No, I was mad. I was genuinely disgusted. As a fire element, this much water could have extinguished his flames. He could have died. His lips were blue, and he had red veins in his eyes. He looked like he was going to pass out at any moment, and no one did anything. Did they just watch him almost die?

I kicked the door with a menace, punching through the thin wood and smiled as my hand collided solidly with a head on the other side. The guard must have pulled up a chair and sat propped up against the door in an attempt to keep guard but had let his guard down as he knew, without a doubt, that there would be no struggle for the captive he was guarding. 

I pulled my leg back and yanked open the door, pulling out two daggers as I did it. As the assassin slide down onto the floor and attempted to sit up, I sat down on him and slashed his jugular. Thick ribbons of blood gushed out and splashed me in the face, but I didn’t care, twisting his arm up and forcing him at knifepoint to grab hold of his wounded neck while I pulled him up by the hair. 

“How many others?” I growled my steely blade in the other hand, only inches away from his eyeball. 

“T-Two”, the assassin gasped, choking on his own blood.  

I released him and let him convulse on the floor as I listened for the others. So they were so confident that BiBi would be so easy to retrain that his parents only hired three assassins, two of whom they had put to guard the outside of the house and only one in his room to guard him.

The assassin pulled himself across the floor; blood running down his chest and arms as he did so. 

BiBi stepped out of the bathroom and looked around, seeing me with blood all over my body and then taking in the sight of the bleeding retreating assassin. 

“What have you done?” BiBi hissed and weakly hobbled over to the wounded assassin “ Alaina calm down, we are not like this. Don’t become the people we are breaking free from,” BiBi chided, reaching down to grab the assassin's hand and pulling it away, relieving the wound.

Within seconds, a blue light engulfed both BiBi and the assassin, and as BiBi ran his fingers across the assassin’s neck, the wound crackled and cauterised.

BiBi looked up at me, and I looked away. I couldn’t explain to this kind-hearted boy how I felt, but I didn’t regret what I did. That assassin was killing him knowingly and had done it many times before in exchange for a paycheck. There was nothing honourable about him, but ordinary civilians didn’t understand, and there was no point in trying to explain it to them. 

“Alaina, is he dead? Alaina!” BiBi’s voice cut through my thoughts. 

I rolled my eyes and went over to the man whose head was propped up on BiBi’s lap. The assassin was unconscious, but I could clearly see his chest gently rise and fall, so I wasn’t so pressed as BiBi was. 

I took his pulse and could feel that he was alive but barely. I had caused him to lose a lot of blood, so he was probably anaemic. 

“This sort of wound doesn’t kill us. But if you are so concerned, let’s put him into the bathtub. We also probably should wash off the blood,” I explain and pick up the assassin by the feet. 

Bibi grabbed the man under his shoulder, and together, we lifted and carried the unconscious assassin into the bathroom. 

Once the assassin was in the water, I grabbed a spray and began to spray down BBi’s hands as they were covered in blood. 

“I think you should change,” I said as I realised we were running out of time, and blood-stained clothes were not a sight that would be welcomed at the Ob fair. The stupid assassin had dribbled blood all over BiBi’s pants, and it made him look suspicious even though he was the one who saved his sorry ass. 

“Right, ok!” BiBi beamed and went out into his room to change. 

I pulled off my balaclava and threw it into the bathtub with the assassin. I was so tired of all of this. Seeing all these adults make irresponsible, possibly deadly decisions was so frustrating. They all say that they want what’s best for us, so why did they have to try killing us in the process?

I closed the bathroom door and looked at myself in BiBi’s full-length mirror, which was tremendous behind the door. There were blood stains, mud, dirt and debris covering my suit. In hindsight, it was a wonder that BiBi even recognised me with my face covered with the Balaclava, however BiBi, being a Fire Elemental, could recognise people by their heat signatures, which had made playing hide and seek with him as a child such a drag as he could see you from a mile away. He once said that my signature looked weird because of the wings strapped to my back, and so because of it, he could pinpoint me apart from others as there was so much pent-up energy around my shoulder blade. 

I started pulling out all the daggers and other bits and bobs from my pockets—it was time to discard the suit and proceed on in my regular clothes. I had planned to do this just before I reached the wall, as weapons were not allowed over the job fair wall; however, there was a good place as any, as I needed to clean myself of the first blood that had caked up on my outer layer. 

