Chapter 11 (Part 1)

“Oh my, would you look at that – an uninvited, unwelcome, suspicious but pleasantly polite visitor interrupting my long awaited dinner,” I said sarcastically. “Since you’re here, can I offer you some tea, some snack or some beating? I’d be glad to dish out any of the three.”

“That is very tempting, milady. The tea, especially,” the intruder answered in the same mock politeness as he did earlier. “But you see I am not here for that. Besides, I already ate on the way here.”

A small silence followed that statement.  

“Alright enough of that nonsense,” I responded calmly. “Who are you and what do you want?”

“I thought you’d never ask. The thing is, someone ordered a woman by the name of Rascielle to be dropped on someplace vague; and apparently I’m the delivery guy.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong but did you just say you’re a kidnapper?” I asked incredulously.

“Oh my. Kidnap is such a strong word. I prefer delivery boy.”

“But the principle’s the same.”

He paused and assumed a thoughtful pose before answering, “I guess it is.”

I then assumed my battle stance. Hand to hand combat is not my strongest suit but in my condition, it’ll have to do. “Delivery boy would you like to know an interesting fact? Every delivery has some sort of delay one way or another and fortunately for me but unfortunately for you, I’m just that. You are not getting whoever this Rascielle is so easily.”

“Um, in these types of situations, shouldn’t we call for help?” Rascielle, who had been silent the whole time, finally spoke up only to suggest a practical but humiliating course of action.

“That’s very sensible of you but there’s a problem with that. I’m not the ‘scream-for-help-damsel-in-distress’ type of girl. I’m the ‘I’ll-beat-this-intruder-inevitably-win-clean-up-the-evidence-then-we-never-speak-of-this-incident-again’ type of girl. But you know what makes me curious?”

Rascielle shook her head sheepishly.

“Aren’t you curious if our intruder is the screamer type? Because if he is…we’re about to find out.” I said in a low dark voice accompanied by an evil smirk.

“And how will you go about that?” the intruder asked skeptically.

Without answering, I charged at the intruder with my signature speed. I faked a punch to his face and while he was busy falling for that feint, I issued my real attack by raising my knee to the general direction of his ‘middle’, surprising him with low kick to the fork of his legs. Unsurprisingly, he gasped in pain and collapsed crumpled on the floor with a dull thud.

“Huh. I’m disappointed. I guess he’s not a screamer after all,” I quipped while stealing a glance towards Rascielle.

“You’re such a sadist you know that?” Rascielle replied shaking her head disappointedly. “If you keep doing bad things, you’re going to tax your karma.”

“Oh please, I don’t believe in karma. Besides if I acted like a saint then you’ll know I’m possessed by…something malevolent. If you haven’t noticed, it’s in my nature to be ‘sadistic’ as you called it.”

The black clad intruder wheezing and gasping for dear breath like a fish out of water earned back my attention. “You…you’re…goi..ng…to..pah-pay…foh-for..that!!!” he barely managed to whisper painfully in between wheezes.

“Comment acknowledged and ignored. Seriously, are you going to go away anytime soon yet? I really don’t want to clean anything up. I just don’t have the energy for that. Frankly, I just want to EAT MY DINNER PEACEFULLY!”

I was in the middle of getting out the last syllable of my tirade when another shadow suddenly ran up the balcony and shamelessly entering the premises with a phantomlike speed. With unexpected grace he somersaulted and ran up across the ceiling in three steps all the while throwing needlelike things around the room. Finally, he landed on a catlike crouch on the ground beside the half-dead, almost castrated first intruder.

Now that he was stationary, I could discern that he basically looked the same as the first intruder. A man clad in black. I wish I knew a spell on how to magically change the colors of clothes because honestly, I’m so very tired of seeing black! Color, I beseech thee, come and appear before me!

