Mother

The reason I am
still talking is that
I was given a place
and time to kill.

It is soon enough,
but it does mean
I have a lot of time
to worry about it.

It was late.

We were fighting,

Salome and I.

She had me disarmed

but I was still looking 

to take my knife back.

She stopped when she
saw him, standing a little
straighter and elbowing
me to make me do the same.

"Ember, fancy a drink? My treat."

He said. He had a warm smile.
He sounded like a man from
an old western film.

(Salome has been trying
to get me up to date
culturally as well as
teaching me to fight.
I enjoy westerns.)

Salome spoke up "Sir?"

"If you want, you can come too."

He was older than me,

maybe thirty or thirty five.

I could practically taste

cigarette ash when he was near.

Salome declined.

It seems strange
but I did not
think to ask
who he was.

Not there anyway.

I looked at her for a moment,

she shrugged and stated that

she had some more work to do.

We took a taxi
to Upper Manhattan,
walking into a bar.

He told me that he liked
to drink there because they
let him smoke.

"What's your poison?"
He asked, standing at
the bar, looking at me.

"Poison?" I asked.
He laughed.
"That means what
would you like to drink?"

I shrugged, he ordered
me a glass of wine.

We sat at a table in
the corner, as far
from the door as we could.
He lit up, looking contented.

"So what would you like to
talk about? How has your
training been going?"

We talked for a while
about this and that.
Then I realised I had
no idea who I was talking to.

I asked.
He answered.

"People call me Tau.
I started in 2010
I work with Theta
and we are Mother."
He took a drag.

"So you are the one
who is sending me to
kill people?" I was shocked,
scared, I had no idea what to say.

He didn't answer that.
"The letter Theta in ancient
Greece was a symbol of death,
some say it is because it is an
abbreviated form of "Thanatos," 

a personification of death."

"Tau, on the other hand,

was used by the Egyptians

as a symbol of life 

in their Crux Anasta or

in another name, The Ankh."

"Do you understand?"

I tried to clarify and he

confirmed it.

He deals with the people

who are a part of the 

organization, and Theta

hands us the assassinations.

We talked about other things,
I asked about my past and
he told me that I was not ready
to hear about it yet, it would kill me.

He told me to keep reading the
letters I was being sent and to try
and find out who Felix was.

He told me to consider it an order.

At least with this
order I do not
have to kill a little girl.