go away when you made me able to fly?"

"Alas, we can only have one power at a time. Its the way the DNA works. So your power is not gone. It is simply being overridden at the moment. That makes up a large part of my business. There are people in the world who want nothing more than to be rid of their powers. While I can not remove their powers, I can give them another power that is so innocuous and useless that it's like they don't have a power at all."

"So how long can you give people powers?"

He smiled up at her. "It depends on how much they pay, and what power it is. Sometimes they get them for a matter of months, or years. In your case though Amaris, you only get it for a matter of minutes." As soon as the words left his mouth, Amaris fell to the ground. She landed on the dead grass with a thud.

"Ouch. You could have warned me." Amaris got easily to her feet, and brushed herself off. She didn't even think about her powers being back and how every movement was easy.

"So now young Amaris, you understand how useful your power really is. You understand where you are in three dimensions at all times. You don't get dizzy or rattled or turned around. Couple that with your ability to adhere to solid surfaces, and you have a very unique talent list. I think you should use that power more and explore it. Learn how to take everything your body does and enhance it with your powers. That will make your control over your ability complete."

The Broker's limo pulled off leaving Amaris full of information that took her a while to process. She quit competing in gymnastics not long after the meeting with the Broker. She now knew how unfair it had been to the other girls her entire life. She had at one time been quite proud of her trophies, but after feeling what normal people felt, she took them all down and put them in a shed behind the Hesse's house. She would train sporadically at gymnastics just to keep her body strong, but she would never be as serious about it as she had been before.

Without her afternoons filled with gymnastics, Amaris had more time to herself. She went out with friends to the movies or to the only mall within an hour's drive. She often found herself at her friend Amy's house. She wasn't really looking for it, but Amaris would find the last missing piece of her life there.

Amy lived with her grandfather, George, who used a variety of canes to get around. One lazy boring day, Amaris took one of George's cane and started to carve it with the knife that she always carried with her. It had started out small, but she ended up taking the cane home and really working on it. She hadn't even known what she was going to carve until she had started, but by the end of it, she had relief carved a spiraling scene from the story of St. George and Dragon. The scene started at the bottom of the cane and worked its way up and around until at the end she had carved St. George slaying the dragon near the handle. After she gave the cane back to Amy's grandfather, he had gone all around town showing it off. The first person he had showed it to was Mr. Bramble, Amaris' gov-econ teacher. He had taken Amaris out of his class and marched her down the hall to Miss Wills, the new art teacher. Mr. Bramble had explained that while he enjoyed having her in his class, that she was now in Miss Wills class. After the first week in art class, Amaris knew what had been missing in her life. She had started sculpting again, and when she did, she could feel her father standing beside her. She could feel Carr painting on his easel. Amaris had not thought about her family deeply in a long time. When she did, all she had felt was pain, but now as she opened her mind and her imagination, she could remember her family as they had been in life rather than in death. For a while, Amaris' life was a complete as it could have been. She had everything she needed and almost everything she wanted. Amaris couldn't have her family there with her, but she had the next best thing.

Amaris turned part of her bedroom into her a workshop. She could sculpt with clay or wax or wood from that corner of her room. To her surprise, the support of the Hesse family that she respected so much evaporated. There was a clear friction from Mrs. Hesse and from Mr. Hesse. They never told her why they didn't want her sculpting and drawing in her room, but they made it clear. Amaris tried to explain that her father had been an artist and a professor of art. She had been sculpting with clay before she could even walk, but they wouldn't hear of it. They had given her only one week to get all the equipment out of the house. Amaris started to take the tools back to Miss Wills who had loaned them to her, but in the mean time she had started working on one last project. She begged for Mr. and Mrs. Hesse to change their mind, but their resistance continued until the night she had given them the carving she had made from a single block of cedar. She had worked quickly and passionately on this project. She found that the very skills that Mr. Hesse had been teaching her had made her a better sculptor. Her increasing mastery of blades helped her carve a scene from a normal day in the back yard of the Hesse home.

On the glazed unstained cedar carving Mr. Hesse stood with Ruth and John and Amaris, while Mrs. Hesse was in her usual position on the back porch with her hands full of something. All the figures were full of life and love for each other. It was as if Amaris had taken the essence of the family and imbued this wood with it. Mr. Hesse's reaction to the carving was surprising. Amaris had never seen a tear form in either of Ted Hesse's eyes, but they fell down both cheeks now. He handed the carving to his wife, grabbed Amaris and pulled her to him. He hugged her tightly for a long time. "That's beautiful. Most beautiful thing I've seen, and I don't care what they told me", he whispered in her ear. "You make all the art you ever want, and I don't care what they say."

As Amaris sat in the darkened room at the Black Gate, she still didn't know what those words had meant. They had stayed in the back, but she hadn't even thought about them until she had begun telling her life story to this stranger.

Amaris could have lived and grown up with her situation just as it was, but it was time for a change. It was time for the next phase of training. Mr. Hesse had taken Amaris as far as he could. For two years it had only been Mr. Hesse teaching Amaris, Ruth, and John, but one morning a stocky Japanese man was standing next Mr. Hesse before the morning run. Ruth and John went with their father for the run while Amaris stayed behind with this man who never told her his name. The man spoke broken English, and he squared up to Amaris. She was only a girl and smaller than him, but Amaris knew that she could fight. She had passed by Ruth a few months ago, and she could beat John as often as he beat her. This guy looked serious, but she was confident.

