Forgotten (2018 Open Novella Contest/LoT Fanfic)

Prologue: Lost and Found

The girl was in the corner of her closet, every inch of her trembling body crammed into the minuscule space. The tiny closet was pitch black, rendering her unable to see anything, but she couldn't care less.

The only thing that she cared about was him finding her.

As the footsteps got louder, so did her heartbeat. Or, at least, that's what it felt like. She was convinced that he could hear her frantic heartbeat and would find her. That's how it would end—her, hiding from her enemy in her closet.

She closed her eyes, clenched her teeth, and tightened her hands into fists, hoping for her enemy to be merciful and kill her quickly. Moments later, the man ripped the door off its hinges and searched for the girl. When he found her, she burrowed herself even further into the corner in a last ditch effort to hide from him. He noticed her and had expected her to transform, but she hadn't bothered to try because she knew that her situation was hopeless.

He aimed his pistol at her and she waited for the bullet to come, but it never did. When she opened her eyes to see what had happened, she fell silent.

Eight unknown but oddly familiar faces were all staring at her, but two with particular suspicion—a man wearing a blue parka, and another wearing a green trench coat. They both had their guns aimed at her and she knew she should be terrified, but she wasn't. The rest of the group stayed where they were, talking amongst themselves quietly, watching her.

"Who the hell are you?" the guy with the trench coat said, getting closer to her. "And how did you get here?" His strange gun was getting awfully close to her face, but she didn't cower in fear like he expected.

"Jasmine," she responded coolly. "Jasmine Robinson. And besides being a jackass, who are you?" The man in the trench coat looked amused, and the man in the parka was smirking.

"I have to admit—this girl's got a pair," Leonard remarked to his partner, carefully observing Jasmine. "I can respect that." His eyes narrowed and he gave her a stricter look. "Answer the question. How did you get here?"

"Funny, I was actually asking myself the same thing," she responded nonchalantly, giving him a confident look. Her eyes lit up for a split second because she figured out where she was—the Waverider—but she was soon pulled out of her thoughts.

"Convenient," the man in the trench coat stated, looking at the other man. "Girl shows up out of nowhere, and claims that she doesn't know how she got here." Jasmine opened her mouth to respond but knew that it wasn't worth it, so she closed her mouth and said nothing. 

The man in the parka nodded and turned his gaze from his partner to Jasmine, simply watching her for a moment.

"If you don't want to be burnt to a crisp or turned into an ice sculpture, I'd start talking," he finally replied, his voice dangerously calm. Jasmine, to everyone's surprise, let out a laugh.

"You really think you scare me?" she asked incredulously, shaking her head. "I've dealt with people hunting me down for the past 5 years of my life. Two guns aren't going to stop me." Before either of the criminals could respond, Jasmine heard someone else talking. She turned around to see that it was the British guy with the long coat.

"Jasmine, follow me. Now," Rip said calmly, but the urgency in his tone was evident. Jasmine nodded and quietly followed him into his office. When they were both seated, he asked her a rather odd question.

"You know who we are, don't you?"

"How would I know that?" Jasmine asked the captain, acting clueless. Unfortunately for her, he wasn't buying it.

"Jasmine. It is imperative that you answer this question honestly, for both our sakes. Do you know who I am and where we are?" Jasmine sighed and looked him in the eyes.

"I do," she admitted. "You're Rip Hunter and somehow I've ended up here on  the Waverider. Now are you going to tell me how this happened, or I am going to have to ask Gideon?"

"Just as I thought," Rip said with a sigh, shaking his head. He ignored her last question. "I was hoping this day would never come..."

"What day? What the hell are you talking about Hunter?" she demanded, closing in on him.

"And if you could loop us in too, that'd be great," a voice added sarcastically.