Chapter 1

I woke up with a headache. The room was spinning. When it stopped I threw up. The vomit was in front of me. The room was black. There was only one source of light. There was a flickering lamp overheard that swayed back and forth, back and forth.

“What is your name?”

I hadn’t recognized the woman in front of me. She was a white woman with pale skin. She was beautiful. I had never seen a woman look so stern in my life. I had never seen a woman look so serious. She was tall. She towered over me.

“Where am I?”

I tried to think of my last memory but it didn’t come to me at the moment. I knew I woke up here. I was in this small room and I had no idea how I’d gotten there.

“What is your name?”

“Jonathan Grey…”

She opened the door all of a sudden. It wasn’t until I tried to get up and follow her out of the room that I realized that I was in chains. My body was limp underneath me.

At that moment I had begun to panic. Where was I? What the fuck was I doing tied up. I started to scream after. I started to cry. I had woken up in a nightmare.

Only a few minutes passed when the men came back in the room. They were two men. They were accompanied by her. She stood in the corner of the room. Her face was still cold. It was broken. The men were buff men. They looked dangerous.

“Begin.”

Pain was the only thing that came to mind at that moment. I was so sure they were going to kill me. They’d begun to hit me, taking turns.

The pain was more than I had ever felt in my life and when I cried no one heard me. I cried though. I still cried and it had meant nothing to me. It had meant nothing to me at all.

And I was so sure that I was going to die…

The last memory I had suddenly came to my mind. My name was Jonathan Grey. My parents called me Johnny even though I hated it. I was happy before this. That was all that I could remember even at a time like this. Isn’t that funny? You remember your happiness. I had a perfect life.

“I’ll go to the bathroom baby,” I remembered my boyfriend saying.

We were at a bar in Tahiti in the middle of August. The bar was a local one. Dennis said he wanted to check out the scene and get off the resort we were on. He was tall, brown hair and green eyes. He had a BIG ass dick and he used to eat my ass for hours. He did it anytime I wanted. I had dated his sister two years ago and when I came out as bisexual he seemed more than happy to continue the family tradition.

He was everything that I needed. My mom was a popular cooking television show host. She had paid for a trip for me and my boyfriend to go Tahiti. Sounds like the best trip right. I had turned 18 just a minute ago and my mom was ok with my boyfriend traveling overseas with me. It was perfect.

“Sure.”

“I love you.”

It had been the 8^th time he said he loved me. I never said it back but he still continued to say it. I should have said it back. A part of me did love him but I was 18. It felt like my life was just beginning. He was the son of the mayor of the town. He had prestige and he adored me. I didn’t know why I hesitated the way I did.

Spoiled was an understatement for me. You see…I got everything I wanted back then.

Benz? Check.

Boyfriend? Check.

Money? I got as much as I wanted.

Brains? I had 4.0 GPA and I was the Valedictorian in my school. I had been accepted to the top cooking school in the country. I was going to follow in the footsteps of my mother and be a master chef.

Tahiti was the perfect place to celebrate. I was at the bar for a few minutes and Dennis hadn’t come back. I wondered if he was ok. I thought about going to check on him but I noticed someone walk in.

It was a boy. I should have known immediately something was up by how handsome he was. He was my type. He was 6 foot tall. His body was built like some greek god. He was beyond muscular. He had looked like he had just been swimming or something. His hair was wet. He was with his friends. There were a group of them. I felt awkward sitting at the bar alone when they walked in. I noticed his trunks. They were tight, form fitting. They showed off his package and he seemed BLESSED to say the least.

I pulled my eyes back from his dick print to his eyes.

He was staring!

Fuck. I turned around.

I had been gawking at him like an idiot. I did have the perfect boyfriend. I’ll admit it but again…I was spoiled. Being spoiled sometimes made my eyes wander.

I continued to drink. Of course I was drinking alcohol. Dennis had hooked us up with fake ids. It was a waste of time though because in Tahiti the legal age to drink was 18.

“Can I buy you one more of those?”

I turned. Fuck. It was him. A closer look told me this boy was beautiful. Dennis was handsome but this boy made Dennis look like some sort of Basic Betty. He looked like a model. His eyes were friendly. He seemed to smile with his eyes. I wondered if he was a local. I’d seem some pretty dark locals. The thing was he didn’t have an accent. He sounded like he was American. His hair was light brown and almost sandy. It was cut into a curly high top fade.

