CHAPTER 2: Nightmare
Rating: Pg-13 for adult language (then again kids these days... in reality its still PG)
All rights of 'Jesus of Suburbia' belong to Green Day. Please don't sue me either.
Thank YOu to Elisheva for pointing out my spelling and grammar - very helpful advice!
Sydney woke up early as usual. Ever since she returned (from wherever the hell she was two years ago), she tried not to sleep too much because of the fear that another two years would be taken away from her. Since then, she believed that she had not had a good night of sleep for three years.
Three years ago, her life was not as bad as it was now. Well then again, her life has always been fed up. When she was younger, her mother supposedly died in a car accident. Years later, her fiancé was murdered. Two years later, she woke up not remembering anything and then finding out that she had known where and what she was doing. Then, to return to a life where all her friends were gone and her parents were criminals of the law. To make matters worst, to find out she had a sister who happened to be the love child of her mom and Sloane – whose mission in life was to make hers a complete hell for the sake of his addiction to Rambaldi.
It seemed to be like every time she went to sleep she awoke into a nightmare.
If you were her, you'd be lucky to get a good night's sleep too. In her line of work, the only good night of sleep she'd ever get was if she was in a coma or six feet under ground.
No, sleep was not a luxury she would enjoy.
Once she got up, she went for a jog to clear her mind. It's ironic that she felt less confused and lost whenever she went running with no intended destination.
She enjoyed feeling like no one could catch up to her. Then again, it was training to make sure that no one could. As she was running, she heard a car blasting this song:
To live and not to breathe,
Is to die in tragedy,
To run, to run away,
To find what you believe,
And I leave behind,
This hurricane of f lies,
I lost my faith to this,
This town that don't exist
So I run,
I run away
To the light of masochists,
And I leave behind,
This hurricane of f lies,
And I walked this line,
A million and one f times,
When there ain't nowhere you can go,
Running away from pain,
When you've been victimized,
Tales from another broken home
In her opinion, Green Day couldn't be more accurate.
After her jog, she took a shower. It was usually when she was taking a shower that the thoughts she tried so hard to run away from finally caught up to her. She hated being alone with her thoughts and realizing her life was a mess.
She hated messes.
She remembered that when she was younger, she always tried to keep everything organized. It was the only thing she had control of in her life. Now her life was spiraling out of control.
Whenever she felt like this, she just screamed her lungs out in the shower. She did this often. It was part of her routine to feeling clean and gaining the clarity of mind she would need later in the day. She needed to feel mentally prepared, but for the moment, she was just Sydney – the girl with nothing left to lose.
Well there was something to look forward to and that was having Vaughn back in her life. After her shower, she called Vaughn.
"Hello? Vaughn? Where are you?" she said after hearing his answering machine.
She noticed that the old message with him and Lauren had been replaced by "talk."
She couldn't blame him for his behavior. Like her father said, "it was something she could never understand."
Perhaps they did not give her any credit because she understood more than they could ever contemplate.
She had told her father, "He's not like you. He has me."
To which her father replied, "I don't want you getting hurt. Let him handle this on his own."
Leave it to her dad to make her feel useless. She knew that she felt like that, but secretly wishing someone would talk to her. She wouldn't let Vaughn feel alone like she did.
She decided to call him so that they could go out for breakfast together. Ever since the "incident," they've both been busy trying to get everything back to normal. Well, at least as normal as possible. Sydney was busy finding information about Project Christmas.
Vaughn on the other hand was going to both physical therapy and therapy with Dr. Barnett. At first he retaliated against Dixon's orders saying that it was unnecessary to see Dr. Barnett because he was fine. After threatening to suspend him, Vaughn reluctantly went to see Dr. Barnett for a few sessions. Aside from that, physical therapy took much of his time. After being stabbed and having one of his lung deflated, he had not been feeling well. Who would? After finding out your wife lied to you and then getting stabbed by your ex-love's aunt, I doubt you'd be fine either.
After leaving a message, "Vaughn, its me. Just wanted to know if you wanted to have breakfast together. I miss you. Call me when you get this message."
She decided to call his cell phone. After dialing, the phone rang.
He answered, "Vaughn speaking."
"Hey, honey. Where are you? I called you at home but you didn't pick up. Where are you so early in the morning?"
To which he replied, "I umm... I've found a lead on Lauren. (Static) I'll call you if I find anything."
She could barely understand what he was saying. There was too much static on the line. She thought that he was either on the move or very far away. Both of which was not good because he was in no condition to hunt for his ex-wife.
She could hear the hesitation in his voice and said, "Why are you doing this? Come home. You're in no condition to do this."
"Can't (static). She has to pay. (Static) Good luck on your mission. I'll see you soon. I have to do this. Please understand."
"Ok. But after all this is done, we're going on vacation."
After hearing nothing but static, she said. "Vaughn? Hello? Vaughn?"
She hung up after staring at her phone and noticing the phone had ended two minutes ago.
"I hope he knows what he's doing," she half-whispered.
She'd go after him but she knew her father had to be right. Perhaps Vaughn really had to do this. Well, she couldn't go looking for him now. If she told Dixon he was missing, it could lead to more problems for him. Also, she had a mission to take care of. Apparently, she was the only one who could do it out of the thousands of agents in the C.I.A.
"Oh Vaughn. How can I help you if you won't let me." She thought hugging her pillow.
After sitting on her bed and staring at her wall for a good five minutes, she pulled her suitcase from under her bed and began packing. As always duty called and she had to put work before her personal life – which was getting pretty hard since both intertwined.
"Now what to wear?" She chose two business suits, an outfit she called "hoochie" wear, sweats and a shirt to sleep in, and the traditional black op wear.
After folding everything perfectly and double-checking to make sure that she had the essentials: a cigarette lighter that acted as a radio frequency scrambler (disrupts all electronic devices within its proximity), lipstick that doubled as a spy camera, a Spanish coin that acted as a sonic wave emitter, and a couple of guns among her mini-arsenal. Oh and a toothbrush.
"Might as fight plaque and gum disease too, she thought."
Afterwards, she shut her suitcase and drove to LAX. As she was driving, she sang
"To run, to run away,
To find what you believe,
And I leave behind,
This hurricane of f lies"