Chapter Four
Later
tap-tap-tap
I looked up from burning the toes of my black boots with my glare and focused instead on melting Sally Regal as she stood--very uncomfortable--in the doorway of my office. "WHAT."
She flinched, and the action skewered a specific point behind my scarred eye to my brain. 'What do you want, Ahndra?! Can't you see I'm busy?' smack--I lowered my gaze.
"Sorry to bother you, Fujin, ma'am." She stepped a little forward, bending and folding and re-straightening a sheaf of papers in her hands. "Seifer told me to give this report to you right away. Did you want me to just put it in your inbox out there?" she asked as she gestured toward the door.
I continued to stare at the toes of my boots as I stretched out a hand. "GIVE."
"Oh. All right." Sally stepped forward and placed the sheaf of papers within my hands.
I snapped it out of her hands and tossed it onto my desk. She flinched yet again. Throbbing. "OUT."
"Y-Yes, ma'am." Sally saluted and turned to leave, closing the door softly behind her.
I lifted my gaze to stare at that door.
...the wooden paneled door opens to reveal a young man in military-style uniform. A weapon is absent from the holster at his hip. The young woman in the hospital bed carefully pushes herself up. A bandage covers nearly her entire head. There's no smile of welcome. No expression of relief. Just chilling coldness. Deadness. Emptiness.
The young man steps forward, pulling a chair closer to her side of the bed. He turns and straddles it, resting his arms along the back of the chair. "How you feelin'?"
"FINE."
The young man lowers his gaze to the peeling upholstery of the pad on the back of the chair and picks at it. "The doctors tell you anything?"
The young woman with the silver hair looks to the window on the right side of her hospital room. "BLIND."
The young man clenches his jaw, pressing his lips into a thin line as he balls a hand into a fist. "Damn it," he mutters. He looks over at her. "I'm sorry, Ahndra. I could've stopped the bastard if I'd come straight from the station."
Ahndra looks over at him, but her expression doesn't change. "SEIFER." She slightly shakes her head.
Seifer looks away. "They tell you when you get your walkin' papers?"
"FOURTEEN."
He moves his focus back to Ahndra's bruised face. "Days?"
"YES."
"What're you gonna do?"
Ahndra shifts her gaze to the window and the outside grounds of the hospital in Deling City. "ENROLL."
He seems to wait for something more. When it doesn't come, he adjusts his position in the chair. "What about your old man?" Ahndra doesn't move her gaze from the window. "The bastard belongs in jail, Ahn--"
"FUJIN."
"What?"
Ahndra meets his surprised gaze. "FUJIN."
"'Fujin' what?"
She looks away again. "NAME."
Seifer frowns. "What the hell for?"
"NAME."
"I heard that, Ahndra. I'm not deaf, damn it. I just want you to tell me what the hell you're changing your name for." He stands. "And what the hell's with the one word sentences?"
Ahndra/Fujin finally looks over at him. There is a hint of pleading in her expression. "Please," she whispers.
He clenches his jaw, balling his hands into fists as he holds her gaze. He gives a curt nod. "Fine. So what're you gonna do about your old man... Fujin."
Fujin looks away. "NOTHING."
"Nothing! Are you crazy? He woulda killed you, Ahn--" He presses his lips together. "You can't let him get away with this."
"LATER."
"Later my ass," Seifer mumbles. He sits roughly back in the chair, watching her expressionless face as she stares out the window. ...
...I blinked and moved my gaze back to my shoes. 'It's been five damn years.' I glared. Five years was enough of a 'later'.