Whiplash
John Doe stood in her kitchen fiddling with the knife he gave to release herself from the restraints he had previously put on her.
As he was running the blade across his nail tips she couldn’t hide the fact that it was a little unsettling, he was an assassin after all. But if you really thought about it she was also… in a different way, he was more of mercenary while she killed the name of America. But regardless, a professional killer with a knife in their hand really puts pressure on her to watch his every move while looking at the computer screen.
“Smile.” Ara demanded blandly and held her phone up to his face.
He flinched and grip tightened around the tactical knife, she pretended to ignore it, and took the picture before she’d get gutted, and connected the phone to the usb and uploaded it to an anonymous website.
He was giving her a curious look from the kitchen so she explained, “I’m taking a picture of your face so I can run it through facial recognition so we can find out who you are exactly.” She looked up from the screen but still, he said nothing. “So tell me anything you know, any small detail you might have overheard and don’t think it’s important to share but I am telling you right now to share it so I can decide if it’s important or not.” He froze in thought, hopefully thinking of all the small facts she acquired.
He blinked a couple times, mind going back to a place he obviously didn’t want to be in,“I don’t remember anything.” he said after a moment.
Ara squinted her eyes, “Listen, I’m just trying to help you here, but whatever.” she looked back at the computer screen, his face on one side and the other side a slew of people going through the recognition process.
“I’m,” he started, trying to find what best to say, “I’m telling you the truth, I don’t remember anything. All I know are my missions, all I know is what I’m supposed to do. I don’t know names and I don’t overhear conversations.”
Ara didn’t really know what to say, she never really does when people start feeling bad for themselves, she usually rolls her eyes and thinks about how she’s had it worse, much much worse. But he has a right to feel like shit, so she responded by searching for ‘Hydra’ in another window.
“Hydra is a worldwide organization created around the known time of the second World War, dedicated to one thing only: global domination.” Ara read out loud, it’s almost as if every single breath he took, blink, and fidget of his hands she had become hyper-aware of. “Global domination,” she repeated, “normally I would laugh because as a child I thought I had the means to make the world my empire, but ever since I’ve gotten home I’ve heard nothing but weirdos coming out; the guy in the suit, the alien hammer guy and can’t forget about the green guy. I’m actually not surprised that there was an organization created to take over the world.”
“I didn’t know.” He muttered.
“None of us really know the people behind the scenes of our missions, and we don’t have time to question them, we only have time to be their 50/50 chance of an answer, hoping that it’s a good one and that we aren’t going to get killed for shitty reasons.” Bing. Bing. Bing.
The search had been complete, “We got a match.” He was already by her side by the time she finished her sentence. She exited the browser and brought up the other screen, full of anticipation, so curious but she also knew that all the information she was about to read could be used against her in a court of law.
“James Barnes, born in 1930, oh that can’t be right we’ll try the search again.”
“Wait,” he grabbed her hand before she could exit out of the files that popped up.
“Why?” She pulled her hand back immediately, she wasn’t too fond of human contact.
After a moment of him reading he stuttered out, “I think this is me.” Ara looked back to the screen and read the old Army file from World War 2 and laughed.
“There is no way this could be you.” She said but he didn’t hear her concentrating on the screen for too long, so she followed his gaze and continued to read through the records of his battalion and even his death. “If you died back in the forties how could you be here? This isn’t your profile.”
“It is. It’s me. I know it.”
“How do you know if you didn’t know who you were 5 minutes ago?”
“I just.. know. It feels right. I can’t explain it.” Ara looked at him as if he were off his rocker, pun intended, if it were actually him, he would need a rocker to get around. But it isn’t him and this is ridiculous to even consider.
“It says this guy died from a train fall.” He looked up from the screen, remembering that day. He looked to almost be in a trance.
“I didn’t die though.” Ara’s eyes widened and laughed.
“Well you’re not this guy, James Barnes was born in 1930 so he did die, there is no way he could be-” Ara then snapped out of it. The flag waver is a man out of time also. He was born around the same time before discovered in 2011. If something like that happened to him, this could be the instance here.
“What?” He stepped towards her as she took a step back.
“I guess you could be James Barnes.”
“What makes you change your mind?”
“Something like this has happened before.”
“What?” He became almost excited.
“Someone from back then is here right now but not as a 90 year old with wrinkles, as a 90 year old who doesn’t look a day over the age of 30.” Ara was now internally screaming and externally pacing around her apartment.
James er, stood motionlessly by the computer as Ara continued to pace.
“Look I appreciate the.. the Governor you brought over for me who may or may not be dead on my couch right now but I don’t know what the fuck I’m getting into and I don’t think I want to get into this.” Ara took a knee down and checked the Governor’s pulse, right as her hand touched his neck he snatched her hand and yanked her down wrapping a forearm around her neck.
“I’ll kill you, I’ll kill both of you!” The Governor hollered.
James leaped forward to knock him out again but Ara was already jabbing her elbows into him, so he stood back watching the deadly blows that couldn’t feel too great. She finally got free by sliding her arm up through his arm and breaking the contact, she rolled off of him onto the ground and before the Governor could reach down for her, James punched him square in the face which put him right back out.
“Fuck!” Ara kicked her coffee table in anger. “Fuck fuck fuck! What the fuck did you get me into?!”
“I.. I don’t-”
“All I fucking wanted was to get out of the Army with a clean record. That’s all I wanted. Now here I am with a knocked out Governor on my couch who is now going to put me in a maximum security prison for the rest of my life! And I don’t even know what the fuck you are!”
“I’m sorry. I’ll leave.” He began to turn around and walk towards the door.
“No. You. Won’t.” Ara said through a clenched jaw. She was actually giving herself whiplash from all this. “I’m just complaining about all this shit, you got me into this, Governor here has seen both of our faces and so we’re stuck together and we both have to figure out what the fuck we’re going to do with him.”