• I tried to walk quickly along the corridor without drawing too much attention to myself. My platinum blonde hair insisted on covering my face every six or seven steps my hand always traveled up to push it back to its place on the side of my face. There was no way I would be able to concentrate on the task at hand for long, not with my mind wandering aimlessly like it was.
    My eyes glanced around the hall as I slowed my pace slightly. The higher I went, the less people, which in my mind, says that I don’t have to look like I’m rushing anymore.
    I continued my journey through the halls of the apartment building silently, my shoes barely uttering a thump as they hit the tiled floor. The people I did pass either nodded to acknowledge me or avoided eye-contact all together.
    Not that I cared for either recognition, but I was smug that the humans nowadays new when they saw someone of higher stature. However, my job tonight entitled me to be as invisible as possible. Perhaps my designer jeans, black blouse and cloak were what attracted the eyes of those around me?
    A flight of stairs appeared before me as the hallway finished. My target’s room was on the top floor of the eighteen story building. I checked the wall to my right to see the floor number.
    “Seven more flights to go,” I whispered to myself as I began the climb once again. “What I want to know is why this building’s layout is so twisted and why there isn’t an elevator?” Geez the apartment complex was annoying.
    The only reason I say this is because the stairs go up six floors, leveling off at each, then stop on the sixth only to be continued at the other end of the hallway. Then they go up another five floors, once again leveling off at each floor, stops ascending only to continue at the end of the eleventh hallway. And to top it all off, there was no elevator. Now I just hope it goes all the way to the top so I don’t have to walk along another unneeded passage.
    I sighed when I watched the sixteenth floor go by without stopping. Only the government would lay out a building like this. I would know too, especially since I’ve had to be at every government facility in the United States and then some.
    I reached the eighteenth floor without having to be interrupted again. The old grandfather clock to my left struck eleven as soon as I set my foot on the floor. A smirk crossed my face; I was right on time once more. My client would have entered their apartment at the end of the hall five minutes ago. Thankfully, the corridor was deserted.
    My red eyes continued glancing out the too clear windows to my right as I walked to my destination. The stars were never visible out here in Los Angeles. I drew them away as they began to fill with salty water. My heart had twisted in a longing that surpassed that of when my mother died of cancer. I yearned to go home.
    “The target in question lived on the top floor in the furthest suit from the stairwell,” Those had been my commander’s exact words when he sent me off. No doubt that he was either getting ready for bed, or already there, for he had to get up in four hours to his real money-making job.
    I stopped in front of the stained, wooden door, my eyes taking in the quality of the wood, as they usually did. The wood wasn’t of great quality, but it wasn’t terrible either. No longer interested in wood value, I reached for the steel doorknob and turned it. Another grin played across my pale face.
    “Perhaps my client isn’t as much of an idiot as I’ve been told,” I said softly to myself, removing my shocked hand from the knob. I shook it slightly to allow the blood to continue its flow to my hand.
    Letting a sigh escape my lips, I reached for the lock-pick in my designer jeans’ pocket with my right hand, and reached for my work glove in my back pocket with my left. The black leather glove had been specially made for me and my missions.
    I fitted it snugly on my left hand and silently grasped the handle again, this time allowing no shock to travel up my arm. My lock-pick worked around the contraption in the lock and after about fifteen seconds the mechanism clicked.
    Being as silent as my job required and more, I pushed open the door and slipped inside. No adjusting to the dark was necessary. It was a perk of having advanced eyes. My eyes were allowed to wander the dark room for a couple seconds, taking in my current surroundings.
    I was standing in what I assumed to be the sitting room. There was no bed, only maroon armchairs and mahogany coffee tables. A giant flat-screen television adorned the wall to my left. I’ll admit to being jealous for a second. My flat wasn’t nearly that large.
    On my right another door stood. Thinking that was the entryway to the bedroom portion of the suite, I quickly stepped up to it and pulled out my only weapon of choice, my katana. The Japanese-made sword, like my glove, had been made especially for my hand and mine only. The hilt was wrapped in a gorgeous dark blue pelt with a single emerald embedded.
