I have no way of knowing how much time had passed, or if at all any time had passed. What I do know is that at some point I was beginning to feel something again. I tried to open my eyes. All was a blur, but I could easily make out two girls. One looking through my backpack, the other lying down on the floor as well. Somehow, I wondered how this scene could take place without anyone noticing, but at the same time I wondered why that one girl, who was wearing quite dark clothes, and a hood to cover most of her head, was looking in my pack. She must've been the one that knocked me down. Although the girl underneath the table, I only saw her for a fraction of a second, but I know for sure that she's the one who lay down. Suddenly, it appeared as though the hooded girl did not find what she was looking for in my pack. She threw it away, and turned to the girl on the floor. She shook her awake, and started to shout something to her. She spoke an eastern language, so I couldn't make out what that was all about. Around that moment, the environment was becoming less of a blur, so I decided to get up. The hooded girl however was faster than me, and knocked me down again, though this time, I was kept awake.

"Stay down!" she screamed.

I turned my face to her. Ignoring the fact she just screamed at me, I asked: "Who... Who are you?"

She didn't seem to keen on me asking her. If she were, she wouldn't wrap her fingers around my neck, about ready to strangle me.

"Listen!" she said as she held me, "I have no interest in you whatsoever! But if she followed you, I bet there's some good reason to keep you alive."

Suddenly, the other girl, who appeared to be wearing a mask, held a knife to the hooded girl's throat. She mumbled something in her own language, and the hooded girl mumbled something back.

Those two began conversing in a language I didn't know. That's how I saw my chance. I punched the hooded girl in her stomach. She let go of me, and the other could finish the rest. I didn't bother to look at what was happening, I heard a few, thuds, sighs, clings, clicks,... they were obviously fighting, but I was more concerned about taking my stuff and leave.

As I was running to the exit, I noticed the surveillance camera's were unplugged, which explained why nobody had shown up. I didn't care much, I needed to get out. When I made it to the exit, I noticed the librarian was gone. Instead, there was a pool of blood underneath the desk. This came quite as a shock to me. Just then, it occurred to me how silent the library was. This wouldn't be new if it weren't for those two girls fighting. Though... if it's silent, that could mean one thing. The fight was over. I didn't care much about which one of the two had won, I was only concerned about getting out with my own life. That was a chance that nobody wanted me to have, apparently, because just when I was about to make another run for it, somebody grabbed my throat from behind and pulled me back. I was thrown against the wall and held up a few centimeters above the floor. It was the masked girl!

"Where is it!" she demanded me to answer.

I had a question of my own, though: "Who are you?"

"I asked you first! Where is it!" she kept insisting.

"What are you talking about?" I asked her.

The masked girl wasn't happy with that answer: "Don't fool with me! Just tell me!"

Given my situation, I would love to tell her where to find "it", whatever "it" may be. But she might as well be trying to force an answer out of me without asking the question first. About a second after I realized she had dark eyes, her grip on me started to loosen a little. She seemed to have been hit by something, which caused her to faint, and inevitably caused me to fall hard on the floor. For some reason, I don't know why, it was then I got a better look at her. She had mid cut jet black hair, and a round face. She wore some cotton looking sleeveless shirt, a tight red skirt, leather boots and gloves, and a long cape. Judging from her daggers, I'd say she was a ninja, though her clothes contradicted this. And given what that other girl looked like, I began wondering when I stepped through the portal that brought me into the world of comic book heroes.

After examining her, I realized that she didn't just faint. I looked up, and there she was, that hooded girl. I wanted to get up, but the hooded girl threw some kind of a knife at me. It missed me by an inch, and got stuck in the wall, like a nail would when knocking on it with a hammer. The knife in question reminded me of those that the guards used in Disney's Alladin. This girl wouldn't happen to be a mercenary or something?

"Don't move, unless I tell you to!" she ordered me.

"What's up with..."

She didn't let me finish my question: "And only speak when I tell you!"

Now it's official, I thought to myself, I can't get out of here. Now I'm involved with something big. Don't know what, but I am. Realizing that I decided to do exactly what she told me to do.

She marched to the masked girl. She took out a dart (probably the one that knocked her out cold), and pulled both of the masked girl's arms behind her back.

"Hold this!" she told me.

I held the girl's arms, just like she asked me to. The hooded girl then used the masked girl's cape to tie her hands together. When she was finished with that, she moved a bit closer to her head. There she lowered the girl's mask, in such a way that it performed as a gag.

As she was doing so, however, I noticed the masked girl's daggers. The hooded girl wasn't paying any attention to me, so I took my chance, and grabbed hold of both daggers. When I did, the hooded girl turned around. She was about to attack me, but I used one dagger to stab her in her arm. She cried of agony, but didn't let that stop her. She took her knife out of the wall, and began attacking me. I was no skilled fighter, nor skilled with knifes, so all I could do was try and dodge every attack. With her last attack, I saw a chance to stab one dagger in her hand, so she couldn't hold her sword much longer. Still she wanted to attack me, so in defense I allowed the other dagger to penetrate her somewhere in her bust. At that moment, she seemed to curse a few things, just before she finally gave in, fell on the floor, and died.

I can't describe what went through me at that moment. I never ever killed anyone before in my life, until now. At that same moment the masked girl seemed to be awakening. I could hear her moan through her gag, and beginning to struggle against her bonds. I knew one thing for certain: only she knows why I killed that hooded girl.

I picked her up, and put her on a nearby chair. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was trying to say "help me". I was eventually, but I needed some answers first. I took off her gag, and began asking.

"First things first! Who are you? What do you want? And what the hell's "it" you kept asking me about?"

Earlier she was some cold hearted girl forcing answers out of me, but that time she seemed to realize that she should've done things differently.

"I was talking about your metal fragment."

That answer didn't make me any wiser: "What metal fragment?"

"Don't act like you don't know!"

This girl was testing my patience: "Fine! I won't act like I don't know! What metal fragment?"

It still took her a few seconds to realize that I didn't know anything: "Will you undo this first? Please?"

She was referring to her bonds. I suppose if I wanted any reasonable answer, I had no other option but to be nice to her. I untied her hands, was about ready to take a seat, but...

"LOOK OUT !" she yelled.

What happened then, I'm not sure. All I can remember is that something pushed me. Then I felt another bump on my head, and everything went black.