“It started that morning on my seventeenth birthday and my family decided it was time to show me the world. Ha.” She watched herself hit the tree and tumble through its branches eventually catching onto a branch and pulling herself up. “They told me all these wonderful stories of a great planet where people worked together for one common goal to better man kind. You see, before that morning I had ever only known the lands around my home and never interacted with another human being. And in that moment the world became a vast place to me, before they told me I could not take part in that world. It was our jobs to work from the shadows and never be known. With a broken heart, and spirit, I honored my parent’s wishes and went through the agonizing nine hours of our families ritual tattooing. But by mind snapped. Evidently, I was not as strong as they thought and went out of control. Fleeing my home trapped in my own mind, I came to this place and when I sensed the pure ugliness of almost every one of their souls, my other personality, along with what my family had told me, I set to correct and purify this place.”
“Oh, so to that part of your mind that took over, we were unnatural.” A sudden moment of realization hit him. “Well that sure does explain a lot…”
“But it does not rectify it.” She headed back for the mirror. A slight drag in each of her steps. “Come. I have just one more I want to show you.”
Ian had decided that it was best to be silent and did what Recarie wanted. Out on the path in the room of mirrors she kept her head down out of shame.
“I am still following my parent’s wishes.” She said out of almost nowhere.
“Excuse me?” Ian was a little slow to catch her meaning.
“After this last little trip down memory lane, I will be heading back to Disten.” Her fragile hand stroked the mirrors liquid. “Violence is not the family way and in a brief moment of a blinding rage, I did something unforgivable. As I said what seems like forever ago, I will set those in captivity free. Come now.” Recarie crossed to the other side of the mirror and Ian followed her.
Coming through to the other side, Ian was met with a bright light then everything turned black. He was standing on top a hill. The grass beneath his now bare feet was cold and numbed his toes. Ian knew where he was. Recarie laid down on the grass in the same way she had more than a month ago.
“This is…” Ian began as he joined her on the ground.
“Can you remember that night? After escaping from the NSSH, we came to rest here. We had traveled for two days straight and I told you my plans of returning to Disten.” She inched even closer to Ian who lay next to her. They starred at the stars and listened to the wind blow. “This is nice, isn’t it.”
As Ian was getting into a comfortable spot, his hand accidentally brushed up against Recarie who flinched and moved her hand back. Both of their faces turned red and familiar thoughts surfaced in their minds.
“I…” They started at once.
“Let me say this first, Ian.” Recarie choked out his name for the first time like it was something stuck in here throat. “I know you are no longer under influence and I do not intend on unwillingly binding you to me, again... I am headed to Disten tomorrow and you can follow me if you want.”
Something about Recarie’s bravery and use of words, or maybe it was when she spoke his name for the first time, made Ian’s heart race. He wanted to roll over and look her straight in the eyes as he pressed his body gently on top of her. Instead, without looking at the younger girl, Ian grabbed her hand with his and wrapped his fingers between hers like he had done the last time they were there, but this time it was real.
“I know we will be going to Disten tomorrow, Recarie.” Ian yawned before drifting off to sleep. To him, and Recarie, everything in that moment felt, well it felt right.
As they slept side by side, Recarie and Ian never let go of each other’s hands. Not even the cold air that battered their exposed skin bothered the pair. For the first time since she woke in that hospital and since Ian first reported to Sean that there had been a sighting, everything seemed to be in place and going according to plan.
Ciru Shor stood outside the Disten NSSH headquarters. He was checking his watch and tapping his foot impatiently. “Where is she?!” And just as he spouted those words a middle aged man with hip length white hair strode up the walk way. “Sean!” Ciru hissed. “You’re more than late!”
Sean ran his hand over his friend’s shoulder that relaxed him. “And it’s Ray today.” Together they turned and looked over the building. “Can you believe my love, that it all ends here?”
His friend wrapped one arm around Ray’s waist. “I can. Our little girl is all grown up and taking the world on all on her own.”