His movements were quick and precise like he walked the steps to a dance that only he knew. He kept his body angle constant in relation to Amaris as she moved around him. She didn't see the look on Mrs. Hesse's face as the man came forward. His shout of attack echoed against the hills, but his stinging blow echoed in Amaris' head. It was a full on blow from a grown man with the heel of his hand against her upper chest. The force of it was a shock. Mr. Hesse had often trained her hard, but everything he ever did was safe. He tried to keep it enjoyable, but this was no game. This man was trying to hurt her.

She fell back, and ducked his next blow in time to see him spin and kick her in the ribs. Amaris went down coughing and gasping for air. The man looked at her with his warrior's gaze. His look strengthen Amaris and infuriated her. She gave a shout of her own as she attacked. She punched and kicked and attempted to grab this man, but his speed was like nothing she had seen. She thought that she was fast, but this man blocked her every attempt with ease. She tried to gain an advantage. He kept his angle constant no matter how hard she tried to get an advantage. After a prolonged attack from her, she kicked her in the shin and faster than a blink, he kicked her in the side of the head. Amaris went to the ground, but got up before the dust had settled.

While Amaris was on the ground, a change came over her. For the third time in her life, that cold lifeless feeling came over her. The taint of the evil she had seen lived inside her still. No matter how comfortable her life had been for the last two years that side of her hadn't gone away. Her body changed, losing the tightness of fear, and her gaze changed. Her look was always intense, but now her look was as cold as she felt. The specialist saw that look. He had been told that she had the look, and she did. The look in Amaris' eyes would have given most men pause, but this man attacked her harder.

She spit out blood as he kicked her in the jaw, but Amaris wasn't as frail as her slim frame suggested. She was tough and her body was strong. The man learned this when he knocked her down for the sixth time, and she grabbed and handful of dirt and tossed it up at him. Without thinking about it, she put her hand flat against the post of the back porch and used her power to lift herself and get extra leverage for the kick she sent at his head. He mostly blocked it, but he took a step back. She charged to attack, but he sidestepped and took her feet out. She went down for a seventh time.

"Enough", he boomed.

It wasn't enough for Amaris, she wanted to get back up and make him feel like she was feeling at the moment. She spit out more blood and checked to make sure all her teeth were in place. He put out a hand to help her up, but Amaris refused it and stood up on her own. Her head was swimming, but her anger was clear. This was the first ass wiping Amaris had taken in long time, but it was the first of many. That night Mrs. Hesse had given Amaris a paste to put on her skin to soothe it and keep it soft despite the punishment that she was going to take.

Mr. Hesse was there to support her, but he stayed out of the way when Amaris was training with her new teacher. He was hard on her body and hard on her mind. He could bring out the worst. He would seek out that dark place in Amaris' soul. He would feed it, and make her use it. Without that dark side of her personality, he would beat her mercilessly. His lessons would last for hours, and at the end of the day Amaris would lie in her bed unable to sleep because of the pain, but the next day she would face him again and again. He prodded her and goaded her and continued to bring out the worst in her. Amaris began calling that cold person her other self, but she didn't mind it coming out. She had to have that edge, but at the end of the day, she was able to put that other self away. A smile from Ruth and a joke from John, plus good food and support from the Hesse's kept Amaris balanced. Amaris began to look forward to the training by the hard nosed teacher. His brutality gave her a release that nothing else did. There was an itch inside of her that she wanted to scratch. She only felt a little relief when she fought this man, but suddenly the specialist announced that he had taught her what he came to teach. He left, and Amaris never saw him again.

There were more specialists after the first. Sometimes they came two at once, but mostly it was one special teacher working on Amaris and teaching her skills that she didn't even know existed. Some people came to teach her computer skills and languages, but most of the men and women came to teach Amaris how to handle all manner of weapons. They came from all over the world to teach her a variety of martial arts. Experts came in every discipline except shooting. Mr. Hesse was the only teacher she would ever need when it came to firearms. He was one of the best in the world.

These specialist worked Amaris hard. They worked her body hard, getting it stronger than it had been, and tougher. Some days she had wanted to quit, but the look of pride in Mr. Hesse's eyes was enough to keep he going. He saw her struggling to get better, and he knew that she was making progress. Amaris didn't understand why she was getting this training, but it gave her the purpose that she had longed for in the past. Every morning there was new challenge. Amaris lived for it. They all touched that dark half of her psyche, but Amaris was learning how to turn that switch on and off. She had the balance to do it. The love and support of the Hesse was all it took. The bad couldn't get too much of a hold on her.

One of Amaris' favorite teachers was a Native American who taught her how to track people and animals and how to live in the forest. She already had lots of knowledge of plants from Mrs. Hesse, but this man made her use her knowledge. He would take her on hunts all over the continent that lasted for days. She hunted with guns, bows, and even spears. He also encouraged her to use her special gift to hunt. He taught her to use any advantage she had. He made her hunt blindfolded, and eat blindfolded, and even drive blindfolded. He made her learn to trust her power as much or more than she trusted her other senses.

