Page 92 of Inception

“I’m a Revenant.”

“I’m aware of that.”

He looked down at my stomach, his eyes mapping my torso. I reflexively covered up, hugging my abdomen with both arms.

“I can hear your stomach,” he said, bringing his eyes back up to mine. “You’re hungry. You need to eat something.”

He heard my stomach noises?How freaking embarrassing.

Before I could confirm or deny the fact, he had already made the decision and was pulling into the parking lot of an old diner that overlooked the highway.

Might as well, I figured. I was two stomach growls away from starvation anyway.

The old diner was lit up like a Christmas tree—if your Christmas tree was decorated with white florescent sky lights, a neon blueopensign that flickered something terrible, and the kind of red banquet seats that made you wish you carried protective eye-wear on you. The only saving grace was that it looked to be about as lively as a morgue at midnight, which at least meant we could talk freely and not have to worry about slipping up in front of nosy patrons.

We walked to the back of the diner and sat down opposite each other in a booth by the window. A young, busty blond in her mid-twenties rushed out of the back-house wearing a fitted yellow uniform that looked as though it had just rode into town straight out of the fifties.

“Can I get you guys a drink to start with?” she asked, smiling as she dropped a set of menus on the ivory table.

“I’ll have a Coke.” I turned to Gabriel who was sitting perfectly straight in his seat, both hands planted on his lap. It was almost unnerving howproperhe was.

“Just water, please.”

“No problem. I’ll be right back with those,” she smiled and walked off.

“Four years.”

I looked up at him and blinked. “Four yearswhat?”

“I’ve been a Revenant for four years,” he said calmly. “I was twenty-one when Iturned, and that was four years ago.”

“Four years. That’s it? I thought you’d be something more dramatic. You know, like a century or two.”

“Sorry to disappoint,” he said evenly. His eyes seared into mine, waiting for another question.

I was happy to oblige. “Did you choose it?”

“I would never choose this,” he said, every word slicked with repugnance.

“How did it happen?”

The waitress cut through with our drinks and placed them down on the table in front of us.

“Are you ready to order?” she asked, oblivious to the epic conversation she’d just interrupted.

I realized I hadn’t even looked at the menu. Unwilling to suffer the extra wait, I went with the tried and true. “Cheeseburger and fries.”

“Perfect.” She jotted down my order on her pad and turned to Gabriel. “And for you?”

“Nothing for me, thank you.”

“You sure?” she asked, tilting her head to the side as she smiled at him. It seemed like a flirty gesture.

He nodded, resolute and unaware of it.

“Okay. Well, if you change your mind, just give me a shout,” she said, pointing to the nameplate on her bust that readLana.

I waited for her to disappear behind the counter again.

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