That comes in two.

That comes in twos.
By Ethan Crowley

"Hurry or they'll see us!" she cried. "Melania, if you want to try doing this I'd welcome it," Kirane said sighing focusing his piercing grey eyes onto the grapple hook and briskly sweeping his curtain of naturally dark hair from his eyes , his sister could be so impatient he thought as she stood next to him clicking her tounge impatiently and fiddling with her long red hair and beholding a look of annoyance in her hazel eyes. The Count's party wouldn't start for another thirty-five minutes. He fiddled with some more dials on the grapple hook and raised his arm into the air. A small rushing noised filled the twilight sky around hem and a clunk from the roof from above as the grapple hook nestled on something. Nobody was outside in the estate's grounds, the Count's guests were most likely getting ready for the party inside.

"Grab hold tight, Melania," he said smiling, "Ok, Kirane," she said taking hold around his waist firmly. Kirane let go off the pressure trigger and felt his stomach fly as they rose higher, he looked straight in front of him and saw the creamy coloured bricks blur past. As they rose past the roof, he felt Melania let go and watched her fall gracefully to the roof with composure. He tried to land like her but lost his footing and toppled dangerously towards the end the roof, Melania squealed, rushed forward and grabbed his clothing as she threw him forwards. He fell on the floor strewn with bird droppings and pebbles. Melania gave a sigh of relief, "You need to practise that a little," she laughed. Kirane rose from his feet and felt a little robbed of dignity but beckoned Melania to the other side of the roof to peer below into the courtyard. Below them, in the courtyard servants, cooks and all other types of workers were bustling around preparing the final touches for the Count's party. The courtyard was beautiful with a splendour only a man with a high and expensive taste could afford. Marble lovers were dancing among streams of water in matching marble fountains, the pristine hedges would rival the straightness of a ruler and the lusious grass was all the same length and had almost unnatural fresh green colour to it.

" Hm.. we'll have to act busy to blend in properly and not arouse any suspicion," Kirane said quietly. He spun on the spot and walked forward then swung his bag from his shoulder. He dived his forearm inside and pulled out two attendant uniforms. He gave one to his sister and took off his own adornments and clothing and pulled on the crimson and gold tinted uniform. He placed his katana in a sheath going down his back, he would have to stand bolt-right straight but the posture would make him look all the more believeable. Melania tapped his shoulder and told him she was ready, she was obviously also concealing some type of weapon on her. "We'll have to look for an open window to go in through," she informed him as they walked the perimeter of the roof. A window was wide open along the side of the estate. Melania got to her knees and asked Kirane to hold her legs tight and dangle her of the window slowly to see if the corridor within was empty. The workers wouldn't notice as the party would start in ten minutes which wouldn't give them any reason do dawdle and look at the skies above. Kirane grabbed her legs and carefully dangled her down towards the open window. She muttered her approval that the corridor was empty. Not many people should be in there anyway as the workers were still preparing and the guests were congregating down in the Hall. "Kirane, let go of me," Melania said a little put off from the height. He did so, and she placed her palms flat on the sill of the window and flipped forward landing perfectly. This would prove more of a problem of Kirane as he was bulkier and was a lot less flexible than Melania. He bent down grabbed the bottom of the roof swung down and through the window, his land wasn't exactly perfect but enough to earn the dignity back he had lost on the roof. They dusted themselves and started messing with their windswept hair to try and look somehow presentable enough to be at a party like this.

The corridor was adorned with oil paintings of portraits, alcoves filled with welcoming light and with expensive looking vases filled with fresh tulips. They reached an elevator which was padded with red velvet and rode it to the ground floor. Melania looked pointedly towards a group of servants looking quite stressed, Kirane got the point and they followed them until they came to a pair of oak double doors. They walked through to see the size of the immense kitchen. The smells of the food made them feel like abandoning their mission and the air was filled with the noise of chefs shouting orders to cooks and the scrambling of attendants getting platters of entrees. A harassed looking chef pounced upon them on seeing their crimson uniforms. Without a word he stuffed a silver platter of stuffed olives into Melania's hands and another platter filled with prawns and chilli into Kirane's. He ushered them to the other side of the kitchen and pushed them quite forcefully out of another set of oak double doors, but this time with sound-proofing on them.