“Got my own money.”

“I didn’t suggest you didn’t. What does that have to do with me?”

He licked his lips. My god! I’d never seen lips like that before. They were big and pink. The licking had turned into sucking. I had never noticed something so beautiful in my life. My heart was beating a million miles per minute.

“My boyfriend’s in the bathroom.”
“Again…what does that have to do with me?” he asked me smiling again with pearly white teeth that looked like they were outlined perfectly.

I turned away. I should have found it suspicious how the bartender was young and attractive as well. I should have found it suspicious how the bartender was staring at me through his side eye. I didn’t think anything about it though. I hadn’t been paying attention. It was my first mistake not to notice that. I had been too focused on this beautiful stranger.

“What’s your name?”

“Baby.”

“Excuse me.”

“You can call me your baby,” he said smiling.

He was flirting. I laughed. I was amused. My cheeks were red. I was young, dumb and horny. I couldn’t do this to Dennis though.

“Look how about we trade numbers. I don’t want to start nothing…like I said, my boyfriends in the bathroom. You know? That’s be. I don’t know. That’d be rude I guess.”

“He’s dumb.”

“Say what?”

“I’d never leave someone so special alone. He get’s what he deserves if you ask me. You know what’d I’d do if you were mine? You’d come with me everywhere. I’d shrink you. I’d put you in my back pocket. I’d take you everywhere with me.”

“Even the bathroom?”

“Even the bathroom. You’d hold my dick while I piss. Here…practice.”

He had grabbed my hand. He placed it on his crotch. I took a deep breath. His dick was semi hard. It was thick. The head was big. I could feel everything. I could feel the veins on it. I looked around making sure Dennis was nowhere in sight. Then I started to fondle him right there at the bar. He kept licking his lips.

I’d given in, “If my boyfriend wasn’t here…I would ride that dick right now…”

“I want to put it in your mouth…you have beautiful lips. Let me buy you a drink.”

“Ok Sandy.”

“Sandy?”

“You won’t tell me your name. So I made one up for you.”

I should have found it weird. I should have said something. I didn’t though. I was so useless. Looking back I knew that I was. I was weak. I wanted him. My desire was what would be my downfall. The fact that I always had to have the best. I had found someone better than Dennis. I had found someone more attractive than Denis. So now I had to have him.

The beautiful boy with sandy brown hair. He had ordered a drink.

And two drinks were brought to us.

I drunk it and that was the last thing I remembered…

I had no idea how long ago it was that I was in Tahiti. Time was flashing by. The beatings continued and got worse. Each day I wanted to die. I wanted my mom. I wanted my dad. I wanted Dennis. All the things that I had before I wanted them back.

“What’s your name?”

It had to have been days later. The lady had come in three times and asked me the same question. At first she would be nice. She would feed me. She would give me water. She would examine me silently. She would give me a bucket and watch as I used the bathroom. All the while her facial expression never changed. Her face was stone. You understand? It was stone. It was the thing buildings were made out of. It was like she refused to make an expression. She looked so fucking serious and it scared the shit out of me.

Was I in hell? Was she the devil?

If there was ever the face of the devil I felt like she was it.

“What’s your name?”

That question again. Each time I had given her the same answer. Each time she would just leave and two men would come in the room after her and they would beat me until I wished I was dead.

Time had gone by. I don’t know how long it was. It could have been days. It could have been weeks. I wasn’t sure any longer. I had begun living in a world where nothing mattered and I wished I was dead. My world consisted of these four walls.

Suffering had a whole new meaning. Life had a whole new meaning.

This day she came to me the same way she had come to me like many times before. Her eyes had no emotion. She stood next to me. She had given me food but I couldn’t eat any longer. My jaw had been broken a few days back. All I could do was drink the water. It barely went down. The pain burned my throat. My sides hurt.

I had lashes on my back because a few days ago they had begun whipping me like a slave. Screaming did nothing to stop them so I had stopped screaming. I had learned that she would never say anything besides those words that she always said. I stopped asking.

I was beginning to forget happiness.

