A Spy Story
Chapter 2
Yue awoke to someone staring down at her. She yelped and pulled her sheets up tightly before realizing it was Xiang.
"Oh! You're back."
"How long have you been sleeping? You were supposed to pretend to pick me up at school. I had to walk back myself. The soldiers kept on staring at me." Xiang berated her.
Yue glanced at her watch. It was always 15 minutes fast, but even if it was, it was still 9:30 in the evening.
"I…" Yue guiltily hid her face. "I fell asleep at around 4…"
"You slept a solid 13 hours yesterday. How can you still sleep?" Xiang's expression was a curious mixture of curiosity, exasperation and a small tinge of laughter.
"What can I say… I'm an old woman." Yue joked.
"If 21 counts as old."
"I wonder how old I'll have to claim to be when I actually am an old woman." Yue thought for a second. "Provide I live that long."
"Shut up about depressing things."
The distant sound of alarm bells started going off. Yue leapt out of the bed and ran with Xiang to the window. The formerly empty looking building opposite of theirs suddenly became a beehive of activity as it's occupants all craned their necks to see what the commotion was about.
The apartment across of theirs housed an elderly pair who always seemed to have an unlimited access to "grandma-candies". Yue used to constantly hop over to their house and have tea and sweets with the two. She reminisced on those times as the pair craned their bony necks out.
"Do you have any idea what this is, child?" The old lady asked, old voice raspy and dry. She squinted at Xiang and Yue.
"I'll bet it's those Japs… " the old man complained to no one in particular. "I swear, I'll drive them out myself if it weren't for these old bones."
"Grandpa," Yue called out to the man "It'll be over soon. I promise."
"Child, we all wish we can promise it'll be over soon."
Yue kept silent.
The Chinese residents of the buildings kept on staring at the distant swirls of dust, trying to make out where the tanks were going. The columns of dust were a common occurrence, something the Japanese got out whenever they needed to intimidate the Chinese "to let them know their place".
Yue squinted into the columns of dust. They weren't moving anywhere, like they usually did. In fact, the tanks seemed to be moving straight towards them.
"My, those tanks are slow!" The old lady remarked. "The Japs must be running out of gas!"
Yue suddenly felt herself being jerked back by Xiang. He nearly tore the curtains off in his rush to get inside the house.
"They're coming for me. One of them saw me head here after school."
"Why the hell didn't you go somewhere else?"
"Because I wasn't thinking straight!" Xiang fumed. The dim looking officer had turned out to be not as dim as he had originally assumed. In fact, he was looking very intelligent at the moment. More intelligent than Xiang himself felt.
"Hide, then. Hide!"
"I'm trying to!"
The two cousins scrambled around to floor for the loose floorboard where they had hid numerous agents as they travelled through Shanghai.
"Found it! Get in."
Xiang squeezed into the small space between floors. A look of disgust came over his normally blank face. He lifted a dead mouse out and tossed it to Yue before retreating completely into the small space.
"Be quiet. You know where to go, don't you?"
"I'm not stupid."
"Well, judging by what you did today…" Yue wondered wether she should say something mean to her cousin, but decided not to. After all, every time Xiang left could be the last time she ever saw him.
"Just be safe, won't you?"
"Aren't I always?" Xiang didn't bother answering properly before disappearing.
Yue jumped about a foot in the air when a loud ramming on her door woke her out of her little daze. She flattened out her slightly wavy brown hair before heading to open the door, regretting the fact that she didn't change out of her wrinkled clothing before jumping out of bed.
The minute she unlocked the door, the Japanese soldiers burst into the house. A young, rather inexperienced looking man guarded Yue and held her against the wall with the butt of his gun. Yue noted with a small grin that his hands shook slightly.
"You, no smile." The man tried acting serious.
"Alright, alright."
The other soldiers had finished combing the walls and all the furniture for spies. Yue smirked at how none of them expected the small woman in rumpled clothing to be an important spy herself.
One of the men lifted the cover of Yue's desk and found her ink and brushes.
