“I thought I told you not to come back?”<br/><br/>“You did? Hm... I must have forgotten. You know me -- things just slip my mind.” Aria stood across the lobby counter with a backpack slung over one shoulder. “C’mon, just a few nights. Then I’ll be out of here for good. Scouts honor.” She flashed her brightest, and fakest, smile possible, lifting her hand in a half-assed attempt at a Scout’s salute.<br/><br/>Because Aria Holden had never once bothered with that pansy shit.<br/><br/>The attendant furrowed his brows, heaving a sigh that surely had come up from his toes. “Fine.” He pointed at her a bit harshly, his tone that of a man talking to his unruly teenage daughter. “You pay up front. Extra fifty dollar service fee too.”<br/><br/>“Service fee? For what? Do you even employ a cleaning staff? The health department would have a field day here.”<br/><br/>“Extra fifty or you can sleep on the curb.”<br/><br/>The girl lifted her hands in mock defense. “Okay, okay. Just kick a girl while she’s down, why don’t ya.”<br/><br/>She dug through the tattered backpack, scrounging for the funds needed to have a comfortable bed and a tv for a few nights. Aria was running out of friends and they were running out of patience. After awhile, sympathy didn’t get anyone very far and she was left dangling on everyone’s last nerve while she continued to flounder through life. The only constant in her life was the inconsistency itself. Somehow, even that had become comfortable.<br/><br/>Paying the man, he handed her a key with a strict declaration of her check-out day and time. Aria nodded and even offered him a hurried ‘thank you’ before she ducked back out the lobby door and wandered off toward her room.<br/><br/><br/><div style="text-align: center">- x -​</div><br/><br/><i>The screen streamed an endless loop of the aerial footage taken up the northbound lanes of highway. Black smoke consumed what was known to be the third vehicle in a small convoy. People the sizes of ants had converged onto the scene, pulling bodies from the wreckage before appropriate help could even be notified.<br/>
<br/>
Burned alive.<br/>
Mutilated beyond recognition.<br/>
Dental records confirm.<br/>
Andrew and Abigail Holden D.O.A.</i><br/><br/>Aria bolted upright in the bed, desperately trying to catch her breath as she came out of a deep sleep with the sort of abruptness that left your heart racing and your fingers tingling. Always the same dream -- the last images of her parents, their bodies dragged out onto the sand dusted concrete and beaten long after they’d perished. She re-lived their final moments, thanks to a vivid and over-active imagination, every time she closed her eyes.<br/><br/>She could feel their terror, see their faces and could only watch as they waited for crescendo of violence to envelope them. Did her mother scream? Did her father hold his beloved wife, as if he alone could protect from the atrocities that waited? Did they think of her in their final moments of life? These were questions she’d never find the answers to. What was left were the questions that had answers. Why? What for? Who? She even knew who had what she needed.<br/><br/>Valhalla Corporation.<br/><br/>Scooting to the end of the bed, Aria set her elbows on her knees, head cradled momentarily within shaky hands. The rush from the unwanted dream slowly ebbed away, leaving in its wake a numbness Aria was beginning to find almost soothing. If she felt nothing, she couldn’t be angry, or lonely, over drowning in despair. Sometimes, she needed help getting there, and other times it inched its way into her mind as if on cue.<br/><br/>It was what she needed right now.<br/><br/>From across the room, the alarm on her laptop chimed, letting her know that at any moment a car would be outside waiting for her. As she crossed the small room, she discarded the clothes she’s slept in and tugged herself into clean underwear, jeans that could pass as washed and a t-shirt she’d lifted off one of her random hookups. The alarm faded out as she used her fingers to make an attempt at managing her disheveled blonde hair. Not once did she look at herself in the mirror that hung over the small table. Aria knew what she’d find and was merely a shell of the girl who had once been vibrant and full of life. Most of that had been stolen from under her when that black government vehicle turned the corner.<br/><br/><br/><div style="text-align: center">- x -​</div><br/><br/>The woman in the back of the cab was almost exactly how Aria had imagined she’d be -- professional, but friendly. Yet, Aria had become suspicious of everyone and even the cab driver made her uneasy. Remaining relatively quiet, she nodded to confirm she’d read the email, or that she understood the directions, and even scowled like any teen would when being forced to part with a digital device. At the root of it, the woman made her uneasy because she was everything Aria was not. If what she had learned of the Valhalla Corporation were true, the woman was so much more than just a pretty face.<br/><br/>San Francisco came alive around them as the taxi expertly navigating the hills and one-ways. This was her city. Aria knew it like the back of her hand, and when the car made some familiar turns she felt pride in knowing the way. Yet, that knowledge did nothing to hinder the nerves that came to life up her spine. She had obsessed over this meeting far longer than she cared to admit, but nothing could have prepared her for the anxiousness settling in around her as their destination grew closer and closer.<br/><br/>All too quickly, the taxi pulled to a stop. Eve paid the driver and he offered some rather strange sentiment that left Aria feeling even more uneasy. Her lips fell open, a question lingering there for a moment before she turned and followed the taller woman.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center"><i>May the world give way to your wings.</i>​</div><br/><br/><div style="text-align: center">- x -​</div><br/><br/>Eve’s heels clicking across the tile echoed across the water. The water was indeed heated, but not enough to get rid of the chill that had fallen over her. Aria stood where the woman had directed her to, up to her shoulders, and completely naked. She gripped her upper arms with fingers so tight her knuckles were white from the tension. The ends of her blonde hair floated around her shoulders and the girl shivered. The steady lapping of water at the edges of the pool only exacerbated her anxiousness. Aria could have stood there for seconds or hours, it wouldn’t have mattered. Vulnerability didn’t suit the young woman and the longer she lingered there in the pool, the more poignant that vulnerability felt. The urge to swim to the edge and climb out suddenly became overwhelming. Yet, the heavy sound of new footsteps kept her rooted in place, exactly where she’d been told to stay.<br/><br/>The man that appeared could have accounted for the chill that traced over Aria’s flesh. Where Eve had felt genuine and friendly, this Alexander was so obviously not the sort of man you ventured into smalltalk with. She watched him move, graceful and with the purpose of a man who didn’t have a worry in the world. He spoke, and she listened, clutching herself across her chest under the softly shifting water.<br/><br/>He squatted at the edge, settling his glacial gaze on her. For a moment, she let her bright green eyes focus on his hands. Looking him square in the face felt wrong -- like she was some undisciplined child waiting for reprimand. What he said even felt like that. As if the next words to come out of his mouth would be sort of scolding. Instead, he recited the things she battled with, the emotions she ran from or self-medicated, and the way she’d been living her life -- said he was giving her an offer.<br/><br/><i>Revenge.</i>That word alone elicited an emotional reaction. Isn’t that what she had wanted all along? To make those at fault for her parent’s deaths to suffer for their actions? It was thoughts of revenge that kept her moving, searching, and what ultimately led her to this very circumstance.<br/><br/>It was the only thing she wanted anymore.<br/><br/>Alexander closed his eyes and Aria ventured to look at him directly. When that blue gaze met hers, a little of his perfected poise had slipped away. He appeared as exhausted as she felt. Aria let out a soft breath, realizing she had been nearly holding it since he’d entered. His words sunk in, tugged at her darkest emotions, the things she hadn’t been brave enough to tell anyone, and she entertained them fully in that moment. She shivered again, but this time not because of the illusioned chill.<br/><br/>“If you aren’t here to answer<i>my</i>questions,” Aria squared her shoulders, releasing the tension in her grip slightly, and found an ounce of courage under all the uncertainty, “then why<i>are you</i>here?”