Her skin -paler than usual, probably because of the cold. The two large hazel eyes that stared right back at her showed signs of fatigue that weren't matched by her adrenaline levels. The nose in the reflection looked normal even though it felt numb from the night and her lips, well chapped for one and lacking colour. Pulling out a tube of lipstick, she always carried around these days, rolling up the lipstick barrel she eyed the brilliant red colour. The colour of royalty. Emotions started knocking at her internal gate. No. Focus. She applied the colour to her lips, bringing life to her face like it once did to someone else. The gate continued to hold strong as the lipstick disappeared and the final minute passed....
"Nessa let me in." Sam's voice was pleading through the locked door. "I'm sorry, I wanted to tell you sooner..." I drowned his voice out with the surfacing thoughts of what I had found out. Yani. Dead. Missing. Dead. Yani, my dear little cousin. A copse. A missing corpse. This couldn't be happening. What would I tell her parents? Her mother and father, their worried faces played before my eyes. I couldn't tell them. Tell them what? Their baby girl, who was secretly having an affair with one of those international diplomats or whatever, was not only dead - but missing too. No that was too much to take in for me and definitely for them.
%#$&@#$%&%
My tears gave way as I shook my head side to side. Lips mouthing a silent "why." I slid against the bathroom wall and landed in a heap in the bath tub. "Why," lips moved again but this time a hoarse distressed voice supported the word. My sobs became loud and uncontrollable and I heard Sam slam against door even harder. I wanted him to come in and hold me. I wanted him to come in and tell me everything would be okay. But deep down I knew it wouldn't. It wouldn't be okay. It couldn't be okay. It just isn't okay. "It's not okay," I screamed the words out as my hands wrapped around my knees tighter, "Oh Yani...this is definitely not okay."
Sam knew that Nessa needed him, even though she had run up the stairs and locked herself in the bathroom. He couldn't have expected her to react any other way. He could hear her sobs from inside, if only he could get through the door. Maybe he could just smash it in. What if she was just behind it, no he couldn't do that. He stood still listening and trying to calculate what to do next. His training had taught him how to defend and how to deceive... but how to console was not something he had been taught.
The bathroom door opened. Sam straightened as it did, and saw his Nessa. Her face streaked with tears, her hair disheveled, she looked adorable for a crying 24 year old. She was just a few years younger than him, but her maturity gave her years to beat his 26 any day. The Nessa that stood before him was strange. She never broke loose like this. She rubbed her nose with her dark sleeve and cleared her throat. "Sam," she spoke softly but the words tumbled out with weight and clarity, "this isn't okay. We need to do something. We need to work this out." His Nessa was back. She stepped forward to embrace him, and he welcomed her. Inside his heart was relieved. He loved her. His arms tightened around her small but sturdy frame. "Explain it to me again from the beginning." She looked up at him with those gorgeous big eyes. They were deep and full of emotion. Their colour difficult to differentiate between dark brown and hazel in the wrong light. "Tell it to me from the beginning," she wasn't pleading he realized, "I think I have something to add." She put her head back under his chin and took deep breaths.
Something to add he thought but quickly put the ideas that followed to rest. He held her closer as his heart felt heavy once again. It wasn't what she had said, it was a familiar movement behind him. One he hadn't sensed until now. Now that it was too late. He didn't want her involved. He couldn't lose her, and from where he stood everyone involved was at gun point. Literally.
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