Realizing he could no more go out through that door, his mind spun. The staircase was the only way to get down from his room. He glided towards the window to try and manage the creaking of the floor boards and opened it. He found that the only way was to jump down. But from the third floor and the bottom shrouded in night, his chance of surviving the jump was low. He did not have that much courage either. He hurriedly poked his head out to glance at how far the window next door was. He had to take the chance.

Not thinking too hard, he stepped on the window edge and stretched to reach the next one. If he understood this floor right, the next door should have its own private staircase down. The segmented nature of this house may have just save his life as he found his grip on the next door window and slid it open as quietly as he could slipped in.

He could feel his hands shaking as he crouched down on the floor. He did not take the time to take a breath as he navigated through the dark to the door, opened it in haste and hurried down the staircase. He knew at this moment that he was making a lot of noise, but he was betting on his youth and speed to escape before caught. As he reached the second floor, he felt pain slice past his skin as something barely missed his cheek.

Fear gripped his heart, not allowing him time to stay and find out what it was. A figure loomed over him suddenly, and he crouched, tripped and rolled down the remaining steps, crashing into table legs. Lacking the time to take in his surroundings and process the pain on his arm, he scurried up from the floor in a hurry just in time to be missed by a descending hammer.

The dark room seemed to protest his movement, placing obstacles in his way.His hand felt his way through the room clanking on things as he passed and like ghost hunting, the figure was not far behind either.

He could already guess where he was from slamming into things; the Kitchen. His hands felt around even more frantically, slamming into the pots and the next second, a descending hammer missed his chest but caught his arm. As he grunted and crouched, his hand landed on what felt to be the switch to a stove and he turned it on. The burner sprung to life with fire, illuminating the face of his Grand Aunt as she swung her hammer again.

This time, he was not so quick, allowing it to descend on his shoulder. The strike resonated through his shoulder blades down his chest making him scream in pain and kick out his legs to push her back, but she only caught it with ease at her midsection and struck the leg with the hammer in hand and his scream echoed through the room.

Even with the pain, his blood pumped twice as hard. He was sure of one thing; she was going to kill him. He stretched his hand or the nearest thing and a metal bin came into hand. Without thinking, he struck her looming face. Once was not enough as he struck repeatedly and quickly, till her grip on his legs, lessened, allowing him to scurry away in panic. He retreated till his back hit the cupboards and it sprung back lightly. At that moment, without much thought, he pushed the doors open and crawled in before closing in haste.

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He found at that moment, that he was in a large pantry. He hurriedly felt around for something to wedge between the door handles and grabbed a wooden spatula from a box nearby and secured the door, just in time for his aunt to try breaking in. Her heavy pounding as she tried to open the door seemed to echo the pounding from his chest. He hurriedly felt around the door for lock, but there was none, so he felt around the walls for a light switch then realized that he had not seen lights used during dinner. As night came, candles and lamps were lit. At the thought of why, he shivered lightly. This woman was too paranoid. Feeling round the boxes, for a match box, he found a lighter and clicked it on. It looked like something used to light lambs as it had a long nozzle. Small light illuminated the room allowing him to see a metal free standing bread shelf in the corner.

He hurriedly crawled forward and dragged it screeching on the wooden floors towards the door with all his strength. His legs hurt from the strike before, not allowing him to stand well, but he willed himself up and pushed till the shelf wedged close the door.

The pounding did not stop, so he knew she was determined to drag him out of there.

“Grand Aunt Mary!” he called, “Or not, that is not your name is it? You are not Mary Wu, are you?” he asked and the pounding seized as though confirming his word. To this, he chuckled.

“I can’t imagine how easy it was to take up that name for this long. My guess is, the one they saved from the Bailey incident was not Mary Wu, but an imposter. Tell me I’m wrong.” As he spoke, for the first time he could feel the sweat soaking his back, as his chest heaved trying to catch his breath.

“Your tenacity Jun; admirable.” he heard her aged voice from outside and chuckled. There was not even a hint of stress when she spoke. Nothing of the tired old woman remained.

“Military trained; you have to be.” he said, “Which country? I refuse to believe that America set up that entire incident to deceive their own.” To this she chuckled lightly.

“Why are you hiding, Jun? I have always answered your questions. I just came up to check on you and you ran.” she said, a hint of mockery in her voice.

“Oh? So you are saying if I was in bed sleeping, you would have let me go? Aunt, your lies are not consistent. You gave a sob story about your mother and those Kuni jeans. You did not realize that Kuni was introduced into the British market after the liberation. It did not have any factory till you were eighteen, unless aunt lied about her age. When you figured out you made a blunder to a history student, you came for me.” he seemed amused by the entire situation. He had thought she would not realize she had made a blunder till he left the property.

“If I am not Mary Wu, who am i?” she asked.

“I too wish to know where my grandaunt is.” he paused at the sight of the tool box in the corner and crawled over. Opening it, he saw a hammer much like that she had used on him, inside and took it out. The other side was silent. She had not said a word for a while.

“It was said that Mary Wu came out of that Bailey incident the survivor that brought together the nation.” he chuckled, “If a foreign spy replaced her, can you imagine the amount damage that has been done by now?”

“You are in no position to be threatening, Jun.” he could hear her approaching as she spoke.