Anima

by Jae Choguk

remembering how I wouldn’t be able to see her for a long time.

  “Yeah, she did, she taught me a few lullabies and I went from there.”

  “Well her beautiful voice definitely passed down to you.” He complimented. I smiled softly at that.

  “Don’t let me stop you.” He said gesturing towards Jeremy, who looked like he was finally in a peaceful sleep. I nodded, and even though he disappeared, I somehow knew he was still listening close by. I saw Jeremy stir, still holding my arm, as if he would get another nightmare if he let go. I just continued to sing, even though some words were lost in translation since it was a Korean song. The English version isn’t a good, but I didn’t think he would understand otherwise.

  “The same sky, different place, we’re separated for now

  I’ll remember the love you gave me,

  That only love I will keep in the bottom of my heart.

  Making you wait so long, I’m sorry,

  In my life, only you are most special.

  Without you I can’t live, without me you can’t live,

  An almost torn heart, take a deep breath

  Who said that hurt will heal is empty words?

  I love you, I love you, I love you, even if you can’t hear

  Sorry, sorry, sorry, I have regrets

  F-o-r-e-v-e-r, I will hold your hand tight

  Just like when we first met, we will be back together

  To me there is only you, you know that right?

  You held my hand; I synced my footsteps with yours

  Until the day we meet again, I won’t let go of your hand”

  I jumped back when I realized that Jeremy had woken up and was watching me with reproachful eyes. He was like an animal (no pun intended) waiting to see what the other person would do first. So I just stood up and stretched, pretending he didn’t affect me.

  “So now you decide to wake up?”

  “How much did you hear?” He growled, like he was afraid that it would make him any weaker. I realized then how much I had misunderstood about him, so I played along.

  “Enough to know that you must be in love with me!” I said playfully, when he didn’t respond I rolled my eyes. “You don’t know what you said in your sleep do you?” I chuckled. “Well I guess what you don’t know won’t hurt you!” I winked and went to get our luggage, since I could hear the jet descending.

  We arrived at our new location; it was a beautiful hotel suite.

  “I always need the best for missions that might take a while.” Mr. Zander said when I looked at him, eyebrows raised.

  “Of course,” I said like it shouldn’t be any other way.

  “Get used to this, Sensei is known for being extravagant, but he always has a reason for the things he does.” Jeremy said walking past me to put his luggage on his massive bed. I went to explore and saw the kitchen, bathroom, closets (yes, more than one) and the adjoining room.

  “This will be my room.” Mr. Z put his suitcase on the king-size bed. “You will get the other bed in the adjoining room by Jeremy, got it?”

  “Not like I have a choice.” I muttered and he laughed.

  “That’s the spirit, now move along. Enjoy tonight, because the real work,” he threw me an earpiece. “Begins tomorrow.” I gave him a worried look, but he just whistled and went back to unpacking.

  “Eggs are baking, I repeat the eggs are baking!” Mr. Z called from the kitchen. He waved a spatula at me and motioned me to sit down. Jeremy was already at the table eating, and of course drinking coffee. I sat down and ate, feeling the tension underneath the surface. Jeremy obviously hadn’t forgotten what happened yesterday, not that I really expected him to.

  After breakfast, he told us to put on something casual, so we did, and followed him to our next destination.

  “Alright, we don’t need to do any real image changes since they don’t know who we are, so for now just suit up.” Mr. Z said clapping his hands and rubbing them together. We did as he said and put the usual stuff on, mikes, earpieces, and camera pins. We added a couple weapons of course, like a small knife for me and a dart gun for Jeremy.

  “Why does he get the cool one?” I complained as I strapped my knife to my arm, under my light jacket.

  “Cause he will be the one to knock people out, if necessary.” He explained slowly, like he was talking to a child. I rolled my eyes and muttered that I could do the same thing with my knife. They chuckled and I pouted. Well this is better than training all day, not to mention I get to use weapons now.