    It was good thing I had requested my sheath and katana be invisible to the untrained eye until my hand actually grasped the hilt. The sword maker was experienced enough to not to pry too far into my demand.
    I took a calming breath before pushing the door open. Inside, a queen bed stood with maroon sheets that matched the chairs in the sitting room. A lump was positioned in the middle of the bed, barely detectable under the hoard of blankets. Detecting minimal breathing patterns with my ears and my eyes, I approached the bed noiselessly.
    My katana now in my left hand, I raise it slightly across my body…and stopped. Glancing at the door besides the one that I entered through, my ears pick up another breathing pattern completely. I sighed and slowly put my katana away. My eyes went back to the bed and my hand pulled the covers back to reveal a pure white dog.
    Glaring not at the dog, but at the fact that I was about to put my sword through it, I stomp away from the bed, not caring if my target heart-rate just jumped drastically. I reach the bathroom door and kicked it in. A scream reached my ears and I look down to see a man of fifty-two and graying. Wrinkles decorate his face and his dull brown eyes are full of fear.
    “But…but, you’re just… just a…a kid!” he shouted at last. “And a girl! You look no less than fifteen!”
    A growl escaped my lips and I pulled my katana back out of its sheath. “Fifteen?! That’s it!? Do you think I would take this job if I were fifteen?! Of course not you fool of a human! I’m way beyond even keeping track anymore!” And before he could even allow a whimper to enter the air, one thrust from my katana stabbed his heart and left him dead on his bathroom floor. I stifled the urge to spit on his corpse and turned to go—
    WHACK! Before I knew it, my back had hit the floor and my head barely a foot away from the bleeding man. A hot breath tickles my neck and I look to see the dog from the bed on top of me panting in a loving way. With more light and a closer look, the dog isn’t so doggish, but more of a fox-ish.
    “Holy crap, you! Don’t go scaring people like that!” I said to him, patting him on the head before I pushed him off. I shook my head when I stood up, trying to keep the blackness from moving too far past my peripheral.
    I spared a glance back at my job in the bathroom. Usually I wouldn’t care what my client had done to deserve to be assassinated like this. But for some reason, this man was different. He seemed…I don’t know how to put it. Less villainous, maybe?
    “Oh well, no need to dote on it now. I just want to go home, back where I can see the flippin’ sky.”
    I walked out the bedroom door and back into the sitting room. Deciding to take my glove off, I yanked at it and stuffed the leather back into its place. I was beginning to wander to the door when a whine sounded behind me.
    Turning, my eyes landed on the fox. He was looking at me like he wanted something. My eyes widened at the collar that is now visible on his neck. Feeling sorry for the thing, I walk calmly back over to him with my hand outstretched.
    “It’s okay; I’m not going to hurt you.” I coaxed. When I reached him, he nuzzled his nose on my hand. Feeling more and more compassionate, I pet his head again before I took the collar off.
    “There you go.” I patted him once more on the head and scratched his ears and then I walked out of the apartment. I left the door open, knowing I had a follower.

    Outside, people were gathering around a red European sports car parked in front of the apartment. Thinking that the government wouldn’t actually send something as nice as that to pick me up, I wandered away with the fox close on my heels. Shouts resonated behind me and I turned to see what was thumping around so much.
    A teenage boy around, what looked to me as, five foot ten with black hair and bright green eyes stood out amongst the still growing crowd. He was closest to the passenger side of the car and was looking around for something, or someone. I rolled my eyes at the mob and was about to leave when his bright emerald eyes found my blazing red ones.
    I turned and out of the corner of my eye I saw him motion for me to sit in the passenger side. Deciding to be an a*****e, I just continued to walk until the noise from the mass was drowned out from the distance.
    Pat, pat, pat, pat. The fox seemed to be strangely content strolling along beside me, considering we were walking in downtown Los Angeles at, I check my watch, midnight. Pat, pat, pat, pat. My eyes wandered down to the white ball of fun that I see in my peripheral. He was looking up at me with ice blue eyes; he had a sort of intelligent look about him. Pat, pat, pat, pat. It was almost like he could tell that I was thinking of taking him home with me. Pat, pat, pat, pat.
