" 'Nesia..."
I groaned and shut my eyes more tightly.
" 'Nesia."
I rolled my head the opposite direction of his voice.
" 'Nesia!"
Then, suddenly, a cold... something or other pressed itself against my left cheek.
I jumped in my seat at the feeling and stirred abruptly awake.
I gasped and snapped my head over to the left, where Ace sat, smiling and holding a tall aluminum can of Mountain Dew in one hand with chips of ice practically dripping off it and into his lap, right next to the black steering wheel in front of him.
"Really?" I nearly yelled as I looked him over.
"Rise and shine," he cheered before taking a swig of his caffeinated drink. After taking a decently loud gulp, then, he brought the can back down by his lap and gave a refreshed sigh. "Ah. So, we're here, finally."
He nodded his head toward the front windshield and I followed his gaze to see nothing but a mess of shrubs and vines, which I soon gathered pretty much surrounded the car from all sides, once I looked around to peek out of the rest of the windows.
"Where is here, exactly?" I asked as I glanced around.
"Oh, 'Nesia, so many questions," Ace mumbled, beginning to fumble with a small black bag by the side of his seat.
I looked back at him as he pulled out a slightly familiar Bluetooth earpiece.
He looked up at me for a moment, and then offered the tiny device into my direction.
"Here," he said.
I searched his face for a second, and then took the earpiece from his hand. As soon as I did so, he turned to the left, reached down to the area in between his seat and the car door, and retrieved two identical, well-sized pistols. He laid one down on top of his thigh, and then turned to grab a small black cartridge from the same place he had obtained the guns. He pushed the piece into the bottom of the handle on the pistol he still held onto and, afterward, held it out to me, by its side, similarly to how he did with the earpiece a moment before.
I looked down at it and took it by the handle, carefully.
"Okay, so," he began, turning back to pick up another cartridge for the remaining weapon. "Since you probably already forgot, knowing you..." He paused for a second to fiddle with his gun and click the cartridge into place. "We need to get in there."
He twisted in his seat to point at the back windshield.
I followed his gaze, and then questioned him.
"In... the bushes?"
"Well," Ace objected, turning forward once more. "Through those, and then to the warehouse back there." He glanced over at me. "And then in there, somehow."
I studied his expression.
"Okay," I blandly spoke.
Ace then reached out to grab at the door handle beside him, his eyes not looking once away from mine.
"You ready for this?" he asked, slowly forming a smile.
I flickered my eyes down to the two items in my hands.
"Ye..." I softly started to stutter. "Y-Yeah, sure."
"Not too confident," Ace commented, snatching my gaze back to him. "But I guess you just woke up two minutes ago, so I'll take it."
I smiled as he twisted to the left and threw the door open in front of himself. I began to do the same, but I stopped when I found that both of my hands were currently occupied.
"Wait," I started, bringing the Bluetooth device up by my face. "What do I—"
I cut myself short when Ace decided to slam his door shut, leaving me in a cloud of silence. I looked up through the driver-side window quickly afterward to see him already walking around the backside of the vehicle.
I sighed and turned completely toward the door on my right. I began to toss the earpiece into my left hand, along with the gun, so I could grab the door handle with my right.
Before I could even reach the handle, though, the door swung suddenly open, making me honestly jump in my seat, just a little bit.
"Yes?" Ace asked, bending over in front of me to peer inside the car.
I paused before responding to him.
"What do I..." I looked down to tamper with the edges of the earpiece, and then grasped it entirely and held it up. "This."
Ace looked at the device for a moment.
"Mel wanted me to use it for once, but now I don't really wanna, so I'm giving it to you to hang on to. Just put it in your pocket or something," he answered.
I glanced from him to my hand.
"Okay..." I mumbled, now putting it gently back in my left hand.
I paused for a second, then grabbed a part of the rubber doorframe in front of me and swiftly hopped out of the car, landing myself directly in front of Ace, who was already stepping back from the vehicle.