I was beginning to forget everything that I held dear.

All I remembered was the pain.

“What is your name?”

Did it matter? Did my name matter any longer. I was a corpse just waiting to die at this point. I was a corpse just sitting there. I wanted to beg her to kill me but I knew it wouldn’t matter. She wouldn’t’ respond with words. She’d just tell them to come back and beat me. That was her role. It was different men each time but it was always two of them. They’d beat me until I could feel no more and then they would stop.

I had curled up in the corner. I wanted to cry when she asked that question. I didn’t know what to say. A few times I never said anything when she asked it. It was pointless.

I didn’t know if it was a riddle. I didn’t know what to say to her.

My name was…it was…

She got up all of a sudden when I wasn’t answering. She was heading out again to call those men to beat me. She was the devil. I was sure of it. She was the devil and this was hell.

“My name is anything you want it to be,” I stated.

She stopped for a minute and then she left. It was pointless to call out to her. It was pointless to beg her not to have them beat me. She would do it anyway. She had no emotion. She had no feeliings. The next day would probably be the same and the next day.

The two men came in the room but this time they didn’t beat me. They grabbed me. They unchained me and started to lead me out of the door.

It was the first time in forever that I had been out of the room. The air smelled different in the hallway. The walls of this hallway were white. It was the whitest white. The lights were so bright that I had to close my eyes. At this point I was being dragged down the hallway. I couldn’t walk. My legs were bruised. I

A weak thought came to my mind.

Escape.

The thought disappeared as quickly as it had come. There was no escape here. It would be pointless. I couldn’t fight off these men. Even if I did all that was in front of me and behind me was a long white hallway with white floors. I wouldn’t know where to go.

The men took me to the back room. They stripped me naked of all my clothing. It was at that moment I realized how badly I had been disfigured. The skin on my hands were off. My body had turned a burnt brown color from being blood stained. I didn’t know where I was. The room was dark again. It was a much bigger room however.

“Lights.”

I didn’t recognize the voice. It was a man. The lights had turned on. Across from me was a woman with blond long hair. Her hair fell to her torso. She had a clipboard in her hand. She was older maybe in her 60s. Next to her was a black man who may have been 40. While the woman had a stern face the man had a face that was almost completely opposite. It was kind. It was gentle almost. I could have been fooled by who he was. They were dressed in white.

“Good afternoon,” he said.

Was it the afternoon? I had no idea. I had no way of knowing. His face softened as he spoke. It could have almost fooled me when he did.

The woman was up next, “You have been taken…you belong to us now. Do you understand? You will not ask any questions. You will answer yes or no. If you do not comply you will be taken back to the room and beaten until you do.”

Not the beating. Anything was better than the beatings.

Death was better than the beatings.

“Yes.”

“Good,” she stated, with a sterner look, “You are in the Assembly. From now on your name is no longer Jonathan Grey. Jonathan Grey is dead. According to all reports you disappeared months ago in Tahiti and your body was never found. Your mother has mourned you and still mourns you. You boyfriend has moved on with his life. The world as you know it does not exist. Do you understand? Yes or no?”

Months? I thought I couldn’t cry anymore but a single tear managed to fall from my eyes. Good. I was still human. I was still alive even if they had made everyone think I was dead.

My mouth was dry. I chocked on my answer, “No…”

‘Would you like me to repeat? Yes or no?”

“No.”

She was like a robot. She was writing as she spoke to me, jotting something down. My left eye was so black and blue that I could barely see her. The lights were still much too bright for me. I managed to make out her facial expressions a little bit however.

“You’re afraid,” the man said walking over to us and actually smiling, “I know you are and that’s a normal reaction, but let me ask you this: Can it get any worse?”

“No…”

“Exactly,” he stated smiling warmly again, “You can call me Tom. The woman next to me is a Moderator. She is nameless. Who she is doesn’t matter. There are many Moderators here at the Assembly. They work for me. They may seem cold at first but they do their job.”

I nodded.

I didn’t know how to respond to him. This man…this Tom was being nice to me. He was almost being gentle. It was freaking me out really. He was older but actually a quite attractive older man. He reminded me of a Denzel or some sort of star. He had that warm, easy confidence to him.

