The Assassin's Shadow

Chapter 4

The next day when Martha came into my room to give me breakfast, I was acquainted with two more people. Laura and Lucy were Martha’s ten year old twin daughters. They both had strawberry blonde hair and bright blue eyes. They watched me curiously as I swung my feet off of the bed and then almost collapsed on the floor.

“What’s wrong?” Martha asked, as she helped me up.

“I don’t know.” I answered. “I just feel a little dizzy.”

“Oh, Ash told me this might happen. When they kidnapped you they gave you a dose of cyanide to knock you out. Of course it couldn’t kill you, but they had to give it to you twice and there were bound to be some side effects. You must still be just a little bit weak from that.”

“So not even poison can kill me? Great.” I said sarcastically.

The children looked at me in awe.

“Umm, so what are they having me do today?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Ash will tell you if there’s anything that needs to be done.”

“Hmm.” I answered noncommittally. I didn’t like the idea of someone summoning me to do anything that “needs to be done”, especially when they were the ones who had brought me here against my will.

Martha looked at me in sympathy as if she knew what I was thinking. 

“I better go, I just came to give you that.” she took the now empty breakfast tray. “If you want too you can take a shower, there’s a bathroom connected to this room just behind that door.” she indicated the door she was talking about and then left, her two daughters trailing close behind her. 

I didn’t bother looking behind the bathroom door, I had no intention of doing something that would leave me in the least bit vulnerable. Or at least more vulnerable than I already was. I went to the door Martha had left through and tried to open it with no luck. A tremor of fear went through me and for the first time I felt the utterable oppression that had been coming on gradually. I rattled the door handle as hard as I could as if hoping I could rip it out of it’s place.

“LET ME OUT!”

However if anybody had heard me, they ignored me. I kicked the door with all my might and let out a scream but no one answered. I might as well have been imagining all this.

Fine. I decided. Just great. They’ll have to deal with me eventually.

I let loose one last rebellious shriek before going back to my bed and crawling under it. They’d have to deal with me eventually and when they did, I wasn’t going to sit back like a docile fool. So what if the whole place was under Cody’s command? I couldn’t die.

I didn’t know how long I waited under there, I couldn’t measure time correctly. All I knew was that the whole time under that bed, I felt like a child. The feeling didn’t exactly help me gather my sense of purpose.

Finally, the door opened. My heart leapt in my throat and pounded ferociously but I bided my time. A pair of converse walked around the side of the bed.

“Elaine?” The girl, Ash, called my name hesitantly and I knew the next place she would check was under the bed. It was the reasonable place to look seeing as it was the only place in the barren room, besides the bathroom, where I might hide.

No time to close my eyes to gather my fear, I slid out from under the bed and ran to the door. I had just exited the frame and I felt as if I could already taste the victory and freedom and it was that which made me careless. Someone grabbed me by my hair and I was thrown backwards into the room I had barely escaped from. I had barely made it through the door. A cloying cry broke from my lips but the cry was more for my loss than the pain in my head.