"Alrighty," he said, pacing a little more to the side and grabbing at the door behind me.
I stepped away from the car a bit as he slammed it shut and replaced the Bluetooth piece back into my right hand. I then looked down and slid it into my front right jeans pocket, which it surprisingly fit in, and, afterward, followed suit with the gun in my left palm, slipping it into my back right pocket in the same manner.
Ace hurriedly paced past me as I stored away my items and I afterward watched him as he made his way over to the area around the trunk of the car.
He slid his pistol into the back pocket of his tan cargo pants as he walked, and then approached the edge of what seemed to be an undistinguished trail between the clumps of brush all around the car. I had to half-jog in order to catch up to his side and, as soon as I had, he began to take off on a fast walk down the grassy path.
I chased after him as he passed by the endless fences of tall weeds and bushes on either side of the trail until we both, eventually, reached the point where an open clearing could be seen. Once that sight was achieved, Ace actually slowed down, and then carefully approached the end of the trail, keeping his body as close to the left barrier of bushes as possible.
He peeked out, just a bit, from behind the weeds and cautiously placed one hand over the top of the gun in his pocket.
He paused for a long moment, and then removed his hand from the weapon. He craned his neck to look back at where I stood, which was only a few feet behind his back, and gave a small waving gesture to move forward. After that, he turned his head back to center and proceeded to walk around the corner of shrubs in front of himself.
I began to follow his footsteps and, once I was also around the edge of the brush, I saw nothing but... well, a large grassy clearing all around us. A countless number of trees surrounded the area from all angles, excluding the direction straight ahead from the path of which we had come. Instead, distantly away, there was a rocky gravel road set out across from the trail and, I assume, that's really how we had ended up in this place to begin with. Other than that, there was absolutely nothing around.
I continued to follow Ace to the left side of the clearing, where a line of tall, lightly colored trees sat. As he began to push through them, I gazed past his side and noticed that quite a few more rows of similar looking trees were laid out and, beyond those, some sort of brown house, or barn, or storage shed, or... maybe a small, shady magic shop, or... something was set out.
No matter what it was, I really didn't care, and didn't really care to find out.
I didn't have to, though, because Ace began to pass the structure around the backside and continued to slip through the next few rows of trees in the route that, I guess, we were going.
Naturally, I followed him some more, until we reached the edge of another large clearing, where Ace abruptly stopped and knelt down behind one of the trees next to the open space.
Confused, I froze up behind him and looked around at the area ahead.
I noticed that there was a sizable, red bricked building in the middle of the clearing, which looked to be probably three stories high, and had a number of its windows shot or completely shattered. There were also quite a few streaks of some type of green substance all over the exterior walls as well as dark brown spots in even more areas than that.
And, suddenly, I felt much more inclined to go back to the sketchy magic shop, instead.
"Get down for a sec," Ace ordered, snatching my attention back to where he crouched, staring me down from behind one shoulder.
"Oh, yeah, sorry," I shot back, immediately attempting to step behind the tree by his right side. In the process of doing so, though, I tripped on a stick that was implanted into the ground much more that I had expected it to be, causing me to stumble over and fall, face-first, onto the patch of dirt below.
Well, honestly, the stick could probably be categorized more as a branch, or a log, or... just anything that someone would yell out 'timber' for before cutting it down.
Either way, I tumbled to the ground, my hands thrown out in front of myself to keep my face from eating a mouthful of soil.
" 'Nesia!" Ace loud-whispered.
"Sorry, sorry," I mumbled, now pulling myself forward and up to my knees, so I could kneel behind the tree that I was still determined to hide behind, at least, for the time being.
I turned so my back rested against the base of the tree, wiped some of the dirt that had been smothered on my knees away, and then looked over at Ace, who was visibly trying not to laugh.
"You good?" he asked, once he was collected enough.
I forced a slight smile and nodded.
