The night held the promise of redemption. The girl had been dead to him. He had accepted it. Now, like Lazarus, she had returned from oblivion, restored and resurrected in his mind. He flew through the empty streets, pursuing his destination with all the passion of a knight errant riding out to his lady's tower.

The Super8 was a dive, with dimming lights in the sign and cars parked tightly near the front. It was no place for a girl like Alex.

Nathan parked and followed around the side of the building until he found room 109. He deliberated on whether he should knock or wait for her to come out. She could be in trouble. This gave him the conviction to bang on the door. Nobody answered, so he banged again. Nothing.

Nathan headed toward the front desk. A young Latina woman was watching a mini-TV in the corner. She looked up and asked if he needed help.

"I locked myself out of my room," he said.

"You got ID?"

"I left everything inside."

"What room you in, sweetie?" The girl made eyes at him. He smiled, noticing she liked him.

"109."

"I'll let you in," she said. She made a new keycard and gestured for Nathan to follow her. They traveled along the exterior concrete hall. At room 109, she put the key in and opened the door for him. The lights inside were turned off.

"Thanks," he said.

"No problem, honey. You get some sleep, ok?"

Nathan nodded. He waited just a second for her to go before stepping into the room and turning on the lights. There was Alex lying unconscious on the bed in her underwear. The eye of her elbow was dark. This was worse than any nightmare he'd ever had. The poppy fields of Afghanistan had travelled all this way, all this way to claim his Alexandria.

Nathan propped her up and checked her vitals. "No, no, no. Alex, wake up."

She moaned, her voice weak. She looked up through her messy locks of hair.

"Alex!" he shouted. "Talk to me!"

"I..." she looked around. "I just need a few days." Looking down, he noticed that her ankles were all cut up and scabbed over. He found her dress on the floor and pulled it over her head for her.

"Do you remember what happened?" he asked as he hurried to dress her.

"Nathan? Go away. Don't pretend like you care." Alex lurched forward and swallowed hard.

"You shoot up?" Alex didn't answer. She closed her eyes and held her breath. "Come on. Let's get you home." He took her hand and tried getting her up. She resisted the pull and shook her head adamantly.

"I can't."

"Everyone's been looking for you. You've been missing for a week."

"My friend will wonder where I went."

"This person isn't your friend, Alex. Your parents are living in a nightmare thinking you could be dead."

She fell backward, moaning. "I wish I was," she said.

Nathan couldn't leave her here, but he didn't want to get the police involved. He could have carried her out if he still had both his legs.

"Just come to my car. We'll go for a drive."

"I don't want to,'" she said.

"I just want to talk. It's not safe here."

"I'm not leaving. But I'll come outside with you."

She slowly swung her feet over the side of the bed. "I lost my shoes."

"That's okay. I'm parked just outside." He watched over her steps to make sure she didn't step on any glass. He couldn't imagine how she had come to be barefoot or who was keeping her in this hotel, but he knew he should wait for her to be sober and safe before asking any questions.

When they reached his car, Alex fell and draped her body across the hood. She gazed up at the sky. She ran her hands over the hood and moaned, shivering and giggling. "It's cold steel," she whispered. "A monster stalked me in the woods. I heard his growls coming from behind every tree. My feet were cold, wet with blood. I couldn't find my way out. And now you're here to rescue me. My knight comes to save me again."

"Can you open your eyes for me?" Nathan took her face in his hands, tapping her cheeks. "Hey. Look at me. Come on. Someone's gonna see you. At least get in the car."

"No," she whined. "If you're going to be like this, I'm going back inside."

"Alex, please," he said. She grabbed his arm, pulling him off balance. He caught himself against the hood, suddenly eye to eye with her.

"I'm still a virgin," she whispered, maneuvering her legs around his torso. "They said they needed my blood. Not much. Just a little. So I didn't have to lie with the Night Man."

"Seeing you like this kills me, Alex. The last thing I want is for you to end up like Hannah."

He rolled off her and lay back against the hood of the car. He could hear her whimpering beside him. She curled up on her side, facing away from him. Nathan looked up at the stars beyond the hazy atmosphere. He tried to see the constellations that he knew were there, but the cloud cover was too dense.

"No visibility here," he said. "In Afghanistan, you don't have all this light pollution. You can see all the constellations with your naked eye. I saw stars out there I never saw before, like the constellation of Columba. It's a symbol of hope for lost travelers." He mentioned the Plough constellation and the faint stars of Cassiopeia. He explained how they could help her locate Polaris to find true north. He pointed out Mintaka in Orion's belt, a star that rose very close to true East and set in the West. He didn't know if she was listening. "There were times I thought I couldn't keep going; all I had was the hope of seeing you again. I named a star in the constellation of Columba for you. Every night I looked up and thought there's Alexandria. I never fell asleep before saying goodnight to that star."

He glanced over and saw the sadness in her expression, her exhaustion with life. Her heart was still broken, and here he was hammering away at whatever was left. He removed his tags from around his neck and handed her the cold metal.

"I don't want these," she said. "I have enough of your letters to remind me you don't love me anymore."

"Just because we aren't together doesn't mean I don't love you."

"You should keep these to give to the girl you marry."

"I'm not going to get married. Just take them."

Alex pulled the chain over her head and tucked the tags down the front of her dress. "How did you find me?" she asked. Nathan recounted the story for her, of how he'd been asking questions and eventually lost patience and threatened Jacob's life if he didn't tell him.

"The whole town thinks you're dead. I got so fucking desperate, I pointed a gun at Jacob's face." She hugged herself around the arms.

"I'm sorry," she said, voice cracking. "I wanted to get away for a little while, hide from everything."

"What were you doing in that motel room?"

"Heroin," she said. "And chems."

"Jesus, Alex. You want to be reduced to a photograph and a few sentences in the paper? You want your mom and dad to have to go down to the morgue and see their little girl slide out of a freezer?"

"I don't know. Maybe."
"Why would you ever try heroin? Of all drugs? You know that shit comes straight from Afghanistan, right? It funds terrorists."
"I'm sorry."
"Is this because I broke up with you?"

"No. It isn't really that. Even before you broke my heart, I was breaking inside for years."

"Why?"

"I don't know!" she shouted. "I'm just sad... all the time, even when wonderful things happen, they only make me sadder, because I know that nothing lasts."

They were quiet for a time. Nathan wasn't the right person for her to talk to. Something much darker than depression had sunk its claws into his flesh. This wasn't the time to be opening up about it.

"I can't go home, Nathan. Not yet. Will you tell my parents you saw me and that I'm okay? Tell them I just need some time."

"Ok."

She gave him one last look of longing, came close to him and kissed his cheek. "Goodnight."

"Alex. Just... please don't take anymore heroin. That shit will kill you."

Alex sighed and shrugged. "Maybe that's not a bad thing. I'm going to go in now."

"Alex."

"Will you tell my mom? Don't bother sending her here. I'll have moved on."

"Please... just be safe."

Nathan watched as she went back to her room.

Perhaps being imperiled was a natural state for Alex. And something about saving her had always given Nathan a sense of purpose in the world. Still, he hoped she would never be imperiled again. A person only got so many chances to disappear before they were gone for good.

___________

Music: "Endlessly" Muse

This song is pretty much the Nathan and Alex romance theme song. I listened to it on a loop for an inane length of time while writing this.