I couldn’t sleep. It was 3a.m. and the whole world seemed to be silently shouting, pushing my eyes open in painful dryness. I started downstairs for a glass of milk but was stopped by the open front door and a shadow standing in it, the light reflecting off a silver rapier that danced over dark fingers.

He stepped into the light. “I’ve given you enough warnings, I think. It’s a shame. I was going to make this…” The white of his eyes looked right into me from his dark skin. “Painless.”
Suddenly he lunged at me, and the skills I had secretly honed over the years came into action. I caught the edge of the blade between my index and middle fingers, before sharply twisting them so the blade rushed out of his hands and into my waiting fingers. Before my assailant could reach for the daggers in his belt I thrust the blade up into his neck.

I left him in pain on the floor while I got my milk, then stood over his barely living form.
“There is no majesty, no glory, in death,” I said, then delivered the final blow.