After that, he gave no other response, and returned to peeking around the tree in front of himself. He leisurely pulled his gun from his pocket, stood up, and then took one step to the side of the bark in front of his face. He pulled the pistol up, outstretched from his chest, and began to walk slowly forward, toward the clearing behind my backside.
As he left sight, I carefully stood, and turned around to peer out from behind the tree concealing me.
I watched him make his way into the brightly lit area, away from the woods, remaining still. He then turned his head slightly to one side and spoke softly back to me from where he stood.
"Come on, 'Nesia."
I looked him over a bit more, and then proceeded to walk out from the protection of the woodland area. I shuffled up to his backside and, after that, stayed close to him as he pushed his way to the nearest wall of the building ahead, his gun held out precautiously the entire time. Once to that point, then, Ace paused for a moment, and then approached a shot window nearby his side opposite to me.
He peered into it for a second, and then turned back to face me.
"Weird," he commented. "I don't even think there's anyone here."
I studied his expression before replying.
"So... can we go, then?" I questioned.
Ace flashed his infamous smile.
"Oh, 'Nesia," he started. "You wish."
He whipped himself back around and instantly began to pace past the window he had looked into.
I let out a quiet sigh, and then followed after him, gazing through the window as I passed it. And, while I did, I noticed he was right; it was dead silent in there, and nothing could be seen but a few rows of double-stacked boxes.
Soon enough, after my observations, Ace reached the side of a tall, brown rusty entrance to the facility. He grabbed at the dirty, silver handle with his free hand, and then pushed it inward. He stepped through the thin doorway it soon revealed and, once I had the chance to catch up with him, I did so as well.
Inside, there was what seemed to be an infinite number of boxes scattered everywhere. There were many thin rows of them straight ahead, as I had seen before, but there were also clusters of them against all of the walls and a few randomly thrown in the middle of the pathways outlined by them, too. Some were even stacked around the doorway, where we both now were, and I could see that a handful of them were left open.
I turned to shut the door softly behind me as Ace leaned over one of the stacks to search through one of their contents.
"Wow," he started while I turned back to him. He pulled out a large, clear bag by its upper corner, which contained some type of green, shredded leafy substance, and showed it to me before continuing. "I bet all of this is worth more than I could even make in five years."
"Wh..." I mumbled, walking toward him. "Why? What is that?"
He dropped the bag back into its container and gave way to a tiny laugh.
I stepped up to his side and peered over the edge of the box, actually having to get on my tiptoes as I did so. I then squinted as I examined the inside, which happened to be packed full of a bunch of identical baggies, all holding the same unfamiliar matter.
I stared at the bags for a moment, then leaned back, turned to Ace, and opened my mouth to speak.
"Oh," I simply stated.
Ace searched my face, let out another small laugh, and then turned around. He continued to walk into the building and stepped toward the far wall on the right.
I followed him past the innumerable lines of boxes, until we reached a distance that was considerably far from the door we had entered from as well as from any bright or broken windows.
"I expected a lot more here," Ace claimed, turning around to speak to me as we walked, forcing himself to step backward for a few moments. "Maybe they're not coming after all."
I looked from the floor under my feet up to him and prepared myself for a response. Before I could manage anything out, though, a loud, creek-like noise yelled out through the enormous room.
I whipped my head over my shoulder to figure out what had made the sound but, as I did, Ace grabbed me by one arm and pulled me sharply to the left. I then stumbled forward and practically fell into his hands as he crouched down behind the nearest stack of boxes.
I knelt onto the tops of my knees while I gazed from his hands, now, for some reason, wrapped around the sides of my waist, to his eyes, which were staring intently at the floor beside his feet.
"Well, he sent me, so either deal with me and get the god damn information you want, or leave and get killed trying to find it on your own," a deep, strong voice suddenly shouted out through the room.
Immediately after that, an abundant number of loud footsteps began to echo out around us and another loud creak filled the area, followed by a slight bang.
"Yes, I'm sorry," another voice, one much more passive in tone, replied. "But, will he—"
"Upstairs," the other masculine voice interrupted. "And we'll see."
