Old Wounds

[Ruggahissy]

Mara was seated on the bed with her knees pulled up to her chest. The walls were cement and there were no windows. A knock on the door. She looked at the door and said nothing. It opened anyway.

"Is it time for my daily with the doctor already?" she said, not looking up.

"Not yet. I just thought I'd warn you not to eat the eggs Benedict today," said Sonia Nguyen.

"Why not?" she asked, head still resting on her folded arms propped up on her knees.

"I don't think Cecily's forgiven you for that stunt you pulled," said Sonia with a hint of amusement.

Mara sighed and gave Sonia a weary look. She was still experiencing some pain from her injuries and recovery was slow. "Is there anything else to read besides what's in that little library? I'm tired of Discworld." She had asked the previous day the same question to another terrorist and had recieved a kind of non-answer.

Sonia nodded and produced several spiral bound binders of varying size, dropping them on the bed.

"Mr. Danya got your request for more reading materials-"

"Oh, so these are going to to spray me with spikes or something when I open them?"

"- and put these together since I believe you said your knowledge was lacking. It's a recap of each one's time with us, all publicly available information, in a convenient-to-read format."

Mara looked at the four binders.

"Are you serious? This looks like it would take a year to read. I could crush a cat with this thing," she said as she labored to pick up the binder marked "W: 1" with one hand.

Sonia shrugged.

"Then start with the second one."

She left the room and the heavy door banged shut behind her.

---

Mara was seated on the bed with her knees pulled up to her chest. The letter was still in her left hand and her face was consumed with a red flush. The pictures were scattered on the duvet.

What the fuck am I doing?!

When she knew there was another out there like her, it was a challenge almost. After the hospital she thought about how someone else had struggled and pulled through and she was obviously the best, so that meant she could obviously do it too.

At the same time she wanted to find him just to sate her own curiosity. He was the only one that they didn't know the fate of and nothing sticks in your mind like a question that's never answered. On top of all of that, he tried to protect someone he cared about the whole way through. Mara hadn't stuck her neck out for anyone throughout her whole ordeal. She had to know if it was real or an act.

There was also some part of her that felt that coming here would help her in some way, but that was incredibly selfish, she could admit. That's why she was willing to force him to relive all this, because she was selfish.

She fell frowned and stared at the ceiling. The letter and photos were splayed around her on the neatly made bed.