Catching Snowflakes-- Part I

Two young lovers under go some trying circumstances involving secret agents and killing machines.

Prologue

                Maddy’s bare feet pounded on the dirt path as loud as rolling boulders through an empty canyon. The warm air carried her along, though her entire being screeched for her to stop. Her strong legs were quickly losing momentum, her lungs that allowed her under water for minutes at a time, could not withstand the damp air for one more moment. Yet, she pressed on, quicker and quicker with each second that ticked by. She would make it, there was no other option and even if she did miss her opportunity, she would surely dive into the ocean and the waves would carry her, with their gentle arms, until she found him.

                The village was eerily quiet, not even a cricket could be heard as her feet thundered along. Maddy could hear a low hum in the distance. She followed the sound as her breath turned frantic for her to stop and let it catch up. The dirt path was winding down the dozens of small huts and brick homes as Maddy neared the beach. The moment she made contact with the sand, her legs threatened to fail her there, but she pushed on, faster than before. She saw him, the fat, happy moon reflecting off the water causing a winter wonderland to surround him. He was engulfed in the ghostly light and she could not make out his features, just his shadow. He was at the edge of the dock with a helicopter hovering over him. He had just fastened a harness around his waist and torso, ready for takeoff. The closer she came the clearer his picture developed. He was sullen, his lips pouted, and eyes brewing a dangerous storm.

                “Ari!” she tried, but her breath failed her and she relied on her legs to carry her faster yet. The burn was sweeping up her legs, licking her tummy causing her body to feel numb. He didn’t notice her until those she came rumbling across the aged wooden dock.

                “Maddy, stop,” but she couldn’t listen. For the first time since the ach started in her limbs, it had stopped and all she could feel or see was Ari. The harness around Ari jerked, knocking the air from his lungs in a painful heave as his body left the dock. The helicopter lurched forward taking its unwilling passenger with it. Ari knew she would jump and he knew she would reach him. She readied her fatigued legs for the forceful leap and he watched her sea green painted toes curl around the dock’s edge and he counted each strained muscle in her calf and thigh. Her sun dress she wore as a sleeping gown trailed behind her, the moon reflecting off the white fabric made her look as a floating angel. Ari was wrapping his arms around her waist, her hands grasping his bicep when they heard the crisp releasing sound come from the shore, breaking through the whirling of the flying machine above them. Maddy’s chest clad in soft snowy fabric revealed red splotches as a pointed tip emerged from her torso. Her eyes as wide as the universe itself swam with the gentlest green, like the promise each returning spring made. Ari tried to hold onto her as his eyes found the one golden fleck that floated near her iris, but she was jerked away from him and he watched her fall away from him in slow motion. Her body completely relaxed as if she was waiting for her wings to unfurrow and carry her to a safe, warm nesting place. Her dress billowed up around her in hopes to catch her before she slammed into the clear waters of the Pacific Ocean. The ringing in his ear and the tense muscles in his face forced Ari to stare at her body as she floated so peacefully in the water, the harpoon meant for him protruding from her chest.

Chapter One

                He hated going on missions when he didn’t know who he was looking for. It was a dry day, well the air was dry. Ari on the other hand was damp. His shirt stuck to him like glue to a child’s face. Tucking his hands into the pockets of his beige cargo shorts, he leaned against the stone wall of his favorite café, they had the best tea and they didn’t mind him taking up the same table for hours at a time as he lost himself in his thoughts. Ari felt his moist shirt squish onto his back. He felt his dark sunglasses sliding down his nose, but his limbs felt too heavy for the simple effort to push them back up to his eyes.

                He understood why he was always sent out on these missions, he was the best at profiling. He was looking for a slight woman in her mid-twenties. She wouldn’t be trying to hide the fact that she was looking for something specific and she would have a very egoistical air about her. Her shoulders strained, chest puffed out, and chin held prominently to the air. This woman wanted everyone to know that she was smarter, faster, and just all around better than them. He spotted her quickly as she came around the street corner. Ari was positioned in the heart of the small villages where all the businesses were. It was a busy Saturday afternoon and there were people pouring in and out of each building. The farmer’s market was swarming with housewives, the video shop swamped with kids, and the café was preparing for the lunch rush.

