The Assassin's Shadow

Chapter 6

A honking woke me up the next morning; I had been so use to the quiet in this isolated scope of the world that I fell out of bed. Immediately I was awake and I ran over to a small window in the wall. I could see a red sports car driving up the back way and parking next to the tennis court. The figure of a man got out of the driver's seat and then another figure ducked out of the mansion to meet him. Even through the closed window and from the second floor, I could make out that the second figure was Cody.

He said something to the man next to the car who laughed in response. The loud sound sent shudders down my spine and I shied away from the window. There was a knock at the door to my room and then it swung open. Laura (I could only tell her and Lucy apart because Lucy had short hair that reached her shoulders while Laura's grew to the middle of her back) shuffled into the room shyly and smiled at me.

"My mom wanted to know if you wanted to eat breakfast in your room like usual."

I grinned. "She noticed I wasn't in my room at lunch or dinner, huh?"

"Yeah..."

"No thanks, I'm going to go eat with Quin again today."

"Okay." Laura nodded.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Cody and that strange man were heading back inside.

"Hey Laura, do you know who that man is?" I asked.

Laura approached the window and peeked out at the men.

"I think that's Senator Ivory."

"Senator Ivory. You mean, like the senator of a state?"

"Yeah. I don't know a lot about it, I just know that he comes here sometimes."

"What does he do here, is he a gifted one?"

"No, he doesn't know a lot about this place. Mom says he's greedy and because Cody rigs the election in his favor, he turns a blind eye to anything strange that goes on around here."

"So he's just a corrupt politician."

"That's what Mom says."

"Thanks Laura, and tell your mom I said thanks too."

"All right, bye." Laura shot one last glance out the window before dashing out of the room and shutting the door behind her.

I cupped my hand around my neck and leaned against the window sill, contemplating the bright red sports car in the driveway with hatred. Suddenly, an idea struck me, an idea that made a grin spread across my face. I walked over to my bookshelf in the corner of my room and picked up my biggest rock from my collection. I opened the tiny window as far as I could and then judged the distance with my eyes. I took a breath, savoring the moment, before chucking the rock as hard as I could at the car.

It went straight through the windshield of the car and met with a very satisfying crashing sound. The next second, people came running out from the back door to investigate the noise. I could hardly pull my window shut fast enough, I was laughing so hard.

When I finally sobered up enough to go down to breakfast, I found Zach and Hannah sitting at a table by themselves and went to join them.

"G'morning." Zach said as he poured maple syrup onto a stack of pancakes.

"Morning." I replied. I couldn't help but grin; the image of the car was still fresh in my mind.

"Why are you smiling?" Hannah asked in her quiet voice. She cocked her head slightly to the side as if confused but her face held no expression.