Somewhere in the dark of the early morning, Denis snored. By that time, the dark bruise encompassing his eye had started to fade to a sickly yellow, and most of his cuts had scabbed over.
How could he sleep, the girl thought. How could he be so calm with what he had done?
She was perched on top of the kitchen island, watching him. Not long after the day had drawn to a close, a group of recovery agents found Bryce's body. He had been stabbed in the neck and left to plummet off a five story building. With no sign of their target, it was clear that Charlotte had intercepted him before he could carry out the job.
Three guards were posted in various places around Denis's small studio apartment. They were all there, begrudgingly, for his protection. Shawna was the youngest of the group, fresh out of training, morals still intact. She couldn't fathom how a man could betray someone close to him like that and sleep like a baby that same night.
The guard posted at the door had fallen asleep at some point, but she couldn't blame him. Shawna would've dozed off too if she hadn't been so hyped up for her first mission. For her first time out in the field, it sure was boring.
The bathroom door opened after the sound of the toilet flushing. Her other co-worker walked out, yawning.
"You know," the man said as he sat himself down on the windowsill. "I don't understand why the Handler was so adamant about us protecting this guy. Who would take the time out of their day to assassinate this idiot?"
Shawna shrugged. "Whoever this Charlotte person is, she is probably really mad at him."
He let out a bark of laughter that surprisingly didn't wake up Denis or the other guard. "Didn't you read her file? They make her out to be some James Bond type, but she's like- a teenager. Even you could take her."
The girl wasn't so sure. On the bed, Denis rolled over to the edge, effectively wrapping his legs up in the blankets. They glanced at him.
Behind the cocky guard, a singular window let in barely any light to see by, and the yellowed newspaper pasted to the glass only made it dimmer. The window squeaked, like someone was opening it. He jumped up and spun around to the glass, a gun drawn.
"What the hell was that?"
Hopping off of the counter, Shawna looked over his shoulder. The window was still. The glass may have been blocked, but no one was behind it; they would have seen a shadow. "It's probably just the building settling. This place is old."
He didn't look so sure. "It opened." He pointed with his gun. It was open at the bottom, just enough to let in a tiny stream of light.
"It was like that before."
The window squealed as it was pushed up all the way, seemingly by nothing. Shawna shouted and drew her own gun.
They stood, waiting for something else to move. Denis stirred.
"Do you think-"
A knife slashed through the air and stuck itself into the guard's chest. He backed up in shock, tripped over his own heels, and tumbled to the ground. Shawna panicked and shot her gun without a target. There was no one there. There was no one near the window, but there was a shuffling noise.
Shawna kept her gun trailed at the open window, but backed up considerably. Michael, the guard who had fallen asleep next to the door, was awake now. He came up beside her, his own weapon poised.
"Where...?"
In a split second, far too fast for her to react, Shawna's gun was knocked out of her hand. An arm wrapped around her neck, spinning her so that her back pressed against someone's chest. She yelped when the cool blade of a knife pressed against her lips.
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Raincoats | The Umbrella Academy
फैनफिक्शनCharlotte Cafferty, finally done with a decades long hiatus, has accidentally settled in the very middle of a crisis. Though she's not exactly a stranger to time travel, the apocalypse? That's a whole different story. Throw in an infuriating man-chi...