                She stuck out so clearly from the crowd. She wore a black sun hat that was much too large for any kind of fashion statement and no native to the island would wear a color that would absorb that much heat. Ari watched her carefully as she glided through the crowd, matching his profile to the T. She was a very attractive woman, who knew she was beautiful and held herself in a manner so that everyone around her would know to stay out of her way. She approached a man who wore petite sports shorts and a dark, light weight tee shirt. They shook hands indicating they were meant to meet one another. Ari watched her mouth carefully.

                “What time was he supposed to be here?” the woman asked.

                “He’s been here for hours.” The man’s eyes flashed over the crowd and Ari turned his head to look in the opposite direction of the man’s view, but could still see their mouths from his peripherals.

                “So he is looking for me.” She bowed her head, looking to her fingers. She had her left index finger pinched between her slender right middle finger and thumb.

                “They are rarely wrong,” the man laughed. His shoulders tensed as his gaze struggled to avoid the awning Ari stood under. The woman nodded and removed her hat, letting her golden hair cascade down her back. She was even more attractive without the obnoxious hat. She had high cheek bones and big painted lips. Ari wondered who she was and why she was on this part of the island. By her white high heeled shoes and form hugging baby blue dress, she did not belong in a working class environment.

                Diving to the ground, Ari dodged the arrow that came flying from inside the café he was stationed in front of. He rolled twice and landed on his haunches, waiting for his attacker to exit the small eatery. When they didn’t he stood, pressing himself against the wall. Shuffling towards the bay window, he kept his back pressed tightly to the cream colored brick. A shadow flittered across the glass and Ari flashed his gaze to across the street where the two people had disappeared. He caught a glimpse of them scurrying away from the threat as his attacker leapt from the door way, string drawn back, the chrome arrow glittering in the rays of the sun. He flinched and readied himself to dodge another arrow, but his insides froze and his eyes widened.

                Why am I hesitating? Just shoot. Maddy’s arm quivered as she held her target in her sights. They warned her that the enemy would have some sort of sonic equipment that would cause her to react this way. He was controlling her brain waves and Maddy demanded he stop. The anger boiling in Maddy’s belly snapped her from her brief moment of reluctance and she released the arrow. He dodged it easily once more and she had her second one loaded so quickly, he would not have a chance to defend himself.

                “Maddy,” Ari grunted as he tried to prepare himself for a second arrow so soon. But once more her limbs froze with the arrow drawn back. Ari was back on his haunches and he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep this up for too much longer. She was too quick for him to keep up with and her odd moments of uncertainty were the only thing keeping him alive.

                Remember Maddy they have devices to mess with your link to us. Don’t let him near you. Don’t let him touch you. She heard them in her ear.

                “Yes, sir.” Maddy released the arrow and had a second one loaded and released as Ari reached his newest position after rolling away from the first arrow. The second one punctured the faded wooden table Ari had thrown in its path to keep away from him. Springing forward onto his feet he ran for the cover of some of the businesses. The scene of the odd attack had caused an uproar of panic and the people of the village were running frantically for cover. As Ari ran he tried his best to sort through his jumbled thoughts. It was about as easy as picking through raw scrambled egg. Maddy was here. Maddy was alive. Maddy was shooting arrows at him.

                Ari knew that being a part of a secret organization designed to find and eliminate threatening humans against the American government would have its consequences. But taking his dead girlfriend’s body and turning her into some kind of killing machine was a whole new level of fucked up. It was either Maddy herself, in all her glory, or it was a person constructed to resemble her. The fact that they equipped this Maddy with an instrument of archery made him think it was actually her. His Maddy was a three year champ at the annual tournament held on the island and she used to teach archery at a Boy Scout camp each summer for seven years. Ari glanced behind him and didn’t see her chasing after him. He looked to each building surrounding him and sure enough there was her slight figure, jumping from building to building. She needed the highest points of the village to keep him in her sights. Abruptly throwing himself into an alley, he slowed his pace and watched as she stood on the building’s edge. She was across the street and would now have to change her course in order to keep her sights on him, buying Ari some time. He didn’t want to escape her, he wanted to get himself in a position where he could subdue her.