“So openly too…” The air shifted and the pair spotted a third member to the party. “That you Justine?”
The pale white woman with now sparkling silver eyes, a family trait, stood next to her mother. “Things are proceeding as planned. Can’t wait for this barbeque!” So out of her normal character, this was the true Justine and not the one Ian had known, but still one he would get to know.
“Meeting out in the open? Why aren’t we getting brave?” Trey joined his family.
“But you know that we are momentarily invisible.” Ray hugged the Hunter.
“It has been a while since we all did gather together above the ground.” Yasire waved to her sister and gave a crushing hug to her brother in law.
“And who might this be?” Ray and Ciru eyed the light lilac haired woman at Trey’s side.
“Some of you already know. This is Gillian.” Gillian shrank back. She did know some of the people before her.
“Let me see, I arrested you, you’re, or more correctly, were Ian’s fiancée, and you are that annoying by the books NSSH guy?” She turned to Trey. “And you mean to tell me that you are related to all of these, characters?”
“There’s mom, you’re former commander, dad, the one you arrested is Auntie, and little sis.” He pointed to the cast before them. “And if everything between us goes right, your future in laws!” Trey wrapped his girlfriend in light hug.
“Been on one date.” Gillian said out in front of his family. “If you could call that nauseating ride across the sea with your paranoid self a date and you are already taking me to meet your parents.” She eyed him up and down. “You sure move fast.”
“Life is short.” His sister shouted out kindly.
“And you never know what tomorrow will bring.” Her could be future mother and father in law said together hugging each other and rubbing their cheeks together.
“For real…” Gillian watched as the birds flew from the top of the NSSH headquarters to a nearby tree. “Bad omen.”
On the other side of the pond, Ian stirred in his sleep. Smelling the morning air, he sat up slowly and stretched. Recarie was already awake and watching him with relaxed eyes. Had she been watching him all night, Ian would never know. She had her knees tucked under her chin and her hair was tied back.
“Hi.” Ian greeted her with a whisper.
“Hi.” Recarie returned the greeting still looking like a silly love struck school girl.
“We probably should be going.” He wobbled over to the mirror’s frame. “Coming?” Bending low, Ian reached out one hand hoping Recarie would take it.
As Recarie stood, she looked especially glowing against a sky of pink, peach, and violet clouds. She put her hand in Ian’s and together they crossed the portal. The time crossing between the two surrounding seemed like an eternity. All the while, she felt safe in his hands allowing Ian to guide her.
Out of the room of mirrors and onto the floor of the home Ian had left several hours before they arrived back in the real world. Still lost in her euphoria high, Recarie had not noticed the NSSH guards all around her.
“Humph!” She was winded as one soldier struck her neck from behind and the one jab to her gut. In a matter of seconds she was lifted off the ground by wind and gagged with a wave of water circling her small frame.
“Hm!” With dropped eye brow’s and tears streaming down her cheeks, she watched the rest of the NSSH soldiers, including Temthaw Vene patting Ian on the back and congratulating him on the capture.
“… Reinstated.” She heard Temthaw mention to Ian. “Cleared charges.” He went on to babble about leading Ian out of the room. With one last look at Recarie he had the men who had captured her to take of her.
“Ah!” It felt like her internal organs switched places as she was jerked back and forth while they led her out of the house.
Camera crews, FPA officials, NSSH officers, and civilians greeted her outside the house. People’s cameras flashed violently, microphones were shoved in her bound face, and then pushed away by the NSSH soldiers. She watched Temthaw talking to various news stations at once like he had just invented a way to solve the world’s problems. A few feet away, Ian tried to cover his face while sitting in the back of a white stretch limousine. Ian was the one everybody really wanted an interview with. They all wanted to hear how he brought down the worst mass murderer in their history.
Needless to say, he did not want to talk to any one at that particular point in time. Being left alone seemed like his best choice in that situation.
