Deadly Sins

Part 11

The moon already shone when I walked through the park. The starry night was cold, I could see my own breath in the frosty air. Somehow, I didn't feel cold at all, even though I only wore a rather thin dark grey sweater over my tank top. The park was almost empty, besides a few couples or groups of friends enjoying the beautiful sky above us. I quickly made my way through the park and stopped in front of the Hamilton monument, where I was supposed to meet the Winter Soldier. I slowly walked around the statue and found a hooded man leaning against the back of the statue. He raised his head, when he noticed me and my eyes met the brown mysterious eyes from yesterday. The soldier came towards me and softly grabbed my elbow to lead me back to the street, where he stopped in front of a black motorcycle and gave me one of the helmets lying on it. He pulled of his hood and quickly put on the helmet, before he swung his leg over the motorcycle and sat down. I hurried to follow his example and wrapped my arm's around him, as he started to drive.

Normally, I enjoyed riding a motorcycle, but feared for my life on this one. The soldier's driving style was definitely not something I could or wanted to get used to and I was relieved when we stopped in front of an old building. As soon as we stopped, I jumped off and enjoyed the steady ground beneath my feet. I took off the helmet and made a deep breath. "You drive horrible!", I gasped, my legs were shaking from the ride. The silent man took off his helmet as well and entered the building, ignoring my complaint. I sighed and followed him through the large black door.

The inside was as run down and miserable as the outside. The rooms were empty, besides trash or pieces of cartboard lying around, doors were missing and only a few poor lamp bulbs lightened the corridor we walked in. The dusty wooden floor creaked under our feet and I heard the wind howling through the open windows. Suddenly Hoody stopped in front of a door, knocking three times, paused and knocked four times in a weird rythym. The door opened and a large, muscular man in a black uniform came in sight. He mustered us, before stepping aside and letting us through. The new room was far better lighted and my eyes needed some time to get used to it. Uniformed men, like the guard behind us, where sitting on benches, as if they waited for orders. long metal tables crossed the center of the room, presenting many kinds of guns. The soldier led my to an elevator, without taking notice of the other men or the tables. He pushed the button to go down and we entered a room full of different kinds of weapons. There were bows in various sizes and shapes, as well as axes, guns, swords, knifes and much more. I swallowed down the big lump in my throat. I felt small and unimportant next to them. Like a rabbit in the foxes cave. I noticed, that every weapon presented in this room was pitch black, matte, so no light would reflect. Perfect weapons for assassins.

"Any preference?" asked the soldier, when he stopped in the middle of the room. I was surprised by his question.

"I don't know what would fit me best.", my voice was shaking of nervousness "I thought we would practise combat skills first."

"We are. I might choose for you, if you don't find something.", he answered and went to the metal door at the opposite side of the room and opened it. The room behind it was filled with different gym equipment, including various kinds of punching bags. "We will start with the basics. You have to build up condition and strength. Run for 10 minutes at the beginning and the end of the lesson, follow the workout I will show you and after that I will start teaching you the basics of combat skills." He waited for me next to the treadmill and started it, after I went on. He pushed the speed so high I could barely keep up, but he made no indication to change, so I just held on to the treadmill and ran as fast as I could. He watched me for the first minutes, telling me to go faster if I got slower, before he stretched a little bit.

My legs got tired, as I'm a horrible runner and I have little condition. I remembered the day being in the dark room with the black flames and how I ran for a long time without getting tired. Maybe consuming the black flame, and my phone, made me stronger, but that contradicted with me being so cold my legs gave in yesterday, when I consumed the shadows. On the other hand, I did only consume a little flame the other day, maybe the shadows were too much for me to handle. Buried in my thoughts, I paid little attention on running and before I knew what was happening, I flew off the treadmill, with a surprised shout. I expected to hit the hard ground, but instead I was catched by the soldier.