21. CARRY YOU HOME
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REAPER:
AUDREY WAS AS BEAUTIFUL AS ALWAYS AS SHE SAT ACROSS from me in the same fancy Italian restaurant where we had had our first date. My palms grew sweaty with anxiety as I gazed into her crystal blue eyes and watched her talk while constantly brushing her fiery red hair from her face. Her long form fitting black dress and my tailored black suit made us look like quite the stylish couple. She was easily the most stunning person in the room and the more I stared at her the more I realized that she was quite possibly the most beautiful person I had ever laid eyes on—which made it all the more difficult to concentrate on the real reason I had asked her out that night. I knew that she was likely thinking of this as our tenth date but as far as I was concerned it was going to be our last. It wasn’t that things were going bad for us. On the contrary, we were doing great, and that was exactly what the problem was—things were going too well and the more fun I had with Audrey the more terrible I began to feel about having allowed Monica to be captured by The Righteous.
In addition to that, it also scared me that I had fallen for Audrey so quickly. She had already made an impression on me so lasting that I found it hard to focus on anything but her whenever she wasn’t around. My feelings for Audrey were still not quite as strong as my love for Monica but I could tell that if I wasn’t careful I would soon not be able to tell the difference.
As I stared into her luminous blue eyes trying to remember the words that I had prepared in order to let her know that I wanted to take a break I suddenly realized that it was likely that I had waited too long. I should have ended it sooner, I thought as an overwhelming sense of dread washed over me. My heartbeat quickened as I tried to jettison the guilt that I knew I would feel as soon as I delivered the bad news, but the more I tried not the focus on it, the stronger the guilt became.
“Adam, did you hear me?” Audrey suddenly asked, pulling me out of my agonizing thoughts.
“I’m sorry,” I said before clearing my throat. “What did you say?”
“I said, you seem distracted. Is everything okay?” she asked, her expression filled with concern.
“No… it’s not,” I admitted solemnly as my heart pounded even harder. “And my name’s not Adam, Audrey.”
“Okay, Adam, I’m not completely sure what’s going on here but I’ll be honest; you’ve been acting a bit strange lately,” she said, with a concerned expression still on her face.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” I started, struggling to maintain eye contact with her.
“What’s wrong, Adam?”
“I told you, my name isn’t Adam. And that’s not all I’ve lied to you about,” I said, forcing my jaw not to quiver.
“Is this some kind of joke?”
“No. It’s not a joke, Audrey, and I am truly sorry for not being honest with you from the beginning,” I confessed, as a mixture of confusion and anger washed across her face.
“If Adam isn’t your real name then who are you?” she asked.
“I can’t tell you that. Believe me I want to but that will make this so much more difficult that it already is,” I admitted.
“Wait a second, are you… are you breaking up with me?!” she demanded as her saddened eyes widened with surprise.
“Audrey, I don’t have a choice. It’s—”
“Save it!” she snapped, as the sadness in her eyes suddenly matured into anger. “I don’t need your excuses.” Fury burned in her smoldering eyes as she tried to appear tough in the face of the unfortunate news that I had given her. However, the tears that were welling in the corners of her eyes let me know the true extent of the damage I had done.
“Audrey, listen to me. It may sound like an excuse but there is a reason that we can’t be together—”
“Then what’s the reason, Adam? Tell me the reason why you decided to completely waste my time and step on my heart in the process!” she hissed, as the unused tears in the corners of her eyes finally slid down her rosy cheeks against her will.
“It’s not like that Audrey. This isn’t something that I intentionally set out to do. And I wish I could have told you the truth from the beginning. Hell, I wish I could tell you now but the reality is, I can’t. It’s just too dangerous and at the end of the day it’s just better for both of us if we went our separate ways,” I said, knowing that the words would only make her angrier. I watched in silence as Audrey gripped her wine glass so tightly that I thought it would shatter in her hands.
Even the nearby eavesdroppers knew what was coming next. I was fast enough to catch bullets with my bare hands so avoiding the wine that Audrey was preparing to throw into my face would have been a piece of cake if I had actually tried… but I didn’t try because I knew I deserved it. I just sat there and closed my eyes as the wine splashed against my face and trickled down onto my shirt.
The nearby restaurant staff and patrons watched in awe as Audrey abruptly stood and glared at me, still gripping the wine glass as if she wanted to smash it against my face too.
“You know, I have a secret too, Adam. Something that I had been keeping from you the entire time, but I was going to tell you tonight. That’s why I chose this place when you said you wanted to go out again. I wanted to come back here because this is where it happened—this is where I fell in love with you—on our very first date,” she choked out as she sat the wine glass down and wiped away the tears that had started to slide down her cheeks. “That’s when I knew… but I guess I was the only one who really felt something.” I was speechless as she snatched up her purse and stormed away. After a few moments I took a deep breath and grabbed a napkin and wiped the wine from my face while ignoring the angry glares of the surrounding restaurant patrons.
It’s for the best, I thought as I watched Audrey storm toward the restaurant’s exit. I tried to convince myself that I had done the right thing but despite my best efforts my heart ached even more with each angry step that she took. An overwhelming tightness welled up in my chest as she finally disappeared through the restaurant’s exit and I suddenly felt like I had made one of the biggest mistakes of my life.
