I am going to tell you what events in my life have changed it. I am an old man but can remember what has happened to me decades ago. In old Jerusalem…(Flashback) I was walking down the street that was very busy that my mother sent me to get food from the market. As I was looking at some figs some soldiers went by, not thinking the direction they were headed, One was bald and had golden armor and I went on looking for what our family needed. When I got what we needed I walked home with my basket and as I walk up to my home my parents were lying on crosses…

After that day I was living in the streets living off stealing and running from the past that seemed to be lingering in my mind, always there never leaving. I always stole bread from the (Arabic name for breadmaker) he would always look for me but I would choose a different path everyday to get to his stand. I would always get one loaf of bread, till one day I got caught. (Back in the day if you got caught with stealing something your hand would be cut off…)

I was choosing my path to get my food for the day, confident that I would succeed again, then, as I went sneaking into the area a large man, with a huge beard grabbed my arm and through me into a pile of baskets. He was strong I knew that this was it so in pure panic I ran for what I would lose. I ran down the street and as I rounded the corner I ran into the bearded man and he punch me in the stomach it was agonizing. I then paused and looked at him then. I ran faster and dodged around buildings and baskets. Jumping through stands and dodging some more then, I look back and he is not following me as I relax more I turned around and a shadow was towering over me. I turned around and I asked him “What are you going to do to me?” He didn’t say anything at first and then he smiled and said “follow me…” I was confused wondering why he wouldn’t keep up the punishment of stealing. I followed him but all the sudden he disappeared, looking around not seeing anyone, then he whistled and I looked above me and he was on the roof. I followed him as he dashes away and then once I reach the top I looked in the direction that he went but, he wasn’t on the roof he was behind me… I turn around slowly sensing someone there. Then we sat there and talked and he told me that when I was running away from him he saw something that I would do to elude him that reminded him of his cult. Assassins Cult that had been there since King David to protect what had been his for life. I looked at him and asked him “Who are you and why me?” He wanted me to be initiated into his cult. I was a afraid for the unknown and I thought about it for a second. Then he said “Once you have made your decision by tomorrow morning meet me at the Tel. Then as he is about to leave out of my site I ask him what his name is he replied “ Mohamed Shakre”.

All that night I thought about what I could use this for and what Mohamed talked about. All that I could remember is the hatred burning in my heart from the day that I saw my parents on the crosses. As my life crumbled apart from the foundation of my being I drifted off to sleep.

The next morning I reach the top of the Tel and I waited for what seemed like hours. I then realized something that behind me there was a man that had been sitting there since I had got there. I knowing that he was a master at the art of Assassination I thought I was very clever and tried to sneak up on him. “You might as well be walking on dried leaves”. As one more step would’ve put me within arms length. “Good morning, have you an answer for me?” I was slow to answer “I don’t know what my answer should be fore I know nothing.” He said for Assassin’s agility is of the most important if you can stay behind me this entire run then you will see what we do. He started to sprint down the Tel. This man is amazingly fast for his age and his stature but, I was right behind him. I see him jump on a box and then jump from there onto the roof. I followed right behind him and kept up and as we are jumping from building to building house to house. Then we reach this matrabaya screen and he clears it a way and then asks me “Are you ready?” I reply panting from the running “For what?”
Then from the very high building he jumps onto what seems like solid roof. I look around then with a leap of faith lift my foot off the roof and fall as the pressure of the wind hits my face and then break through the canvas falling into the abyss of nothingness. Eyes closed I am caught by a group of men holding a blanket to catch me.

As I get up from the shock of the fall I look around into a huge vaulted ceiling with a circle in the center of the room. Then Mohamed standing in the center waiting for me, shaken, I get up. He said that “The most important lesson that you will learn being a master in the darkness, the way that you move, the senses…” I noticed as he was talking to me, the other assassins were circling the ceiling above me, as he finished. All of these throwing knifes with string where thrown into the wooden pillars and walls. I also noticed that they had bells on them. In a panic I crouch, all the windows were covered up except for the one that shone on the one assassin in the room then he faded into the darkness, then the window was covered and I couldn’t see the hands inches away from my face. I try to maneuver through the string and bells and trip over a whole web of them. The bells rang as though you had been stricken with fear. I got up and tried to get into the wall then all the sudden there was a man who grabbed me by the neck and put me into a hold and held a wooden knife to my neck.

The windows all lit up again for what seemed like an eternity of panic and fear, I got up and walked to Mohamed, breathing hard in order to utter a word. Then he said “Get up we’re not finished yet”. Panting, I uttered “What?!”

Mohamed yelled, “Training has begun.”

As we went into another room, That had magnificent mosaic floors and other men training. Which was filled with swords, knives, ropes, and other items I could not recognize, I was very excited. Then Mohamed came out with two buckets of water and looked confused. Then he told me that I had to walk to the top of the roof, back down, and to the top again, carrying these buckets of water. Then he said to me, “Learn to use this,” as he points to my body, “and then I’ll teach you to use this,” as he lifts up a sword.

Grabbing the buckets in my hands, I start up the stairs to the roof. My hands were already throbbing from the handles of the bucket. I knew I still had to go up and back down again. Once I finished, Mohamed was waiting for me on the roof, and then pointed to a log, then pointed to a ladder. As I was going up and down the ladder with the log on my back, sweat dripped down my face into the dust beneath my feet. We then went to the training circle and fought with wooden swords and knives. I learned many attributes to assassination and the human body. Mohamed was a very strong man. My favorite attribute that I learned was the assassin hold.