Underneath the bulletproof suit, I wore a tight-fitted black long-sleeve blouse and a pair of black jeans. I couldn’t bear the idea of being completely vulnerable, so over my jean legs, I had on metal shin guards. Same with my forearms and over my black blouse, I wore a protective metal bullet proof vest acting as a rudimentary breastplate. 

I hosed down my boots, which I couldn't compromise on, and dumped them. Then, I started putting the prototype mess tin, my identification pass, my wallet, and the flying devices into my pockets, along with 12 of my smallest daggers, in places that would be hard to trace such as behind my metal vest and into my metal shin guards, as the metal would hide the presence of other metal objects. 

I knocked on the door and called out to BiBi, “Are you decent?” 

“Yup!” came a chipper response, and I opened the door. 

Standing in the middle of the room, buttoning up his sleeve cuffs, stood a completely different BiBi from the boy I had found minutes ago in the bath. A tall, regal-looking boy with black braided hair tied up in a ponytail and dark skin that seemed to sparkle in the sunlight stood dressed in a crisp white shirt, tucked smartly into cargo pants stuffed into his favourite black boots, which had seen better times. 

“Bibi, you almost died? Is this the outfit you think will save you from an ambush?” I sighed, walking over to his wardrobe and pulled out a piolet bomber jacket and a leather vest.

I tossed them at him, and BiBi looked at them hesitantly. 

“No I… I couldn’t. I don’t want to ruin them,” he said, but I grabbed him by the forearms and shook him.

“We are not coming back. You hear me? We are not coming back to this! Dress properly and say goodbye; this may be the last time you see this room,” I snapped, losing my patience. 

Tears began to well up in his eyes, and I growled and released him, walking over to sit moodily at his window seal. BiBi was too sweet for his own good. 

“R-right, sorry,” BiBi said and pulled on the vest, followed by the bomber jacket “ Well then, these are good choices; I’ve always loved this jacket. Did you know my real dad was a pilot? He died in the war. This was his jacket,” BiBi said, and I could feel the beam in his voice even though I was not looking at him. 

As I gazed out the window, I suddenly spotted something large and black snaking through the trees in the distance! It seemed that the Chief of police had caught up with her familiar, and there was a group heading directly towards us, with familiars in tow. 

“BiBi, we have to go!” I sprang up and turned to find BiBi happily zipping up his father’s jacket. 

I pulled out a flying device and tossed it to him, who caught it in one hand.

“Activate it. We need to get out of here fast; more assassins are on their way,” I said as BiBi turned the device over and over, inspecting its intricate designs. 

“How do I - ?” He began but pressed the red button before I could say anything and then decided to immediately activate. 

A sharp whirling sound rumbled from the tiny device in BiBi’s hand, and then it levitated, unfolding itself in mid-air, to reveal a collapsed jet pack with moth-like metal wings attached to it! Long straps hung from the back of the jet pack, which looked like where the flyers were supposed to strap themselves into the device to use it. 

BiBi delightedly walked around and shrugged on the jet pack. He used the extra straps that went around the waist and across the chest to secure the device in place, and after walking around the room for a bit, he looked up and found himself levitating as well!

“It’s thought-activated! Amazing!” BiBi explained, hovering around in the air of his bedroom.

A commotion started from below us towards the entrance to the house.

“BiBi, get out of here; we need to part ways now!” I said and pulled out a flying device for myself.

“Alaina, watch out!” BiBi suddenly exclaimed, and the next thing I knew, I was scooped up into BiBi’s arms, and we were barreling straight towards the ceiling!

“What the?” I started, but then a cold shiver ran through my body, and a familiar wet mass collided with my ankle. I looked down to find myself eye-to-eye with none other than the Basilisk.

“Where are you going, my pets?” It purred, pushing its entire body through the window I had just sat at. However, BiBi didn’t slow down. He pushed open the skylight in the roof of his room, and the two of us went rushing up and into the sky, out of reach from the Bassilisk’s flicking tongue 

“Urgh, I’m so sorry, I spaced out. I should have noticed the basilisk’s approach,” I groaned, handing like a rag doll in BiBi’s grasp. 

“Urgh, Alaina, that’s alright, but I don’t think the flying device can handle more than one person! I think we’re going down!” BiBi exclaimed, and he was right! We were heading straight towards the trees. 

As we descended, I saw a scuffle in the undergrowth, and a familiar flash of red hair made me perk up.

“Drop me over there, and head straight for the job fair! I’ll be fine!” I said, and BiBi nodded, heading straight for the ground commotion. As we were above it, BiBi let go with a quick “See you later!” I found myself landing feet first into yet another assassin’s head.