"Would you quit shoving me?"

"I'm standing five feet away from you—"

"Stop! We have to be professional and serious."

"I could never imagine you being the serious one."

"Shush—she's coming to,"

Amelia blinked. Once, twice, three times. She tried to reach a hand upwards to rub her eyes, but they flew open in shock as she realized she was tied to a chair.

She blinked a few more times and noticed two figures scrutinizing her with narrowed eyes. The voices she'd heard belonged to them.

"So," one of the two spoke up, "you're the one who tried to kill me."

"You...you have no proof," Amelia scoffed in an attempt to counter desperately.

The young lady on the right held up Ah Kan's compact bow. "There's no use trying to clear your name. The Bauhinia design is stitched onto your gloves and carved into this bow. Nobody in Cantonesia will go to such great lengths to frame a person—we all live a fast-paced life; even if one had the dedication to do so, they simply wouldn't have the time."

Curse Ah Ba and his shallow need for constant recognition, Amelia groaned. His pride will ultimately lead to the Bauhinias' downfall.

"And what's in it for me if I really was the one who tried to kill you?" she questioned.

"You'll see," the other woman responded mysteriously.

Using her peripheral vision, Amelia examined the (lavish) room she was being kept in. She had to find a way to escape, or else the Bauhinias risked being discovered. Yes, she loved her family, but she wouldn't sacrifice herself for them. Their organization was built on a fragile level of trust and mutual, begrudging acceptance; it was always a wonder how long the Bauhinias had managed to evade the law.

From the looks of it, the two women had kept her under wraps and had captured her themselves. That meant the Governor wasn't involved, which made Amelia's escape easier. She had been tied to the chair by a lavish duvet cover decorated in various hues of pink, which grew looser as she wiggled her hands—ever so subtly—out of it. The beige drapes were drawn but rustled as the wind blew against them; Amelia knew an open window would be advantageous. She just had to find out how close she was to the ground.

Maybe the interior of the building could be useful as well. The wallpaper peeled in a corner, revealing a sickly light brown under floral patterns. Amelia wondered if a passage of some sort led to the exit—Ah Ba had told her some of the elites had these built into their homes for a quick escape. But then again, who was she to trust her Ba?

She continued to scan the room, noticing the books on the shelves in disarray—it seemed they were all about visual arts...and self-defense? The bare white duvet engulfed a queen-size bed. Maybe she could use that to stick a landing after jumping out the window...

Amelia continued to contemplate her choices as her captors scrutinized her. She suddenly remembered if there was one piece of beneficial advice she'd learned from her father, it was how to escape tight situations like these. During her training, he'd brought her to a narrow room cluttered with objects.

***

"It's a store room," her father explained. "Your job is to get out of it."

Amelia scoffed, but then considered giving up once she had been tied to a chair with metal handcuffs and a rope. Her father locked the door behind him, staring down at her.

"Go ahead." Her Ba waved a hand.

The girl struggled, pulled against the tightly knotted rope, and shook her hands vigorously to free herself from the handcuffs. Ah Ba watched as Amelia continued to twist and turn in vain, offering no help whatsoever.

She stopped in her tracks upon hearing the click of a shotgun preparing to fire. Looking up at her father, her eyes widened as she saw the barrel pointing toward her forehead.

"You would be dead if you continued to make a scene like this." Ah Ba put down the shotgun. "Act discreetly. Move slowly. Don't show any sign of your intent to escape--that will only provoke your captor more."

Amelia nodded.

"Then show me how you do it!" Ah Ba yelled.

***

Stall the threats. Ah Ba's advice whispered in Amelia's ear. She internally winced--there had to be other options, but she chose to follow her Ba's voice (albeit reluctantly). "You could at least tell me your names and where I am,"

Fortunately, the two fell for the trick. "I'm Elise," the one in the cropped navy tee was quick to respond, "and my friend is Darling. You're in the Lau Residence right now—"

"—And if you think you'll ever find a way to escape, you are incorrect. Security is positioned on every floor of this manor, and police line the perimeter. You'll be caught in a split second," the one in the floral dress threatened.

Amelia was impressed by Darling's audacity. She decided to stall for a bit longer. "Here's where you give me an ultimatum, in which I find a clever way to evade your horde of bodyguards."

"Actually, we were just thinking about that," Elise said. "You'll teach us what you know about self-defense and combat. After that, you're free to go, but we don't want you coming anywhere near my father's allies or my family—unless they approach you first."

Amelia considered the statement. Elise and Darling weren't endangering the Bauhinias' chance of being found out. Plus, she'd heard worse. One of her uncles had come back with a missing hand after a perilous task. She looked up at the ceiling and pretended to think. If Ah Ba is so wise and powerful, Amelia thought sarcastically, perhaps one of his lessons will be useful right now.

***

"Ah Kei, it's in your best interests to come home safe and sound," Ah Ba patted her shoulder lightly. It was her tenth mission, and this time the Bauhinias needed her for a more daunting challenge: kill the son of a famous actor, as requested by a client.

