"You scared?" Franklin asked after Hayden went silent.
"Are you doubting me?"
"Would I assign you to this mission if I didn't trust you?"
"There's no mission I can fail. To tell you the truth, I'm thrilled."
…
The following day, Esperanza lends his Mercedes-Benz to Hayden so that he can also be Aubrey's chauffeur.
Hayden is driving the same car that hits him on his first interaction with Esperanza. The bumper was also repaired after that crash.
They were zooming down the road as Aubrey occupied the front passenger seat, and she was not having it.
Being alone with Hayden makes her "Urgh!".
She's miffed, in a nutshell.
Upon arriving at school, he escorted Aubrey into the classroom and once she was settled in her seat, he secretly whispered something to her.
"I'm going somewhere for a moment. Don't go cutting classes."
Without acknowledging his forewarning, Aubrey rolled her eyes like a bitch.
Thinking nothing catastrophic would happen on this bright, peaceful day, Hayden went on his way to execute his target.
Just moments later, when Aubrey's circle got to the classroom, a dumb thought occurred to her.
"Guys, wanna grab a snack at the cafeteria before class starts?"
She's not actually craving for something. She just wanted to annoy Hayden as payback for getting under her skin the previous day.
~~~~~~~~~
"Your target for tomorrow is Conor; the Principal of that school," this is Franklin's instruction when he called Hayden last night. "And the objective: assassinate him and make it appear a suicide."
Further information was given to Hayden and it ran through his head as he made his way to the Principal's office.
The whole assassination thing doesn't trouble Hayden since he's an expert at it.
The Headhunter will never want Conor dead without a strong reason. An intelligence came just recently, accusing Conor of molesting students. According to the intel, Conor lures the students he'd like and sexually assaults them with the entire scene filmed. After that, he threatens his victims to remain silent or else those videos will be released on the internet.
There are proofs supporting this intel, and it's pretty solid, hence the assassination of the Principal is ordered.
More than 20 students are estimated to have been victimised, and to halt this monstrosity, Hayden made his move.
Unfortunately, the Principal's office seemed empty. The door was locked and it was eerily quiet.
'That's strange,' Hayden thought to himself. 'The intel reported the target would be at school.'
Supposing the target is elsewhere, Hayden continued to the registrar to inquire.
However, Hayden still dreaded that something was off; because even if the principal is currently lingering somewhere, his office shouldn't be locked shut.
Upon arriving at the registrar's office, Hayden spoke to the registrar who was busy on her desktop. The registrar indulged Hayden's question and apparently, the principal was currently at the gymnasium which is located at the exact front of the entrance gate. Hayden further inquired about the reason why he's there, but she just shook her head, saying she doesn't know.
Suddenly, as the supposedly peaceful day portrayed its radiance, a black thing shoots up into the sky like a firework and explodes when it reaches a certain height.
Hayden was clueless as that dark thing travelled up the sky, but the students who were inside their respective classrooms got the chance to behold the gorgeously wicked phenomenon through the windows.
Even Aubrey, who was chilling at the cafeteria with her friends, sighted that thing dashing up above.
The explosion didn't make any sound or any blast that resembled gunpowder detonation, rather, the dark thing shatters, then spreads a barrier-like canopy that envelops the entire campus in cold darkness.
Hayden, who was in the hallway of the registrar's office, only noticed the surrounding mildly dim.
'Solar eclipse?' he assumed. Unbeknownst to him, this terrifying day won't end without hundreds of students and civilians meeting their demise.
As Hayden strode along the hallway on his way to assassinate his target at the gymnasium, an announcement broadcast from the PA system stopped him in his tracks.
"ATTENTION EVERYONE: an umbrella gate has broken out. All students are obliged to remain calm and follow their teacher's instructions. THE SCHOOL MUST BE EVACUATED IMMEDIATELY. Your cooperation is crucial to ensuring everyone's safety. Thank you." The announcement echoed throughout the entire campus.
Shiver struck Hayden's spine.
Worried, he bolted until the end of the hallway and gazed up at the purplish-black sky that was similar to the colour of a decaying human.
Hayden instantly knows what's coming, and he has to make a decision quickly.
Should he continue his assassination mission? Or should he forfeit and refrain Aubrey from encountering danger?
This was a big decision for Hayden as he had never left any missions undone.
Although it was a tough choice to make, Hayden almost instantly made up his mind and sprinted all the way back to his classroom.
Apparently, he realised that he could be rewarded with more gold from saving Aubrey than ending the life of a sex offender.
After all, every factor of his decision involves money.
And so, he hurried.
'Based on the barrier overhead, it's safe to say that the heart or the center of this umbrella gate is over the school's entrance gate. That means the gate opened at that location. It won't take long before the campus is infested with demons.'
Hayden is well aware of the situation.
However, as he sprinted down the school grounds, he stumbled across something gruesome on his path.
'A demon?' he assumed.
The thing was lying dormant on the grass that was drenched with its own purple fluids. It's obvious that this demon was freshly killed by someone, but only the DHs are capable of killing such a creature and this is not a DH academy, so it occurred to him that this must be Jace's doing, in service to protect Grace.
He also noticed that the surroundings seemed rather calm. That's not typically the case during a gate breakout.
Putting the surroundings aside, Hayden approached the corpse of the demon, and upon closer inspection, he realised that the situation was far more sinister than he could ever expect.
The thing's body embodied the shape of a human but in a distorted state. Its entire size expands twice the size of an adult human, one arm is abnormally bulged and asymmetrical to the other arm, the skin on its legs is peeling off, its left eye is gouged out and is hanging on a thread, and its head is extremely bloated—worse than Jimmy Neutron.
Demons are driven by their desire to kill humans and they will attack whoever is closest by instinct. The gate just opened, so it's counterintuitive to think that a demon has already reached this far.
The place where Hayden found the thing was distant from the gate, and considering there are many distractions for demons since there are buildings full of students near the gate, those wretched demons should be busy gobbling up.
At that very moment, it finally clicks into him as he gawks at the remnants in front of him.
'This thing… It's not a demon. It's a human.'.