Chapter 19- The Blind Pursuit

Ruh couldn't see anything for a few seconds.

A flash of light blinded him briefly as he sat in a small room, surrounded by Assassins. Sagi stood in a corner, watching him through menacing eyes.

Hands began to reach from below the ground, grabbing him and pulling him below into the darkness, tossing, tumbling, falling yet floating at the same time.

The saliva in his mouth made him feel like he was drowning, clogging his windpipe as he choked, gasping for air.

A man with a blindfold inched closer, thumping his staff while walking towards him.

Ruh watched in horror as the man reached into his eye and ripped his eyeballs from their sockets.

Worm-like appendages tore through his skull, ripping the man's body in half. The appendages grew larger in size, more akin to tentacles than worms. They floated into the darkness above.

Something silent screeched inside his head. His ears felt no pain while his skull vibrated in agony.

It reached for him through the darkness, leering closer and closer…

Ruh woke up with a start, gasping for air.

The sound of birds and the town outside greeted him.

Ruh took a moment to remind himself of his surroundings. The bed below him was soft and comforting, tempting to lull him back to sleep.

He fell back onto his bed, closing his eyes briefly, then opening them once again. The sun peered through the blinds softly tapping against his window. The wind from the fan nearby blew gently blew underneath his bedsheets.

Ruh could smell something frying down below. His stomach rumbled hungrily.

There were three knocks against his room door.

Ruh jumped off his bed and bent down to peer through the keyhole before he just decided to open the door. A large man stood outside, smiling.

"Hey there, bud. How're you feeling today?" Bob asked him.

"I'm…ok. Do you need me to do something, Bob?" Ruh asked.

Bob waved his hands and shook his head. "Oh, no no. Just wanted to see if you were up. Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes, so I came up to check what you wanted today."

"I'll…I'll eat whatever the staff cooks for today, or any leftovers would be fine too…" Ruh said, shifting against the door.

Bob let out a light chuckle. "I've told you; you don't need to eat leftovers here. We can make you anything you want to eat, just ask. Although, don't ask for anything too crazy for breakfast, or you might get in trouble with Silvia."

"Yeah…yeah," Ruh mumbled.

Bob waited for an answer but then decided to head back to the kitchen.

"So then, the same as usual?" Bob asked.

Ruh looked up at him and nodded. "Yeah."

"You'll have whatever Zimmi's having today?"

Ruh looked away as he answered. "Yeah."

Bob nodded. "Ok, I'll be off. Zimmi's in the training area, in case you need to talk to her."

Ruh cleared his throat. "Y...Yeah. I'll go there in a bit. Not right now, like, not immediately, but maybe a little later."

Bob chuckled and turned around. "Sure."

Ruh waited for the man to leave, keenly waiting for him to walk down the stairs before he dashed back into his room and grabbed the room keys. Locking it, he went down the hallway and up the staircase on the left to find the training room.

A shadow jumped out from the corner of the staircase.

Ruh spun around and created a barrier instantly with his hands.

A cat caught the small piece of tape sticking to Ruh's shoe. It started hitting it with its paws, rolling and turning around on its belly.

Ruh let out a sigh of relief and gently shooed the cat away before removing the tape on his shoe and throwing it in the bin nearby.

Through the clear glass doors, he saw the training area where most of the Gifted children would practice their talents on various training dummies with different equipment to maximize the usage of their powers whilst minimizing the risks of pushing past their limits.

The training was based purely upon their will to push forward, of course. Most children could gain a general understanding of their abilities within a few months during training. Ruh had beaten most of them in friendly duels.

Except for one.

"RUH!!! Hey, over here! Ruh!"

Zimmi waved at Ruh eagerly with a beaming smile directed at him. Ruh shuffled uncomfortably to where Zimmi was practicing against a plastic training dummy.

"Hey, Zimmi," Ruh mumbled.

Zimmi smiled and grabbed his hands. "You think we can try that move again?"

Ruh widened his eyes in surprise. "Sure, if you want to."

Zimmi jumped with glee and took her position a few metres away from Ruh. She took a brief glance at the teal-colored, vast room around her before she took up a runner's starting stance.

"Ready?" She asked, crouched over.

Ruh focused on the same training routine for the barrier that they had practiced and nodded.

"Ready."

Zimmi charged at Ruh with breakneck speed, jolts of electricity crackling with each step she took, until she dropkicked Ruh, sending him flying into the dummy.

