"Motherfucker! You owe me a new phone!" I scream at Tom as soon as I got home.

I barged into my apartment and was not at all surprised to see him there, and honestly, I couldn't care what the reason was that brought him.

"Bitch, I don't owe you nothing" he replies in a monotonous voice.

I was raging mad and I was ready to punch a hole in the wall.

I let out a frustrated muffled sound between a growl and a shriek and marched my way into the kitchen.

Fuck this! Fuck that! Fuck HIM! FUCK THIS WHOLE COUNTRY!

I see Tom sneak a peek at me as I passed him laying down on my couch.

"What happened to you?" he asked.

"Nothing," I snap at him.

"Your bleeding from multiple cut wounds," he retorts.

"I said it's nothing!" I bark.

He just silently pushes himself off my couch and walks up to me, I don't stop what I'm doing as I carry a pot to the sink and fill it with water.

Tom stops right next to me and grabs hold of my face, angling it towards him so I was forced to look at his stupid face with his intense stupid blue-gray eyes.

"What's wrong?" he says seriously, all humor gone from his voice.

I wanted to punch him. But instead I squirmed.

"Talk," he orders.

I narrow my eyes at him, "When did you become so bossy?" I drag my face away from his grip and glare at him.

He remains silent.

I give and exaggerated sigh, "I ran into some trouble after the hostages were saved." I spat out venomously.

Tom just folds his arms and continues to look at me.

"I ran into 'that guy' again" I let out.

Tom's eyes snap wide open.

"Ember-" he begins.

"Tom-" I counter with a whine.

I soooooo did not want to talk about this. It was too embarrassing and tom was the last person I'd want to know about the events that took place just afew hours ago.

"I knew it was a bad idea to tell you," I mumble.

He slams a hand next to the table top were the pot in the sink was now overflowing with water.

"Oh shit!" I cry upon noticing the water over spilling.

"What happened!?" Tom asked harshly.

I spill out the extra water from the pot and carry it to the stove. I turn it on to medium high heat and turn back to Tom who was restlessly wait for my answer.

"Question?" I say to him.

He tilts his head to the side, "I asked you first"

"Mine is more important"

"Will you answer mine if I answer yours?"

"Definitely"

"Then ask away"

I took a deep breath.

"Why do you care so much?" I simply ask.

He froze.

"What?" he asked back slowly.

"Why do you care so much?" I repeat, then corrected. "Not that 'why do you care about me so much' but...why do you care so much about this guy?"

Tom gave me an 'are-you-stupid?' look.

"Because he's dangerous?" he said slowly as if he was trying to explain trigonometry to a toddler.

"I've been up against far way worst," I counter.

"No you haven't..." Tom replied darkly.

"I once fought a dude with chainsaws for arms!?"

Tom comes up to me and places both his arms on the counter behind me, trapping me beneath him.

"What makes this guy so dangerous is because you don't know him..." he says forebodingly.

That caught me by surprise.

"He knows you" Tom continues. "You've always known who your enemies where, the people they used to be or what drove your opponent to do what they do."

Realization dawned on me as he spoke.

"But I know nothing about him..." I whisper back.

Tom nods and backs away at my sudden awareness at the situation.

"Now, what happened?" he asked again.

I moisten my lips as I tried to find the words to speak.

"A-after the people taken hostage were being recused and taken down by the rescue helicopters, S-sally had sent up a m-message for me" I don't know why my voice shook so much. "The order came out of nowhere!"

~3 hours earlier~

"I'm sorry what!?" I yell at the police officer on the rescue chopper as it carried its last batch of people.

"Orders straight from the chief herself," the guy says alittle apologetically. He was one of the few law enforcements who didn't hate my guts.

"Give me your phone!" I demanded.

He didn't argue and just tossed it to me.

I had no idea how I had Sally's personal number memorized but next thing I know the phone was already ringing her number.

"Hel-"

"I AM NOT YOUR FUCKING GUINEA PIG!!" I yell into the phone before she could finish answering.

"It's completely safe-" again, I didn't let her finish.

"Just because you blasted a Goddamn EMP and short circuit all electronics in the building does not mean it's safe for me to go be your test dummy!" My voice echoed lowly all across the roof.

"Relax, the bomb analysts' say there's an 85% survivability rate"

"Grrr! You...I...I don't fucking believe-!"I was seriously at a loss for bloody words.

"Do this and the state will owe you a great debt of gratitude!" Sally continues in an obviously fake sweet voice.

"The state knows how I feel about their fake ass gratitude," I replied sassily.

"Do it for a $1,000?"

"I'm not a slut~" I sang back.

"10,000 dollars."

"I r-he-he-ally don't wanna do this," I whine, breaking on the inside.

"$10,000 and no parking tickets for a year."

I paused for a moment.

"You've got yourself a deal" I finally yield.

Sally chuckled, "Ha, any higher and I would've offered you a free first ticket to the screening of the upcoming blockbuster action movie."

"Which one?!" I joked, "We've got about 8 coming out every year! Plus I always get a red carpet invite to those!"

I cut the call and look up at the last batch of people about to depart.

Cindy smiled at me, "'I guess I do it because no one else will...'?" she repeats back my earlier words.

I give her a meek smile.

********************************************************************************

~30 minutes later~

(*Still 2 and a half hours prior to the present*)

"So far so good," I say into the earpiece that had been given to me, it was a direct line to Sally.

"Remain cautious, you still have 20 more floors to go..." her static voice came through the earpiece.

I walked slowly down every floor, with nothing but a flash light I'd taken from the first aid kit of the chopper and 2 bullets left in my Sig Pro.

