.The Eraser.

trois

                                                                          -3-

Pant.

Pant.  

Pant. 

The heavy breathing echoed off the white walls. Atara stepped off the tread mill and she walked over to the little brown bench by the corner. She had been on the tread mill for more than two hours and she was tired.

She sat down lazily and observed her reflection on the large mirror on the opposite side of the room. Atara's long black hair was tired lazily in a bun and some how during her vigorous exercise, some parts of it had come out of place. Her hair looked extremely disheveled, but she didn't mind. She was glad that she came to the gym early in the morning when no one was around.

Atara had not intended to wake up at 4am. 7am is what she aimed for atleast, but when she could not fall back to sleep after 15 minutes had passed, she decided to hit the gym. She studied herself in the mirror and it was almost unbelievable that a girl like her belonged in a secret organisation like the Erasers. She looked harmless.

After looking at her reflection for awhile, she felt thirsty and she remembered that she had brought her gym bag with her. She pulled it out underneath the bench she was sitting on and she unzipped the side pocket. She pulled out a blue bottle of water.

She opened the cap easily and drank quickly.  

Gulp. Gulp. Gulp.

She had quenched her thirst and she decided it was time she went back to her room to take a shower. Louisse had told her that the meeting would be at 9am. Everyone would be there to commemorate her on her mission to assasinate the Mandossa Prime Minister, in which she was succesful. It was almost a dream-come-true, that she had finally reached this stage, but Atara just wanted to push that thought far away, to the back of her mind.

She got up; grabbed her bag off the floor and swung it over her shoulders. She felt her muscles protest a bit to the sudden movements, but they would cool off eventually. Staying fit was like breathing to her, so she was used to the feeling. She started to walk towards the door which was a good fifteen meteres away. The gym was a huge room. It was basically every trainee's heaven.

It had every equipment that any fit and unfit person would need. It was Atara's escape most of the time. As she pushed the door to step out of the gym, the lights inside automatically switched off. Atara smiled. She always found that impressive, even though it was not much of a big deal. Each room in the base had the mechanism of switching on and off when the motion detectors in the room detected an individual either coming in or going out.

''Never gets old''. Atara spoke out as she turned to walk straight to the direction of the elevator. 

"What never gets old?'', someone asked behind her. Atara quickly spun on her heel in surprise. Her face changed from a look of surprise, to one of delight. 

"Jean. You startled me.", she said with her right hand to her chest. Jean chuckled with obvious amusement in his eyes. 

"I know. What time did you get up kid?", Jean asked with a smile on his face. Jean had a slight french accent.

He was aware of Atara's lack of sleep. He had met her in the gym so many times early in the morning. They spoke for some few minutes and they departed ways. They were quite close, even though he was just as old as her father. He was a man that was easy to get along with.

Atara was taken out of her thoughts when someone spoke her name. She was now down to the last floor and she had taken a few steps out of the elavator. Atara saw that most people were in the lobby today. It looked busy.