"What this?"
"I'm a painter." Yue rushed over to the man, eager to show off her abilities paying no heed to who she was showing off to.
The men watched as she swirled the paintbrush around on the ink-rubbing stone and poured water steadily from her cup to mix the ink rock into liquid ink. She then dipped her brush into the black liquid and drew a quick fish on a scrap piece of paper. The men watched, captivated by the graceful strokes of the brush.
"We leave now. Sorry for disturb., Miss." The men were obviously won over by her. Yue smirked as the door snapped shut. The trick worked every time. The men would be reminded of Japan, and leave her alone. It was strange why they did that, but it worked so Yue didn't question anything.
Yue walked calmly over to her sink to wash off the ink. Just as she was about to open the tap, a loud gunshot sounded below her building, followed by a tortured scream.
She ran over to the window and stuck her head completely out to see below. Yue saw a whole lot of dust and not much else, but it was obvious that someone was shot. She prayed to herself that it wasn't Xiang.
As the dust cleared, Yue felt her heart dropped to the bottom of her stomach. Xiang lay on the ground, blood gushing from somewhere Yue couldn't even tell. He was surrounded with no less than 10 soldiers, all aiming their guns at the teen.
"Are you with the Russians?"
"No!" Xiang refused to give in.
"YOu were searching for the plane. We've already shot down your friends. No use looking at the sky."
Russians? What Russians? Yue looked up at the sky herself to check if there were Russian planes circling above to help the Chinese. Only the sun gleamed in the sun, brighter than any fire on earth.
"I swear! I'm not with the Russians or whoever you're talking about!" Xiang desperately yelled.
"We're taking you. The general said to bring any spies to him."
Two men stepped forward and roughly grabbed Xiang by the arms. The boy screamed in pain as they dragged him down the bloody streets of Shanghai. Everyone who had been watching quickly looked away and pretended not to have seen anything. Knowing the Japanese, even looking at the blood could get them arrested.
Yue collapsed onto her knees and wept. The salty tears trickled down her pale cheeks and her eyes squeezed together to form slits. The muffled screams that came from her was pure grief.
Her cousin… Her only connection to the life she had before.
Gone.
Taken.
Just like everyone else she knew.
She thought bitterly to herself; When will it be my time? Everyone's gone except uncle and Mei. I'd rather die first than let them die. It'll be easier anyhow. I'll be with everyone.
Yue shook her head. Wishing she would die would mean admitting that she let the Japanese had won. She had to fight until the last breath.
She wasn't going to let Xiang get captured in vain.
"Funny how fast my moods have been changing lately. Am I going to have a mental breakdown soon? I'm absolutely crazy." Yue mused to herself.
"Are you absolutely certain it was him?"
"I've already told you. I…" Yue was at a loss for words at the sight of her forever strong uncle breaking down before her.
"Leave. Tell Mei to take a break and go somewhere. I need time alone." Her uncle choked out.
Yue left immediately. She didn't need another reminder. She climbed out of the small room and met with Mei. Mei's warm brown eyes begged Yue to tell her everything, but Yue waved for her to go. Mei's face scrunched up in a furious scowl as she whipped her head around and stalked off. The furious girl spat obscenities at Yue for not telling her anything. Yue didn't respond.
She couldn't tell Mei.
It would kill her to know her brother, the only person she loved still alive was taken. Just like the person she had loved the most before.
Yue sighed at the thought of the latter.
"Why?" Yue sighed as she tread slowly across the market to head home. Gossip about Xiang was ripe. Women gathered in groups and whispered to each other behind manicured hands. They glanced at each other, then laughed. Yue grit her teeth and forced herself to walk past these gaggles of women.
Yue walked up the many stairs to her apartment at the top of her building. She fumbled for her keys and unlocked the door.
Before she even had both feet in the apartment, a large, gloved hand covered her mouth and a huge body crashed into hers and pulled her inside the apartment. An obviously Russian voice hissed at her to not say anything, and she felt a metal instrument press against her neck.