The night before the raid on Mr. N's base, Calexsis sat in his black SUV, sunglasses concealing his eyes as the young mans fingers moved across the keys of his laptop.
Every scrap of intelligence on Mr. N's elite guards, their patrol patterns and their abilities.
Their job was now to kill Osprey and Aspera, Elite Gaurd Rank __ and Rank 10.
Cal was the architect of the operation, the mind behind it all, while Mori served as the brawn. Everyone else was just a tactical chess piece on the board.
He propped his feet on the dashboard and shut the laptop, the screen going dark as he glanced out into the semi empty Fallmart parking lot.
Not many people. It was getting late. That made sense.
Calexsis took a bite of his sandwich. He still had a few minutes before meeting up with the Assassin Squad, and he had traveled alone from his hometown to get here.
For a brief moment, he allowed himself the luxury of peace and quiet.
Then someone shouted at him.
Calexsis looked up from his phone and was startled to see a woman standing directly in front of his car, waving her arms. His SUV was parked facing the store, separated from the building by only a thin sidewalk. He had not seen her approach at all. It was as if she had emerged straight from the brick wall.
She walked around the front of the vehicle and stopped beside the driver's side door, pointing insistently at the ground, the universal signal to roll the window down. That was not happening. Calexsis had no idea what she wanted. Moments like this justified why he locked his doors the instant he got inside.
Then she said the last thing anyone ever wanted to hear.
"Hey!" she shouted.
"There's someone in your backseat!"
Calexsis's mouth went dry.
The fear of God just went through his bones.
Time seemed to slow as a thousand horror movie scenarios flashed through his mind. Piano wire tightening around his throat. The cold press of a gun barrel against his temple. He unbuckled his seatbelt, muscles tensing as he prepared to bolt. If someone really was back there, and now they knew he was aware, would he even make it out in time?
With one hand gripping the door handle, he glanced into the rearview mirror.
There was no one there.
His SUV was compact. There was nowhere for someone to hide. Even in his exhausted state, he would have noticed another presence immediately. Fear ebbed into confusion. Calexsis twisted in his seat and scanned the cabin himself.
Still nothing.
Click.
He stares her right in the eyes the moment he heard that sound.
When he turned back toward the window, the woman had her fingers curled around the handle. A few more sharp clicks followed as she tried unsuccessfully to open it.
Calexsis raised his eyes to meet hers.
She smiled.
It was an unsettling smile, the kind shared between people who thought they were in on the same private joke.
Under the weak glow of a nearby streetlamp, he finally got a clear look at her face. Her skin was stretched tight across her skull, giving her thin mouth and nostrils the appearance of being carved rather than formed. Her nostrils were as small as Pinholes, Her skin was peeling but it also had fur, like bloody fur of a sheep human hybrid, as yellow drool excited the sides of her mouth.
He stared for half a second too long, his breathing increased as he panicked throwing the SUV into reverse as he floored it.
For a few horrifying seconds, the woman clung to the door, matching the vehicle's movement as it backed out of the lot. Then she let go.
Calexsis did not slow down until the Fallmart was far behind him.
His thoughts raced as the realization settled in. The woman had been trying to lure him out of the car. Even worse, it had nearly worked. He wondered if she had others nearby, hidden just out of sight, and what exactly they had planned for him.
Mr. N gets a phone call from a mysterious face. "He got away, but he's In the area."
Mr. N scoffs "Not bad work kid, ensure you reach back to school on time tomorrow."
"Yes sir" she nodded.