Dark Guardian, Page 3

  The ding of the elevator bell caught Ethan’s attention and he looked up to see the giant, black doors retract before an angel from his past stepped out. The newspaper fell from Ethan’s hand as he saw his childhood friend scan the lobby.

  The voices that had filled the lobby suddenly became inaudible. The people around him became invisible. He focused entirely on her. Nothing else existed at this moment except for Katrina.

  As he slowly stood up, her gaze finally fell on him. Her long black hair was absolutely perfect. Her face was even prettier than Ethan remembered. The picture of her he had carried for the past four years did not do her justice. Even her clothes seemed to shine now. Her black and white skirt settled just below her knees while her black top showed off her slender figure.

  Her hand moved to cover her mouth and she let out a gasp as their eyes met. Even such a simple action made her seem more perfect to not only his eyes but his heart. He slowly began to make his way towards her as a smile spread across his face. It was the first genuine smile that had come to him in a long time. The first genuine smile since the girl in the pink dress died. Their eyes remained interlocked as he slowly closed the gap between them.

  When he was half way to her, she also began to move towards him. She was soon in front of him, mere inches away. The sounds of the lobby were silent to Ethan’s ears. The people around them no longer existed in his mind’s eye. The bodyguard standing behind her didn’t exist, nor did the assistant standing to her right. All of his family troubles didn’t exist. It was just the two of them.

  Finally Ethan spoke, “I hope I didn’t interrupt your meeting.” Just as the words left his mouth he realized how stupid he sounded.

  She stood in front of him, fighting the urge to reach out and embrace her long lost friend. She slightly shook her head as a smile faintly grew upon hearing his voice. “Not at all. It can wait…I couldn’t believe it when Maira told me you were here. I had to see it for myself.”

  His face showed his momentary confusion. “Maira?”

  “Oh, you haven’t met her yet! She’s my assistant.” Excitedly, Katrina looked at the hijab-wearing woman standing behind her and motioned for her to come forward. “Maira, this is my friend Ethan, the one I’ve told you about.”

  He slightly nodded towards the woman. “Nice to meet you.”

  Maira smiled back, but didn’t say anything.

  Ethan looked back at Katrina as she spoke. “When did you get back?”

  “Just yesterday. I would’ve come to see you earlier, but I had some things to take care of.”

  “It’s okay…God, I can’t believe you’re back, Ethan. After not hearing from you after you’d left, everyone was starting to say that something terrible had happened to you. I mean after Zhao was found dead, you completely disappeared and…”

  “Don’t worry. I’m back and hopefully for good. How long have you been here for?”

  “A few days. I’m not sure when I’m going back yet.”

  There was another awkward but brief silence as the two of them just stared at each other, smiling. But Ethan soon spoke again. “How’s your grandpa?”

  “He’s good. He’s been sick, but the doctors say that he’s getting better.”

  “That’s good. And how have you been?”

  She waited a moment before replying, “Life hasn’t been as fun as when you were living in Zimba, but I can’t complain.”

  “Those were the days.”

  Katrina nodded in agreement. “Do you want to grab a cup of coffee or sit down? It’s been ages since we’ve talked.”

  “Actually, I have to go. I stopped by just to say ‘hi’. You have a meeting to get back to and Charles is coming over in a little bit to discuss how to bring me back to life…legally speaking.”

  Katrina laughed and it sounded like music to Ethan’s ears; music that he had sorely missed. “Well, that’s definitely important. Why don’t you give me a call then sometime?”

  “Absolutely.”

  She reached into her pocket to get her phone. “Let me give you my number.”

  Before she could pull her phone out, Ethan stopped her by gently putting his hand on her arm. “Is it still 658-856-9548?”

  She looked back up, a shy grin spread across her face. “How’d you remember?”

  “I never forget the important things.”

  Her smile grew making her even more beautiful than she had been only a moment ago. Another silence interjected itself into the conversation, but Ethan didn’t mind the way that she was looking at him. Joy, happiness, and her relief at seeing him standing in front of her after all these years—all these emotions were held in her eyes.

  “It was good to see you, Katrina.”

  “You stole the words right out of my mouth.”

  Ethan slowly began to walk backwards. At last, he waved at her and she returned the gesture before he turned around and left the lobby. Though he was leaving her again, he knew that in reality, he had returned to her heart.

  Chapter 3

  Anthony Griffin

  Katrina sat at her desk in her high-rise office, but her thoughts were miles away from here. The heat from the afternoon sun could be felt coming in from the large window behind her as the beams of sunlight caressed her neck and back. Blankly staring at the paperwork that sat in front of her, she drummed her fingers on the surface of her semicircle desk.

  She looked at one of the pictures that sat on her desk. It was a picture from her childhood. A ten-year-old Ethan and Katrina were somewhere, probably the zoo from the looks of it. They were standing right in front of a fence and two lions could be seen a few feet behind them in their enclosure. As the two friends stood side–by-side with their arms around one another, they both shot off enormous smiles. Katrina still remembered that day. Boris had taken this particular picture while they had been waiting on David to go and get them all some cotton candy.

