1 Zachese Frank

It was early morning, in the middle of nowhere; a vast tract of sea with no landmass in sight far across the horizon. A solitary cruise ship was slowly moving across the calm ocean that looked no different from a clear glass perfectly reflecting the color of the sky and the clouds. The ship left endless turbulence in its wake and the beautiful reflection like the hidden world that could never be approached was distorted beyond recognition, never to be seen again until the next calm.

On the middle deck, there were two rows of rooms lined up in a straight line with a corridor in between the two separating the two from each other. From the outside, it was only the windows in each room that were visible. At this moment, the curtains in one of those windows were pulled apart and a young and smart figure came in front of the window gazing unto the horizon with deadpan eyes. His body gave out the feeling that each cell was filled to the brim with energy and strength as if a crouching tiger trying to hide its magnificence. Since there was no one else in the room, there was no one who was able to feel the terrible aura coming off of his body and the reek of blood that seemed to be a part of that man.

One could only imagine the amount of blood this man must have spilled to gain such an atrocious and bloody aura. It was just that no one knew the true identity of this man who was like a wolf among sheep in this world. He was the World's foremost assassin, the most terrifying killer of them all; the one who dominated the top ranking of the whole world when it came to assassination and killing. If he claimed to be second in the world in terms of assassination then there wouldn't be another one who would claim to be the first.

The top ten of the assassin list, all belonged to powerful organizations responsible for all the high end assassinations involving political and monetary gains. Only the one at the top of the list was known to be a solitary player who always got the job done no matter how many he had to kill to get the desired result. Despite operating alone, the top of the assassination list, the grim reaper in the nightmares of countless individuals was known to be quite selective of the jobs he was willing to take irrespective of the compensation.

While the world was unaware of his true name, the various forces had given him their own nicknames as an acknowledgment of his strength such as the Grim Reaper, Silent Night, Dark Shadow, Bloody Calamity and many more. Each organization had a different name for him but all of them were aware of the horror of the World's foremost assassin. No matter what kind of job it might be, as long as the reaper was willing to take on the job, it was bound to be a success.

At this moment, the peak of the assassination world, Zachese Frank was busy yawning while looking out on to the horizon with a cold and a deadpan expression as if the magic of nature had no impact on him any longer. It was the gaze of a man who was tired of the world and had seen everything there was to see and the feeling of novelty had long since been lost.

"It's a beautiful morning."

Zachese Frank dressed up in his black outfit with a black overcoat picked up a handgun from under the drawer by the bedside and left the room.

Being in the profession, he had picked up certain habits that had saved his life on various occasions. No matter where he went, caution was always with him. He would stash weapons in various locations so that he would have access to one at any time. Even though he was the only individual on the boat at this time, he had still habitually hidden a gun under the drawer.

The cruise ship that he was on was like a ghost ship, not a single soul could be seen onboard, not even the crew. The navigation room was the same when Zachese entered and it looked like he wasn't the slightest bit surprised.

He calmly moved towards the controls and set a course towards the destination that he had in mind. It was one of his safehouses in the middle of the ocean, an uninhabited island with all the facilities that he would need to stay for a while.

After setting course, there was no need to steer direction after all he was not living in medieval times. He came out to the deck and leaned forward on the railings to look out at the vastness of the supreme ocean.

This time the job that he had come here to complete was to kill a bunch of warmongers who had been planning to throw the African region into chaos.

It was a ring of weapon manufacturers who were in league with various terrorist organizations. They had recently been planning on causing unrest through the supply of illegal weapons to the local militants in order to incite chaos and war in the region.

Millions of innocents would have lost their lives as a result of their lust for more wealth.

Zachese was in no way a hero of justice or someone who was even remotely in touch with morals or the legality of his actions.

He was a cold blooded murderer with the blood of thousands on his hands but there was one reason he felt that he was different from monsters like those he just killed; he had neither murdered an innocent nor had he caused the death of an innocent through his actions.

In fact that was the reason he was so choosy about the contracts he meant to accept.

Zachese made it his duty to be thorough in his research and would first find proof that the target was guilty before going in for the kill.

This was to absolve some of the guilt that he felt for taking someone's life. Somehow when he knew that the target was a scumbag who deserved to die, it made it easier for him to pull the trigger without the buzzing conscience at the back of his mind.

This way at least his conscience would be at peace thinking that he had only gotten rid of a bastard who made the world a dirtier and harder place to live in for the weak and innocent.

This cruise ship had in fact been a disguise for the weapon manufacturing to hold a private conference regarding their venture into the African market of illegal weaponry.

As such, the moment that Zachese had ensured that everyone on the ship had to die in order for the world to be a more peaceful place; he sprang into action and stealthily took care of the security detail all over the ship. He closed in on the conference room from the outside while taking care of everyone in his way.

The security had been quite lax for the criminals of that level. Maybe it was because they thought that they were the only ones on board the cruise that was still surrounded by the ocean on all sides.

It wasn't long before Zachese took out his guns, pushed open the door of the conference room and revealed himself to those whose souls he was going to reap.

"Who are.."

Before the sentence escaped the mouth of the person asking the question, death came to him and he silently left the world in agony. He wasn't entitled to leave even his last words.

More gunshots sounded and blood spurted from all the attendees in the conference hall.

Standing on the deck of the cruise ship, Zachese, who had just the day before murdered everyone aboard the ship, was thinking of nothing.

He was enjoying the peace that came in between the bloody contracts he accepted.

Even the joy he felt had been concealed behind a cold expression that had never left his face ever since he took his first contract. It was both a way of protecting himself and a way of terrifying the target. Both made the life of an assassin easier.

The serenity and the peace had lulled his mind somewhat so that he was unaware of his surroundings as if he was secluded from the rest of the world.

The lack of caution was the reason that Zachese was unable to notice the dominant threat that was heading his way from the heavens.

Far away from the Earth, a huge star blew up to its core and its fragments spread across the universe. A small fragment propelled in the direction of Earth with the help of the propulsive force from the explosion.

The meteor entered the atmosphere of Earth and caught on fire. The meteor streaked across the sky like a beautiful shooting star.

On this day, many people across the world witnessed a scene that was as beautiful as it was rare.

Little did they know that the meteor was heading straight to cause the demise of a certain cruise ship that was sailing across the ocean in solitude. Even the assassin onboard did not notice the incoming harbinger of death and destruction.

When he noticed it; it had already been too late.

Zachese had always imagined that he would die in the most horrible way possible; either killed in cold blood for revenge or tortured to death. He thought that it was only natural as the ultimate consequence of all the lives he had taken.

But when death was staring him in the face, Zachese didn't think that it was a very horrible way to die.

He thought that this type of death was quite the unique way to go, after all he might be the first one to die after being hit by a meteor following the dinosaurs in the distant past.

The meteor in his eyes grew bigger and more luminous with every moment. The intense light forced Zachese to close his eyes and the meteor plunged into the cruise ship breaking the hull all the way to the keel of the ship.

The huge explosion shook the water around it and turbulent waves sent the surroundings into disorder.

Yet the disaster that took place in the middle of the ocean remained unnoticed by the whole world; and the most terrifying assassin in the world vanished in the intense light following the crash landing of the meteor.

In a world engulfed by darkness, Zachese was floating endlessly or so he felt because he had yet to open his eyes.

"Is that what people experience when they die?"