When she had spoken, saying “Yes, sir,” she had sounded like his Maddy. Her sing song voice that could melt butter had a serious edge that he’d never heard before. Her voice was deeper, a little gruffer, but Maddy’s no doubt. Staying pressed to the alley’s wall, Ari shuffled along, keeping an eye on her figure until she descended the building and disappeared down another alley way. All Ari knew was his Maddy didn’t know how to parkour nor did she want to murder him. But in her defense if she had left Ari to die in the water, he would also feel slightly vengeful.

Coming to the end of the tunnel between the two buildings, Ari paused at the opening and peered to either side of the calm business square. The people of the village had settled since they were quite a ways away from the scene of murderous revenge. Ari, closed his eyes remembering the sight of her still body gently lapping up and down with the calm waves. Maddy had died that night. No human could withstand a harpoon meant to kill whales. He had watched her die. He had let the people that he was protecting Maddy from, kill her.

They were a group of high class hackers who have been after America’s nuclear weapons for years. They have been terrorizing military bases for decades and one by one Ari’s organization had been taking out the men of this malicious group. Naturally this would anger any super villain, but these people were a whole new level of hateful. They were after something more than just nukes.

He had lost sight on Maddy completely. Ari knew he’d have to put himself in the open in order to get her to give up her location. Striding forward casually, Ari tried to calm his heart as it knocked against his chest like the shiny ball of a heavy door knocker on wood. She wasted no time, charging him from one of the flea markets straight ahead of him.

 Maddy had run out of arrows back at the café and she had fully intended to kill her target with the bow itself. Her bosses hadn’t expected her to miss her target five times, so they tried to keep her equipment as light as possible. Keeping in mind not to touch her target, Maddy swung the bow and made contact. Knocking him off his feet with one blow to the side of the head, she raised the bow intending to shank him with the sharpened tip, but he recovered more quickly than she expected and he swung his leg around, connecting with her ankles and tripping her up. She caught herself with digging the bow into the ground before falling completely, but this brief distraction allowed him back on his feet. He got a hold of her wrist and then he reached for the side of her face, as if to caress her instead of defend himself. She tensed up at the first contact of his hand on her bare wrist. Skin to skin. When his right hand slid along her jaw, she was left unable to move. Her brain was beginning to get fuzzy, the communication in her head losing volume. Get away from him, you must get out now! Abort! Abort. Get the f**k out of there! But soon Maddy couldn’t hear the angry voices anymore, just the melodic sound of this man’s breathing.

Maddy couldn’t quite understand why he was so familiar to her, and why the urge to kill him was quickly slipping away.

“Maddy?” she looked to his eyes. Blue around the irises and the farter the color fanned out the more green it became. She caught his sent mixed in with the dusty air around them. Through the body cleanser he used and any antiperspirant spray, she could smell his natural scent. The sickly sweet, sweat smell she couldn’t understand. His scent was comforting, as was the trail his thumb was creating among her cheek and upper lip.

“Maddy,” he said once more, his breath hitting her parted lips. And that was it. Everything came crashing over her has his breath, still laced with the hot tea he had drank hours before, curled around her tongue. She was Maddy Swanson. She was in love with Ari Kroeger. But she was sent to kill Ari Kroeger at all cost. Looking to the blood that seeped from his ear, Maddy touched the crimson stream with her finger tips. She understood slightly what was happening. She was in limbo, stuck in a killing machine, while her soul was trying to claw its way to the surface. Did she even have a soul anymore?

She broke away from Ari, running hastily back down the alley she came from, Ari immediately lost sight of her. Maddy’s mind whirled like an angry hurricane, one thought crashing into another. She was sent to kill Ari, she was controlled by some really bad people. She knew what she was capable of, she felt her muscles quiver with strength. Return to the check point. I repeat return to the check point! Turning sharply, Maddy had every intention to avoid said check point. She had much bigger plans. Slamming her hand to her torso, she felt the first wave of nausea. She wouldn’t hurt Ari and the only way she could ensure that simple fact was to not exist anymore. Just as the natural course of life had suggested when she was taken out that warm night.

