A world full of darkness

Chapter 49 "Alias"

The pitter patter of rain gently pulled Alex from her sleep. Eyes rapidly blinking she found herself on the couch of a home she did not recognise. Looking over the side of the couch she found Connor huddled up with a ratty blanket and a thin pillow. Carefully sitting up she examined her surroundings, gun metal drapes concealed the windows behind her and a large flatscreen TV was mounted on the wall in front of her. She buried her toes in the black shag carpet beneath her and slowly stood up. Alex walked to one of the two doorways and found herself in a kitchen, sleek modern benches and a big fridge dominated the space. The dining table stood off to the side of the kitchen and had six chairs surrounding it. Alex quietly walked over and found a still warm cup of coffee sitting on the table, walking back over to the kitchen she opened one of the draws and pulled a small knife out. Spotting a glass door leading outside Alex stalked up to it and carefully slid it open, sneaking out. Laughing and happy voices assaulted her ears, pressing her body flat to the wall she peered around the corner. Sitting around a fire pit sat Hudson, James, a young man perhaps in his early twenties and a girl that looked around Alex's age. They were all drinking beers except the girl who had one hand holding the mans and one hand on her protruding belly. Alex must have accidentally made a noise because one minute the girls hand was on her belly and the next there was a knife embedded in the wood next to Alex's head. James got up and walked over to Alex, wrenching the knife out of the wall he casually threw it to the man who caught it with ease. Then he grabbed Alex's hand and squeezed it so hard Alex had no choice but to drop the knife, leaning towards her ear James whispered quietly. "We are in Oxford now don't worry and these are my friends so try and be friendly." Alex glared at him so hard James thought he would explode. Wrapping his arm around Alex's hip James gently tugged her out into the open. "Look who just woke up! Alex this is Laurel and Jacob, I met Jacob back in high school, he was my best mate." James flashed her a smile and then proceeded to grab Alex's butt, Alex jumped and hit James so hard in the stomach he doubled over in pain and spilled his beer. "Oops sorry mate." Alex sniggered. Out of the corner of her eye Alex spotted Laurel trying to contain her laughter and Jacob looking very confused. Alex walked over and shook both the couples hands and smile nicely at them. "Hi Alex I'm really sorry I threw my knife at your head... I thought you were someone coming from AHKTEM to try and kill us." Laurel said sounding genuinely concerned. Alex smiled at her. "You know I've only known you for like two minutes but I'm really starting to like you." Laurel cracked a cheeky smile. "I could say the same thing Alexandria." Alex looked down at Laurels tummy. "Boy or girl?" Laurel unconsciously brought her hand to her belly and gently rubbed it. "It's going to be a beautiful little boy." Alex smiled. "You know I couldn't help but notice earlier that when you threw the knife you missed me." Laurel let out a snort. "Trust me Alex I never miss. I wasn't trying to kill you if I was you wouldn't be sitting here talking to me." Alex raised an eyebrow at this. "Oh really? Is that a challenge I sense?" Laurel laughed and pulled out a knife about the length of Alex's middle finger, she began twirling it around her fingers. "If I wasn't six months pregnant... I'd take you here and now Alexandria Tove, see if you really are as good as everyone says you are." Laurel threw the knife hard at the wall it let out a loud 'ding' as it came into contact with the hard wood. It took a few seconds for Alex to realise the peppered black moth pinned beneath it. She raised an eyebrow and looked back at the pregnant knife thrower whom she was very much beginning to like. "Impressive." Laurel flashed her another grin.  "Oh Alex! Let me take you on a tour of our house!" Laurel said much louder then necessary. Quickly standing up and grabbing Alex by the elbow Laurel dragged her back into the house. Holding a finger to her lips she motioned for Alex to follow her down a flight of stairs, Alex obliged. They came to a big ancient looking bookcase, pulling out a book on the Trojan war a keypad popped out of the wall, Laurel quickly punched in some numbers and all of a sudden the book case was moving down rapidly. Laurel disappeared into the darkness beyond the bookcase and Alex blindly follows her. All of a sudden Alex turned a corner and her eyes were assaulted with bright lights and a massive cavern, LED lights glistened over hot tub in the middle of the cavern. Weapons and shelves lined the walls, dummies, targets, punching bags and numerous other training devices were littered throughout the massive space. Alex swore she even saw a shooting range. Alex's mouth was open in shock and awe. Three words fell out of her mouth before she could even stop them. "I want one." Laurel laughed hysterically. "Well I thought since you guys would be staying here a while I might as well show you our 'secret lair' so you could all train to kill Kai Malum. Because let's face it that guy is an absolute prune head." Alex threw herself at Laurel, hugging her tightly. "I'm not the hugging type but this is just so awesome. Thankyou so much Laurel, you're the best! And you seem to know a lot about Kai did you used to work for AHKTEM?" Alex let go of her and sat on one of the many comfy couches surrounding the big TV. Laurel sat opposite her, resting her hands on her belly again. "I didn't ever work for AHKTEM but Jacob did- he was a hacker, like your friend out there what's his name? Hudson?" Alex nodded. Laurel continued. "I actually worked for another organisation that no longer exists called Alias. It was destroyed years ago, but they trained a special type of assassin. There has only ever been sixty recruits, but I was one of them. They taught us things I would much rather forget." Laurel paused and Alex sat there gaping. "You worked for Alias?" Alex asked shocked. Laurel nodded. "After we were destroyed one of the recruits that was about five years older then me started up the new organisation that was part of AHKTEM." Laurel stared straight at Alex's eyes as she spoke. "Her name was Zelda and she starts the Zelda Malum assassins." Alex's breath completely left her body. "No wonder you want Kai dead..." Alex said breathless. "Wait does that mean you were born into Alias? Didn't they usually do that thing? Also wouldn't that have meant you would've been about seven when Alias fell? You obviously have been training since then... Where did you train?" Alex asked in rapid fire. Laurel looked a bit shocked at all the questions. "Umm yeah I was born into it, yes I was seven and I trained with a mentor that used to be part of Alias as well." Alex casually grabbed a knife from the coffee table and began fiddling with it. "You know I can't wait till you're not pregnant anymore so we can have a good old fight." Alex grinned stupidly at Laurel. Laurel smiled back and then got up and began to walk back over to the secret bookcase door, Alex followed hot in her tail. "Come on we better see what the 'men' are up to. I reckon they would all be drunk by now." Laurel said. Alex breathed a laugh as she followed her back up the stairs and outside to the fire pit. Leaning towards Alex's ear Laurel whispered. "Tomorrow training starts for all of us including my idiot fiancé, Hudson and myself. I suggest you all try and get some sleep considering it's almost three am." Alex nodded and spotting James passed out on Hudson's lap, who had also passed out she decided it was well and truly past there bedtime. Jacob got up groggily and stumbled over towards Laurel. Putting his arm over her shoulder, he let Laurel guide him to bed. "Night Alex." Laurel called over her shoulder. "Night Laurel." Alex whispered back as she examined the situation of her two drunk friends. "I am always looking after you two when you get wasted!" She said muttering to herself. Grabbing James by the collar of his shirt she began dragging him back to the couch she had woken up on earlier. "Training starts tomorrow..." Alex thought to herself. "Training so I can kill Kai Malum."