The footsteps continued to trot across the floor, all moving in harmony until they reached a certain point of significance, where they all abruptly halted, though a few staggered behind the rest.
"You," the first, bossier voice barked. "You're gonna stay right here. The rest of you... just follow me."
After another short moment, the footsteps picked back up, once again. They made their way farther across the room, and then a soft click could be heard from where we squatted. After that, the footsteps began to gradually fade away, until another bang erupted out, causing them to cease completely.
I looked from the box beside me to Ace's face as a quick silence fell.
He gazed back at the same time that a lone, hushed pair of footsteps started to pace somewhere else inside the spacious area.
Ace took his hands away from me and began to reach for the gun in his back pocket.
He searched my face, and then clearly mouthed the words 'stay here'.
I kept my eyes on him and gave a silent nod.
He looked down to the floor, listened to the continuously moving steps, and then carefully spun himself around on the balls of his feet, miraculously making nearly no sound in the process. Remaining in a crouching position, after that, he began to... kind of waddle alongside the line of boxes ahead, pulling his gun out in front of himself as he did so.
I could hear the footsteps becoming much closer as I watched him move, making me tense up, just a bit.
Understandably so, though, I think.
After what felt like a century or two, Ace reached the end of the row of boxes straight ahead of me, quite a distance away. Once there, then, he straightened his back just enough so that he could peek over the top edge of the stacked boxes on his left.
He held his gun down by his thigh as he gradually stood.
He glanced around, unmoving, as an odd quietness fell.
Then, suddenly, a loud pop shot throughout the room and a cloud of green flakes sprung forcefully out of the box in front of me, making me jump back and slide my legs out in front of myself both at the same time.
In the same moment, my eyes flung upward, and I caught glimpse of Ace as he swung his gun up, a bit to the left, and spat out a bullet into that direction.
I could hear a sort of... croaking kind of sound, followed by a mini crash of something onto the hard floor.
Ace looked back at where I sat and lowered his arm.
"Well," he began, surveying the green mess on the floor in front of me, as well as the small hole in the middle of the box next to it. "Looks like somebody was already trying to blow up this joint."
I forced a smile past my uneasiness.
He flashed a smile back, and then turned away.
I reached up and grabbed at the edge of one of the boxes beside me to help me up to a stand as Ace made his way around the one in front of him. After I had brought myself onto my feet, I twisted to the left and searched the floor ahead, noticing a clump of dark hair poking out from behind a row of boxes not too far ahead. I began to walk toward it, unhurriedly, as Ace made his way across the opposite side of the room.
Once close enough to the stack that concealed the rest of the clump, I started to step to the side a little more, and then rounded the corner of the boxes in front of me.
I instantly gazed downward and took in the view of a man's burly, limp body, sprawled out on the floor, face-down. His dark green shirt was heavily tainted with a dark burgundy color and a tiny pool of a brighter red was peeking out from underneath his sides.
I couldn't help but wrinkle my nose at the sight.
" 'Nesia!" Ace partially yelled out, causing my attention to switch over to where he stood, on the other end of a row a few lines away. "You coming?"
I looked him over, and then gave him an answer.
"Y-Yeah," I called back, looking back down and carefully stepping around the fallen man in front of me.
I picked up my pace as I walked toward the end of the aisle set before me, and then continued moving in a similar manner as I turned at the end and strolled alongside the side wall. Eventually, I made my way up to Ace, who was stationed in front of a short, brown door with white, chipped paint splattered all over it.
As soon as I had reached his side, Ace reached out and pulled the door swiftly back, in front of me, without making any type of sound at all. He then stepped through it, quickly but quietly, holding the edge of it until I followed him through. After that, he pushed the door backward and gradually released his grip on it, causing it to gently swing itself shut.
I turned to look at him as he walked past my side and entered a long, skinny hallway. I paced more sluggishly behind him, taking in my surrounding as I did.
