The Thirteenth

~Chapter Seventeen~

The Thirteenth

Chapter Seventeen

I sat there fiddling my fingers which were still behind the chair. I'd been doing that for about two hours now. Mr. Wil– Zach hadn't come back since he left the living room. I wondered if he didn't think that I would escape if I were to untie myself. But looking at the situation at hand, it didn't really seem like it was worth the effort. He'd come back anyway; what's worse he needn't have to hunt me down either. He knew everything about me. I still had absolutely no idea what was happening and how my dad landed himself and me, now, in such trouble.

I'd have to talk to him now. There was no other option. I could not ignore him anymore and pretend like he didn't exist or he wasn't home, although technically that was the scenario on most evenings. Probably he was working on this new drug of his...maybe that's what kept him occupied – busy enough to ignore his only daughter. Did he not learn anything from mom's death? His ignorance towards our family caused this and yet, he was chasing some wild, wicked dream of his.

Zach mentioned that it was supposed to cause a disease, but why would my father create such a virus? Too many questions were running on my mind and the hunger did not help. I shifted slightly to see if my phone was still in my pocket. There was nothing. I did remember having it in my back pocket, like always. Maybe it fell when I threatened him last night saying that I'd call the cops. Gosh, it felt like ages ago.

Alexis! The party...

She would be furious given that I disappeared, and facing her wrath when my world was so chaotic, was not my choice. My hands kept moving behind me and I slowly felt the rope slip. It must have loosened due to my constant fidgeting.

I stood up and explored the apartment. It looked rich with neat furniture and contrast furnishings. Cleanliness freak, I mused. An assassin's job was dirty work and I somehow pictured a dungeon for a house or a place in hiding. Maybe, he adapted to the 'hiding in plain sight'. I went to the room he walked into and found him sleeping. My eyes roamed the area – pure white walls, except for one which had a bunch of posters with threads connecting photos and details. The pit, I thought. His assignments' details, photos of his targets, bits and pieces of post-its and notes were all pinned to the wall. I couldn't bear to see them now. Maybe later; it wasn't like I wouldn't come here again, now that I had agreed to his deal.

Did I want to do it? Was I ready to accept, to take up such a huge burden? Did I even have a choice? Zach was right. I had to go through it. It may not be fully guaranteed deal, but I certainly did not have a better option.

His soft snoring reached my ears and I left him there. I made my way to the massive kitchen equipped with every appliance I knew. They barely looked used. I opened the refrigerator and found a carton of milk and a lonely egg. Taking both of them out, I made a sunny-side up. I washed the pan and the plate, neatly wiped them dry and placed them back into their respective shelves.

I went back into his room and he was sitting on his bed with his head buried in his palms. My footsteps alerted him. "You untied yourself, huh," When I didn't reply, he looked up. "So I'm thinking we have a deal?"

"If things go wrong, I swear, I'll castrate you!" I spit out each word as my voice slowly rose. "At the end of the deal, my father and I get out of this totally unharmed, and you can get your stupid file. None of this should affect my academics. None of my friends will know about this. And once all of this gets over, I want you out of my life and it must seem like nothing ever happened." His face held an amused expression. "Do you f*cking get it?" I yelled.

He calmly cracked his neck and met my hard stare with his own cold, piercing gaze. "None of that will happen and you know it. I said you may get out of this harmed. There's no guarantee for the last time. I don't give a damn about your academics, and it's up to you to keep this entire operation quiet. If you ever mouth a word about this to another person, consider yourself in sh*t so f*cking deep that you would wish you were dead," he drawled. "And my ignorant fool of a baby girl, this will of course change your life even after everything is done because that's the kind of situation you are in right now."

I couldn't believe it. I, of course, did not expect the perfect sweet life during or after the operation, but maybe somewhere deep down, I wished that he would say that it would be fine, to comfort me and to help me get through this.

But now that I came to think of it, why would he? He was being honest. What he said was right. Nothing will be the same. So I had to shut up and blindly jump in a sea of sharks, all the while hoping and praying that they do not rip me alive.

"Unless I mean you get into an accident and probably lose your memory or something fun like that," he said, lazily walking to the bathroom.

I waited for him till he came out and then with the most courage I could muster, I said, "So what's the file I'm looking for?"

He smirked wiping his face. "I knew you would come around. And it's not that easy. I need to eat something first and let's talk about it."

I sat on the counter and he explained how this entire situation would work, not before searching every inch of his kitchen for some form of food and eventually settling for a glass of milk. "At all times you'll be having a burner phone on you that I'll give by tomorrow. This is not one of your TV shows or movies where things work so smoothly. This is serious business. There will be questions from your friends because of your absence. Also, you're in a band so you might have shitty practice sessions, but you'll have to function without them for a while. I'll be giving you instructions which you are to follow to the T. I will follow you everywhere you go like a shadow. You will ask my permission for every person you talk to and meet. I will still continue to teach and you're expected to act normally. If you pull some sh*t every now and then, trust me, you'll live to regret it."

He downed the remnants and continued while I clenched my teeth in anger. His attitude was abominable and he had the right to talk about mine? "Now, coming to the file, it's hidden in a secret place. First we thought that it would be in your father's lab in your house, but we couldn't find it. You have to find the file and give it to me. You might have to talk to your dad about a few things and draw some information out of him. He shouldn't know about this entire operation either, obviously. I'll give you a week's time to get the file. If you don't, then things will get dirty."

He got up and placed his glass in the sink. "To identify the file, it believed that it's placed in a briefcase with a passcode. It will have details of his master plan and also the drug he created to spread the disease. So yeah, that will be all." He ended with a tight-lipped smile.

"One week is too less. I need more time," I mumbled.

Scrutinizing me, he nodded, "Two, at most. No more,"

"I lost my phone...I think it fell in the cemetery last night when I fought with you...I-I need to get it," My voice was void of all emotion. It sounded almost robotic.

It took me a lot of time to process all the conditions he'd laid out. I had to literally live a solitary life with no easy-going communication, but also had to pretend that everything was just fine. I had to be a two-faced coin.

"Get in the car, then,"

I, wordlessly, followed him.

ဆဆဆဆဆဆဆဆဆဆဆဆဆဆဆဆဆဆဆဆ

Hey guys!

So I thought that I'd rather post regular medium sized chapters than wait forever to sit my lazy as$ down and write!

I feel so sad for poor Amelia! Her already broken life takes another hit. Can she survive everything? And hell, Zach is being so bossy! But I guess it comes with the whole assassin package. Sigh.

Leave your thoughts in the comments below and let me know what you felt about the happenings of this chapter. The song I've attached in the multimedia section is I Will Not Bow by Breaking Benjamin, one of my favorite bands. Listen to it while reading!

VOTE > COMMENT > SHARE > FOLLOW FOR UPDATES

Your girl,

Violet

Be bold. Stay gold.

ƺY<>