All of this specialized training was changing Amaris in subtle ways. She had been confident, but now she was becoming down right cocky. She was thought of around town as sweet and creative, but she was known to have a biting sense of humor. Her jokes became more biting the cockier she became. It didn't help that at the same time she was learning how to be truly dangerous, she was also turning into a bona fide teen beauty. There was even talk of her entering pageants. The talk came from other people never from her. Amaris no longer thought that she was ugly. That had passed years ago, but she didn't think of herself as anything extraordinary even though most of the guys she met disagreed. She learned that it didn't matter what she thought about herself. The guys at school followed her around like puppies. She didn't treat them like she could have, but one look from those light blue eyes could make guys melt and do whatever she wanted. She did have a steady boyfriend most of sophomore year, but her social life was going to be cut way back when one last expert came to the Hesse home.

This new teacher was sitting and chatting with Mr. Hesse on a Saturday as the two men watched West Virginia play Maryland. They were having a discussion about a field goal that the Mountaineers had just kicked when Amaris and the rest of the Hesse's came into the room. By now Amaris knew the drill when one of these experts came. They would quickly try and break her down to show their dominance, and then proceed to teach her what they knew, but this one was different. John and Ruth greeted this man like he was an uncle. Even Mrs. Hesse smiled when she saw him, and waved as she came in. Amaris was left standing alone. She took her time and looked at the man closely because something wasn't right. He was average sized with a slender face and a strong jaw. His brown hair was cut close, and there was a bit of stubble on his chin. His cloths were plain, but not cheap, and wore no jewelry or cologne. The man's manner was easy and his conversation was light, but his eyes weren't easy or light. Amaris felt a chill go through her when he settled his gaze on her. It froze her, and all light drained from the room. Everything faded into insignificance, but his eyes. His gaze was the manifestation of the darkness that Amaris felt come over her from time to time. If her pain had eyes, they would look like his.

Being in the presence of this man was like being in a room with Death itself. Amaris had seen all the men who had murdered her family. She had been trained by thieves, hunters, soldiers, and mercenaries, but this was the most dangerous man Amaris had ever seen. Her heart pounded and her adrenaline flowed as he stood up from his chair. It took all of her will and strength not to run and hide. He extended his hand. "Nice to finally meet you, Amaris. My name is Chester Perkins. Call me Chet."

At dinner Chet did a good job of calming Amaris' fears. He was polite and even chatty. He joked with the kids, and told wonderful stories about some of the exotic places he'd been, including art museums all over the world. That got Amaris' attention and they talked about it for hours before she finally turned in for the night.

Amaris' dreams had been pleasant and her sleep deep when all of the sudden she felt the cold steel of a blade against the soft skin of her scarred neck. Terror filled her. Her eyes shot open wide, and she tried to scream, but a hand covered her mouth. His weight crushed her and his knees dug into her shoulders and his inner thighs pressed in on her ribs like vices. Amaris tried to move her arms, but they were stretched out at her sides. She tried to roll her body and move her hips, but the soft mattress absorbed most of her energy. The man atop her barely moved. Tears filled Amaris' frightened eyes, and she yelled for help. She yelled for Mr. Hesse or anybody, but her screams were barely audible. Her panic was all consuming and fruitless. She could smell his sweat and feel his breath. Her skin crawled, and there was nowhere to go. Amaris prayed that it would be quick, and that he wouldn't make her suffer.

"That's the scared little girl", a course voice whispered into her ear. "We'll have to get rid of her. You must be strong for what lies ahead." The knife left her throat, but the cool steel of the blade rested against her chin. She winced as he leaned more of his weight onto her.

"When I'm finished, you won't be scared of the devil himself." Chet Perkins touched blade of his knife to the side of her face before he jumped off of her and walked out of the room closing the door behind him. Amaris curled into a ball and cried all night long, too scared to close her eyes.

The next morning Chet was in the kitchen talking to Mrs. Hesse and eating breakfast when Amaris, Ruth, and John finished their morning run. Amaris eyed him hard, but instead of fear, she felt a cold anger. She wanted to stab him with a kitchen knife. She even planned it. That thought left her quickly, but the coolness remained. She sat down at the table like nothing had happened the night before. She refused to show her true fear in front of this man. After they finished he came up to her. She willed herself to stand straight and act normal.

"Well done", he said to her with a look of satisfaction on his face. He kept his distance. He didn't want her to flinch and ruin this moment. "I want you to remember last night because, I made several mistakes on purpose. When you can name every single one, you'll have learned everything I know." The last stage of Amaris' training had begun.

Amaris didn't quite know what to think when she had been told to pack some clothes a couple days after Chet had shown up. After packing, Mr. Hesse took her across the county to a simple wood framed house at the top of a hill. Chet Perkins was waiting when they pulled up. Mr. Hesse tried to explain that she would be staying at Chet's house for a while, but that she would be back home whenever he thought it was appropriate. Amaris was too mad and too scared to really hear what he had said. It didn't matter what she had heard, or what he had said. She had been left at the house of a man who she knew was certainly a killer and maybe a crazy killer. Chet's demeanor was businesslike and impersonal. "I'm not going to give you a list of rules, Miss Johanssen. You will learn my rules as you break them", he had told her on that first day.

Amaris had learned that he kept his nice and simple home immaculately clean. Nothing was ever to be left out of place. She also learned that Chet was never late and expected her to always be on time to the second. She learned that he hunted for most of his meat, and that she would have to learn to live without beef because he didn't hunt cows, and she learned that Chet was the hardest teacher she'd ever had. He worked her until her tears mixed with her blood.

