THE MOMENT
Colby was getting everything he wanted along with a heavy dose of unexpected regret. He was in his panic room, revolver ready and pointed at the now open door. It'd been torn off the hinges, which was the moment Colby realized he was actually in danger. The fact that it was a teenage girl that did it further validated his conern. "What the hell are you!?" He asked. She couldn't have been a normal girl. She'd already proven she was more of a capable fighter than him, and he was forced to retreat with a broken arm. "I'm what you paid for," she smiled as she stepped into the room with him. "You wanted a killer, right?" She'd gotten close enough for Colby to fire without worrying about aiming. He squeezed the trigger and the bullet immediately shot through her neck, through the hallway behind her and into the wall. She blinked, and didn't move, but she smiled. Blood flowed out of her neck briefly, before it stopped as Colby watched the wound close itself. "C'mon," she shook her head. "After you paid the amount of money you did, did you think Ozone would send someone that could be stopped by a bullet?" she asked. "You paid for a service," she nodded as she inched forward, dragging out the encounter. "I want to cancel!" he shouted. "Cancel?" she laughed. "There's a hefty cancellation fee, considering how close the job is to being done," she winked at him. "I'll pay it! I can pay Ozone right now!" Colby was too panicked to realize he was in the exact same predicament he'd forced others into dozens of times. Despite his hobbies, he never bothered to imagine begging for his own life. But, he probably should've seen it coming the way he escalated to more and more dangerous prey. Ozone was 'the big leagues' and Colby saved up a hefty sum to be able to hire one of his mercenaries. There was some disbelief on Ozone's side about the job, but Colby assured the heavyset man that he knew what he was getting himself into. Now he was realizing how outclassed he was. "I'll either be back in five minutes...," she smiled at him before turning around to head out of the panic room. "...or I won't. I guess we'll see if Ozone has anything to say about it," she shrugged as she disappeared around the corner. "Ow,ow,ow." Colby struggled to pull his node out of his pocket with one hand while his broken right arm hung limp and floppy. It was his dominant arm, but he wasn't completely useless with his left. He'd managed to nail the shot, even if it didn't actually hurt her. But, he didn't have quite the finesse needed to try texting from a node. It was easier to call. "Ozone Independent Mediaries, this is Andie speaking, how may I help you?" Andie answered. "Hi, Andie, this is Colby. I need to talk to Ozone about the job." "I'm sorry, Mr. Colby. Mr. Ozone is out of the office at the moment. I'll make sure he calls you as soon as he's back." "Wait!" Colby got the sense that Andie was about to hang up, but fortunately she replied. "Yes?" she asked. "I want to cancel the contract! Can you call off the assassin?" "One moment, please," Andie replied. Colby couldn't do anything but sit there in pain. Finally, after over two minutes, Andie came back on the line. "Yes, Mr. Colby. We in fact can still call off Tessa," she said. "Unfortunately, we need Mr. Ozone's approval for that. I'll have him call you back," she said. "NO WAIT!" he tried again, but it was too late. The call disconnected, leaving him there alone in the silence with only about two minutes left to live. “That’s some bad luck…,” he sighed.