The corridor itself had white walls, although the bottom halves of each were painted with a corroding green, and there were open or cracked doorways that led to pitch black rooms every four to five feet. The whole hall itself was dimly lit by a single window pane at the far end, which also happened to be covered by moderately heavy, office-like shades.
Ace treaded a few feet ahead of me, forging his way speedily without making any observations of his own.
I continued to chase after him, although I took some extra time to gaze into each room as I passed them by, just out of curiosity. Each time, though, I didn't really see much of anything, other than darkness and, sometimes, an old desktop by the side of the doorway.
Before I could even make my way past four doors in total, though, a loud shot shouted out from directly in front of me.
I immediately let out a tiny screech and stumbled both backward and to the left, causing one side of my body to collide with the wall.
My ears began to ring, making it feel like the noise was repeatedly echoing in my head.
I reached out to touch the wall beside me with both of my hands and gazed up at Ace, who I could see rushing into my direction, his gun held up by his shoulder.
Then, suddenly, a tall, dark-haired man jumped out of the room that was right in front of me, merely inches away. He twisted quickly toward Ace and threw up a large pistol of his own.
"Today!" I could barely hear him yell out, if that even was what he said, since it was so difficult for me to understand any sounds in that moment.
I threw my arms behind myself and hurriedly stepped backward, away from him.
Then, another shot pieced the air.
I froze.
The man collapsed to the floor, his gun falling and hitting the ground alongside him.
Breathing heavily, I touched the cold wall from behind my back and glanced from his body up to Ace.
"You okay?" he questioned, even though his voice was close to inaudible to me, while he stepped into my direction.
I didn't answer and instead stared at him as he stepped around the man that lay before me and made his way up to my side.
" 'Nesia," he spoke by my ear. "Are you okay?"
I turned gradually toward him and gazed up to his expression.
"I..." I started, barely even able to hear my own voice. "I-I... I don't... I don't really know..."
"Take a breath for a second," he instructed, now taking a step back from me.
I looked him over and nodded. I then gazed down to my feet and took a deep breath.
I scrunched up my face a bit as the hallway fell to silence, forcing my ringing ears into more pain. I waited a number of long moments, until the throbbing sounds at least started to subside, and then I looked back up.
"You good, now?" Ace asked, his voice a tad clearer.
I paused before replying.
"No, but... but I'm... I'm good enough," I muttered.
Ace smiled, just a little.
"Okay, well... let's keep moving, then," he proclaimed, now turned and starting to walk back by the side of the body below us.
I took another deep breath, and then followed after him, not looking down once as I paced past the man. After some time, we both reached the end of the hall, where the covered window was.
Ace spun himself around, and then caught gaze of one closed door with a partial window placed in it. I followed his eyes as he peered past the window and saw that, on the other side, a brightly lit, metal staircase could be perceived.
Ace lunged forward at the door, and then proceeded to open it. He swiftly stepped through and, afterward, held it out, until I had made my way through as well. Then, as before, he carefully shut it behind us.
Not that slamming the door could have even been any louder than the gunshot that had just burst my eardrums.
Once all that was accomplished, Ace turned back to the stairs set ahead of me and began to jump up them, one at a time. I went on to do the same behind him, turning at the one platform at the halfway mark and trudging all the way to the door at the end, which I assumed led to the second floor. Once there, then, Ace stepped to the side of it and looked over at me.
"Stay quiet and stay close," he commanded.
I glanced up at him and nodded.
He accepted my nod with one of his own, and then twisted back to the door ahead. He cautiously reached out to the handle and cranked it steadily.
After a moment or two, he pushed the door gently outward and threw his gun upward once more. He waited another few seconds before beginning to step through the doorway.
I stepped directly behind him, keeping myself a close inch or two away.
