Chapter Twenty-Eight

"What's the mission?" she tried

He shook his head.

"What can you tell me?"

He looked away tiredly.

"Last night, you said that you'd continue your mission alone. Now you're saying it was a mission for at least two men."

"Sharp," he said, to which Alice raised her eyebrows. "I figured, if I'm dying, I might as well die fighting. But I did not expect to lay in bed sick for a day, barley conscious."

"Noble..." she muttered. "Wanting to die for your country. Which is..." She waited for him to name the country he was fighting for.

He gave her a look.

"You might as well say Texas. You can't hide your accent."

He kept giving her the same look.

"At least admit that you're an American!"

"Alice, I'm not giving you that information."

"Fine. Why am I still alive?"

"Didn't we agree I'd tell you after the war?"

She stepped forward, until she reached the bed. She sat on the bed, just a few inches away from him.

"I think it's important to live in the now. Your friends died. Mine did too. We could be next. Then I'll never know."

He grimaced, staring at her for a second longer than necessary.

"I was chosen for the mission," he said, staring into the distance, "for certain reasons. As you've seen, and pointed out so nicely a moment ago, I'm of another specie. I kill. I rarely panic. I've been told to be heartless."

Alice inched away form him with large eyes.

"Then I thought that perhaps that's a lie. Because I met you."

"Met me?" she asked baffled. "Not quite. You don't know anything about me."

He leaned closer to her before saying, "You were different. Hopeful. Your small talk during your hell was unexpected."

She felt anything but hopeful so she wasn't sure what gave him that impression.

"I felt different when I met you."

Jasper looked away with a smile.

"Partly, it's driving me insane when you talk. You have no pause button."

She glared at him openly for insulting her.

"But partly I like it."

"Yeah, because I'm the Joker in this game, right? Like in the woods when you pretended not to understand me while I tried to say I had to pee. Yeah, I bet you like that."

He laughed out loud. Truth be told, Alice's feelings were hurt. When he saw her saddened face, he recovered from his fit.

"I like the way that you speak, Alice. I'm not used to so much talk. I've been with three other men for the past... time and us men don't speak often. You heard my telephone call. That's how it always goes, give or take. Hell, even my fiancee didn't talk as much as you."

"I can't help it," she hissed quietly.

"Then don't. I've grown used to your voice now."

She gave him a look.

"What?" he asked with a shrug.

"Could you be any meaner?"

"You had it coming for calling my accent funny," he reminded her with a nudge.

Alice froze at the small, chosen physical contact. He lied down on the bed and sighed.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

After a second, she repeated it.

"Where are we going? Where are we going? Where are we going? Where are we going?"

He sat up and watched her in annoyance.

"Where are we going?"

"America," he murmured. "You little child."

"Where are we going? Where are we going?"

"I just told you, lady!" he snapped.

"When?" she said with wide eyes. "You never told me where we're going."

"Ah," he said, realizing her mistake. "When I said America, I wasn't calling you on your nickname."

"What do you mean? I mean, are you talking about America? What do you mean with America? I thought you were calling me America again. How can we go to America?"

He rubbed his front head with his fingers, his eyes shut.

"I helped you, have I not?" he asked. "Keep holding unto that."

"It's a very vague thing to hold unto."

"I'll bring you back home, America. Okay?"

She bit her lip nervously, afraid that starting to believe him might damage her if he was lying.

"Is my home also your home or is yours somewhere here in Europe?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"Afrika?" she joked.

He chuckled.

"Perhaps you own the lone continent of Antarctica. I hear it's cold there."

"Ah, little Alice shows me her dark side."

"I've had a good master to learn from."

He shook his head with a smile.

"I don't have one," he said quietly.

"A master?"

"A home," he said.

Alice grew quiet.

"Uncomfortable now? Ah, you must have a much larger light than dark side in you."

She smiled nervously. "You caught me off guard, is all. But I thought you mentioned a fiancee. Did she...die?"

"She broke off the engagement."

"Why?"

"I told her I was going into war. She didn't want me to do that. So she broke us off."

"Did it hurt much?"

He shrugged. "A little, but I couldn't have not gone because of her. It's something I had to do. Choosing to not go for her sake would have been holding back on myself. I don't want to be that person, the one who slacks his own tires to make another person happy."

"Couldn't you have come to a certain agreement which made you both happy?"

"It's either going to war or not, America. I couldn't have gone half to war."

"Yes, I know, but pretend she really badly wanted to become a doctor. And if you told her you'd help her accomplish her dream once you were back, couldn't that have been a good agreement? That way you are happy and she is happy."

"I believe it's a mindset someones has or hasn't. I get her frustration, but she gave me an ultimatum. The war or her. I've blamed her a long time for giving me that ultimatum."

"Sorry."

"It was about five years ago," he said with a shrug. "I've gotten over it."

Then he asked with a scowl, because a sudden thought crossed his mind;

"How old are you, America?"