He had an obstacle course set up in the valley at the foot of the ridge behind his house. She would run the military style course over and over with him screaming in her ear the entire time. After several rounds, he would make her shoot or demonstrate martial arts techniques. She had thought that sundown would bring her a relief, but he had banks of 1000 watt bulbs all around so that he could run her all night if he wanted to.

In the rain and the snow he made her run it. She had to negotiate high obstacles and trenches and tunnels that ran all over the place. Most of the time he made her run it with weight strapped to her back, more weight if she did poorly and less if she did well. The course worked every muscle in her body, but she had to keep her concentration. She had to avoid the booby traps that he set. Her punishment for hitting a trap was to run more. With only a sleeveless t-shirt, she would run around Chet's mountain until she puked not once, but sometimes three times before he would reward her by letter her run the course again. Not that Amaris had ever carried extra weight, but she lost seven pounds after the first week with Chet and another pound every other day for another week.

Chet rode Amaris so hard that some days she was a zombie at school the day after one of his training sessions. He could make her feel small and insignificant with only a few words. She hadn't felt that way since her days in the group home. She wasn't going to let herself feel like that anymore. It was during a rough training session in the valley when Amaris had had enough.

She had run the course three times in a cold rain and had already been forced to run up and down the mountain enough to make her vomit. She climbed up the logs then was forced to climb the rope hand over hand without the use of her legs. The skin of her hands was about to tear from the constant abuse, and Chet was in her ear the entire time, screaming and telling her how useless she was, and how it would be better for her if she laid down in a puddle of mud and never sat up.

She repelled down a sheer wall trying to ignore him, but failing. As she rounded a bend in the course, she noticed that a three foot long support for one of the obstacles was loose. She hadn't seen it, instead she had felt that it was at a slightly different angle than the other supports. She didn't make a move this time. She just bided her time and finished the course. She stood there gulping for air while he told her everything that she had done wrong. She listened because there was a punishment for not remembering every single word he had said, including contractions, articles, and conjunctions. Sometimes he would even lecture her in different languages, but he didn't test her memory and concentration this time. He just sent her back through the course again. For once, Amaris was more than happy to run it. She was on a good pace. He still screamed at her, but it wouldn't have mattered if he had been quiet. Her plan was already made. When she came around the bend near the loose support, Amaris stopped and kicked it, knocking the length of wood directly into her hand. She caught the support and swung it at Chet's head as hard as she could with the nails towards him.

The wood whistled, cutting a path through the air towards Chet's unsuspecting head. Amaris' head whipped around in time to see Chet standing there as she took out all the frustration and anger that he had built up. She saw the top of his head disappear just as her stick came around. She couldn't stop the follow through in time.

As the stick sailed over his head, Chet unleashed a heal strike to center of Amaris' unprotected stomach, but her previous training had honed her. Her abs were always tight in a situation like this and his blow only stunned her a little. She took a step back. Her eyes were locked on him now. He moved like a human shouldn't be able to. He was quick and agile, but she was quick too. She swung again, and Chet was forced to put up an arm to deflect the blow. It sailed past his head. Amaris saw his foot move and then she felt the blow against her shoulder. He was too fast. She had never seen a man move so quickly. Her grip on the stick loosened. Before she could gather herself, a kick knocked the stick from her hand, and another kick exploded against the inside of her right shin. She went down to the wet ground, but rolled and jumped to her feet. "AHHHAA", she screamed as she attacked. She threw a couple of punches, then threw a blistering high kick that had come from nowhere. Chet managed to mostly block it, but he had to reset his feet, and Amaris came in for the kill. She raised up high then wove in low and punched Chet in his kidney. He had thought that he was ready for it, but he had no way of knowing that a girl who looked so slim, could hit so hard, even when he saw her long lean muscles tighten as she threw the punch. He twisted away from her second punch.

Amaris saw her chance to finish him. She would knock him out and then choke him as hard as she could. Amaris never planned to hurt someone as badly as she wanted to hurt Chet Perkins. She bounced on the balls of her feet, planted her left foot and executed a perfect hook kick with her right leg. Amaris knew that she could generate great force with her legs, but this kick had not quite been quick enough. He caught her right leg in his strong hand, and swept her other leg from beneath her. Water splashed when her back hit the ground. It hurt, but not enough to keep her from pulling her leg free. She rolled over and threw a punch from her knees. Her adrenaline had run out and this punch was slower and weaker than all the rest. Chet kicked her in the side then slid in behind her locked her shoulders in a tight hold and forced her down to her knees. Amaris fought against him with everything she had left. She tried all the techniques she knew, but he seemed to know the counter to all of them. Amaris tried hard enough to make her feel ready to explode, but she just couldn't get free. Once again she wasn't strong enough. He threw her to the ground after he felt the strength go out of her. She fell face first into the muddy water. It was a struggle for her to roll over to keep from drowning.

Her face was towards the sky and the big cold rain drops mixed with her tears of frustration. She couldn't make herself look at Chet. She knew that this was it for her. He was either going to kill her, or punish her so severely that she just wished that he had killed her. Either way it was going to be bad for her now. Her heart sank as she felt his shadow covering her. She was helpless, only waiting for the pain to start. Instead he spoke.

"Very well done, Miss Johanssen", he congratulated her calmly.

Amaris wiped her eyes and looked up at Chet's face. It was serious and a bit dirty, but he wasn't mad at all. If anything, he looked proud. "What?", she asked wearily.

