Chains from the past.



Through his bedroom wall he can hear her muffled whimpers, the stern male voice he can faintly hear yelling over the blare of the country music playing in the next room. The sounds of shattering glass, a lamp thrown up against the wall, a hollow thumping noise shakes the room, more whimpers.. More yelling.. He crawls into the corner and curls his little body up into a protective ball, and begins to claw at his ears to silence the noise. He is six years old. And for his entire life Ethan john Klinger has known the nature of violence in all of its forms.. His father would kick in the door and turn loose his rage on him. “Boy!! Don’t you ever cower from nothing! I ain’t raisin no coward! Don’t you ever let the likes of fear or love take hold of your soul boy! Love is for the weak!.. Through all of it, he made his choices early, never strike a woman, hold his child near his heart and learn the ways of such things as fear and love. You became a man early. With your own wife, your own child, both taken from you.. In an instant life changed for you. Threshold called soon after, and you quickly became their favorite trigger, one shot. One life taken then another, after that it becomes easy doesn’t it?, and then a few short weeks ago, it changed yet again, you met her and slowly you began to care more about life than the ways of fear and death. Now here you are at the very edge, you close your eyes, and through the big black empty you can faintly hear a soft beautiful voice as it whispers to you, as soft and slight as a heartbeat, it pulls at you, taking you through the black, something stirs.. Ashes to ashes?.. No... not ready for that yet are you? Then slowly you begin to see a faint light coming from above you, your eyes slowly open, and you are in the Threshold infirmary, you are in a bed, you remember slowly the attack, your fingers begin to move and you can for the first time feel your entire body, you turn you eyes to the chair by the bed and there curled up and sleeping quietly is the female you know as Priss. Something is different about her now though, she has a bandage or a bandana around her forehead, you cannot clearly determine which, and her eyes open she sees you, and rises from the chair and comes to the side of the bed, your hand touches her Face and her skin seems as though it were made of silk. You feel the tear from her eyes roll over you fingers and for the first time in what seems a lifetime it feels good to be alive.
“Welcome back handsome.”
“H.. How long Priss?”
“You’ve been out for ten days Baby.”
“Tell me.. Please.. How many?”
“Twitch.. Thump.. Both…”
Her eyes begin to water.
“Both dead?”
“Yes.”
“Samantha?”
“Milo Tripper.. Samantha and the little one known as Thed.. all missing.. Since the attack.”

Begin Again.



Cowboy hangs on by a thread, mortally wounded, Threshold meanwhile has launched a round the clock search for the two missing agents and the little red man known as Thed. Klinger slowly becomes more aware of his surroundings and Priss hasn’t left his side since he woke up. It is Christmas morning at 2:00 am. Someone set up a tree, But Klinger’s mind is in the desert. The doctor enters the room and tells him that someone has been waiting to see him, and when Roxanne Johns walks into the room he feels his own tears forming. The two embrace and share a bit of a moment, before Roxx pulls away, to give the doctor one of those “Give us a minute” looks.
“Kling, we’re working on putting a new team together to go get Sam and Milo, so Far its gonna be Priss and me, and we got a wild card with this Sil chick that Alpha brought back from Mordes Keep with them.”
He slowly sits up and looks Roxanne Johns square in the eye.
“I’m comin too Roxx.”
“Yeah, I know better than try to argue with that, but we still got work to do, we need at least three more bodies before they’ll let us back in the field, and you have to show them that you’re ready.”
He rises up out of the bed.
“I was ready the second that I opened my eyes Roxx. You get us some bodies, I‘ll be ready.”
She kisses him on the forehead, and smiles that cute Roxx smile.
“You get some rest tough guy.. You leave the bodies to me. Those things that you tangled with haven’t seen the last of Team Alpha. You watch over him Priss, don‘t let him con you.”
It is when Roxx leaves the room that he notices that there something missing from Priss’s forehead.
“What happened to them Honey?”
She lowers her head.
“When I was fighting with the Wrath’s, the were cut off, Threshold doctors removed what was left.”
He grabs her by the hand, and looks at her.
“Priss.. Don’t you worry about Samantha now, remember she has that kook Milo Tripper with her, I wouldn’t want to tangle with those two at the same time..”
She lays down beside him and he puts his arm around her.
“Don’t worry sweets.. We’ll bring Sammy home.. Where she belongs.

Scratch. ABT Copyright © 2007.