• Back Again

    Seth


    I was so annoyed and frustrated at the computer’s bad timing, I wasn’t getting anything out of Tee but I was about to when the computer interrupted us.
    “What is it, Richelle?” I asked, agitated.
    “The files on ‘Kane’ have come in, I thought you would want them right away,” Richelle answered.
    I blinked. “Oh, of course, Richelle. Thank you, can you bring them up?”
    A holographic screen with the files was brought up in front of me and I got into reading the tiles. ‘Australian Arms’, ‘Australians help out, best in the world’, ‘Highest level AAs help American agency take off’, ‘No one can compete’… It was those kinds of titles for a lot of the newspaper articles. A lot of Australian ones but they lived here, which just wasn’t possible. I stopped at the twelfth one in because I took my interest, Avalon Kane murdered. Avalon was not a common name to use these days, I clicked on it.
    Avalon Kane Jordan, 33, was murdered in cold blood two nights go, along with her husband of thirteen years, Tristan Jordan, 34. Their bodies were found in the master bedroom of their home. A call from their daughter, Tory Jordan, 13, was made to local police station hours after the incident.
    Tory was said to be hiding in the closet when her parents were killed. Traumatised by the scene, she would not talk to anyone; even the Drake Agency agents that came to get her.
    The pair has been together since Avalon and her family arrived here from Australia to help out the newly developed Drake agency in America. Before the family had a chance to go back, Avalon and Tristan formed a relationship, then Avalon happened to fall pregnant.
    The Kane family informally disowned her but stayed in America all these years. The Kane family; Alexis, mother, and Benjamin, father; came from New York when they had heard the news to take care of Avalon’s body, not worrying about the daughter. “The Drake Agency will be a better place for her, she will learn the things that she will need,” a family member has told us.
    The killer has still to be determined, no evidence has been found to help the search and the only witness will not talk. This will be the greatest mystery that can be solved but will not be solved in a long time.
    I sat back in my chair with mixed emotions inside of me; why didn’t I remember that night? Maybe it was because my mentor had been killed and I wasn’t taking it as well as I should have. But this begged the question: was Tee Kane, Tory Jordan? I seriously thought so, but then this also opened up another question. Why didn’t she tell me?
    Looking at the door like I wanted to burn a hole in it, I realized that I had let her go. s**t! I scrambled out on my chair and to the door, down the staircase in a dead long run and thinking that maybe I could catch up with her. I didn’t need to; she was sitting against the door curled up in a protective ball.
    Walking closer very slowly, I whispered, “Tory…?”
    The pale blue eyes that I had longed to see for so many years looked up at me with a sadness that clutched at my heart. Tears brimmed in her eyes, which broke my heart even more.
    “Tor, sweetheart, it’s alright,” I said, rushing to sit next to her and take her in my arms.
    She clutched at my shirt and sobbed into my shoulder. “Seth, Dad… I’m so sorry.”
    “Shh, it’s okay, sweetheart, its okay,” I said back, rocking her slowly in my arms.

