Time is of the Essence

Chapter 3: Panic

“You’re going to kill him? This man killed Wonton and probably was the same person who killed my father, and you’re going to kill him? Jacob, he’s a professional. You haven’t even passed any stages yet. What makes you think you can kill this man?” Tess said, with pure conviction. 

“Determination. Fighting Spirit. What more do you need?” I replied, pure hate evident in my voice. 

“If you’re going to go through with this. You’re not going to do this alone. I’m going to help you.” I truly didn’t want her to help me, because this could become very dangerous and life threatening, but it was the look in her eyes that made me realise that she didn’t need someone to protect her. She had it within her. She always had it within her. That fighting spirit that I admired so much in Wonton. 

“Alright, I trust you.” I said.

“I trust you.” She replied. 

During the rest of the night, Tess and I decided to bury Wonton and Tess’ father which was brutally tiring, but something that needed to be done. These two men deserved everything good and the least we could do was respect their death and bury them in the places they truly felt the safest and most happiest. Both Tess and I stayed strong for the rest of the night, but kept the communication to the minimum, trying to process everything that had happened during the night. Hard to think that so much can happen in a span of six hours. Hard to think, hard to believe. When the sun rose, we decided to do something.

“We have to train,” Tess said, “we have to train to be able to pass the stages and figure out who killed the people we care about along the way.” She started to get up from the couch and walked to the front door. 

“Yeah, sure. Where did you have in mind?” I asked, getting up from the couch and walking towards her. 

“My father had a place purely for training. It’s quite impressive. It has realistic stimuluses that replicate the real life stages so it’ll prepare us. We can go there. I just have to go back home and find the keys for it. Is that okay?” 

“Of course I don’t mind. It sounds great. Let’s go there now before people start poking around your house from all the window shattering and door bashing.” I said as we walked into the front lawn of my house and walked towards the direction of Tess’ house. 

“So, do we have a plan on figuring out on who this assassin is?” she asked as we kept walking.

“Not at the moment, we don’t exactly have any leads as to who this person can be. Maybe we can find some clues at your place before go to the training area you were talking about.” I replied, trying to remember if there was anything at my place that seemed out of place, with the exception of the shattered windows and broken down door. 

“Yeah, sounds good. I highly doubt we’re going to find much though, especially since the only resources we really have are our eyes.” 

“True. But it’s worth a try looking anyways. I’m sure we’ll be able to find something, even if it’s the smallest of things.” I said, trying to stay positive despite the situation we were placed in. 

As we arrived at Tess’ place we saw that no one had started looking around at the place or even noticed it for that matter. All the neighbours still seemed to be fast asleep or too occupied to look out their window. We went into the busted house and started searching for both the keys to the training area and any clues that might help us lead to the guy who killed both Wonton and Tess’ father. I started in the lounge room while Tess moved to the kitchen. I searched everywhere I could. Behind the TV, underneath the couch, behind the cushions on the couch, underneath the rug, behind picture frames. Anything. But I couldn’t find anything. 

“Uhh Jacob,” Tess said, sounding worried and afraid. I ran quickly to where she was and found to my surprise something I wouldn’t expect seeing. A bomb. 

“Where did that come from!?” I said frantically. I came closer to the bomb and saw it counting down. Ten minutes left. “Alright, alright, we can figure this out. I’ve had training in this with Wonton. We just have to be extremely careful.” 

“Yes, I’ve tried to look around the bomb but I haven’t been able to find any wires. I’m a little hesitant in lifting it up cause I don’t know what’s going to set it off. What are we going to do?” she asked, panic clear in her eyes. I had to try and disarm this thing. 

“Okay, you go and keep looking for the keys and I’ll try and figure this out.” She nodded and went upstairs to look for the keys as I went back to figuring out the bomb. 

During my training sessions with Wonton where bombs were involved he had said that all bombs had a weakness. All bombs had a weakness. I was sweating bullets when I decided to lift it up. I slowly took it with both hands and gently lifted it up to see what was underneath it. What I found was nothing I had ever dealt with in training. There was nothing underneath the bomb. Just a black underlay coating. No screws. No wires. No nothing. I placed it back then and looked around the house, reminding myself that bombs always have a weakness. If you can’t disarm the bomb on the actual bomb, then the only way a bomb can be disarmed is through … the person who set it up. Shit. 

“TESS! TESS! Where are you!?” I screamed, running up the stairs and finding Tess in her dads bedroom, looking for the keys. “Tess, we have to get out of here quickly.” 

“Why? Wait hold on, I’ve found the keys. I’m just having a hard time grabbing it,” she replied as she went on her tippy toes trying to reach for the keys. 

“Tess, were not alone in this house. There’s someone else in here. We have to get out, quickly.” She stopped frozen on her tracked, looking just as scared as she did when I found her looking a the bomb. I decided to move her over to try and help her grab the keys, 

“Here,” I said as I reached for the keys and unhooked it from the hook. “We have to leave. Now.” We ran out of her bedroom and went for the stairs. When we made it there, however, there was a man in a black ski mask waiting for us with an axe. 

“Ladies and gentleman, I can’t let you leave this house. You can either die by my hands or though the explosion of the bomb. Either way, both of you are going to die today.” 

Hey all! New chapter is up and I hope you're all liking it. Comments would be much appreciated or I'll just feel like my story is absolute rubbish, which is okay! It just makes me think that I need to change it up or completely delete it. Comments or votes are appreciated xx