A short series (trying to revive the literary spirit)

Kagom

Senior Member
Jan 16, 2006
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Vicksburg, MS
Just doing something fun. I'm going to be posting fictional autobiographies of characters I've created for a few books I may write some time. The setting is about 150+ years in the future after World War III. Basically it's a fictional fantasy world to an extent, but it's set to this world. In due time, I'll go over the invasion of the mainland of Europe and Asia by the Zmiy (Slavic dragons), etc. The first is "The Autobiography of Lehmber Sanjit."

"The Autobiography of Lehmber Sanjit"


My name is Lehmber Sanjit. I’m a wandering assassin-for-hire who once worked closely with a group called the Hashshashin. At that time I was not known as Lehmber Sanjit, but Omar al-Salaam. The cult leader Rashid Salazar had found me at a time when I was down on my luck and looking for someone, or something, to save me from the world I lived in. I was a petty thief who had relocated from the ruins of Delhi during the time the Zmiy had emerged from the northeast to a small town on an island off the coast of civilized Japan. He found me on the brink of death—mostly in part due to the harsh weather that was plaguing the area as well as famine and draught.

He offered to give me a new life, a new identity, a new everything. All I would need to do is submit myself to Allah and to him. Of course, only a fool would turn down the opportunity to live and start a new life. No more petty crimes to try to make it from day to day, no more suffering needlessly in the streets, and, above all, a family of some sort, something I hadn’t had since I lost my family to an attack by the Zmiy.

The first thing Rashid did was nurse me back to health. He used herbal medicines as well as domestic medicines from the cities in Japan. It seemed I was going to die, regardless of what was done, but my heart was determined to continue beating. I pulled through after being bedridden for a few days. We all praised Allah for my recovery, especially Rashid.

Once I was well enough to walk and move about freely, Rashid told me that I would be educated on the Quran as well as the rules of the group I had been destined to join. Then I would be made to go through a secretive ceremony to be fully inducted into this group. After that I would be given an assignment of sorts to prove myself completely dedicated to the group and to Allah and His will.

The education portion was the easiest. I had learned to read before my parents’ death and there were only a few differences in their language and my own native tongue. The laws and rules of the group were rather simple and easy to remember. As for the Quran itself, it was a complex thing to go over, given all the different Surrahs and verses and the like, but once I had gone over it enough, I knew it like the back of my hand. My teachers were quite impressed and delighted with me for my vast intellect and ability to learn quickly.

The final part of it all was the ceremony. The only problem I have is that I cannot recall what happened. I was told to drink a special elixir and then I would be tested for purity. Everything is a blur or a blank, but when I came to, my right middle finger was severed from my hand. Rashid assured me that it was apart of the ceremony and that I had proven myself. At first I was angry, but then I shrugged it off. I was alive and not dead in a gutter somewhere. I had also found myself a home. At that time, to complete the ceremony, they renamed me Omar al-Salaam. I gladly accepted the name and carried on. Rashid then approached me and gave me my first mission: to assassinate an infidel named Hiroki Satoichi.

He wasn’t really an infidel so much as a political opponent who criticized the Emperor, Miguchi Kunosaki. One of the Emperor’s advisers had paid Rashid to kill him and silence his criticisms for the Emperor’s frivolous spending and odd, Caligula-like behavior. He wasn’t really a bad person at all. He just was tired of seeing his country go to ruin after it had taken so much effort to avoid crumbling like so many other countries did after The Great War a century ago. Japan was one of a few countries that found its way back after a nuclear fallout at the end of The Great War, which we have been told was the third world war. The only other countries that could even boast such an extremely difficult feat were the US, Brazil, England, Australia, and, until recently, Germany (which has become heavily occupied by Shi’a Muslims).

It was an easy kill, one they felt I couldn’t mess up. Satoichi resided in the town where Rashid had found me in a small house on Hinagase Way. They told me he was unaware that anyone was out to have him killed and that all I would probably need was some kind of gun with a silencer and maybe a dagger or some kind of bladed item in case the gun wasn’t enough. I took a Glock with a silencer and a khukri. His wife was away at the local clinic and he was at home working on a news article about the Emperor having callboys come to his abode every night, information he claimed in the article to have received from one of the callboys themselves. The kill was quick and easy. A single bullet into the back of his head and he was done. Nothing more, nothing less.

Rashid congratulated me on an assignment well-done. I had felt a bit disgusted doing it, something I didn’t think I would feel at first until after the deed was done. I told him about it and he told me not to worry about it, that “We all feel it at one time or another. Just remember that what we’re doing is for the betterment of the world and to eventually spread the word of Allah the great and merciful.”

Other assignments came, all mostly politically motivated, few ever for religious purposes. I began to become disillusioned with the fact it was almost all politics and almost all of it was coming from the Emperor’s lackeys. It also wasn’t just that, but the seeming hypocrisy of the members of the group. Many did what they wanted to do, whether it was permitted by the Quran or the Hadith or the rules and laws of our group or not. Some practiced pre-marital or extramarital sex, some imbibed alcohol and other unclean things, and others performed theft and arson to make sure people were aware of us.

My final assignment was to assassinate this young woman who had been an adviser to the Emperor, but was going to expose him for his sadistic tendencies as well as the fact he had ordered the genocide of 1500 people of Chinese descent. Apparently she had been leaking information to journalists around Japan and that was a no-no. Once the Emperor had found out, he personally went to Rashid and paid him a hefty sum of 1 million yen to have her killed.

I decided that I would disappear after this. I had grown sick of the people I was around as well as the group and the lies it was founded on. I left Rashid a message, detailing why I was going to leave after this assignment and how I felt. I thought nothing of it at the time, figuring he of all people would understand.

The kill itself was a bit difficult, since I had to kill her at her office located in downtown Tokyo. Of course it was very busy and I had to pose as an employee. Not too hard with the right tools and the right clothes. Finding an opportune time to go into her office was the difficult part. She had interns and co-workers rushing in and out at a constant rate. Around lunch time I found the time to strike. I used a chloroform rag and then slit her throat while she was out.

On my way out, I saw another member of the group, Ahmed Fehdr. I knew what he was here for and I knew that it may have been the last time I would ever see another person. He opened fire, too fast for me to pull out my own gun to try and get him. I remember blacking out after the first bullet ripped through me. But my heart must’ve refused to go down quietly. I woke up a few days later in the hospital. They had told me that someone had shot me and that I was to be questioned about the murder of Satomi Myuchi. Of course, I escaped when I had the chance and they never were able to track me down.

That was three years ago. Things have changed and the crime has been forgotten since then. But I haven’t forgotten Rashid or Ahmed or what they did to me. Of course, I do not go down the vengeful path. It has no fruit to yield to me. Now I only have one thing on my mind: to kill the Emperor.
 
Good stuff. I hope you don't get plagiarised!

I like the method though, lot more interesting for the writer to have a sort of narrative going rather than sitting there trying to dredge up the character from the murky depths.
 
I like all my characters to have a little background to them before I really write anything with them.
 
I like all my characters to have a little background to them before I really write anything with them.

A lot of times I dream up characters by either basing them on someone I know, basing them on someone I would like to be, or a stereotype. I know I'm not the first one to do this, but it seems like a good tactic to consider.
 

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