Zimmi got back up and looked at the training dummy.

"I think we got him! But, umm…where's his…" Zimmi asked, tilting her head.

Ruh slowly got back up and pointed upwards. The upper half of the training dummy was lodged into the ceiling above.

"Whoops. Better wait and make sure we can use that properly." Zimmi giggled.

"I think we just need to work on the accuracy a bit. It seems that the move's pretty effective." Ruh nodded.

Zimmi looked at the dummy, flashing a look of hesitation. "Yeah…"

Ruh was curious about why she decided to suddenly stop training after that. Ruh continued to train, focusing on manipulating the barrier around him. He was able to figure out that he could use the force behind creating the barrier in a variety of ways, enabling Zimmi to launch him like a cannonball with her dropkick.

At least it keeps me protected. I'd hate to be on the receiving end of her attack without a barrier around me.

Zimmi sat on a bench nearby, looking at the dummy they had blown up in half.

"Hey, you ok?" Ruh asked, stopping his training regiment.

Zimmi snapped back to reality. "Wha…oh, I'm fine. Just daydreaming. Hehe."

Ruh frowned but tried not to notice the fact that Zimmi was awfully quiet today. He didn't see her talking with any of her other friends, or run to greet Silvia good morning or even cheer him on as he continued training.

"Ruh?"

Ruh looked at Zimmi. "Yeah? What's up?"

"When you were…you know…an Assassin…" Zimmi stammered.

"I wasn't actually an Assassin. I just trained with them for a bit."

Zimmi nodded. "Yeah. But…did you ever…ki…take someone's life?"

Ruh spun around to look at her. Her expression wasn't one of curiosity, it was one of concern. She seemed afraid to know the answer to that question.

"No. No. I've never…had the opportunity to go out on missions with the Assassins." Ruh shook his head.

The smile returned to Zimmi's face. "That's great!" She said, genuinely relieved.

"Did you think…that I…" Ruh asked.

"No, I didn't…but…you didn't tell me that you were an…were with the Assassins at first. So, I thought that you might've…" Zimmi looked down at the floor.

Ruh smiled at her. "It's fine. You just wanted the truth."

"I'm sorry that I thought of you like that. You're a nice person and…and I shouldn't have thought that you might have…" Zimmi apologized, ashamed with herself.

"Zimmi, it's really fine. I understand…but I do have to ask something."

"Sure. Anything." Zimmi said, looking back up at Ruh.

"Why did you want to know about…that?" Ruh asked her.

Zimmi stayed quiet for a while before speaking in a low voice.

"It's…nothing, really. It's just that Miss Silvia always told me that you can't kill someone because you don't have that power over someone else's life. You don't know what they've been through, don't know who they are or if they have someone who loves them that's waiting at home for them…like a daughter…"

Ruh nodded. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean that you should let everyone live. Some people deserve to…"

Ruh noticed that Zimmi had shifted her posture. She seemed hesitant to be standing anywhere near Ruh.

"W…What I mean is, sometimes people are just really terrible, you know? They kill and do other evil things, so maybe they need to die so no one else gets hurt. You understand, right?" Ruh re-phrased his statement.

"Yes…but sometimes bad people can change too. So we need to let them have another chance to become good. We've all done bad things before, haven't we?"

Ruh remembered all the times Sagi made him starve, cry and bleed.

"Not everyone can change, Zimmi," Ruh said.

"You did, didn't you? You were so grumpy and mopey, but now, every time you train with me or just hang around with me, you always have a nice smile on your face!" Zimmi let out a soft giggle.

Ruh immediately grew self-conscious and bit the inside of his cheek. "I do not!"

"Oh, yes you do! You're gonna smile right now! In three, two…"

Ruh's cheeks involuntarily stretched into a warm smile. Zimmi laughed, making Ruh join in a few seconds later.

"I'm sorry Ruh…I didn't want to…" Zimmi mumbled.

"I know. But it's fine now. Trust me." Ruh said.

"Yeah. Those meanies will never come back for you now. You can stay safe here and you can be happy!" Zimmi said.

Ruh shuddered as the screams of the prisoners in the dungeon speared through his body like cold metal. They would definitely come back for him and would probably treat him even worse than before, but…

Zimmi ran to hug Silvia as she entered the training area with a box of chocolate cereal, cookies and a carton of milk. She also held a report below the tray.

