The Assassin ✓

Chapter Nine

Tom walked through the hallway quietly. Though it was way past midnight, the building did not seem to be asleep. There were people here and there, walking around, not paying attention to the young boy roaming around. They were probably used to it. Some of the people made eye contact with him, but then dropped it and didn't look back. He tried looking confident, as he made his way up to the second floor and saw the before-mentioned coffee machine.

He walked up to it and hesitated. He did not drink tea, but people said it had calming abilities, so, after lingering for a moment, he pushed the button that made hot tea pour into his

cup. It was a funny feeling, shock - or at least Tom thought it was shock. He felt very calm and very nervous at the same time. He felt calm, while feeling anxious about it. He felt calm, but feared he might not feel calm after he slept.Sleep. Seemed unattainable at the moment. God knows what would happen next - if his mother had a plan, she did not waste precious seconds telling her son about it. So he had to go with the flow.

As he waited for his tea, he let his sight wander around. There were hallways in both directions. At the end of the widest one, he saw a big desk and remembered Harry said something about an office assistant. It was probably their desk. He grabbed the cup from the machine and let it warm his hands. Only now did he realise how cold he was. He glanced again at his options for further wandering and decided to go towards the desk. He did not see an assistant nearby, but even if someone was there, his mother claimed this was a safe place and that gave him hope of survival. Surely no one would kill him for wandering, right? Besides, anything was better than returning to where Blair was, now probably with her insides on the table next to her.

He slowly walked forwards, letting his mind wander, while staring at his feet. The jolt was unexpected.

The cup of tea slipped from Tom's hands and he watched it almost in slow motion, falling down to the floor and spilling partly on his feet. It burned and he jumped back. Only then he noticed the culprit - a man, not very old, but definitely a lot older than Tom himself. He was wearing dark jeans, a dark green bomber jacket and he had a baseball cap on his head, that partly covered his face. The man looked just as confused and it appeared he had bumped into Tom by accident. From his hands fell out a thin folder of papers and landed in the spilt tea on the floor.

Immediately, as if he had been the one guilty for what happened, Tom dropped on his knees on the floor.

"I'm so sorry," he mumbled, picking up the papers. "I hope they don't soak too much," he gathered the contents of the folder and stood up. "I wasn't looking where I was ..." he trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished, as he finally noticed what he was holding. In his hands, among other things, were photographs of his mother. He flipped through the photos and noticed a slip of paper that had their home address on it. Tom looked up at the stranger just as he grabbed the pictures and notes out of Tom's hands.

"It's okay," he muttered and started walking away.

"Wait," Tom spoke, "what do you want with that woman?" He asked and the man turned back towards Tom. He felt his heart beating rapidly in his chest, his palms getting sweaty and his cheeks burning. I should not have asked that.The man walked back towards Tom.

"I suggest you keep your nose out of other people's business," he said and Tom could make out the man's beard and sharp cheekbones. He had a deep, pleasant voice, but right now it created shivers, than ran up and down Tom's spine.

Despite it all, he felt delirious and brave tonight. "That woman ismy business. She is my mother." As soon as he said that, he bit his tongue and regreted it. He felt the air shifting and suddenly the atmosphere between the two men were completely different.