  Just this morning, she had thought that he was gone forever. Everyone said that he was dead. But the idea of never seeing him again had been utterly inconceivable, and now he was suddenly thrown into her life again. A tear ran down her check before she quickly wiped it away. There was a knock on her door and Katrina immediately returned her wandering mind back to the here and now.

  She quickly cleared her throat before answering. “Come in.”

  The doors opened and Maira strode into the room carrying a few yellow-colored folders in her arms. She took a few steps before closing the door behind her. “Have you looked over the paperwork yet?”

  Katrina shook her head. “I’ve been a little preoccupied.” Katrina looked away and turned her gaze to the portrait of Boris that hung on the wall. He was dressed in deep gray suit with a red tie and was standing in front of a brown backdrop, his arms crossed over his chest and a huge smile stretching across his face. “I think I’ll take the rest of the day off.”

  Maira looked intently at her boss and friend. “It’s him, isn’t it? Ethan.”

  Katrina didn’t answer.

  “He’s the one in that picture on your desk, isn’t he?’

  Katrina stood up, still not looking at her assistant as she picked up her purse. “I’ll go over this paperwork tomorrow, first thing in the morning.”

  “Didn’t you notice something weird about him, Katrina? Something seemed…off.”

  Katrina finally looked at Maira. “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was something. There was definitely a bad vibe.”

  Katrina shook her head as she smiled. “It was probably just your imagination, Maira. You’re too judgmental.”

  As she started to make her way to the doors, Maira spoke again. “I think you should keep your distance from him.”

  Katrina stopped walking and quickly turned around. Her smile now gone. “You can’t just say that without giving me a reason.”

  Maira waited a moment before responding, contemplating whether or not to say what was on her mind. “
I’m your friend Katrina. You should trust me. I only want the best for you.”

  “Well, Ethan is my friend too.”

  There was another silence. “Look, Katrina. I know you think of him as a friend. But I’m just trying to look out for you.”

  “You don’t know him like I do. You don’t understand. Just this morning I thought he was dead. I attended his funeral, for God’s sake, and now he’s back! I saw his empty casket get put into the ground and now he comes walking back into my life! I can’t just push him away.”

  Maira looked away as she shook her head.

  Katrina turned away and started to make her way out of the office. Pushing open the doors she wordlessly walked by a large man with a shaved head dressed in simple black suit. Instinctively, the bodyguard followed her down the corridor and to the elevators.

  As she waited for the elevator door to open, another suited man joined her. Looking his way, she recognized him as one of the young interns who had been in the meeting this afternoon. She exchanged smiles with the handsome man before looking back at the elevator doors. Even a blind man could see that he was trying to muster the courage to say something to her.

  As the elevator bell rang he finally spoke, “Ms. Katrina, I wanted to ask you something.”

  As the doors opened, the trio stepped into the elevator. “Go on.”

  “Well…”

  As the intern stammered, Katrina hit the button for the ground floor and the doors quickly closed. She looked over at him. “Speak up, Jason. I won’t bite.”

  He nervously chuckled. “What…what I wanted to ask was if you had any plans for tomorrow night.”

  Katrina looked at the screen displaying the floor number. She had seen this one coming for a while. “I do, actually. Why are you asking?”

  Hearing the lie, his response overflowed with disheartenment. “Oh…nothing. Just wondering.”

  Jason’s face became red with embarrassment and he kept his gaze on the floor. There was an awkward silence the rest of the way down, and all that could be heard were the occasional beeps of the elevator as it passed each floor and the impatient tapping of Jason’s foot. But she didn’t mind blowing him off like this. She had waited four long years.

  A few more days would be nothing.

  ***

  Charles took his seat on a cushioned chair as Ethan sat facing his associate. Surrounding the two men as they sat in the library were large, wooden bookshelves that were lined up against three of the four walls. Almost every row was completely filled with books. On the last wall was a large window with luxurious ruby curtains on either side and a large desk nestled before it.

  With the evening’s darkness coming through the window, Marion had taken the liberty to turn on all of the lamps before Charles’s arrival. The elderly gentleman looked around the room, a gleam of interest in his eyes. “Marion certainly has tidied up the place. There used to be books lying all over the place. Do you remember that?”

  Ethan nodded with a smile. “It used to be impossible to walk through here without tripping over something.”

  Charles chuckled as a middle-aged, plump woman walked into the room through the open doorway. She was dressed in a black and white maid outfit and carried a silver tray in her hands. Wordlessly she went to the two men and placed a glass of water on top of the table next to them. As she placed a glass at Ethan’s table, he spoke. “Thanks, Marion.”

  “My pleasure.”

  With those words she left the room and Ethan turned back to his guest. “Emanuel will be serving calamari if you’d like to stay for dinner.”

