Ephemeral

Dreaded Reunion

It was only about ten seconds after Zander had left – and already my mental stability was beginning to crumble. The urge to quickly stand up and run after Zander was astronomically high and --

"Well?" Aidan leaned back in his seat interrupting my train of thought.

I froze and felt sick as my hands started to tremble. Luckily, they were still resting on my lap where Aidan couldn't see my momentary weakness. I was back to being the weak, pathetic person I was in his presence.

It was a different mood when Zander wasn't here...It was a complete shift when I was left alone with Aidan. It nearly felt as though I was back with him in that mansion in Japan where I couldn't escape him there, either.

I had been alone with him for months -- I had no desire to do it again.

"Y-Ye-?" I began to answer in my normal voice but then cleared my throat.

Aidan continued to stare at me, but he never changed his expression. Once again, I had a hard time understanding what the monster across from me was thinking. I purposefully made my voice fake again, desperate to continue the cover that I was using.

What if he already knows-?

What if he already knows it's me-?

"You..." I trailed, losing my confidence the longer that I stared at him. His gaze could pierce my soul, and it seemed as though he could see me for what I truly was – the scared Arianna Hopkins that he had kidnapped all those months ago. It didn't matter if I thought I grew stronger when I was away from him -- he could always revert me back to who I really was on the inside --

He was the type that could see through the shroud that I was putting up and was about to mercilessly destroy it into small, unfixable pieces.

I managed to pull myself together to ask my question: "You think he would know who, uh...Spiderman is?" I asked, looking cautiously over at the kitchen doors for any signs of Zander. I had wanted him to appear through those doors without any warning and save me from the uncomfortable atmosphere that had been built between Aidan and I. 

It was either Zander appeared or I was about to run into the deep depths of this place to escape him -- anywhere would have been better than underneath the pressing eyes of Aidan Mathis.

"Who?" Aidan took his time in raising an eyebrow out of the corner of my eyes.

I turned to look at him to find that he was slowly beginning to smirk --

I could feel that my throat was beginning to close up, and I held back the urge to clear it. I couldn't outwardly show that he was terrifying me because then I would have already given myself away --

He was simply staring into my face, making me highly uncomfortable.

I felt the jacket I was wearing start to slip, it must have loosened its hold around my shoulders since I was constantly beginning to fidget with my hands and, on top of that, I was sweating.

His eyes flickered to my arm, catching the sudden movement, to lock onto a scar from where his medical team had stitched me up. It was the first time that he had shot at me from when I was doing the first game back in Japan.

I tried to keep my face passive and clear, but my arm trembled as I pulled the jacket up quickly, hoping to erase what had been seen.

"Why..." I spoke lowly. "Why don't you choose one?" I offered, wanting to get his attention off of me as quickly as possible. I couldn't help it when I diverted my eyes away from him, though still kept him within my line of sight. "I...I might know them."