In the eerie darkness, I balanced the flashlight I held in my right hand upon my left, which also happened to be holding the knife that I still had. The blade hidden in the dark which was unreachable by the light emitting from the flashlight.

In this case if anything came at me, it would be unaware of the knife that I'd readily use to protect/defend myself. I held both flashlight and knife very close to my body.

The windows of the office building were automatic, and with Sally dismissing a burst of EMP at the building they all closed shut.

Each floor was bone chillingly quiet as those who hadn't been taken hostage had swiftly fled and deserted the building.

I was used to living in abandoned buildings like this back when I was a kid, so I wasn't really phased by being in eerie environments.

But this eeriness was...different.

It was off because I didn't feel alone.

I walked around down the quiet corridors, my footsteps echoing and the light of my torch flashing off reflective surfaces.

"Ah....ha....aaah....ha" my breathing became too heavy as it joined the other sounds plaguing my surroundings.

I heard the dripping of water from a water dispenser and the ticking of a clock.

"Nothing on the 18th 19th and 20th floor" I relay.

"Roger..."

I came down the next set of stairs and I was completely tired. My muscles were sore and my back would kill me if my hunger didn't get to me first.

Pisssssssssssssh!

Someone left the tap running.

I pad my way into the bathroom as water had already begin to gather on the white tilted floor.

I switch off the tap.

Splash!

I whirl around.

That wasn't me.

I heard someone step on the water...but it wasn't me!

My heartbeat launched into overdrive as I calmly tried to exit the bathroom as normally as possible, as if I'd heard nothing.

I kept my features neutral and went down to the next floor, I saw a small deactivated bomb hidden in the corner of the stairwell. I look up and see another stuck to the roof.

"I found one or two on the stairs connecting the 16th and 17th floors" I report back.

"Good work." Sally says, "Analysts predict only one left"

Thank freaking GOD! I cry out in my mind.

I don't hear anything else as I trek 5 more floors down.

********************************************************************************

~Present~

"Can we get to the good stuff now!?" Tom whines.

"I'm building suspense! Don't rush me!" I snarl at him. I pour the spaghetti pasta into the now boiling water. "Interrupt me again and I won't finish the story."

"Fine...!" he hissed, leaning back against the counter and folding his hands grumpily.

"Hmph! Good!" I nodded.

********************************************************************************

~2 hours earlier~

I'd already lost count of which floor I was on, but I knew when I got to the next set of stairs I'd see a sign telling me that.

But I'd paused because I saw a scatter of broken glass on the ground. I'd initially disregarded it as someone probably breaking a vase as they ran out.

But something caught my eye and had me walking over to the middle of the office floor.

I walked over and bent down above the broken glass.

"This doesn't look like a vase broke..." I whisper to myself, squatting down lower to the ground.

"What...? What was that??" I hear Sally ask but I ignore her.

I got up and look down at it from a standing position.

This looks more like a...a mirror?

I saw my reflection staring back at me through a kaleidoscope of different mirror shards.

Crinchk!

I whip my head around as I heard the sound of boots stepping on glass.

Nothing.

I saw nothing!

I whip my head around my surrounding, my beam of light too slow to follow my frantic gaze.

I pause as an idea hit me.

I wait a beat...then train the beam of light from my flashlight down towards the broken shards of mirrored glass.

The light beam bounced back and illuminated the whole room in an array of colored light spots and patches.

Too afraid to look up I still look down at the shard.

I see an ominous black figure appear behind me as quiet as the darkness that consumed him.

I barely managed to duck out of the way as I see his blade aim for my neck.

I tumble to the left and feel my flash light be yanked from me.

I roll away and come up in time to see him stomp down on it with his heavy boots. And immediately everywhere gets devoured by pitch-black darkness.

I push myself up and jump away as I heard the deadly whoosh of a blade coming at me.

I jump up to my feet and back away as the blades were being banish back and forth in my direction, a cut hitting a part of me each time.

I see a small dim red glow coming from what I assumed to be his helmet's visors.

"You bastard! You have night vision!" I shout in outrage.

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING!" Sally yelled.

"I ran into an unexpected guest!" I yell back.

My back came up against a desk and I back flip up and over it. His blade came down and lodged itself in the desk. Well, that's what I assumed just happened from the sounds I'm hearing.

I use the advantage and kick the desk wholly towards him, I barely make out the outline of him as he uses his other hand to stop it.

I whip out my gun and aim for his head, the dim red of his visors aiding me. Without hesitation, I fired my last two rounds.

He quickly dislodges his blade and deflects all the shots.

I stared in bewilderment.

"Not. Fucking. Fair!" I cry out in anger.

With my eyes quickly adjusting to the dark I use the dim light coming from his visor to accurately pinpoint his location and movements.

He rushes at me but I pull out my knife and brought his attack to a halt.

Damn he was strong! I thought in surprise as I fight to keep his blade above me.

"And to think I thought you liked me." My words obviously caught him off guard as I feel him momentarily pause.

I use this window and kick him as far away from me as I could.

He jumps back but doesn't move. Everything came to a standstill.

Our heavy breathing echoed in the empty room as we just stood and stared at each other in the all consuming darkness.

"She should be up this floor! Move move move!"

I tilted my head ever so slightly to glance to my side as I heard the thunderous thuds of footsteps pound towards us.

I look back and see-

He's gone.

He'd used that temporary distraction to escape.

"What the fuck IS this guy!? A fucking ghost ninja!?" I stomp my feet in frustration.

********************************************************************************

~Present~

"Whoa..." Tom merely says.

"I know," I reply back as I pour my finished pasta into a plate and chow down.