    I cracked a smile as a thought hit me. “What if I did take you home? What would my superiors say? The fact of the matter is that I have not a clue what they would say. So, they can’t say ‘no’ once I’ve already got you there, right?”
    He just panted happily in response. Still smiling, I nodded my own approval.
    We continued walking down the sidewalk in utter silence. Less and less cars passed and the walk, on both sides of the street, was virtually empty. The only people out here are the random men rushing home, (or away from home but who cares right?), and me.
    “Alright, this is weird. I know I don’t actually live here, but aren’t cars supposed to be on the road and people on the sidewalk, even at this hour?” I asked to the fox. Apparently he understood me because he whimpered.
    Sighing for the hundredth time that night, I stopped and looked around. The streets and sidewalks were now completely empty. Not another soul was around us. I couldn’t help but bite my lip in frustration. Gosh this night was getting worse and worse.
    “I wasn’t even supposed to accept this damn assignment!” I yelled into the night. “I was supposed to be home hanging out with Seth right now! I hate Los Angeles!”
    The fox whined next to me again. I looked down to him and saw him laying on the sidewalk, his paws outstretched and his ears down. Thinking that he didn’t look so well, I picked him up (thankfully he didn’t struggle) and I continued walking the way I had been going.
    As we walked further and further, I couldn’t help but think about the stupid sports car outside the apartment building. It had been European and it had been really nice looking too. The boy standing next to it, though, is what my mind eventually went to.
    He had looked normal, as normal as they come anyway. His black hair had been slightly above his shoulders and his had been relatively straight. Under neither the hair though, his bright eyes stood out like a beacon at sea.
    As I turned a corner off the deserted street, every sound you would expect to hear in a big city burst into action. Suddenly everything was moving; cars sped past us and people were walking all around us. I thought my ears were going to burst out bleeding; it was all too much to take at once, and I blacked out.

    The first thing that hit me when I woke up was the smell. It was the mixed stench of too many beers in one night and a constant supply of car exhaust. The reason why was far worse than the actual odor, it meant I was still in Los Angeles.
    Reluctantly, I pried my eyes open and looked around the room in which I was currently lying in. It consisted of no more than the bed I was rested on, a dresser and a window to my right and a door to my left. I risked a glance through the window and found I couldn’t actually anything other than the blurry lights from the city. It was still night time.
    “Definitely not what I’m used to.” I said quietly to myself.
    I sat up and immediately thought better of it when a splitting headache came out of nowhere and black dots appeared before my eyes. I forced my eyes closed and waited for the throbbing to cease.
    “Not the brightest thing you’ve ever done is it, Esther?”
    I whipped my head around to the left and searched for owner of the voice. After the dots had disappeared, a figured came into my view, a very familiar figure. A semi-tan teenage boy blonde hair with yellow-green eyes, stood next to the door. A cocky-a** smile decorated his face.
    Well I guess my life was now complete. This stupid-a** brother of mine, whom I haven’t seen in two years, has turned up randomly in Los Angeles, where I just happen to have taken a single mission. Yeah, ‘cause that’s not an accident waiting to happen.
    “What are you doing here Allen?” I couldn’t keep the venom from my voice. Not only have I not seen my older brother in over two years, but the last time I saw him, he told me that I was going to go work for an underground, assassination company and he drugged me so the employers could come and get me.
    All that time, with all that had passed between us and all he could do was shrug. The cocky smile had left his face but I could tell he was still very amused by something. Frankly, if he didn’t spill the beans in about two seconds, I was going to shoot him.
    “To tell you the truth,” he looked into my red eyes with his yellow-green ones, like he was telling me he had been lying to me most of my life, “I was sent here to take you back to California headquarters. The president wanted to see you immediately last night, and I told him I would go to get you. But you had to be the idiot who didn’t get in the shiny red sports car when you had the chance.”
    I turned about as red as the freaking sports car then. How was I supposed to know the damn car was for me? I’ve never gotten special treatment from any of my comrades before, with Allen and the department head being the exceptions. What would make the president send my older brother in an expensive car to just come and pick me up?
