The Assassin's Ghosts

Chapter 2: A Visitor

Adira flopped on her bed, tired after a long day of training. The twenty-one year old agent was exhausted. She quickly realised she should probably nurse her wounds; she had scraped the skin off of her right arm when trying to fit under the stone door to get out of the escape room. It had taken many tries to get out of the escape room, and an unspeakable pride had filled her when she finally made it out. Madame Kingston –Adira's agent-training supervisor– had given her a tight compliment, but Adira hadn't missed the shine of dignified admiration in the stern woman's eyes.

Adira sat up and grabbed her first-aid kit off of her nightstand. She pulled out a few cotton pads and a bottle of antiseptic solution. She poured some of the solution onto the pads and wiped it along the shredded skin on the side of her arm, wincing as the fluid stung her raw skin. As she disinfected the cuts, Adira thought back to when she was getting out of the escape room.

Adira had freed herself from the rope binding her to a chair a few minutes prior. She had always been good at that part, it was just escaping the room itself that she couldn't figure out. She had already tried searching for vents or other airways that could lead to an escape, but there were no vents that a person could fit through.

Adira stood in the centre of the room, next to the chair, and surveyed the room. The walls were made of a cement that she knew she couldn't break with her fists, or even the chair she had been tied to. There was a cement door that rose up when it opened and slid back down when it closed. The door was pressed firmly against the cold cement floor; Adira would never have been able to get her fingers under it, and even if she could, she probably wasn't strong enough to lift it up. At the bottom of the door there was a thin flap that could be pushed open to slide a plate of food to a prisoner. Wait... the food slot! If she could just somehow push up the door using the slot... but how was she supposed to push it up?

Adira's eyes trailed over to the chair and an idea lit up her mind. She dragged the chair over to the door and laid it down on the ground so that the seat-back of it was propped up on the floor and the legs stuck up diagonally in the air. She jammed the seat-back of the chair into the food slot and pushed down on the chair's legs, levering the door open.

The space between the door and the ground slowly widened until Adira had enough space to slip under. She shoved the chair so that it would hold the door open long enough for her to get through. Adira slowly stopped applying pressure to the chair legs, letting go slowly, cautiously testing to see if it would really hold. It did. Adira grinned and knelt down, then dropped to her stomach and began crawling under the door.

Getting under the door proved to be a slight bit more difficult than she had anticipated, seeing as the chair was only barely large enough to let her pass under. The crawl was a bit of a squeeze, and it didn't help that the metal of the chair gave a panic-inducing creak. The untrustworthy sounds from the chair caused Adira to crawl a little faster. This resulted in the side of her arm taking some damage; cement isn't very comfortable to crawl across, but Adira hardly noticed. By the time she had made it under the door and stood up on the other side, Adira was filled with excitement. She had finally figured out the escape room, after days and days of trying.

After she had cleaned all her cuts, Adira put away the medical supplies and changed out of her training uniform, which was just a black tank-top, black leather pants, and all of the necessary accessories for an agent-in-training. She changed into a nightgown that was so light blue that it was nearly white. It loosely hugged her rib cage, but the rest of it flowed around her body gently. After changing, she then crawled under the covers in her bed, reaching up to flip the light switch to turn the lights off. Adira had always been an easy sleeper, so within minutes of settling into a comfortable position, she was sound asleep.

Adira was startled awake by the feeling of someone grabbing onto her wrists and holding them tightly. She could feel the press of soft leather gloves on her skin. Her eyes flicked open and she immediately saw the man towering over her bed, gripping her wrists. Adira opened her mouth to scream, but the man's other hand clamped over her mouth, preventing any sound from coming out.

"Surprise," said the man. His voice was smooth– alluring, even–, and Adira searched his face, which was partially covered by a mask. His mouth and nose were hidden, but his clear blue eyes shone in the moonlight that filtered through the sheer curtains. His dark hair was hanging in his face, obscuring his other features. "You and I will have business together. I'll be seeing you again soon. Figured I'd introduce myself before we met in a more formal setting. Stay out of my way, and we won't have any problems; I don't think I need to reiterate that I already know where you live."

The man moved away from her and his hands, which she noted had thin leather gloves adorning them, were taken off of her mouth and wrists. Adira sat up just in time to see him slip out through the window and drop to the ground below. She scrambled out of her bed and rushed to the window, but the man had already disappeared.

Adira walked back to her bed, desperately trying to understand what had just happened. Her heart was pounding and her breathing felt shaky and her mind struggled to make sense of the event. What had the stranger meant by 'will have business together'? When would they be seeing each other again? And why?

She climbed back into her bed and wrapped herself in the covers, but the uneasy feeling still hadn't left her. She was shaking slightly, unable to relax in her own bed. Someone had found her in her own home, broken in, and... threatened her? It definitely sounded like a threat. Stay out of my way, and we won't have any problems. Adira shivered as she recalled his smooth voice murmuring to her threateningly. I already know where you live. Predictably, Adira had a much harder time falling asleep than she had had before.