I looked over into Quinn’s blue eyes. They danced in the evening light that seeped in from the single window in this room. We were sitting on a single bed, shoulder to shoulder. Quinn was skillfully unraveling the bandage that encased my head. It had been wrapped up for about a week now, since I hit my head on the table when I blacked out in Quinn’s doorway.
I had spent plenty days with Quinn now. I would like to leave but I didn’t have anywhere to go. I would probably just end up in a creek somewhere shivering from frostbitten air. Besides, no one had come by Quinn’s house. I felt relatively safe here, for the mean time. I was supplied with food and shelter, why wouldn’t I spend time here? Because I didn’t trust Quinn? I wasn’t sure about him yet, he seemed too nice and welcoming. Even after I told him right up front that I was an assassin.
In fact when I did tell him all he did was raise his eyebrows and nod slowly. I was expecting something much more sudden and panicking. He doesn’t even know what I’ve done, but yet he treats me like an old friend. I haven’t exactly been nice to him either. Well, I’m not nice to anyone really. The situations and scenes that I’ve been though and seen have toughened me up; I don’t take crap from anyone. If you saw what I’ve seen you wouldn’t be the same either. But that’s why I love this job.
There was one last layer of bandage before I would have this thing off me for good. Quinn’s face was focused and intent. His jaw was set and forehead creases. Only his eyes showed expression, but they usually did. Gently he pinched the end of the cloth and pulled it off my skin. I felt a slight tug but I was expecting it, it didn’t bother me.
“Well, that’s that,” Quinn rested the used bandage in his lap. He smiled at me confidently, “Looks good, but you’ll have a nasty scar.” I stood up and walked over to the only mirror in the room. I examined the light pink scratch that traveled from my temple to me chin. My hair could easily cover it but it made me look tough. I liked it.
“Looks almost brand new, it was wide open when I first dealt with it. Healed nicely,” Quinn continued. He did talk a lot. I wasn’t much of a talker, you know what they say. Actions speak louder than words.
“But you still gotta be careful with it, It could split open anytime,” Quinn warned me. He opened his mouth so say something but he was interrupted by a sound that made me jump. My head darted towards him when I heard it, the echoing sound of someone knocking on the door. Quinn’s mouth shut and he stood quickly and ran out of the room. He pointed to the closet on the way out. Anger boiled inside me. The closet?! That would be the first place they search!
But, I did as I was told. When I opened the closet I was even more disgusted to find that it was almost completely empty. I dove inside and closed the doors as quietly as I could. I got on my hands and knees and started to crawl to the left to see how far the closet went. To my surprise it was a while until I hit a wall. There I waited with my arms wrapped around my legs protectively. I’m not much of an assassin hiding here but there was no way I could go up against them by myself. Not only would I harm myself but Quinn as well. If he was caught hiding me then he would be in deep trouble.
I could hear the faint sound of mumbling voices through the wall. My curiosity begged me to find out who was there and what they were talking about. I pressed my ear tightly up against the wall so I could hear more but it was of little use. The walls were so thick in this house that you wouldn’t be able to hear a bomb exploding at night.
But I did hear the slamming of a door after about five minutes of mumbling. I sat up in anticipation. I heard the creaking of the closet doors opening. It could be anyone, Quinn or them. My hand was shoved in my pocket and on my knife in case.
“Caprice, its Quinn,” I heard the familiar voice. It was monotone, but I didn’t notice. I relaxed and started to crawl out of my hiding place. I expected to see Quinn greeting me with a wide smile and happy eyes but instead I saw something I didn’t expect. There stood a man in a black suit and dark sunglasses. He had a small mustache and a very square jaw, a typical agent. He had Quinn by his hands, his face was worried and pale.
“Caprice, you are under arrest,” The man said. His voice was simple, but terrifying. I nodded and stood up with my hands up. My knife was wedged deep in my pocket, I couldn’t reach it. The agent nodded at me and another agent dressed the exact same way took my hands and tied them behind my back. I could feel my eyes begin to grow stone cold, my teeth clenched together and my lips pursed. This always happened when I was in this situation.
The two led us to a wall in the far corner and sat us up against it. Quinn’s shoulder was wedged up against mine as we sat side by side. I looked over at him, he seemed scared to death. His face was completely pale and his mouth hung open a tiny bit. Even his eyes were teary and widened. Has he never been in a situation like this?
