The robber aka assassin-(paid assassin who works for a company can't be put in jail but shouldn't get caught)
~ Zander's POV ~
I had slept in nearly three hours late that morning. I scrunched my eyes as I grabbed the blaring phone off of my bedside table. After being in the dark for so long the bright screen made my eyes burn ferociously. I answered with a groggy "hello?" I was not at all surprised when I realized it was Todd, my boss. He was loudly screaming about how incompetent I was. "You needed to be here yesterday! I better see you walk through the door in five minutes or you're fired! That's a promise not a threat Mr. Eldritch!" He spoke loud and sternly into my ear. "Yes sir." I said as professionally as possible.
I rolled off the edge of the bed and curled my toes as my feet hit the cold hardwood floors. I stared at the floor for a moment not wanting to move. After a minute or two I willed myself to put on a black tee-shirt and a pair of jeans. After brushing my teeth and running a comb through my long black hair, I grabbed my keys and walked out the door slamming it behind me.
The hallways of the fairly large apartment were deserted. They were still dark enough that you could barely make out the frayed army green carpet and peeling grey walls. The carpets were loose and had mangled strings lying limply at the base of the wall. I always wondered how it got so mangled just from being walked on. It sort of reminded me of a cats scratching post.
At the end of the hall was glass door with small symbols etched into it with acid. There was a black bar that you were supposed to push to unlatch the doorknob but that was in its younger years. Now all you have to do is push the door open. As soon as I opened the door I regretted not bringing a jacket. The wind was blowing so hard that even the thickest of tree trunks were swaying in the fierce breeze.
I turned down the sidewalk and trotted towards the small, white, two story building with poison oak growing up the sides. The roof of the building was slanted with a few shingles missing here and there. Other than that it was in fairly good condition.
I opened my phone to look at the time. It was almost five thirty. It had taken me six minutes to get to my so called destination. When I walked in the door the small building was full of normally quiet cubicles but today there were people running everywhere and phones were ringing off the hook. I walked towards the back of the room where we had small wooden boxes hung on the wall. There were so many of them the back wall looked like a honeycomb. We used the boxes to put our mail in this is where I would pick up my next assignment.
I found the box marked "Zander Eldritch, AGE: 17". Inside of the box were three manila envelopes. "Three?" I wondered in amusement to myself. I never got more than two assignments per month and it's only a week into May and I have three already. "It's gonna be a long month" I told myself as a turned to leave. When I opened the door to walk out I left the smell of brewing coffee and stale bagels behind and was greeted by the smell of oncoming rain.
I usually left my car in the parking lot of the building. I knew I didn't plan on coming back to this piece of crap town anytime soon. I also had enough money to buy new clothes so without a second thought I hopped into my burnt orange challenger and cranked it. When I heard the familiar sound of the powerful motor turning and felt the vibration under my feet I smiled wickedly to myself, put the car in gear and spun away in high hopes that I would never have to come back to this place again.
NYX~
I was in the middle of opening my locker hoping that I could throw my stuff into it and leave before the bell rang for fourth period. After I got my locker open I tossed my things in and grabbed my under armor string bag. Inside the bag were three bottles of vodka and six bottles of water. I made sure there was always more water than vodka so if somebody grabbed one without me knowing they would have a better chance of getting water than alcohol.
When I turned to leave I was greeted by Azaria Eldritch. Her long curly blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail she had her blue eyes narrowed and staring at me. She was slender and tan. She looked quite average but there was something about her that I couldn't place that made her seem different from everybody else in a very odd way. She had her arms crossed and her lips were puckered. "where ya' goin' Vixen?" she asked in a sour tone. "What's it to ya Eldritch? " I said quite peeved. "You're going home, aren't you?"; "If I say yes will you leave me alone?" , "No." she said stubbornly. "Why not? Are you the new hall monitor or something or have you already gotten bored with your own life?". "Tsk, tsk, tsk. You know Vixen, one of these days that mouth of yours is going to get you in a whole lot of trouble." She said in a condescending tone. She yanked the bag out of my hands "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize that asking questions was felony, what on earth has the world come to Eldritch?" I said sarcastically "now give me the bag back."." why? You got something to hide?" She asked calmly. "I don't have anything to hide I just want to get out of here before some teacher comes and escorts me to class!" I yelled while trying to jerk the bag from her.