Chet reached his hand to her. "It only took you two weeks-- hell less than two weeks to come after me." He pulled the soggy teenager to her feet. "It took me an entire month to get enough courage to attack my instructor, and I think I've ridden you pretty hard."

Amaris put her hands on her knees and smiled despite her body's many aches. "All this was a test?", she asked.

"Everything can be a test. I had to know what kind of person I was working with."

Amaris looked up at him through wet lashes. He liked the look. She could be so deceptively dangerous. Only men like him would ever know the danger hidden behind those exotic eyes. "So what kind of student am I?"

Chet nodded as he thought. "One with lots of potential, but you need to understand purpose."

"So what do I do now?"

"Come on up to the house and get yourself dry. We're finished for the day." Chet put his arm around her shoulders as they walked up the concrete steps towards the house. She couldn't remove the smile from her face. She hadn't expected to feel so proud of herself for getting knocked to the mud, and she realized that she had a lot more to learn about people.

That night over a meal of venison and asparagus, Amaris looked at Chet and wondered what he was thinking about her. Since she couldn't read minds she decided to ask. "What did you mean about me needing a purpose? I'm only 16 shouldn't I have a while longer to figure all that out?"

Chet smiled, just a little. "I don't mean a purpose in your life. I mean purpose in your actions. When you attacked me, you didn't know what you wanted to do. Did you want to kill me, or hurt me, or just scare me? You have to understand what you want before you act. I, on the other hand, knew exactly what my purpose was from the outset. I intended to defend myself, and my purpose never changed. That's why I beat you earlier. You have the skills, and you have the will to use them, but without a purpose behind them, you'll lose to a guy like me."

"How many guys like you are there?", Amaris asked after swallowing.

"Not many, but there are a few. Some of them I know personally, and some I know by reputation. You have the skills to defeat most people around the world now, but that's not good enough. Not for you anyway."

"Why not? I mean, I know more stuff than I'll probably ever use. I've killed a wild boar with a handmade spear, so what? Why in the world do I need to know how to kill a wild boar when I can go to the supermarket and get all the pork chops I want. And most cities in the United States don't have a huge wild boar problem."

"You're special, Amaris."

"People keep telling me that, and I don't understand it. As far as I can tell, I'm a slightly maladjusted teenager with lots of problems and lots of quirks, plus the training to take down a man in motion at 800 meters in a cross wind." She took up a forkful of asparagus. "I probably need counseling, and instead I get guys like you who teach me how to break a man's neck in under two seconds."

Chet couldn't help but chuckle.

"Well done Mr. Perkins", Amaris began, trying to sound like Chet. "I don't know how long its been since you've laughed, but it only took me two weeks--- hell less than to weeks."

Chet laughed again and put his hand on Amaris' shoulder. "Damn it girl, I like you. You might not like me all the time while I'm training you, but I think we'll get along just fine otherwise."

Chet was true to his word. His training was harsh, bordering on brutal and torturous. He worked his student to the ends of her wits and of her strength. He trained her everyday without fail for the first six months. Amaris came to understand that school was her only respite, because on any given night he might wake her in the middle of night to spar with him or to demonstrate her skills or do a test that he had written up for her. She had to do it perfectly before he would let her go back to sleep, if he let her go back to sleep at all. Through all of that, she had to keep her grades up at school. He told her that he would allow her grade point average to drop one tenth of a point because he was a nice guy, but Amaris managed to keep her 3.9 steady. That was a gift to herself to prove that she could take the best he had to throw at her and still maintain on her end.

Chet focused as much on her mind as much as on her body. He taught her how to become intensely focus, and how to want something so badly that she could almost will it to happen before it did. He broke through her inhibitions and taught her to truly embrace the side of her personally that she tried to shun. She had to learn to live on the edge of her desires and on the edge of her fear. Whatever scared her, she had to face it. He forced her to face it, and he forced her to face it often. It didn't matter what it was. His training produced a coolly confident teen who could get noticed where ever she went, or disappear like a ghost. He taught how to use her body as fearsome weapon, and how to use her mind as the ultimate one. He pushed her so hard towards that other side of herself that it was often a struggle for Amaris to pull herself back. Chet didn't understand how hard it was on his student, or maybe he did.

One day after school Amaris was working on discrete math homework while Chet was talking annoyingly loud to someone on the phone. They weren't speaking a language that she knew, so she had no idea what they were saying. She finally put some headphones on. She tried to concentrate, but found it hard. She wondered if this was another test.

Chet put his hand over the receiver and asked, "Hey, how tall are you?" Amaris didn't answer him. He whistled between his teeth. "How tall are you!"

Amaris sighed and ripped the headphones off. "I'm 5'6", and can you keep it down."

Chet just smiled and kept talking. That Saturday, Chet loaded Amaris into his jeep and headed east. Eight hours later they were on the Atlantic coast somewhere in North Carolina. Amaris had slept most of the way, but she had been awake for the last hour or so. Chet was slightly pensive. She wondered if it had anything to do with her. She should have known that it did.

They drove into a small town, not unlike the one she was living in, but with the easy coastal breezes and the smell of fresh fish by the small wharf. "Okay, Amaris", Chet began after he turned off the ignition. "I want you to go to this address and wait for me."

