"Is that a spider?" I heard Carlton whisper from behind me.
I nudged him, causing him to yelp. "Shut up, or they'll hear you."
"Ouch!" he yelled. "God, Annabelle, that really hurt."
I turned around and pointed at him. "Something else will hurt if you don't quit being a baby." He held his hands up in mock of defence. He knew I wasn't kidding.
I turned back to spy on 'The Vipers' below us. We were currently squished inside a vent, and safe to say, it echoed. I peeked through the lid attached to the vent and there wasn't anyone in sight. Shit. I thought to myself.
"Where the fuck did they go?" I murmured.
"Uh... Anna." I felt Carlton nudge me from behind.
I swatted his hand away. "Not now, Carlton."
"No, seriously, Anna."
My patience was decreasing ever so slowly. I turned around and started to yell at him. "Carlton, can't you see I'm trying to-" I stopped midway and noticed a figure behind him. "Yo." I waved at them.
"Yo," he waved back. After a minute, the guy snapped out of whatever trance he was in. "What the fu-"
I quickly booted the vent lid open and somersaulted out of the cramped space, dragging Carlton along with me by the collar of his shirt. "Wait, Anna-"
He didn't get to finish his sentence because I landed on the floor perfectly, whilst he ended up falling into a pit of empty boxes. I hoped they were empty anyway.
"Jesus, Anna, at least give me a fucking warning, or something!" Carlton whined as he scrambled out of the boxes he was drowned in.
"Oh yeah. Hey, Carlton, there's a bad guy behind you. Mind if I pulled you out of the vent, so we don't get attacked?" I told him sarcastically.
"Hardy har, very funny." He glared at me. He'll get over it.
In the middle of our row, the man who was in the vent with us crawled out of it and landed in front of me nicely. I wished he fell and bumped his head. "I don't have time to meddle with you kids. Let's just get this over and done with."
"God, you're so careless sometimes, Carlton," I rolled my eyes while crossing my arms. "It's like dealing with a baby."
Carlton scoffed. "You do know I'm older than you, right?"
"By half an hour?" I raised my eyebrow at him. I know what everyone's thinking, and we get it a lot. No, we're not twins, and yes, we were born on the same day funnily enough.
"Half an hour is quite a lot. It's like when I'm at a restaurant and the service is so slow. They make me wait for half an hour." He sighed, sadness evident in his voice.
"Where the hell do you go to get your food?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "Just at some pizza parlour down my road. Note to yourself - never go there, because they make you wait for half an hour for food."
I rolled my eyes. "I'll be sure to remember that."
"Enough!" We heard a voice boom. Honestly, that actually startled me, and I didn't get scared easily. "Shut up about your stupid pizzas and let's just get this over with."
I shrugged my shoulder. "Alright then, how shall we go about this, Carlton?" I turned to look at him.
"However you want. You're the Boss apparently."
"You're damn right I am." I smirked at him.
In the corner of my eye, I could see the guy getting more agitated by the second. Oh, the pleasure of annoying my enemies.
The guy didn't give me a chance to move, because he immediately bolted straight towards me, but I was able to quickly dodge him by a millisecond. He was fast.
I rolled to the side like a soldier and glared at him. "You do know it's rude to catch someone off guard when they're not t ready, right?"
"You do know it's rude to ignore people who are standing in front of you, right?"
"Oh, my bad. To be honest, you were so quiet I actually didn't notice you there." I shrugged my shoulders. I turned to look at Carlton, but he was gone. Where the fuck did he go now?
I went to look at the guy in front of me again, but he disappeared. Shit. I looked around me and he wasn't anywhere to be seen. I took my earpiece out of my pants pocket and stuck it on my ear. "Testing, testing. Shailene, are you there?"
My earpiece made a bit of noise. "Yes, I'm right here. What's going on? I tried reaching you, but I received silence!"
I scratched my head. "Sorry. I had the earpiece in my bag. You know I hate wearing these things. They make my ear itch so bad. I can already feel it now and I haven't had it on for two minutes yet."
I could feel her rolling her eyes. That sounded really creepy, but it was true, I could sense it even though she's not near me. "Whatever. Anyway, what's happened?"
"I'm in a bit of trouble." Great work Anna, great elaboration.
"I can't help you if you don't tell me what's going on..."
"Alright. I was fighting against one of 'The Vipers', Carlton was with me and now he's disappeared and so did the guy I was fighting with. Can you locate anyone around the perimeter of where I am?"
"I could, if you get me some donuts from 'Dunkin' Donuts' on the way back?"
I rolled my eyes. "I will. Now hurry up, we're losing valuable time right now. I can't let it go to waste. Honestly? I don't understand how you ended up being my assistant."
"Honestly?" she paused. "I don't understand either."
I waited for a minute for Shailene to search around the perimeter for any enemies. I slowly walked backwards, looking around for anyone, but suddenly the closet from beside me opened and I was caught off guard. "Shit."
"Shit, indeed," A deep voice spoke. The guy held me in a head lock with one arm, and used one of his free arm to hold one of my legs in place. I couldn't move, which was a disadvantage. I may have been good at combat fighting and self defence, but come on, this guy was bigger and stronger than me. I also ended up dropping my earpiece and the guy stomped on it, breaking it. "Who are you working for?"
"Like... like I'd tell you. You owe me a new ear piece as well." I struggled to speak through my gritted mouth.
"I don't give a fuck about your stupid ear piece. I have the upper hand," He bent me forward a little, causing me not to breathe properly. "Now, tell me."
"I'm... I'm not telling."
"Answer me, you little bitch." He growled in frustration. I could tell he was losing his patience, but I wasn't going to give into temptation.
