2.
An Old Friend
Terry Silver was pacing back and forth in the Cobra Kai dojo glaring daggers at his bandaged-up students. This humiliation was making him madder by the minute even the silvery full moon, visible in the sky outside the window, seemed to be smirking at him.
Finally, after several of the longest seconds his students had ever endured, he stopped pacing and stood there with his hands folded across his chest.
"Tell me just one more time what happened?!" he said incredulously
"T-This guy in Jeans and a denim jacket was sitting in our both down at the pizza place," said the boy with a bandaged nose shakily, "When we tried to teach him a lesson, he nearly killed us!"
"Yeah," said one of the other boys, "I've never seen anyone fight like that before!"
Three blocks away, the young man walked into a hotel and laid down the cash money for a hotel room. After a more than a week of sleeping on the ground it would be nice to have an actual bed again. he had once again had to walk away from one of the many lives he had lived over the centuries.
(Flashback)
Ten days earlier in San Francisco…
The same young man stood in the archives of the public library. His name tag said Matt Collins.
He was placing some history books back on the shelf.
Just then a young blonde librarian's intern came around the corner. She wore glasses with light blue colored frames. She had long hair that she wore in a braid that hung down just past the center of her back. Her eyes were light blue just like her glasses.
"Hey Matt," she said, "are you ready to call it a night?"
"Hi, Laura, yeah, just about," he replied, "Just a few more books to be put back on the shelf."
The girl twirled her bangs nervously.
"Do you think you could walk me to my car," she asked shyly, "I-I mean it's already dark outside."
Matt turned and looked at the window. A moon that was three-quarters full, met his gaze as lights from a distant cell tower winked at him.
Matt shrugged and smiled.
"Sure." he said
"Great," she said smiling as excitement filled her voice, "I'll get my coat!"
She turned and practically ran around the corner.
Matt smiled to himself as he reached for another book on the cart next to him. when he picked it up, he saw that it was Het Achterhuis the first printing of the Diary of Anne Frank.
Suddenly he stopped short as the felt the buzz; the sixth sense that signaled the approach of another immortal!
Instantly alert he looked slowly around. around the corner of a row of shelves in the other direction there appeared a girl who looked about 16 years old. She had shoulder length mousy brown hair and an impish face.
"Don't worry," she smiled, "I'm not here for your head, Matthias."
Matt looked relieved that he didn't have to go for his sword.
The girl's smile turned into a smirk
"Your pretty librarian friend would never forgive me!" she added
"Don't start with me, Annie!" he warned pointing a finger at her, then chuckling, "it's good to see you again."
"You too," Replied Annie smiling, then she saw what was in Matt's hand
"You know," she said, "It still seems surreal to me to walk into libraries and bookstores and see my own diary on the shelf where anyone can borrow it or buy it." the girl began to remember.
This girl Annie was Anne Frank though physically 16 was actually 96. The historical records said that she had died of typhus in a concentration camp during World War II. What the historians didn't know was that an SS officer in a hurry to use her bed for the next prisoner decided to hasten her demise by driving a knife through her heart.
The next thing Anne knew she was in the pitch dark digging her way out of the mass grave she had been dumped in. she emerged into the night air coughing dirt out of her lungs. She was stunned that not only was she alive, but that both her wound and illness were gone and she was in perfect health!
The she felt it, it was a cold prickling at the base of her neck that seemed to spread into a surge of adrenaline. It seemed to focus her in on something behind her.
She turned and found a young man looking at her. judging from the fact that he was wearing civilian clothes and carrying a Thompson machine gun she guessed he was a resistance agent.
"Miss," he said, "We need to talk."
The young resistance worker was Matthias. He took Anne with him and had explained to her what had happened and that she was now an immortal like him. he also explained the game and trained her to use a sword.
Now eighty years later with slightly different hair and a different wardrobe, she had helped Matt get the job at the library.
"You'd better go," said Annie coming out of her memory, and turning to Matt, "Don't keep your lady friend waiting, I'll finish up for you."
"Are you sure?" said Matt
"Yeah," said Annie, "Go on get out of here!"
"Thanks," said Matt grabbing his coat and heading out.
A few minutes later Matt and Laura were crossing the parking lot. They were almost to her car when suddenly a car with black tinted windows came careening around the corner spraying the side of the road with bullets from an automatic weapon.
Matt grabbed Laura and pushed her down behind her car shielding her. before he could take cover, he felt the stinging pain of three bullets penetrating his chest.
The next thing he knew he woke up in the morgue. Unzipping the body-bag he was in he went to sit up, and hit his head. that's when he realized that he was in one of the body drawers.
Fortunately, he had learned how to open these things from the inside, even in the dark. Feeling around until he felt the mechanism he pulled the zipper off the body-bag and used it to manipulate the mechanism locking the door until he heard the tell-tale click that signaled the lock was open. Pushing the door open he grabbed the top of the doorway and slid himself out.
As soon as he got out, he sat up and pulled himself out of the body bag. That's when he became aware that he had another problem. He was butt naked!
He shivered a little.
"It's a good thing I can't get frostbite, it's freezing in here!"
he muttered grabbing lab coat that hanging on a nearby hook, "speaking of which, where are my clothes?!"
No sooner were these words out of his mouth that he felt the buzz. He grabbed a scalpel off a nearby instrument tray and prepared to defend himself.
Then the door opened and in walked Annie carrying a duffle bag. She looked him and smirked
"New look, Matt?" she snickered, it was at this point that Matthias looked down at the lab coat he was wearing. It barely came down to his knees its owner was obviously several inches shorter than Matthias.
"More like an occupational hazard," said Matt shaking his head
Annie chuckled again and tossed him the duffle bag. Over the years she had discovered the necessity of being able to get in and out of places like this undetected.
"I brought you a change of clothes," she said, "Your sword and the rest of your gear is outside in my car."
(End Flashback)
Like all Immortals, Matthias now had to move on. it was one of the rules that his kind lived by.
If you are "killed" in public, you move on.
So now he was a drifter that was staying in a hotel in Reseda for the night. As far as anyone back and San Francisco knew Matt Collins was an unfortunate victim of a random shooting.
Matthias laid down on the bed and closed his eyes, as he drifted off to sleep, little did he know that somewhere across town, sleep was the last thing on a certain person's mind.
Terry Silver was talking to several of his fellow instructors.
"We can't let this stand," he snapped almost ranting, "If we don't make an example out of this guy, people will stop respecting us! Find him!"
To Be Continued…Please Read, Review, and let me know what you think!
