MEDICINE | alex rider

ten

The girl was a light sleeper, she had always been that way, or at least trained to be that way. Even the smallest sound of a pin drop would cause her to wake abruptly, so when she had heard the squeak of the floorboard the first thing she reached for was her gun under her bed frame.

She was out of her bed in seconds, her feet on the chilled floor. She kept her hand tightly on the gun as she exited her room, she knew the noise had come from a few rooms away. Most others would have passed the noise off as a normal house noise, the building was old, and the elevator broken elevator proved it, but the way it creaked had implied that there was a bit of weight applied on it.

After checking the bathroom and her father's room, she walked into her kitchen, it was dark but not dark enough to miss the figure standing behind the counter. She pointed the gun at the figure, her hand unwavering. She felt the person's eyes staring, they didn't move, and neither did she. It wasn't until the person flicked on the light switch that she seemed to freeze.

Looking back at her was the general, he was wearing a suit, one that made him look as though he were a businessman, but looking at the blank look on his face you could tell he was anything but "Are you going to lower that gun?" he questioned.

Forcing herself to move, she slowly set the gun down on the counter. She looked down at the floor, avoiding his eyes. Every vein in her body seemed to run cold, her fingers twitched at her side and she clenched her hand into a fist, letting her nails dig into the palm of her hand.

The general moved closer, speaking again, but this time his tone was harsh "It's been over two and a half months 001, have you found the identity of the assailant?" She didn't say anything, instead, she stared at the floor "Answer me when spoken to." He yelled.

The girl's head whipped to the side and she felt a burning sensation in her cheek. He slapped her. he just slapped her and there was nothing she could do besides sit there and take it. "I'm going to ask you this one more time, do you know the identity."

She swallowed and slightly nodded.

"Well then who is it."

"Alex," her voice came out in a tone hardly above a whisper "Alex Rider."

The general suddenly paused, his voice tight "And does the commander know this?" she nodded again "So why haven't you eliminated the target yet."

She opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again "She wanted me to wait, to observe and see if I can find any useful information."

The general swiped everything off the counter in a fit of rage. She held back her flinch, her breaths coming in quicker. "What could a boy assassin possibly know!"

She was starting to get the idea that the commander didn't know the general was there, her eyes locked in on the gun on the floor by her foot. She could grab it, she could shoot him, she could do a lot of things, but instead, she just stood there, not moving. Her hands were clenched so hard to the point that she was sure it would draw blood.

He started to whisper under his breath, suddenly his head snapped up toward her, he placed a finger in front of her face "Do you even know what's at stake? Do you?" his hand started to shake in anger "Try not to make yourself as useless as I already think you are."

________

The girl sat on the stairs of the lesser-known stairwell, she could have stayed in her apartment, but she couldn't stand to stay in there a second more. She sat there staring at the stair beneath her foot, she wore a hoodie on top of her uniform with her hood up.

She never knew how comfortable hoodies could be, besides buying food she spent most of her check on buying clothes with hoods, she was almost ashamed about how much she lacked control when it came to buying things.