thief - lw&co [anthony lockwood]

27.

First-person (Erin)

"In a hurry?" The man asks, pointing his blade at Lockwood. "Easy, now. You wouldn't want my blade to slip." He teased. "It's very sharp."

"And very nice. Is it real gold?" Lockwood complimented.

"Who are you?"

"Just a guest of the party. Got lost on my way to the loo."

"Didn't use your map?" The man sneered as he lifted the map to prove his point.

"I've never seen that before," Lockwood said in fake shock.

"Whoever gave it to you worked here." He said with no hesitation, not believing the boy one bit.

A silence followed, Lockwood not sure what to do. I turned to Lucy, she seemed unsure herself.

"Are you an agent?" The man asked, his blade still pointed towards the boy in front of him.

"Must be some sort of alloy." Lockwood avoided the question and stayed fixated on the blade. "Is it gold-plated? It's a bit tacky." He said honestly.

"Hey!" Lucy suddenly stepped out from behind the bookshelves, getting the attention of the man. "I found the way to the loo."

While the man was distracted Lockwood snatched a book and smacked the man's sword out of the way.

The man charged and swung his sword, Lockwood blocking and dodging with the book.

Lucy slid a step-tool and tripped the man.

I finally stepped out of the bookshelf and threw a book at him.

He seemed surprised to see a third person but sliced the book easily nonetheless.

After the small distraction, we all booked it to the exit. The man for some reason not chasing us.

We ran across multiple hallways and ended up running down a staircase heading for the exit.

"Oh god. They're onto us. They're blocking all the exits." Lucy panicked.

Lockwood and I looked down and saw more security guards coming.

"They keep coming... Anyone with a plan?" I asked annoyed.

Lockwood looked around and an idea popped in his mind.

"Well, I didn't, but now I do. I think." He said and walked away, Lucy and I following close by.

He headed for a fire alarm, pulling it down with no hesitation.

"Oh-"Before I could protest his idea an alarm suddenly started blaring and all lights turned a blue or purplish colour. All the guests around us gasped and salt sprinklers activated.

A voice came threw the speakers telling us to calmly evacuate.

We followed the crowd and headed for the nearest exit.

Lockwood took my hand and guided me around carefully.

We stopped in the middle of the crowd.

He looked at me and stayed silent. And squeezed my hand and nibbled his lip.

He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted.

"We should go and meet up with George." Lucy dragged us to the exit.

As soon as we were out we jumped in a cab and we were headed to meet George.

Lucy and Lockwood kept looking out the back window paranoid.