Chapter 3 - Maps

Sector Changed from NC to IRA
LOG IRATX006

On the roof of a nearly torn down building, she lay, staring at the night sky; just the week before, the area around her was clouded with smoke and the smell of gunfire. Nothing more than flashing lights in the evening. And now, the silence.

She found it odd that the local children continued to laugh in play in the streets on into the night. In spite of their country being in wreckage day after day, the youth were oblivious to all the darkness in the world.

"What was it like," she asked herself, "to be that age?"

She'd grown up too quickly to remember; the harsh conditions of a war-torn world will do that. Or maybe it was that she's been hurt by too many people she loved.

Smoke and dust from nearby debris wafted up from nearby buildings. The feint moonlight hit the white veil of smoke. The clouds drifted slowly across the horizon.

She stood up, walked downstairs and entered the powder room. Her mother had been waiting for her, with her dress and veil prepped.

"Glad you got your hair finished in time sweetheart," her mother said.

"Does it look ok?" she frantically asked.

"Perfect Eve. Absolutely perfect," her mother responded. "This is your day sweetie, and you couldn't look more beautiful..."

"I'm just so nervous....what if he doesn't show?"

Her mother, full of faith as always, told her, "He'd have to be a fool not to."

She smiled, and blushed. She looked at the antique dress adoringly. It had been passed down since her great grandmother. It was an heirloom in the family, that had finally met its time for her to dance with.

She slipped the dress on, a beautiful pearly white number, that fit to her figure like a glove. The room smelled of a beautiful lavenders and magnolias, the flowers she chose to garnish the ceremony.

Her mother zipper her up in the back, and then gave her a kiss on the cheek before leaving the room. Eve was still fidgety, and nervous.

"Where's my damn phone," she suddenly scrambled around her belongings.

She called for comfort.

"----? ---- I can't do this," she began to well up. "Please..please tell you you made it alright! I need you here in case something goes...well, yeah I trust him...but what if...I know. I know. Just, hold my hand so I don't gt cold feet."

He was a good friend, and the one she knew she could count on most. He talked her back down to earth.

She walked out of the room, and down the hall out to the chapel in the courtyard. It was still empty; all the guests were congregating in the waiting area.

Her make-up was finished, and he breathing was calm. Her pulse, however was through the roof. "He's not going to come," she kept saying over and over to herself.

She walked up to the alter, and stood. Serene and still, she prayed for solace. She prayed for comfort. She prayed for him.

"Amen," a faint whisper escaped.

When she was done, she walked back out to the powder room. In just five minute's time, the guests would all shuffle into their seats in the courtyard, and her veritable prince charming would arrive to sweep her off her feet yet again.

Months had past since they last spoke. They sent out the invitations together five months before, to the day, and only week after she got the note -

"Dearest,
I won't break my promise to you. There's just something I must see to first. Be waiting there for me. Your wings will carry you, and your radiance will guide me back to you
Love,
--------"

Beyond the door, echoing through the halls and emanating from the courtyard, a gorgeous sonata was being played.

"That's my cue," she said aloud as she walked out the door.

She steps out, and the music switches. Canon in D, by Pachelbel begins to play; she had opted for a less generic song by which to walk the aisle.

She looked up at the chapel, and he wasn't there. She refrained from crying on the spot, and instead continued her march to the steps. "I knew it," she thought, "that he would break..."

As she got to the steps, she paused before facing back; just then, she glanced over at the quartet playing the music and through her voice she squeaked aloud "...our promise."

He stood up from the violinist seat and walked toward her smiling. She couldn't fight the tears anymore and ran over to him, and threw her arms around his neck embracing him tightly.

She whispered in his ear, "I almost thought I lost you."

To which, he responded, "I promised."

"Are you...ready?" she asked as she loosened her grip on him and leaned back to look him in the eyes.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, "I...haven;t written my vows just yet."

A shot of panic overcomes her. In the midst of all her worries, she'd forgotten to write hers as well. Her fairytale ending was bitter-sweet at her own expense.

Her friend ---- walks up the them and taps her on the shoulder.

"Sorry to end the moment you two, but, the ceremony must go on," he says with a smile.

She looks around at all the smile-drenched-awe faces in the garden, seated and waiting, Sunday's best, surrounded by magnolia trees. It had slipped her mind that they were already at the chapel.

She giggles a bit, and smiles at her friend. "Sorry everyone," she says to the friends and family, "I got a little caught up in the moment."

She took her friends arm, as he led her back to the chapel steps. They walked the ten yards, that seemed, like miles. Everything was perfect.

