AUTHORS NOTES: These characters are OOC.



The black of my vision was peeling away, revealing what I always hate to see. A hospital. I despise hospitals with a passion. The soft, welcoming sheets under me was offering sleep. I refused. I had to stay awake, alert. Shifting my head to the side, I surveyed the room. White walls entrapped me, a window to the left teased freedom. My bed was against a wall. And in the middle of the room sat a man. Not just a man but the man. The one with the scraped face, and dented nose. Black hair fell forward, obscuring his eyes, but I didn't need to see them now. The memory of the cold brown eyes and dangerous hands was still fresh. And suddenly so did the pain. Pain from then, but not now. Where had it gone?

He stood from the plain black chair, absent of all personality, and sauntered my way. Panic grabbed me. I started to fall into ciaos. Thrashing wildly, and screaming, I hocked my closed fist with his jaw. Orderlies ran in. The mystery man swore. I yelled again, incomprehensible words that rambled out of mouth. The orderly stood confused before a booming voice roared out "Leave". They took their cue and left me at the mercy of him.

He looked up and I saw crystal blue eyes. Blue like midnight. Blue like water before a storm. Such a clash with the chestnut I saw before. Still cold yes. Cold and calculating. He wasn't the same man I saw before? He isn't one of the barbaric people who stole from the dead? All those questions and more rolled through my head. It must have showed on my small face, because he started to chuckle. A deep chuckle coming from somewhere in his belly. Then I became angry. Who did he think he was?

He began peeling away fake skin. Skin that once showed scares and holes. Putty was removed from his nose reducing the size and the seeming broken appearance. In its stead it was straight, short. Putty also came off his chin changing it from long and pointy to chiseled and rugged. A towel was lifted to his face removing make-up, making his face from tanned to white, pale. The black hair stayed, still stubbornly falling over his eyes.

My shocked silence fell away, I started to scream. Or at least tried to as he out his hand over my mouth. I debated biting him again then thought better of it. There was no use. I would still be helpless.

"If I take my hand from your mouth would you promise not to scream." He asked in a low voice that reeked of barley harbored violence.

Rigid in the bed I shook my head in a positive gesture. My blond hair fell in my eyes and over his hand. Gently, ever so gently, he brushed it back. For a moment I softened. Then steeled again.

He moved his hand letting it drop to his side. I started my questions: "Where are we? Who the fuck are you? What the hell am I doing here? What were those American soldiers doing to Tecsonvine? What..."

I never had the chance to continue my rants as he interrupted me with a quietly spoken sentence. "Those were not American soldiers."

"I saw the flag" I stated this flatly. I had always believed in facts. The sky was blue, killing is wrong etc... I would take those facts, I called them truths, and write a column on it in the Time and Transept. Truths are my life and no one could convince me that I didn't see the American flag on that truck. No one.

"You saw just what they wanted you to see. Just in case anyone did see them. Those soldiers were from that town's country." I looked in shock, asking a question he seemed to pick up on without I having to speak it. " Because it was an experiment. They wanted to see..."

He never finished as the doctor walked through the wooden door. She lifted her head to the side, questionably. "Am I interrupting anything, Ms...?"

"Ms. Cole. Ms. Serena Cole. Why am I here Doctor?" I asked trying to keep my voice light. She must have sensed my ever-growing frustration, for she took on a soothing tone one might use for a child.

"For shock mostly. I was afraid when you were brought in with concussion considering that you were unconscious at the time." I glared at the mystery man to my left but didn't say a word figuring to myself that he probably had the doctor paid off. But why would he need to? He could just kill me or abduct me. He didn't need to take care of me, bring me to a hospital. While I puzzled over these facts the doctor was trying to shift the attention back on her.

" Miss. Cole?" I looked back to her and smiled, showing I was paying attention. She carried on. "Just look at the light here...That's it."

After proving to have no head injury I got dressed, still mulling over the facts of the mystery man and trying to figure out what he was going to say before the doctor came in. A country mutating it's own people? Soldiers were pretending to be American? What experiment?

I emerged from the bathroom clean and in a new pain of jeans with an orange, sleeveless shirt. The mystery man gave them to me as I walked in the bathroom. I turned my head to the open doorway and saw his beautiful shaped back. The muscles barley hidden in the T-shirt. The narrow hips leading down to muscular thighs and strong calves. His frayed jeans were overtopping the top of the brown hiking boots. All of it giving the appearance of a gorgeous woodsman. Not the killer I know he is.

He turned around. I told myself that I would not gasp or flutter a hand to heart. I did none when he showed his face but I did catch my breath in my throat. The face of an angel, I thought to myself, with the heart of the devil. With that in mind I coldly looked him in the eye.

"Where the hell are we going? Who the fuck are you? And where are my own clothes? My necklace and ring?"

He held out a bag. Reaching into it I pulled out my jewelry and slid it around my neck and finger as he watched me.

"My name is Darien. We are at a hospital in Germany and you, Serena Cole is the next savoir of North America.