CHAPTER THREE

"I believe I asked you the same question., Kate said, looking straight into his eyes. Something seemed off and unsettlingly familiar about this guy as she tried to recollect where she had seen him. She was sure they had met somewhere just recently, but she was unable to pinpoint where. It seemed she was having one of her amnesia episodes. They were becoming more frequent nowadays, ever since she had her altercation with Ma last week. She also had begun having weird dreams that she couldn't recall whenever she woke up.

"I forgot my compass here. It is a family heirloom and my wife would kill me if I went home without it." Marcus replied, motioning to the now closed Arcade. "My manners! I am Marcus, I believed we had a match earlier today. Silly me."

"Oh, yeah, that's why your face seemed familiar. I have just closed up shop for the night." Kate sounded disappointed. Opening up the Arcade would take more than thirty minutes- time which she didn't have to spare as she was already late for her karate class on the other side of town. Reopening would mean that she would have to spend more time at Ivan's, her Karate tutor, which would easily affect her time with her therapist at nine, and Mrs. Gwen waits for no one.

"Could you come back tomorrow? Please?" She continued. She knew she came out as insensitive, but from her perspective, she would rather be so than be late for  Mrs. Gwen's session. She would charge her more, and with her meager pay that she was barely surviving on, that would mean that she wouldn't get a chance to visit the museum that week. All these could be avoided if she maintained the insensitive persona she was putting up right now. If only she could hold her ground for a little bit longer.

"Could I just take a quick peek inside? You won't even know I was there." Marcus pleaded. The compass in his breast pocket was buzzing so hard it could tear his cloth anytime now. She is the key. Finally, some light on Thunder.

"I am sorry, but we are closed for today. I really have to go now. It was nice meeting you." Kate said, moving away from the door. If  she were to maintain her schedule, staying close to the door wouldn't do her any good, plus it would only make it easier for him to convince her otherwise. She hoped that moving further from the Arcade would give Marcus a hint that she didn't want to open, but it was like he had selective blindness- he couldn't see the point.

"I'm the one supposed to be sorry. My wife would notice that it was gone, and I would not like to cross her during her menses. You know how women are, right?" Marcus chuckled but regretted the last part almost instantly. He had forgotten for a little while that he wasn't at McLaren's Pub but rather on the street, and several passers-by happened to catch his last sentence.

"Excuse me?" Kate retorted. "How women are?" She was getting agitated. Marcus had stepped over the line. Any little change of heart that she had of opening up the Arcade for him was long gone. She hadn't successfully attempted at forgetting her father's mistreatment and rampant condescension of her to be disrespected like this by a person she had barely known, and to make matters worse, had whopped at chess earlier.

"No. I didn't mean it that way. Calm down." Marcus pleaded.

"Excuse me, did I start with, if it pleases your honor?" Kate was boiling. "You say something offensive as that and expect me to just calm down? Who do you think you are?"

"Hey, calm down. Let us not cause a scene, shall we?" Marcus reached for his pocket and felt the Conspersa with his thumb. He was given the dust by Elissa, his superior and had hoped that it wouldn't come to this. Elissa had been clear that she wanted Kate to have made the choice on her own and not coerced or tricked to joining their cause from the very beginning. Marcus just wanted Kate to be cooperative but it seemed that he had just blown it through the roof- an act that clearly staked the odds against him. The dust was the next best thing if he were to ever salvage the situation, for now. It wasn't like he was forcing her to join him, he just didn't like little meaningless confrontations that could have been avoided if one had chosen the right words, some predicament he was currently in. This was like his get-out-of-jail-free card. Conspersa would make anyone within a five-foot radius have selective amnesia and instantly forget what happened in the previous thirty-minute time frame. He snapped his fingers ever so slightly, and the magic worked. The crowd gathered around them dissipated, with several people murmuring confused unintelligible sentences under their breaths. Kate's facial features shifted in visible confusion as she looked at her watch. It was 7.45 pm.

"Oh, bummer, I am late for my class. If you would excuse me." Kate said as she shuffled past Marcus as if he was just another pedestrian on the now busy street. He thought of following her but eventually decided against it. That was the most progress he had made in over two years regarding Project Thunder, and he wasn't going to let it get away because of his insensitive nature. Either way, he now had a second chance at a better first impression, and he wasn't going to waste it. He had to think of a perfect entrance as he strolled back to his apartment, glad that he had remembered to carry the dust.

"Hi!" He was startled when he saw Elissa by his doorstep. "I didn't expect to see you here!"

"I did not want to come either. We have a lot to talk about." Elissa hissed. She was pissed off. A pissed-off Elissa meant that things never ended well for the other party.

"Oh, please do come in." Marcus's hair was on edge as they went in.