As all of these training techniques that were happening, the only thought that ran through my head was hatred and vengeance for what happened on that unforgettable day.

As the years went by, and as the same training routine went on, I grew and became very strong and very determined. I could now shoot and arrow through 5 handles throw a knife from 50 yards away and lift Mohamed with my hands. I became the very thing that I started, years ago. It was time, then, that I prove my worth.

I walk into the vaulted ceiling where my training would soon end. Knowing what would happen, I sit down and close my eyes. The throwing knives hit the wooden walls, and the one assassin drops down from the ceiling. As the sunlight leaves the room, I could hear the assassin and so I stand up and maneuver my way through the string and bells. I remember Mohamed’s words of the most important thing that an assassin must learn. As I move to one part of the room, the smell of flame reaches my nose and I hear a spear hit the wall beside me. I, knowing that he knows where I am, jump onto a column and make a distraction in the place where the spear hit. I wait to see if my trap works. The assassin jumps into the small space where I was. I jump down and put him in the assassin’s hold. Then the light comes back into the room as the blankets were lifted off the windows and Mohamed walks up to me and says “Your ready”.
Part II
James Crane
4th

“I’m ready” I replied, with much pride. Mohamed said “Every assassin after his completion must be given a name, a name that will represent what you have done what shall go through, and the struggle thereof.” “Your name shall be Jameil Mahmood.” I bow before him and with respect take the cloaks that the assassins cult wear to show there devotion to the cult. I am also presented with a sword that was once a past assassin that fell before his task could be completed. It was a beautiful sword decorated and detailed, it had a gold handle with two stones in the handle. The one ruby represented the cult the blood that they had spilt. The other was emerald that represented honor and what should be done. “Get rest we will go in the morning” Mohamed said.
That night I only thought now that I was an assassin I now have my own room and anything I can put in there. I can now avenge my parents in what happened and I made a promise to Allah that I would defeat my enemies.
It was a warm Israeli morning and Mohamed woke me up and he said “We have a problem someone has been speaking of our cult and we need to know who then kill them”. Mohamed would not let this happen so he sent me out and he said that this has to absolutely be secret. I leave the cult headquarters and head for the city that he sent me in. The morning was very busy and it had been a long time since I had seen the city from the streets. I know the familiar smell of shwarma and it was really good. People notice me that I was walking somewhat suspicious and nervous of what task I was given. After I reach the courtyard I look around and notice that there are more guards in the courtyard. Then a man starts yelling preaching into the crowd and I knew he was the one. I slowly move closer and listened to what he was saying…
“Now is the time of our salvation, to learn from our elders and past prophets. It is now our time to listen and to learn and to destroy those who would stand in our way”. I knew exactly what he was talking about, anger welled inside of me. Morning prayers began he left the stand.
I was shaking and nervous of the consequences of what will happen if I fail; he walks faster away from the stand. I follow him on the roof and walk along with his stride. Then when no one was around I jumped down upon him and punched him and kicked him until he asked me to stop. I asked him “Who told you to say those things and about the cult?” “
What do you know?” He only laughed as his face bled with pain and said “You have no idea what your about to be in, what will come. He will stain your blood on the sand you walk on, and your cult.” Before he went on I stuck my knife into his heart and left. I was terrified by what he said that I forgot to hide the body and people started screaming and blaming at random. I started to run to get away and a guard stopped me “Why are you running?” he knew so I threw him on his back and ran. I ran toward a stand that was selling fruit and I grabbed a bag of mangoes and got onto the roof. I was running towards the cult and then realized that if I had gone there it would lead them to the cult. I ran towards the western wall. Guards were on the other side of the building so I grabbed a mango and threw it at them and one fell off the roof into a chicken coop. I did that to the other one as well, I finally reached the western wall and there was a huge crowd that was putting their prayers into the cracks in the wall. This was perfect I was alone and hid on a bench and then realized and people were wearing the same thing, cloaks. I ran into the crowd playing the crowd and then I see the guards enter the courtyard. They split up looking for the man that had eluded them. I look at the one on the far left of the courtyard. I grab my throwing knifes and came up right next to him and stabbed him in the lower back. Then as he died put him on a bench.
The next man came looking for the guard whom I had just killed. I grabbed him and threw him into a stable that had no windows, he was afraid, I could see the fear in his eyes, then I closed the door. It was completely dark I was talking to him through the dark questioning him. “You look familiar, Subconsciously knowing him you look scared…” I thought he… was one of the soldiers that I saw heading towards… “Before I kill you will you do the courtesy of telling me why did you go to a family that you crucified?”All the anger and the tension wondering and trying to fix this in my mind I wanted to know and I would not take a stubborn soldier. “Why should I tell you anyth…” his words were stopped by a throwing knife in his leg. “TELL ME!!!” I yelled “OK!!! I was one of the men who were with the captain, he wanted them to be crucified. “Why!?” he didn’t know and as I left I looked back at him hanging from the rafters by his feet. After putting him threw a similar misery that I had encountered all those years ago. I ran back to the cult without anyone following me; I didn’t look at anyone on my way there.
I could only think of what I could do to the man on the horse with the golden armor and why he would do this… I drifted off to sleep near a lit candle, waiting for the day that would seem to be the last of me.