The Assassins would come for him, but he would go with them willingly if it meant that Zimmi would be safe from their wrath. He never wanted her to go through what he did with Sagi. Never.

"I see that you kids have been training extra hard lately, so I got you some of Uncle Bob's homemade cookies!" Silvia said, placing the tray onto a small table lined with water bottles and energy bars.

"COOKIE!" Zimmi squealed and gobbled one up.

Silvia cleared her throat and raised an eyebrow at Zimmi.

"Oh. Sorry. Ruh, would you mff…like tuh haff sum?" Zimmi said, her face stuffed with cookies.

"Uhh…no I think I'll just eat downstairs." Ruh politely declined.

"So, while Zimmi turns into the next Cookie Monster, let me tell you about your training records so far. Zimmi's performance has spiked and her condition has been regulated more efficiently with the new equipment we've been able to afford and her new training partner." Silvia said, flashing them a coy smile.

"That's you!" Zimmi whispered to Ruh, giggling softly.

"Speaking of Ruh, I've gotten reports saying that the two of you have been coming up with new moves and skillsets together. I just want to say that I'm very proud of the two of you working as a team." Silvia continued.

"Oh, that reminds me! Ruh, we need to make a secret handshake!" Zimmi said, excitedly.

"A…handshake?" Ruh asked.

Zimmi nodded. "Yeah. Do you have one already?"

"Umm… I guess so." Ruh said.

Zimmi held out her hand, waiting for Ruh to demonstrate. Ruh simply took her hand and shook it awkwardly.

Zimmi giggled. "No, no! That's not a secret handshake! That's a boring handshake!"

Ruh was flabbergasted. "Handshakes can be boring?"

Zimmi was about to show something to Ruh until she turned around and stared at Silvia. "No peeking, Miss Silvia!"

Silvia held her hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright. I'm turning around, no peeking."

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Zimmi waited for a few seconds and then asked Ruh to hold out his hand. She tried various movements, such as a high-five, a fist bump and an interlocking wiggle worm into a thumbs up.

However, Ruh kept failing at pulling off the moves at the right time.

Despite being unsuccessful, he was having a blast. Zimmi was giggling non-stop throughout the entire process, and he even caught Silvia looking behind her briefly and snickering every one in a while.

"Heheehe. Hold on, no, like this." Zimmi showed Ruh how to explode his fist-bump with his fingers, her face red from laughing.

"Like this?" Ruh asked, laughing along with her.

"No, no! You just poked my palm! That's not a high-five!" Zimmi giggled again.

"This is really hard," Ruh mumbled with a smile.

"Mmm…how about we go with something simple? Like a pinky promise?"

Ruh looked at her. "What's that?"

Zimmi took Ruh's pinky finger and wrapped it around hers. "You do that and then usually, you say a promise to the other person, but we can use it as a secret handshake for now as well."

Zimmi placed her other hand on her chest, taking a solemn vow. "I promise to make Ruh my best friend and together, we shall create the most epic handshake in history!"

Ruh grinned. "Ok…I promise to…uhh…make you my best friend too?"

Zimmi giggled. "Nice! Ok, Miss Silvia, you can look now."

Silvia turned around, trying hard to suppress her smile. "Now that you both are done, head downstairs and grab some breakfast. Your level counters have been surging with all the training you've been doing. Zimmi climbed to level 17 yesterday and Ruh is at level 16, but you're close to levelling up! Good job!"

Ruh nodded. "Thanks, Si…erm…Miss Silvia. I'll work harder so that I can win against Zimmi in a duel next time."

Zimmi jumped with glee. "Yeah! One day you're going to defeat me, Ruh! Keep training hard with me!"

The two-headed downstairs into the cafeteria, where a bunch of the other Gifted children were eating their meals before they headed off to their classes for the day.

Bob greeted the two kids on the way to their regular seats. These days it was filled with children who were huge fans of Zimmi after the tournament.

They all waved at her and had saved her a seat at the table.

"Hey, guys!" Zimmi said, taking her seat.

Ruh couldn't find a seat, so he decided to take another chair and sit with her.

For some reason, the other kids weren't willing to give him any space to sit with Zimmi. They didn't even seem to acknowledge the fact that he was right behind them.

"Uhh…Zimmi…" Ruh called out, but his voice was drowned out by the other children talking and asking Zimmi questions.

Ruh's stomach grumbled. Zimmi would talk to him once she was done, so he decided to just take his breakfast and eat it.