Disengage self-destruct! 0609 disengage! Their voices where so angry. Maddy slowed as the poison made its way through her system slowly. Put her in sleep mode. A new voice emerged from the background. Either from the poison or from the sudden realization of who she was, Maddy was losing her memories of the base she had just come from that day. Slowing her pace, until she came to a stop completely, Maddy’s mind was overwhelming flooded with images of the man and life that she had once possessed before. Her old memories were replacing the new ones so suddenly, but Maddy collapsed before she could even try to make sense of it. Ari leapt from the other side of the street to catch her. She slammed into him as dead weight and he grunted in surprise. He watched as her veins form her wrist to her shoulders glowed bright blue. The icy color retracted back up her arm and over her shoulder until it disappeared completely beneath her shirt. Checking her breathing by pressing his cheek to her mouth, he made sure she was still alive and then picked her up. Cradling her in his arms he pressed his face to her hair.

“Is she alright?” A woman holding a small child’s hand approached Ari, concern riddled her gentle face.

“Low blood sugar,” Ari said lowly, the lie coming and passing through his lips coming without much thought. Stepping away from the woman and her child, he took Maddy back to their villa.

Chapter Two

                Ari laid Maddy’s body down carefully on the marble dining room table. She wore a simple white tank top and blue jean shorts. Her feet were clad in running shoes and her hair was pulled back in what once was a tight pony tail, but now it sagged low on her head. Pulling the hair tie free, he let her chocolate locks fall to the table. Laying her head back on the shining surface, he took his time sliding his hand from her neck to her cheek and away from her face. Every blemish, dimple, and mole was accounted for. The slight dip in her lip, the flare of her nostrils, and shape of her eye lids. This was Maddy, flesh and blood. Her long lashes, her silky coffee hair, even her short, plump fingers. She was thinner and her nails were a perfect almond shaped, but those were things she had always wanted to change about herself. She had always wanted a flatter stomach and to break the bad habit of chewing her nails. And she had. Where ever she was, whatever they had done to her, they built her into a super-agent. Her round face was sharper, her already strong legs were toned and her arms had muscles that Maddy had only ever joked about.

                Noticing a dark shadow showing through her white tank, Ari looked closer to Maddy’s torso. His heart rattled in his ears as he recognized the spot where he watched the harpoon tip surface on her chest. Grasping the hem of her tank, Ari’s hand shook as he closed his eyes and lifted the shirt. The Maddy he knew once before would have woken up slowly to his teasing tugging, but this action was much more serious. Ari wasn’t trying to cross any lines, but he knew in his heart that this woman was the Maddy that had and always will be the keeper of his beating heart and writhing soul. He knew what he would find when he opened his eyes, but nothing could prepare him for the actual sight of the scar.

                It was almost a perfect circle positioned directly under her breasts, with jagged edges. The skin almost the same color as her natural tone, but it had a purple tint to it. The scar tissue didn’t heal smoothly and the bumps and divots made sharp turns and circles in her once delicate skin. Ari couldn’t wrap his head around the idea of his Maddy lying on their dining room table. Grasping her arm, he tugged her towards him and held her face to his chest. Pressing his face to her hair once more, he simply held her in the silence of their home. The house they had picked out together, the living structure she had slowly morphed into a home with her gray and blue color schemes and her romantic period sculptures and art residing in each once empty corner and bare wall of the villa.

                Carrying Maddy to the bedroom they shared, he slipped inside the door gently, trying his best not to tousle her sleeping form. He listened carefully to her small breaths and counted them as he laid her on their bed. Four years he had slept alone under the canopy she had picked to match his eyes, and now finally she had returned. He was afraid to leave, as if when he closed that door, she would vanish and he would jolt up right in the same bed, but alone, sweat causing the sheets to stick to his lonely body. He stayed a moment, to watch her chest rise and fall hypnotically with each sleeping breath. Her eye lids only fluttered slightly every few moments. Her lips were parted just faintly, a tempting invitation that caused Ari’s scalp to tingle. He wanted to kiss her, just once, ever so gently press his lips to hers, his top lip making contact with the soft pink of her bottom lip. But he was still unsure if that body that was his Maddy, still housed the soul and mind that was his Maddy. He had no idea what they had done to her nor was he sure if she would still thirst for his blood when she awoke.