Amaris looked at the written address for less than a second before she huffed and opened the door. She knew better than to argue or to ask why. She never got answers to those types of questions from him. She stomped down the quiet empty street of this small town wearing her skin tight designer denims and a maroon tank top covered by a black zip up turtleneck sweater with her mother's St. Jude medal set into the front of a black and red choker around her neck. She looked at the buildings around her, and realized quickly that she wasn't in a part of the town that was on the up and up. She paid close attention to the building numbers, but if she had been paying attention the way Chet had taught her to, then she would have realized that she was being watched.

Amaris stopped at a store front with the windows covered by paper. She sighed and looked at the dilapidated two story building before she reached out and opened the door. There wasn't much light in the first room, but she saw light coming from a storeroom in the rear. 'This is stupid', she thought to herself. She was half a heart beat from walking out the way she'd come in, but instead she went towards the light. This was such a huge waste of time. There were so many other things she could be doing, like watching The Pretender. She didn't watch much television, and now she was going to miss one of the few shows that she actually liked.

Amaris didn't see anybody in the room until she had walked well into it. Then she felt them looking at her. She turned her head round and saw several guys, and a couple of women in the dingy room. A couple of the men were wearing nice suits, while the others were dressed to get dirty. The two women couldn't have been more different. One of them looked like she had been selected from a slut catalogue, and the other looked like she could have been rejected by the East German track team for being too manly.

"They didn't say she'd walk in herself", Amaris heard one of the men tell his buddy.

"Umm, I'm so sorry folks, I must be in the wrong place." Amaris felt the blood rush to her face as she turned to leave. Two guys stood up and went to the door. One of them shut it.

Amaris frowned. "What's going on here?"

A south Asian man removed the slut from his arm and stood up. He buttoned his tope double breasted jacket and took a step forward. "You are as beautiful as he said on the phone. I was in the country on other business, but I made a special trip to see what I had paid so much money for. Step into the light please."

Amaris didn't move so a guy came up and pushed her. "Hey, get your hands off of me!" He kept a firm hand on her shoulder. "What the hell are you talking about?!?"

The man smiled, revealing recently veneered teeth. "I was told that a young virgin of pristine beauty was available. I thought the asking price quite steep, but I see now that I will make quite a profit on you."

Amaris wasn't liking this talk at all. Her mind was already working, calculating angles and distances and weights and time. Time was important. She had learned never to underestimate her opponent. She was learning something else too, purpose. She had that firmly in her mind.

"I'm going out the way I came in", Amaris informed the south Asian man.

"No, I paid a lot for you, and you are going to do as I SAY." He punctuated his last word with a slap across Amaris' face. Her head turned. "You will learn respect!" He smiled, expecting to see tears in her eyes and fear on her face, but instead he saw something that gave him pause. He saw the look of utter coldness in that stare. She was captivating and dangerous. He should have seen it at first. He'd walked into a trap, and this beautiful young lady wasn't the bait, she was the poison.

He didn't see Amaris' foot come off the ground. No one did. They just saw the impact between the man's legs. He grunted and went down. Amaris' left hand went to her shoulder. She grabbed the index finger of the man standing behind her and twisted it as hard as she could. He cried out as the small joints of his index finger took an enormous amount of torque. With a quick jerk, Amaris pulled down on his twisted finger, breaking it in three places. She kicked him in the chest, sending him falling against the wall. People were moving then, and guns were coming out. They shouted. Amaris couldn't understand the words, but she knew the meaning well enough, because she was moving too.

She would have run towards the door, but a gunshot that barely missed, changed her mind. She turned away from the shot and out of the light. Her heart was racing, but her mind was racing faster, acquiring targets. She saw the source of the gunshot, but the man was too far away. She felt another gun barrel coming up behind her. She could remember the training from a couple of years ago. She felt the barrel of the submachine gun, and she could feel this shooter's finger contacting the trigger. Amaris ran, until the instant the trigger depressed. She pushed herself to the floor. The spray of bullets barely missed her back. She broke her fall with her hands, then rolled onto her back, and sprung to her feet. This shooter was closer than he should have been. She snatched the front of the still hot barrel and pointed it away from her torso just as the trigger was pressed again. The shots hit one of the men near the door in the shoulder and side, and another bullet grazed the slut girl in the ankle. Amaris kept control of the muzzle and ducked beneath it. She slipped her right arm through the strap of the weapon and twisted her arm into it. Once she had control, she let go of the muzzle and stepped her right leg behind this man's right leg. He went down with a gentle nudge from her shoulder and a quick jerk on the strap of the weapon. The strap slipped off his arm as he went down. Now Amaris was armed.

She brought the weapon to her shoulder, and searched for a target. Before she settled the barrel on the man she had kicked in the balls, she was kicked in the small of the back. Amaris stumbled forward, and started to turn, but a blow in the temple sent her to the ground. She grunted as a woman's shoe stomped on her wrist. The mannish woman bent down and took the gun from Amaris' hand.

"You should have let me have a gun!", the woman yelled in Khmer. The men were trying to get their bearings after this short, but spirited fight. One man was shot, but standing and alert. Another man was quietly setting the bones of his finger. The shot woman wasn't quite so stoic. She screamed at the top of her lungs until the man that Amaris had kicked walked up and clubbed her in the head with the butt of his gun.