Holding out his tray at the serving table, he picked a few items that he always saw the Assassins eat during his time with them. Of course, he had to settle for leftovers and bread crusts. Compared to that, this breakfast was good enough to be his food for three days, so he took his time.

Bob was behind the serving counter and smiled at Ruh. "Hey there!"

Ruh looked at him in surprise. "Hi. Umm…weren't you just…"

"Oh, the cafeteria staff needed to take a bit of a break, so I'm covering their shift. Zimmi decided she would eat a cheesy omelette, a cup of fruity Yogurt and some spicy tuna sandwiches. Does that sound good to you?" Bob asked.

Ruh's stomach felt like it caused an earthquake. "Yes, please."

After receiving his food, he sat down at an empty table before digging in. The food was warm and fresh; the omelette soft and buttery along with the slight tang from the fruit-flavored yogurt and the sizzling heat from the spicy tuna sandwich.

All in all, Ruh felt like a king.

"Hey, Zimmi. These sandwiches are sooo goo…"

Ruh forgot that she wasn't seated next to him.

The boy ate his food in silence until the students hurried to their rooms to get the books for their classes. Ruh walked to his room with a full belly.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a dark shadow dart through the trees outside through the window of his room.

Ruh shook his head, attempting to get rid of his paranoia.

You might as well enjoy this while you can. They're coming back to take you, whether you like it or not.

The thought soured Ruh's mood for the rest of the day.

________________________________________________________________

"So, to summarise, what is the number one rule when it comes to potions?"

"They don't work if you're dead." The class said collectively in response.

"Good, so remember to avoid dying as much as possible. You kids may be superpowered baboons, but back in my day…"

The final bell rang, cutting off the teacher mid-rant and prompting the students to hastily stack their books and papers to run back to their rooms.

"Now, remember, I need a one-page essay about the mythos of Revive potions on my desk by Thursday from all of you." The teacher called out, making most of the class groan.

Ruh walked out of the class with Zimmi by his side. The last class of the day always felt like the longest class. Sometimes Ruh was fairly sure the teachers at the school were using some sort of time suspension trickery because he was fairly sure the second hand of the clock stopped working quite a few times.

"I have no idea about what to write for that essay." Zimmi groaned.

Ruh smiled. Despite her upbeat attitude, even Zimmi despised after-class work.

"Don't worry, I'll help you. I know quite a few things about potions from…yeah. I know about potions." Ruh said.

"That's great! We can make up for the lost time during breakfast!"

Ruh stopped in his tracks. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I didn't get to hang out with you during breakfast time."

Ruh shook his head. "That's fine! You needed to talk with your other friends."

Zimmi giggled. "Yeah, my other friends. I can't leave my best friend eating by himself at a table all alone. That would be a violation of the pinky promise we had, and pinky promises should never be broken!"

Heh. She actually noticed. I mean, I shouldn't care…I mean I don't care!

"Sure, whatever. That's fine." Ruh mumbled.

Zimmi scowled for a while and shuffled around with an uncomfortable expression.

"You ok?" Ruh asked.

"I need to go to the bathroom. Really badly." She said, embarrassed.

"Oh, I'll hold your books for you. You go ahead." Ruh said immediately.

"Thanks. You're a really nice person, Ruh!" Zimmi giggled, walking towards the bathroom.

Ruh blushed. "Am not!"

"Are too!" Zimmi giggled and closed the bathroom door.

Ruh shook his head with a smile and walked to the nearby window. The cold night air blew around him, sending tiny goosebumps down his skin.

He loved this spot. It was on the second floor from which you could see the entire town of Kleise. Zimmi loved to stand here and go on and on about how nice the people were, or how pretty the sky looked, or how yummy the pastries racked on the display shelf of the bakery smelt.

And Ruh could listen to her go on for hours.

Ruh envied her at first. He envied how happy she was. How satisfied she was with what she had and never seemed to want anything. How the people around her seemed happier by extension.

And suddenly, the world wasn't so harsh to him anymore. Those moments- Those simple, silent moments as his cheek rested against the cold steel of the window frame, listening to Zimmi talk about nothing and everything…those moments were undoubtedly some of the best moments of his life.

Shame it won't stay this way.

The streets were empty today. Usually at this time during the evening, Ruh would always see some sort of street performance outside the Foundation.

The Foundation building and their living quarters were two separate buildings, separated by a few blocks. They stayed at the orphanage building but came to the Foundation for classes. The Foundation planned to make the two buildings adjacent, but real estate laws were a real bitch in Kleise.