“Hello.” A younger man, who had been sitting next to Ian the whole time unnoticed, introduced himself.
“Oh heck!” Ian jumped back. “Did things just get a lot darker in here?”
“Yes, why yes they did. Now my name is Jeremy and I am here to he, he…” His dark hand patted his sleek hair back. “Debrief you.”
The creepy crooked smile Jeremy was giving him should have been enough to send Ian out of the car in an instant. But Ian was not thinking straight as his thoughts were jumbled at the moment. “Okay…” Before he could get out another word, Jeremy leapt at him, placing both hands on Ian’s forehead.
“Stop squirming and the ‘debriefing’ will be mildly less painful.” Ian stopped moving. He sat there with his mouth open and drool dripping down his shirt as the NSSH agent wiped his memory of the last six months, give or take a few weeks. “You’ll never miss them.” Jeremy had completed the memory removal and implanted replacements to his employer’s specifications.
In a patty wagon surrounded by dozens of armed soldiers, Recarie knew she should hold a brave face, but she would have rather let the tears fall and snot run from her nose then care what the others thought of her. She did do a great job in making the soldiers uncomfortable with her babbling brought on by a most devastating heartbreak. Just as she had completed one chapter of her life, it took a twist, dive, and spiraled out of control.
“Why!” Recarie screamed, but her mouth was still gagged with a ball of water. The restraints were unnecessary at this point. If she had the will to put up a fight, which she most certainly did not, there was nowhere for her to go.
Outside the vehicle, Tory ran along it. They were headed to the towns port and then off to Disten, where she would stand trial and most likely be found guilty, sentenced to death, and then dissected as they had originally planned to do to her. Tory wanted to break through the sides of the van to stop any of this from happening, but even on his best day, the boy was no match for an NSSH military team. For the time being, Tory was to remain by her side in secret, as always and only.
Her ride rolled right onto the ship waiting for the NSSH on the ocean’s edge. Temthaw was talking over future possible treaties with the head of the FPA. With a final hand shake, Temthaw was on the ship with his soldiers. He sat next to a still unconscious Ian.
“Wow, you really did a number on this one.” Their boss joked with Jeremy. “Hope nothings broken in there. It’s been twelve hours already.” He slapped his knees then held his sides to keep them from splitting.
“Hmove.” Ian mumbled.
Temthaw pushed the man sitting next to Ian to the ground. He wanted to be the first one that Ian saw to make sure the memories had taken.
“Ou.” He rolled off the seat, but hung off the ground thanks to his seat belt.
“Hold up, Lieutenant!” Temthaw pulled Ian back up. “This is a rough ride and you know that. No sleeping on this trip or you’ll wind up with a concussion.”
Everyone in the boat was silent. This was the moment of truth. They watched as his mouth began to open. The words he would say determined if they would have to kill him or let him masquerade as one of their greatest enforcers.
“Still not home yet?” And with those four simple words, everyone relaxed. “It seems like this mission will never end. Been a hell of a month, am I right?” Ian held up his hands looking for a high five, but there were no takers.
“Yes, the talks with the FPA have been a success and soon our two great nations will benefit from this union.” Temthaw slapped Ian on the back.
The rest of their ride was filled with talks about what they would do when they got home. No one mentioned Recarie and no one would ever speak her name. Under the direct penalty of death, the whole of NSSH was forbidden from talking about the mauve hair firecracker. All documents mentioning her, both paper and digital, were erased. It was almost as though she had never existed.
Clinque. An invisible bell rang in Ian’s ear. She was not completely forgotten.
Most of the soldiers, or at least the male portion of them, swapped stories of former girlfriends and their wives. Others talked about what they would eat once they got home. Ian found he could not contribute to either conversation. For the life of him, Ian could not think of any ex’s and he wasn’t at all hungry.