"Excuse me; is there a problem here ladies?" Azaria and I both jumped at the sound of Mrs. Yuri's voice. "Uhh, No ma'am" we said simultaneously. "Oh really? What's in the bag Miss Vixen?" I looked at her with a generously nervous smile "Just water bottles. I walk home every day you know, wouldn't want to dehydrate or anything." "Oh really? You know you seem to be putting up quite a fight for just water bottles, may I?" she gestured towards my bag while speaking condescendingly. I looked nervously around and nodded. She held out her hand as Azaria handed her the bag. When she handed it to her she motioned for us to follow her. As we walked to her office I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks. When we got to where we were going she told us to have a seat in the overstuffed leather chairs. She looked at me with her eyes slightly narrowed. "So Ms. Vixen, your telling me that if I were to take one of these bottles and smell the contents I wouldn't smell anything but water and not alcohol or any other foreign substance?" she asked. "No ma'am you sure wouldn't." I said as politely as possible. "And, miss Eldritch?" "Yes ma'am?" she asked in a fake childish voice. "What exactly did you have to do with this?" "Umm… I was just going to carry her bag for her because she said she needed to go use the restroom." "I did not! You jerked it away from me while accusing me of skipping school!" "Well you already knew that I found out you took my favorite charm bracelet as a prank. I was just trying to scare you a little bit but then you just went off the deep end like I was trying to steal your car or something." Azaria motioned towards my ankles with her eyes. I looked down and took the tiny gold anklet off and handed it to her. "Thank you" she said loud enough that principal Yuri would clearly hear. "You're welcome and I'm sorry. I was just trying to get you back for when you took my favorite pen." I lied.
"Ladies, I would like for both of you to stay right here while I go contact an authority to check out this bag." Principal Yuri said formally as she stood up to leave. "Yes ma'am" we replied. Azaria stared at me until we left.
"How much do you know Vixen?" She said still staring at me. "Umm…what do you mean?" "Your parents. What do you know about them? What are their names, where do they work, how old are they?" she asked. I am now extremely confused. "Well my mom's name is Henasy Vaccorella. My dad's name is Braydon Vixen. My mom works at the architectural company in Milwaukee and my dad is a physician. Both of them are in their mid-thirties." I said cautiously and quite confused.
"Well at least you know your mother's name…well what you believe is your mother. And you so called fathers last name." "What are talking about 'so called' parents? And what does this have to do with the office or me leaving school early?" "It doesn't, it has to do with you turning 18, and you see…your whole family is part of a spy agency. This so called agency happens to be the other half of a metaphorical war. The problem is my side is losing to them. And normally you wouldn't see the problem with that, but see I left out one minor detail your side is downfall of American civilization if it gets to big but right now it's manageable but we're almost out of time. When we get out of here I'll explain more."
Just as she ended the sentence principle Yuri walked in. Azaria's hand flinched and principle Yuri collapsed to the ground, blood flowing from her chest. Azaria had a small pink, jaguar pistol with a silencer in her hand. She grinned as I followed her out the door. "You wanna tell me what that was for?" I ask. "Nope that's somebody else's job" she said sounding pissed off as we got in her car (Aston martin db9) and drove down the road at an unearthly speed.
"What are we doing at my house?!" I asked extremely confused. "I have a job to do and at the moment you're just a minor detail. I need to go help my brother and you do too. Now go up to your room and lock and shut the door. When your parents get home they are going to be extremely pissed off. They know that I told you who you are and the keyword in that is I. they know who I a and where I come from so when they go up to your room its not to say goodnight." She explains. Then what are they coming for?" she looks at me stupefied. "To kill you. What else would they be doing?"
I felt my jaw drop as I turned and walked into my room. I looked out the window and saw a burnt orange dodge challenger sitting near the edge of the woods. If I hadn't spent twelve years in a martial arts fighting academy I might have been terrified.
I immediately opened my window and searched my dresser for my buck knife. (Id only used it once before in my entire life with my uncle when we shot a coyote on his farm.) I locked my door and watched out the window and waited for my parents to pull in.
Zander
When I saw Azaria pull in, I hopped out of my car to meet her. I had already searched the house and found several cameras hidden. I hacked into the system and deleted all of my evidence and shut them down. Nikeria Vixen was with Azaria. When it took so long for them to arrive I was afraid the girl wouldn't cooperate. I met Azaria at the porch and she explained how everything went. I was extremely surprised when she told me agent Murial Doknack was undercover as the high school principle Margaret Yuri. I was convinced nobody knew that Vaccorella and Vixen had a daughter.
"Do you hear that?" Azaria asked. I could hear the faint purr of a large engine. Both doors slammed and keys jingled. I ran up the stairs. "They're here" I said into the door of the girl's room. I walked into the bathroom and cracked the door to see out. I heard whispering and then stomping. Suddenly two figures passed quickly in front of me stopping in front of her room.
