Where am I? The last thing I remember was seeing a face, after that it all went dark. I don't know where I am, who I am, or what happened. All I do remember is a face, his face. Dark hair framing a perfect olive toned face with ice blue eyes, soft pink lips, and a perfectly sculpted nose. As I think of him a name almost comes to the surface. It's so close, but the harder I try to reach it the farther it seems to float away. Frustrated by this I put that off till later and try to focus on my surroundings. It's dark, too dark to make out anything that would give away my location. As I kept assessing what was around me, I realizes that I was tensing as if I were ready for a fight. Then out of no where, someone or something hit me in the back of my head.


“Someone's following us, we have to get out of here” he says as he grabs my hand. “We'll have to split up to lose them. Remember the rendezvous point?”

I nod, not wanting to say anything in fear of them hearing. I'm scared I don't want to leave him. I know he can take care of himself, but what if I never see him again. At the thought of losing him again I break into tears.

“Hey, don't cry. Everything's going to be fine, you'll see” he whispers as he pulls me into him. I know he's trying to comfort me but I can hear the lie in his voice. He knows we're doomed. “Listen to me” he says pulling my face up to look at him, “we'll make it. We've been in worse situations and got out just fine. We've got this.” And it's true we have been in worse situations, only they were situations where our pursuers were not trained operatives.

“I just don't want to lose you again,” I manage between silent sobs.

“I'm not going anywhere. Nothing and no one could ever take me from your side again. I love you.”

“I love you too Michael,” I say just as he kisses me. A last kiss, for our last goodbye. It's over too soon and we have to move. We've been here to long and they've caught up. I can hear them shouting behind us. They're closing in. There's a flash of something in his eye as he turns to look at me for the last time. Fear? He's scared too, then I understand. He was hiding it, trying to be strong for my sake. My heart lurched with every step I took, because they were taking me away from him, away from Michael, away from everything I loved and held dear. Get yourself together Casey, you've got to be strong. Make it to the safe house, just make it to the safe house.

“Here!” I hear one of them shout and I realize just how close they've gotten. “She's over here!”

Oh no, I'm caught! I curse under my breath as I realize I've taken a wrong turn and ended up in a dead end. There's no way out and they're getting closer, I have to think of something and fast. But what am I going to do? There's nowhere to hide, nothing I can use for a weapon. Wait! The knife! Michael had given it to me a few days ago for protection when he noticed that we were being watched. I had totally forgotten about it. I grab it and begin to prepare myself for a fight when someone grabs me from behind.

I jump and spin around ready to attack, but no one's there. Then from right above me someone whispers, “Casey”. As I look up, I see that there's a fire escape I hadn't noticed before. A black shadow moves toward me in the darkness and I recognize the massive shape of the person.

“Michael?” I ask as he reaches down for my hand, “What are you doing here? You could get caught.”

“I don't care, I had to come back for you,” he grunted while trying to hoist me up. “I couldn't stand the thought of them getting to you.”

“That's sweet and all, but I can take care of myself,” I say a little upset that he thought I needed rescuing. “Like you said, we've been in worse situations.”

“I know what I said, but still, I couldn't just leave you. Now come on, they're getting closer. Try to get your foot around the lower rung so I can pull you up.”

“Okay,” I did try but as I looked up I noticed someone move behind him. Before I could say anything the person jumped on Michael's back catching him off guard. He lost his grip on me and I fell the short distance to the ground where I found myself face to face with one of the hunters with a deadly looking knife in his hand. He tried to grab me but I was too quick for him. When he lunged, I spun around him and kicked his knee in from behind. As he fell, he turned and tried to grab me again, but instead his knife dug into my arm. White hot pain shot through my entire arm as I kicked him in the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.


Behind me I heard Michael gasp in pain. I turned in time to see him fall over the edge of the fire escape and hit the ground with a sickening crack.

“Michael!” I scream as I rush over to him. “Michael, are you okay? Michael, please answer me.” He doesn't answer. At the sound of foot steps I begin to turn around, but I'm not fast enough. They grab me from behind and cover my mouth with a cloth. Silently cursing I realize it's clorophorm. I have no choice but to breathe it in. As I lose conciousness I see Michaels beautifuly perfect face in my mind. Then everything goes dark.


I start awake breathing hard with tears streaming down my face. It was only a dream I try to tell myself, but it was too real. It couldn't have been a dream. As I though more about it I realized that he was the face. Michael was the face I kept seeing. It was a memory, my memory is beginning to come back to me. Then I thought, I failed him. He got caught because of me. He came back for me, but why? Why would he do that knowing he could get caught? Then another thing came back to me from the memory, he loves me. My heart lurched as I though more about him. Tears came to my eyes thinking about what they could be doing to him right now. I have to get out of here. I have to find him.

“I'm coming Michael.”