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I hear a thud as my assailant drops out of the tree behind me. I know better than to launch into a headlong attack. I’ve played this game before. Set to hard, there will be at least three highly skilled warriors wanting my blood. I have to be cautious.
I grab a vine and pull myself up onto a nearby branch. I’ll take this fight into the treetops. It’s a more difficult field, but they can only attack me one at a time up there.
By the time I have defeated all three of my enemies, I’m exhausted. I can do no more than grab a shower and collapse into my bed.
Her blond hair has escaped from the band that holds it back from her face. She tucks it behind her ear and smiles at me. “I’m going to see you again soon,” she assures me. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’d like that,” I tell her.
She’s doing something with her hands, but I can’t make out what it is.
“I’m not going to let anything come between us this time.” Her words are distant, as if they come from another place or time.
“What are you making?”
“I’m just fixing things,” she says.
I step forward and peer over her shoulder. In her hands are two dolls. She has taken a red ribbon and wound it around them.
“There,” she says. “We’ll be safe now.”
I look at her and smile. I hope with all my heart that she’s right.
“Now wake up, I want to see you!” she says.
My foggy mind breaches the surface of the waking world. My alarm is pinging. It’s been going off for some time. Shit, I’m late!
I throw myself out of bed and get ready for work in a fluster. I never oversleep. I wonder what the fuck happened to me to have slept that deeply.
I only just make it to work on time. I meet Elyzin in the crowded lobby. He’s looking very pleased with himself.
“Are you going to ask me how it went with Tansy?” he asks with a smirk.
“I wasn’t,” I say, holding out my thumb at the security check. “But I’m sure you’re going to tell me anyway.”
“We’re in love,” he declares dramatically. “I have finally met my match.”
“Until next week,” I say.
“No, this one’s cute, I might keep her around a bit longer,” he says as he steps into the decontamination unit.
Fenwilde Lab deals in highly sensitive DNA fabrication, so the Decontamination Particulizer is an everyday occurrence for me, but I still hate it every time. It makes my bones itch, but once I’m done, you won’t even find a loose hair on my shirt.
I watch through the screen as Elyzin is decontaminated, and then takes his place in the cubicle. The process only takes moments, but I feel like I’ve been violated.
“I hate that machine,” I say vehemently when I get out the other side.
“Why?” he asks, pouring himself some water from the dispenser.
“It feels like it’s taking me apart and then putting me back together again.”
“Really?” he says. “It kind of tickles a bit, but it doesn’t bother me at all.”
“Ugh, that was horrible,” says a woman’s voice from behind us.
We both turn, and I’m struck dumb by the sight of the diminutive human who has just stepped out of the decontaminator. I know her in my very soul.
The way she’s looking at me, I’m pretty sure she feels the same. She reminds me somehow of the woman from my dream last night.
