Chapter One:

Jackson Rippner stood over her sleeping form and watched silently as her chest raised and lowered with her breathing. Her form was not disguised by the covers that had been unceremoniously thrown aside to lie in a tangled bundle on the floor of the bedroom as she slept. Neither was her form disguised by the clothing she wore to bed. Her white and purple striped boxer shorts were hiked up, leaving little for Rippner's imagination to create about her legs. Her black wife-beater had twisted around her, slipping off one shoulder and tightening its grasp on her abdomen, leaving her silhouette perfectly exposed against the forest green of her sheets in the lamplight filtering in through the curtains on her bedroom window.

She was a creature of an elegance forgotten years ago. She was lovely in a plain sort of way. Similar to a small cluster of forget-me-nots, gently swaying in the breeze. He enjoyed watching her. However, he had an assignment. And however much it almost pained him to complete it, if he failed to, he would never regain the authority he had lost that assignment six years prior on the Red Eye flight to Miami.

Still moving silently, he removed his meticulously maintained ka-bar from within his jacket and held it within his sight, taking in the blade and its intended victim. It seemed a shame to kill her. Almost. But he had to do it. Carefully reaching over the space between himself and the sleeping woman, he brought the blade to her throat.

Before the metal made contact with her skin, her eyes snapped open and she grabbed his wrist tightly, pushing the knife from her throat. Surprised, he allowed his hand to be pushed away. She slowly sat up and backed herself into the corner of her bed and watched him silently. He had expected her to do something to defend herself, but she did nothing. She simply watched him.

They remained that way for the better part of ten minutes before she spoke, "What are you doing here?"

He shook his head and said nothing.

She crawled over to him and looked him straight in the eyes. Her shade of blue was only a shade darker than his. "Please, answer me," she whispered. She reached out and touched his arm…

And the world went dark.