Amaris mentally shook off the blow to her own head. She didn't have time to stall. She put her hands flat on the ground and pushed up. Her push-up lifted her body off the ground giving her momentum to spin in the air and sweep with both her legs. The mannish woman went down to the floor, and in a flash Amaris was up. She kicked her shoes off, and ran towards the wall. The room was filled with the deafening pops of gunfire. Pieces of bricks and plaster littered the room. Part of Amaris wanted to be afraid, but the other part of her knew exactly what to do. She made it into the shadows. Amaris was safe in the shadows, because she had been taught to master them. Chet could use shadows like no one she had ever heard of, and she was almost as good.

Amaris disappeared. The men ran to where they had seen her go into the shadow. They didn't see anything. One enterprising guy brought a flashlight to destroy the safe haven of shadows, but still there was nothing. No one bothered to look up. Amaris clung to the ceiling like a giant spider. Her arms and legs moved in perfect coordination as she crawled away from the cursing men. She looked around for windows, and saw none. There was another door, but it had no knob. She might have been able to get it open, but not quickly enough to keep from getting shot. That left one way out, and one of those men was guarding it. While everyone else looked for a phantom, this guy knew that there was only one way to leave this large room, and he was guarding it. If Amaris had to go through this man to get out, then so be it. She dropped from the ceiling, landing without sound on the concrete floor. It was cold against her bare soles, but that was fitting. She felt colder than this concrete had ever been. Amaris reached down and filled her hands with a couple of things she had seen from the ceiling. She stayed in the shadows as she made her way towards the door. She didn't run, and she didn't stalk. She didn't have to. She took crisp confident strides. This fight was already over. Her target just didn't know it.

The guard squinted into the darkness because he thought he saw something move. A foot long piece of 2x4 was coming right at his chest, but he didn't see it in time to dodge. He braced for the impact. It hit him harmlessly in the chest, but a shape came from his right. It flashed too quickly for his brain to process. He felt a terrible pain on the side of his head from a hard blow and crumpled to the ground. Amaris gripped the pipe wrench tightly, as she used her legs to push this man away from the door that she needed to open. She had managed to keep everything quiet until the slut with the lump on her forehead opened her eyes.

"There! There!", she yelled and pointed at Amaris who cursed under her breath and redoubled her efforts. Men ran from around a corner towards her.

She kicked the man out of her way and brought the wrench down hard on the door knob then flung it. It hit the slut in the center of her forehead. Amaris didn't stay still long enough to see it. She went through the door and started pulling it closed, but the mannish woman managed to get her short thick arm through it. Amaris cursed again as the men ran around furniture and an unconscious woman to get to the door. Amaris couldn't close the door, so she let it go and grabbed the woman's arm with both hands. She put her foot against the door frame and pulled as hard as she could. The mannish woman lost her balance and tumbled through the door. Amaris grabbed the knob and pulled it shut. She heard curses from the other side. One of them grabbed the knob, but it broke when they turned it. They couldn't open the door. Amaris turned to move away before they shot the lock. She didn't get far. The other woman slammed into Amaris' back knocking her roughly against the wall. Amaris had hit nose first. She felt the trickle of blood run down her upper lip. Amaris pulled her head forward then butted back. She hit the other woman in the nose. It took two blows to make the woman let her go.

Both of their eyes were watery from the blows to the nose as they faced each other. The woman attacked Amaris. She brought her fists up and out. Amaris thought to make a run for it, before this stubby woman's leg exploded from the ground and hit Amaris just under her sternum. The air whooshed from her lungs and Amaris' back hit the far wall. The woman came in with a powerful knee to Amaris' midsection. Amaris bent forward and the woman brought her arm up, but didn't get a chance to drop her elbow onto the back of the 16 year old's neck. Amaris pushed forward. Going past her attacker. They turned towards each other, just as the gunshot started. The bullets were ripping big holes in the hollow steel door. It would only be a moment before the men were free. Amaris didn't have much time.

The mannish woman had maneuvered between Amaris and the door. Amaris' anger boiled over. She shouted and charged forward. She threw punch after punch that the woman blocked, but she was at the edge of her skill blocking this flurry of well timed and well placed punches. Amaris wasn't at the edge of hers. Amaris went down low and with a spinning sweep took out the woman's legs. Down she went again. Amaris bounded over her towards the front door, but the woman caught Amaris' ankle and down she went too.

Amaris got to her feet. She could hear the men kicking and hitting the door. The lock was shot to pieces. They were pulling it open. Amaris screamed in frustration and anger. She was so mad she wanted to explode. The mannish woman charged, and instead of exploding, Amaris took her anger out on this woman. Amaris sent a front kick towards the woman's stomach. The woman blocked it, but she wasn't ready for the impossible kick that came only a split second later. It hit the woman in the side of the head and dazed her. Amaris threw two quick punches to the woman's face before she loaded up her leg again. She dug down deep and put all the strength she could into a crescent kick, her leg snapping against the woman's jaw. The woman wobbled and Amaris took control of her by clenching the woman behind her neck. Amaris brought her knee up and the woman's head down. The impact against Amaris' knee broke a couple of bones in the woman's face. The men were free now. Amaris let the woman go and backed up a little towards the men. With a desperate shout, Amaris ran forward. She jumped and flew through the air delivering a flying kick to the woman's upper chest. The stocky woman flew off her feet from the power of this teenager. The mannish chick tried to gain her balance, but she flew through the big window. The sound of glass breaking sounded like a small explosion, making the men pause. Amaris didn't. She took a deep breath and ran towards the big hole where the window had been.

