Those Hollow Lies

Another Beginning

Russell 5/24/09

What a difference three years could make. The Quarter had officially shut down less than a month after Rosaline’s burial but I had left even before then. Joe came and dismissed me two days after Christmas, telling me that my mission was over and that I wasn’t needed anymore. So long as I never mentioned the Quarter to anyone ever, then I was safe to live my life as normally as I could.

My dad’s face when I turned up at the door was one that I’d always remember. I was still scratched and bruised from the explosion, but apart from that I was fine; just nursing a broken heart. He was just relieved that I was home and after a lecture about leaving in the first place, things were almost back to normal.

I went back and finished my education off before enrolling in a college class specialising in computer technology. I’d picked up quite a few tips and tricks from Joe back when we were a team and it seemed silly to let them waste away with the passing years.

When I turned twenty one, I moved out and found a small house of my own which I shared with my girlfriend, Bethany.

Shock, I know, but I couldn’t mope around after Rosaline for the rest of my life. Hell, I wasn’t even sure that she was still alive. I met Bethany one day when I was getting a coffee. She works for the government, but as an analyser. I was trying to keep away from all espionage trips, even if I did find it difficult not to follow people in a secretive manner to begin with.

However, as much as I would always have a soft spot in my heart for the cold blooded murderess who I’d fallen for, I couldn’t waste my life and once I started dating Bethany I realised that she was the girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

She knew nothing about Roz and I intended to keep it that way. There was no need for her to know about a girl who didn’t exist and I didn’t want to have to come up with another reason as to why I missed my original graduation.

(I’d told her and others that a death in the family had forced me to move away for some time.)

Roz, Joe and all the things that came with them were now a memory that I would take to the grave. It was the only option that I had now, but sometimes I longed for someone to talk to. I often wondered if this was how Roz had felt for all them years before she finally opened up to me.

I ordered and paid for my coffee, picking up the take out cup from the stained counter and moved towards the door, using the files in my arm to open it. I was about to cross over the street to where my car was parked when a motorbike came out of nowhere and flew by, narrowly missing me. I turned around, looking in the direction it was travelling, prepared to yell profanities at the reckless driver, when déjà vu or something like that struck me.

I recognised the plates and the make of the bike.

But...

It couldn’t really be her, could it?