“Bruce, guard them while I get our recruits from the forest,” The agent with the mustache commanded the man that tied my hands up. He simply nodded his head and stared down at us. I returned his cold stare until he turned away. The man with the mustache had left and Bruce sat on the edge of the bed. I looked over him a couple times.
For some reason he was weaponless, I suspected that he was a hand to hand combat man. There wasn’t much in the room for me to work with either. Nothing was close enough to me. My knife was the only handy thing I could use and that was out of my reach. I shifted my hands in the rope they tied us in. My eyes wandered to my pocket where I could see the bump of the knife. Suddenly I realized that Quinn’s elbow was almost on top of my hip.
I looked up at Quinn to see him focused on the guard. I tried to get his attention subtly but it was no use. I took a quick glance at the guard and then shoved Quinn’s shoulder hard with mine. His head swung over to me but so did the guards. I made a quick cover up and made it look like I had coughed and accidentally bumped Quinn. The guard shook his head and returned to what he was previously doing.
I looked over at Quinn again and this time he looked back. I darted my eyes from his, to my pocket, to his elbow. It took him a second to figure out what I was trying to say but he winked when he finally did. He began to brush his elbow hardly across my pocket to get the knife to poke out. I watched him intently; he was working so hard that his tongue stuck out. With every move I could feel the knife shifting around. After six pushed I could see the tip of the handle stick out of the top of my pocket.
Quinn pushed two more times very hard into my leg, but the knife came toppling out and onto the floor. The guard twisted his head towards us when he heard the clank of the knife hitting the ground. I tried to cover up by coughing and in the meantime I fell over towards Quinn and snatched the knife up. The guard didn’t seem to let us go this time. But we were saved from investigation when we heard the front door open.
The sound of boots echoed though the house as they made their way to the bedroom. When the bedroom door opened I saw the mustached agent and five other agents behind him. They were all wearing the identical suits and sunglasses. In all the noise I managed to flick open the knife and begin sawing on the rope. I ceased now because it was so silent.
After a few silent seconds the agents entered the room. They all stood in front of us with guns in their hands. I raised an eyebrow at them in welcome. The man with the mustache spoke first.
“There she is, agents,” He spoke, “Pure murder, pure homicide, pure assassin.”
“The girl?” One of the agents asked.
“Yep that one,” He replied.
“Seriously her?” He asked again, “I thought for sure you were talking about him,” He pointed at Quinn. I could feel him tense up beside me.
“Nope, he’s just a civilian,” The mustached man continued.
“She can’t be more than like 14!” The agent argued.
“I’m 16,” I said.
“Whatever! She doesn’t seem like a threat. I mean look at her, she couldn’t hurt a fly!” He was really getting on my nerves now. I held my tongue but there were some pretty nasty things going through my head just then.
“Don’t be fooled, agent. She is on the FBI most wanted list,” Mustache said. He began to look around like he had lost something. I knew that whatever he was looking for couldn’t be good. I needed a distraction so I could get free. I was trying to think of something when I felt Quinn shift beside me. I looked over at him to see his mouth wide open. Although his face spelled out shock, I could tell from his eyes that he was going to get me a distraction. The men seemed to notice as well so I let him continue on.
“You’re on the FBI most wanted list?!” His voice rose. I began to slice the rope faster.
“Yea, I thought you knew that,” I played along. He was obviously going for the loud and angry distraction.
“I never knew that!” He yelled.
“I’ve known you for years! How could you not know?” I said.
“I can’t know if you don’t tell!”
“You should’ve known!”
“How, Caprice? How could I’ve known?” He demanded.
“Put the pieces of the puzzle together!” I spat.
“I was missing a piece!” I was cutting really hard now.
“You’d think you’d know that by now! Right fellas?” I looked over at the men. Most of them nodded like they were hypnotized in our argument. But of course, they didn’t see this every day.
“And to think I was going to ask you to marry me!” Ok, Quinn was taking this somewhere. He was really getting the agent’s attention now. I blushed. I wasn’t sure if it was deliberate but it seemed to add to the affect.
“Marry you?” I screamed, “My father would skin you alive if he heard you now!”
“Not if you got to me first,” Quinn rolled his eyes. I heard a chuckle from the audience.
“I’m serious, Quinn!”
“Who cares about your father? We could’ve had a life together!”
“Not if he found out,” I reminded him.
“It doesn’t matter now though, I couldn’t marry a criminal,” Quinn looked away from me in disgust. I felt the rope suddenly fall to the ground. I smiled when Quinn looked back at me. I heard some of the men whispering to one another. We were losing them. I needed a big distraction, desperately.