But for some reason, Ruh couldn't see any of the students or teachers walking back to the orphanage today from the window.

Where the hell are they?

The cold air was no longer refreshing. It cut through his skin like a volley of needles, pricking every inch, making his hairs stand on end.

His head was filled with the sensation of nails grating against a chalkboard, screeching an eerie warning.

MOVE!

The noise felt like his head was about to burst, making him jolt aside forcibly. Something small clinked behind him.

A dart with a vial built into it.

A terrible memory resurfaced in Ruh's mind. When he once tried to escape from the Assassins on his own, they shot a tranquilizer dart into the back of his neck. Sometimes, he managed to escape from them and stayed hidden for a good few days. But they always found him, no matter where he ran or hid.

A blood-curdling scream came from the lower floor.

Ruh rushed to help and saw Silvia guarding most of the children from shadows that crept closer towards them. Some of the shadows halted at the sight of Ruh and began to approach him instead.

Ruh froze in fear, like a deer in headlights.

"Ruh, run! Don't just stand there!" Silvia yelled.

Ruh held his hands up in surrender. "I'll go with you, just leave them alone!"

However, the Assassins still seemed to be advancing towards Silvia and the children, despite Ruh's desperate attempts to go with them peacefully.

"I said stop! Don't hurt them; they have nothing to do with me!"

The Assassins ignored him once again.

Why aren't they listening to me? They're after me, not the others, aren't they?

A bright, blinding flare lit up the room, forcing the Assassins to revert back to their normal bodies. Men charged in and drove them off with their weapons, making the Assassins retreat.

"Evacuate the civilians!"

Ruh saw a swarm of guards wearing the crest of the Central Kingdom on their body armor fight off against numerous Assassins. A large signal torch burned brightly towards the edge of the town, alerting the townspeople to evacuate.

A few troops were wearing the insignia of the Elite Nobelists as well, though they mostly came of their free will and not upon orders from their superiors.

"We received reports from patrols that the town was under attack. We came here as soon as we could." said a guard with a henna-dyed beard.

"Yeah, the Chief of Security back at HQ nearly took our heads off after he heard that Spiti got attacked and had no reinforcements. But these freaks aren't catching us off guard this time!" Grunted another of his comrades.

"Ma'am, we need you to take the children and get to the evacuation zone. The people there are more equipped to hold off the Assassins until the emergency evacuation team gets here." Said a man, who appeared to be the squadron leader from the way he barked out orders to the other troops.

"I'll do that. Bless you, for coming to help us." Silvia said in relief.

She did a quick count of the children, making sure that all of them were present. There was only one missing.

"Where's Zimmi?" Silvia asked, with fear in her voice.

Ruh realized he was still clutching her books to his chest. He set them aside and turned to run up the stairs before Silvia caught him by his sleeve.

"Ruh! Where are you going?! We need to leave now!" Silvia said.

"Zimmi's still up there! I need to get her to safety!" Ruh said, swatting her arm aside.

"Don't be stupid! The guards can go get her; you need to come with us!"

"Let go of me!" Ruh pulled his arm away and ran.

"Ruh, get back here!" Silvia yelled before she was escorted outside the building by the guards.

"Ma'am, these kids need you. Make sure they get there safely, we'll be covering you in the meantime." The captain said.

"But…"

"You have no need to worry. We'll make sure any others left in the building are escorted to safety." The captain said immediately.

"Ok, ok. Kids, stick close to each other. Run as fast as you can with these men, you'll be ok." Silvia said.

Silvia looked at the empty hallways and the floor above, with the lights flickering.

"Please be ok."

________________________________________________________________

Ruh sprinted faster than he ever did in his entire life. His heart was beating rapidly, the sound echoing in his head like a drum.

He tried to move around a corner a little too quickly and slid on the tiled floor. Desperately grabbing onto anything nearby to stay upright and retain his momentum, Ruh gritted his teeth together as he spotted the bathroom nearby.

The white light from the bathroom at the end of the dark hallway illuminated the path in front of him. The school was eerily silent, except for Ruh's heavy breathing and footsteps.

There was a trail of red blotches leading into the girls' bathroom.

Ruh's heart slammed his chest hard.

No, no. No, no, no, no…this wasn't supposed to happen.

