Final Curtain

Mel's POV

I never had a good experience coming to. This time, was like every other. And like most times, I had been moved from the spot where I’d lost my senses.

“Does she look in the mood to talk to you?” I heard Nate say. It was whispered harshly. I blinked a few more times to see my living room catching up to me. “Come back another day. She doesn't need more bad news.”

My forehead crooned with confusion. I shifted, nearly toppling off the couch if it wasn’t for someone’s speedy reflexes... My eyes followed the whole length of the arm holding me. Round shoulders, ample chest...

“Aric...” I rasped. I pressed a hand to my head, the other ended on his shoulder so I could stabilize myself. “You’re here...?”

Aric pulled me to safety, to the middle of the couch. I noticed a light grimace.

“I’m not bringing her bad news!” Was that Reed’s voice? Why was he... Oh right, he'd dropped by yesterday but Nate had been upset about... about the money.

“Unless you can tell me who’s been messing around you’re not coming in.”

I snapped my eyes shut as emotions imploded in my chest. I was so tired of bickering.

“How am I supposed to know?”

“Then you have no use. Have a nice day.” Nate falsely stated, slamming the door.

Only it didn’t close.

“Stop being childish and let me in.” Reed gritted buffeting the door.

“Shut up!” I yelled while Nate prepared a snide comment, no doubt about it. There was a batch of silence meaning they were staring. “You two are so loud... my head’s already split in half and you're making it worse.” I curled into Aric’s side enjoying the momentary silence.

My face was cradled by cool hands. No matter how much he made my head pound, I would always open my eyes to see his. They'd been the first thing I'd fallen madly in love with. Nate’s eyes. From day one, they'd held a captivating sparkle—a burning fire that never gave out.

My lips parted when images and voices surfaced. I slapped Aric's arm.

“You liar,” I began, slitting my eyes, feeling Nate’s hands fall away. “You never left New York. You were with Anna all along! I bet I walked in on you and her yesterday, didn’t I?” He didn’t get time to nod before I surveyed the room stating, “Anna’s not here.”

Reed was though, he’d taken advantage of Nate’s rush of worry towards me.

“I sent her grocery shopping,” I blinked picturing that in my head. “With your credit card.” Nate added from the side lines, sending a dirty glare to the forty-year old.

Reed sighed, shaking his head reminding me of a teacher before reprehending a student.

“For the last time, I wasn’t the one who drained your accounts or canceled your cards. Your parents did. You have a problem? Take it up with them.”

“I’m a little short on money to plan a trip to California.”

“They’re in London.”

“Oh. In that case, I’ll just swim there.”

I gripped Nate's fingers so hard they turned white. At least he quit his jabs at Reed. Money issues hadn't caused me to lose my footing. It was something else—something that could put us in real trouble, like being thrown in jail.

“The police...” It came at me like a frat-train. “You said they... they found the house Parker died in?” Aric nodded a little unsure. I think he was afraid I'd faint a second time. “Is that bad?” Had I lost brain cells during my forced nap? Of course it was bad! It was terrible, it was—

“No,” Aric stood from the couch. He peeled off his designer jacket, setting it on the armchair. Crossing his arms, his eyes landed on me. “It's not good, but it's not bad either. I know for a fact the house is in complete ruins. It burned to the ground. The remains are scarce, there are ashes—but Parker's body was definitely cremated. There really isn't any evidence of him being in there, or you guys.” Okay, that was good—not the part where my ex-boyfriend had been completely consumed by flames, left to die in a hell-hole but... it was good news. “The bad news is: what led them there was an anonymous tip. Someone said Parker went inside... and didn't come out.” Bad, very bad. “Someone knows what happened to Parker and it has to be the same person who's been scaring you.”

“I told him.” Nate whispered, sitting closer. I noticed he hadn't bothered with prying his fingers from my hold, even if I was affecting his circulation.

“And you know all this... how?” I cocked my eyebrow.

“I have my contacts.”

“Hum, more buddies from the old days?” I half-joked.

Aric's eyes lit for a second, “From the old days. Yeah.”

My front door opened and Anna sauntered in with two brown paper bags.

She shoved them into Aric's chest. He lost the far off glint, gaining another. It was something I only saw in his eyes when Anna was around, I couldn't begin to explain what it looked like... but if I had to describe it, I'd say it was between raw desire and deep affection. Aric could do the strangest things with his eyes...

“Here,” I saw my card being chucked at Nate’s head and froze my eyes on Anna. “It was his fault. He made me keep it a secret. I would’ve told you he was still hanging around.”

“I think he was doing a little more than hanging around.” Nate tucked the card into his back pocket, pulling me to him. His lips grazed my neck. “But that’s not important,” he was saying this for the hundredth time today, and I knew he was right. So, I archived the subject into a mental drawer to deal with it later. “We have to figure out who's doing this and why. If this person knows more, we could be in trouble.” Nate glanced at Reed. “The Hive digitalizes every contract made with any of their assassins. Can you erase mine?”

