The Awkward and Terrifying Explosive Adventures of the Recreaze-Vallia Family

Chapter Six

Myra

The room was cold, the walls bare save for a pitiful figure shackled to the wall. I looked at her. So this was Ariah Rainen, the thief. One of our double agents had identified her, but it was too late to stop her before she got away with the Aesir.

She stared at me, fear in her eyes, as if she couldn't quite believe what was happening. I barely resisted the urge to grin. She was going to die, and that was it.

Or maybe it wasn't. But my task was to kill her, no questions asked. Unless some miracle swooped in to save her, that would be the end of her not-so-illustrious career.

I pointed the gun at Ariah, smirking. "Goodbye, milady," I said mockingly. An agent like her, an agent who was caught, did not deserve to live. She was the only thing between me and success.

Her eyes widened. My finger pulled the trigger.

The gun was empty.

I stared at the woman disbelievingly, the gun lowered. "Where are the bullets?" I asked.

Her laughter rebounded on the walls. She laughed so hard that she had to grip the table for support. "You have failed the test, sweetie. It's such a pity that such a promising agent forgot to check the chamber. In a mission, you would be dead. But seeing your poor, innocent face, you are given one more chance. You will make no more mistakes."

There were no bullets anywhere in the cave that I could see. What was I supposed to do, ask the woman for bullets? I turned to Ariah. She seemed to have calmed down a little. I couldn't give her any time to recover. So I had to do this the hard way.

I lifted the gun again. Ariah frowned, but I lunged forward and brought the gun down on her head as hard as I could. She shrieked, still conscious. But that hit was supposed to have knocked her unconscious! I had trained that move many times.

I knocked her again and again with the gun, but she remained conscious. She moaned as the gun struck her again and again. Why wasn't she unconscious? Something had to be wrong.

I gritted my teeth and concentrated all my force on crushing her skull. She had to be dead. No, she wasn't. She moaned.

"Why aren't you dead!" I growled.

Then I switched targets. The end justified the means. She would still die in the end, so the pain wouldn't matter.

I drove the muzzle of the gun into her stomach once, twice, thrice. She choked out blood. A smile splayed across my lips. More blood spewed out from her mouth. Blood littered the ground like some gruesome art. Yet she was still alive.

Finally, the sounds stopped. But I couldn't. I couldn't stop myself from hitting her frail body. Blood trailed down her chin, and I wanted to pull away, to savour this beautiful moment, but I couldn't.

Fingers closed around my throat and all that I heard was the sound of the gun clattering to the ground.

~~~

A bright light strobed above me. My back was pressed against something cold. I shut my eyes as the light flicked on and off and took in a deep breath. I opened them again. Where was I?

I tried to move, but cuffs at my wrists and ankles immobilised me. I was seated in a metal chair in a blindingly white room, with a flickering light above me. This was reminiscent of my field agent test, where I had been cuffed to a table and interrogated.

The door slid open and I bit back a laugh. Was my test playing out in real life? What were they going to do, anyway? Interrogate me?

A man in a white coat strode in. "I see you're awake, dear. Do you want to have a drink?"

"What am I here for?" I demanded.

The man chuckled. "You failed the previous test, remember? So this is your second test."

My heart rate sped up as images of blood splattered on the ground filled my mind. So much blood...

"What am I supposed to do?" I asked.

"You will know soon, dear. Just be patient." He went out of my peripheral vision. I twisted my neck around, but I still couldn't see him. I closed my eyes hard for a few seconds and opened them again. My heart rate slowed.

He returned, holding something metal in his hand. What it was, I couldn't tell. "You will face your second test soon. Just sit still." He went directly behind me, and his breath whispered near my ear. Something cold touched my forehead and I jerked instinctively, but his hand was there and he stopped my head from moving. Two more cold things went onto my forehead. I gritted my teeth. What was happening??

A switch was flicked, the sound echoing in the room. My vision twisted, then abruptly righted itself. The light strobed faster and faster, and the world seemed to spin around and finally swallowed me into its unfathomable depths.

Everything was white. Thick, black lines stretched in front of me like someone was drawing with a pencil. A street materialised, and buildings popped to life. A street lamp flickered on and off above me. But the streets were empty and the windows dark. Where was everyone?

My legs moved against my will. I tried to control them, but control slipped away like in a dream. I moved forward, my legs jerking robotically. I turned to the left and entered a building. A lift stood open, which I entered. The lift doors closed, along with all my hope of freedom.

The lift rose and rose until the doors opened and I walked out. I was in a conference room of some sort, with floor-to-ceiling windows showing the pale world outside. Swivel chairs were placed around the long table. A man stood facing away from me, his hands behind his back. I jerked towards him, swiping a gun from the table and shot him. He collapsed.

Okay...

I continued my awkward march towards him. I lowered myself beside him and pressed my palm to his forehead. My fingers sank into his flesh like water. I tried to pull them out, but my body wasn't mine. Then my limbs started dancing erratically and suddenly I was inside the man's body. The man stood up, taking my limp body in his arms. He opened the window hatch and threw my body out. He dived after it and I sailed through the air until we landed on the ground with a thump. Was it me, or him? Or us both?

He carried my body in his arms and suddenly the street turned into stairs. He descended. In front of me was nothing but white. And he descended some more. He swerved to the right and marched on. A room materialised and he set me down on the floor. A surgical knife materialised in his/my hand and he cut open my sternum and removed my heart. My heart was still beating, feebly giving life to the dead. He stood, carrying my bloodless heart in his hands and continued on. He walked through the doorway into a corridor.

What was I supposed to do?

Suddenly, my heart leapt out of his hands and my vision flew into the heart. I bounced along in the heart, back into the room and tried to fit myself back into where it belonged. But the body never revived, so I jumped out and bounced back the way I came. Bits and pieces of flesh fell off as I made my journey through whiteness. I came back to the street and the window where the man had dived out of. I turned around. The man was chasing me.

I concentrated with all my might on up. The man was coming closer, his blank eyes burning holes in me. I imagined rising as forcefully as I could, and I was soaring through the air, freedom so close -

My body appeared above me and crushed me. I fell into the waiting hands of the man. He squeezed around me, my poor body, until I was no more.

~Jeopardy