Prying himself from the bed, Ari finally exited the room, watching behind him as he closed the door. His hands shook as he locked the door from the outside. Closing his eyes his heart ached with such an insulting gesture. Locking a woman in her own room.

Slipping through the kitchen his gazed lingered in the dining room table for a moment longer than usual as he pulled a beer from the fridge. Slipping it in his pocket he exited the villa and stood on the porch for just a moment. The sun was kissing the horizon and the whole sky was a deep purple. Her favorite color, as if the Earth was welcoming her home with the only joyous gesture it could muster.

Scaling the wall that lead to the bedroom’s balcony. Sitting on the bamboo folding chair, Ari pulled the cool beer from his pocket and waited. Sipping on the icy beverage, he pressed his lips together as he soaked up the smooth burn of alcohol. Remembering the countless nights Ari had sat in the same spot as his restless body would not allow him to sleep, he would choose to guard Maddy’s sleeping figure instead. Just like all those nights so long ago, Ari would wait to be sure Maddy was indeed safe once more.

 

Maddy awoke as she would have any other morning four years before. She let her body gradually get lighter, while her mind stayed in denial that she was actually awake. She had been in such a deep, restful slumber, that she couldn’t bear the thought it was over. She couldn’t see any light trying to seep through her lids, which is what had finally coaxed her to open her eyes and accept the fact that she was indeed awake. The cerulean curtains swayed in the gentle breeze, their green accent dim with the little light that was left in the room. Maddy huffed with relief, but when her arm slithered to the empty side of the bed, she sat up swiftly, scanning the room. The padded mushroom chair was empty, but the lonely lamp hovering over it gave off the only light in the room. Slipping from bed, Maddy paused as she stood. It wasn’t a dream. Something was wrong. Looking down at herself, she wore a top she’d never seen before and she found it odd that she would have gone to sleep wearing jean anything. Stepping to the walk in closet, she saw her reflection in the full length mirror that hung on the farthest wall. She couldn’t help the cliché gasp that escaped her flushed lips.

Maddy hadn’t many complaints about her body before. She didn’t mind the slight pouch that would hang over her bathing suit, or her roundish face that she could squeeze two extra chins from. She had played with the idea of working on her eating habits and finding time in each day to do something active, but never anything that would produce this figure. She lifted an arm and flexed, but quickly let it fall to her side after seeing the muscle that appeared. She had only joked about those kind of arm muscles on a female. Her smallish breast were even smaller and her stomach was a rock hard surface that could be used to wash clothing down by the crick. Stepping out of the closet, Maddy peered longingly to the balcony doors. If this was like any other time Maddy had woken up to an empty bed, she would find Ari behind those doors. And she did. He was already watching the doorway as she stepped through the double doors and onto the wooden structure.

“Baby?” Maddy asked, wrapping her arms around her thin waist. He didn’t speak, he barely moved. She watched as his chest rose and fell with some difficulty. His emotions saturated his face and Maddy began to feel the panic rise from the tips of her toes and settle on her throat.

“Maddy?” Ari breathed. A question missing the “are you?”

“Ari,” Maddy replied, shuffling her feet. He was acting very strange and she tried with all her power to remember when all the time passed for her to go on some awful health kick. She knew he had all the answers, but how does one ask for them.

“Maddy,” Ari stood quickly and wrapped her up in a tight embrace. She nuzzled his neck and breathed him in.

“You need a shower,” she mumbled into his shirt. Ari’s body shook with his laughter and he pulled away from her enough to look her over. She still glowed. She still had this air around her that could make anyone immediately comfortable in her presence. She was even more glorious awake, speaking and moving like the Maddy he has met and grown to love deeply. She gazed up at him through hooded eyelids, a look he recognized and missed dearly.