He followed the red trail with his eyes slowly as he put his hand on the door to open it. The hardwood felt uneven to his fingers. His stomach felt uneasy and he wasn't aware of how dry his throat felt.

The door slowly creaked open as the light flickered briefly.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Both Ruh and Zimmi screamed in surprise as the boy opened the door.

"Ruh, what the fuck are you doing in here?!" Zimmi asked, before covering her mouth with her hands with a horrified expression on her face.

Ruh was briefly taken aback by her brash words. "I came here to get you out of here! The Assassins are attacking the Foundation!"

"Ohhh. Well, I'm done peeing, so let's go!" Zimmi smiled.

Ruh noticed that her clothes were stained with red patches.

"What happened to your clothes?"

"Oh, this is nothing. Just a prank that one of the other girls pulled on me. But the good thing is, I smell like ketchup now!" Zimmi giggled.

She held her arm out for Ruh to smell. Ruh shook his head and told her to focus until they escaped.

"Aww, man. Party pooper." Zimmi grumbled as she ran with Ruh.

The shoes squeaked on the floor as they dashed to get to the stairway. All they had to do was take a right around the corner, cross the hallway and they…

A man stood near the entrance of the stairway at the end of the hallway. His eyes were covered by a blindfold and he held two bo staffs in either hand.

And for some reason, he was wearing nothing but a loincloth.

"Ruh, it's so good to see you. Who's your friend?"

Zimmi clutched Ruh's hand tightly. "Ruh, who is this person? Do you know him?"

"Of course he does. You can call me uncle Dairokkan, sweetie." He said, with a sinister smile on his face.

The name sent shudders down Ruh's spine. They couldn't rush past him and there was no way to outrun him.

Ruh's eyes fell upon a wire that connected to a fuse box nearby.

"You can come with me. I'll take you to see Keith." Dairokkan said.

The lights in the hallway started to flicker rapidly, mirroring Ruh's erratic pulse.

"You know Mr. Keef?" Zimmi asked in surprise, letting go of Ruh's hand.

"Yes. I know that the two of you are very good friends. Let me take you along with me. We'll have lots of fun with him." Dairokkan said, taking a step forward.

Ruh felt panic grab him by his throat. They weren't here for him. They were here to abduct Zimmi to get revenge on Keith.

Ruh felt Zimmi yank him as she ran in the opposite direction, pulling him along with her.

"Sorry, but Miss Zimmi told me I'm not supposed to go anywhere with weirdos dressed in loincloths! I'm a kid, but I'm not stupid!" She yelled back at Dairokkan.

Ruh ran with her, waiting for the right moment to signal Zimmi to blow the fuse box so that they could escape. He also threw objects to slow down their pursuer as they ran back through the hallway.

"Zimmi, the fusebox," Ruh said, making Zimmi nod once she understood his plan.

Terror struck him as he shot a look behind him and saw that Dairokkan had disappeared.

A burst of fear and adrenaline coursed through him when he heard something scuttle on the ceiling in pursuit of them.

Dairokkan chased after them using the ceiling, like a twisted demonic spider, rapidly gaining on the two children as they ran past the fusebox.

"Zimmi, now!"

Zimmi halted immediately and spun around. Dairokkan pounced on her from the ceiling, reverting back from his shadow form.

Charging her fist with electricity, she punched the fusebox, causing a massive electrical outburst to discharge and stun Dairokkan momentarily as he grunted angrily in pain.

The lights in the hallway stopped working.

Zimmi stuck her tongue out, mocking the Chief of the Assassins before Ruh grabbed her and ran away.

"Go put some clothes on, you big meanie!" She yelled.

"Zimmi, could we not make the crazy Assassin more incentivized to chop our heads off?" Ruh grunted as he sprinted into a hallway with a group of classrooms.

"Ok! Sorry, Mr. Uncle Dairokkan!"

They stuck to the walls of the hallway, slowly walking to avoid any noises that would give away their location. Thankfully, there was some comfort to be taken in the fact that it was extremely dark in the hallways.

Ruh's heart nearly jumped into his throat when he heard a sinister cackle from around the dark corner of the hallway.

"Ruh! You do know that I don't need lights to see you, don't you?"

The two children heard the wooden thumps of Dairokkan's bo staffs getting closer.

The backup generator had kicked in and began to power the lights once again, though they were still flickering rapidly. Ruh forced himself to calm down and think. It would take a while for the guards to come searching for them to make sure everyone had been evacuated, maybe a couple of minutes.

