The Assassin with the Ponytail

The Assassin with the Ponytail is the eighteenth episode of Season One. It marks the first appearance of Sarah Scarlet.

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For a moment, Ezra spaced out. He had completely forgotten about Pete. The dream he had about the train “accident” had not yet come to pass. He had to prevent it somehow, before another innocent died. Dane’s voiced returned him back to reality.

“Hey man, are you listening?” asked Dane, waving his hand in front of Ezra’s face. “You have a funny expression, it’s like you saw a ghost or something.” Ezra realized it must have been around a minute that he had been spacing out. He knew what he had to do. Find Pete and persuade him to not do anything crazy like this.

“I…must be tired.” He said to his best friend. “I guess I’m going home. You know my mum; if I return home late then she’s going to be pissed at my dad for not checking on me while she’s away…” He faked a smile. He knew Dane needed some rest…he was still recovering. He had to leave him out of this one. Fortunately, his best friend bought it. “Sure, maybe you should get some more sleep than usual so that you’re not late at school again tomorrow…Don’t forget that we start our day with lovely Miss Tanen’s lesson again!” said Dane and laughed.

“Oh sure…I sure need a lot of sleep for that one…”said Ezra and walked home. The first thing he did there was find his Dad. That was not difficult. He was in the living room, watching some reality show again, drinking his beer. He waved at his son without looking at him, realizing it was him by his quick and anxious steps. “Hey son! That was quick!” Ezra sat to a couch near his dad. His mum wasn’t there and he figured she must have gone to bed already. “Hey dad. Why couldn’t you pick us up? It’s not like you are doing anything interesting or something…” he said sarcastically, taking a look at a man living in a dog house on the TV. “Is that new?” Ezra asked. His dad nodded. “You always have to watch the first episode in order to judge a new show! That’s also the main reason I could not come. It’s not like a guy like me can have any urgent business or anything…” He took a look at his son. “Why so serious?” “It’s about… Pete.” Ezra said. “I have not seen him in the last few days…you know where he is?”

His dad laughed. “Ahaha… good ol’Pete… he went to visit his mum, who caught a flu… or at least that’s what he said. I hope he doesn’t chicken out on the challenge! What business do you have with him anyway?” Ezra shrugged. “I was just wondering…” He knew his dad wouldn’t believe him, if he told him what was happening to him lately. He was the kind of a man that would take it as a joke. Still, he knew he had to try. “Hey dad…listen, I have to tell you something import-“ “I dunno when he’s coming back…” His father continued. “It could be a day, but it could also be a week. Whatever it is that you want to tell him, it can wait, right?” He then took his eyes away from the TV for the first time and gazed at his son. “Right now, the important thing is that you rest. You still don’t know what lies ahead of you and what you will face tomorrow. This may only be the beginning. So…just relax!” He then returned to the TV and burst out laughing at a guy who was making weird expressions while eating dog food. Ezra was startled. His dad was completely clueless, yet for a moment there he was… someone else. He could not really describe it, but for an instant he was not this immature, weird guy that drinks all the time and manages to survive by the money of his wife’s work, but a more serious, determined and even… scarier person. However, seeing how ridiculous he looked laughing at the TV while eating an egg sandwich Ezra realised he must have been mistaken. “Right…goodnight dad. See ya tomorrow.”

He walked up to his room, changed to his PJs and just fell to his bed, staring at the ceiling. He had a feeling that the foreseen event was close, but he figured that there was no use worrying while Pete was still away. Dane was back and he had to face miss Tanen again the next day, so he just put his head on the pillow and had a long, dreamless sleep. He woke up by the smell of butter pancakes, a recipe that was passed on to his mother by his grandmother. He had almost forgotten this smell. He hastily woke up, changed to school clothes and snatched his mobile from the floor. It was almost time for class! He looked around and glanced at the bag with the tools for miss Tanen’s lesson. “Not today guys, I’m not forgetting to take you with me…” He grabbed the bag, dragged his schoolbag along with him and rushed out of his room to the door. His mum looked at him, confused. “Honey, where are you going? We’re having your favorite breakfast today!”

Ezra barely looked at his mother. “Save me some for later, I’m already almost late!” He rushed out of the house and ran his way to school. Fortunately, he arrived just in time to not be late for miss Tanen’s class and entered the classroom right before her. He took his seat next to Dane, who was clearly surprised. “Wow! I’m impressed! It’s the first time you have entered the room before a teacher since a while.” Ezra laughed. “C’mon, I’m not that bad…I just have bad luck most of the time.” The conversation was interrupted by Miss Tanen walking in, followed by an unknown figure shyly walking behind her.