I felt myself choke. What if someone got to those? Gave them to the police like we’d done with the evidence against The Order? Nate wouldn’t just go to jail—he’d receive the death penalty, wouldn’t he?

“In theory, they were erased when you quit.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” I caught his rising anger. I curled my hand over his knee.

Reed had that I’m-not-supposed-to-tell-you-this face on.

“Once an assassin’s record is cleared from the data base it can never be recreated. Your parents transferred your money in hopes of drawing you back... Your data hasn’t been erased, because they think you’ll come back.”

Nathaniel would’ve jumped from the couch and pinned Reed to a wall if it wasn’t for me. I was leaning on him, his arm around me, and he didn’t want me to be scared again today.

“Erase it,” he gritted as coherently as possible. “I’m not going back. Erase the fucking contracts.” I felt small in his hold. Nate wouldn’t hurt me nowadays but sometimes… he could be really scary.

Anna was seated on the other end of the couch. Her hand gently squeezed my leg, reassuring me everything was just fine. Even if I was still a little bitter towards her, I didn’t reject the comfort.

“I can’t do that, it’s up to your parents. Talk to them and tell them what you’re telling me, that you’ve made up your mind and are never going back to being an assassin.” Reed passed me a concerned glance. I knew what he was going to say—so I cut him off.

“If it could wait a couple of days…? I have a lot of problems to deal with.” I whispered the truth.

Anna took Reed to the door, I wasn’t sure why. Because it was just behind the couch, I think it had something to do with Aric’s return from the kitchen. My half-brother sat back in his corner of the couch, where he’d been when I woke up. When she came back, the hard glare was unmistakable.

Looked like she wanted to say something to him, but settled for, “We’ll talk later.”

“You guys actually talk?” I mocked, causing their eyes to lock on me. Aric was looking amused, Anna not so much.

Whoops.

Nathaniel loosened the hold on my waist; his face was close to my hair.

“There’s something else,” he muttered in his deep voice. Aric's eyes and his met up like they were in on something. I glanced to Anna who shared my confusion. “There’s something else you should know.” Nate didn’t say anything else and it was killing me. Aric shifted before nodding solemnly. Had Nathaniel been waiting for authorization… from Aric? I didn’t know which one was weirder. “When Aric called the other night it wasn’t to check in. He wanted me to see a news broadcast.” Nate’s fingers brushed cautiously along my wrist. I prepared for whatever was coming. “The authorities arrived at the safe house where we were held, they found the bodies. There were no signs of either Riley’s body… or Vincent’s.”

“Wh-what? N-no, no! That can’t be, they were there, they were dead—dead bodies don’t disappear… They were dead.”

Why couldn’t they just announce the world was ending today? I could handle it by now.

“We know, luv. They didn’t hide themselves that’s for sure. Someone took them. I’m starting to think it’s whoever is messing with everything.”

“But why would they take two dead bodies? It's not like they can prove we killed them.”

I could hear the void of silence, it took up all the room. This was all too complicated for my brain. I'd just gotten my life back on track—or so I'd thought, because now we were being cornered into a box.

What did this person want?

“What are we going to do?”

“We can't do much of anything.” My head snapped to Anna who was chewing a nail.

“She's right.” Nate muttered quietly. “We have to wait.”

I saw it was hard for him to say that. He hated waiting just as much as he hated being locked up in small places.

“Aric?” I whispered when he remained stoic, silent.

His black hair fell to either side of his forehead hiding his eyes.

“I'll stay alert for anything.” My brother turned to me, green eyes glowing richly. “Did you delete the message from your phone?” I shook my head. Aric held out his hand, I reached into my pocket for my phone. “The number is probably from a burn phone but it's still worth investigating. If I can find it, it may lead to something more revealing.” He taped the number into his own phone handing mine back.

I scowled thinking how much I was starting to hate technology. First, my life had been turned upside down because of a flash drive, now crazy assholes were sending me disturbing messages.

Speaking of which... The demon-phone was ringing. Squirming away for a bit of privacy, I answered.

“Hey, Pace... Wow, wow—what?” He was going one hundred times faster than my sluggish brain. “Oh... They... wow...” This was going perfectly, just like I expected this to go. God, God—I hated the person who was doing this, the person who tipped off the authorities. I really did. “Do you want me to meet up with you?” What was I saying? Someone stop me! I was walking into the wolf's den like a lamb on crack. A pair of hands rested on my shoulders, thumbs brushed building tension. “Okay, yeah... come here. I'm home, okay... see you soon, bye.” I dropped the evil phone in my lap.

“What did he say?”

I lifted my eyes to Anna's.

“Remember the dog-tags Parker used to wear—the ones from his brother?” How had I forgotten that? How could I forget Parker wore Cyrus' tags? It was the only thing he had left from his brother!

“Oh crap...” She muttered pinning her hair away.

“They found them.”