I took several
long steps back. “I don’t want your help.”
Jason stared at
me, leaning forward like he wanted to eliminate the gap between us, but he held
his ground. “I can help people like you.”
People like…me?
“Didn’t you
think there were others?” Jason kept his voice low as he stepped closer.
Every inch of my
body screamed to back away, to run back into the library, but I stayed put,
crossing my hands over my chest. “Of course,” I said, keeping my voice low, and
my gaze locked on this strange young man. “Of course, I assumed—”
Jason opened his
mouth.
“—but I don’t
care.” I pivoted and my heel, headed for the library at full steam, chucking my
cigarette on the pavement when I reached the wide front stairs. I took two
steps at a time, gasping a little in my hurry.
“How can you not
care?” The ever-athletic-seeming Jason had caught up to me, and kept pace. He
didn’t even have the decency to appear out of breath.
“Because I
don’t.” Because in this case, I doubted safety was in numbers. Groups of people
with “special skills” would create a larger target for someone to hunt us down;
to capture us and lock us away in the top secret government facilities I
imagined had to exist somewhere. Living on my own meant that I had no one but
myself to depend upon. I felt safe alone.
“You don’t, or
you won’t?” Jason stepped in front of me, barring my way—his habit of doing
that was growing annoying.
“Take your
pick.” I said, then pushed past him. I was only a couple of strides away from
the entrance.
“Stop pretending
you don’t care, Claire.”
I froze, my hand
partially extended toward the door. “I’m not pretending.” I clenched my teeth.
“Then why are
you still standing here?” An irritatingly smug smile spread across Jason’s
face.
I levelled my
best glare at my…companion…as the
muscles in my jaw grew sore. Why was I standing here? Maybe because Jason was
pleasant to look at, or because despite my best efforts, I actually needed
human contact, so much so that the desire to be touched was building into a
humming sensation across my skin. Or, it could be because he was so infuriating
I couldn’t think rationally.
“Look,” Jason
inched closer to me, checking over his shoulders then mine as he moved. “The
other night, when we met, I was trying to break into the research offices where
my girlfriend used to work. She disappeared—”
“So call the
police.”
“She was like
you, special.” His voice was so low I could barely make out what he said. “She
could run fast. Faster than the high speed trains in Japan, and her employers
found out.”
“I-can’t-help.”
I clenched everything. My teeth, my fists, every joint tensed. Then I forced
myself forward, my gaze locked straight ahead of me. I wasn’t going to get
involved in this. I yanked back one of the front doors to the library, my feet
pounding against the floor as I steam-lined it to the elevator. I didn’t bother
to check behind me to see if Jason followed, I sensed by the cool breeze at my
back that he wasn’t there.
To be continued...check back for more of the story on Tuesday, April 1st (no fools!)
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