The Life of a Spy Chapter Two

I walked over to the bed and picked up the briefcase, the only thing in this old house that had any sense of belonging at this point.

It was time to leave.

I slipped back out of the dead son’s room and down the hallway with the warped walls hanging overhead and the living carpet that seemed to try and hold me back. When I finally got to the front door I knew that once I was through the door to my previous life would be closed forever and a new world would be open for me to explore.

“What have you got there?” The man asked when I returned to the military base.

“Just notes.” I replied walking into the building as quickly as possible.

“Notes?” The guard asked questioningly but seemed to believe me. For all he knew I could have bombs in the briefcase or something else they wouldn’t want in the Special Operations Department of International Affairs command complex. I would have Mr. Washington hear this soon.

At least I thought it would be later that I saw him.

It was not long after entering the complex did the man who chose me for this fate appeared in the hall on his way outside the complex.

“What do you have there?” His cold voice echoed over the walls and I instantly froze. I instinctively held onto the journals tighter as I turned to the man with the power of life and death in his hands.

“Notes.” I replied hoping Washington would listen like the guard did.

It was a long shot that missed completely.

“The first and most enforced rule in the S.O.D.I.A academy is to respect all authority. What do you have and where did you get it?” Washington asked in a calm voice that made the shivers I was feeling in my spine develop their own shivers.

“They are my journals.” I said feeling my voice deflate.

“And what do you plan on doing with them?” The man asked slightly annoyed.

“I…” I started.

“I believe the point of this program was to erase your past. Did you not agree with that?” The man asked, his eyes darkening.

“I just thought…”

“You weren’t thinking.” He said with absolute authority, “You were not to retrieve anything from that house. Or did you not know…”

I cringed and felt my eyes water with stinging tears.

“Hand me the journals.” Washington ordered slowly, “I will dispose of them.”

I wanted to pull them close but I knew I Had to give them up. Slowly I put the handle in my leader’s hand. He took it quickly and dropped it in the hands of another guard behind him.

“Now I will excuse your insolence, this one time. I demand total respect.” The man said leaning in closer, “have I made myself clear?”

I was shaking and barely muttered,”…sir…”

The Life of a Spy Chapter One

“Once you are chosen, there is no way to be ‘un-chosen’”

“So this is the shell?” I asked eyeing my clone suspiciously. It was a very good copy with the hair parted the same way his is naturally, the nose and mouth shaped the same but there was no real light in the eyes.

“Yes, it is. The plan is that this will enter your home tonight and make itself known to your family as you. At a predetermined time int he night this clone will unexpected "pass away" making your family believing it to be you.” The man said almost in admiration.

I nodded. “Then I can undergo the training?”

The man nodded and chuckled replying, “You almost sound eager. Many fear the training years. We aren’t bound by more ‘common’ laws'.”

“Why would I fear it, it’s not like my life was anything to miss.”

“We’ll see…” The man said as he walked away. Before he left the room he whispered something to the guard at the door. The guard nodded and the man left.

So the plan was in motion.

The following morning the clone passed away and caused my parents to do exactly what was expected of them. After discovering the clone's demise they contacted medical attention and before long would be on their way to hospital.

There was a fake doctor in position that would give them the news about what had happened and that there was nothing they could do to save me.

I smiled and giggled a bit from across the street hidden by my old neighbor’s bushes, then I cursed myself for acting so childish, but I could not help it. I entertained the thought of this being a practical joke that a normal child would come up with. I would pop out of nowhere and yell surprise! and we would have a good laugh.

I knew all too well that this was not a game or a trick.

The ambulance left soon after and I knew my parents were gone as well, probably one was with my body and the other racing for my siblings.

I sprinted across the street and climbed the few stones steps up to the door and entered my old home, one that once welcomed me in with open arms.

Now I felt like a stranger intruding in someone else’s home.

I crept up the stairs, past the framed eyes and painted smiles, ones that watched me as I ascended up those steps I had so many memories of.

Once at the top I took a peek into the rooms, taking my last good looks at them.

My parents room, my brother’s, my sister’s they were all the same.

But the air was becoming heavier and more suffocating. I felt as if I would panic if I stayed in this house too much longer.

I now turned to my door, the one at the end of the endless hallway.

The carpet slid under my shoes as if unwilling to let me progress to my old room, until I gripped the biting knob of my door and entered the dark room, smaller than I remember.

I had a reason to be there, and I was not going to let my growing panic keep me from achieving it.

Sitting on my bed was a briefcase and inside that briefcase I knew housed the reason I came. My journals from the moment I could write were inside of it, and I could not leave them behind.

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