“Ari! We f*****g got ‘em!”  Maddy and Ari both turned to the man who came bursting through the balcony doors.

“Did you ever think the door was locked for a reason?” Ari spoke through gritted teeth, not breaking Maddy’s gaze.

“That’s why I have a key.” The man patted his pocket twice.

“Wait,” Maddy pulled away from Ari and stood between the two men. Looking between Ari and his short kept orange hair, then the man with his shaggy ginger hair, sitting like a mop on the top of his head. They had the same nose, their front teeth were longer than the rest, and they spoke in the same deep tone. The new man was an older gentlemen with a fantastic sense of style, his soft periwinkle button down shirt went very nicely with his pressed khaki pants. Recalling the way Ari would take any opportunity to dress up when they had first started dating the gears clicked in Maddy’s brain painfully.

“Babe-”

“Did you hear me?” the man cut across Ari, “we got them! They were desperate to retrieve her body that they walked right into us.”

“Dad, chill.”

                “Dad-?”  Maddy tried, but the man who Ari just called dad spoke over Maddy.

“Oh, no you don’t. You need to talk to the men who did this to her. You always said when we get the people who killed Maddy you would want to be the first to interrogate him. So, now is your chance.” The man was causing an uncomfortable burn of frustration to sweep through Maddy.

“Yes, before I knew Maddy was still alive.” Ari gestured towards Maddy as if she was miles away. She slowly began to fall into herself, like she was stuck in a sink hole. Slowly, but surely, she was being swallowed and the more she fought the thoughts and their inevitable truths, she would only cause herself to sink faster and deeper. Maddy wrapped her arms around herself, so her palms rested on her shoulders.

                “Ari, please, you’re confusing her. Just go and I will stay with the girl and explain everything to her. Perhaps it’ll be easier to hear you’ve been lying to her this whole time from someone else.”

                “F**k you.” Ari spit, his lower lip quivering, Maddy could almost see the screen of red Ari was creating. It took a lot to get him angry, but when someone finally did it was quick and disastrous.

                “Ari, go,” Maddy said very lowly. “You can explain whatever it is when you get back. I’m not going anywhere.” Ari stopped and looked to Maddy for a long moment. Stepping to her, he grasped each of her arms and pressed his forehead to hers.

                “But I just got you back,” he whispered, his voice laced with emotion. Though Maddy didn’t quite understand what he meant she slid her hands up his neck to hold his face.

                “I’ll be waiting, so hurry back.” Pulling his head back just slightly, Ari looked to Maddy hoping that wouldn’t be the moment he would wake up. He was almost afraid to believe that this was his reality once more. She tipped her head back to plant the sweetest of kisses on his lips and he lost himself in the feeling he had so badly thirsted for, for four years.

 

Three Days Later

                Ari hadn’t gotten the answers he’d gone searching for, but he had heard of what his father was doing while he was gone. At the end of the village, on one of the highest hills the island possessed was the laboratory that the organization had used to do research, process evidence, and run tests on the agents who returned without their memories. These tests were procedure to make sure that the agent didn’t have any tracking or communication devices. To ensure that the agent was clean of any treacherous, betraying implants.

                The rage that flowed through Ari like a clogged pool filter, weighed heavy on him as he walked through the lab with clenched fist. The closer he came to the vaults that the bodies of the tested would sometimes be held in, the deeper his nails dug into his palm. He could see that one of the giant tubes were full of fluid and being used. The nearer he came the clearer the image laid out before him. There was a human in the vial full of liquid. She floated upside down. She was naked. She looked peaceful. But only because she was unconscious, while Maddy was awake only the universe knows what kind of pain and anguish she felt as a lab full of strangers ran questionable and rather torturous experiments on her, to ensure she was indeed no longer against us.