    Too bad I couldn’t contemplate it any further, because I would have figured it out, but an annoying scratching in the corner of my thoughts continued to draw my attention.
    Thinking Allen couldn’t have been making the noise, I turned my head to the door that he had apparently come through, considering it was the only door that led to the room. The noise came again then, that incensive scratching on the door.
    “Tell me Esther,” Allen said with a smirk. I know that tone he was using; it was the one he had taunted me with when we were small. “Why did you have a fox with you when you passed out on the street? Because it wouldn’t let me come in here without it, I had to put in the bathroom and close the door, but apparently it got out.”
    My already wide eyes, widened further. I had completely forgotten about the white fox from the apartment building! Even though he had been with me the entire time, now that I look back upon the night before, I had never really registered the fact that he was following me. It felt like he was supposed to be there by my side.
    I flew out of the bed then, and ran past my astonished-looking brother. I yanked the ornate wooden door open and looked around for the fox. And there he was, scratching on what seemed to be the front door to the room we were in. His head turned and his pleading blue eyes met mine. But when I didn’t move from the door frame, he continued with his scratching accompanied with the occasional whine.
    Allen came up behind me then with a look of stupidity on his face. “I guess that means he has to go to the bathroom?”
    “Thank-you captain obvious.” I sneered, “He is an animal you know, it’s not like he doesn’t digest everything he eats.”
    I could hear him chuckling in the annoying way that he used to when we were kids. And just like back then, he didn’t take any of my jeers to heart. That was one of the reasons I had prayed I wouldn’t have to see him again. Doing my utmost best to ignore the growing urge to groin kick him, I walked to the fox and opened the door for him.
    “There you go Nivos.”
    “Nivos? Where did you come up with that name?” Allen asked from behind me.
    Ignore the urge, ignore the urge, I told myself. “For those of us who actually listened in Latin class, it’s an alteration of the simple word of cold precipitation. And for those who slept during class, it means ‘go figure it out for yourself’.
    “Oh, so you named him snow? How very original for an arctic fox.”
    “Shut up Allen, I didn’t name him snow, I named him Nivos. I named him after the snow.”
    He was quiet for a couple seconds so I decided to follow my follower. And with Allen following me, I felt like I was back in school again, elementary school to be exact. We would have to follow single file and alphabetically to all our classes. Allen would usually have to be in front of me, but being the mischievous little children we were, we would switch and I would be Allen and Allen would be Esther. The fact that we’re twins helped a lot, and so did my habit of dressing like a boy.
    I snapped out of my reminiscent trance though, when I ran into a rather burly looking figure. Having fast reflexes you would have thought that I could have avoided running into him in the first place, but that just wasn’t the case today.
    “Hey kid! Watch where you’re going! Don’t just go bustin’ up in someone’s business this time of night! You’re lucky I don’t knock you out the window for that!”
    I shook my head to clear the platinum blonde strands from my face and then looked to see whom I had the pleasure of running into. And what I saw, I definitely wasn’t expecting.
    He definitely was large, but he wasn’t fat in any way, shape or form. It all appeared to be muscle, and not in that disgusting body-builder way either. His figure loomed over my five foot six inch self, and his hair was a dark brown with a few stray bangs falling into his face. His eyes matched his hair and so did his jacket. But he shirt looked to be a dark gray with some sort of tractor logo on it and he wore dark blue jeans that clung to his combat boots. To sum it up, he looked like one of those guy models you saw for cologne.
    And luckily for him, none of this fazed me. Deciding to be a total bi-otch about the situation, I flipped my blonde hair behind my shoulder and glared at his perfect face. Behind me, Allen inhaled as quietly as he could. He had seen me in my bi-otch mode and he knew it wasn’t pretty.
    “You’ve got have got some major issues yourself. You saw me coming, you could have stepped out of the way, but being the type of boy you are, I assume you were just being a d**k-head. Not that it would be low for you anyway.”
    The man just looked at me, his coco brown eyes slightly widened. Either he was shocked by my three sentences or his face wasn’t as perfect as I was led to believe.
    Scoffing and flipping my hair for effect, I walked on searching for Nivos with Allen close at my heels.