The Moderator looked up at him. Her face was cold and emotionless just like the woman in the room, “Tom…should we commence with his reconstruction.”

Tom nodded, “Yes, first I’d like him to ask me a question though. You hear that, young one. You get one question. Think about it though. It’s really important that you do. Everyone gets one question. A lot of people waste it. Make sure you don’t waste yours. Ok? You are going to have to make it count.”

“Why am I here?”

“You should have thought about that more. I would have let you know that soon enough anyway,” he said laughing heartily, “Moderator. Tell him why he is here.”

The moderator looked up at me, “You have been chosen. We have studied you for years and you have been chosen to become a member of the Assembly should you survive your training. The Assembly is a new world order and you are going to be one of it’s weapon. “

“Weapon? What do you mean Please…please can I go home?” I asked, “Please! PLEASE let me go home!”

I hadn’t known I had so much passion until that moment. I hadn’t known I was able to still cry and whine or beg until I tried this one last time.

“Uh, uh, uh. I said one question,” Tom stated, “Moderator. Consent.”

The way he said the word consent seemed like he was barking an order more than anything. Tom smiled again and the woman approached me. I tried to fight her off as the Moderator took out a needle. She put the needle in my arm and then all of a sudden there was nothing.

I woke up to soreness. It was all over my face. I started to touch my face at that moment. It was wrapped up in something like bandages. I didn't know how long I had been out.

“Don't touch the bandages.”

There was a woman who had been talking to me. She was standing next to three other women. I was hooked up to a machine but it looked like they were releasing me from it. I was in something that looked like a hospital ward but there was nothing else next to me but empty beds. These women all looked the same. They were all dressed in white. They had to have been Moderators. I knew they were before they even said anything.

“It's time,” one of the moderators said.

“Put this on,” another moderator said.

They had given me a gray suit. The suit looked almost like some regular gray scrubs or something. They watched me put it on. They weren't embarrassed about watching me get naked and for some reason I wasn't embarrassed about getting naked in front of them. I mean I was bisexual and usually would get as nervous around women as I would with men. These things called moderators were different though. I could care less about getting naked around them. These women were like fucking robots. They didn't have a soul. They led me out of the room with the bandages still on my face. By the way my face felt I was sure that I had undergone some sort of operation. I knew they wouldn't answer what kind of operation however so it was pointless even asking them.

There were hallways then. Massive hallways but these ones were different from the ones I had seen before. I looked to my right and saw the first glimpse of outside that I noticed. There was a courtyard behind the glass.

There were people in gray outfits in the courtyard. I had walked past them too fast to realize what they were doing from indoors but it looked as though they were...fighting. Maybe they were fighting. Maybe they were practicing. I wasn't 100 percent sure to be honest.

“Hurry up,” one moderator said to me.

“In here,” another moderator said to me.

The robotic women led me into a room. They pushed me inside the room without giving me any further instructions. I realized that the room had other people in it.

There had to be 20 people. They were young. They were all about my age. About half of them had bandages on their faces but the other half didn't. I stood there looking around. They were just at tables for the most part. It was something like a cafeteria. Most of them were chatting but the room grew kind of quiet when I walked in. They all looked at me and then looked at one another. There was something sad about all their faces. They seemed to give me about 5 seconds of their lives before going back into whatever they were doing. Some of they were talking. Some of them were just sitting there looking lost and confused. A few others were crying.

They were just like me...

I didn't know what to do. I saw that there was one table that was mostly empty. I walked over to the table. There was a boy sitting there. He was beautiful. I was almost shocked at how beautiful he was. He had on gray scrubs like everyone else in the room. He had beautiful full lips and a naturally contoured nose. When I sat down his eyes gleamed up at me and I noticed they were the most beautiful shade of blue that seemed to contrast with his brown mahogany skin.

“Hello,” I said.

He got up off the table and walked away. Just like that. I was shocked. He walked away and stood in a corner leaning against the wall. He looked away as though not making eye contact with me.

“Don't worry. He's like that with everyone.”

Two people had come to sit next to me. The one who was talking to me was a boy. He was white with red hair. He wasn't my type in the least bit but he seemed like one of those guys that girls in the Hamptons or something would just die for. He seemed like this all American type of guy. He was big too...bigger than everyone else in the room. He had to be an athlete. He was just muscular and huge. I expected him to be an asshole but when he sat down he had the biggest smile that I had ever seen. I had to admit that he was simply drop dead gorgeous.

