Chapter Four-

Mathilda sat in the hotel suite watching Jerry Springer: It's Not My Baby, It's My Father's. "That is SO horrible," said Hallie. "His father was sleeping with his wife?"

"What's so bad about that?" said Toad.

"It's a different type of sleeping, Toad," snapped Hallie.

"What type of sleeping?"

"Nothing," snapped Mathilda before Hallie could tell him about sex. She was still dizzy about earlier with the taxi driver. Mathilda rubbed her head as it swam and fell onto her bed. She closed her eyes. "I need to get some sleep."

Hallie looked down at her. "Are you okay, Mattie?"

"Yes," sighed Mathilda. She buried her head in the fluffy pillow. Toad sucked on a mint he had found on the bed he shared with his stuffed animal, a cat named Jiggy. Hallie lay down beside Mathilda and, sipping from her glass of water, almost choked when she saw someone watched them through the window. He was on the balcony.

"Mathilda," she tried to say, but couldn't. She was so scared. "M--m-m-Ma-thil-daaaaahhh!" She grabbed Mathilda and pointed towards the balcony. "The m-m-man! He's out there!"

"What man?" said Mathilda, sitting up. That was when she saw him. He was tall and had long shaggy blonde hair. He had a strange grin on his face.

Mathilda quickly reached for her coat which was sitting up on a nearbye chair, and searched for one of the guns. She aimed it at the man who stood on the balcony and began to run towards him. "Who are you?" she screamed. "Who are you?"

The man shook his head and backflipped off of the second story balcony and dissapeared into the night. Mathilda quickly pulled open the sliding door and ran out onto the balcony. She ran towards the railing and, looking over the edge, saw that the man was running. She herself pulled herself up over the railing and let herself fall. Mathilda landed in a crouching position and, immidiately regaining her composure, began to charge after the man. Hallie and Toad watched her run off down the grassy hillside towards Central Park, darting down paths and past trees. She held up the gun she had taken with her and aimed it at the man and began to shoot. He disapeared into the darkness immidiately after hearing the gunfire and left Mathilda alone. She looked back up at her room and wondered, "How the Hell did he get up there?" She turned and began to make her way back towards the hotel room. "And how did they find us already?"

Mathilda ran a hand through her hair. She was in the shower later that night, washing her hair and scrubbing her skin. Her whole body aked and she just wanted to lay down and go to sleep. But she knew that she had to get ready. She had to find out what was going on with all of this. What did these people want? Who were they? What was the secret that was hidden inside the brown bag? Mathilda brushed her teeth and poured herself a glass of milk. Then another one. And another. Next she dressed in dark clothing and put on the long overcoat she had stolen from Gaston's lifeless body. She loaded her guns, cleaned her knives, and lined the grenades up in her coat. Next, she pulled her long dark hair up into a bun--then changed her mind and decided to pull her hair up into a ponytail--she didn't like buns that very much. She put on a pair of sunglasses--she didn't know why. It was dark outside. She guessed that she was just doing it either to hide her identity or just look cool. She then strapped a knapsack she had bought earlier that day to her back. Mathilda quietly opened the door, but then, changing her mind, turned back and walked over to Hallie. She woke the small girl up. "Hallie, listen to me," she said, shaking the girl gently.

"Yes?" said Hallie.

"Listen to me," said Mathilda. "I'm going to give you this dagger." She held up the knife. "If you see anyone at the balcony, you run. Only use it if you have to."

Hallie nodded sleepily. "O.K."

Mathilda lay the dagger on the nightside table. She turned and opened the door once again. That was when she heard Hallie. "Yes?" she said to the little girl.

"Be careful, Mattie."

Mathilda walked up to the large brown door. Yes, this was the address. 512 Hamilton Street. It looked more like a home, not an office. But then again, as a cleaner, you could never judge someone, or something for that matter, by their looks. Mathilda tried the door knob, but it was locked. It looked like no one was at home--probably out tonight, and the neighborhood was the ratty type where it looked like the only thing the neighbors cared about was themselves. So Mathilda pulled out her gun and shot the doorknob off, then kicked the door open. She came into a long hallway with a staircase up to a second story. The hallway opened up to a dining room, a living room, a kitchen, and another hallway. Mathilda walked into the living room and began to search through several large bureau drawers--she found several interesting things: guns, knives, letters, bundles of money...Mathilda stuffed most of it into her knapsack, making sure the guns were on safety. Next she began to look around the rest of the room. She didn't find anything interesting in the kitchen, but in the dining room, when stepping over a rug, she heard a loud CRREEEAAAKKKK! beneath it. She quickly lifted up the rug and found that one of the floorboards were loose. When she pulled up the floorboard, Mathilda found several bags of cocaine and weed. Mathilda set them back down, and stood, beginning to walk into the hallway and make her way up the stairs. That was when she heard someone talking. The talking was coming from outside. Someone was making their way up to the door. Mathilda hid at the top of the staircase behind the banister and watched as a tall man with no hair--he must have shaved his head--walked inside. "What the fuck? I think someone's broken into my house!" He walked over to the bureau drawer and shouted in anger. "Damnit! They took everything!"

Mathilda was breathing heavily. She had to get out of there and quick.

That was when she heard him say something that caught her attention. "I bet it was that damned little girl. She knows where Craig is hiding--the message was in that damned bag with the rest of that money! Damnit!" He threw the cellular phone across the room.

Who was Craig? Why did he want to know where he was hiding?

"Damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit! I'm going to see Fernando tomorrow. Yes Fernando Divoci, you moron! I don't want to face the boss yet. She won't be happy to know that this little girl broke into my house and stole all of my fucking stuff."

Mathilda was sweating hard, panting with fear. She quickly begant to creap down the hall, and entered his bedroom. She saw a window that led to the backyard, and began to climb out when she saw his pompilot. She quickly took it and stuffed it into her knapsack, then crawled out of the window and let herself drop to the ground. She began to run as soon as she fell to the grassy area, hoping that Hallie and Toad were alright.

"Send someone over there now!" screamed the man. "I want that girl! And kill her little friends while you're at it!"