Chapter 8: Gracious Tempest

"Hey Cleo, are you listening?"

She got off track when she realized how closed he was on her, he flicked his fingers repeatedly.  Cleo pushed her head back, she blinked, one of the most vital thing that the organization always reminded was to never put your guard down. Because you'll never know when someone can kill you dead, be faster than them and kill them first, they said, and she established her name over that.

some may say that her view in life were odd, because she was taught to save people by killing them, but just because something was out of the normal thing to do on earth doesn't mean its unacceptable. It doesn't mean it's odd. it was unique, original not odd.

How can she forget that at this moment? Her only task was to love him and then kill him but to what was happening, it seems that she's more loathing him than loving him. She had to pull back and stay on track. She's losing more than she could win. She had to put her head back on the game.

She always had the candy to brought home and have the bottle of champagne won in every competition the organization programmed. It’s like hunting for rabbits in the forest with bow and arrow as the only weapon, but instead of rabbit, they’re human. The organization contracted them to be killed with their trainees' hands.

At one point on their hunting fest, Cleo ran out of arrows. She doesn’t know what time was it, or how many hours she ran around the forest. All she knew was the temperature was on a chilly level and the trees' leaves were covered in snow. She was in the middle of the woods, breathless as she watched her wrist that counted the number of kills she made all day. Thirty-six. Thirty-six new souls were added on her parade of dragging souls. How bad did she become after all those killings?

She turned her gaze back on him, she pushed her back slightly and said; "Yes. Please continue." Like how she ought to say: in a calm, monotonous manner, like what she always practiced, like she always do.

When did she kill for love? She wondered, as a child she used to play and mingle with other people but something happened that set her for an appointment to the devil and showed her how weak she was, and she should thank him for pointing her weakness, that’s why she took this mission in the first place, even though they both knew the underlying circumstances.

But realization hit her hard -- this wasn't as they said. No one declared that she should fill his cups for him, she just needs to dilly-dally her way to kill him. Never mind the tactics that she would do. She just needed to love him, no one told her that she needed to perform the character of a teen in a romance drama.

And with this situation, the first thing that came to mind was Misha, the most childish girl in the organization, she's a girl who knows how to sashay smooth her way whenever a tight situation occurred, because of her charm and prepubescent appearance, she can easily manipulate the spotlight towards her, and if she's the one in this situation, one thing was expected for her to do.

"Hey," she breathed and took a step forward to him. Closing the distance. It’s like she instantly came back into the forest, gasping for air, cold, and bold. She felt chills ran on the tip of her fingers and she tried to stay firm on her stead and made her breathing steady as Ace stared at her in confusion.

If she's going to be like Misha, she should know how to act pretty. She breathed heavily and looked at his face,

"I was wondering...." she trailed.

"Why are you alone?" she said, her mind dropped on the edge of the table behind him when she heard her voice said those words in a raspy, filthy undertone. There are many secrets to unfold, but she would never fit herself on the situation where she clearly doesn't belong. if anything, she just wanted to puke and buried the decision she made. 

Why did she became as someone just to pleased other? 

"Well, I don't know how to answer that," Ace replied, his voice modulated, face has no expression.

She concluded that that was a signal, so she moved a tad bit closer to him, their lips just an inch away from colliding. "You know you don't have to do this, just let me stay and take care you." That's a lie of course. She can't even take care of herself, why would she care for somebody else?

She touched his hand and clasped them together like they were meant to be held by her. She doesn't know if she'd gone too far but she thought that Misha would do this if this situation happens to her, so she guided his hand on his waist and let him snake it on her waist.

She sensed that his breathing halted, and his face gave out a frantic yet strange expression. That gave confidence on what Cleo was doing.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked, he got a frown on his face and she could feel his hand stiffed. 

But no one could stop her, she tiptoed herself and reached for his lips. She knew she'd be his new drug after this but when the kiss was going deeper, he pulled out.

He pulled out first and distanced himself from her like she just done something that made her contaminated with a deadly virus, he then continued whatever he is doing like nothing ever happened.

"Okay, as I said, you have your time limit. If you exceed 1 minute you'll definitely be banished." He announced. Leaving her dumbfounded.

She closed her eyes and realized what just happened. Rolling her eyes backward, she collected herself and joined him like nothing ever happened, but they knew something happened.

Cleo looked at the math problem that was given: If sin A + sin^2 A = 1sin and a cos^{12} A + b cos^8 A + c cos^6 A - 1 = 0 then b + frac {c}{a}+b = ?

And realized how much she failed.

Cleo's mind blew away. If there is an expression that best describe her emotion 'clueless-seriousness-prepare-to-die-you-faggot next' then it would be a bloodbath here.

Did he just gave her a trigonometry question? How was she going to answer that?

"Now your timer starts no—"

Its like adrenaline receded on her and flashback on her trainings in the organization come in her mind and like a domino everything falls back and only one remain standing. She ran quickly over the edge of the table and saw the wooden box he was talking about, locked in a small padlock but no metal can be seen around.

Without thinking, she punches the box with her balled fist with no hesitation then it gave a breaking sound and she rejoice inside and got the apple inside.

The next thing she saw was him, he grinned like a fool then clapped his hands slowly, "Time is up.. Okay next. We'll sleep because it seems like you needed it the most," he said and slapped the pen with the clipboard.