Before The Beginning

Chapter 39: Not According to Plan

Begin!

~Karen's POV

"Did we lose them?"

"I think so, we're lucky we live in Finite Forest," Quinten replied, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I just want to get out of this dress..."

Quinten gave me a look so I quickly added, "You know what I meant."

He chuckled as we pulled up into our driveway. Our mansion didn't have the view the Baudelaire one did, but it was spacious, comfortable, and well-hidden. It was perfect for our family. Though the rest of my family lives on the other side of the city so they're pretty far. Once we got inside the two of us went upstairs to our master bedroom to change. We had been followed for hours by a strange car and as a result villains were likely to follow us on our honeymoon plans too. How inconsiderate; we had a plan damn it! And they were throwing a wrench into the works! (An expression that means "fucking it up.")

We had the wedding on June 30th meaning Quinten and I were supposed to have a nice two week honeymoon to ourselves. But with our enemies about, that now meant we had to spend our special time "working" instead. Just perfect, huh?

"Where are we headed," I asked.

"Anywhere that's not here. I asked an acquaintance to watch the house while we're gone. But our enemies are unlikely to find it out here in the middle of nowhere."

"Not unless somebody tips them off," I added.

Once we were more comfortably dressed, we grabbed our bags for the trip, and left the house once again.

~...

Quinten and I happened to have set up a plane already for this trip that was just for us, and thankfully I was knowledgeable of how to fly; so we didn't have to risk hiring a pilot. If we were being tracked, we had to separate ourselves from our allies for their safety. We were capable of handling anything they threw at us: but I'll be damned if I let them get anywhere near our friends or their daughter.

We flew for hours across the sky, just trying to get as far from our home as possible. Within the first hour I had noticed we were being followed again. There was a plane some feet below and behind us. Whoever this was they were damn persistent. Quinten suggested that we try to shake them off somehow.

And that's when I heard a bullet hit one of our wings. Followed closely by a string of several others.

"Fuck! We need to land now, if they're shooting then they might hit harder the next time!"

Quinten looked down with his spyglass, "Take us down there on that clearing, we should have enough room to land and run for it before they get to us."

I brought us down lower and swiftly landed without crashing, kicking up a bit of dirt in the process. As we were climbing out I noticed the wings were covered in bullet holes. I'll have a hell of a story to tell Bea when we get home. Quinten grabbed my arm and I followed along with him as we ran into a nearby, dense, cluster of trees. I could hear the enemy plane approaching fast; we had to keep running.

So this is how we were supposed to spend our honeymoon, on the run from an enemy we didn't even know.

~...

After about 2 hours of running through the woods we finally reached a road. By this point it was in the middle of the afternoon. Using our spy-glasses we could see that there was a small town to the west so that's where we went. Upon reaching it, we found a place to rent for a while, no questions asked why we were covered in dirt from our plane landing, and so we had to lie low for now. We had a rule about this sort of thing so we used false names on our sign in to cover our tracks. (A good tactic for volunteers being chased.)

"How long do you think we'll need to stay," I asked.

"We'll see," Quinten replied peeking out the window to see if there were any unsavory persons outside. "Might as well stay an extra week if we must."

I joined him at the window, and put my hand on his shoulder. "See anything out there?"

"No, but I'll keep look-out. You can go take a shower if you want to get cleaned up."

I nodded and grabbed my bag to go do exactly that. For the next couple hours we switched back and forth between us on watch duty for whoever was after us. Once nightfall hit, we had to take a chance to get some sleep. We'd been driving all night to get home from the wedding before running off again, our fault for living far away from town I guess; and it was exhausting having to run so long earlier today. So we went to bed for the night.

I was always a rather light sleeper so a few hours into our slumber I was woken by the sound of our window sliding open. Quinten didn't shift beside me so I wasn't sure if he heard it too. So while in the dark I quietly grabbed my spyglass off the bedside table I'd left it on and very slowly crawled out of bed and crouched low so I couldn't be seen. In the dark, I noticed a figure in a trench coat climbing through the window, the only light was coming from a streetlamp outside so I could barely see. But he was definitely armed, I saw a glint of silver in his hand. Apparently, someone had been sent to assassinate us.

I saw him take a look around the room before he started towards the bed. As he did I jumped him and swiftly disarmed the bastard by knocking his knife out of his hand. Within that instant, Quinten had gotten up and turned on the lights so we could see. The bastard put up a tough fight to get me off of him. We even ended up knocking a table over and breaking a lamp in the process. Soon enough I had managed to knock him unconscious with my superior fighting skill.

I stood up and felt a little sore from that endeavor. "Son of a bitch was gonna kill us in our sleep..."

Quinten had found the knife on the floor and was examining it. "I can see that... Good thing you had the situation under control."

"Yeah," I replied breathing heavily. "Recognize him at all?"

Quinten looked the guy over carefully. "Not a clue. Must be a hired goon, most of them are. I'll call in a car to take him away so keep an eye on him."

I nodded and sat down on the bed. I watched silently as he made the call. Had it been a moment sooner, I'd have lost my husband already after only being married for 24 hours. I couldn't ignore the anxiety in my chest knowing that horrible feeling. Quinten saved my life back in Paltryville, and I had returned the favor here tonight. It made me feel closer to him than before. We had survived so much together...

A V.F.D. taxi driver who operated in this area picked up our assassin and took the knife with him for evidence. Once we were alone again, Quinten sat down beside me on the bed and put his hand around my waist.

"Are you alright?"

I gave him a weak smile. "A little sore, but I'll heal. I've been through worse."

He returned my smile. "I'm lucky to have you as my partner."

"We're married now darling, we're always gonna be partners... But I was scared of losing you..."

"You didn't, so don't worry about it, Kare-bear." Quinten leaned over and kissed me gently.

I kissed him back harder since we were both more awake now. To which he wasn't bothered by since, he gripped me closer to him in response. Once our kisses grew more intimate I knew he had the same thought in his mind as well.

"Sleep can wait."

~End of Chapter!

What? They are on their honeymoon; what were you expecting otherwise? :)