Broken glass was everywhere, but Amaris couldn't let that stop her. She jumped as hard as she could. She had to duck a little as she flew through the opening. Some pieces of broken glass were still bouncing against the sidewalk and street as Amaris flew through the window with bullets following her. She saw the woman lying on her back on the sidewalk surrounded by broken glass.

Amaris smiled as she started down, making sure her aim was right. Her feet landed in the center of the bruised woman's chest. The cut up mannish woman whooshed as Amaris' full weight came crashing down on her. Amaris let her legs bend just a little before she powered off the woman, jumping forward into the middle of the street, breaking a couple of the woman's ribs in the process, but propelling herself past the glass. She didn't look back. She took off running down the street like she had been shot from a cannon. She hadn't even known that she could run that fast, but the world was a blur as she booked it down the street. She could hear police sirens coming. She turned to her left down an alley. She splashed through puddles and dodged dumpsters until she was far away from the sounds of sirens and gunshots.

It wasn't long before Amaris found Chet near the beach. She was tired; her feet hurt; her cloths were ruined, and she was furious. She rushed up to him, and didn't say a word. Her glare was still ice cold as she pulled her arm back and punched Chet in the jaw. She loaded up her left arm and threw another punch. It sailed over his head. She was ready to throw a kick, but Chet worked his way behind her and pushed her against the hood of his jeep. "Ok, I deserved one", he admitted, "but I'll only take one."

Amaris bucked and struggled to get free as she called him an asshole and a bastard for starters. He patiently took her barrage of curses. "Are you finished?"

"Get your hands off me!", Amaris yelled. Chet'd had enough. He tightened his grip on her arms and twisted them into a lock. He lead her to the passenger side and forced her inside. He calmly walked around and got in next to her. He looked over at Amaris, but she looked away and folded her arms. He sighed and drove off.

By the time they left town, Amaris was shaking uncontrollably. Chet reached under his seat. "Its the nerves. It happens sometimes. Getting shot at is an unnatural thing. Here drink this." He handed her a canteen.

Amaris pulled the plug and took a drink before she thought to ask what was in it. She nearly gagged. "What the hell is this, Chet?"

"George Dickel. Fine Tennessee whiskey. I prefer it to Jack. Have another drink."

Amaris screwed up her face and took a long drink. She coughed and gagged.

"You still mad at me?", Chet asked as if what he had done was trivial.

"Why did you do that to me?" Amaris' anger was returning.

"I had to give you a taste of the real world. Getting shot at is as real as it comes, and a couple of those guys were moderately good", he said in his lesson voice.

"YOU SOLD ME!!", Amaris screamed at the top of her lungs. "WHY?"

Chet smirked. "I wanted to set up the thing to train you, but hell after I did some research I found out that you might be worth some real money. I figured it was a good business deal." He seemed pleased with himself. "If you didn't manage to get yourself out, I was going to come and get you", he added.

"Yeah right!", Amaris huffed and took another long drink of the Dickel.

Chet was quiet for a while until he pointed at Amaris' dirty feet. "What happened to your shoes?"

Amaris looked down and wiggled her toes. Her feet were as dirty as they had ever been, from running through town barefoot, but her toes were still painted a nice shade of pink. After all she had gone through, her nail polish looked untouched. For some reason that was hilarious. She threw her head back and roared with laugher.

Chet laughed with her. "Damn it girl, you are crazy."

"Certifiable!", Amaris managed between laughs. "But what does that make you?"

Chet looked at her and laughed again. He reached out and gently wiped the blood from under her nose, then snatched the canteen from her hand.

"Hey, you're driving!"

"So?" He took a long drink, and Amaris hit him in the shoulder. He spilled a little whiskey on his lap. He shook his head and handed her the canteen.

Amaris took another drink before looking up at Chet. "How much did you get for me?"

"What?"

She crossed her arms and gave him a hard look. "You heard me. I want to know what I'm worth. How much did you sell me for?" She kept looking at him, but she laughed before he answered.

Chet sighed. "I got a wholesale payment of $225,000 for you last night by wire transfer."

Amaris' eyes widened then she sat back in the seat.

"You're not saying anything?", Chet asked after a few minutes of silence.

Amaris shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing much to say. When a girl finds out that she's worth that much money to somebody wholesale, I guess the only thing left is for me to haggle over my cut."

"What?"

Amaris grinned at her teacher. "That seems to be your favorite word today. And you heard what I said. I want my cut."

Chet broke out into a broad grin. "Ok, I guess we'll dicker when we get home."

Amaris put the top on the canteen and put it on the floor. "I'll be ready", she said as she folded her arms behind her head. "Oh, and by the way, I'm not a virgin." She winked at her teacher then closed her eyes and fell asleep. Chet looked over at her once more, and shook his head. One of these days he was going to be disappointed in Amaris, he was sure of it, but that day sure as hell wasn't today.

Chet was in the dark away from the brazier looking at Amaris tell her story. He remembered and filled in parts of her story that she couldn't know. His bosses had been successful. They had turned this once precocious but lovable girl into a killer. Chet was ashamed of his part in it, but hopefully she would never know the whole truth of her life.

Look out for the rest coming very soon!!!

comments encouraged: dem2@hotmail.com