MEDICINE | alex rider

twenty one

Alex Rider froze, not daring to move, his heart was beating erratically in his chest. He wasn't sure if he had heard her right, but the gun pressed against his head was confirmation he did.

"Give me your phone Alex." She spoke again, this time her voice was hard.

He didn't know what to say, he didn't have anything to say. It all made sense, everything made sense. The assassin at the party, the reason she hadn't been to the park, why her parents never seemed to be around, why she didn't look like the kid in the picture. It was fake. None of it was real.

Finally, he gained the nerve to speak "Zarah, wait. We can talk about this."

"There's nothing to talk about." She spoke quickly. This wasn't Zarah. It couldn't be. Not his Zarah.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and looked down to her dress, with the slit of her dress pushed to the side, he saw an empty thigh holster which caused him to clench his jaw.

He didn't understand, why did she go to his school? Or how was she even an assassin? She couldn't be much older than him if she even was at all.

Looking at her face it was void of emotion, if he didn't know any better, he would say that she didn't care. But he did know better, she had to have cared. It couldn't have all been in his head. Right?

"Please." He begged, but he didn't know what he was begging for. Maybe for her to put down the gun. Or perhaps it was for her to laugh and tell him it was all a joke. Because if it was a joke, a very cruel one at that, he would forgive her. He would be mad but he would forgive her.

"Give me your phone." She pushed the gun harder into his head "Or I'll make you."

"Please." He said again, squeezing his eyes shut "Just put the gun down, I don't want to have to do this."

Without leaving him any other choice, he quickly grabbed her wrist and snatched the gun out of her hand, throwing it across the playground. When he was done, she pushed him away and they stood a couple of meters away from one another.

"I don't want to have to hurt you," Alex told her but kept his guard up in case she decided to lunge at him.

She scoffed and false amusement lit up her eyes "If you don't give me your phone, I'm going to do a lot more than hurt you."

Zarah took a step toward him and he took one back, sure he was prepared to fight this time, he had trained harder since that night in February. But he didn't want to fight. Not her.

"I'm not giving you this phone." He spoke, his voice slightly shaking "So if you want it, your going to have to come and get it."

She rolled her neck around and balled her hands into fists "Well, if you insist."

She lunged at him, throwing a series of punches, he blocked them all and pushed her a few feet away. She was in a dress, so she was at a disadvantage, though it wasn't tight so it only put her at a small one.

They circled around one another for another few seconds before she came at him again, this time her punches were erratic, there wasn't any sequence to them, and a few landed on his stomach and one on his jaw.

He knew he should have been fighting back instead of just blocking, but every time he even thought of fighting back, his stomach twisted into knots. She kicked him, which sent him stumbling back a few feet.

"Not fighting back Alex? You must really want me to get that phone." She taunted but he didn't take the bait. Instead, he dodged one of her kicks, rolling out of the way.