“He's beautiful though isn't he?” the girl asked, “Those eyes. They are as deep as the sea.”

There was a girl who was with him. She must have been Spanish or something. She looked like a young Jennifer Lopez almost.

“Everyone is...” I noticed, “I mean. ”

I looked around the room. There was one thing that all of them had in common. Everyone was fucking gorgeous that I noticed. Even the ones who were crying. There were some who had the bandages but besides that it was like a room full or models or something.

“It's the reconstruction,” the red haired guy said, “It's really something huh? I got mine taken off months ago. Don't worry. You're bandages will come off and you'll look like a completely different person. I guess that's the only good thing about all of this.”

“Speak for yourself. I miss my old face. I look like a goddam barbie now,” the girl stated shaking her head laughing.

Her laugh was uncomfortable. It felt almost like she was forcing herself to laugh instead of just laughing normally.

“How long have you been here?” I asked him.

“A year. Maybe more,” the red head shrugged his gigantic arms, “Who the hell knows in this place? There is this one kid who counts but I think that is such a waste, you know?”

I looked around. The place looked like a cafeteria in some high school or something. Everyone seemed kind of clicked up. The ones that weren't crying and moaning seemed to be making the most out of the company that was there. Only the beautiful dark skinned boy with blue eyes wasn't speaking to anyone. I couldn't help but to watch him. Everyone was fly but there was something about him that was just...everything. My eyes couldn't stop looking his way even though I was scared to death about my circumstance. There was just something about him.

“Can you stare at him any harder?” the spanish girl said, “He's mine. You can have him when I'm done.”

I wasn't sure if she was joking or not. She did laugh after she said it though which made me think that she actually really was. The red haired guy laughed as well. It was so weird that they were laughing. It really made me wonder how long they had been in this place.

“How'd you know that I was—-”

“Bisexual?” she asked and laughed, “Everyone is bisexual here. It's one of the qualifications for the recruits. You have to be bisexual and you have to have some sort of talent.”

“What do they want?”

The red haired guy and the girl that looked like Jennifer Lopez exchanged looks. They seemed to know more about what was going on than I did but I didn't know how much they knew.

“Didn't you ask Tom that question? Most people ask him the same question. They are training us to be assassins or something. Sucks huh? We don't know much more. We've all been kind of just waiting. Some of us longer than others.”

“I cook. I'm not a fucking assassin.”

“Hell none of us are yet. We haven't been trained at anything. We were waiting. We were waiting for the 20^th person. That's what the moderators kept telling us. You make it 20 kid. Looks like you are the last kidnap.”

Assassin school.

This was a school for assassins.

“You guys were all kidnapped?” I asked.

“You think we came here by choice?” the red haired guy said laughing. It was clear he was a jokester or something, “Hell yeah we were kidnapped. You ever wonder what happens to the little kids on the milk cartons?”

All of a sudden it seemed so real. All of a sudden I couldn't breathe again. I was panicking. I was missing my home. I was missing my mother. I was the son of a chef. I was a chef in training. I wasn't a fucking ASSASSIN in training. This wasn't going to be my life. This wasn't going to be my world.

“You ok?” the girl asked me.

“No...”

The girl was shaking her head and looked over at the red haired guy, “See, Craving, you fucking scared the kid half to death on his first day.”

Craving?

“That's your name?” I asked the Red haired guy.

“Yes. I'm Craving...” he said pointing at his shirt where there was a name tag, “My homegirl over here is Passion.”

Craving and Passion. I was confused. I felt like I was in some porn or something. What kind of names were Craving and Passion?

“What's your name?”

“Jona...” I stopped before I finished.

Half was because of me but half was because of the look that they had given me. Passion seemed to almost jump of her skin when I started saying my name. She immediately put her finger on her lips. No one seemed to notice though but I could tell what I was doing was completely unorthodox by how she was reacting. This thing about names was becoming scary.

It was Craving who pointed at my shirt, “That name you had before. You might as well just forget it. Here. Here's your name right on your label. Let me see what it says. There it goes. Your name is...Desire.”