What was important was getting to Carly. She, seeing my sudden rage, had dashed around to the other side of the counter, forcing us into a circular trap. I had always hated these back in Manticore. It seemed like no matter how hard you would try, you could never escape the person trying to trap you. An endless pattern of capturing the enemy. Kind of like my life.
Suddenly, she hurried away from the counter and bounded for the door. I, naturally being quicker than she, flung myself at her. It was a stupid move, really it was, but it was all I had at the moment. All that I could think of to stop her from escaping.
I landed on her legs, obviously forcing both of us to the carpeting below. She screamed, which caused me to just hang on tighter, not willing to let her go.
What she had done to me was close to unforgivable. You just don't decide to slap me across the face just because you feel like it. That's not the way the world works-you "just don't". There is a reason for everything. For example, my reason for threatening her was that she had insulted me. Simple enough.
Carly twisted around, kicking her legs, which ending up pounding against my stomach. I tried to ignore the slight pain, but still, it was pain, and pain is hard to ignore. As I began to pull her closer, my back immediately began to burn, affected by the movement of my muscles. The stomach pain was easy enough to ignore, but the back pain wasn't.
I groaned, squinting my eyes and backed off of her for a moment as I tried to regain control of my body. Unfortunately, in that simple moment, she was able to slip out from underneath me and run to the door.
But, just as she had reached the door and was ready to run out, there was a knock. She froze, her hand poised right over the knob. From my position on the floor, I looked up, straining to see past the hair in my eyes.
Almost looking for safety, despite the fact I had come close to killing her, Carly glanced at me, then back to the door. I rose slowly and stiffly to my feet, crossing my arms loosely around my leather coat.
She opened the door hesitantly and there stood Kyle, the man who had been at the bar for the past two nights. The odor of smoke and alcohol poured off of him, but he didn't look either stoned or drunk. His short blond hair was slightly messed up as if he had had some kind of fight, and his shirt was wrinkled as well. But other than that, he looked perfectly sane. Yet, I still had to wonder what he was doing at Carly's apartment, of all places.
Carly still stood slightly behind the door, clutching the edge of it tightly, afraid almost. Even afraid though, she had enough manners to motion Kyle in and close the door behind him. He stared at Carly then at me, then back to Carly.
"This your place?" he asked her.
"Yes," she replied hesitantly.
He nodded faintly, accepting her answer before turning to me. I still stood in the same spot, my feet rooted into the ground. I looked placidly at him, refusing to admit that I knew anything.
"And you," he said to me, with a slight upwards nod, acknowledging me. Then, he shook his head, sadly almost. "It's been a long time-hasn't it?"
"Since what?" I snapped, letting my usual coldness take over.
"A long time to meet again, X5-599."