Shadow's Within

6 : How?

"What's this? What is he doing here?"

"How?"

"This isn't real.."

"No..."

The amount of words shattering one another is unbearable for me. This man is here, on my doorstep; a manifestation of a ghost that surround me in this cold rigid night. Can this be happening?

"You.." I said wryly.

He smiled. "You are one tough woman to find" He reach his shady hand under his pocket. I flinch; expecting a weapon, gripping my hand over the knife on my back. He saw a slip of shadow of the knife behind me and fall back. "WHOA" His feet descend backwards. "Easy. I came to give you this."

He retreats his hand and pass me a square object the size of a card. I took a clearer view and discover it's my ID card. Not my genuine identification, duh. It's one of my fake ID given to me for this specific mission. On the card had my fake name, fake birth and what do you know, THIS ADDRESS! Oh god. How could I have been so careless. Losing my identification card is a newbie mistake. I bet the devil himself must be crying of joy seeing an agent like me could do the number one taboo rule in the organization.

"Stupid" I mustered.

"I'm sorry?" the man asks quizzically.

"Nothing" I reply coldly. "Uhmm... Thanks. I'll be taking that now. Now if you don't mind.." I reach for the door to close on him but his hand reached the door simultaneously.

"Whoa there" He exclaimed, cheerfully. "I just gave you your ID, the least you could do is invite me in for a hot beverage or something. As a gesture of thanks"

"At 1 in the morning?" I stare at him. "Seriously. You want me to invite you a complete stranger into my house in the middle of the night"

"Are we strangers?" He replied. "I woke up on my office tonight, and to my surprise, there's a beautiful woman standing over me. With a gun! Trust me. We are beyond strangers anymore. I want some answers."

"No!"

"Yes" He pointed above his temple. I could spot a red fluid gushing out. It was blood. "You owe me that"

I guess that was my fault. I did hit him with my gun in the spur of the moment. Hey, I panic, I'm sure anybody would have reacted the same way.

"Well?" He shoots me a look, waiting for an answer.

I hesitated. I didn't have time to entertain this guy. I was on the clock. A killer from my organization is heading here at this moment to kill me. I need to get the hell away from here. This moment is tearing me apart. My instinct tells me this is a second chance given to me. My target had come all the way to me voluntarily. One snap of my knife and his dead and I would be on the clear.

Except I couldn't kill him here. This is my safe house. If I hack him to death here, I couldn't escape freely from the police.

"Uh no. You can't come in". I grab my duffel bag and swing it over me and push the guy out of line and closes the door behind me. "I have to attend somewhere."

"Where" he asks.

"Away from here"

"I see what this is" He hold his phone and open it. "For all I know, you tried to kill me. One dial and I could call the cops, and you would be rotting in jail woman"

I pull my gun over his hand before he could react. He gasped, unsure of what was happening with a gun pointed between his eyes.

"Don't ever threaten me." I said, cold expression plays into my eyes.

He hangs both his hand above him, signaling retreat or hoping I would not pull the trigger. "Okay. Calm down. I just want some answers." His voice went high, choking on his saliva. "I want to know why are you targeting me"

Before I could answer, I see a silhouette figure behind him. A man wrapped in trench coat, face covered in shadow beneath his head. I creaked my eyes. It's him, the reaper. He wants to kill me. My time is due.

I could make out movement from him. He pulls his gun directly proportional towards my direction. I push my target away and pull my trigger, blasting my bullet at the reaper.

We both shot at the precise moment and both of us are unharmed. No bullet hole, no graze of line from bullet. I turn my attention back to the reaper and shot away my second bullet. The reaper blinks out of sight, hiding from the second flare.

My target is scrawled on the floor, scared; I could see his face white and pale as if a ghost had taken his soul. I couldn't leave him here. I grab him and pull him along away from the line of fire. I gaze back again and shot a third bullet away just to cover our escape route.

The shot gave us a perfect opportunity to slip by. We ran past the emergency stairs and shuffled away plunging downwards escaping for our life. I didn't look back, but I could hear a faint footstep behind the door. The reaper is on to us, gun in his hand, ready to take out our life.