Revenge of the Undercover Nerd

Three: You're Alive?!

Her eyes widened with surprise and I nearly saw her eyes roll to the back of her head as if she were about to faint.

But they snapped back open and scanned me carefully with a weird glint in them.

"Is that really you, Elodie?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips and scrunching her red lips into a frown.

"Y-yes..." I breathed, not believing anything. It was mom. She wasn't dead. "You're alive?!"

She opened her mouth but was cut off by me wrapping my thick arms around her body and squeezing tightly. I could smell her cinnamon soap...a scent I'd missed so much. I'd just missed her in general. I felt tears brimming at the corners of my eyes, threatening to go over, so I blinked them back, trying to calm the emotional tsunami taking over in my stomach.

Finally, I released her, looking up at her face expectantly.

She smiled proudly and gestured around.

"You know grandpa Earl, the one with the slick mustache and triangular beard? Well he was the boss of this place, which we call the ASS. Now, not ass, but the Assassin Secret Society. Unfortunately people call us the ass, even our own workers. I was an assassin every since I was 17. Well unfortunately your grandpappy passed...a tragic incident, really caused by a few drug dealers. We had them all tied up but one of them was his old friend so--"

"Wait you were an assassin? Then how come you let dad beat you up every day?"

She shrugged.

"I couldn't give the ASS away. It's a secret society. Anyway, I made sure to block some of the most physically hurtful blows and redirect them so he'd think I did it on accident. I also used fake blood and stuff. It was great fun!" She smiled, as if nothing was amiss.

I stopped myself...just to think. So I just got kidnapped and everyone thinks I'm dead and my dead mother is alive and the boss of a secret society of assassins.

I was still trying to wrap my head around the situation when suddenly, a wave of hurt washed through me taking over my willpower. I soon felt tears forming in the corners of my eyes and I blinked rapidly.

Shit.

"It was great fun?" I asked. "It was great fucking fun! It's nice to know that my mother who I saw getting beaten by my father every single day thought it was fun. And then you left. I thought you were dead. I worried my guts off, I kept eating and look where that lead me," I gestured wildly to my overweight body. "I hope you're happy."

A wave of sympathy washed through mom's aging features, and I swear I would've punched her in the face right them and there if I had known how to punch.

"Well I'm sorry for leaving you. I really didn't want to, but I couldn't tell you about the ASS until you're 16. You are sixteen. So this is how the ASS works. We take normal teenagers who are very close to ending their life because they have such a bad lives and they're all depressed and stuff and we let them become assassins. They learn to love the assassin life and don't even think about returning because their old life is so crappy. It's not even a thought."

I gaped. I was part of that group. The ones who were so depressed that they wouldn't think twice about leaving their life.

"This way, the ASS stays secret and everything's good."

She smiled, her hands clasping together. I stared at her with disgust. My mom, the one with the hello kitty oven mitts and fresh snicker doodles. The one with the perfect smile and bright eyes.