I’m not sure what got into me, too much desperation perhaps. But before I knew it I was leaning over and… yes, kissing Quinn. It was the only thing that would keep the attention of the agents. Quinn played along nicely, struggling with his hands in the binds like he wanted to hold me. I closed my eyes and acted as if I was enjoying it, although I would rather be kicking some agent butts. It lasted for about 30 seconds and afterwards I leaned my head against his and looked romantically into his eyes. It was disgusting.
After that life scaring event I switched to assassin mode. While I was kissing Quinn I flipped the knife around in my hand. Once I was sure the agents were deceived, I pulled away from Quinn and flicked the knife right into Bruce’s chest. He staggered back and began to fall backwards. He landed on the ground just in front of the mustache man. Before he had time to even lift his head to look at me I was on my feet hurdling towards him.
I dropped kicked his straight in the nose and watched him tumble to the ground. He sat down clutching his face in pain. He was too busy to catch me but his helpers helped him out. In seconds I was attacked by the armed men. I reached over and pulled the knife from Bruce’s heart and stuck it deep into another man’s thigh. He doubled over and his gun dropped onto the ground. I reached out for it to only get my hand pinned down by another agent.
I looked up to see him smiling evilly down at me. I heard a gun c*** behind me and I bent my head backwards to see another man with a pistol aimed right at my head. Thinking quick, I kicked up my legs and sent one of my feet into the gun man’s crotch. He let out a shrill cry and his gun hit the ground. I was pretty sure it fired when it hit the ground but I didn’t hear the shot, I only recalled the ringing my ears.
My legs were propelled over my body and smack dab into the other guy’s head. His grip released and I finished my move when my feet hit the ground and I swung my upper body around and upwards. I learned most of my moves from the academy, a story for another day. The man I just kicked was stumbling about with his hands wrapped over his head. I punched him hard in the back and sent him tumbling forwards.
I scanned my surroundings to see another agent in the doorway with a gun pointed at me. Before he could pull the trigger I was on the floor, sliding towards him. I heard the bullet hit the floor beside my foot. As I slid under and between his legs I grabbed his ankles and pulled him down. I stood swiftly and turned around. To my horror I saw one last man standing in front of Quinn. His back was to me but I could tell he had a gun aimed at Quinn.
I kicked up a gun that rested near my foot and caught it in my hand. I cocked the hammer back and pointed right between the man’s shoulder blades. I began to squeeze the trigger when we turned around. But, to my dismay, instead of the bang I was hoping for, I only heard a click. The click of an unloaded gun.
I shook the gun and heard the man chuckle. He looked at me with a wide grin spread across his face. He was facing me but the gun was still aimed at Quinn. Quinn looked at me terrifyingly.
“Now I get to kill your boyfriend right in front of you. Then I’ll get to kill you while you-“ He never finished his statement because he fell to the floor. His gun clattered on the ground beside the one I just chucked at his head. I stood there, breathing hard, my arm and hand still in the position they were in when I let go of the gun. Moans and grunts filled the musty air.
“A little help here,” Quinn finally said.
“Yea, hand tight,” I said then walked over to the man who I stabbed in the leg. He was out cold now but sweat still dripped from his calm face. I easily pulled the knife from his thigh, but blood began to spurt out of the gash. I nodded then used the bed quilts nearby to clean off the bloody blade. Quinn watched me intently the entire time.
Once the knife was clean I strode back to Quinn and bent down to cut his hands free.
“You really are an assassin,” He sighed.
“I told you that,” I said.
“Yea I know, but it just didn’t seem true the way you said it. It was kinda upfront and matter of fact,” Quinn explained.
“Glad you believe me now,” I said normally. When I cut him free I squatted down in front of him and watched him rub his wrists. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the bloody mess before him.
My eyes suddenly wandered to his lips. The lips I had kissed. Disgusting, I said in my thoughts but in my mind I had a different idea. It kinda liked it. It wanted more, but I didn’t. I shook my head to push back the feeling a stood up.
“We’d better leave before more show up,” I said. Quinn simply nodded. I guess this was one moment in his life when he was speechless. I grinned and found a gun on the floor. I used it to smash the only window in the room. Quinn was standing now, and stared awkwardly at me. I rolled my eyes and stopped to explain.
“We have to go out the back way and you don’t have a back door,” I said then tossed the gun at him. He caught it swiftly and walked towards me. I looked at his squarely and said something that I really truly meant.
“I’m glad you’re coming with me.”