Silas walked into the hotel, shaking rain from his coat as he went. Walking across the lobby, he was keenly aware of the stares and glances he was attracting. He struck an impressive figure, striding across the floor with his coat trailing behind like a cape, near enough to royalty. But it went against almost everything he believed in, being this conspicuous. It was a sure fire way to get yourself caught or killed in his profession, but he was confident he had nothing to worry about at the moment. Besides right now he didn’t think of himself on assignment, this was his long overdue vacation from all the death. But there were still tiny, nagging thoughts in the back of his mind that screamed loudly that this didn’t feel quite right.

“Are there any messages for 438?” Silas asked the clerk as he came up to the desk.

“Uh…no sir, no messages.” The clerk replied in a bored voice as he typed.

“Thank you.” Silas said as he started to walk towards the elevators. He pressed the button to summon the elevator, then clasped his gloved hands behind his back as he waited. A stressed looking couple, laden down with luggage, came to a stop next to him as they joined in his wait. A little boy with the blue hood of his puffy raincoat pulled tight around his blond curls stood between the two harried parents, his fat cheeks smeared with powdered sugar from the bag of donuts he had clenched in his tiny fist.

At the sight of the boy Silas was suddenly years ago pointing a shaking pistol at a sleeping sandy haired boy. Small, ragged sobs escaped his lips as he lined up the sights of the silenced pistol with boys serene face. Tears blurred his vision as he began to put pressure to the trigger.

“Are you getting on or what?”

Silas’s eyes jerked towards the boy’s burly father, who was holding the doors for him. Silas took a deep breath as he hitched a smile on his face.

“Sorry, yes, thank you.” Silas stepped onto the elevator and the doors closed smoothly behind him. “What floor are you on, sir?”

“Uhh… What floor are we on again, Honey?” The father asked, turning to his wife.

“Third, Darren.” She said without looking up from the hotels pamphlet. “Oh and we are waking up for breakfast in the morning.”

“What time?”

“Eight.”

The father groaned and grumbled something about being on vacation. Silas hit the third floor button and then the fourth. He then felt a tug on his coat and looked down. The little boy had tugged him and was looking up at Silas with eyes that sparkled with innocence.

“You wanna doughnut, mister?” he said, holding a bite sized powdered doughnut in his small palm as he offered it to Silas.

“Don’t bother the young man, sweetie.” His mother scolded him, pulling on the back of the child’s puffy coat.

Silas smiled at the mother, “It’s quite alright.” He squatted so that he was eye level with the boy.

“I would love one.” He said with another smile as he held out his gloved hand to accept the doughnut. The boy deposited it in his palm with a toothy self-satisfied grin. “Thank you.”

“My names Charlie, what’s your name?” The little boy announced with pride as he stuffed another doughnut into his mouth, making the question muffled.

“It’s nice to meet you Charlie, My name is Derek.” Silas answered in a kind voice.

“A pretty lady draw me and my daddy on the airplane, she show it to me before she go and I was sleeping on daddy. I like sleeping on my daddy.” As the child rambled, the doors parted as they arrived on the third floor. Silas stood up and moved to the side as the father got out, followed by the mother holding the boys free hand.

“Bye-bye Derek, see you later.” The little boy called while waving his doughnut bag at the assassin. Silas waved back as the doors closed again, then bowed his head. His chest heaved as he fought for air, with a small sob punctuating each attempt. Silas closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall of the elevator, willing himself to slow his breathing. He felt the elevator slow to a stop and the doors parted with a ding, he took a deep breath and started walking down the hallway towards his room. As he walked he noticed the doughnut still in his hand, he smiled a little then popped it into his mouth. He took out his key card and held it to the sensor next to his room’s door

The lights smoothly came on in response to his presence and the drapes soundlessly parted to reveal a dreary downtown Seattle. The rain had picked up and was now hammering against the glass. Silas shrugged out of his coat and peeled off his gloves and threw them both on the bed before walking to the window. He put a hand on the glass as he gazed down to the busy street, his breath steaming the window into opaqueness.