    Tory

    I sobbed into Seth’s shoulder with his arms wrapped around me tightly; I remember doing this every time I came home crying because of my parents. He would always hold me tight. Always protect me.
    I didn’t remember how I got up to Seth’s office again, he must have carried me there, but all I do remember was repeating ‘I’m sorry’ to him over and over again. He didn’t try to stop me, he knew when I got in this kind of mood stopping me would only make it worse.
    My sobs slowed to trickles of tears running down my face unconsciously and a few hiccups every now and then. I was sitting in Seth’s lap on the chair that I had sat in and lied to his face just moments ago. His hand would rub circles on my back and then he’d pat it every so often. It was nice, comforting to know that he didn’t mind me this close after so long.
    “Are you alright now, baby?” he asked softly.
    I nodded against his chest, not answering with words but actions.
    “Do you want anything?” he asked again.
    I shook my head then sighed. “Yes, actually I do, and I want to talk to you about everything.”
    He stopped rubbing my back. “Then tell me. You know you can.”
    I pulled back to look at him, he had such an earnest face on but then again, I could never tell when he was lying and when he wasn’t. I wanted to tell him everything, wanted to spill every dirty little secret I harboured for so many years but he wasn’t really the one I wanted to talk to. It was Jamie that I wanted to talk to but he would hate me if he knew I was still alive.
    I swallowed my heart that had jumped to my throat at the thought of Jamie, he would hate me and I couldn’t deal with Jamie hating me at all. Seth must have seen the discomfort on my face because he just started talking.
    “Where have you been? Who have you been staying with? What have you been doing? Why are you around these parts? How did you get away? Why did you leave?”
    I held up a hand as he started to ask another question and he snapped his mouth shut right away. He knew it was too much but I was just guessing that he was worried. I could only answer one question at a time.
    “I’ve been with my grandparents; they took me in when I showed up at their door. As for what I’ve been doing, you’ve read my profile you should know,” I said, answering some of his questions.
    “And the other questions?”
    I took a deep breath. “If Jamie hasn’t told you, what happened after I ran as a distraction, I tried out one of his gadgets.”
    His eyes widened in shock. “You tried one of his gadgets?! And it actually worked?!”
    I nodded. “Yeah, it worked alright. I used it last night, that’s how I disappeared from you.”
    He frowned. “But how come you didn’t leave any life force shadows?”
    I lifted a hand palm up, pumped energy around my body effortlessly and a mini force field bubble hovered just a few inches above my palm. If I turned it one way, it would get a slight shine on the outside just like a glass ball would.
    He stared at my hand with an amazed look on his face and his mouth had dropped an inch or two. I didn’t know what reaction I expected from him but silence wasn’t it. I wanted him to be proud, possibly even happy about me getting my power but no way in hell did I want silence.
    “What the hell is that? A force field?” he looked up to my face with some expression I couldn’t place as he reached to touch it.
    I nodded at him, not really trusting my voice anymore.
    “That’s how you disappeared last night?” he asked, fingering the outside of the force field gently.
    “No, I used Jamie’s device, I told you. To run away from you I used my shield,” I said as the ball disappeared from my hand and his hand stayed suspended in the air.
    He was silent for a few minutes as he stared at his hand then lowered it and I was starting to worry for not just him but for me as well. When Seth was angry he was always silent like this. Then he’d lash out at the nearest object… or person, no matter who it was. That was the reason why he rarely got angry.
    “A power…” he said with a dazed voice.
    “Yes,” I said back, slightly annoyed.
    Why was he acting like this? This really wasn’t him, he wouldn’t let himself be so vulnerable even around the people he knew from birth. But I was a stranger to him, he knew the person I was before, not the one I am now.
    “But you didn’t have one before, how do you have one now?” he asked, going back to the person he was. Hard faced and cynical.
    I opened my mouth to answer him but the door to his office was thrown open, we both turned our heads towards the door where very loud, male voices were coming from.
    Three men were walking into the room wearing jeans and comfortable, black t-shirts; they looked like they had just come back from a watch. The tallest one had very tousled brown hair; maybe he had been running around for a while. The other two had black smudges all over their clothing, literally from head to toe. The short one, about my height, had black hair and the other was in the middle with a blonde head.
    The one thing that they had in common was the weapons that were strapped to their alright-looking bodies. Guns, knives, daggers and throwing stars scattered them; I instantly knew that that wasn’t the worst kind of weapons they had.
    The blonde looked up with a smile on his face, which soon faded as his bright blue eyes landed on me. From my staring I had forgotten where I was sitting, or more like, whom I was sitting on. Realizing this, I made a hasty jump off Seth and onto the edge of the desk.
    The three of them stopped dead at my sudden movement, realising that they had disturbed us in whatever we had been doing. Which made it worse; they most likely thought the worst.