Chapter Six: Déjá-vu

As soon as the sun had set, Xandar left his room. He had hidden his rucksack under the bed; he would have to come back for it later. As soon as he reached the bottom of the staircase, he headed straight for the door.

"So, you're really going through with this then?" Paul asked.

Xandar turned around and saw Paul sitting at one of the tables with a half empty pint glass, and a book of crossword puzzles in front of him. It looked as if he had been waiting for Xandar to come down the stairs all evening.

"Yeah I am. Jane's my friend and…well I've got a promise that I have to keep." Xandar replied.

Paul hesitated for a moment. He looked as if he wanted to ask Xandar what the promise was, but he didn't. Instead he held out his hand, in which he held a photo and a hunting knife.

"Here take these."

Xandar took them both, and looked at Paul quizzically.

"What are these for?" he asked.

"Well that knife is for self-defence, you know, just in case."

"And the photo?"

"It's a photo of me with my brother and sister. If you see them in there could you try and get them out too?" Paul asked hopefully.

Xandar looked down at the photo. It showed three people standing outside the inn on a clear summers day. The two boys looked the same, bar the different coloured hair and a slightly misshaped nose. The girl was standing between them with a glowing smile and bright blonde hair. Xandar looked back up at Paul.

"Yeah I'll try." Xandar replied.

He pocketed the photo, stuck the knife under his belt and headed for the door. He heard Paul say "Good Luck" as he walked out the inn and onto the street. As soon as he was clear of the inn Xandar crouched down low and started moving toward the church, making sure that he was always near to a building or a hedgerow so the light from the moon wouldn't show his movements. Slowly he moved closer and closer to the church until he reached the bushes that they had hid behind earlier that day.

Lying flat on the ground, so that he was harder to see, he crawled to the end of the bushes and peered round them. There were two guards by the door of the church and two more patrolling the grounds. He sat and watched them for half an hour taking in the routes that they took around the front of the church, until he saw a weak spot. There was one moment, for a couple of minutes, when the patrolling guards went round the corner of the church and were out of sight of each other and the two guards at the door. Xandar knew what he had to do. He set off crawling around the church to wait for the guard on his next sweep of the grounds.

After a few minutes of lying in the grass, Xandar saw the guard approaching him, and he very carefully pulled out the knife from his belt. He waited till the guard had turned his back on him, then leapt up and struck him on the back of his head with the hilt of the knife. The guard crumpled to the ground. Quickly, Xandar pulled the unconscious guard behind some nearby bushes and pulled off his cloak. Tearing both the sleeves off his own shirt he then tied the guards hands behind his back and his feet together. He picked the cloak up off the floor and walked round the other side of the bush to check if the guard could be seen.

As he pulled the cloak over his head Xandar couldn't shake the feeling of deja-vu that he got. It was as if he'd done this before, vague pictures were forming in his head but he couldn't quite make them out. Before he could dwell any longer on the vague thoughts a shout brought him back to his senses.

"Hey, are you alright round there?"

Xandar realised that he had taken too long tying the guard up, and one of the guard's by the door had gotten suspicious. Quickly he pulled the cloak down over the rest of his body, made sure the hood was covering his face and headed round the corner. He approached the two guards at the door slowly, not wanting to seem too anxious.

"Why didn't you answer me?" one of the guards asked suspiciously.

"I was being sick." Xandar replied.

"What?" said the other guard.

"Must have been something I ate earlier." Xandar stated.

There was a long pause from both of the guards. Xandars hand moved to the knife that was hidden under his cloak.

"You'd better go and get some rest then." One of the guards said finally.

Xandars hand dropped back down to his side and he started to walk past the two guards.

"Wait."

Xandars heart started beating rapidly inside his chest.

"You'd better send someone to replace you."

With a quick nod of his head Xandar walked into the church. "That was the hard part" he thought to himself, "now's just the easy bit of finding Jane and getting out!" He laughed inwardly at his own joke. As now he was inside the church he had no idea where to start looking.