Created

Chapter Eight

"Claire, I've been thinking. I really want to ask you about yourself, but we did just promise not to snoop around in each others lives. What do you suggest I do?" Adam asked. We were sitting on his hospital bed, talking. Just talking. We had been for a while, now. I had finished filling out his information and had even gotten a new picture for him, thank the heavens!! I whisked out the camera, he gave me the cheesiest smile he could muster, and his whole personnel file was updated!
"Well, I think the promise was more long the lines of 'we won't ask if it makes the other uncomfortable', right?" I smiled at Adam. "You can ask away, there's not a lot I would hide from you. And, to tell the truth, I've really been wanting to ask you some questions, too," One of Adam's eyebrows rose playfully. I laughed. "Questions not relating to the hospital, I promise! No clipboard!" I smiled again at him fondly. My behavior had been surprising me. I'm shy. Very, very shy. Always have been, and thought I always would be. I was afraid of people and had always been too timid to try to get along with them. I just lived my life around the fear. But Adam and I had been chatting for a while and I was so comfortable with him now. The fear was nearly erased. I was quite fond of him. I was ashamed and would never admit it, but Adam was the first person I would ever call a friend. Not the last, no, no, not the last, but he would be the first and closest person I would ever consider a friend.
I learned from talking to him that he'd not had much time to read lately, but he loved books. His favorite food, like his favorite colour, changed daily. Today, though? Ice cream and strawberry cake, and dark brown, because, he said, dark brown was the colour of my eyes, and he'd loved the colour ever since he met me that morning. I blushed horribly. How embarrassing! But I kept smiling anyway.
I told him that I loved books as well, mostly fairy tales with adventure and romance. My very favorite book was 'The Princess Bride'. My favorite colour was light blue (I wasn't clever enough to think up something sweet and flattering like he did!). I loved all fine, gourmet foods, but was so poor and on a budget so tight all I could afford for the next three months was microwave macaroni and toast. Adam looked appalled.
"M-microwave macaroni?!" he exclaimed, horrified. I laughed at the look of shock and disgust on his face.
"Not all of us can afford to eat like kings!" I said and smiled. He smiled back at me.
"So we ask each other serious questions, now?" Adam clarified, drawing me back to him and away from my thoughts on the recent past. "No more favorite colour/favorite food deal?" I nodded solemnly.
"Serious questions. You first," I said to him.
"I want to ask you about your family. Do you have any siblings? What are your parents like? Where do you live?"
"I always wanted a little sister. But I'm an only child. After I was born, my mother couldn't have any more children. I'm not sure why, something medical no one ever bothered to explained to me. But I was raised an only child. Mom is such a hard-worker," I told Adam with a small smile. "She cleans religiously and her Black Forest Cake is to just die for! And my father... Oh, man, he was great! I loved him so much, and Mom did, too. He was part of a huge company, he helped develop new technology. That was his one main hobby, too, you know. Computers and technology. He worked with them like they were his own flesh and blood!" I laughed a little, remembering him. "That's where I got my skill, actually," I admitted to Adam.
"Skill?" he asked for clarification and tilted his head to the left just so.
"With computers," I answered him. "I'm great with them!" I watched, a bit surprised, as Adam chuckled low and spitefully, more than himself than me.
"What a crazy random happenstance," he said and leaned forward a little to rub his forehead. I frowned. I hadn't seen him act like this before.
"Is something wrong?" I asked suspiciously.
"No, no," He tried to assure me. "It's nothing, I'm laughing at myself. You, uh, you were saying?"
"Actually, that was it, really. I was rambling, I'm sorry!" I apologized.
"No, no, don't apologize!" Adam cried, sitting straight up looking me in the eye. "I loved listening to you, you weren't rambling!!" he cried and I smiled. "When did, um, your father..." I looked down and rubbed a button on my jacket. My thumb traced the edge of the big white button.
"March 12, when I was 14," I said sadly.
"I'm sorry," Adam whispered. I nodded, then looked up, eager to get the attention off myself now.
"And you? Parents, family?" I inquired. Adam shrunk back a bit. I watched his teeth dig into his bottom lip. He was thinking hard to explain to me.
"I never had parents or siblings or anything, but I did have a friend. He was a great friend, too. Loyal, stuck by me even at my lowest times, supported me. His name was Erik. He loved science, he was an engineer. I-I really miss him."
"He sounds wonderful," I said. "I'd love to meet him one day."
"Maybe you can," Adam smiled weakly at me. "Now it's your turn. You ask me a question." I could think of a heck of a lot of questions I wanted to ask him, starting with who was chasing him right on top of the list, but on second thought... I had only known the man for about a day, no matter how comfortable he made me feel, a day is a day. It would be flat-out rude to ask something personal to that extent. And maybe I didn't want to know his background. Maybe it would be just a plain bad idea to even wonder about Adam. So, with that thought in mind, I decided to ask him a different question.
