The Thorned Rose

4

'This is it,' I thought to myself. I put on my sweetest smile, and stood talking to him for a bit. He took the bait just like I wanted him to, and asked if I wanted to go somewhere a bit quieter. I followed him up some stairs and through a corridor to a gorgeously decorated sitting room. 'Shame it will be covered in blood soon,' I thought. Erasmo turned around to pour himself a glass of whiskey, and when his back was turned, I grabbed the knife from my shoe, ran behind him and slit his throat. I brought his head up to look at me, and I watched the life drain from his eyes. Unfortunately, this type of murder was messy, and I had so much blood on me now, I definitely could not leave through the front door.

"Where did he go?" I heard a voice say.

"He definitely went upstairs," said another.

"Yeah he was going with that girl that rejected-" added a third, interrupted by the fourth who hissed, "find him."

I could hear them opening and searching each of the rooms, getting closer and closer to the one that contained me and a very dead Erasmo. Time to run. Even though I had trained to run in a long dress for times like this, it was still easier for me to just rip the bottom half of the skirt off. As it was such a thin material, it ripped easily. One last thing I had to do was pin a white rose badge, with one thorn, to the blazer of Erasmo. That was my signature move, it is what made me famous. I was known as the Thorned Rose, and over the world I was famous for my assassinations, but no one knew it was me. I went to open the window, but it was locked shut, fuck. I could pick the lock easily, but it would take a bit of time, and I wasn't sure how much I had before the men ran in and found me. No time to waste worrying though, I quickly took a hairpin from my hair and began unpicking it. Just as I unlocked the window, the door flew open, and there was four men. Right in the middle was 'Don Sandrino', as the girls had referred to him earlier.

"You," he looked at me, fury raging in his eyes. One of the men lifted their gun up towards me, without hesitation, I grabbed a throwing star from my thigh and threw it, landing just in his shoulder, so he groaned with pain and put the gun down. They turned to help their injured man, and I used the distraction to pull open the window. I quickly hopped onto the window ledge, turned around and said "sorry boys, there was a hit out on this man." They all stared at me, with fury but bewilderment, and watched as I hopped out of the window and disappeared into the night.

I no longer had the luxury of time, so I quickly ran to where the car was parked, and took the keys that I had left on top of the wheel, unlocking the car and quickly drived off. I went to the bridge, where there was a blue pickup truck and a man waiting for me. He pulled back the tarpaulin that covered the back of his truck, I climbed inside and he sped off. All of my belongings had been gathered from the hotel, and were in my small rucksack next to me. I quickly changed into joggers, trainers and a zippy. I can basically run and drive as well in heels as I can in trainers, the only difference is the blisters and the grip of the shoes, so I always tried to change as soon as possible. Also, my outfit was very distinctive, thank god I wore a mask the whole night.

After an hour of driving, we reached a city where there was a car waiting for me. I thanked the man from the pickup truck, who handed me the car keys and then sped off. I quickly jumped in the car and continued driving. There were many other car changes, and finally, at 6am in the morning in Milan Airport, I flew home, back to London.