Why did she have to tell me she loved me? I thought as I bit my lip and contemplated going after her. It would have made it so much easier if I didn’t know that she felt as strongly about me as I felt about her. Monica was still my first love but the more I thought about it the more I realized that it was possible that I had fallen in love with Audrey as well. As much as I wanted to believe that we could save Monica, in the back of my mind, I knew that there was a chance that I may never see her again. If that happened and I ended up ruining my chances of having Audrey in my life as well I wasn’t sure if I’d even want to go on living.
Feeling like a complete idiot, I quickly stood and rushed toward the exit. Desperate to catch up to her, I zoomed out of the restaurant at nearly forty miles an hour and I would have ran even faster if I thought I could do so without running into another guest and mortally injuring them. I was usually pretty careful about using my abilities in public but in that moment I didn’t care. The only thing I cared about was catching up to Audrey and making sure that I hadn’t lost her forever.
“Audrey, wait!” I yelled as I stormed into the dimly lit parking garage just as she opened the door to her sleek black luxury SUV. She turned and glared at me while she opened the driver’s door to her SUV but she didn’t say a word as I rushed towards her. Her eyes were still red and filled with tears but she fought hard to hold them back as I stopped a few feet away from her.
“What do you want now? Haven’t you embarrassed me enough for one night?” she demanded, her voice filled with despair.
“Audrey, I’m sorry. I just didn’t think I had a choice,” I muttered, still searching for the exact words that I wanted to say to her.
“What are you talking about, Adam?! You’re an adult! No one’s forcing you to do anything! If you don’t want to be with me then that’s your
choice! Don’t try to make it seem like you’re doing this for anyone other than yourself!” she ranted.
“But it’s not that simple,” I insisted.
“It seems pretty simple to me,” she snapped. “You made me fall for you and now you’re cutting and running because you’re afraid that it’s getting too serious. Admit it! You never really cared about me, did you?”
“That’s not true, Audrey. That’s not true and you know it!”
“How am I supposed to know it? I don’t even know what your real name is. You said yourself you’ve been lying to me this entire time.”
“But I did that to protect you! I told you this isn’t as cut and dry as you think it is. And I do care about you. I care about you just as much as you care about me.”
“What are you saying?” she asked.
I swallowed the lump in my throat as I stared into her eyes.
“I’m saying I love you—and I do want to be with you, but there are certain aspects of my job that make things… complicated,” I confessed.
“What’s your name?” she demanded.
“Audrey, I—”
“If you love me then tell me who you are… or you’ll never see me again,” she said firmly.
I sighed deeply and looked into her eyes as I tried in vain to think of something to say that wouldn’t make her scream at me. I didn’t want to let her go but I also didn’t know if I was comfortable with telling her the truth about me. I didn’t want to lose her by continuing to lie to her but I also didn’t want to see her end up getting sucked up into the craziness of my real life and being captured like Monica or perhaps even worse. In the end, I was completely speechless—torn between an overwhelming desire to maintain our relationship and an equally strong desire to ensure that she would remain safe by keeping her in the dark about my secret.
“Unbelievable,” Audrey finally groaned as she stared at me in disgust. “Goodbye, Adam… or whoever you are,” she continued as she tossed her purse into her SUV and turned to look at me one last time.
“My name is Reaper,” I blurted out, just as she turned to enter the driver’s seat of her SUV.
I stared at the back of her head as she paused for a few moments, probably deciding if she should simply hop into the vehicle and speed off without saying another word to me. When she finally turned to face me a mixture of grief, anger, and utter confusion was displayed within her facial expression.
“What do you mean your name is Reaper? Is this all some kind of sick joke to you?”
“No. It’s not a joke. My name is Reaper. As in The Reaper. That’s why we—”
“I don’t have time for whatever game you’re trying to play here so you have a nice life, Mr. Reaper,” Audrey snapped.
“I told you I’m not playing games!” I insisted, frustrated that she didn’t believe me.
“You know, this will probably go down in history as the absolute lamest break-up excuse of all-time. I mean, seriously, is this superhero nonsense the best you could come up with?”
“Dammit Audrey, shut up and listen to me for a second, will you?!” I snapped. Her eyes widened with surprise at my outburst and for a fraction of a second I could have sworn I saw a flicker of admiration flash into her eyes as she stared back at me—but I could have been mistaken.
“I am not making this up. I am The Reaper,” I continued. “How else would I know that you would have died if I had let you run back into that building in Manhattan?” I asked as I looked into her eyes. She took a half step backward and placed her right hand on her chest as she stared at me in silence. I could see in her eyes that she was starting to wonder if I was telling the truth.
“No. There’s no way,” she muttered, obviously trying to convince herself that I was lying. “I—I had wine during most of our dates. I must have told you about that after I had been drinking.”
“Audrey, you have to believe—”
“No, stay away from me!” she ordered just as I took a step forward. I instantly paused and held my hands in the air to let her know that I meant her no harm.
