I stood on the sidewalk as the Uber pulled away from the curb.
"You sure you're good here?" my driver had asked.
"Yeah," I'd answered, pushing open the door. "I'm good."
Now, I turned around to face the parking lot and the strip mall beyond it. Moonlight bounced off the pavement. There were no cars. Shadows draped down from the eaves, like curtains across the big front windows of the Black Dragon Dojo. My breath fogged a little in the chill evening air. It was quieter here than it had been, deeper in the City. And I felt a sense of security, of calm and belonging, that I certainly hadn't experienced in Seth's packed penthouse.
I'd arrived at this place before in moments of uncertainty. The first time, I found it by luck. Then, when I was dealing with Amber's betrayal, I found myself here without much thought. This time though, as the foundation pillars of my life shifted dangerously beneath my feet, I came with a purpose. I was here to recommit myself to the purpose that I had had when I came here at the start of it all.
I would be a man who could protect the people he loved.
"Chance?" A voice with a familiar accent interrupted my inner monologue.
I turned in disbelief.
No way...
Terra jogged up the sidewalk toward me, black ponytail bouncing. Despite the coolness of the night, all the woman wore was a pair of dark yoga pants and a black sports bra. She slowed to a stop and I could see her raise an eyebrow. I couldn't tell how long she'd been running, because she wasn't sweating and didn't seem out of breath.
"Did we have a workout scheduled that I was unaware of?" Her tone was light, but the underlying question was clear:
What are you doing here?
I laughed softly, hesitated a moment, then shrugged. I had enough to worry about without feeling awkward for showing up unannounced at my martial arts studio in the middle of the night. "Honestly," I said, not hiding my surprise, "I didn't expect to see you. Do you live nearby?" I had to fight the habitual urge to bow slightly in greeting.
The woman brushed a stray hair back from her face, tilting her chin and eyeing me thoughtfully. "Around the block a short way," she confirmed after a moment. "I was just out for some exercise, enjoying the dark and the moon..." She trailed off, as though waiting for me to offer my reason for being here.
Who goes for a run at 11 o'clock at night?
I wondered. Then, I realized that the same could be said for people like me who ran at 6 in the morning. "I've been having a rough night." I looked away from the woman and once again out over the empty parking lot. "I came here to... I guess I came to center myself."
We stood in silence for a moment before my teacher took several steps forward and down onto the asphalt. She looked up at the sky, letting her arms fall open by her sides like she was soaking in the moonlight. "Why here?" she asked, not looking around. "Because of all your happy memories of this place?"
"Ha," I laughed quietly. "That must be it."
Then, when she glanced back at me, I tried to come up with a better answer. "You gave me a chance to improve myself when I was way less capable than I am now. I felt like someone who couldn't handle a single thing, who couldn't even stand up for the people he cared about, and yet you were willing to guide me in a new direction. Even in the last month I've become a totally different person. That's how quickly things changed for me, and you helped me make the change in the right direction." I chewed my inner cheek thoughtfully. "I suppose, of all the places I could have gone tonight, this was the spot I hoped would remind me of the man I want to be. And who knew that I would also run into a friend?"
Terra didn't make a sound, so if I hadn't been watching her I might not have noticed the surprised expression that flitted across her face. "I told you before," she said. "We aren't friends."
I shrugged. "Maybe not," I answered. "But I still feel better for seeing you." It was the kind of earnest, honest thing that I would once have thought twice before saying. I mean, really, it felt kind of sappy even as I said it. But I wasn't going to second-guess myself. That's why I came here, after all. To remember that I was becoming a man who would do and say what he pleased, who wouldn't apologize it.
Terra seemed to mull over my words for a moment, staring into my face with an intense expression like she was reading my thoughts and trying to figure out my true intentions. The woman's eyes were captivating, even in the dark, like pools of shadow and low-burning embers. I met her gaze for several long, hazy seconds and, for the first time that I could recall, she was the first to look away.
"It is good to see a friend," she said slowly, glancing back around at the parking lot.
I blinked, and took a breath to steady myself. I felt like I'd just won something, an invisible and unspoken victory, and I wet my lips before nodding agreement.
"So, if we really are friends, would you tell me what is bothering you?" My instructor sounded as cool as ever, but there was an odd, misplaced curiosity that she couldn't mask. Like she was as much intrigued by the idea of being my friend as she was offering to hear my troubles.
I blew out a breath and considered her question. Then, I reasoned that this was what I was really here for. I had come because I believed that in this place I was being forged into a better, stronger version of myself. If there was ever a time to get moonlit advice from my strange martial arts teacher in a deserted parking lot on a Thursday night, that time was now.
I left parts out, as I told my story. But, even without a single mention of hypnotized sex slaves or corporate mind control, the story still felt bizarre. My four lovers and I were having trouble in our relationship. Just today, I had lost one of them to her job and one of them to her boss. Another was currently spending quality alone time with her ex-boyfriend and while things seemed good with the fourth, it was probably only a matter of time before new drama reared its head. The most important people in my life were being taken away from me. I knew that I had to do something. I had no idea what that something was.
Terra maintained the same calm, attentive expression throughout. There was an energy about the woman that I had never detected during my previous visits, like some tight, coiled part of her had smoothed out and sharpened. Her focus, though, was as weighty as ever. When I finished speaking, she reached up and undid her ponytail.
She shook her head and a dark waterfall of hair spilled across her bare shoulders. "Will you walk with me?" she asked.
I nodded, a little confused, but followed as she led me down the sidewalk in the same direction she'd been running. A part of my mind tugged me back the opposite way, telling me that I needed to return to Seth's party, to my companions, to the problems I had yet to solve. The rest of me, though, followed Terra with expectancy and maybe even a bit of hope.
We walked in silence down the street, between the shadows of sidewalk trees and around the corner deeper into the neighborhood. One block, then another. A car drove past us, and the headlights shone on a black, iron wrought fence. I tilted my head to look up at the dimly lit belfry of the small, neighborhood church.
"My home is just past here," Terra said, calling my attention back to earth and along the side street that ran down one length of the churchyard. It was dark, so it was hard to read her expression. "Would you like to come in for some tea? As friends."
I hesitated an instant.
She's taking me back to her place?
I thought. But then, my sense of
may-as-well-go-for-it-at-this-point
