Asha's Arrival
by pari106
pari106@hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/pari106/damain.html
(Disclaimer, rating, summary, etc. in chapter 1).
Chapter 3
I don't know what I thought I'd find. Picket fences and a minivan? To tell you the truth, I don't suppose I
really thought about it at all. So I didn't have any expectations about where Logan might be living these
days. I mean, just because he's probably married by now with 2.5 kids, that doesn't mean he has to live in
the suburbs.
So I didn't have any expectations…or so I thought.
I guess I thought wrong, because when I found myself standing outside Foggle Towers I felt…surprise.
I was surprised. Despite all I'd said to Parker, I guess I didn't really expect Logan to be unchanged. I
expected his sense of honor and integrity to still be the same. But other things… Maybe I was looking for
picket fences and a minivan, I don't know. All I know is that the tall, sleek building in front of me looks
exactly like somewhere the Logan Cale I used to know might live. And that's more surprising than if I had
found him in the suburbs.
I was right the first time. If anyone can survive this world of ours unchanged, apparently it's Logan.
I wonder if he can say the same for me – in my dirty pair of blue jeans and oversized sweater. The clothes I
am wearing are the only possessions I took with me from Chicago. There wasn't time for anything else.
Parker tells me he will collect the rest when it's safe and send it to me, wherever I am settled by that time,
but we both know that is unlikely. I will probably never see Parker again. Staying in Chicago now, even
for the sake of his daughter, was suicide. It's true, but I try not to focus on that. I just can't.
Now I stare up at Logan's building, and thinking twice of going inside, I turn the corner, circling the
building through an alley. I look for a system of fire escape ladders to give me access to the building's
roof, but find none. I don't really want to take the front door. There will undoubtedly be a security man on
guard there, and if Logan isn't working with Eyes Only, if my presence here could put him in danger, I'd
rather not be seen going into his place.
I find a fire escape on one side, and I decide to climb it to the roof. The ladder is retracted, and I look
around for something to give me a leg up, but there is nothing. So I simply have to jump until I can reach it
and pull it down.
I don't mind the physical exertion – in fact, I welcome it. It is a distraction. And I desperately need to be
distracted.
For so long I've been operating on automatic. I've had all these dark thoughts and horrible fears and all
this pain churning around inside of me, but all that has been resting, dormant, beneath a numb sort of shock
that had overcome my system.
But now that shock is wearing off.
I can feel it. My palms are sweaty, and my breathing is labored. I'm nervous and shaky and hungry and so
damned scared. Mike is dead. My brother is dead. All of my friends or dead, and if this doesn't work out
with Logan, I have no one else to turn to. Parker is back in Chicago. Jesus, why did I let him stay? That's
what happens when you let yourself operate on automatic. You act without thinking. Because thinking
will drive you mad.
And now I'm so close to cracking I don't see why the whole world doesn't see the fault lines breaking
through my calm reserve.
Finally, I get the ladder down, and I race up it as if someone were chasing me.
My heart is beating like wild – it has been ever since the shootout. I'm going to have a heart attack – I just
know it. I'm twenty-nine years old, and I'm going to die of a heart attack. I know it, I know it…
Oh, God, it's panic. That's what this is. The shock is wearing off and I'm panicking…
At the one moment when I can not afford to panic. I have to keep going. I have to get to Logan.
'hurry…hurry…hurry…'
I am up the stairs and on the roof before I know it, wide eyes looking for an entry into the building,
something. A sky light, maybe…
I suddenly view a possibility. I find a skylight to the penthouse. Logan is supposed to live in the
penthouse. But I have no rope.
I stand by the skylight, debating. I look around me. Then I make a decision.
by pari106
pari106@hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/pari106/damain.html
(Disclaimer, rating, summary, etc. in chapter 1).
Chapter 3
I don't know what I thought I'd find. Picket fences and a minivan? To tell you the truth, I don't suppose I
really thought about it at all. So I didn't have any expectations about where Logan might be living these
days. I mean, just because he's probably married by now with 2.5 kids, that doesn't mean he has to live in
the suburbs.
So I didn't have any expectations…or so I thought.
I guess I thought wrong, because when I found myself standing outside Foggle Towers I felt…surprise.
I was surprised. Despite all I'd said to Parker, I guess I didn't really expect Logan to be unchanged. I
expected his sense of honor and integrity to still be the same. But other things… Maybe I was looking for
picket fences and a minivan, I don't know. All I know is that the tall, sleek building in front of me looks
exactly like somewhere the Logan Cale I used to know might live. And that's more surprising than if I had
found him in the suburbs.
I was right the first time. If anyone can survive this world of ours unchanged, apparently it's Logan.
I wonder if he can say the same for me – in my dirty pair of blue jeans and oversized sweater. The clothes I
am wearing are the only possessions I took with me from Chicago. There wasn't time for anything else.
Parker tells me he will collect the rest when it's safe and send it to me, wherever I am settled by that time,
but we both know that is unlikely. I will probably never see Parker again. Staying in Chicago now, even
for the sake of his daughter, was suicide. It's true, but I try not to focus on that. I just can't.
Now I stare up at Logan's building, and thinking twice of going inside, I turn the corner, circling the
building through an alley. I look for a system of fire escape ladders to give me access to the building's
roof, but find none. I don't really want to take the front door. There will undoubtedly be a security man on
guard there, and if Logan isn't working with Eyes Only, if my presence here could put him in danger, I'd
rather not be seen going into his place.
I find a fire escape on one side, and I decide to climb it to the roof. The ladder is retracted, and I look
around for something to give me a leg up, but there is nothing. So I simply have to jump until I can reach it
and pull it down.
I don't mind the physical exertion – in fact, I welcome it. It is a distraction. And I desperately need to be
distracted.
For so long I've been operating on automatic. I've had all these dark thoughts and horrible fears and all
this pain churning around inside of me, but all that has been resting, dormant, beneath a numb sort of shock
that had overcome my system.
But now that shock is wearing off.
I can feel it. My palms are sweaty, and my breathing is labored. I'm nervous and shaky and hungry and so
damned scared. Mike is dead. My brother is dead. All of my friends or dead, and if this doesn't work out
with Logan, I have no one else to turn to. Parker is back in Chicago. Jesus, why did I let him stay? That's
what happens when you let yourself operate on automatic. You act without thinking. Because thinking
will drive you mad.
And now I'm so close to cracking I don't see why the whole world doesn't see the fault lines breaking
through my calm reserve.
Finally, I get the ladder down, and I race up it as if someone were chasing me.
My heart is beating like wild – it has been ever since the shootout. I'm going to have a heart attack – I just
know it. I'm twenty-nine years old, and I'm going to die of a heart attack. I know it, I know it…
Oh, God, it's panic. That's what this is. The shock is wearing off and I'm panicking…
At the one moment when I can not afford to panic. I have to keep going. I have to get to Logan.
'hurry…hurry…hurry…'
I am up the stairs and on the roof before I know it, wide eyes looking for an entry into the building,
something. A sky light, maybe…
I suddenly view a possibility. I find a skylight to the penthouse. Logan is supposed to live in the
penthouse. But I have no rope.
I stand by the skylight, debating. I look around me. Then I make a decision.