Stirring awake, I go to rub my eyes but my hands are tied behind me. Oh for goodness sake! Can I ever just have a peaceful day?

“Did you have a nice Christmas?” A husky voice asks me. I look up and see a blurry figure standing in front of me.

“W-Where’s Alex?” I ask, blinking to try and make it less blurry.

“He’s next to you, still unconscious though! He was hit pretty hard!” I look to my right, and there Alex was, slumped over with a sack over his head. God!

“What did you do to him?” I spit.

“Nothing! He got hit and just hasn’t woken up yet…” He smiles.

“How comes I didn’t have anything over my head?” I question curiously.

“Cos, my dear, Alex knows me!” he smirks, before looking over to Alex. My face drops. He can tell. “Yeah, shocked are we Alyssa?” The way he emphasised my name scared me. How much did he know about me?

“Alex? Alex!” I say, shouting at Alex’s lifeless body. I tried to get the scary thought of this guy knowing me out of my head. “ALEX!” The lifeless body twitches a little and the covered head slowly lifts up. I sigh with relief but this guy grabs me by my face and makes me look at him.

“Aww, well maybe now you can have some help in working out who I am, eh?” He smirks at me.

“Where the fuck am I?” Alex shouts. His voice slightly mumbled by the bag.

“Alex, Alex, Alex… How nice of you to join me! I was just having a chat with Alyssa, she’s a lovely girl isn’t she?” He speaks in a patronising tone.

“You better not touch her…” Alex growls. I’d never heard him being protective! He partially was when we first met, but I think it was more of a natural reaction.

“Oh!” The guy says shocked, “Why? Is she your girlfriend?” He says, saying ‘girlfriend’ in a childish tone. There was silence. The guy walks over to me and bends down.

“Are you his girlfriend?” He says, too close to my face.

“No!” I say, instantly.

“Ah well then, I’m sure he won’t mind if I do this!” As he says ‘this’ he slaps me across the face with the back of his hand. I try not to say anything and simply breathe heavily. “Ah, how brave, don’t want him to hear you getting hurt?” he whispers in my ear. He grabs a knife out of his back pocket and the lighting from above reflects off it and into my eyes. I close my eyes and look away.

“Ahhh! Shit!” I scream as a huge pain is felt just under my collar bone as he scrapes the edge of the blade along my chest. I breathe heavier and growl as the pain remains with me.

“Leave her alone!” Alex says, his voice going deep and harsh.

“Sorry, did I ask you to interfere?” He shouts over to Alex.

“Just leave her alone! What’s she done to you?” he says, almost pleading. It sounded pathetic really.

“She’s done a lot more to me than you have…” He says as he kicks me in the stomach and I fall backwards.

“Asshole!” I exclaim as I hit the ground, my hands being crushed under the back of the chair. Luckily I’d kept them open, so I don’t think they’ll be hurt. “I don’t even know you!” Great, I sound pathetic too!

“I want to play a little game, with you two…” he begins, walking over and picking up my chair so I’m sitting normally again. I move my hands, they’re fine. Phew. “I’m gonna play guess the bad guy. If you get it wrong, I shoot the other one, ok?”

“What? No!” I shout.

“Scared you’ll get it wrong?” He hisses.

“Well, yeah!” I say, thinking it was obvious. Even more reason to play it, I guess!

“Right, Alex, you first!” He smiles  and walks over to him. “Who do you work for?”

“That’s got nothing to do with it!” He shouts. The guy cocks his gun. “Des! Ok? I work for Des!” The guy smiles.

“Alyssa, your go! Take an educated guess… Who do you think I work for?” Oh shit…

“You?” I say, trying to clarify the question. He assumed I was answering.

“Well done! Alex, your life has been spared for another second!” I let out a huge sigh of relief. Lucky!

“Alex, question two… Ah, this’ll be too easy. I’ll change it. Alyssa, you just have to guess who I am. I’ll give you five guesses. If you don’t get it by then, BANG!” He says, aiming his gun at an unaware Alex.

“Oh god… Can I ask Alex for help?” I ask.

“Yeah, he can give you names if you wish!” I rack my brains. I can’t even think of anyone it could be!

“You’re not Scott are you? MIA and all that shit?” Alex says.

“Nope!” The guy laughs. “Four more guesses!”

“That counted?” Alex said. “Shit!” Oh God. I don’t know! I don’t know any one else!

“Alex, I don’t know anyone else!” I say. “He told me you’d recognise him. That’s why you’re blind!”

“Hey! Did I say you could confer? One guess taken away!” He laughs evilly.

“What? How is that fair?! You never told me any rules!” I say. He walks over to me and holds the knife to my cheek. He pulls it across my cheek and I hold back from screaming in pain, just making a small yelp.

“I make up the rules…” He hisses in my ear.

“3 chances now, after back chatting.” I shake my head and screw up my face. The nerve of this guy. Right, think… Someone Alex would recognise. Alex is THE assassin, so it wouldn’t be a victim; he always gets each and every one of them. Alex has no family any more either, so that leaves…

“Alex! Its someone you used to work with I think!” I shout, knowing I’d never be able to produce a name.

