Graymere

When Fire saw me, she squealed my name and rushed forward to envelop me in a tight embrace. She was so warm. I could feel her heart beating as she clung to me. They had almost killed her, but she was okay. She was safe in my arms and I wouldn’t let her go.

“Yes, yes, yes,” Martin Fisher interrupted in an annoyed tone. “A most happy reunion.”

Martin Fisher took us all back to the time before Mortimer was established. No agency had been built, no tracks laid down. Even if the trains somehow could reach us, Mortimer had no jurisdiction here.

He had a nice house in what looked like the middle of nowhere. In addition to Martin Fisher, there was another man living here. Dr. Gavin Warrens, a former professor of physics and biomedicine famous for his papers describing the applications of Einstein’s theory of relativity. This was the man who pretty much laid the groundwork for the invention of time travel itself.

“Doctor Warrens,” I exclaimed. The old man smiled kindly at me.

At first, I was stunned to see him. It had been assumed that he died during an early experiment with time travel gone horribly wrong. As it turned out, Martin Fished had helped the professor fake his death and paid him generously for his help in developing an alternative form of time travel that would not be restricted by the government.

As I conversed with the professor, Sapphire listened to Martin Fisher describe his revenge plans and added her own menace. Luka and Nurse Foxwell withdrew began to talk amongst themselves, and I got the strange sense it was about me.

Later that day, I finally got a chance to speak to Sapphire Graymere alone. After dinner, I sat on the roof watching the sun set on an empty horizon. There was an incredible loneliness in the serenity of it all.

“Hey, Leah,” she responded cheerfully as she sat down beside me and rested her head on my shoulder.

It was hard to imagine this friendly creature could have been so malevolent only hours before when she discussed the destruction of Mortimer without an ounce of compassion for the millions of Mortimer employees that would be murdered in the process.

“What’s wrong?” she asked in an almost angelic voice when I didn’t say anything back to her. I shrugged her off my shoulder and she turned her head to look directly at me.

“How can you do that?” I asked, not looking into her eyes for fear that if I did, she would have a better grip on my heartstrings. “Destroy Mortimer, I mean.” I clarified after she looked at me in confusion.

“They killed my parents, Leah.” The lightheartedness dropped from her voice, but the innocent ring still remained. “They tried to kill me too. Isn’t it only fair?”

“Fair?!” I exclaimed. “So I suppose I should attack you with a vampire beast then too.”

Her face fell. “I’m really sorry about that,” she admitted, with her gaze fixed at the ground.

“Yeah, well,” I wasn’t really sure what to say. “Your emotions are all over the place, Sapphire. I don’t understand how you can be plotting mass murder one minute and wanting to cuddle up next to me the next minute.”

It was like I had just yelled at a toddler. Her sapphire eyes filled with tears. Forget heartstrings being tugged; I could feel my heart shattering.

“It’s not my fault,” she sobbed. “I can’t control it.”

“I’m sorry,” I tried to apologize, putting my arm around her shoulder to comfort her. “I didn’t mean-”

She cut me off by grabbing my face and placing her lips on mine in an unexpected kiss. I froze up for a moment, then proceeded to kiss her back.

She pulled away, horrified by what she had just done. Beneath the confident and flirtatious persona was a terrified little girl.

“No,” she muttered to herself. She slapped herself. “Stupid,” she smacked her head.

I grabbed her hands before she could hurt herself anymore.

“It’s okay, Fire.” I assured her. “I like you too.”

She stared at me, dumbfounded. “But you’re a girl.”

“Yes,” I responded.

“And I’m a girl,” she continued.

“Yes,” I responded, apparently not as bothered by this as she was. “What’s the problem?”

“But-” she started to say, but could not think of a rebuttal. Finally, she put her head back on my shoulder and gazed off in the distance at the sunset that had long since turned to darkness.