The Zodiac Assassins

Chapter 5

12 days until Distruttore di Monde (DdM)

I wake grudgingly and glare at my phone. It's nerve wracking enough as it is, knowing everyone could die if we don't pull this off, without my mobile blaring off how long we have left every day. I don't know who set it, I blame Aquarius, and I don't know how to put it back so I'm stuck with it for now.

The curtains are closed, overlapping at the middle, but light streams over the top and around the sides, signalling that it's time to get up. Sighing, I throw back the covers and stand in front of the mirror.

"You look a mess" I tell my reflection and I do. My chocolate brown hair looks like it's been dragged backwards through a bush then stuck in an airplane engine before being dunked in a bucket of tar. It hangs in my face, disrupting my vision that isn't helped by the fact that I slept with my glasses on last night, and they've gone ski-wiff. Blue eyes, clogged with sleep, peer out from under and over thin lenses at the room, which is covered in a fine layer of mist, apart from the mirror which I'm so close to I could touch with my tongue. Somehow in the night, the top two buttons of my pyjama shirt are undone and one shoulder has slipped half way down my arm revealing far too much chest. If I weren't me, it would probably look cute. "Si guarda ridicolo."

I find a brush and yank it through my hair hurriedly before scraping it into a wispy plait that probably reaches about my waist, but I'm never really bothered to look. The pyjamas are ripped off and replaced with a red, tartan shirt and jeans. Normally, I don't wear pyjamas, it's always too hot at night, but since I've been in Britain, it's been positively freezing and I've had no choice. I start hunting for my earrings, black and white Yin-Yang symbols, and wonder why the hell I can't see anything that's not two inches in front of my nose, before realising my glasses are still being less than useless. After they've settled into a reasonably normal position and I've pulled on a pair of boots, I stumble downstairs into the... can you call it a dining room? It's virtually empty apart from four other people.

"Heya Gem. You look terrible" Aquarius shouts across the room from the big table in the middle, chewing on a corner of over-buttered toast. "What died in your hair?"

"Chiudi la bocca cazzo" I mutter, not wanting to keep it in my head that she should shut up but also not wanting to offend anyone.

"We can't understand you Italy" Aries says, hunched over a bowl of porridge, syrup and raspberries. "Speak a language everyone can understand, like English. Would you like it if I spoke Welsh all the time 'ast'?"

I shrug and Cancer comes bounding over from the food counter. "Hello Gemini."

"Thank you for not calling my 'Gem', 'Italy' or any other kind of nickname" I say, receiving a grin.

"That's your fifth helping of food" Taurus shouts. "What are you? A bottomless pit? A black hole?"

Cancer nods, picking up a sliver of bacon with two perfect nails and popping it inside her mouth. "I eat everything apart from mushrooms and anchovies because they are evil and I hate them."

"Does it have anything to do with them not being 'kawaii'?" Aries grumbles. "Everything is 'kawaii' in your eyes."

Cancer nods enthusiastically and I peer at her plate. She has three poached eggs mounted proudly on thick pieces of well-done toast, a lot of bacon, two huge tomatoes, four sausages, a pile of baked beans and a hash-brown. It's the biggest, greasiest breakfast I've ever seen. And it's her fifth helping.

I groan quietly and pick up a couple of ready done pieces of toast, some holy cheese and some chorizo.

"That is the weirdest breakfast I've ever seen" Taurus says as I sit down.

"It's what I usually have in the summer" I say, buttering the toast heavily and carefully placing the holy cheese and chorizo on top. "In winter it's porridge and other cereals in hot milk but in summer, it's bread and things like cheese and ham."

"Porridge all year round" Aries mumbles half way through a spoonful containing almost all of the syrup on the actual dinner.

"Where's everyone else?" I ask, looking around at the empty court.

"Oh" Aquarius puts down her mug of coffee. "Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius have gone to the pool which is just down the corridor first left, second right and it's the fourth door on your right, and Pisces and Capricorn... I don't know but they've gone somewhere private. I think that they like each other you know. I mean..."

"It's the most obvious thing on the planet Einstein" Aries snorts, showing us all a mixture of saliva and oats. "Anyone who can't see it is flipping blind. Personally, I'm doing nothing all day. A bit of X-men, a bit of Marvel and I should be fine."

I'm not usually a quick eater but today, I finished breakfast in seconds. I cram the last piece of cheese in my mouth and head upstairs. I like her idea of doing nothing all day. Maybe researching up on the guy we're killing, maybe watching something like... 'Breaking Bad', maybe trying to find out how Aquarius got into my room yesterday but what ever it is, as long as it's nothing, I don't care.

I get back to my room and slump on the couch, suddenly driven with an urge to read. Maybe, I can get through the entire 'Hound of the Baskervilles' today...