How to Love the Stars | Ghost (Simon Riley)

Chapter 1

For just a second, Althea was in a blissful state between sleep and reality. She could swear that she smelled french toast simmering on a stove, freshly brewed coffee steaming and bubbling. She heard her parents' voices, laughing. Everything felt so warm, so perfect. Then, in an instant, it was all gone. she tried to hold on to the remnants, the happy feeling, but it slipped away as quickly as it came, leaving her feeling cold.

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Althea slowly regained consciousness, paired with persistent throbbing pain in her head. As she blinked her eyes open, the harsh light from a swinging overhead bulb assaulted her senses. Panic pricked at the edges of her mind as she quickly realized that she was bound to a cold metal chair in the center of a dimly lit room.

Her vision struggled to adjust to the light. Specks of water formed dew on her lashes, making bright colors appear as the water refracted the light. Panic threatened to overwhelm her, but she couldn't afford to lose focus. She was a spy, she was trained for this kind of situation. Althea forced herself to slow her breathing, remaining calm and composed.

The dimly lit room echoed with the sound of dripping water, and an unsettling silence hung in the air. A single overhead light bulb swung gently, casting eerie shadows on the cold, concrete walls.

Althea's hands were tightly secured behind her with handcuffs, and her legs were similarly bound to the legs of the chair. The gravity of the situation sunk in, and she knew she had to stay calm. She had faced dangerous situations before, but she had been careful to never get captured.

Her eyes scanned the room, trying to formulate a plan of escape.

How had someone gotten the drop on me? She hadn't been sneaked up on since she was a rookie. She remembered the ominous skull mask in the alley, scoffing. How could a person that big manage to sneak up on me? How had he managed to catch up?

Two figures in austere black uniforms entered the room, closing the door and locking it with a click.

One of them, a man with a thick Scottish accent, stepped forward, his eyes boring into mine. "Agent Althea, Callsign Whisper," he said, his tone laced with a hint of arrogance, "You have caused us quite a bit of trouble." His eccentric- almost obnoxious mohawk haircut somehow only added to his disdainful impression.

She kept a stoic silence, holding his gaze.

He scowled. "Who do you work for?"

She opened her mouth, as if to respond, then spat in his face. The angered look on his face was more satisfying than any amount of perfectly calculated landings.

The second man, one with dark hair and eyes smacked her across the face, grabbing the collar of her shirt and lifting the entire chair almost off the ground. He growled, speaking in a low Spanish accent.

"Listen, puta, you can either give us the information and walk out of here on both legs, or you can refuse and we'll get it out anyways, but you'll be going back to your country with one less. Or maybe we'll just kill you."

She gasped, putting on a semblance of vulnerability. He smirked slightly, thinking he'd won.

"Now tell me. Why are you working for Hassan?"

"Oh no, please don't hurt me-" She batted her eyelashes at him. "I'm only a poor little girl, you wouldn't kill a woman, would you?" She laughed, making the scowl on his face return.

"Why did you even bother to take her here and interrogate me? You could have just killed me."

The two men looked at one another. They seemed to come to an understanding. He released her, the chair thumping back down onto the floor, making her groan.

"Be gentle, will you?"

They stepped somewhere behind me, whispering a few words. She could catch only a snippet of their conversation, a single word. Ghost. She craned her neck, hoping to hear more, but they had finished talking. A figure emerged, seeming to appear out of the shadows. She hadn't even noticed him before, even though she had assessed the room multiple times.

She instantly recognized him as the man in the skull mask who had knocked her out before.

The two men from before were already relatively tall, but this one towered over them both.

How did someone this massive manage to hide from me?

She eyed him, her gaze taking in every detail. She wondered what the mask was for.

Was it to hide something? To keep others from seeing something?

She met his eyes, glaring at him.

Finally, he spoke. His voice was deep and gruff, laced with a thick British accent.

"Where," He paused, kneeling to meet her eye level. "Is Hassan?"

She did not make any move to speak, and her face showed no emotion, never breaking her resolve. She never broke eye contact with him, her glare hard and cold.

The masked soldier sighed, standing back up straight. "Don't want to talk, huh? Fine."

"522 Lakeview close. Does that address sound familiar?" He looked at her expectantly, watching her expression closely.

Althea's expression froze, her eyes widening slightly in panic.

Shit. That's my parents' address.

Her breath quickened, possibilities racing through her mind. She tried to stop the cascading thoughts, each more and more dire.

"You wouldn't dare." Althea had carefully masked her slight Sheffield British accent before, but it came out now.

He leaned closer to her, resting his hands on the armrests of the chair she was bound to. "Make a decision. Do you want to see them again or not?"

Althea broke eye contact, her gaze averting to the floor.

"That's what I thought. Now, let her ask you again. Where is Hassan?."

Althea's face contorted in a mix of anger and confusion. "I don't know who the fuck that is."

He raised an eyebrow. "What were you doing in Las Almas then?"

"I was told by the General that there was information there that we needed to intercept a terrorist that was planning to bomb Belgium."

The masked soldier looked over her shoulder at the two other men. They were incredulous, matching the expression on Althea's face.

The one with the offensive haircut spoke. "Belgium, you say?"

She spoke again, "You... you aren't the people who were sending the missile?" She narrowed her eyes. "Who are you?"