Thank you for the reviews. Here is chapter 3


CHAPTER 3

I SIT IN THE MIDDLE ROW OF OUR "BORROWED" MINIVAN AS SIX DRIVES DOWN THE DESERTED HIGHWAY AT BREAKNECK SPEED. NINE IS SITTING SHOTGUN, snoring loudly as he takes a nap. It's been about 4 hours since we left the Everglades, and we have been driving ever since. We made a quick stop about an hour ago for gas and coffee at a small diner, which luckily had a small computer for customers. It was old and probably slower than the ancient machines I used in Santa Teresa, but it was our only chance to find out if Five was lying about Chicago or not. Six bought a coffee and browsed the net while Nine and I sat at a nearby booth, eating greasy french fries and onion rings.

Well, more like Nine ate and I watched. He offered to get me some but I turned him down on the pretext that I wasn't hungry. I don't really feel like eating. Or sleeping, like Six said I should. In fact, I don't feel like doing anything at all. It's like I'm immune to hunger, sleep and any other feeling you could possibly think of. While my heart still beats on, I feel dead on the inside, numb, cold and lonely.

They told me that they placed Eight's body in the last seat and arranged him so it looks like he's asleep. If only he really was. I haven't been able to bring myself to look at him since I pulled him out of the ice. Looking would be like admitting he's gone, never coming back, and I'm not ready to do that right now. I don't think I'll ever be.

Six confirmed that the penthouse in Chicago was indeed attacked, like Five told us, but that the police found no bodies. That's only a small reassurance, assuming that the survivors chose to leave the casualties behind and not take their bodies along, meaning to give them a proper funeral, as we have. None of us discussed that possibility, though I'm sure it's on all of our minds.

"Marina?", Six asks, pulling me out of my thoughts. She's looking at me through the rear view mirror, and I can see her eyes trying to gauge my emotional state . " There's a motel up ahead and I thought we should find a place to rest. It's getting dark and I don't like the idea of travelling through the night", she says and I nod, indicating that I agree. She shoots me a concerned look through the mirror before returning her focus to the road.

I don't believe Six's reasons for stopping. From what I know of her, travelling through the night would be the her first choice. I realize this stop is probably for my sake, to coax me into getting a few hours of rest while she comes up with a way to contact the others. While I appreciate her concern, it ticks me off that they probably think of me as weak. That they pity me. Pity is the last thing I want right now. Revenge, on the other hand, would be wonderful. Some part of me prays that Five appears in the middle of the road, so I can put my threat to action and give him what he deserves.

Six pulls into the parking lot of a shady looking motel and jumps out of the drivers seat. She stretches as she walks over to the passenger's side door and roughly pulls it open . Nine wakes up with a jolt as he nearly falls out of the car. "Careful Sweetheart!", he yells at her blinking and trying to open his eyes. "Get up Nine", she says and slams the door shut with a loud bang causing Nine to jump out of his seat and hit his head on the roof. "And don't call me Sweetheart", she says through the door as I climb out. Nine follows me out, rubbing his head and swearing like a sailor as Six folds down the middle seat to get access to the back. I instinctively turn away and look at Nine, who is watching me with concern. "Marina", he starts but I wave him off.

He tried to apologize for what happened to Eight back in the Everglades as I healed him, but I told him it wasn't his fault and that apologizing wouldn't bring Eight back. " Nine, leave Marina alone and go get us two rooms", Six orders and he starts walking towards the reception. "I'll bring Eight, you go on ahead", she tells me and I turn to follow Nine.

I reach the reception and find Nine clutching two room keys as he waits for us. I take the keys from him and check for room numbers. "202 and 203", I note to myself as I start walking up the stairs. I find the rooms easily enough and open 203 for Six, who is behind us. She decided to carry Eight in while she was invisible, to avoid questions of why we couldn't wake up our "sleeping" friend and get him to climb up himself. I then proceed to open the door to the second room and step inside.

There are two single beds, a couch, a small bathroom and a door that connects this room to the other next to it. The door opens and Six walks in, clutching an envelope in her hand. She walks up to me and holds it out, and I see my name printed on the front in Eight's messy handwriting. "It fell out of his back pocket while I was putting him on the bed", she says looking up to meet my eyes. I nod a thank you and she gives me a small sympathetic smile before turning around to face Nine. "Come on Nine, lets take a walk!", she announces, grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the door. Before it shuts, she sticks her head around and says, 'We'll be close by Marina. Call out if you need us and we'll be here", before pulling it closed.

I look down at the envelope in my hands and take a deep breath. Letting go, I tear it open to reveal a few wrinkled sheets of paper, stapled together at one corner and covered with writing. A letter. I lower myself onto the couch and start reading.

Dearest Marina,

If you are reading this, it is probably because I'm dead as I find the idea of you finding this letter before that to highly unlikely. I'm writing this in hopes that it can somehow make up for the mistakes I made when I was alive, the biggest one of all being not telling you these things in person.

The truth is, I love you Marina, and I have had many chances to tell you, but I've been too afraid to admit it. Not only to you, for the fear that you don't feel the same way, but to myself as well. To me, love was always a dangerous thing. It got Reynolds killed and robbed me of the one person who I cared about the most. And then you came along and suddenly, everything changed. I found that loving you didn't make me weak or blind, as I had assumed it would but gave me the strength to look towards a brighter future. A future I hoped to spend with you. Some part of me wants to stop writing now, to find you and tell you right now that I doubt I will survive this trip to the Everglades, that I have always loved you and that I shall continue to watch over you even after I'm gone. But I feel it would be selfish of me to do so, to promise you something I will never be able to give you and that it would break your heart to know that I'm now fully sure that Dulce was not the prophecy foretold on the walls, and that I'm still marked for death.

I can't stop my hands from shaking as I write these last few lines, as I know fully well that the contents of this letter will never make up for the times I will now never get to spend by your side. Once again, I'm sorry that I never told you earlier, that the time I choose to confess my feelings for you is when I'm gone and only my words in this letter remain to tell you what should have myself, many many hours ago.

I love you Marina, from the very bottom of my heart and one day I'm sure I'll see you again. But until then, please don't forget me, but find someone who can make you happy because when you smile, Marina, the world becomes a better place.

Yours forever and always,

Eight.

The letter drops from my hands and falls to the ground. A single tear makes it's way down my face and soon it's followed by another, and yet another before I'm sobbing my heart out. The numbness disappears and I feel a sorrow of a sort I have never felt before taking me over as I fall to the floor. And yet in this haze of emotions, only one thing rings clear in my mind. I need Eight.

I get to my feet and throw open the door connecting the rooms .I see Eight on one of the beds, eyes closed, a calm expression on his face and without thinking, I find myself lying down next to him. I curl up against his chest and sob, one hand holding on to his shirt while the other rests over his heart, over the fatal wound that stole him from me. Except I don't feel it there.

I stop crying, and raise my head to take a better look and sure enough, all that remains is a small white scar. I press my ear against his chest, listening carefully and my heart leaps when I hear the sound of his heartbeat, slow and slightly faint, but beating all the same.

"Six! Nine!", I scream out, my voice choked with emotion and I hear them barge through the door. "Marina!", I hear Six call out to me and I reply, "In here!". They come running in through the connecting door and stare in shock as they notice the slight rise and fall of Eights chest as he breathes.

"He's alive!", I exclaim, tears of joy clouding my vision as Six reaches over to give me a hug while Nine stands in the doorway wiping away the tears that have started streaming down his face. Six pulls away and the three of us sit around Eight's bedside. I take his hand in mine, a smile on my face.

He's back.


Thank you for reading.

Until next time

thesecondgarde