Double Life: Obstacles

“I´m so hungry” Nichole sighed as she kept running the track. It was still a couple of hours before dinner. She was at the back of a long line of runners, almost all of them males. She felt tired; it had been a long week of exercises and two nights in a row of lack of sleep. This was a new place; she had to be more careful than at Burgeoys, which took a lot of extra effort. Finally a whistle was blown signaling the end of running time.

“Ok, ladies – harsh voice started- it´s time to start the good stuff” the tall man with crew haircut said with a cold expression. All about him shouted “severe”

“The new ones will be assigned to a more experimented leader… All of the groups will compete at the end and you don´t want to lose that one –he grinned mischievously- You will obey your team leader and he or she will represent me” he nodded and some of the boys and girls went to stand next to him.

Nichole, a guy and other girl about her age were in the team of a tall guy with yellow-like eyes. After being assigned everyone separated in small groups.

“I’m Vincent Bran and we´re not here to bond. If you two –he addressed the girls- are here it is because your folks have no idea what to do with you and I have the misery of having to train two girls. You will not make me look bad by not doing things the right way!” he sounded irritated “Just because you´re girls I won´t go easy on you. I don´t discriminate –he smirked- I´ll treat you like everybody else. Did you understand?”

“Sure” the girl next to Nichole said rolling her eyes. Nichole nodded, her eyes not leaving his.

“It´s yes, sir from now on!” he shouted take a step closer to them “now, get out of my sight” he said in the same irritated tone.

“Who are you again?” the other girl in Nichole´s team asked during dinner

“Nic. You?” she replied

“Roxanne, but call me Roxy” she replied, brushing a few of her black and purple hair out of her eyes. Nichole nodded once.

“So, why are you here?” Roxy asked after a while. Nichole glanced her way as she was chewing her food

“To become a better killer” she said calmly making Roxy snorted

“Funny” Roxy rolled her eyes and sighed “It´s so terrible to be here” she said mostly to herself, Nichole only watched her “We´re in a place full of black sheep…” she twisted her mouth

“Cristales! Sanders!” Vincent shouted the next morning. They ran towards him. “What kind of shitty name is Cris-ta-les? It can´t be pronounced!” he said, Nichole seemed bored

“What´s your other last name?” he addressed Nichole while looking at the clip board he was holding “Strassberg” he said and she winced inwardly, it could be hard to track the many identities Natasha and Karl had created for her… The most often identity included Natasha´s last name; it made it easier for Natasha to deal with taking her from place to place.

Vincent took them to some kind of obstacles track where there was dirt and irregular paths everywhere, they had to jump, run, crawl and climb. Roxy kept falling and Nichole kept helping her to get up making Vincent angry. He ran his face over his face every time Roxy fell.

“Since you´ve been useless all morning, you´re staying out of lunch and keep practicing –he pointed Roxy- and you –he addressed Nichole- since you´re such a good Samaritan you´re staying with her… and don’t dare to stop” he threatened. The guy that was in their team looked them like saying “I´m sorry” but he turned and left with Vincent

Roxy was shaking and maybe on the verge of tears, her make-up was ruined.

“How come you´re fine doing this?” she asked Nichole who was still standing close to her

“I´ve got more practice with it, you get used to it after a while”

“I´m tired and I’m starving” Roxy was talking with a short breath

“Rest” Nic sat on the grass and gave the girl a chocolate bar. Nichole unwrapped one of the tiny lollipops Josh had given to her. Roxy sat next to her and started to nibble her chocolate.

In the next week, they missed a lot of dinners. Roxy still couldn´t keep the pace so tonight Vincent was staying with both of the girls.

“Faster!” he´d shouted a while ago, tonight, like three of the six nights it was raining. Roxy fell once again and Nichole went to help her but Vincent pushed her and started to shout. “Get up, now!”  He also shouted about how much of a failure she was. Roxy´s breath became shallow and labored. Still on the ground she reached for her pants pockets, Vincent grabbed her by her shirt and picked her up, still shouting, a small inhaler fell on the ground. Once Vincent let Roxy go, she fell again, she was breathing hard and Vincent never stopped shouting

“She´s having a hard time breathing!” Nichole said picking the inhaler and going to Roxy. Vincent slapped Nichole´s hand away when she tried to give the gray object to the girl. The guy picked Roxy again and started to shout as he shook her.

