♕♚An Assassin's Faith♔♛

Chapter 68

In the midst of the fire, Koori struggled and staggered as he hurried down the hallways, struggling for air and trying to ignore the pain in his severely sprained left ankle. Even though he knew he's going to die, he couldn't help but to smile. So they found the bomb and tried to disarm it... Pity. Koori saw it coming.

The young man finally collapsed onto his knees and curled up, panting for dear life. He should start crawling or else he'd be out of oxygen. He shouldn't go and find NEAR, she's probably dead. Yeah, most definitely. Before Koori could reassure himself more, a set of footsteps began approaching him, clacking against the floor in familiar harmonious strides. The highheels stoped in front of Koori. He looked up and frowned. NEAR stood in front of him blankly, brown eyes devoid of emotion.

"You..!" He cried out, gritting his teeth. "You're still alive..!" "Yeah, I'm surprised too," NEAR said with a sigh, "I thought I'd finally die in peace. Anyways..." She crouched down. "Do you want to get out of here alive?" She asked. "..." Koori looked down onto the ground again, staying low. "I shouldn't. It's no use. Even if I live, I won't be reunited with my sister. All I have left is money and I cannot use it to buy happiness to fill the void in my heart. I'll be better for me to stay here."

"That's a lie isn't it?"

NEAR crossed her arms as she smiled a little. "I know you well enough to know when you're lying. What you said is true to an extent. You still want to try again right? Not for reuniting with your sister but for keeping in contact with her or at least watch her from the shadows. Let's try and do that then." Koori stared at her. "You know I hate you right?" "You're lying. If you hate me and want me to die, you would've done so already but you didn't come after me at all. Also on my eyes, you are the one who saved and gave me a new opportunity at life. Even though I won't complain dying back there, I'm still very grateful for you."

NEAR turned her back against Koori and then crouched down. "It is my duty to protect my employer right? Hop on. I'll carry you. We'll find a way to get out of here." Koori hesitated a bit, staring at the girl. "You're too kind." Koori muttered, "it won't get you anywhere in life but downwards." With that, Koori slowly climbed onto NEAR's back and held onto her tightly. "I'm well aware. That's why I have you," the lady replied, "I'll follow you until the end. In return, you'll look out for me. Here take this." She passed Koori a silk napkin. "Cover your mouth and nose with it. It'll help you." Koori gladly took it. NEAR began jogging.

"So, where are we going? The doors are locked and we don't have any keys." Koori muttered. "I do. I have a key to the emergency fire exit by the literature sector," NEAR replied, revealing a skeleton key. "Before I gave the rest of the keys to Marii, I took this one for myself." Koori smiled a little. "Good thinking NEAR. Heh, you anticipated my answer when you found me didn't you?" "Maybe."

Thankfully, the literature sector was one of the furthest places away from the science sector thus the damage was kept to a minimum. After jogging down some stairs and through various hallways, NEAR finally arrived at the fire exit with Koori on her back. Wasting no time at all, she unlocked the door with the key and pushed it open. As soon as that metal door whooshed open, Koori couldn't help but to squint his eyes at the bright afternoon and breathed heavily; taking in as much fresh air as his smoke-filled lungs could ever hold.

Koori's eyes immediately landed on a figure.

David Moon stood at a good ten metres away from the fire exit, clutching a handgun in his hand. His brown eyes were fixated upon Koori on NEAR's back. Koori immediately saw the bloodstains on his clothes and then a dead body beside him. NEAR and David stared at each other for a solid minute or two before she placed Koori down gently, as if he's a delicate fragile object and hovered a hand in front of him protectively.