Somebody Else

I am the one they fear.

I arrive in silence and leave death in my wake. I am the life taker. The destroyer of that which lives and breaths. I feel no guilt and no remorse. I do not weep for those I touch. I find no fault in my actions. For this, Is war!

I am me, and yet I am not the person I once was. My mother would not know nor even care to know the person I have become., And yet, I am, Only, That which they have made me. I am a soldier, An Assassin, A taker of lives.

I make no excuses for what I have become, Or for what I do. I did not choose this way of life, and have never desired it, But what is, Is. I can not change and perhaps now, after all these years, I would not welcome change. This is all I know. All I have ever known, and I am good at what I do. So very good. Why should I stop just because they say the war is over.
 
What do they know of war. Sitting in plush offices and safe underground bunkers. The sound of gunfire never touched their ears, The cries of the wounded and dying never pierced their hearts. They trained me, Created me even. For years they used me as their personal messenger of death and now they say the war is over. Now they spurn and reject me. Them, The faceless, Nameless ones whose greed and immorality knows no boundaries. They unleashed a devastating weapon on those they called their enemies, With no thought as to what would become of their instrument of death when their blood lust was finally satiated. They got their way, Won their bloody war. They got what they wanted, But now they no longer want what they have got.
 
And when they can not stop me. They send more of my kind out after me. Seeking to destroy, What they have created. They seek to kill me. But they can not stop me, Not even the others, Like myself, Trained in the art of death. I outhink them, Outrun them, Outsmart them. And then I take their lives as they would take mine. They are raw and inexperienced. They have not seen the things I have seen, Weathered the storms I have weathered, Committed the acts I have committed. They are untainted by the bitter sweet taste of war.
 
Silently and smoothly I bring them down. One after another, and always there are more. They come and they die without meaning or purpose and without ever really understanding why they do what they do. And still I remain.
 
I am old now. Old and slow. Soon will come the day when one of them will prove just that little bit faster than I. I welcome that day. Welcome it and look forward to it. This world is a dark place for me now and I would leave it without complaint.