The Assassin and the Murderer

Chapter 7

A month passed, and Erilan was just beginning to get it's first sprinkling of snow. Spencer walked with his cloak pulled tight around his shoulders to prevent the biting wind from getting to him. He was weary from travel, and there weren't many places he could go now. The most logical answer was the castle, where the only people capable of ensuring his safety lived, but for some reason his icy footprints went in the opposite direction.

He didn't know why he did it, but he somehow found himself outside the window of an old friend's. He couldn't enter through the front door, because surely someone there would sell him out to Althalos. Actually, he admitted, almost everyone there would have sold him out. Except for one person.

He rapped three times on the window, hoping to God it would just be her, because if anyone else was there, it would either be awkward or mean trouble.

Thankfully, he saw her confused expression from inside, and she quickly opened the window, helping him into the room.

"Spence? What are you doing here? Where have you been?"

"Hello, Linden." Spencer said. "I'm so sorry."

~

What was left of the group had been traveling for almost a month and a half now. They where a few cities short of Erilan when Laurel suddenly dropped like a rock.

"Laurel!? What just happened!?" Oletha asked, rushing to her side.

But she didn't get very far, because she felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck before she and Sam were knocked out as well.

"Tranquilizers! Get out of here!" Denzel tried to warn Gabriel, but neither of them made it very far.

~

"Spence, what are you doing here!? You know that you've got a hefty price on your head, don't you?" Linden asked, looking really worried. She closed the curtains to the window, and locked the door.

"I know. I'm sorry. I had to come back." Spencer said.

"Where's Laurie? Is she okay? She's being hunted, as well." Linden informed him.

"She's alright. She's in hiding somewhere." Spencer said, keeping it vague.

"She's somewhere south, isn't she? That's where you were, right?" Linden guessed.

"What makes you say that?" Spencer asked.

"You've tanned since I last saw you." Linden said. "I've been really worried about you. You just disappeared, and there was talk that you were killed! Of course, I didn't believe it. Not you. You're too careful."

Spencer sighed, and nodded.

"Why are you here, anyway? You should be far away right now." Linden said

Spencer didn't answer for a moment. He just looked at her for a while. All she was wearing were lacy undergarments, which she was keeping hidden by a shawl which was wrapped around her like a blanket. He suddenly had a feeling of sadness for his friend. For her life. For everything she had to do. And he knew that she thought the same of him. Of his life. Of the killing and the pain and the suffering. But they were really the same, he realized. They both were forced into their lives, and for everything, he wanted nothing but to get her out of this. Why, he did not know.

"I don't have many friends, Linden. And out of those few, you are one of them. So I had to come to say goodbye." He hesitated. "I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know why I'm doing it. But I'm here now, and I don't want you to worry about me, alright?"

"Should I be worried about you?" She asked in suspicion.

"No." He said after a moment. "Don't be worried about me."

And then for reasons he couldn't understand at the time, he grabbed her face in his hands and kissed her.

When he pulled back he saw a look of elated surprise on her face.

"But... I thought... Laurel?" She said, looking confused but happy.

"I don't want to talk about her." He said, pulling her into another kiss, which she returned this time.

And so they went on like this, kissing furiously as she pushed him towards her bed. They kissed as their clothes somehow lost them. And in that moment, they didn't care about anything at all.

~

Their assailant seemed to be in the same league as the ones who killed Jemma, but they didn't try to kill anyone this time. Instead, the five prisoners found themselves chained up in what appeared to be the top floor of a mansion.

"Oh, lovely. You're up."

A woman stood above them, half smirking half scowling.

"Who are you?" Oletha asked, looking confused.

"Mariam?" Sam said in recognition, looking angry.

"You know her?" Laurel asked.

"We know she's the one who helped the murderer of our mother get away." Denzel snarled. "So, where's our father, Mariam?"

"Ooh, you didn't ask very nice." Mariam said in a mocking tone.

"Where's our father, you bitch?" He said.

Mariam pretended to gasp.

"Jeez. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth? Oh, I forgot... You don't." She laughed. "Well, if you really want to know, he begged for his life. He just wanted to see his sons one last time... But, of course, that's when I slit his throat."

"You're lying. That's not our father." Denzel said.

"Hmm, you're right about that. He doesn't care about you two. I forgot." Mariam said. "It doesn't matter though. You won't live long enough to see him ever again."

She paused to laugh.

"Well, anyway, Merek says hello. He's the one who murdered mummy and pretty little Jemma, and now he's going to kill all of you."

"Not today, bitch!" Laurel screamed, jumping up from her place on the floor and tackling Mariam straight into the window.

The window shattered, and Mariam and Laurel began falling, but not before Laurel grabbed a hold of the ledge and pulled herself back up, breathing heavily.

She rushed over to the others, who all looked surprised.

"How did you–" Gabriel started.

"Never chain a girl up without taking her bobby pins." Laurel smirked.

She freed everyone else from their chains, and then they all left the mansion as quick as they could.

Once they made it outside, the first thing they saw was Mariam, who was bloody and dead with a broken neck.

The next thing they saw was a man.

Sam and Denzel spoke together.

"Dad?"