We both continued to walk, step by step, down the hallway that I could kind of see from around Ace's sides set ahead. From what I could tell, though, the corridor was very similar, if not identical to, the previous one, with the walls the same color, the doors propped open in the same way, and the light shining through a similarly shaded window at the very end. However, this hallway seemed to be a lot more peaceful overall, somehow, than the other. Maybe it was because I was walking at a distance from Ace that felt a little more safe or it was because I had noticed that we managed to walk a full half-length of the hall without any sudden attack by an armed stranger, but I definitely felt more secure, this time around.
Not to jinx it or anything, though.
We proceeded to softly tread down the long corridor, past a number of darkened rooms without any one problem, successfully.
Until I felt the touch of something brush over part of my upper arm, through the sleeve of my jacket.
I froze up for a second, and then gradually turned myself around, still not able to hear anything soft under my ringing ears.
Surprisingly, I saw nothing behind me but the beginning end of the long hallway.
I stood still to observe the area a moment longer, and then started to turn back around.
Then, suddenly, a heavy but muscular man appeared directly in front of me, a gun that looked just like the one the man in the last hallway had possessed in one hand, his eyes staring right into mine.
I jinxed it.
He immediately grabbed at my arm in the exact same place I had felt a touch before and jumped around my side.
"Ace!" I screamed out, my wide eyes glancing toward him as I screeched his name.
I could see him instantly whip around, his gun already aimed into my direction.
Before he even had time to think to shoot, though, a bullet smacked the floor by his feet.
However, it wasn't a shot made by the man holding onto me.
Ace shot his head to his left, and then I witnessed another man, with dark skin and dark clothing, leap out of one of the rooms beside him.
The man who was keeping his grasp on me pulled me backward, forcing me to stumble on my feet as I watched Ace turn to the other man.
I let out an instinctive scream and looked to the side as I felt my captor move his hand from my shoulder to my elbow. I then saw that he was standing directly beside me, glaring right back at me with some type of smirk.
I fell quiet and glanced down at the weapon in his hand for a split second.
And then I reached around my back to grab my own with my one free hand.
Unfortunately, though, my free hand happened to be my left, which is not my dominant hand, so when I whipped my gun back around my side, I found it extremely difficult to hold onto, especially since my body was already shaking uncontrollably.
I focused on steadying my arm as hurriedly as I could but, before I could fully attain a strong, reliable grip, the man let go of my arm, reached out with his own hand, and actually swiped the gun I held away.
I watched as he chucked my weapon down the hallway, behind me.
Uh oh.
He snatched back his hold on my arm, brought his own pistol up to his chest, pointed the barrel of it entirely into my direction, and let his smirk fade away.
Okay... shit.
"Ace!" I yelled out, once again, now throwing my body backward, desperately attempting to break the bond between me and the man.
I peered over the man's shoulder at the same time and saw that Ace was struggling to keep possession of his own gun and currently wrestling the other man into the direction of the right wall.
I glanced back at my captor; he still pointed his gun toward me, but he had yet to fire it.
He looked me over a moment as I ceased my efforts to escape and let a rush of tears overpower my vision.
Before I could release my oncoming cry, though, he whipped himself around and threw his armed arm into an outstretched position that pointed in Ace's direction.
Two consecutive gunshots then rang out in the room.
And then the man's hand loosened from my arm.
I held a deep breath as he fell to the floor in front of me.
I glanced up with blurry eyes immediately after to see Ace standing straight ahead, one hand pointing his gun into my direction, the other holding the shirt collar of the other man, who was now pinned against the wall, bleeding heavily from the side of his neck, and appeared to be completely lifeless.
Ace looked directly at me, and then released the grip he held on the man in front of himself, causing him to collapse to the floor in a similar manner as the other had.
"Today just keeps getting better," he muttered, glancing down to the floor below his feet.
I stood entirely still as he turned back to me and took a mere one step into my direction.
"Come on, 'Nesia," he commanded, dryly. "We've gotta keep moving."
As soon as his words left his mouth, he whipped himself back around and began to stride off, down the hall.
However, I remained unmoving.
My heart was still pounding.
"I..." I started, softly, but loud enough for him to hear. "I-I don't know if... I can, Ace."