Cursed By Rebirth? – Installment 4

Cursed by Rebirth?

By

D.M. KURTZ

Installment 4: Take the Plunge

 “Are you sure you want this?” An excellent question, to be sure, and one that Jason had been asking himself for weeks. To hear it from Amanda, however, only solidified his resolve.

He shook his head.

“I just… I have to know,” he replied with a glance to those piercing eyes as they gazed at him with the slightest scrunch of worry.

“Alright,” Amanda sighed and returned her gaze to the computer screen. Jason watched with trepidation as the image of the arrow on the screen hovered over the “Complete Form” button. One slow click of the mouse in her hand and it was done.

Jason let loose the deep breath he’d been holding.

“What now?” The notion was terrifying, and his pulse matched that realization.

“We wait.” Amanda shrugged. “A full background check like this one will usually take a few days.”

“A few days?” He echoed the words with a pang of irritation.

She neglected to mention THAT before…

There it was again: that voice in his head, working overtime to see that frustration and anger won out over self-control and reason. He’d been fighting it more and more in the three weeks since that sip of coffee had brought the first of what had become an endless stream of harsh images. He could only assume that they were memories, and it was that idea that had led him here. Amanda had been kind enough to offer her own funds to cover the forty dollar fee that the background service cost.

*“If it gives you what you need, it’s worth it.”*

That’s what she’d told him when he’d at first argued against it, but in the end her resolute spirit had won, as it always did. That realization should have made him angry…

Furious. He glowered at the dim reflection of his own face on the screen.

Shut up. He’d been telling himself that a lot, lately. See, despite the confusion, he was completely certain about one thing: Amanda was incredible. In fact, she was the only reason he had each morning to get out of the bed that they shared within the walls of her modest apartment. He would do anything, absolutely anything to keep the man inside his head from breaking out and destroying her with the harsh words that he so carefully filtered and kept tucked away.

“Hey.” Amanda’s soft voice interrupted his inner dialogue. “Whatever we find, it’ll be ok. We’re in this together.”

Jason smiled. He took a deep breath let his forehead lean down to connect with her own.

Together… He knew that she truly meant that, but he could only hope that her confident spirit could handle the darkness he was certain they would find when that report had run its course.

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