The Assassin's Assistant

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

I have a knack for getting into trouble.

My eyes snapped open. I looked around my bedroom. The clock read 3:12 AM. Why had I woken up?

A rustling sound outside my door answered my question. 'Crap, someone's in the living room." Silently, my arm slipped behind my bed's headboard, grabbing on to the FN Five-SeveN handgun strapped there.  I carefully and silently made my way to the door, blood pounding in my ears. I heard something fall behind me. 'Somebody's in here, too.' I blindly pointed my gun around me but couldn't see a thing in the pitch darkness. The curtains were shut and all lights were off. My gun wouldn't be of much use if I couldn't aim it. 'All of the securities I put into this apartment, and I never thought of this?'

Footsteps headed in my direction rapidly. I instinctively jumped for the light switch, knowing its position from memory. Whoever was in my bedroom must have had night vision goggles, because they anticipated the move, and intercepted me. An arm wrapped around my waist, the other knocked the gun from my hand. I screamed and shrieked. I heard two more sets of footsteps enter my bedroom. I blindly punched and kicked, some of my attacks making contact, but my attacker wouldn't let go. I was picked up, someone held my torso, pinning my arms to my side. Another person held my legs with an iron grip, disabling them. I screamed as loud as humanly possible.

Every part of me fought. I bit and twisted while shrieking, until a hard slap hit me in the face.

I heard a gruff voice say, "Now will you stop screaming, girl?" I squirmed and resisted.

Another voice, also a man's, but more smooth said, "That's it, I didn't want to do this, but have it your way. Knock her out."

I felt a cool needle puncture the skin in my shoulder. The frozen chill of sedative washed over me. I slowly lost all bearings of the world around me. I fought it, thinking about anything I could, just trying to stay awake, but, eventually, I blacked out.

* * *

Consciousness slowly came back to me. I was tired, my mind jumbled into a fog. A lightheaded feeling had overcome me and everything around me felt like it was part of a movie, something I was watching and not actually experiencing. I went to stand up, but was unable to. Looking down, I saw shiny mental bracelets and anklets on me had caught onto the chair I was in. “Haha, let go,” I told them, but they ignored me. “That’s not very nice,” I scolded, before laughing at the silliness of my jewelry. They were just playing a game with the chair and me.

“Hello, Audrey,” a voice called out to me.

Giggling, I responded, “Hallo!” My head drifted up to see a man and a woman standing in front of me. They looked ridiculous. Their heads stretched up and down and their arms flopped about like noodles. One second, they’d be as tall as trees and the next the two of them would be ant sized. I attempted to wave at them, but my bracelets were still playing tricks on me. I frowned, “Stop that.” They were being very rude to me. I just wanted to say “hello”.

The lady leaned in to me. Her head went from being a mile away from me to inches away from my face. ‘She must have a giraffe neck,” I thought to myself. Suddenly, giraffe spots appeared on her face and I laughed. She looked so goofy.

“Hi there, I’m Summer.” The woman’s voice went from a low rumble to a mouse-like squeak, constantly changing pitches. “We’d like to talk to you.”

Smiling at the woman, I responded, “Okayyyy! How are you?”

The man made a snorting sound, like a mad horse. The nice lady, Summer, said, “Well, how about you tell us about your boss?”

I laughed, “She wears really, really tall shoes, like this,” I tried to stretch my arms out to show them, but my bracelets continued to tease me. “Don’t be rude, silly,” I told them.

“She’s higher than the clouds, this isn’t going to work.” The man took a few steps back and something appeared in his hands. He began to talk to it.

The lady sighed, “You have no faith, Harold.” She looked at me, her head bobbing all around. It reminded me of a bouncy ball. “Audrey, honey, can you tell us where your bigger boss is. You, know the one who you get orders from.”

“Your voice is funny.”

“How about where you were last night? Yeah, let’s start with that. Can you tell me where you were last night?”

I made my head bounce up and down to match the rhythm of hers. “Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy.”

She made a bear sound. I made it back at her and then cracked up again. “I like this game, let me try. Meow!”

The lady backed away , her head going back a mile again. “It’s your fault, you told them to drug her up so much. Easy answers my foot.”

“I didn’t know she’d be like this! Let’s just give the child time so it’ll wear off. Do it the old fashioned way.” The man put away his talker box. My new friends began to walk off.

 I frowned, ‘But we were having so much fun. I liked that animal game”

My attention went back to my bracelets, and I began asking them to let me go again. I loved jewelry, but these ones were being rude to me. Eventually, I grew bored of them ignoring me, so I decided to take a nap. Maybe the jewelry would fall asleep too, and I could make them let go of the chair while they were sleeping, if I woke up before them.

* * *

The world came into focus. Thoughts of giraffes and anklets danced in the back of my mind. I was in a white room. White walls, white floors, and white ceiling. The room was empty except for a door straight ahead of me and the chair I was sitting in, positioned in the dead center of the room.

The chair I was sitting in… I looked down and saw that my wrists were strapped to the arms and my feet to the legs of the chair by thick metal bands.

“Oh no. No no no no no,” I muttered to myself. This could not be happening. I shook my arms but the bands held tight. ‘Mean bracelets,’ I recollected.

A creaking sound cut through my thoughts. I looked up to see a hazily familiar woman and an unfamiliar man in their mid-twenties walk in. In the split second that the door was open, I saw a small room behind it with another door, like an airlock. ‘Even if I get out of this thing, I’m still screwed. Fantastic.’

Walking in, the woman smiled at me, “Hello, once again, how are you feeling?”

‘Once again? What was this lady talking about. We couldn’t have…’ A feeling of dread washed over me. They must’ve talked to me while I was under some sort of drug. Had I said anything, given away information? I bit my lip firmly, not responding  to the woman.

She laughed bitterly. “Getting right down to it, eh? I can work with that. This is how it’s going to work. We’re going to ask you questions and you’re going to answer them.”

“And if I don’t?” I growled through grit teeth.

“You get to meet my partner, here.” The woman made a gesture and the guy sent a punch straight to my face. I made a choking sound and blood dripped out of my nose. “Let’s begin, shall we?”

I was beginning to lose hope for survival.