"Who was that girl you were drawing earlier? The one with black eyes and blonde hair?" I asked, indicating toward Adam's sketch book, which lay forgotten on the bed. Adam glanced over at the book and picked it up, flipping to the page where the girl was drawn. Again I studied her glittering black eyes, her mischievous smirk and her blonde hair, obviously dyed, but gorgeous none the less. She looked devilish and dangerous and it almost felt like she was staring at me, evaluating me. It was kinda scary, but Adam. looked at her with fondness in his eyes and a sad smile on his lips. He looked up to me and began to speak.
"Her name is Arta. Arta Clouse. Isn't her name beautiful?" He said admiringly. The name clicked in my head and I sat up a little straighter with the realization.
"Arta? Didn't you say earlier that someone named Arta was trying to kill you?"I asked, very alarmed. I watched Adam's small smile fall and he swallowed. The notebook shut slowly and Adam wet his lips uncomfortably. Shoot. And I had thought I'd found a nice, safe topic.
"Well, erm, yeah. Basically. But now I'm here, among so many other people, there's no chance of her coming in. The things she has after me don't like being seen by people." My eyes widened. Wait, wait, back the bus up a little!
"Wha-What?!" Was all I managed to squeak out.
"These things she sent to chase me, the Assassins, they hate being seen so much that I know if they're right behind me, I run into a place with people, they disappear. They're five of them and they're all huge and emotionless and invincible. If I ever tried to fight them, there would one of two outcomes-I get captured or I die in the first five seconds," he said calmly, like this happened to him daily. But, heck, it probably did.
"That's terrible, Adam," I whispered. "But you don't hate her?" I asked. Adam shook his head.
"How could I?" He responded in a tone just as hushed as the question had been. "I love her. Oh gal, I love her so much, I could never hate her for anything!"
"What happened?" I breathed. Adam shook his head sadly.
"She found out something about me that she, uh, didn't exactly find appealing," he said awkwardly.
"So she decided to hunt you down?" Adam shrugged.
"Well, yeah, I guess," he responded awkwardly. I wet my lips, realizing they were uncomfortably dry, and craned my neck a little to see his downcast eyes.
"What did she find out?" I asked. "Who are you?" Adam closed his eyes, pained.
"I am nothing," he said in a voice so soft I could barely make it out. "Nothing."
"Claire!" Nurse Weedman's voice broke the near-silence as the door swung open to let her in. Both Adam and I jumped a little and turned. "Claire, its your lunch hour," she told me and then smiled warmly at Adam. "Good to see your looking livelier, Adam, right?" Adam nodded.
"Thank you, m'mam," he said and again he was all innocent smiles and sweetness. Nurse Weedman smiled good-naturedly at him once more, then motioned to me to leave."C'mon now, child, leave this poor man to his rest," Nurse Weedman called me again from the doorway. Rather reluctantly, I stood and allowed myself to be ushered out the door. But I did turn back and see Adam, slouching on the bed, look up at me and offer a small, weak smile.
"Well," Nurse Weedman started once we were out of Adam's earshot. "Tell me what happened? You were in that room for at least an hour, heavens, its twelve-thirty!"
"Really?" I asked, bewildered. "An hour?!" Nurse Weedman nodded. "Well, we just chatted. I got all his information updated and then we just talked the rest of the time."
"And he doesn't seem like a criminal?"
"Not in the least," I said assuredly.
"Then why did he attack us? Did you learn anything vital?" I shook my head.
"No... Well, I kind of did..." Anxiously, I fought with myself about how much I should tell Nurse Weedman without betraying Adam's trust. How much would she need to know? To be truthful, I was getting pretty sick of my internal arguments. Why couldn't things just be easy?!
"And...?" Nurse Weedman prodded gently.
"And I think he just freaked out. He's a bit... Odd, obviously doesn't get out much, and he thought he'd been kidnapped, or something of the like. Now that he's got his bearings and knows what's going on, I doubt it'll happen again." Nurse Weedman nodded and looked forward.
"What do you mean by 'odd'?" She asked. I shrugged a bit, trying to think how to explain Adam.
"Well, odd like 'not insane, totally, but... Quirky'?" I said cautiously. This received another nod and I think Nurse Weedman wanted to ask more questions, but we'd already reached the lunch hall, and she had to leave.
"Good luck, child," Nurse Weedman said worriedly. Confused, I looked over to her, but she was already halfway down the hall, shouting at someone in her mic. Good luck? What should I expect in there?