“You—you’re crazy… and you’re not him… you can’t be him,” she continued, still staring at me with a bewildered expression on her face as she backed away. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Audrey finally turned her back to me and quickly entered her SUV and slammed the door behind her. My heart pounded in my chest as she started the engine and backed out of her parking spot without even glancing at me.
It’s over, Reaper, my conscious called out as she paused to shift the SUV into Drive.
Just let her go… You have to let her go, my conscious continued as I stood there, frozen in place as she shifted gears and took a deep breath. My heart melted away as she finally turned and looked at me. I expected an icy glare but to my surprise there was nothing but love and regret in her eyes as she stared back at me. She opened her mouth slightly as if to speak but no words came out. After a few moments, she simply exhaled and focused her eyes forward once more—and then she was gone. For a second I thought about running after her but ultimately I just stood there and watched as she drove away.
Then I changed my mind and zoomed after her as fast as I could. As I galloped around the corner I was thankful to see that she wasn’t driving very fast. I could have ran her down even if she was going at top speed but that would have made it much more difficult for me to make her stop without hurting her. Luckily she was only driving at about five miles per hour when I grabbed the back of her SUV with my right hand and lifted it into the air. She abruptly lunged forward as the vehicle came to a sudden halt but her seatbelt kept her head from hitting the steering wheel and I was relieved to see that she wasn’t hurt. The rear tires continued to spin as I held the back of her SUV. I looked around the parking lot as I suddenly realized that I had been so focused on getting Audrey to stop that I had not checked for bystanders before I lifted the SUV into the air. I breathed a sigh of relief as I noticed that the parking garage was completely empty except for Audrey and me.
The garage grew quiet as she took her foot from the gas and the rear wheels of her SUV stopped spinning. My heart was racing as I gently sat the vehicle down and gazed at her through the back window and her eyes were filled with shock and awe as she stared back at me in the rear-view mirror. For a second I thought she would floor the gas and try to escape but I was relieved when I heard her finally shut the engine off.
My heart skipped a beat as she opened the door and emerged from the vehicle, still silently staring at me with a look of bewilderment in her eyes. I opened my mouth to speak but before I could get any words out she suddenly dashed towards me. My body instinctively grew tense as she rushed toward me as I wasn’t sure if she was planning to attack me or not but once she was within range, Audrey practically left the ground as she leapt into my arms and yanked my head towards her as she planted a passionate kiss onto my lips. She had pulled my head towards her with so much force that I probably would have been injured if I was normal.
“You saved me,” she gasped as she rested her forehead on mine after she finally came up for air.
“Yes. I suppose I did,” I said, smiling as I peered into her shimmering blue eyes while she continued to caress my face with both hands. It was the first time that I had smiled that entire day.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked. “Why didn’t you tell me the moment you saw me in that bar?”
“I wanted to. I wanted to tell you the second I saw you but I also didn’t want to expose you to the danger that comes along with knowing my secret.”
“I knew there was something special about you,” Audrey said, smiling and biting her bottom lip as she peered into my eyes.
“Is that right?” I grinned.
“Absolutely. Why else do you think I would consent to being seen with you in public?” she joked.
“Wow! Well that sure sucks,” I chuckled as I placed her back onto her feet.
“I’m just kidding, Adam…I mean Reap—”
&
nbsp; “Shhh!” I interrupted, placing my index finger over my mouth as I checked for eavesdroppers. Luckily the garage was still empty.
“Sorry!” she said, as a silly expression flashed onto her face as she too looked around to make sure no one had over heard her. When she realized the coast was clear she finally turned back to me and flashed an odd smile. “So… now that you’ve told me that you’re him, I guess that means you changed your mind about dumping me,” she mocked.
“I suppose I can keep you around,” I said jokingly. “After all, you did agree to go out with me when you thought I was just an average Joe.”
“Sorry to burst your bubble but I was only dating you because I thought you worked with the C.I.A.” she chuckled.
“No way! So you really believed me when I told you I worked in the intelligence field?” I asked, not completely sure if she was joking or not.
“Of course not, silly. You’d have to actually be intelligent first,” she teased, causing us both to burst into laughter.
It felt good to have finally told Audrey the truth about me but in the back of my mind I was still troubled by the inevitable decision that I would have to make if I was able to successfully rescue Monica from the clutches of The Righteous. I had known Monica much longer than Audrey and the loved that she and I shared seemed to be almost destined to be, but that didn’t change the fact that from the moment I met Audrey I felt an overwhelming connection to her as well. The part that troubled me the most was that if it came down to choosing between them, I had suddenly realized that I truly didn’t know who I’d choose.
For a second I thought about telling Audrey about Monica but I ultimately decided against it. I knew that not doing so could cause a firestorm of issues in the future but instead I simply continued to enjoy her company and reveled in the fact that, at least for the moment, she was still in my life. I was always so focused on worrying about the future or finding out secrets about my past that I never really devoted enough time to focusing on the present. In a way, I think that was the main reason I felt so attracted to Audrey. Living for the moment was simply easier when I was around her. Whenever she was near it felt as though all of my worries seemed to just fade away and the only thing I cared about was her.
Savior Part 2: Son of Eden (The Savior Series) Page 21