The Price For Immortality

Make or Break (part 4)

"I feel like a secret agent..."

Jin and Naoki had made it into the concert hall, thanks to one of Naoki's robots creating a diversion. Turns out, having a robot that can shoot a gun can help. Thankfully, it only fired blanks, but it still sounded enough like a gunshot to cause every single security guard to go running for the sound.

"Well, I feel like a mad scientist," Naoki says. He slips his tablet back into it's case and sneaks in through the front door. "Remind me why I'm assisting Valt in this endeavor again?"

"For the sake of science..." Jin presses his back against the wall and looks around. "The coast is clear... I think..."

Naoki peers around a corner. "You're correct. Now, we have to be quiet."

"Shhh..." Jin smiles. "We have to be vewy, vewy quiet... We're hunting wabbits."

Naoki gives him a look. "That's some sort of reference, I know it."

"Looney Tunes..."

"I knew it was from something. Now please, be quiet. The last thing I want is to get caught." Naoki looks around another corner. "I don't know where Zac's dressing room is. I've never been to any of his performances."

"I don't know either... I don't listen to pop music..." Jin peeks around the corner, too. He lowers his voice even quieter. "Is that a guard...?"

Naoki stares ahead. "I believe that is."

"What're we gonna do...?"

"We have to create some sort of diversion." The gears in Naoki's brain begin turning. "I wish I had some sort of movie to reference to. I've never sneaked anywhere."

Jin giggles. "Sneaked..."

"What? That's the grammatically correct past participle."

Jin grins, and giggles again.

"I don't see how that's humorous in any way."

Jin grins and looks at the guard again. "I don't know what we're gonna do..."

"I'm thinking."

"That's scary..."

"What is?"

"You're thinking... you're a scary person..."

Naoki looks at Jin. Jin's mouth is hanging open, revealing his pointed teeth. His amber eyes are staring straight ahead at the guard. His hand is gripping the wall so tightly that Jin's bones look like they want to rip free from their joints. His skin is so pale that they blend in with the white wall. Jin reaches a hand up and removes his hood, revealing his black hair.

"You're calling me scary," Naoki says.

Jin grins.

Naoki shakes his head. "Why are we talking about this? We have more important matters to focus on. For example, what are we going to do about that guard?"

Jin looks around. His eyes land on a clock, a painting, the light...

Lights.

Wow that's bright.

Jin squints. His eyes flicker around some more. There's a rug over the carpet in the hallway, there's a desk, and on it is a pot of petunias.

Petunias.

Jin stares. He's allergic to those.

Suddenly, his throat feels scratchy. His eyes start to water, and his nose starts to itch. He feels that horrible feeling of a sneeze coming.