“2 chances now!” he says, but worry is beginning to show on his face. Alex’s leg is twitching. I keep thinking.

“Before I came along!” I say, hoping that would help.

“1 chance now!” What?! I thought that counted as part of the other conversation! Dammit.

“COLIN!” Alex shouts through the sack. “You were kicked out of the team the day you reached 40 and Alyssa was hired that same day.” I look up to the ceiling. Thank God!

“Alex… You’re good, I must admit…” He walks over and takes the bag off his head, throwing it to the side. “Nice to see your face again!”

“Colin, what the hell?” Alex asks, his face etched with confusion.

“Des thinks he can kick me out for being 40? Well I proved to him already that I’m better than half the people he hired! Pete, Gail? Couldn’t even handle my newest people! Alyssa, you did quite well I must say… And you made quite a mess of poor Jack, his head had a chunk missing as he was slouched on the toilet. Serves him right though…” He walks over to me and moves my hair off my face. “For such a pretty, young face, you’re a good killer. I’ve watched you guys for a while… I put a tracker in Des’s phone, every text he sent to you guys, every case; I could follow you. Alyssa, the way you dealt with Mrs Carmichael? Pretending you were in a bike accident?” He stares into my eyes, but I look away.

“Hey! Leave her alone!” Alex shouts again.

“Alex! I’m just chatting!” he smiles, holding his hand up as if gesturing him to stop. “And Alex, the way you dealt with Mr Grey? He’s jogging in the park, next minute he’s in the back of your van with a bullet in his heart. Nice. I wondered how easy it would be to pretend I was Des, and look how it panned out. But Alyssa, you’re lucky, I didn’t want you dead. I wanted to see you, wanted to see who’d replaced me. That barn? I was there, and I watched you two heartlessly kill all my workers.” He paused for a second and gestured at a guy standing by the door, who walks out with a grin on his face.

“Colin…” Alex begins.

“Ah ah ah…” Colin says shaking his head. “I’ve not finished. Now, I thought you two were a great pair, but after you, Alex, shot that guy in the head while interrogating him I knew you’d hit that moment. The moment you didn’t care anymore. You officially got past the barrier and became heartless. You’d kill a 5 year old girl if Des told you to… You killed that 18 year old that Alyssa wouldn’t… And you know what makes me happy? Do you?”

“No?” I say, intrigued by this story.

“Alex. You make me happy. I know what it’s like to go past the point of caring. I had a hit on a pregnant woman and I shot her down like a dog. Did I care? No! What I love about this though, Alex, is I know if I asked you to pick between two people, you wouldn’t have a care in the world. You’d think about who would help you out the most, eh? If I just so happened to have two people you got on with, you’d have to pick…” I look over at Alex, who has no facial expression. He really has reached that point!

“Your point being?” Alex said, shrugging.

“Well, you see, if I happened to bring in… Scott…” As he said Scott’s name, the guy who had disappeared came back practically carrying Scott into the room. He was battered, bruised and barely conscious. The man throws him on the floor in front of us. Scott winces in pain. “Hi Scott!” Colin says patronisingly. “How are you feeling?” Scott glares up to him.

“S-Scott? Are you alright?” I ask timidly. He nods at me.

“See, if I were to ask you to pick…” Colin says, pulling a gun out of his pocket and cocking it. “Pick between Scott, the older but wiser workmate, or Alyssa, the younger, more agile but more caring girl… Who would you pick?” Me and Scott exchanged worried looks.

“Well I’d have to pick-” He was interrupted by Colin.

“Whoever you pick, I shall spare. The other will die in a shameless way…” He said morbidly. Shit! I don’t wanna die, and I think Scott was saying the same thing in his head.

“What? Why?” Alex said, his eyebrows raised. “What would be the point in that?”

“Fun?” Colin shrugged. Fun? He really has gone waaaay past that stage of caring, and there was me still thinking about that 18 year old we killed…

“Alex… Just make the right decision, yeah?” I say, trying not to seem too affected. In my head I’m screaming ‘SAVE ME!’

“I… I can’t… I don’t want to decide!” Alex stuttered.

“Well I’ll make it for you!” He said, aiming the gun at my head. I shut my eyes.

“WAIT!” Scott shouts. “Alex, make the decision… Think about it at least! He could kill the only chance you have to get outta here!”

“But you’re like a dad to me! She’s my sister! How can I?” Alex seemed so caring, or was it all a front?

“Time’s running out.” Colin stated.

“I’ve made my decision…” Alex said, regret lingering in his voice. “Guys please shut your eyes, I want to point it out. I don’t want either of you hearing…” It was a nice thought, I had to admit. I certainly would rather shut my eyes and get shot than sit there and hear him pick Scott over me, then waiting to die. I shut my eyes as tight as I can and breathe in and out so deeply I begin to feel dizzy. God this seems to be taking a long time, just shoot someone already!!

BANG!