2.
~ Snow White, an innocent maiden, was filled with terror as she ran through the dark forest. Everywhere, things came out of the darkness to grab her. The dead tress seemed to grow claws that tried to catch and cut her. The snakes and spiders were roused out of their holes to bite and try to feed off her. Great birds took flight around her and circled menacingly above.
Their sharp beaks waiting for the moment when she would die and they could feast on her eyes.
~ Ariadne tired to blend in.
She secured her head scarf better and tried to look like a well seasoned tourist to Jerusalem. The heat was imposing and draining, but it was still comfortable. She had slipped in with the church group effortlessly as they toured the holy lands. It was a group of over 300 and no one noticed the extra member. The tour guides taking them through the sights as she stayed close to the older couple from New York.
She looked at the beautiful churches of Jerusalem. The most sacred places in all of Christendom, and all she wanted to do was cry.
~ It was less then a week ago, she had arrived at the workshop to find the place a disaster. She didn't know what to do, where to go.
Cobb had quickly located her before she gave herself away. The Extractor had brought her into this life and explained that the government agency he used to work for was after him.
"I don't think they'll come after you." Cobb explained as he gave her over fifty thousand dollars in cash and told her to go into hiding. "But you know too much."
She had never felt so afraid as the Extractor told her to go to ground. Never try and contact him again, and she wasn't safe.
She followed the plan Cobb had sketched out for her when she first started working with the team. In the event they would have to scatter and hide, she knew there was a special locker in a Berlin train station that would contain her new identity. So, Alma Rodgers she became.
She had been on trains for almost a week before falling in with the religious group. She couldn't go back home with them to America. Cobb told that she was now on the FBI watch list. That her dealing with dream extraction would put her in prison or in a secret CIA compound for life.
Everyday, she wished she had never agreed to work with Cobb in the dream world.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" A voice said and interrupted her thoughts.
Ariadne was thinking about all she had lost and what a scary future her life now held. She was startled by one of the church group members talking to her.
"Sorry?" She asked him.
He was thin and tall. His sunglasses were perched carelessly on top of his head as he aimed a camera at a beautiful fresco.
"The church. You're on a tour of the oldest churches in the world and you didn't even bring a camera?" He asked.
She suddenly felt stupid. Everyone in the group was snapping pictures left and right. She had completely forgotten to buy a camera. She must have stuck out being the only one who wasn't obsessed with the sights.
"It broke." She said lamely.
The young man gave her an amused smile.
"Tell you what, I'll email you all of my pictures." He told her.
Ariadne rolled her eyes, he was flirting with her.
She looked over the young man.
He was good looking. His hair cleanly combed back and he spoke with an American accent. He was most likely a seminary student. A do good-er who was going to devote his life to being a minister. He most likely thought she was the type of girl for him. A girl he had met in the holy lands. What could be better? They could settle in his home town and she could be a preachers wife and have three daughters.
Ariadne suddenly laughed out loud.
The whole idea was so shockingly funny.
It wasn't long before her laughter turned to tears.
"Are you alright?" The young man asked worriedly.
She dried her eyes.
"Just... it's just the stress from traveling." She told him. The others in the tour group glanced at her. They saw she was with this nice looking young man and let their eyes roll off her easily.
"Why don't we get something to drink?" He asked her. "My treat."
~ Ariadne didn't know why she let herself separate from the group. She had been safer in the group. Yet, this young man was so kind and pleasant to her, she trusted him without prejudice.
He bought her a coke and she drank it gratefully. The sweetness of it hitting her, and making her feel better.
"Thank you." She told the young man.
"You're very welcome." He laughed as he paid the man.
"I don't know your name." She said feebly.
He smiled as her. His eyes crinkling as he looked no older then 20.
"It's Arthur." He told her.
"I'm Ar-" She caught herself. "Alma. My name is Alma." She told him.
He gave her a little bow.
"I'm very pleased to meet you, Alma." Arthur said kindly. "What made you want to come to Jerusalem? And all alone? It's not exactly the safest thing to do."
"I wanted to see the sights." she said softly.
Her soda soothing away the hurt of the past few days.
Her brow furrowed as her brain caught up with what Arthur said.
"How did you know I'm alone?" She asked.
He shrugged.
"You didn't check in with anyone when we left the chapel. You look like your part of a tour group, but not any particular part."
"My boyfriend is back at the hotel." Ariadne told him. She wished she was better lair.
Arthur nodded.
"I see." he said.
"He is. He wasn't feeling well." Ariadne said lamely. Trying to make this handsome stranger believe the lie.
"It's alright, Ariadne. I believe you." Arthur said lazily as they watched the tourist group exist the chapel.
"Well, I should get back to my tour group." Ariadne said meekly as she turned away from him.
Her brain caught up with what he had said again.
It was the heat, the stupid heat here. It was making her slow and stupid.
She turned to look at Arthur. He still looked careless and casual. His sunglasses over his eyes as he smiled back at her.
"Except, you just called me Ariadne. Didn't you?" She asked in a whisper.