Don't Piss Off the Redhead

The Routine

And so the brutal training began. Every day I had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 5:30 to do a "quick" workout that consisted mostly of me running, swimming, jumping, or climbing for at least an hour. I became sore in places I didn't know could get sore.

After said break-of-dawn workout, I showered and tried to make it look like I hadn't just spent the last hour panting and complaining about the unfairness of the world. Breakfast happened, usually toast and oatmeal, although Kalin had somehow managed to convince the cooks she needed crepes on Tuesdays and Fridays. I don't know how that happened. I asked about it once. Once.

Then came morning classes on weapons. Modern day weapons, ancient weapons, any and every weapon. First were clubbing types, then sharp things, then guns and other stuff that went boom. This turned into one of my favorite classes, even though half of the time it seemed we were polishing, cleaning, and organizing said weapons.

I generally didn't like lunch, even though it was the quickest meal of the day. It was usually when Brianna hit on me in ridiculous amounts I could do without. I'd tried hiding in the cafeteria, out of the cafeteria, but she could find me everywhere. I wasn't used to getting so much forward attention from the opposite sex, and it made me rather uncomfortable. I got through this by shoveling food in my mouth as quickly as possible and making excuses to leave.

When I'd escaped lunch, I it was time to get pounded into little bits by Kalin. She minced me with karate, jiu jitsu, and tae kwon do. She pummeled me in street fighting, kickboxing, regular boxing, and eventually MMA. Over time, I noticed it took her longer to defeat me, and she looked more tired after doing so. Was it that I was learning?

It was. After more time, one day I woke up and discovered I had abs. I was almost late to morning workout, which was becoming more of a habit than grueling work. Kalin noticed I wasn't working as hard, and it became grueling work again.

Dinner happened after my afternoon shower, and then we had free time. Kalin almost always used this time to read, unless she'd had a particularly stressful day, in which she murdered several dummies. I never knew what caused these spouts of intense anger, and tried to avoid her at all costs during those times.

After about six months, I walked in for my afternoon fighting lesson, and discovered it was Rich, not Kalin, who was there. We'd been hanging out some evenings, but right then he'd looked menacing and gloomy. I asked where Kalin was, because despite the whole kidnapping thing, she was actually a pretty cool person to be around.

All I'd gotten in response was an ominous, "Out." I didn't ask again.

After that, every so often, Kalin would go missing for hours or days at a time. She was always "Out." These times were always filled with tension, as it seemed her friends detested these outings of hers, and there was always a breath of relief at the end of them. She always came back. 

Nine months after my kidnapping, as I called it, weapons lessons started alternating with "acting" lessons from the nice old lady who ran the reception desk.  Her name was Meggie, and sometimes she would bring delicious brownies to class. A few times Kalin even popped in, did some examples for me and the only other person there, one of Brianna's minions. I think her name was Mindy.

One of these times, while Kalin was helping Mindy produce realistic sobs, the head of T.I.A. walked in. She commanded every room she walked into, and Mindy's sobbing receded almost immediately at the sight of her. I didn't know her as anyone other than Madam, or Kalin's mum.

Madam walked to where Meggie was sitting at a desk at the head of the table. They had a quick exchange of words, speaking too soft and fast for me to hear. Kalin, by some mystery, seemed to have heard, or perhaps read the lips of the two elder women, because her eyes narrowed. My eyes darted between the three, trying to read the situation as they'd been conveniently teaching me in this particular class. Alas, either I simply wasn't good enough, or everyone knew how to conceal things better than I could read them. I suspected it was a combination of the two.

After Madam left, Kalin followed. It was just me, Mindy, and Meggie, who had a strain around her eyes. Meggie showing any signs of stress meant either we were supposed to ask, or something was so bad her control as slipping. I chose to believe the former, as I couldn't imagine anything penetrating the kind lady's iron shielding.

Class went on as though nothing had interrupted it. As I went through some facial expressions, I decided I was going to ask Kalin about it at lunch. Considering I'd never found her there before, it would be a challenge, but I was determined.

****************

Apparently not determined enough. I marched into the cafeteria, my eyes peeled for anybody that had Kalin's demeanor, hair, a facial expression similar to hers, anything. All I found was three false alarms, two of Brianna's crew, and a very uncomfortable lunch after Brianna had found me. Maybe she'd chipped me.

I considered where she could've possibly put it for the rest of lunch as she gave an exorbitant amount of attention to her nails while droning about how fabulous it was that Kalin had gone on another dangerous mission and maybe she'd stay gone this time, and that was about when I started paying attention.

"You know she only gets all the fun ones because her mum's the director. She's not even supposed to be going on missions right now. She's supposed to be devoting all her attention to you, seeing as how you're her recruit and all. She picked you out herself you know, it was her first big assignment, and now she gets to skip out on it? It's so unfair. You know, if I was your mentor, I wouldn't spend a minute away from you. We'd train together all the time. We could be sparring buddies," This she said with a suggestive look, and I had a feeling she wasn't talking about the regular kind of sparring, which made me internally gag.

As it was, I had schooled my face into what I hoped was a blank, indifferent look. I tried to keep eating, found I couldn't, and decided to scrap the rest of lunch. It wasn't worth trying to shove down food when Brianna was talking so gleefully about the idea of one of my only friends never coming back. Even if she'd kidnapped me, and thrown me into this building.

I didn't even know where I was anymore. This realization hit me hard as I walked back to my room. I hurried into it, shut the door, and looked around for any indication as to where I was. There weren't any windows. Why had I never noticed the lack of windows? I thought about all the time I had spent in this building, and tried to recall the last time I'd seen a window.

Sure, I'd been outside for different trainings and such, but I had yet to see a window. It greatly disturbed me. Suddenly the walls were closing in, and I needed to get outside. I shot out of my room, and started trying doors, looking for windows, a way outside, anything. I went like this for a half hour, an hour, two, I didn't know, but finally I found myself back in front of my door, right next to Kalin's. I noticed her's was ajar, and stepped in, fully expecting her to be inside, reading on her bed like she usually was.

Instead I found it empty, but for a glock on the bed and a note.

****************

Hai. So, sorry about the wait. Again. I'm terrible at consistency in pretty much everything.

I'm trying to improve on that.

LIKE, COMMENT, ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING

btw anyone know where one might purchase a cloak? I just really want one, they're cool.

Anyhitherwho!

~KK