The sound of a slow jazz tune was playing by a tuxedo-clad band in a corner of the huge ballroom. A grand chandailier draped from the ceiling with sparkles of gold and diamond dazzling off even when staying still. Carved marble pillars were dotted around the walls and one hundred or so couples were around the room either dancing or chatting in loud boasting voices. "Find the Count. We have to gather information on him," Kirane whispered into Melania's ear, she nodded without looking at him and head in a random direction to offer her platter.
Kirane did the same, finding the Count would be quite simple as he would more than likely be dressed the best and be boasting the enthusiastically. The people at the party were dressed elaborately with over the top hats nestling on top of women's heads and men in different shades in tuxedos.
"..and THEN the man says that's not an elephant thats my wife!!!" roared a man not so far away, he seemed so amazed by himself for being so funny. The people around all laughed puppet-like, the bigger the laugh the bigger the kiss-ass. This was no doubt the Count.
Kirane made a bee-line (or the best bee-line he could accomplish with all the dancing couples and the hungry guests wishing to take food from his platter. He hovered around the Count and tried to analyse him..he seemed to be a lot more grander than the other men, he had an air of ignorance. He was large and had short black-turning-grey hair and a sculpted face. Kirane pretended to go inside his pocket for something but withdrew a picture of the Count from the commisioner. His features looked different in the pictures, obviously he had plastic surgery. It was hard to believe that this man was secretly an underground drug lord who had had innocent people killed and had ruined many people's lives from addiction to what he sold. He wondered what his wife actually thought he did for his living.
Confused after thinking about the Count's wife, Kirane looked around but saw no woman his age around him but a young twenty-something blonde with the thin soft arms draped around him laughing at his very unfunny joke. She was obviously a trophy wife that had been obtained from money and power.

As the night passed Kirane had passed Melania a few times but hadn't been able to talk to her and had served the main course of the buffet and the party had been moved outside in the garden and night had fell and the warm summer air was fragrant from the garden. He walked back into the kitchens and was handed a stack of menus filled with options for dessert. He made straight for the main table and took down the order's that had came in from the table. "Well if I ever get tired of being an assassin I can always do this" he murmured to himself smirking as he thought of the good job he had done disguising himself all night.
More time passed and the main table had got drunk from champagne and whiskey. As most of the people dispursed to their rooms the Count and two friends started walking towards the beach. This was their chance. He found Melania inside giving people their coat's back. "Go back to the roof and get our clothes. It's our chance. He's going to the beach with two people." She nodded as she left and disappeared through the double doors to the kitchen.

He half ran back into the gardens to look for the Count but didn't have to look very far to find him. Him and his two friends were singing at the top of their voices about "Henry's horse" or something. He followed them in the shadows as they made their way to the beach, he withdrew his katana. He couldn't do it without Melania and would have to wait for her.

The stumbling men reached the shore of the beach which had an eerie glow from the moonlight. One of the men was vomitting loudly onto the sand. Kirane was tailing them in the deep shadow of the palm trees and felt the wind from the sea and the smell of salt fill him. Melania made a frantic wave with her arm to grab Kirane's attention. She was a little closer to the men than he was and was hiding behind a particularly thick palm tree. She gave him a wink and withdrew a curved dagger from a sheath hidden by her ankle. She moved quickly and deadly. The drunken men were perplexed as Melania hit one of the Count's associate's on a pressure point in between the neck and shoulder so he fell to the soft sandy ground, unconcious.
She then raised her leg and arched it over her body as she flung herself backwards and butted the other man with the heel of her boot. "Count Restron we know about you and the secret life you lead!" Melania yelled panting, her anger was builing. Kirane ran to her side as she bellowed again, "You've killed innocent people to get money and drugs! You've ruined so many people's lives..." she finished quietly, then bowed her head. The Count, being drunk, still had no idea what was going on. Melania raised her head her hazel eyes sparkling with anguish and disgust. She detached a shuriken concealed on her back and whirled it around. The Count began to run, fleeing back towards the estate but he was too late. Melania had released the shuriken and it had connected with it's target of the Count's neck. There was a sickening thud on the sand as crimson spattered over it. Kirane turned away not wanting to look at the sight of the decapitated body. He, instead acknowledged Melania who was sobbing into her hands. He hugged her and she cried into his shoulder, "I don't want to do this anymore, Kee! I can't stand this!" "I know, I know. But we have to it's the only thing we're good at," Kirane said lovingly to his sister. "Well we have to go back to tell the commisioner."