Refresher Course

Oh dear master. How could I have forgotten? This has happened before.
I should probably actually report what happened before I get into that.

So I had to go see the assigned hunter about the unusual comfort his assigned mark was permitted to live under in the year he was supposedly chasing her and that meant I was going to have to be within arms reach of another proxy which… typically ends in violence for me.
I do believe I have mellowed out a fair bit in the short time I have been writing these but… I just can’t not hurt people and for some reason that goes double for my masked brothers. I knew if I went to see him someone was going to get hurt and if it couldn’t be him that meant it was going to have to be me.
So I remade a teaching tool my trainer use to use to encourage use to try harder. He called the pin glove. It’s quite simple really. You just take a glove and have sharp little pins come out of each finger tip. And then you wear the glove. Whenever someone needs encouraging you give them a tight little squeeze on their shoulder to inform them that they need to try harder. It works wonders and I was going to need a little self encouragement to get thought this.

Once the glove was made and ready I went to see him at the crappy little motel he had been operating out of. I called ahead, naturally.  I knocked on the door and as soon as I had I could feel myself starting to panic so I forced the gloved hand into my sleeve and I gave myself a nice little squeeze on the arm. Fortunately I was done cringing by the time he answered the door. The conversations went something like this.

“Hello are you-” he started.
“Yes. It’s… Duckie,” I quickly responded pushing in the pin on my pinky finger just a little deeper at the irritation of my own designation. I dug the rest of them in deeper as he started laughing. It was all I could do to fight the urge to give his neck a squeeze.
“I’m sorry. Sorry. That’s probably not cool. What the hell did they send you here for,” he said pausing to snicker some more, “Duckie?”
“I’m a collector here about your elusive mark,” I grumbled out. I could feel blood starting to soak into the glove a little.
“Oh,” he said pausing. And then he studied me. His look confirmed my every suspicion that he had not been doing his job.
“Can you maybe do me a favor and not hunt this one, Duckie” he asked. I could see he was tense. The door knob made a noise as he clenched it.
“Why?” I asked trying hard to keep my cool. I wanted more than anything to have my damn mask on so he couldn’t study my expressions. “Got a personal grudge with this one?”
“No, I-,” He started pausing. “I’m kind of seeing this one. Could you have not found her for me?”

He looked so desperate. He was risking his life for this girl. He didn’t seem to know I had already ruined those efforts. That stupid shit had barely bothered to hide her. I had to fight back a laugh. It must have caused me to smile because I could see him calming his stupid ass down.

“Ya,” I said biting my lip a little, “I think I can do that.”

After that I said my good bye and left. I hadn’t even gotten the glove off and my phone out before I started looking over the immediate area again in preparation for the planning stage of killing this man. First thing was first though; I needed to get permission from my overseers. I sent my handler a text informing him of the relationship between the mark and the assigned hunter and requested a recommended course of action. I was curious if they might have shown leniency. I was pretty sure they wouldn’t and she was ready dead but I still wanted to know.
I got a text back from another number, which is how this typically works, informing me to kill the girl and leave lover boy to stew in his punishment. I stilled planned on killing him at this point. I don’t need enemies that I can’t actively stalk. Regardless, I sent them back a text reading ‘Already done.’
Their next text, ironically enough, sparked a memory. It read, ‘I see you remembered.’

I stood there for a bit reading that over and over again. I remembered? What am I remembering? And then it hit me. I had done this before. This entire situation almost pound for pound was the same as my first hunt as a collector. This was a canned scenario. A recognized, harmless, and intentionally ignored situation they kept aside for such a time when they needed it to break in new collectors. My records must read that I’m new. More than just testing my willingness to ruin someone’s life, this situation was coordinated in such a way to create an enemy for me. It gives them someone to send after me when they decide it’s time to put me down. Realizing this meant I had to kill him.

And then I thought about it. I’m pretty sure I can take that wuss. Let them have their little ace. It will do them no good if I know about it. So this is me daring you assholes to play the card. I’m waiting for it. Idle threats aside, which is another habit I’ll chalk up to the masters will, that concluded the investigation. Well technically this report does.

Anyway, after that I started hitting up pawnshops and smelting businesses to get rid of all the jewelry and the TV. I was sad to see the TV go but there really is no place for one in the car or in the life of a drifter for that matter.
I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a revolver from one of pawnshops. The man at the counter kept insisting it wasn’t for sale but he found the little wad of cash I was sitting on at that point hard to resist. He even threw in some bullets to go with them. Guess he didn’t need them without the gun. That purchase didn’t leave me with much money left after food and gas. Even less after medical supplies for my arm but it should be enough to hold me over for a little while.

Death waits for no one, time to get to the next state. Once again there are no more marks listed in this one. I got to wonder if I’m heading for another canned scenario.