T-Minus...

"You set?" Max asked Maggie. He could tell that she was in state of preparedness.

Maggie nodded, then added, "Ready when you are, sweetie."

"Soon. Very soon now," Max replied; he was transferring cigarettes from a cardboard pack into a solid tin. "I can feel it now."

Killer Instinct

Maggie walked towards the door to the complex, still feeling uneasy that something sinister was in the air. She took a precautionary glance, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, and then proceeded to the door.
 
That's when she felt something hit her in the back the head. She paused, momentarily stunned, and brought her hand to her head and felt liquid. The impact was enough to stagger her, falling on a knee. Turning to see Frank standing there; he had been hiding in the shadows, waiting for her.

He looked at her and nodded.

How dare he, Mags thought, her body filling with emotion. After all I did for him.

Frank walked closer to her, his hands clasped behind his back. He was dressed in black, his killer wardrobe.

"Why?" Maggie asked.

"Because," Frank replied coolly. "It's my nature."

Maggie leaned forward to control her stance. She was like a deer caught in the headlights of an approaching semi.

"Max will avenge me," she said.

"Not before I get him," Frank replied. He stopped 15 feet away from her.

She was scanning around and taking in all her options. She knew that she was caught off-guard, blindsided because she was taking things too slack. She was caught off her guard and now she was paying the price.

"I hope you don't hold it against me," Frank said. "After all, you knew who I was in the beginning."

His face cracked into a vicious smile as he brought up the second snowball.

The Aria Effect

Frank slid back into the booth with a sly grin on his face. Max was sitting there smoking another shitty smelling cigarette, his arm draped around Mags. Angst sat on the other side next to Goner.

"What are you smiling at?" Angst asked him.

"I slipped the disc jockey a c-note and a song to play," he replied.

"Why?" Goner asked this time around.

"Because," was all that Frank said.

As the last song ended the haunting melody of the next one began. It started to perk up the interest of the table. The tune began to wail from the speakers and the dance floor cleared. Then the techno sound began to sneak into the haunting melodic tune. Which made the young crowd seem to turn away from the dance floor.

"Care to dance?" Frank asked of Angst. She turned and smiled and held out a hand for Frank to take.

Max just looked a Mags and gave her a wink; she gave him a nod and they too headed out onto the dance floor, as the haunting voice began to sing. Both couples took to the dance floor like nobility at a grand ball. The crowd of 20-somethings stood around looking at the majestic couples as they did their ritualistic movements on the dance floor.

Goner sat at the table shaking his head, though he thought Frank was cool for an old fart. Goner flagged down a waitress and ordered another round, his head bobbing to the music.

"Fuckin' A, Frank," Goner whispered.

Mags looked into Max's eyes and she was swept away into the pools of azure, lost for a mere fraction of a second in his world. She began to spin like a dervish, the scarves around her arm billowing out, and Max was getting into the essence of the song.

He thought he owed Frank big time for this, because right now it was what he needed.

A Breakfast of Illusions

"I got a feeling that you are going to miss me," Max told Suki. Suki was sitting on a bench facing the tracks, eating a bowl of cereal. She had been hungry and this was the first quiet stop in a little while to grab something nourishing.

"You're not going anywhere are you?" Suki asked back. "Aren't you?"

"Well, just in case something happens and we get separated," Max said, beside her on the bench. He butted out a cigarette and leaned back. "You know this journey we are on can't last forever."

Suki paused for a long while; a single tear streaked down her face, seeming more foreign than ever. "What do you mean?"

"Someday this will end," said Max. He took his thumb and wiped the tear from her face. "Life will continue and so will we."

Suki added, "I never really thought that it would eventually end. I always thought we'd be doing this forever."

"Forever is such along time," Max said. 

"Yeah, but can't I just live the fantasy for now?" Suki said. She placed the cereal carton into the trash bin.

Max let out a chuckle, and then he turned to Suki and winked, "But we are having a kick-ass time doing so!"

} A Close Call - for B.H.

The cool breeze enveloped him, though he didn't shiver for it was a comforting one. Max stood outside on the patio and looked out over the city below. He was sure he was home. For a little while at least, he hoped.

His cellphone chimed. A haunting melody emitting. He answered it.

"Hello Max," the voice said.

"Yes?" Max asked pensively.

"Time is coming," the voice said. "Prepared yet?"

"Yes," Max replied.