"Now! Lon, take him out." It hate just been over a year since my last assignment, but a year was enough to change me. At one point in life, killing was easy, not enjoyable but I didn't have much guilt. Now that was all different. Now I had friends, family, people I cared about. And its that, that madr it that much harder to pull the trigger.
I had a gun as I ran down the steps and kicked open the door to the lobby. My target was in my line of fire. I could take him out. He made himself so obvious. But we were in a hotel lobby. Around me, people were in a panic at the sight pf my gun. Who was I? They'd wonder. Am I friend or foe? But to be honest, not even I was very sure anymore.
I decided to give chase. There was no way I'd take the risk of shooting an innocent bystander.
I wasnt Mafia.
I wasn't Cheshire.
I wasnt Shiva.
I am no assassin, yet there I was. With a gun in hand and a target that I was supposed to kill. How in God's name do I get myself into these things?
What was worse, I didn't know who I was after at this point. This man was not the original target. Perhaps if I shot him in the leg Id be able to arrest him without killing him.
Then the fool cornered himself. He made things seem like a cliche horror movie, I wanted to smack him across the head. It seemed that apparently the man didn't know the city to well and ended up here.
He had his back to me as I approached, but he wasn't trembling, in fact the turned, slowly. And then he smiled. A low, evil, rotting thing of a smile. "Ive got you now pretty lady." He squawked. Wonders, I mumbled to myself rolling him eyes, I was cornering a complete Hatter. I was the one with the gun after all. But then I saw, I recognized him.
"YOU!"
The grip on my gun tighten.
The city paper had dubbed this man the Finger Keeper. He had kidnapped and mutilated 7 women in the past month and would dump their bodies in public squares with all their digits messily missing.
I felt the rage hit me like a wave upon a steadfast rock. I knew exactly what it was like to get my own body mutilated. To see someone remove my hands with a knife and poke extra holes into my chest and thighs. I was not new to torture. But no one, no innocent woman who have to ever experience such a pain. No one should ever have to feel what I felt during those dark days. Not ever.
And now I was face to face with a man like those of the past. I wanted to kill him, but I couldn't - not yet.
I lowered my gun with my own eerie smile. I felt my eyes revert back to their natural demoness red. And just for this moments, I relished reverting to my natural form. I felt my black wings rip at my skin and extended out of my spine. I felt my teeth shimmer in the dim light as I grinned ferociously with demons' pointed fangs. A painful growl emitted from my throat as my body contorted to its indescribable form. It ripped a scream from his throat into the alley and loud enough I was sure Lucifer could hear, that he was smiling up at me.
****
I held that lump of hit over my shoulder, blood trailing behind us. In my hand I tossed an eye, his eye, like a ball. It felt slimy and squishy between my gloved fingers. He was unconscious as I stepped into my house and headed down to one of my many basements. I had a lab down there that I had recreated to look like an exact replica of the one I had worked in in 1945. I used my lab pretty often but never for what I was about to do now.

"NO, PLEASE! I BEG YOU. HAVE MERCY!" the man's face was streaked with tears as I wiped my knife and hands on the already bloody wash cloth I had tied at my belt.
"My, my, aren't you afraid. How the tables have turned haven't they?" I purred as I glanced over the silver tray to my right. It held 8 fingers, 8 bloody perfectly sliced fingers. "You know, I rarely ever get to use fresh pieces for my work."
The cries of panic and fear echoed in my ears, and it was beginning to annoy me. I was still in my form and I decided to ignore his pathetic wails. I was fighting the urge to remove his tongue. But according to my schedule tacked up on one side of the lad, I needed human tongue! And now I had the perfect specimen.
"Goodness, you sure are a loud one aren't you, dear? Did you often talk to the women you killed? You sir, are not man that deserves to live, let alone talk and make as much noise are you. So-" I pulled a scalpel from the silver medical tray and an old fashioned metal cheek retractor. It looked like a torturing device.
"NO! NO!PLEASE DONT AHHHHHHH!"
I moved his position so he was laid back onto the lab table as he screamed on.
"Perhaps if you hadn't been screaming so much I may never have remembered. You really brought this on yourself. And you really deserve it too if you really think about it."
More screams.
I sighed and placed in the metal cheek rectractor, and carefully made sure that it held open his mouth before grabbing hold tightly of his pink wet muscle. I slowly entered with the scapulae and sliced; blood choked the man and his cries. Once the procedure was done i set the tongue in a prepped jar, and once he was dead, I'd behead him and polish his skull till it shone to place it with the other 271 I owned.
As I washed the scapulae and the knives, I caught my reflection in the mirror. I had reverted to my human form but my eyes still matched the blood that I wore. And as I stared into my eyes, my actions dawned on me.
I just killed a man.
I just tortured a man to death.
I had mutilated him and then planned on beheading and lobotomizing him.
My knife clattered to the ground as I sobbed into my hands. I even tried to justify why I did what I did and I was okay with it for even but a moment. This was the difference from when I had no guilt. Back then I foolishly believed that I was not a monster.

Extended Ending:
Adrian sipped tea as he looked around Babylon's study. His golden green eyes suddenly caught sight of an object he hadn't noticed before. A skull sat on the bookshelf eerily in the direction of Babylon's desk. He wandered over and picked it up, he noticed two marks that looked like burned fingerprints on the cranium. "Adding new knickknacks, My Sweet City?" Adrian purred as he turned, facing Babylon, who stared expressionlessly at him from the door way. Adrian grinned at her.
"Lovely to see you admiring my things." Babylon stated.
"Did you forget your gloves while you were packing this one? Adrian asked as he held up the skull. Babylon blinked, "I didn't forget them. I took them off."
"To grab an old skull?"
"It deserved it."
"But it's nothing but an old skull, my dearest."
"There is no such thing as just an old skull. I have skulls of soldiers, enemies, mutants, and animals all holding a unique history. Dont forget that.Besides, that one there." She pointed at the skull, "is just like me."
"Another demon?"
"No," Babylon said as she took it from him, "A monster."