Ninja Girl
Chapter Nine

Nick closed his eyes and made a wish that whoever was calling out to him would just disappear.

“Nick!” The voice persisted anyway. “It is you! Hey man! I thought I recognized you.”

Cursing under his breath, Nick turned around to face the man behind the voice. He vaguely recognized the features – the crooked nose, the cut of the jaw, the dark, greasy hair – but no name was coming to him attached to that recognition.

“Uh, hey buddy,” Nick replied, not sure what else to say. “What’s up?”

“How’s it goin’ man? I didn’t know you still worked here!” The stranger, or half-stranger, as it were, slapped Nick on the shoulder in an all too friendly greeting. Nick winced, more at the revelation about working here than from the blow. He could feel Anya’s eyes burning a hole in the back of his head. She was not going to be happy with him.

“Yeah, well, you know. I am, obviously.” Nick’s mind was racing to come up with responses. Hell, it was doing the Indy 500. “They just… keep me chained down to my cubicle in the back. You know how it is.”

“Oh man, do I ever.” The stranger turned, seeming to take note of Anya for the first time. “Uh, I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“Oh!” Nick exclaimed, as though he had completely forgotten about Anya’s presence. He had been hoping to get away without having to explain anything at all, least of all about Anya. “This… is… the new person! Yeah, I, uh, I’m just showing here – her – I’m showing her around the building. Givin’ her the five dollar tour or whatever. You know?”

“Ah, I see.” The man said, as if everything made sense now. “Rachel, right?” he asked, sticking his hand out to shake. “From accounting?”

Anya’s face, which up to this point had been a blank, expressionless mask, suddenly lit up in a bright, warming smile. It was first time Nick had seen the expression on her face, and honestly it looked more than a little scary. Behind the smile was another look, itself hidden almost like a ninja, and this look seemed to be saying: “Go away before I remove your head from your body.”

“That’s right,” is what she actually said, taking his hand and giving it one quick shake before immediately releasing again.

“Yes,” Nick agreed. “Rachel. Doesn’t she look like a Rachel?”

Anya elbowed Nick in the ribs so quickly that the stranger didn’t even see it, but Nick had to physically restrain himself from doubling over in pain.

“Uh, I guess?” the man answered nervously. Turning back to Anya he said, “Well, my name’s Kenny. You need anything, anything at all, you come see me, all right? My office is right over there. But don’t you worry about replaceing it. Just ask anyone on the eleventh floor where Kenny is. They’ll lead you right to me.”

“Thanks, Kenny, that’s thoughtful,” said Anya through her very forced smile. Nick could almost feel the venom dripping off her voice, but Kenny did not seem to notice.

“Hey, don’t mention it. I’m a helpful kind of guy.”

“Okay, Romeo,” Nick interjected before the conversation could get any further off the tracks. “I think I need to continue on with An- uh, Rachel’s tour around the building.”

“Oh, yeah, sure, that’s fine.” Kenny slapped Nick on the shoulder once again. “Well, good seein’ ya, buddy. Don’t be a stranger.”

“You got it,” Nick grunted, not really meeting the other man’s gaze.

Kenny turned to Anya. “And hopefully, I’ll be seeing you around.”

“Yes,” Anya replied simply, her expression somehow still locked perfectly motionless on her face.

Kenny nodded a bit awkwardly and said, “Okay then.” He turned to leave, as did Anya and Nick. They each got about five steps when Nick suddenly spun around.

“Oh, hey, uh, Kenny!” He called. Kenny stopped and turned back to face the pair, eyebrows raised at a questioning angle. “Um, do you know where, uh, I.T. is? I can’t seem to remember.”

“I.T.?” echoed Kenny, dumbly.

“Yeah. Gotta make sure Rachel here gets her account all… set up… and what not.”

Kenny’s expression changed to one of confusion, with the slightest twinge of suspicion. “Third floor,” he answered after a moment. “You… sure that you’re the right person to be giving the tour?”

“Oh come on, it’s just I.T.,” Nick replied flippantly.

Kenny laughed, a little too loudly. “HA! You got me there.” He wagged a finger at Nick as he turned and headed back toward his office.

Nick let out a sigh of relief and they hurried back through the doorway and into the stairwell.

“Dear God, that was a disaster!” he exclaimed as soon as the door had shut behind him. “One damn idiot and everything nearly blows up in our faces.”

He turned to Anya for confirmation, but to his surprise he was met by a look of sheer rage.

“You WORK here?” she demanded, her voice like icicles stabbing through his chest.

“What? No!”

“You just told that guy-“

“I also just told that guy your name was Rachel, and you work in accounting. I’m pretty sure that’s also a lie, unless there’s something you want to tell me.”

“He recognized you. He said ‘still.’ You ‘still’ work here. That’s how you knew about this place. That’s why you brought me here.”

“No! I mean, yes, all right, fine,” Nick consented. “I did work here. But that was years ago. I didn’t think anyone would even be around still who remembered me. Even if they did, I was a kid in high school doing a temporary, part-time job. I certainly didn’t think anyone would recognize me.”

“Why did you lie to me?”

“I didn’t lie to you. I just… didn’t think it important enough to mention.”

“Why did you think it not important enough to mention to me, then?”

Nick shrank into himself, not entirely certain how, or at least not entirely willing, to answer that question. “I… I don’t know. I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea.”