In Recarie’s boat she had refused the food substance her captors tried to give her. Must have been a nutrient supplement bar, made from oats and whatever they pumped into it, or at least that’s how Recarie saw it. Her stomach growled, but from anger and not pain.
“Why?” She flopped sideways on the seat. No one heard her cries. After five hours of her whining, they combined their abilities to form a dome that silenced her. “Hmph, humph. Hiccup!”
This was not how it’s supposed to be, Recarie knew that. With the final moments before they pulled into the NSSH docks, she was already losing her energy. Guess she did not know if he really loved her after all.
“Oh, did you hear that?” Trey, in his family’s underground lair, twisted his finger in the air. Spirals of silver, indigo, violet, and sienna streamed throughout the air.
“No…” His mother, still insisting being called ‘Ray’ dropped her jaw in a comical fashion that was not at all appropriate for what they were hearing.
“How are we going to fix this?” Yasire poked her sister on the shoulder. “And we ‘are’ going to fix this!”
“Yeah, no doubt about that.” Ciru agreed without protest.
“Well you all sure seem to break our rules more easily these days.” Justine nudged her brother.
“You all know it has been coming.” Trey ran a rock finger along the cauldrons rim. “We are the last family and only a handful of others remain. It is time we stop living in the shadows and finally make our stand once and for all.”
His family knew what he was saying. They all agreed it was time enough to let the world fight for itself, like a parent letting their child pick themselves up after falling. If still following the metaphor, the world was falling, but they would be there to tell it how to balance and not hit the ground.
“Sounds fun.” Gillian joined the family in the circle. “Those NSSH bastards deserve what will be coming and then some.”
“We’ll be able to aide in the NSSH destructions and stop that conference!” ‘Ray grabbed her husband’s hands. “They should never be allowed to have a base within Farous!”
“Yeah, I mean are they frigging crazy?” Gillian high fived her future sister in law.
“Temthaw is going mad.” Tory joined the group.
“Good gawd!” Gillian shrieked. “Y’all just keep coming out of the woodworks! Anyone else out there I don’t know about?”
The cold weather began sweeping in as the fall left. Ian opened the door to
his house. His large, empty, and cold home. Since returning from Farous a good three and a half weeks ago, Ian felt like he had lost something. It was not much of a feeling that he sat and thought about for hours on end. More like a fleeting thought that popped into his head every now again just to leave as soon.
Stepping through the door way, he flicked on the light to illuminate the wide spaces of his home. Silence filled the emptiness, but that did not help his situation at all. Not being hungry as he had been finding himself, Ian went into the kitchen and warmed himself a frozen diner. He turned on the television and watched the morning news before turning in to his twin size bed.
That was how it had been since he returned from his last mission. Every morning after work, Ian followed the same routine. No one ever stopped at his door step or asked him to go out for drinks. At one point in his life, Ian was sure he had a friend who he used to get messed up with, but now every day he lived his life in solitude.
Ian had come to this life by blaming himself for a past, and yet, forgotten wrong. He had hurt all those around him, but could not think of whom they were or what he did them. On his second day from returning home from his last field mission, Ian swore off friends. In Ian’s mind he did not deserve emotions like love and happiness in his life.
At the NSSH each day, Ian was sure he was going mad. There were faint whispers of a level ten prisoner on floor seven. Each time he turned to look for the source of the whisper, no one would be conversing. He had dismissed these whispers as stray thoughts, as he and everyone else knew perfectly well there was no tenth threat level or a seventh floor for that matter.
Soon after the rumors of heads of other NSSH offices were disappearing. Ian’s Commander. Robert Faitsei held a meeting where he put Ian’s mind to rest reassuring his troops that there were no such disappearances. Temthaw Vene also spoke at that meeting letting everyone know that the talks with Farous were going well. Ian liked that part especially well.
“Ian!” Faitsei grabbed the man’s boney shoulder. “Sheesh, man! Don’t you eat?”
Misery Saves the Night Page 20