“Silence! At least pay respect to your teacher in front of our new student…” She faked a cough in order to speak with a clearer and louder voice. It was a habit of her whenever she wanted to sound formal. “Everyone, I am glad to introduce Sarah Scarlet to you, a student that received a scholarship to our school due to her remarkable career on her previous school that was unfortunately destroyed by a fire in an accident. Here, Sarah, take a seat dear.”

Ezra and Dane looked a miss Tanen in disbelief. That person must have been someone important, because they have never seen her be so nice to someone. Right after the first shock, they looked at the young woman. She was some inches shorter than Ezra and avoided eye contact. Her face was red and she looked like she just wanted to dig her face in a hole to avoid meeting new people. She was the kind of person that you would feel bad bullying, even if you were the worst guy in the world. However, she was also undeniably beautiful. She had long, blond hair and a ponytail. Her eyes were blue and she wore glasses.

A loud noise suddenly brought both of them back to the classroom. Miss Tanen was talking to Ezra this time, admiring his initiative to finally bring the requested objects for her lesson with him. She then explained the day’s subject. It was the depiction of the emotion called happiness. She asked the students to use not only light colours, but dark ones, like black and blue as well. “Happiness cannot exist without sadness after all, just like good that cannot exist without evil. I want to see realism in your drawings. Do your best!”

Ezra could not care less about Miss Tanen’s nonsense. He just added light and dark colours wherever he felt like it, while his friend next to him was creating yet another masterpiece. Luckily, although his drawing was nowhere as good as Dane’s, who had portrayed an angel and a devil at the same image, he left miss Tanen quite satisfied, since she did not leave any negative comment on his drawing. After class, Ezra and Dane were walking to the school grounds. “So…I guess it’s over with the weird dreams, right?” Dane asked. Ezra wanted to nod positively, but he knew that it was nowhere near that, although he could not tell the truth to his best friend, due to his recovering state. He looked around and saw the new student. Perfect subject to change the conversation. “Hey man! Her name’s Sarah, right? She’s about to enter the men’s toilet. I’d better warn her!” he said to Dane. He ran to her just when she was about to have herself embarrassed and touched her on her back to get her attention.

Just about he was about to talk to her, an elbow hit him on the head with such strength that made him think he would be beheaded. It was Sarah’s. She then jumped, rotated in midair and kicked his head. Before he could realise what was happening, he fell on the floor, losing his consciousness. Everything went black. When he opened his eyes again, he was at the train station. Pete was there, talking enthusiastically to his phone. The accident was repeated, just like in the first dream. The scenery then went blood red, then black and switched. Now he was at a dusty, dark room. More like an elevator room, since he barely fit in there. There was a door. Noises could be heard from the other area. It was a familiar voice. The one there was… screaming. Ezra quietly opened the door to see what was happening. It indeed was Ben Walden, as he suspected. He was the screaming voice. He had been stabbed multiple times. Next to him was a woman. Ezra couldn’t believe his eyes. It was the same girl that hit him before. The same figure that avoided to look anyone in the eye now threatened to slit Ben Walden’s throat with a knife. “Ben Walden…you will finally pay for what you’ve done.” Ben had a weird spark in his eyes. “You bitch… he won’t forgive you, you know he won’t. You betrayed him! But it’s not just you. You are all as good as dead… You, Muhammad, that stupid kid and his idiotic friend, THE WHOLE WORLD IS AS GOOD AS-“

He couldn’t finish the sentence. The young woman had slit his throat. She was now dipped in blood and yet she had a calm expression on her face. Suddenly her image blurred and then became clear again. However, he was at his school now. He had seen another vision, and had just returned back to reality.

The girl looked nothing like she did in the dream. Now she was almost crying and was clearly relieved to see Ezra was doing good. “Thank goodness!” she said. “I was so startled, I did not mean to hurt you. Are you alright?” Ezra, clearly confused, shook his head. It hurt like hell, and he felt that in front of him there was another fearsome person. Just as he was about to answer to her and question where she received her fighting skills, he noticed Dane behind her, talking to Ezra’s phone. Dane saw that Ezra was conscious again, and closed his mobile. “Good grief Ezra! You were so hilariously beaten! Don’t you know you should not touch a girl from behind? Anyway, you should snap out of it immediately and follow my lead. Pete’s back! He invited us to the train station. He is going to take on your father’s challenge right now!”

Characters

 * Ezra White
 * Dane Young
 * Sarah Scarlet
 * Damon White
 * Miss Tanen
 * Ben Walden

Trivia

 * This is the first episode written by Chris.