They just had to survive until then, or try to get past Dairokkan.

"Time's up kids! Enough playing hide and seek!"

The second option seemed impossible, so Ruh opted to stall Dairokkan so that Zimmi could get some time to hide.

"Zimmi, I need you to find someplace to hide and stay quiet," Ruh said.

"Ok, we can go to Mr. Benkinson's class. There's a bunch of places where we can hide there…"

"Not we. You."

Zimmi looked at Ruh with defiance. "No, we are not splitting up! The boy always gets chopped up in horror stories. I don't want you to get chopped up!"

"I'm NOT going to get chopped up!" Ruh seethed.

"Ruh! Come out and I promise I won't hurt the girl!"

"He sounds like he's lying, Ruh," Zimmi stated.

"Yeah, and water is wet," Ruh mumbled, rolling his eyes.

"Water is wet, Ruh. That's a pretty obvious fact. You should really pay more attention in class, dummy." Zimmi giggled softly.

Ruh heard Dairokkan slam a door shut around the corner.

"Go! I'll come for you when it's safe!" Ruh whispered urgently.

"Don't suck and do the thing right!" She whispered encouragingly.

She disappeared around the corner without a sound.

Weirdest advice that I've ever heard, but still solid advice.

Ruh heard footsteps approaching closer towards him.

Holding his hands against his mouth to silence his breathing, Ruh took off one of his shoes, getting ready to distract the Chief Assassin. He had to make sure that he could throw it far enough.

"I can smell you."

Ruh turned around to find Dairokkan peering around the corner with the ends of his blindfold dangling just beside Ruh; a terrifying creature that inched closer to the boy out of the corner with each flicker of the hallway lights.

Ruh bit his lips together and hurled his shoe across the hallway.

Dairokkan looked around towards the direction of the sound. He slowly began walking towards the shoe.

Ruh slowly got up and began to walk in the opposite direction, quickly, but silently. Each step was an invitation for danger though his chances of escape grew with each successful and cautious movement away from Dairokkan.

Ruh stopped in his tracks. Something was wrong. He hadn't made any noise when he put his foot down, but that noise…that screeching, dreadful noise…it rang through his head like an alarm.

And as he looked behind him slowly, he knew exactly what was wrong.

Dairokkan's head was tilted towards Ruh's direction, with a chilling smile on his face.

"You were always terrible at stealth training, my boy."

Ruh sprinted through the hall, trying to find some way, any way to throw off his pursuer. Looking over his shoulder while he dashed away was probably the worst thing he could've done at that moment.

Dairokkan seemed to gain a burst of inhuman speed, gaining on Ruh with demonic fervor. The lights blinked on and off as Dairokkan's footsteps grew louder and quicker, his yellow and jagged teeth visible through his twisted smile.

Ruh ran as fast as he could, purposefully running away from the hallway Zimmi ran to so that he could draw Dairokkan away.

"GAME OVER, LITTLE RAT!"

A furious roar was the last thing that Ruh heard before Dairokkan jumped out of the shadows, pinning Ruh to the ground. Ruh frantically used his barrier to push off the Assassin as he stood back up.

What do I do? What the hell do I do?

Ruh looked around. The emptiness of the hallway seemed to mock him and his futile attempts to escape. Dairokkan sneered at Ruh as he twisted the rubber grip on both of his staffs, protruding a pointed spearhead from either staff with a deadly glint.

Ruh couldn't concentrate. The force of the impact from Dairokkan made it hard to focus on creating another barrier around him.

Dairokkan scraped his staffs against the walls as he stepped closer towards Ruh.

This is it. At least I did some good, right?

Closing his eyes, he heard the spear whizz towards him through the air. His mind flashed briefly to this morning's secret handshake with Zimmi. Perhaps it was his way of convincing himself that his life wasn't completely bad.

She's safe. She'll be fine now.

Perhaps it was his way of reminding himself that he finally had something to live for. To fight for.

A metallic thwang resonated through Ruh's ears.

A scream of pure agony echoed through the halls.

When Ruh opened his eyes, Dairokkan was reeling in pain and fury.

Zimmi stood in front of him, panting.

She held a metal rod that was nearly as tall as she was, crackling and bursting with electricity coursing through the rod. She pointed it at the Assassin, making a beam of electric energy jump to the hallway light above, shattering it.

"I don't like beating up blind people, but I'm going to beat the crap out of you."