CHAPTER 7: Assassin

Togon was dreaming a happy dream about birds and squirrels when he was roughly jolted out from his dream. Someone was shaking his shoulder. Togon covered his eyes with his arm, groaning. It must be one of the palace maids, waking him up for breakfast.

"Go away, I still want to sleep some more," he murmured and flipped around on his bed. He made a mental note to punish the palace maid for entering his room without his permission when he woke up.

Suddenly, he flinched when a loud voice shouted in his ear, almost stopping his heart.

"Wake up!" It yelled urgently.

"What!" Togon exclaimed furiously, sitting up. He couldn't take it anymore. If this wasn't an emergency, he would make sure to teach the palace maid a lesson she would never forget.

His eyes landed on a girl, with straight black hair and dark eyes. And she was carrying a huge black bundle on her back. She certainly did not belong in the palace. Taking in her bloodstained clothes, Togon realized with horror that this might be an assassin trying to kill him.

Pointing at her, he gasped in shock and tried to call for help. However, his voice came out in a squeak and he only managed a soft, "Ass-ass-ass..."

The girl said something like "Are you cursing at me?" and bore a hole in him with her stare.

"Ass-assassin!" Togon finally managed to squeak, shuffling backwards to the other end of his bed to put as much distance between himself and the assassin as possible.

"Huh? No, no, no. Don't misunderstand. I just want to ask you where this place is. I'm not trying to kill you. I know I must look very scary covered in blood, but I really didn't kill anyone, it's my own blood, I swear." the assassin explained herself rapidly.

Togon eyed his sword at its stand nervously. It was too far away and besides, the assassin was in the way, so he could not make a dash for it.

The assassin did not seem to be carrying any weapon, but to be on the safe side, Togon decided to talk his way out of it and distract the assassin while trying to get his sword.

"How...wh-who are you?" Togon stuttered.

"Well, I'm Gabrielle, but you can call me Gabe. Are you an immortal being from heaven or something? Can you tell me what to do next? I think I just died in a car accident," the assassin named Gabe explained.

"I don't understand. What are you doing here?"

"I told you, I don't know. I only know that I died in a car accident and now I'm here. So... who are you? What's your name?"

"I-I'm Togon."

"Oh, so, Togon, are we in heaven? Am I dead?"

"No, actually, s-sorry to break it to you, but... this isn't heaven, and you don't... seem dead to me."

"Oh, if so, then where am I now? What is this place?" Gabe was taking in another breath to continue when Togon suddenly lunged at her with his fist, causing her to duck backwards. Togon then made a dash for his sword and unsheathed it in a flash.

"Hey! What are you doing now?" Gabe asked, backing away from Togon, whose sword was pointing at her dangerously. Gabe only realized now that she was still carrying her haversack on her back, which would make her movements slow if Togon was to try to attack her.

Quickly, she dropped her haversack and took up the stance she used when she was fencing.

Gabe ducked each swing of Togon's sword with utmost precision, which made Togon all the more convinced that she was a skilled assassin who was trying to kill him.

"Help!" Togon yelled as loud as he could. Immediately, there came the sound of running feet and in seconds, the royal guards burst into his chambers and turned to face Gabe.

Gabe ducked between them and dashed out of the room, the royal guards hot on her heels. She expected herself to be in the corridors of a big house once she got out of the room, but was slightly caught off guard when she found that she was now outdoors, running on uneven stone grounds, surrounded by many oriental style pavilions and greenery. Gabe ducked between the pavilions, skirting around corners, trying to lose the guards. It was dark out and it was hard for her to see her way, but it also made it hard for the guards to see and follow her. She spotted a narrow gap and made a dive through it, bursting out from the other side. The guards had a hard time getting through, because of their numbers, their large built, and their heavy and bulky armors. Gabe seized this opportunity to make her escape.

Gabe ran on for what seemed like ages, until she felt like her heart was about to burst. She should be far away from the guards by now. She leaned against a wall to catch her breath. Gabe won prizes for sprinting at school sports days, but she was never good at running for long distances.

Gabe had heard all she needed to know from the crazed boy in the room: that she was not dead. So now, her priority was to stay that way: to survive, to not get killed by the boy and his guards. And she would try to find a way out of this place and return home in the meantime.

Looking around, Gabe realized that she was near a place where clothes were hanging on lines to dry. There were rows and rows of different clothes, and Gabe thought that there must be hundreds of people living in this residence, to have so many clothes on the lines and such a big compound. An idea started forming in her head. Maybe if she dressed up like how the people here dressed, she could disguise herself as one of them, and hopefully would be able to survive and escape. Gabe was grateful that they decided to hang the clothes overnight to dry today.

Walking between the rows of clothes, Gabe selected her clothes carefully. She remembered seeing some woman dressed in long flowing dresses that looked like something people would wear in ancient times. She guessed that they might be some sort of servant people or something, serving the crazy boy in the room who looked like he was in charge in this area. Gabe picked a dress that looked like some ancient Chinese imperial palace maid costume. It should be able to fit her. Funny, Gabe thought, how everything here seemed like a scene from a historical television drama about evil Kings and Queens and princes fighting each other for the crown in some royal palace. It was almost as if Gabe had walked into a television set. Pushing that thought out of her mind, she made her way to a dark corner to change into the clothes.

After she finished changing into the dress, Gabe picked up her shirt and jeans soaked with blood, and was about to stuff them into her haversack when she suddenly realized that she left it in Togon's room. She looked at the clothes in her hand and decided that she wouldn't want to wear those blood-soaked clothes again, so she scrunched them up into a ball and stuffed them at a corner. Feeling extremely tired, she sat down, hugging her knees, and fell asleep almost immediately.