He watched the traffic come and go as thoughts of his assignment drifted through his head. He hadn’t expected to be noticed by her and that could prove problematic in the long run. She had looked right at him, had stared directly into his eyes. They sparkled with an innocent kindness, like the child’s did when he tugged on his coat, that was unlike anything he had experienced in a long time.

It wasn’t directed towards him of course, but it was nice to see it look in his direction. The picture Cassie had shown him saw was obviously dated. Her dark red hair cascaded to the middle of her back, not hovering above her shoulders the way it was in the photo. But her face had a sort of classic beauty to it that was unmistakable.

Silas closed his eyes and put his forehead to the cool glass. It helped dull the pounding that was starting at the front of his skull. He let out a deep sigh.

“Every time…every damn time.” He muttered to himself as he remembered how he froze outside the elevator doors. When the little boy looked up at him his blood ran cold and his mind grew hazy with memories from the past. A past that he wanted desperately wanted to forget. The patter of the rain on the glass was acting as a tranquilizer, lulling him into a drowsy stupor. He hadn’t slept since his arrival back home, not since he was issued his new assignment. He had spent the last couple of days refining his plan, the hours passing him by with little notice.

Silas still didn’t feel very confident about it if he was being honest with himself. A lot of it depended on how she viewed him, or how she would react to the personality he would show her. There was a lot of chance involved and he wasn’t too fond of taking chances. But the circumstances didn’t leave him with many options.

Silas turned away from the rain and headed for the bathroom. He was halfway there when thunder split his skull in two. His vision flickered violently as his jaws together. His every nerve was on fire with the scorching pain. Red began to cloud his eyesight until he could no longer see but the faint outline the hotel room.

Then blackness.

He felt his left knee hit the ground, than his right followed quickly, than he felt his face hit the carpet. The agony persisted until he thought of nothing else but the pain. Incoherent images flashed in his mind; Ashlin’s emerald eyes gazing intensely into his own, a sandy haired boy staring into the barrel of a gun and Berial slashing at his face with a dark blade. He couldn’t make sense of the any of it before his mind slipped away into the oblivion of pain.

When Silas returned to something resembling awareness, his was face down in the carpet, the heavy smell of rain filling his nostrils. He blinked several times to clear his blurry vision, than winced as that triggered a throb of pain that rolled from his head to his feet. His breathing and heart rate were normal as far as he could tell, but his head pounded furiously. He tentatively rolled onto his back and looked out the window to see that night had fallen and the rain had not let up.

But there was something wrong. As he looked through the window, nearly every raindrop that fell past his window, each individual drop of water, was unique and unsettlingly distinct. Aches rumbled through Silas’s body as he got to his feet, but he paid them little mind as he slowly walked to the window, his pulse quickening as the apartment building across the street came into focus. But there was no way. No possible way he could see it this clearly, not without binoculars or a scope.

As Silas put a hand to the window, the smell of the rain and wet asphalt flooded his sense, as if there was nothing separating him from the storm. But there were other smells, at least a dozen that he wouldn’t have otherwise know were there, as well, each making their presence known each time his rapid breathing misted the glass.

A light flared to life across the street, momentarily distracting him from the new smells. His pulsed jumped as she stepped to the window. Of course, it would be her. She looked to have been asleep, but there was an innocent wonderment to her face as he leaned her head against the glass, the rain dripping shadows down her face. His eyes could trace every soft curve of her face, could count how many eye lashes framed those vivid eyes.

He started to become dangerously close to losing himself watching her when the lightening flashed. Before it completely blinded him, he saw something reflected. Something truly impossible. As the burning afterimage of her faded, Silas only slightly flinched as the thunder exploded above him.

There they were. Twin orbs of blue ice reflected in the window that disappeared when Silas blinked, that looked where he looked. As his reflection came completely out of the dark, Silas shuddered at what was staring at him. He didn’t even look like himself…though nothing had changed. Well, nothing else it seemed. Though shock ruled his face, those eyes burned coldly. There was no hiding what he was anymore, those were the eyes of a predator.

Silas leaned his head against the cool glass, forgetting about her, and closed his eyes as he whispered, “What is happening to me?”