Almost Forgotten

Chapter 10: I Will Keep my Mouth Shut

I close my eyes, remembering the distance for a specific throw. My old teachers would tell me not to try and throw a knife without a spin further than twelve feet. It would be a waste of time, they said.

When I throw the first one and it buries itself into the tree bark from almost twenty five feet apart, I want to laugh at them.

But I don't, instead I throw another, then two more, then one more, then I take a step to the left, focusing on the next tree.

This one is further, so this time the blades do half spins through the air. Next tree, full slip, then another one and two, then three, then I'm done and I repeat it.

First two hours pass as I create personal challenges in my mind, painting on perfect images when I make a pattern. For a while it was simply reaching the target, then it became how deep can I penetrate it, then from which distance, then without vision.

Walking back and grasping them out was the most exhausting part of it all, but I didn't complain.

It would be a lie if I said I haven't placed faces on the target field. Simon. Dead. Meredith. Wounded. Landon. Fine.

Lilah. Jackson. Daniel. Alena. The whole fucking department. Fine.

It's their fault. They were the one who sent me on this mission, their stupidity allowed Landon to escape and it was their recklessness and overly trust in others that allowed a mole to enter their organization.

It has no other explanation. It's the one and only way onto how he could know about all of this.

Bureau has a mole inside its walls.

It looks like Landon is really back for karma.

Caitlin. Fine.

I look at this tree and I imagine her face when the blades run around without any sort of pattern. Splattered blades through the air, inside the tree when I harshly take them out.

She did this. Ignoring my warnings, signing on that fucking deal and letting my baby go on her own.

I knew this would happen, but nobody listened. Nobody fucking listened.

When I feel another drop over my hair, I don't stop, instead the exercise is increased as I intend to waste another five hours on it.

I wasn't even sure how much of the day had passed when I flinched at something small being thrown right across my face. I turn my head in the direction where it came from, stilling in the spot when I see Landon.

He is dressed in an all black suit, leaned on the glass door with crossed arms as he glares at me with a lost look in his eyes.

I haven't broken any rule.

It's what I tell myself when I avoid his stare, walking back to the tree to pick up all the blades then head back through the now air-poisoning rain and wind.

Praying silently that I haven't done anything to anger him, I walk past him to spare him a glance. I don't have to see it again, because I recognised the way he looked at me before. As if I am foreign theme, something to be experimented with to find the truth. Something so unfamiliar despite everything.

"You don't mind the rain?" is the first thing I am asked once I walk out of the bedroom with dry clothes.

There is gray cloth in my hand as I dry out the kitchen knives, not looking up when I answer. "Never claimed to do."

"I remember." he answers. "I do, however, also remember you being a liar whose words cannot be trusted."

My hand pauses only for a moment. "A liar can also tell the truth."