Ari heard the static of the PA, but didn’t bother to listen to what the voice said since his fist was already making contact with the glass of the tube. The long cracking sound reverberated off the lab’s metal walls. One more punch and the tester shattered, releasing Maddy from her watery confinement and pushing her right into Ari’s arms. He braced himself against the flowing fluid and caught his girlfriend as her limp body flopped from the tube like a drowned rag doll. The burning of his broken knuckles was nothing compared to the rage boiling in his belly. Shielding her nude body from the onlookers, he waited patiently for someone to make a move. One of the woman agents with dark skin and even dark hair, showed the first sign of compassion to bring Ari a thick wool blanket. He leaned his body back away from Maddy to allow the woman to cover Maddy’s body with the scratchy blanket. As he lifted her from the ground, he heard two weak coughs and looked down to her fluttering eye lids.

                “Ar,” she stopped so she could swallow several times, trying to clear her throat.

                “Sh, you fell,” he lied with ease once more.

                “Fell?” her voice was very weak.

                “Yes, you were getting out of the shower. Keep your eyes closed.” Ari didn’t look down at her, he wasn’t quite ready to lose control on his already frail temper. Maddy did as she was told and closed her eyes, huddling as closely as she could to Ari as she lost consciousness once more.

Though he had told her she had fallen getting out of the shower, she did not question him when he started up an actual shower when he had gotten them back to their villa. Maddy sat up in their bed once more, her head feeling like it weighed a million pounds. Going to the master bathroom, she found the running shower, steam pouring from behind the glass doors, but no Ari. Once again, she found herself with no memory. She remembered waking up with a strange new body and finding Ari acting guarded, and discovering his biological father was alive. And that was it. She remembered him taking her to a strange metal building and then… Nothing.

Ari returned from the down stairs level with two fresh towels from the dryer. He saw the bed was empty and rushed to the bathroom where he found Maddy, sitting beneath the scalding water hugging her knees. Joining her, he sat behind her, still fully dressed, and hugged her tightly.

“You told me your biological father was dead.” Maddy found that was the best place to start the conversation. Pressing his face to her soggy head, Ari ran his forehead along the length of her hair before responding.

“When I was six years old, my father faked his death. Twelve years later, he came out of hiding and took me away to train me.”

“Like a secret agent?” Maddy asked suddenly.

“Yeah, something like that,” Ari was glad Maddy’s back was to him, so she wouldn’t see the way his eyes darkened, a storm bursting behind his seams. “My dad has made a lot of enemies in his day by killing a lot of people. He wanted to make sure his only son was able to protect himself. We’ve been dealing with this group of really bad terrorist that have been trying to steal enough military equipment to build a killing machine.” Ari traced circles around Maddy’s bicep, as she couldn’t help an awkward chuckle that shook her frame and almost sounded like a sob. Really bad terrorist. As if not all terrorist are really bad. She was confronted by the simplicity of his touch. She was reminded of days when secret agents and killing machines didn’t exist.

“The head of this terrorist group started to get really mad at my dad for killing his men one by one. This was around the time I had met you. I was taking time off to heal from a really bad injury I had come by dodging an explosion. When my healing time was over and I still had a limp, I told my dad I wasn’t coming back. But he knew my limp wasn’t the reason I wasn’t coming back.” Ari was beginning to speak slower, and analyze every word that left his mouth. Maddy took notice and felt her stomach twist and turn with the oddity of the moment. She realized he didn’t know how to speak to her about this secret agent business. This was a secret life he had kept from her, and he was struggling with finding the easiest way to make her understand.

“It was because of me,” she said, her voice thick with emotion.

“It was because of you. You could say my dad didn’t like that. We were too close to catching these people, my dad knew he wouldn’t be able to do it without me. He convinced me to come back, he promised it wouldn’t take much more time to nab ‘em. That night, the last night you remember,”

“You said goodbye. You told me you had a family emergency and that I should prepare myself in case you don’t come back. I remember chasing after you. I ran all the way across town. I remember the dock and jumping. And then,” Maddy stopped, not able to recall anything further.

“They fired a harpoon that was meant to take me out, but you unintentionally jumped in front of it. You died that night, Maddy.” She was silent for a long moment. The only sound that could be heard was the hum of the warm pipes, the hiss of the shower, and the soft sloshing of the water’s path.

“What did the bad people do to me?” The silence had been so long, Ari almost didn’t hear Maddy when she spoke. Ari watched the cluster of freckles on her back for a moment before answering.

“They turned you into that killing machine.”