Assassin Thirty Two

Thirteen: Numbness

The punching bag swung back and forth on the chain, Ivy throwing punch after punch to it. The more punches she threw, the angrier she got, just envisioning Valentino's mischievous smirk as her fist collided with the bag. He didn't tell her how long his trip was going to be but it had already been three days. She had training yesterday and the day before but none today and to cure her boredom, she would spend an hour or two in the gym everyday. The book she "stole" from Valentino's personal library was almost finished, with a couple of chapters remaining and that itself showed just how bored Ivy was, considering she wasn't much of a reader.

"Argh!" Ivy yelled, uppercutting the bag as her chest heaved up and down, her breathing ragged as sweat coated her forehead. Wiping it away, she headed towards her towel and drink bottle, picking them up before leaving the room. As she walked towards her bedroom, the aroma of dinner being cooked floated through the air and her stomach growled just at the thought of the food. Deciding against eating food in her sweaty workout clothing, Ivy headed for a shower. The steam from the hot water rose up to the ceiling and Ivy greeted the touch of water droplets on her bare back with an exhausted sigh of relief. Her muscles relaxed and she tilted her head back, exposing her hair to the water. Squeezing some shampoo onto her hand, she massaged the bubbles through her strands of brown hair and then rinsed, adding conditioner and scrubbing her face.

When she left the bathroom, her eyes glanced at the tall man at her door, staring at her with a cold look. "Dinner's being served." He stated, turning on his feet and exiting the room, the sound of the door slamming flooding the room. Quickly hurrying into some clothes, Ivy made her way downstairs and towards the dining room where the table was moderately empty. There were eleven seats empty with only eight men remaining around the table. Ivy sat down in her chair, feeling several pairs of eyes on her as she picked at the food in front of her. Considering there were a lot less dangerous men sitting with her, she somehow felt more exposed; more concerned for her safety. While she quietly ate her food, minding her own business, two men from the other end began to chuckle to themselves and Ivy snapped her head up, glancing down their way.

"You got a problem bitch?" One of them snapped and Ivy bit her tongue, growing irritated by them every second.

"Nope, not at all."

"Then mind you're own fucking business aye?" The other man growled, and Ivy sarcastically smiled at him, gripping tightly on the table's edge so she wouldn't lose her shit and lash out at every person surrounding her. Picking up her dinner plate, Ivy headed towards the kitchen but as she walked past, she made sure she pulled the finger at the two arrogant men who watched her with a scowl on their face.

A maid greeted her in the kitchen, thanking her and grabbed the plate while Ivy stormed off, heading back up to her bedroom, locking herself away from everyone for the night. Snatching the book from the night stand, Ivy flopped onto the bed and groaned. As she opened the book, she leaned over and flickered the lamp on as she began to read. Page after page, she read through the book, absorbing the words and drawing the fictional situations inside her head. Soon she felt her eyes become heavy and glanced at the clock, the time reading into the early hour of the morning. Yawning, she closed the book and decided to resume back to it tomorrow.

Making herself comfortable, she quickly fell asleep, hoping that tomorrow she'll find something to cure her boredom.

------------

Ivy stirred in her sleep, hushed voices lingering around the room and she furrowed her eyebrows, confused if the voices were from her dream or in real life. Just as she went to roll over to the other side of the bed, something was thrown over her head and she woke up startled. She tried to look around but saw nothing. Pitch black. Something tightened around her neck, her hands flying up as she fought back. "Leave me alone!"