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�Caryn.� �Yessir?� �Where�s Jace?� �He went out, sir.� The old man narrowed his unseeing eyes. �Out where?� he asked. �I don�t know,� Caryn replied. �All he said was that he was going out.� She pulled a wisp of her long blonde hair away from her face with one blood red fingernail. He grunted, then turned and stalked out of the room, running his hand through his hair. The door clicked shut behind him, and Caryn was left alone. * * * When her nameless employer was gone, Caryn let the first tears fall from her yellow-orange eyes. Krystal, her twin sister was dead. Her body was being rushed to the hospital, and from there, the morgue. �And it�s all that jackass�s fault,� she whispered savagely. The intensity of the pain and sadness in her voice would have been enough to soften even the hardest of hearts, and the hurt in her eyes would have shattered the strongest defense. She dashed the tears from her eyes and glanced out the window. The rain had finally let up, though clouds still hovered over the city like a blanket. An old man hunched over a cane hobbled down the street. At one point, he stumbled and nearly fell, but regained his balance at the last moment. He glanced up at the window and saw her tear-streaked face. Their eyes met for a moment, then he turned and continued walking down the street. Caryn turned away from the window and pulled out her cell phone. She dialed, and waited as it rang. Eventually someone picked up. �Hello?� a voice asked. �Hi, mom?� Caryn said. �Krystal?� her mother asked. �No mom, it�s Caryn.� �I�m sorry, honey,� she said. �It�s getting harder and harder to tell you two apart. I am going deaf you know.� �Mom, it�s about Krystal.� Caryn�s voice became dry again, and her eyes threatened to break the dam holding her tears back. �Oh no. No.� Caryn could tell her mother was beginning to cry as well. �Yeah, mom. It was on a mission. She jumped out a window so she didn�t have to disclose who she was working for.� �No,� her mother wailed. �I told her not to. She didn�t listen.� On the other end of the line, Caryn could hear her mother sobbing. �First your father, and now Krystal. When will this ever end?� For her mother�s sake, Caryn kept herself from crying, but when she finally hung up after ten minutes of trying to comfort her, she broke down again. Untitled © 2002 Gioanna Rheumer |