“Leave her alone, Vincent!” Nichole hissed and he directed his attention to her once she lightly pushed him away from the girl to give her what she needed.

“Did I give you permission to do that?” he shouted to Nichole who was squatted next to Roxy

“Did you prefer to kill her instead?” Nichole growled

“She could die for all I care… faking that to avoid training” he snorted

“You´ve made us stay under the rain, she´s got asthma!” Nic stood up

“It’s her fault for not doing things right. I´m not going to look bad because of a loser like her” he shouted

“Shut up, Vincent, you don´t want to end up killing her!” Nichole said with annoyance

“Don´t talk to me like that” he tried to slap her but she ducked his hand, it seemed to make him mad.

“I’m talking to you like the jerk you are!” she raised her voice

“What did you say?” he lunged for her and once again she avoided his hands, he got angrier. She kept avoiding him but because he was well trained he had a lot of resistance and in the end he caught her by pulling her braid when she had to slow down to avoid stepping on Roxy.

He pulled hard making the girl stagger back and then forward because he pushed her, she kept her balance but he managed to grab her shirt and threw a punch at her on her shoulder, she winced and when he pulled her close to him again she slammed the base of her hand against his nose, it started to bleed but he didn´t let go, he went for another punch, on her ribs, she kicked on his crotch as hard as she could, he grunted in pain and fell on the ground where Nichole kicked him once to make him turn around to lay on his back.

“You will never hit me again” she hissed “and you won´t mistreat Roxy anymore” he grabbed her foot and tried to twist it but she pushed down making his fingers twist at an odd angle. She bent down “If you ever try anything against us again, I´ll kill you” she pointed her dagger to his neck. His eyes widen marginally. Weapons were not allowed unless they were given to them. He smirked.

“You´re going down” he tried to take the dagger from her but she got up fast. He lunged for her again but this time she didn´t try to avoid him, instead she kicked him on the gut hard enough to knock the air out of him, and she kicked him again to the ground and then again

“Don´t make me repeat myself” her voice sending shivers to him, she had the eyes of the monster which made Vincent wince inwardly

“Or what?” he still said with an angry voice but he´d recognized the monster and it showed in his voice

“Or… you´re dead” her voice calmed, the stance of the monster, confident enough to know that she´d win against him. He relaxed then, giving up the fight and she got up then and went to Roxy. She extended her left hand to the girl still on the ground.

“Let´s go, Rox”

Nichole was sitting against a tree, it was raining a light drizzle. She had her earphones on, she was listening to her piano song when it got interrupted as she felt her pocket vibrate, and she pulled the phone out.

“How are you doing?” read the text from Josh. He´d been texting her once a week

“I’m ok. You?” was always her answer. He often texted back with a few comments on what he was doing at the time, she hardly ever answered back.

“We’re going camping next week. Come with us, please” this one had taken a while. She looked at it for a while but then she quickly put the phone back in her pocket. She heard someone coming closer. She stood up.

“I come in peace” Vincent said once he saw her stance, she only stared at him, the guy bowed his head and shook it “Look, I have to be tough, I can´t have my team losing but I respect you for standing up against me” his hand was in a casket, he had something over his nose as well

“You didn´t have to be a jerk to make Rox get better, she´s never done any of this before. You could´ve killed her”

“You both were sent here to learn this way”

“It doesn´t mean you have to be an asshole, Vincent”

“You can´t keep insulting me, Strasberg”

“I will if you keep insulting me and Rox”

“We can´t lose”

“You will if you keep this way… besides what does it matter if you win or not? It´s not like it´s your life depending on it”

“It will matter”

“No, it won´t, a piece of metal won´t make any difference but a lost life does make the difference”

“You´re here to save lives, huh?” he smiled lazily and she looked away

“What is it with you suddenly acting human?”

“I´m heavy on pain killers, you did serious damage in me –he smiled as if he was pleased- I´ll be the same tomorrow”

“I won´t be here tomorrow but if I know you´re abusing Rox, I´ll make my threat come true”

“As if you could”

“It seems like I can” she pointed to his casket, he rolled his eyes and walked away, he was walking slowly.