  Once we were all ready to go, we entered enemy territory so to speak. There was a “convention” going on for joining some Special Task Force, and this was the Hunters’ cover. It was really them looking for more people to recruit. They normally don’t do this so openly, and that’s why we’re here. They usually pick specific people, or just keep it in the family, but since they’re doing this they must be pretty desperate.

  “I want you to pretend you’re interested in joining, got it?” Mr. Z said through our earpieces. Jeremy and I would be the ones ‘interested’ in joining, since we were the perfect age. Mr. Z would be looking for the higher-ups, and try to figure out where they were meeting. If or once we find out where they are hiding out here, we will attack. I asked why we would not be calling for backup to attack them, but he said by the time they would get here, the Hunters could be gone. That plus, I think they would notice if a bunch of Anima suddenly wanted to go on a field trip to Washington.

  “Don’t let your guard down; we’re right in the middle of a hurricane now.” Jeremy said in my ear. We walked around pretending we were interested and they had us do some tests. I asked earlier if I should be using my strength for real or not but they said no.

  “If you use your strength, they will notice you. You are supposed to act interested enough to get information, but as soon as you draw attention to yourself, they won’t leave you alone.”

  “Got it,” I said swallowing hard.

  Shaking my head, I focused back on the task at hand. I talked to one of the ‘people on charge’ and asked about what I would have to do to join.

  “Well strength and endurance, your willpower and determination, also your ability to think on your feet.” The older male responded proudly. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes right there and acted excited.

  “I can do that!” I say earnestly. The man responded with the same excitement of finding someone with the right qualities. I smiled innocently and he showed me to a weight-lifting station.

  “How much can you press?” He asked and I shrugged. I lied down on the bench and put my hands on the bar. He started out light, and I could feel his eyes scorching me, looking for any chance that I could join. They really were desperate. His gaze was unnerving, but I kept my cool. I lifted up to the standard of a normal 16-year-old girl and he seemed to be getting his hopes up. As gross as his gaze made me feel, I continued to lift. Once his hopes were at their highest I let my arms shake as I struggled to lift the bar. It was actually still easy for me to lift it, but as I was told; I didn’t show my true abilities. The man’s face fell slightly, but he still ushered me to a different station to see if I still had a chance.

  “Try these standard questions about what you think you should do in certain situations.” The man said setting me in front of a computer. I once again held back any comment that I was going to say and focused on the questions.

  If your comrade was shot, and the enemy was running away, what would you do?

  I answered it, not sure if this was supposed to be something I needed to be hiding. I figured what I did would be the opposite of what they want anyways, so I just answered that I would stay and help my comrade.

  I looked back to see the man’s face fall a fraction; obviously this wasn’t the answer that he was looking for. So I was making the right choice here, but it was disgusting that they would want the answer I could never do, which was leave someone behind. Especially a comrade, someone who you work with, blood, sweat and tears shed all
with that same person, yet they would leave them without a second thought!

  “Alright, well I think you have answered enough questions for us to get a good idea of what you would be like if you joined us.” He said after I answered a few more questions, that he seemed to like more. “You can leave your contact information at the desk by the strength station, we will contact you later if we think you can join our training program.”

  “Well I’m still a little skeptic, so I was wondering if I could ask a few questions about where training would take place, and where I would have to meet you if you contacted you.” Before he thought I was being too suspicious I added, “You see I don’t live in Washington, so I want to make sure I can make arrangements to come right when you ask me to!”

  “I see,” He smiled, liking what seemed to be my dedication and persistence. “Well in that case, I will make sure to contact you within the week to tell you the location of the camp.”

  I nodded with a smile, knowing if I pushed it farther that might make him more suspicious.

  I met up with Jeremy again, who was done with recon and we went to meet up with Mr. Zander.

  “So how did my little kittens do today?” Mr. Z asked as we all got back to the hotel.

  “They seem pretty cautious to me, but I did manage to get a time frame of how long the ‘camp’ will be going for before they move locations.” Jeremy said sitting at the living room table, getting out his laptop.

  “Good, start writing your report on what you saw today. Lydia what did