She stood on the top step, looked down once more at her dress and smiled. And as she looked up to thanks ----, he wasn't there. In fact, as she looked around, she realized she was standing there alone. All eyes on her, and nobody to receive her. She starts to panic again, looking around frantically, and finally...

...snaps out of it.

"Damn," she said, the smoke still floating across the horizon before her, "I dozed off again. I should head back to the barracks."

As she sat up, she felt a tear run down her cheek. As she moved her hand to wipe it, she realized it wasn't just the one, but many tears. She had been crying in her daydream state; at that moment, the world as she knew it felt lonely...

LOG IRATX007

"Move your fucking car prick!" he heard through the cracked car window, along with honks and screeches, as vehicles all around him scuffled to squeeze five lanes worth of cars through three lanes of traffic.

"All the places to hit traffic, and I hit it in this god forsaken town," he muttered to himself.

Oblivious of the people around him, angry with each other for lord knows what, he was just trying to get home.

"Six hours into a ten and a half hour drive, and you stop me here of all places, huh? To do what? Ponder?...you've got a fucked up sense of humor." He was addressing God, assuming coincidental traffic was a punishment.

The city in question was home to one of his former lovers, and he saw fit to avoid the city at any expense. The fastest and safest route to his family's home from his own residence, however, happened to pass right through the center of the aforementioned city.

He fiddled with things in his car to occupy the time in the traffic jam. Smoke billowed off in the distance from where an accident had occurred; it was the apparent cause of the traffic-jam, and so he was patient.

He was more concerned that the people involved not be hurt, rather than he make good time on a trip.

As he shuffled around his his music to find something to play, he found a copy of a compilation-CD Eve had made for him the spring before.

"Oh wow," he said aloud, "I forgot I had this thing..."

He put it in to play. As he skipped from track to track listening to the eclectic collection of songs, he came to song number ten. He smiled, and sat himself lower into his chair.

The song that played soothed him, and he almost forgot where he was. He sung along:

"Wait...they don't love you like I love you..."

Once traffic cleared, he continued on his route home; at that moment he wished he had some way to call Eve. He missed her much more than he thought he should have.

"That's dangerous," he said too himself. "Dangerous thoughts are going to get both of you hurt if you're not careful."

"Why?" his subconscious questioned him. "Are you that afraid of falling for her again? Or is it the other way around?"

"Nobody asked you to question, ----" he responded to his subconscious.

A rather auspicious site as this might otherwise be left for a science fiction story, but no. He Genuinely conversed with himself. The numerous parts of his psyche often seemed to manifest themselves in self-sustained conversation partners; this particular one he had named Wolf.

What God did to you all to make you act so oddly from time to time, we may never understand. We are merely watchers.

The sun set to his right, and he continued his drive through the dense darkness that lay ahead. Desperate to stay awake, he replayed Eve's CD over and over.

every now and then the soft beep of his phone going in and out of service area could be heard through the pauses between songs for the next two hours.

"...I just want to know how she is," he continued his previous thoughts rather late, "is that a bad thing? So a fucking care...we both decided to stay friends."

"Fine, I wasn't questioning that," Wolf quipped. "I just want to make sure you're not in over your head because of some tacky love song."

He paused to think.

"The song's not about love. It's about promises," he said. "I intend to keep mine..."

At that moment, as track ten ended again, and the sound of his phone coming back into service chimed, his phone's e-mail warning went off.

He turned down the music, and shuffled uncomfortably to take his phone out of his pocket while driving. He looked down at the screen -

"Incoming Text Message from Sky."

"Eve?," he stated confused. He read the message -

"----, I can't do this. Please, I need you here in case something goes wrong. Just, hold my hand so I don't get cold feet. Get here please."

That caught his interest, and threw him for a loop. He sat staring at the road in front of him, his thoughts racing. "How did she send that? Where is she? Cold feet about what? Is she ok? Who's ----?"

As he looked back at the phone to re-read the message, it was gone. The screen saver read the current time, and nothing else. His inbox was empty, even his missed call logs were days old.

No sign of the message.

"Who the hell is ----?" he repeated again to himself. "She never mentioned anyone by that name before. And...what happened to the message?"

He sat quiet in thought the remainder of the trip. when he arrived, he greeted his family and shortly after sat himself in front of a computer screen. When going through his email, the only thing in his inbox was a MySpace bulletin-

"SkyGoddess has posted a new blog. Click here to read."

What he read baffled baffled him. He sat staring for minutes, until finally he left his seat, laid down on the couch and feel asleep. He muttered, "Now I know i'm going crazy..."