“The wrong idea? The wrong IDEA? What’s the wrong idea, Nick? That you’re working with Ryerson? That you’ve been part of this entire plot from the beginning?”

“That’s ridiculous,” Nick started to say, but Anya cut him off.

“Is it? Is it more ridiculous than the idea that I would just randomly appear in the room of someone who just happened to be home, just happened to be alone, and just happened to be willing to go to bizarre and a little bit creepy extremes to help me?”

“Creepy?” Nick echoed, taken aback. “I don’t know about…”

“That’s why you think I’m a monster.”

The words hit Nick like a brick wall. He could feel his stomach doing flips and his knees go weak.

“I… I don’t…” he tried to argue, but the words weren’t strong enough to come out.

“It’s because of Ryerson, isn’t it? They prepared you for meeting me. They told you horror stories about me, didn’t they? They told you I’m some kind of monster and you believed them, and that’s why you’re so scared of me.”

Nick snapped. He could feel all of his pent up emotions from the last twelve plus hours come rushing out of him. “This is crazy! Who would go through all this trouble? Who would sit in a café for like six hours trying to track down some random bullshit just to replace this building? Even if I had to pretend to replace it, wouldn’t I have found it faster?

“And who would set their own home on fire just to lure you in? Why would they have bothered with the armed guards on lookout if they were just trying to convince you of something? Who would have sat through shopping with you if they didn’t generally want to help? Don’t you know how most guys feel about shopping? It’s, like, a fate worse than death.

“And this? All of this? This is all some big plan that would only have come to fruition if you didn’t just kill me on sight. If this were some plan made by people that really thought of you as this terrible monster, why wouldn’t the plan have just assumed that you would immediately kill whoever you saw the moment you appeared before them? Isn’t that what ninja assassin’s do? They appear out of nowhere, kill someone, and then vanish back into the shadows? Seems like this would have been a terrible plan considering how easy it would have been for you to do exactly that.”

Anya’s face softened a little. It was difficult to deny the truth behind Nick’s words, but she wasn’t willing to admit defeat just yet.

“Look,” Nick continued, impatiently, “just give me the laptop.”

“What?”

“Just give me the laptop. You don’t trust me. Fine. I’ll finish the plan by myself if I have to. Give me the laptop.”

Anya clutched at the strap for the bag, uncertain whether to cave in to his demand or not.

“Look,” he continued, “I know you’re feeling really paranoid right now. I get that. What’s happening to you right now… that shit doesn’t happen to anyone. Your entire world has been ripped away from you and you are trapped in a place where you don’t know anyone or anything. And that means that you don’t know who to trust. I get that. I do. I get that because that’s exactly what has happened to me. I have been ripped from my world. When Ryerson burned down my apartment they left me with nowhere to go and no one to turn to for help. All we have, right now, is each other. You and me. So either we have to try and trust each other and work together, or we have to give up and go our separate ways. If you’re not willing to trust me, then give me the bag. I’ll finish the mission by myself if I have to, come whatever may.”

Nick reached for the bag again, but Anya’s hand tightened on the strap and she jerked back away from his grasp. “I’ll keep it,” she said softly, eyes down. Despite her protests, she still seemed uncertain.

“Okay, fine,” Nick said. “Then let’s go.”

He turned and started down the stairs, and then immediately turned back.

“And… um… just for the record: I don’t think you’re a monster. The fact of the matter is I’m just a nervous person in general. And I don’t know how to act around regular people, let alone beautiful women or ninja warriors. So you’re kind of a triple threat to me. So I apologize for anything stupid I’ve said or done, and for anything stupid I’ll continue to say or do. It’s gonna happen ’cuz that’s just part of who I am.

“But I think for me it all comes down to this: you could have killed me when you met me. You could have killed me when you woke up in the car. You could have let me run toward my burning apartment and get caught by those armed guards. You could have let me drop and splatter onto the pavement a few minutes ago when I did my terrible superhero impression. But each time you have chosen to keep me alive, chosen to help me, chosen to save me. You didn’t have to. You never had to do anything. But you did. Each time.

“So I may not know much about ninjas, or women, or whatever, but I do know: that’s not the actions of a monster. Whatever you did in the past, whatever you will do… I can’t judge you on that. I can only judge you on what I have seen. And what I have seen is someone who has had a chance to be a bad person and hasn’t taken it.

“So that’s… yeah.” Nick trailed off, suddenly extremely self-conscious. He realized Anya was staring at him with a look of disbelief and with every moment that passed he became more and more cognizant of the fact that he had been ranting at her for the better part of five minutes now. He began to shift uncomfortably in place, no longer wanting to really say anything at all. He felt rather as though the past twelve or so hours he had simply been filling up with air. Then someone had let go of their hold and like a balloon it had all come blasting out of him at once. Now it was spent, and he didn’t even feel like he could, let alone wanted to, continue.

“Yup,” he croaked. “That’s uh… that’s how I feel. Just… in case you were wondering.”

He turned quickly, before he could embarrass himself any further, and bolted down the stairs two at a time.

Anya stood in place for a long moment, watching him go, the look of disbelief still locked upon her features. When he rounded a corner and disappeared from site she shook her head slowly in wonderment. Then she hurried down the stairs after him.