First Born

4. In a bind

4. In a bind

Talon
By the time I got to the house it was close to three a.m. I knew this was a horrible thing to do but I couldn't wait until morning. She opened the door before I could announce my presence.

"How did you - ?"

"The sensor." She pointed to it above my head. "Come in."

She motioned for me to come in and I did so without hesitation. I waited for her to close the door before springing my first question on her.

"Tell me about Prague."

She looked at me for a long time not saying anything.

"I have a right to know," I said.

"You have a right to know what? I don't owe you any sort of explanation."

"I disagree. I woke up and you were gone."

"Why are you so sure it's me?"

"You wouldn't have told me to come over here if it weren't. Tell me what happened in Prague."

"You almost died."

"Obviously. Why were you there?"

She shrugged. "I felt like stalking my fiancé."

"Was it the first time?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes."

"I'd been watching you for a while prior to that incident."

"Why?"

"I wanted to know what the man I was going to marry was like."

"And?"

"And what?"

"What did you find out?"

"I found out he's an idiot who doesn't care about his own life."

"I was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Were you really?"

"Yes. What were you doing there anyway? You could have ended up like me."

"That isn't possible. You're an idiot. I'm not."

"Why do you say that?"

"You almost died."

"But I didn't."

"Thanks to me!"

I was confused. Why was she screaming at me and looked on the verge of tears?

She ran her fingers through her hair and turned away. "I don't have the answers you seek. I'm sorry. You should go back to your wife."

Ah. Therein lies the problem.

"Is Nahia the reason you won't tell me anything?"

"Who?"

"My wife."

"I have no interest in your wife or your life."

I didn't believe her.

"But you have an interest in me. If you didn't, you wouldn't have allowed me to come here at three in the morning. If you didn't you wouldn't have stalked me in Prague and saved my life. If you didn't you would have told my family what happened. But you didn't. No one in my family knows. Why?"

She turned back around to face me.

"Would you have rathered they know? Would you be okay knowing that every time you step outside of your house your parents worry you're going to get stabbed and die? I didn't do it for you. I did it for them. Your family has been good to me. I think of your brothers as my brothers and your parents as my parents. Why would I put them through that pain? It's okay with just me knowing."