"Nyx?" the woman yelled. "Nyx! Unlock the door and let me and your father in!" On the other side of the door I heard her clear her throat. "Well…let me think about it…..ummm….NO!" she yelled back. Her mother took something out of her jacket pocket and attached it to the door. I heard a small crack and she reached for the door. Something slammed against the other side just as she pushed it open. "Open the door dammit!" she yelled easing her hand in. I would have gone ahead and killed her but I wanted to see how things played out. Braydon was beside her helping her push the door. Suddenly she started screaming out of pure pain and terror. He was trying to yank her arm out of the door. She shoved her other hand into the crack and began screaming louder. I couldn't take the noise any longer. I pulled my pistol out of the holster and loaded it. With a quick flick of my wrist I shot them both and they fell to the ground.
Azaria came bolting up the stairs, "What took so long Zander?! I was cramping up down there!" "I just wanted to see if she was worth saving. No shame in that right?" "Touché" she replied. The girl walked out of her room covered in blood. I looked down to see that the skin on Vaccoreli's hands and fingers had been cleanly taken off and some of her fingers were lying severed on the ground. I found myself smirking at the thought of skinning someone alive. "I have a feeling she explained a few things?" she smiled "Just a few." She said sarcastically. "Well then, we should get out of here so I can explain a few more." "Wait how are we gonna cover that up?" she pointed towards the bodies. "I have people" was all I said as I walked out the door.
AZARIA
"So what were my parent's real jobs?" Nyx asked. "They were spies." "Where did they work?" "At an agency" "what kind of agency?" "The kind spies work at." I said tiring of the never ending questions. She hadn't shut up since we got in the car. "Why did you shoot principle Yuri?" "She was a threat." "What kind of threat?" "She was part of the agency were fighting against. She was spying on you to see if you were trained. When we got in her office she recognized me which am why you parents were contacted and now the whole enemy probably knows. That's, why I shot her. Now if you don't SHUT THE HELL UP! I'll do the same to you!" I screamed losing my temper. We were following zander down the road to where we were going to stay the next few days
. "How would they have trained me? Last question by the way." "They would have put you through a minimum of 4 years of martial arts training, and then they would have taught you how to shoot and silence a gun. They would have trained you in cardio so that you could run for miles and never tire, starting when you were born. When you were young they would have trained your memory or strengthened by teaching you to memorize numbers, names pictures, signs, roads, maps, and most importantly directions. You would be able to memorize a trail just by sound and sense of smell. How to drive a car in traffic while going at high speeds, and you are more than likely immune to all or most poisons common or uncommon. They also would have taught you how to blend in and hide whenever and wherever you are. Did they ever play extreme games of hide and go seek?"
"Yeah, all the time. And we had time limits on how long it took to find them or me. If it took more than five minutes to find me I won. If it took less I was put in timeout. If took me more than five minutes to find them I was put in timeout. And now it all makes sense. All the road trips, questions, and especially twelve years at the martial arts academy. Not to mention going to the fair and if they found me before it was time to be found I was grounded." "What an amazing childhood." I said blandly as we got out of the car and walked towards the house. "So your fully trained I'm guessing so for now the only thing left to do is let zander take you to the training room and test you." I said with a smirk. Zander unlocked the door and we all walked in. She followed us down a large hall where I stopped and told Zander to go downstairs and we would be there in a few minutes.
I pushed her into a room and shut and locked the door. I turned to her and gave an apologetic smile. "Look, about the past few years….I'm really sorry. I've been extremely rude and mean and it's just I feel horrible. I really don't want to say I was just doing my job because I mean that's exactly what you want to hear right? But it really is the truth. If I hadn't volunteered to monitor you. Zander would have killed you just like everybody else." "Ok look. I know you're sorry and so am I but I just found I'm a spy. I would like to skip mushy apologies and get to fun stuff like stabbing people!" she said. "Well first of all, being a spy is not fun. Second of all, we do not just stab people! Being a spy has a lot to do with hiding, going undercover, and being a baseman that works the GPS and watches a computer to make sure your guys don't get caught." "Either way I don't want to stand here pouring our hearts out to each other. You were just doing your job. Can we go downstairs now?" I was completely stupefied. As I turned to walk out the door I realized I still had my disguise on. I lifted my hand to my head and took my wig off. I then changed into a pair of black skinny jeans and a V-neck T-shirt. When I walked out to where Nikeria was in the hall, her jaw dropped as I shook my long red hair out. "You're not blonde?!" she exclaimed. I laughed as I walked past her to the staircase.
Nyx
I contemplate what I'm going to ask next as I follow Azaria down the stairs. I had already asked every question imaginable but I'm still extremely curious and want to know everything. Who wouldn't? I am also having an extremely hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I'm not who I thought I was and that my parents were training me to be a spy or assassin or whatever you want to call it. "So what happened to my real parents and what exactly are these agencies?" I ask to nobody specific.
