TITLE: Break

NOTES: Alright you can have another chapters, but I wanna see more reviews people! Thanks to Harper's Pixie, Laine and Parisndy :D



CHAPTER THREE ~ Losing Myself

"A choice made in a second can have repercussions that last lifetimes."

- Autrivian proverb

^~*~^

The night air carried a chill as Harper and Trance wandered the streets aimlessly. Harper had been quieter than usual, which started to worry Trance. Her suspicions that he was not as 'over it' as he appeared to be were slowly being confirmed.

"Maybe we should head back. If you want to give a statement tomorrow you need to rest," she said.

Harper had forgotten about that. He didn't want to give evidence, but he figured it would prove to everyone that he was fine, despite the fact that he was far from it.

"Nah, I wouldn't be able to sleep. Those beds are about as comfortable as those Trelian massages we had back on Finity. Remember those?"

Trance smiled. She did remember, but she wasn't smiling at that. Harper had a way of changing the subject when he didn't want to talk about something. It was clear now wasn't the time he would open up, but the night was young.

"Hey, that place is open," Harper said with a smile, pointing up ahead. Loud music was coming from the dimly lit building and a few people were huddled outside. It looked a little suspect to Trance, but Harper had already quickened his pace so she could do nothing but follow.

^~*~^

Half an hour after they had gone into the club, Harper was on his fifth drink and Trance had just been trying not to get in the way of the various fights that had broken out. She couldn't understand why Harper would want to stay in this sort of place.

"Do you think you should be drinking so much?" Trance shouted over the noise after Harper ordered his sixth drink. "Did you change your mind about giving evidence?"

"No," he shouted back in, and took a gulp of the blue alcoholic liquid, leaving both her questions answered.

Just then angry shouts rose from a group of people nearby, and push literally came to shove. Someone was punched and stumbled back into the bar where Trance and Harper were sitting.

Harper spilt his drink down his shirt. "Hey! Watch where you're going!" he shouted, getting off his stool.

Trance could see all the possible scenarios that could play out, and none of them were particularly pleasant. "Harper, it doesn't matter. It's time we were going anyway," she said, attempting to defuse the situation. Earlier she had seen that if Harper had come here alone, the results would have been disastrous.

"I'm going to the bathroom," Harper said, annoyed, and pushed his way through the crowd.

The victim of the punch-up smiled suggestively at Trance. "You don't want to do what you're thinking. Trust me," she said and sat back down.

Harper thrust the door of the bathroom open attempting to dispel some of the anger that had been building up inside him. The alcohol on his system served only as an amplification of his weariness. He stared at his reflection in the mirror. Lately it was not a face he was fond of. It took a moment for him to realise he was alone again. A tense feeling of nausea materialized in his stomach. *Get a grip,* Harper cursed to himself, looking away from his reflection. Then the tense feeling was replaced by the sudden gut knowledge that someone was watching him. He looked back into the mirror again, praying to see nothing but himself. But instead the reflection was crammed to the edges with people. Dead people. They were from Autriva, Harper recognised their species, though the fact that their skin was almost burned to a crisp was also a clue.

Harper's body reacted before his mind, and he spun around, his heart feeling like it leapt from his body, doing what his breath could not, only to find the room empty. There was not a sound as Harper stared, piercing the air in the room with his gaze, unblinking. They were gone. Lane Farrow he could handle. She was evil, that much he knew, but the Setrinians and Enyans from Autriva? They were innocent and he was responsible for their deaths. Had they come for their vengeance?

His mind's reaction was unexpected even to himself. Harper started to laugh. It wasn't a joyful laugh, but a strange mixture of hysterical anguish and panic that were both tearing at each other to be heard.

"Insanity is not funny. Insanity is not funny. Insanity is not funny," the terrified man chanted, the words meshing together in a stream between breaths, but he could not help the frantic laughter which forced itself from his throat. It was finally happening, he was losing it.

Regaining what was left of his fragile composure, he decided that Trance was right. It was definitely time to leave.

^~*~^

Trance allowed more than enough time to pass, expecting Harper to return so they could go back to the hotel. After ten minutes she headed over to the bathrooms and knocked on the door. "Harper? Are you in there?"

There was no answer. She scanned the crowd looking for her friend but there were too many people. She looked deeper inside herself, and sensed that he had left. Why would he leave her there alone? Unless something happened to him....As panic set in, Trance pushed past the crowds and made it outside, back into the cold. There was no sign of Harper.

^~*~^

The chill of the wind attacked Harper as he walked with his arms wrapped around his chest. With no coat or jacket he was freezing, but he hadn't really noticed. His mind was racing, but it didn't dwell on one thought long enough to make any sense of it.

He wasn't sure where he was headed, and his thoughts turned briefly to Trance. She'd be worried. But his stride was not interrupted. Trance would be fine. She would worry, but that seemed to be the theme of late. Even with his best facade, he could still see everyone treat him with a little more care than usual. With every 'How are you?' and 'Are you okay?' his anger rose.

Harper passed an alley, he saw two people making some kind of exchange out the corner of his eye. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on. Harper's next thought didn't occur for a few moments. A sudden idea that stopped him in his tracks.

^~*~^

Jeck shivered in the dim glow of the strip light that attempted to illuminate the alley. The night had been slow, it was always slow during the cold. His customers usually fell back on their emergency supplies to avoid going out in the low temperature. He had just finished with a young girl, a first time buyer, when a human strode up to him.

"Hey, man. You don't look so hot," he said, noticing a look some of his long-term customers had come to adopt.

"Yeah, tell me about it," the man replied.

"So what can I do you for?" Jeck asked, his voice slightly shaky from the icy breeze.

The man looked up and down the alley, as if he was afraid someone might be watching. That happened a lot, especially with the more paranoid of his clients.

"I got demons," he said. "And I need them to shut up."

^~*~^

End of Chapter Three