After that weird mental lapse of sanity due to clothing color disasters, I took my time to reassess my situation and surroundings. Judging by Rascielle’s bewildered look, it would seem that the intruder magically appeared in the room. But such speed is a staple to my battle experience that I managed catch his every action. While traversing the ceiling, I saw him throwing needlelike metal to the floor and walls which was attached to a thin, transparent, hair-like twine weaving a spider web pattern around the room, successfully trapping both Rascielle and me. Unfortunately, although I can see all these things happening, I am weakened enough that I can’t do anything about it.

Curiously, I moved my hand against one of the wires, touching it lightly. What I didn’t expect was that such action could cut my skin and drew blood. My eyes followed the trail of blood on my hands with morbid fascination. I don’t get injured often or easily so it surprises me that a mere twine could wound me. There must be something special about this piece thread.

“You’re…here,” the first intruder whispered to the second one.

“Honestly, which one is it this time?” the second one whispered exasperatedly.

“The left one…”

“Honestly, I can’t believe they’re even sending you to do these jobs anymore. If it were all up to me, I’d be really tempted to leave you here while I do all the work.”

“Yeah. Yeah that’s right. Leave me dying here like the good friend you are.”

“Honestly, you’re so dramatic. Dramatic and…what’s that word again? Oh right. Useless.”

“Can you stop being honest?!”

“Honestly, I can’t. Mother taught me that honesty is a virtue.”

“Yeah, that’s right. Be brutally honest to your best friend.”  

These guys are honestly ridiculous. They have their own little world, like I don’t exist or they just simply forgot about me. I’d love to interrupt them and get this ordeal over with but who am I to interrupt free entertainment?

Rascielle was getting impatient and annoyed with the intruders and was about to say something about it.

And that is not a good sign.

In my opinion, nobody interrupts free entertainment. Especially imbecilic kidnapper banters. I quickly stole her attention by raising a finger to my lips, the general sign language of ‘be quiet’ then playfully winked. 

Unfortunately, Rascielle’s attention was not the only one I earned. The second intruder quickly snapped his head in my direction giving me a hard suspicious glare. I returned his glare with an innocent look with as much innocence as I could muster which is quite a feat for someone like me considering I’m never innocent.

“Honestly, ladies, which one of you is Rascielle?” the second black clad intruder asked still giving me his undivided attention, still glaring at me like he suspected me to be Rascielle.

“Now now, don’t be ridiculous,” I answered. “Honesty may be your virtue but it is certainly not ours. I could tell you that I’m Rascielle but how do you know for sure? One of us could be or could not be Rascielle. How do you even know if this Rascielle person is a woman? For all you know he’s a man cross-dressing as a woman serving as a decoy to deceive kidnappers like you and…”

“Enough!” he second intruder said in a harsh tone. “We know for certain that Rascielle is a woman. As for the decoy issue, we’ll just take the both of you then!”

Just as planned. These kidnappers are very easy to fool with a few convoluted words. But who can blame them? I can be very convincing when I want to be. There is no way I’m letting the real Rascielle get kidnapped and to make sure things like these never happen again, one must destroy the root of the problem. And the only way to get to the root of the problem is to jump into the lion’s den.

The things I do in the name of profits…

In addition, I don’t feel like fighting anyone for a lot of reasons. The stupid curse left me completely drained and exhausted. I’m hungry from my stupid two day fasting due to unconsciousness. I don’t have my trusty sword with me. I’m not equipped for a hand to hand combat with this flimsy, poor excuse for a dress conveniently called a ‘nightgown’ the stupid palace people forced on me to wear while I was unconscious to boot. To sum it up, I’m in a great disadvantage. I could be considered lucky that I even got a hit in with the first intruder. But considering their previous conversation, I think I’m free of any blame.

The second intruder tugged at the wires. All the wires in the room suddenly moved and wrapped around both Rascielle and I, effectively making us captives.

“Alright ladies listen up,” the first intruder said with as much dignity as he could. “Scream and it will be the last sound you’ll ever make.”  

A/N: Sorry about the long leave. I'm not going to make excuses this time but just know that I'm still alive and updating :)