June 23rd, 2042, 02:34
Cipher Headquarters, New York City, USA
AG: 032 / CO: Catastrophe
The car slowed to a halt after about two hours of driving. I looked up, broken from my reverie, and glanced out the window. We were in the back alley, exactly as planned. I took a deep breath and tried to steel myself for what was about to come.
You've been training for this. Don't fuck it up. Don't fuck it up.
Of course, by the time I started to unbuckle my seatbelt, Arsyn was already standing outside the car, leaning on her door. She always managed to look so cool. Her dress and hair, dark as the shadowy night around us, only served to make her skin look even paler, glowing in the gloom. She was casually lighting a cigarette, holding a sleek silver lighter up to the end. After a deep breath in, she looked at me in the corner of her dark eyes.
"Are you coming?" she asked, her husky voice soft and smooth.
I swallowed hard and nodded, sliding across the back seat to the open door. Arsyn stood back, holding the car door open. Once I was out, the driver's window slid open. Our chauffeur's face was completely hidden in shadow as he spoke to us.
"Am I to meet you at the front?" he asked.
Arsyn shook her head, blowing smoke into the night sky. "Change of plans. We have a different exit route."
Even in the cover of the darkness I could practically feel the driver's confusion. "But… Headmistress told me –"
"Headmistress is keeping the second half of the plan completely secret," Arsyn interrupted, pulling the cigarette from her lips. She didn't have to raise her voice at all to cut someone off; she just always commanded that kind of respect. "So your only job is to return to homebase. Got it?"
After a moment of silence, the driver's window rolled back up slowly, and the sleek black car we arrived in slid away. We watched it merge back into the busy night street before we moved again. With a small sigh, my partner pulled back the sleeve of her black blouse to check the time on a simple, elegant watch.
"We're early," she stated simply. "Let's go."
She began walking in the opposite direction of the car, her heels clicking rhythmically on the uneven pavement of the alleyway. I followed behind her, just a step behind.
I bit my lip, unsure of what to do. Finally, I mustered up the courage to ask.
"Arsyn?" I said. My voice sounded weak in comparison to her smooth, jazzy tone.
"Hm?" she replied, another puff of smoke drifting up to the stars. I watched her elegant bobcut bounce and sway with every step she took. Every part of her was mesmerizing; the way she was so meticulous with her appearance, the way every move was perfectly calculated. Nothing was a mistake. I don't know why I was nervous.
"Headmistress said the car picks us up around front," I said. It was a stupid statement, she'd just addressed it with the driver. I don't know why I didn't have faith in her.
Arsyn's head spun around to look at me. Her eyeliner cut from her dark, shining eyes like a knife. Her lips were dark and full. She looked so dangerous, so absolutely terrifying, but so beautiful. Why on earth was I questioning her?
"The plan was changed," she explained. "This is a big mission, Catastrophe. A lot of things are riding on our success. She wanted there to be no mistakes, no slip-ups, so she changed our route last minute. Only I can know."
I nodded as Arsyn turned back ahead of her. Of course. If I were to be captured – which was, frankly, much more likely than Arsyn's capture – I could give away the escape plan.
We walked to the end of the alleyway. Around the corner was the back entrance: our destination. We were still a few minutes ahead, so Arsyn simply leaned against the brick wall, smoking. Her eyes were raised to the night sky, deep in thought. I stood next to her, my every cell hypersensitive to her very presence.
Five years of training, and they'd never prepared me for this.
So we stood in silence for what felt like an eternity to me. I felt awkward; my body was too lanky, too big, too awkward to even be in this woman's presence. But yet I didn't want this moment to end. Every minute with her was valuable to me.
She checked her watch just as the second ticked into the next minute. She dropped the butt to the ground and crushed it with her heel just before she turned the corner and started marching towards the door, determined, but slow. I had to trot somewhat to keep up with her.
Just before she grabbed the door, she spun around, gracefully. I stumbled and nearly walked into her; I hadn't expected her to stop so suddenly. I found myself staring into her eyes in that moment, and I lost track of where I was.
Her eyes, so perfectly shaped, bore into mine, as though she were reading the words etched into the back of my skull. They were dark, but somehow contained more light than anything I'd ever seen, as though the stars themselves were echoed inside of her.
We stood there for what felt like hours. I knew we would miss our opportunity if we stayed like this, but in that moment, I didn't care. I was content with her analyzing my mind. I could have stayed there for days.
"Catastrophe," she began, her voice sending chills down my spine, "you trust me, don't you?"
I nodded, ever so slightly. Her breath smelled like mints and cigarette smoke, a combination that nearly drove me crazy. "Yes," I answered.
Her dark lips slowly curved upwards into a smile. She was either an angel from hell, or a demon from heaven.
"Then I trust you," she replied, and turned to the door.
And in that moment I believed her with every fiber of my being. I would have followed her to the last inch of the world if that was what she wanted from me. But I was wrong. What she wanted from me was something very, very different.
I never could have prepared myself for what I faced that night.