  “I would never miss an opportunity for that man’s cooking, but my daughter-in-law just called. She’s cooked me something special for dinner this evening, so I’ll have to decline the offer this time.” Ethan picked up his glass as Charles continued, “I spent the better half of the afternoon making calls to bring you back to life. As you may or may not have heard, we had a funeral for you some time back. After being unable to find you and not hearing from you for four years, David had you declared dead.”

  The young man’s eyebrows slightly rose. “But I’m sure you fixed that problem.”

  Charles nodded. “The crew should be removing your tombstone and empty casket first thing in the morning.”

  “Actually, I need you to call them and change the orders.”

  Charles leaned forward. “What do you mean?”

  “Keep the casket in the ground, but change the tombstone. I want a new one placed over the empty grave for a girl by the name of Naira.”

  Charles was silent for a few moments. “Can I ask who she is?”

  Ethan stared intently into Charles’s eyes as he spoke. “Somebody I met while I was away. She helped me…she helped me a lot. But she died about six months ago, and never received a proper burial. I would like to do that for her.”

  From the look in Ethan’s eyes, Charles knew not to prod the situation further. “Very well. How old was she when she died?”

  “Twelve…she was twelve-years-old.”

  “That’s a shame. Write down the details and the new tombstone will be etched and placed there before the week is over. Would you like a ceremony?”

  “No.”

  “Do you know her last name?”

  Ethan shook his head.

  There was a long silence, as Ethan continued to stare into his counterpart’s eyes. Charles could tell that his thoughts were far away, so he gave him a moment before speaking. “Now, somehow during the afternoon the media got a hold of the fact that you were back and my secretary has been answering calls all day from reporters requesting to have an interview with you. Every reporter in the city has been trying to find out where you’ve been.”

  “I would be disappointed if they weren’t.” As Ethan finished his statement, he took a sip of the water. His voice had returned to normal.

  “Well, do you mind if I ask where you’ve been?”

  “David sent me to work for Mr. Zhao in China. Everyone knows that.”

  “You know what I mean, Ethan. Three months after you started working for Zhao, he was found dead in his apartment and you disappeared. You never called or wrote, not even to David. And now, almost four years later, you appear out of thin air. I think that as your new associate, I have the right to know.”

  Ethan set the cup back down. “I did some travelling. I decided to go out on my own and see the world for myself. I went to new places; saw new things… met new people.”

  There was a long awkward silence as Charles half expected Ethan to say more, but soon realized that he would not. “Is that all you’re going to say?”

  Wordlessly, Ethan nodded.

  “At least tell me what finally brought you back.”

  Ethan waited a moment. “Have you ever had anything stolen from you, Charles? Something so important to you that you thought you could never get it back?”

  Charles nodded.

  “Well that’s what happened to me. But I plan on getting it back and to do so, I had to come home.”

  “What did you lose?”

  Ethan looked back at Charles. “Inner peace.”

  Charles blankly stared at Ethan for a few moments. “No reporter is going to take that vagueness as an answer, Ethan.”

  “Whenever I get the interview I’ll tell the reporter everything.”

  “...Fair enough.”

  “I want to request a reporter. William Jones.”

  A look of confusion came across Charles’s face. “Is he a friend of yours?”

  “No. I just need to see if he can be trusted.”

  Charles let out a sigh, clearly irritated with his associate’s vagueness. “Now, why’s that?”

  “I think it’s important to see which reporters can be trusted and not. It can be useful when we’re running trials. I’ve been keeping up with Crown City’s politics during my travels.”

  “Oh, have you?”

  Ethan nodded. “Four years ago, the president passed a series of laws
which gave the police more authority and suspended a few individual liberties. He did this in the name of national security and at first it helped shut down crime in Crown City, but at the same time it gave the police more power and the people less power to make sure that the cops in this town aren’t abusing their authority.”

  Charles again nodded, clearly impressed. “So far, so good.”

  Ethan got up and began to pace up and down the floor in front of Charles. “Well, the laws worked at first as Crown City’s crime rates became one of the lowest in the world. However, one of the effects of that was that in the aftermath, it was easier to bribe the police since nobody was looking over their shoulder anymore. Nobody could police the police. Bafra’s drug cartel took advantage of that and is now basically running our police force as they strengthen their foothold in Crown City and expand to other parts of the country.”

  “Correct.”

  “Now, you and David, along with many other prominent citizens, have been trying unsuccessfully to put away some of the higher ranking bent officers and pressure the President and Congress into repealing his laws. However, you two were unable to put away any cops, except for a handful of low-lying fruit. Higher ranking cops, like Eugene Hendricks, still can’t be put away.” Ethan stopped pacing and turned to face Charles. “And the President has no interest in repealing the law and as we all know, he basically has Congress in his back pocket. Rumors are that he’s on the cartel’s payroll as well. But the main problem is that the average citizen is too scared of the police to really voice their anger anymore. Which is understandable as the police seem to have no problem abducting someone off the street and beating them half to death.”

  “Or completely to death. There was a news report today. Some poor woman claimed that her twenty-some-year-old son was beaten to death by three officers after he refused to cooperate with them.” Charles motioned towards Ethan with his hand. “But please continue.”