"I won't let the Bauhinias down," Amelia had chosen to answer.

"Good," Ah Ba ruffled her hair lightly. "Your family needs you."

***

That was the first and last time Ah Ba had shown any sort of kindness, of acceptance, of recognition toward his daughter and her role in the family. Amelia had treasured it for quite some time until she'd figured out his motives. She'd put any imagery of having a benign, understanding father into the past and dove into her work and education. Something had to come out of it--and maybe, just maybe, this ultimatum would give her an exit ticket from the testy schemes of Ah Ba and the Bauhinias.

"Fine," Amelia sighed. "What do I have to do?"

"We'll get you started as soon as possible," Darling said.

Elise took a cautious step forward to untie Amelia. "Now behave," she glared. "We can bring in reinforcements with just the click of a button."

In an instant, Amelia sprang up from her seat after she was released and bolted to the window. She threw open the drapes and prepared to jump--off of what seemed like seven stories.

"You're not going anywhere," Darling smiled at Amelia's haphazard attempt to escape. She and Elise exited the room through a glass door and pushed a button. Walls of reinforced steel shot down from the ceiling and landed with a giant thump on the floor. A red light was activated on the ceiling: Amelia knew she would now be under constant surveillance.

Wait it out, Tze Kei. Amelia thought. 塞翁失馬，焉知非福*。 This might be a blessing in disguise.

***

Amelia didn't know how many hours had passed, nor did she care. She retreated within herself, staring into the metal walls as if her looks could bore a hole through them. Nevertheless, she continued to eat the meals they'd provided and entertain herself with the mindless workout and defense routines she'd done every day under her Ba's regime. Had she slept? She didn't recall resting.

"You have been called for." An automated voice reverberated around her bare room—no, cell. It was six o'clock in the morning, but Amelia had no clue. She dragged herself out of the open door and allowed herself to be escorted by Elise, blindfolded, to her destination.

"You'll begin training us here," Elise pulled off Amelia's eye mask with a flourish.

The mafia boss's daughter was greeted by a sight all too familiar. The floors were lined with deep blue mats, and an array of weapons were arranged on the walls, all polished and lined up according to their deadliness. Amelia rattled off the names of the items in the arsenal in her head: machine guns, assault rifles, carbines, shotguns, pistols, revolvers...She noticed a particular pistol in the back of the room, seemingly separated from the artillery.

"It can't be," she whispered, incredulous.

It was a fine specimen. The golden surface of the weapon accommodated a small grip made of glossed wood. The dim lights reflected the gleaming metal, almost completely hiding the flower engraved onto the grip. That same flower was embroidered onto her gloves, bow, and arrow, and had taken control of her entire life.

How did they even get it from Ah Ba? Amelia thought. He's never been one to willingly give such priceless items away.

Well, it had been long since she'd last seen the pistol in a room like this.

***

Those deep blue mats would forever taunt Amelia in her dreams.

Her Ah Ba had told her to do a forward roll, a cartwheel, a handspring, and a backbend. To move agilely across the ocean of cerulean vinyl was an impossible task. Simply put, Amelia was as inflexible as they came.

Her Ah Ba maintained a rigorous schedule and an even more specific training routine. He always started the session the same way: "First, we run."

After Amelia had completed her first training day, Ah Ba stopped her in her tracks on the way out. "You are to visit this training center every morning before breakfast and every evening after dinner. If you want to complete missions, you must be flexible and quick on your feet. These are essentials to stay hidden and execute your assignment to perfection. Understand?"

All Amelia could do was give Ah Ba a firm nod.

But she failed. Time and time again, she stumbled over the cartwheel, got hit by one too many a dodgeball, and fell hard. Far too many times to even count.

I'll never be able to prove my worth like this, Amelia thought over and over again. This is just giving Ah Ba more chances to belittle me.

Her progress happened slowly and ever so subtly. It was two years before Amelia could finally do a successful cartwheel, at least seven hundred and eighty-nine more falls before she could do a backflip, and a year more before she could meet Ah Ba's sprinting record.

Then came the firearms lessons from Ah Kan. She'd touched more than thirty different types of weapons in existence and memorized their names, usage, and when and where she should wield them...Some were so big that she struggled to hold them, and some were tinier than a dust speck.

Nevertheless, Amelia persisted. Five years of learning how to handle a weapon had its benefits. At least she could defend herself adeptly. At least Ah Ba wasn't doing anything to pull her out of preparation for 'the real world' or say she wasn't worthy of it.

Amelia was eleven when she finished her training.

***

"What's our first lesson?" Darling inquired, snapping Amelia out of her trance.

Amelia took a deep breath, taking note of at least ten surveillance cameras hanging from the ceiling, tracking her every move. She stepped onto the blue vinyl mats for the first time in twelve years.

"First," Amelia spoke evenly, "we will run."

***

*塞翁失馬，焉知非福: A bad situation can turn out to be good, and vice versa.

Word Count: 2023      (What a concidence!)

(A/N: Updates should happen every week. Hope you enjoyed this :D)