Assassin's Eye

Chapter 8.

Lucy ate a quick dinner, and came back to the barn with a full belly and a heavy heart. She kind of hoped Nemos wasn't there, and wasn't in the mood to see Kath or Aryn either. They'd probably just yell at her for going out alone, and by "they" she really meant Kath. Aryn would stand by blindly, accepting her fate... To her surprise, there was no one there when she arrived, though. She checked the loft as well, but couldn't find anyone.

"Maybe they're all out on jobs?" Lucy asked herself, rubbing her eyes sleepily. She went to the window and looked out at the city like she'd done so often since she'd arrived in this strange place, but this time she caught sight of something peculiar. A slip of paper was flapping in the wind, seemingly caught in the wall of the barn.

Perplexed, she snatched it inside and read it quickly. As her eyes scanned the paper, they widened and she bolted up, exhaustion suddenly disappearing. Lucy suddenly felt a pain in her chest as her mind went to one name: Nemos. She cursed and bolted down the ladder. Behind her, a paper fluttered down onto the hay that read:

2,000,000 COIN, ORGANIZATION OF SPIES ASSISTING FUGITIVE. CAPTURE AND BRING TO THE ORGANIZATION. DO WHATEVER NECESSARY TO BRING TO JUSTICE.

Lucy ran harder than she'd ever run in her life. She needed to get there fast if they were to have any hope of surviving. They didn't know what the assassins were like—and if they did they didn't know the half of what they would do to their victims. She stopped for a moment, coming to a bone-chilling realization. The Organization of Assassins never kept prisoners. What was different this time? Why would they only capture them?

A voice appeared at her shoulder. "I see you've found the paper? The rest were taken, but somehow I was able to escape." Lucy let out a small yelp that caused her to lose focus and tumble to the ground. She looked up to see a hand offered to help her stand. Okin.

For some reason her heart fell. Okin raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry I'm not Nemos, alright? He is fine though."

Lucy let out a gasp of relief, utterly confused at her emotions at the moment. "You mean he—"

"No, he didn't escape."

Her face fell again.

Okin sighed. "Come on. I have to show you something." Okin and Lucy ran through the streets again, Lucy coming to another realization that this was all they seemed to do. He led her, surprisingly, to Seri's restaurant. They went inside, after a moment of standing outside.

Okin grinned at Seri, waving in a friendly way that Lucy wouldn't have thought possible if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes. She shrugged and followed Okin to the back of the diner; and they went through a door that led up some stairs. Lucy furrowed her eyebrows and continued to follow, becoming more and more curious as they thumped up each step. A breeze blew by her from somewhere, though she didn't know how it was possible. Another door lay at the top of the staircase, and as Okin reached it, he knocked three times, then once, then two times. The door slid open.

Lucy found herself looking into a shabby little room, with a single window facing toward the streets, too dirty to see through. A table filled up some of the space, but other than that, it was empty. The room was smaller than the loft of the barn, but it was still able to hold about fifteen people at a time. There was only one person there though, other than Lucy and Okin. He was a man who looked oddly familiar to Lucy, and after a moment she realized how stupid it was she'd forgotten him.

"Malicem—Malcolm..." She said with a realization. Lucy smiled with a slight hint of relief. The man nodded an acknowledgement.

"Lucy August. It seems you've been brought into our little... Situation?" He grinned sheepishly, the expression looking very out of place on him for some reason, like a shirt that happened to be two sizes too small.