Her eyes yield to the floor, like whatever hope she had of seeing me was now lifeless. I can't tell if she's crying, it's too wet to really see anything. But I can tell she's disappointed. Where was I? Why wasn't I here? I said I would be. These were possibly amongst the questions flooding her brain. 20 years ago I made a promise, that I now had to keep. I can't hurt her more than I already have. I won't. I step out of my hiding place (which is mostly my invincibility) into her view. She looks up in a flash, letting out a breath.
M: Fang?
I gaze at her a moment more, and respond.
F: Hi Max.
M: It's really you?
I wonder if she's met many other Fangs in my absence. For all I know she could have. Wouldn't be the first time the School's made clones of us.
F: It's me Max.
M: You're here.
F: I'm here.
She runs at me in three immense steps. I brace myself in attack position, but something I did not expect happens. She isn't about to assault me in a Matrix-like fashion. She does the opposite. She sprints to me and hugs me. Not in a friendly way either. Similar to a hug between family. Its sturdy, and powerful. As though she knows she won't ever see me again after this last embrace. That this is it. Because after, i'll run away again. She may be right.
She retreats from her position and stares me in the eyes. She doesn't say anything, she doesn't have to. She just looks at me. We use to practice this action often. It was our favorite way of conversing. We could say anything to each other, without words. Like everyone was on a frequency and we could switch to the same one and it was ours. Just ours. But now it's different. She can't hear me. I can't hear her. We're on different frequencies. We have been for awhile.