Novellus Rome

Part Four

PART FOUR

"If you asked me why I need to get revenge, I'd ask you to tell me three things about you that you've never told anyone before. That's how I would know that you wouldn't betray my logic. The greatest leverage is a pile of uneasy secrets, and many of us live life by a mere thread...if our thoughts were revealed or our secrets made common knowledge, we would lose everything."
Natasha's face became serious, and she pursed her shiny lips. Flecks of glitter from her makeup glinted under her eyes like leftover tears, and her eyes flitted from side to side in shame. "I can tell you three things, Lanta," she said quietly. "It's worth it to know why you want to become a murdered."
"Vengeance isn't real murder."
"Ah-ha," Natasha laughed obstinately, "I would beg to differ."
All was quiet in the safe comfort of the hotel room, many floors above the street. The thick door, automatically locked against strangers, offered an extra feeling of security—unlike the great glass windows and balcony door which any foe could break through and enter freely.
"What happened after I left the mall?" Natasha asked quietly.
The shadow sitting on the floor hugging her knees replied: "I ran into the same loose-tongued CIA operative—twice. And I met an RPD officer undercover as an arms dealer. Then I came back here because of the feeling that something was wrong. The sky was strange."
Natasha nodded. Her eyes flicked up to look at the silhouette of her friend, a black shape before the ominously gray evening sky behind the windows. On the horizon, yellow streaks contrasted against the black storm clouds. "They say there's going to be a small storm," she said, "but it looks more like the sky is plotting to rain fire."
"So would I if I was the sky," Atlanta said. "People stink. I'd enjoy dropping fireballs on them."
Natasha laughed and blinked slowly, her long eyelashes dark under the brilliant, glittering blue of her eyeshadow. Her lips were a bright smoothie pink, and her hoop earrings were bouncing against her cheeks as she laughed and brushed her hair out of her face with a graceful movement of her hand. Atlanta watched Natasha with intense judgement, trying to decide if the feeling in her gut was disgust or jealousy of the flamboyant carelessness of the latter. Somehow Atlanta always felt clumsy around Natasha, clunky and loud and harsh and flat and overly honest. She pushed back her sweatshirt hood and looked at Natasha thoughtfully. "You know," Atlanta said, "we are nothing alike."
"That's why we're such good friends," Natasha said lightly. "We don't have to compete. But should I tell you the three things?"
"Yes," Atlanta agreed, shifting her gaze to the window once more. The clouds on the other side of the glass were dark and threatening, and she wondered where the RPD officer had gone, or where Conrad was staying. Her natural thought was that they were both sitting in a gutter somewhere, waiting for the storm, but the rational part of her brain let her down in telling her that it was unlikely.
"Three things," Natasha mused, "well, when I dated Jake, we kissed."
Atlanta didn't move. "I know, obviously."
"Jake told me that he loves me," Natasha continued. Now Atlanta turned her head. "I didn't know that," she said slowly.
Natasha nodded. "I just wish you would give up this revenge thing, Lanta. If you kill that guy, you'll go to jail, and it will ruin your whole life."
"You didn't tell me the third thing," Atlanta said.
Natasha pressed her lips together and brushed her fingers along the edge of the table. "No."
"Tell me a different third thing, then."
"I want to run a marathon in high heels," Natasha said. "Until I do, I'll never be content. Now you have to tell me what you haven't."
Atlanta sighed, and in that second, a picture began to play in her mind, more vivid than if it were happening all over again. Every voice was crystal clear, and the faces were real in the reflection of the narrow sunlight on the window. She could hear herself asking Jake about his girlfriend. The first time Atlanta had met Natasha, she had been cold to the strange woman who had somehow worked her way into Jake's life. Jake had reassured her that Natasha was wonderful, but she had been slow to give the potential friendship a chance.
Until Jake was gone, and then it was easy. Natasha was the only person who understood how it felt, because when Atlanta had lost Jake, Natasha had, too.
So what...was Atlanta supposed to just forget? How could she ever forget?
"Miss, I'll tell you the second I know something. Please, just step back behind the tape," the firefighter asked gently. His eyes were bright with sympathy.
"No—I need to know—my brother works here! I need to know if he's okay!" Atlanta shoved past the man and started for the door of the building. Firefighters, police officers, and paramedics swarmed around like ants, talking in strained voices while trying to keep the crowd calm.
"Hey—no!," the firefighter exclaimed, racing after Atlanta and grabbing her shoulders to pull her to a stop. "Listen," he said firmly, "the shooter could still be in the building. Get back—now."
"I can't," Atlanta sobbed weakly.
"How can you function knowing that the shooter got what Jake didn't?" Atlanta asked. "Fly killed my brother and then he just gets to live his life."
Natasha tilted her head ever so slightly, both eyes on Atlanta. "I just forgive," Natasha said. "Anything else is a waste of time and energy." She took the ring off of her finger and turned it around it her hands, feeling the cold kiss of the metal against her skin. "I'm just glad you didn't get a gun, Lanta."
Atlanta turned to face Natasha, staring into her friend's eyes. "How could you say that?," she asked dryly. "Knowing how important this is to me."
"I think I've lost enough," Natasha said. "I've lost my best friend. I don't need to lose my sister, too."
"We aren't sisters," Atlanta sneered.
Then there was only silence—a heavy, thick, suffocating silence with hung in the air and seemed as though it could not be broken. For a long time, bound by that noiselessness, Atlanta and Natasha didn't talk. The only sound for long moments was their own quiet breathing and the thumping of their hearts and the soft, subtle pounding of their thoughts. Seconds passed slowly and tensely to minutes which ticked away uselessly, never to be seen again. The small hotel room felt empty and hollow, and outside the window, the black clouds rolled in overhead on the tail of a strong wind that died quickly, leaving the storm directly above the city. The lights in the room were off, and as the sky grew darker, the light left the room, leaving behind only a cool, blue-gray clearness in the quiet.
Atlanta and Natasha looked up simultaneously, their eyes meeting as a thought passed between them. Everything was holding it's breath.
The storm was coming.
Even as they noticed the tension, the silence was struck by a blinding flash of lightning which split the clouds in two, and a second later it was shattered by a roaring explosion of thunder that seemed to shake the very floor of the eighth-story hotel room. The sky had held it's breath to the last instant, and now the heavens broke and waves of rain began to fall, pounding like millions of drums against the windows . The quiet was gone, flattened under the stomping feet of the storm. Natasha laughed, "Atlanta—listen to that rain!"
"What?! I can't hear you! The rain is too loud!"
"Open all the curtains, fast!" Natasha exclaimed, "it's better than an action movie!"
"I still can't really hear you!" Atlanta hollered back, grinning. They jumped to their feet and ran to the big glass windows, pulling aside all of the curtains to look out and watch the electric show in the clouds which had drawn so close around the city skyscrapers. Every streak of lightning and crash of thunder made them jump, and they couldn't stop laughing for thrill.
"Here comes a big one!" Natasha cried before a fork of lightning slithered across the sky and the booming voice of thunder responded happily.
"I hope the RDP officer gets hit by lightning!" Atlanta cheered, laughing.
"Yes! To become the flash. Then..." but the thunder drowned out the rest.

TO BE CONTINUED....