Home - COD Simon Ghost Riley X Female OC

Chapter 6

Dreams often plagued Simon, and he couldn't hide from them like he could the real world. It didn't matter how he tried to end it, he still faced horror after horror in his mind. And they had been different lately. More of the future, more of anticipation, more waiting. It was the 'wait and see' pattern they held that forced them, he knew. They were caused by the free time his subconscious mind had to wander while he had nothing else to focus on.

That's why, he decided, the woman he had picked up kept appearing. Because he had nothing to hold his gaze, it kept wandering to her, at least in the landscape of his nightmares. She didn't play any real part, she wasn't victim or perpetrator. She was a witness, just like him, always just out of his peripheral vision. Like she was watching him from some shadow that had always haunted him. He just knew she was there. He felt it.

He lay in bed wide awake, not unusual for the night before a mission began. Only a mission wasn't beginning. Again, they were sending them out like a dog on a walk. Just to get out some energy. Just to kill time. He hated that they weren't supposed to act like they knew that.

He rolled over, thinking maybe he could still get a few hours in. No one else ever showed up in his dreams. That was it, that's what was bothering him. There, in the midst of whatever his mind chose to spring on him, he was always alone. Always had been, until now. And she was just a woman, not a soldier, not an enemy, not an ally or a lover or a damsel in distress. He had rescued her once, he didn't need to again. She was just a woman, there because she was displaced. Not for any higher purpose beyond what information she could share. It was obvious to him that she knew that. They all knew that. They would find her a safe place, a new identity maybe, and they would send her on her way.

If all of that were true, then why the hell couldn't he leave her alone?

Mariana was already awake when the men were leaving, the sun just rising. She could hear their vehicles pull out of the yard and into the desert. She groaned. She was tired all the time, her nearly emaciated body still struggled to keep up even though she barely did anything at all. She could just lay in her thoughts, she decided, if she wasn't going to fall back asleep. Knowing they weren't there put her nerves on end.

She slept hard most nights but she had stopped dreaming months ago. She was beaten up by nightmares for a long time, often struggling to sleep at all, sometimes kicked awake for making noise and tossing about. And then they just stopped. She figured maybe it was her circadian rhythm or something. God knows what else had been fucked up during her little stay with them. She was safe here. They kept telling her that. Well, he did. And as long as he was in the building, she felt confident in that. She didn't have any reason to believe that they had poor intentions, but time was running out.

A little while later she sat and placed her feet on the cold, solid floor. She had told Simon in their last conversation that she had fought to preserve her self, her mind, and it was becoming increasingly clear to her that once she had emptied it to him or to someone else, she would have nothing left. She didn't know what she was beyond that. In the mirror, she saw a familiar face, but it was that of a girl that had died well over a year ago.

She had been back and forth all night after their talk, wondering if she should actually try and talk to Price before he did. Wondering if she should try and get answers for herself. She trusted Simon to do the right thing, there was a reason he sat in between her and the rest of the operation, but her patience was wearing incredibly thin.

By the time the 141 returned the second time around, Mariana had been on the base for over a month. She had tracked the date meticulously while she was captive but since arriving, she hadn't seemed to care. She was shocked to find that February was nearly gone.