I wake up tired, and the tingling in my arm tells me Mireille must have slept on me again. I flex a few fingers, feeling the blood rush back into my hand. I hear her yawning as she rummages through the drawers; I wonder if she’s slept as poorly as I have.
“You can stay in bed if you want.” She murmurs to me as she gets dressed. “I’m just going to peek outside and then fix breakfast.”
I grunt and lay back, watching her go to the window and look out. I put my tingling hand over my forehead, vaguely remembering the dream I had last night. The room in the dream had been small and poorly lit, but it wasn't the darkness of the room that scared me- it was what happened in that room.
“You were restless last night.” She closes the shutters back up. I sigh as I watch the sunlight disappear from the room. Once again, darkness has come into our lives.
“Just a dream.” I roll away and stare at the wall. Or a memory…I hope it was all just a dream. But it all seemed so real…I've never had a dream like that before. Every time I think about it, I feel that fear in my chest again.
“I’ll help you.” I scramble out of bed, wanting to get away from my thoughts.

“So what did you dream?” she asks, sipping her coffee slowly, looking at me.
“Nothing. Just some strange place.” I answer quickly, and bite into my toast. A place...where something bad happened. Just thinking of it, a crushing, helpless feeling comes over me. The phone rings, causing me to jump. She gives me a sharp look, and goes to answer it.
I overhear some of the conversation through the crunching of the toast; enough to know, from the sound of her voice, that it is Uncle. She’s refused to call him that; and her fury when I first told her…I shove the last of the toast into my mouth, trying to forget that moment.
“Well it was him. He said he was followed to the office this morning, and Soldats will be taking care of the problem. Of course we should still be on our guard.”
I nod, my mouth full. She looks at me and leans forward on the table.
“Kirika- you’ll need to carry your gun again.”
“I know.” I swallow. “I cleaned it last night.”
“Good. You can accompany me on my spa day today.” She says lightly, brushing her hair back. “If they decide to follow us today, they’ll die of boredom.”
A spa day….I groan inwardly at the thought. Spies aren’t the only ones in danger of boredom from a spa day.
“Kirika- you just made a face!” she pouts at me.
“No- no I didn’t…” I stammer out, and get up to gather the dishes.
“Oh but you did. And just for that, you get to do the dishes this morning…alone!”

Page 4