I Want to Die, But I Am Immortal

Adam made his decision. He would enter the house. The thought settled in his mind with the cold weight of certainty. He remained crouched in the deep shadows behind the crumbling boundary wall a silent predator studying its territory. 

The front gate was the most obvious point of entry. It was also the most obvious trap. The people who wanted him dead were thorough. They were not fools. They would expect him to try the main door. 

He could almost visualize the mechanism. A pressure plate hidden beneath the welcome mat a thin tripwire across the threshold. Something simple something brutally effective. He dismissed the front gate immediately. It was an invitation to a swift and fiery death.

His gaze shifted to the side of the house. The large garden window that opened into the living room presented another possibility. It was a wide opening a tempting vulnerability in the house's defenses. That was precisely why it too was a trap. 

They would anticipate such a move. He imagined a motion sensor tucked into the corner of the room invisible in the dark. A laser beam so thin it would be impossible to see without specialized equipment. 

Breaking that window would be a fool's errand. It would announce his presence and likely trigger the very explosion he was trying to avoid. His new Investigation skill screamed at him that both conventional entry points were deathtraps designed for an amateur. He was not an amateur anymore.

He needed an unconventional approach. His eyes scanned the exterior of the two-story structure methodically. He traced the lines of the walls the edges of the roof the placement of each window. 

Then he saw it. A thick metal drainpipe ran from the roof all the way down to the ground, firmly bolted to the side of the house. It was a vertical path straight to the second floor an entry point no one would expect a normal person to even consider.

A few weeks ago this would have been an impossible climb. He would have lacked the strength the grip the sheer physical power to pull himself up two stories. But things were different now. 

He was different. He flexed his fingers feeling the latent power humming in his muscles. He remembered the massive boosts to his stats the strength of the thugs and his teacher now flowing through his own veins. He had become something more than human. The realization brought a small cold smile to his face. The pipe was not an obstacle. It was a solution. It was his way in.

He prepared himself to move. He crouched low his body coiling like a spring. He calculated the distance the initial leap required to grab the pipe. His eyes were fixed on his target. His muscles tensed. He was just a fraction of a second away from launching himself into the darkness towards the cold metal of the pipe.

"Adam!"

The voice cut through the night. It was a girl's voice frantic and breathless. It was a voice he knew. The sound of his own name shattered his intense focus. His body reacted instinctively. He spun around his form dropping into a low defensive stance. His mind immediately cataloged the sound its direction its tone. He was ready for a fight ready for an ambush.

He saw a figure sprinting down the dark street towards his house. A lone figure running with desperate speed. His eyes adjusted to the dim light and a wave of shock, colder than any fear he had felt before, washed over him.

It was Sophia.

He stared at her approaching form utterly stunned. Why was she here? How? His mind raced a chaotic torrent of questions and dreadful possibilities. His plan had failed. It had to have failed. That was the only explanation for her presence here. They must have gotten to her. Andrew's father the police. They must have moved faster than he had anticipated. 

They found out his deception on the hill. They went after her. But how could they have acted so quickly? His staging of the crime scene was perfect. It should have taken them hours to piece together the false narrative he had created. 

He had scrubbed the area of any trace of himself. Did he miss something? Was there a flaw in his meticulously crafted plan? His thoughts spiraled a frantic analysis born of a sudden terrifying fear for her safety.

He was so caught up in his internal panic that he almost didn't register her arrival. She skidded to a stop just a few feet in front of him. Her chest was heaving. She was gasping for air. Her eyes were wide with a mixture of fear and relief. 

She looked at his current state. He was in his gym clothes his face hidden by a cap and mask. He was not the disguised figure she had last seen. He knew she would be confused about the change in his attire. He could see it on her face. But her confusion was not his primary concern.

Sophia finally caught her breath. She looked at him her eyes filled with a genuine profound concern that he found completely disarming. "Are you okay Adam?" she asked her voice still shaky.

Her question stunned him. He had been preparing for a fight ready to hear that she was in danger. He had expected her to be hysterical to be running from something. Instead her first thought was for him. 

Her worry for his well-being was so unexpected it momentarily broke through the cold calculating shell he had built around himself.

Then his own fear for her safety resurfaced, twisting into a harsh and immediate response. He forgot the traps the house the danger he was in. His only focus was the immediate inexplicable danger her presence represented. 

"What are you doing here?" he snapped his voice a low angry growl. "I told you not to leave your house. Didn't I tell you not to come outside no matter what?"