"Well…." Zander began. "From what Azaria and I have traced back to, your real parents were part of the C.A.C.O.H.S. which is the Concealed Apocalyptic Corporation of Human Safety. Vixen and Vaccorelli were sent to shut them up. They knew too much. When they went in killed them they found you hidden in a closet. Your parents knew they were coming they tried to protect you but you. It would have worked if you hadn't cried. They had arranged for a fellow agent to retrieve you after they were killed, instead, Vaccorelli talked Vixen into keeping you. They raise you to be a spy. The next generation."
"So what is my real name? Or do you know?" "We still don't know who you really are so for now you're Vixen and we can try to do more research later but for now we have bigger prerogatives." He said gesturing toward a door on the other side of the room. "Wait, you said my parents 'knew too much' what did you mean, what did they know?" "Well, they were part of this organization and they did some extremely deep research and learned of the other agencies intentions. They tried to inform us but the message never got here. The lines were tapped and they caught it traced it to the sender and deleted it." "So far you've told me everything but the rival's company name… why?" "Well to be honest, we don't really know that they have one. It's more of a type of cult." "Well what is this 'cult' trying to achieve?" "The apocalypse. They believe that if they create the zombies then they can control them and have their own sort of undead army. They have the science correct but they're missing something. We're not sure what It is but what know where it's located and how to find it."
"Okay… I guess I know enough for now. So we can continue to learn my abilities." I say as we enter the room and he turns the light on. "Wow." Is all I can say as I take in everything I see. I feel a sharp pinch in my neck and all the sudden everything is black.
Zander
Azaria was explaining to me that I was supposed to call the Vixen girl by her name fragment or 'nickname' instead of her full first name seeing as she hated it and hearing it pissed her off. Nyx had been asleep for about four hours when I heard the bed rustling. The springs creaked and footsteps padded towards the living are where Azaria and I were talking. "What the hell was that for!?" Nyx screamed at Azaria and me.
"It was test." "What kind of test involves you stabbing me with a fucking needle? Because last time I checked that kind of 'test' does NOT exist." She said this so calm it was actually quite frightening. "Well it was to make sure you were immune to the more common poisons in the 'spy' business. The answer is yes in case you were curious." I said with a smile.
"How much do you remember from yesterday?" Azaria asked seriously concerned. "I am MORE than positive I remember everything. And what do you mean poisons? You mean if I wasn't immune it would have killed me poisons or short term memory loss poisons?" "Well….a little of both honestly." She began gritting her teeth as she sat down to face Azaria and I. "So, what the next 'test'?" she asked. If looks could kill I believe I would be dead twelve times and counting. "We will either test your memory or your driving skills. What do you prefer?" "Why not both at the same time?" she suggests. "What exactly do you mean" "I sit in the back seat you take an elaborate rout to who knows where turn around and come back then I'll repeat it and we can kill two birds with one stone." "Good point. Azaria go get the GPS and figure something out. "
"Nyx, come with me and can see how good you are with fighting. After the driving and memory we can do disappearance and I think that will be the basics and we can live without the rest." "So what was that room you put me out in?" she asks curiously. "It was the 'lab'. We use that room for hacking, tracking, and whenever were testing we can monitor brainwaves with some of the equipment. Most of the brain wave stuff is various lie detectors. It's really quite boring." "Okay…so where are we going now?" "The equipment room and then the gym or training room. Whatever you want to call it." "Cool. So when do we get to research my parents and do cool spy stuff?" "We do 'cool spy stuff' when were finished making sure you're finished with the necessary training. And we can research you parents whenever we have spare time." "Alright then. Let us proceed to the junk room!" "Equipment room." "Patata, patada". She says as we reach the door.
NYX
"Holy…" I muster as we enter the equipment room. Every wall is lined with swords, daggers, throwing stars, armor, gear, maces, hammers, guns, silencers, electronics, and various types of mace and mustard gas. On the floor are shelves. Some are full of books on poisons to how to you a sword for dummies. In clear medical looking drawers are syringes and vials of foreign liquids that I couldn't pronounce. "So what era are you from exactly? Because some of the things on these walls are not from this one." I say jokingly. "Well the way things are going right now you never know when your gonna need a mace to bash a zombies head in"
"I suppose your right. So what exactly are we here to get? Because the only actual weapon ive used is a bow staff, nun chucks, and a skinning knife." He gave a short yet genuine laugh. "Well were here to get gear but I think I'd enjoy watching you with a set of nun chucks so I believe ill dig some of those up too."
"HA-HA. Very funny." I say sarcastically "Okay first of all we have to size you. I can give you some random sizes for now and let you choose the best fitting one. But if you become part of the agency permanently Azaria will take some measurements and have some custom gear made for you." "Okay then. If your just spies then why do you need gear?" "You like an extra small or small? And because, we do more than 'spy' when people screw up bad enough were the people that make them…'disappear'." "Disappear? As in kill them?" "We prefer…Assassinate but that works."
I felt my jaw drop when he said assassinate.