[Lanrete]: 546.Title TBA.Chapter 1

   A dark, hooded figure appeared in the mist. The perfect image of a lonely specter, the ragged edges of its cloak fluttered as it moved with a gliding gait. Jade stood up sharply from the headstone she had been lounging against, her heart beating slightly faster despite her best efforts to quiet it. 
The figure’s hood fell back slightly to reveal a young girl’s face. Jade breathed a sigh of relief.
“Bloody hell, Thorna! Don’t scare me like that!”
Thorna grinned impishly. “ What, did the big, scary, and utterly fake ghost fwighten you? You, who chooses to relax in graveyards on misty moonlit nights?”
Jade laughed. She knew that she should really expect things like this when Thorna was around and naturally, she always expected them until the moment before they happened.
Thorna’s cloak vaporized, revealing loose black pants, heavy black boots, and a black hoodie. This was not typical Thorna attire, Jade noted, as it looked rather like something a typical male American teenager would wear.
“So, what the hell are you doing, anyway?”
Thorna shrugged. “Oh, not much, just having a bit of fun…” She was the picture of innocence, but Jade knew her better than that.
“Oh I see. And does your ‘bit of fun’ involve widespread chaos, or people ‘seeing things’ or people unwittingly drinking large quantities of alcohol, or large, violent explosions? Or perhaps all of the above?”
Thorna stared innocently up at the silver moon. “No… Not tonight… But thanks for the ideas!” She flashed the mischievous grin again. “No, but seriously, I wasn’t actually causing trouble tonight. It’s just quite a handy excuse that I use every time I can’t say what I’m really up to.”
Jade nodded thoughtfully. “Oh, another one of those things? Great. It seems like half the time when you go on one of those… Mission thingummies, I need to save your sorry ass and you won’t let me.”
Thorna had never heard of her escapades referred to in quite that manner before, and gave a most unladylike snort. She longed to confide in her friend, to tell her just where she went and who she was working for. However, she rather fancied staying alive for a little while longer, so she kept her mouth shut. 
For several long minutes, both girls stood lost in thought, staring into the inky blackness around them. Finally, Thorna spoke.
“Jade?”
“Mmm?”
“What the hell are you doing here? It’s the dead of night, in an old graveyard in the middle of Nowhere, Mass. I know you’re just strange like that, but this one is weird even for Jade.”
“I’m in a graveyard because I like them, the ancient ones anyway. It’s peaceful here, and I can think better. Why this graveyard, in this town? Because I grew up here. My old house is only about a mile from here, I went to that old white church in front of us every Sunday as a kid, bought penny candy at the old general store across the street… I used to come to this graveyard to think. I’d ride my bike down here in the summers. This town is so different now, though…” Jade trailed off, buried in bittersweet memories.
Thorna broke the silence again. “I haven’t been back to my hometown literally in ages. Probably because I doubt it’s even there anymore, after…” She shook her head as if trying to clear it. Jade knew that this must be another one of those secrets that was going to stay hidden away in Thorna’s shining auburn head.
The church bell began to toll. Thorna held up a finger, indicating Jade to be silent while she counted the deep, melodious strokes.
“…Eleven… Shit! I gotta go in about half an hour.”
Jade laughed. “Oh, no, that clock is never right. It never has been and never will be, forever and always. It’s just one of those things.”
Thorna assumed that by ‘one of those things,’ Jade meant ‘one of those things that you just don’t ask Jade about because the answer will be entirely too long and complicated, and you’ll just end up not caring anyway.’
“So, if it’s not eleven, what time is it?”
Jade whisked out a pocketwatch. Thorna had always failed to understand why Jade couldn’t just wear a damn wristwatch like the rest of the world. The only explanation Jade would ever give was ‘The rest of the world wears a wristwatch, thus I carry a pocketwatch.’ This only served to further confuse Thorna.
“It’s ten minutes to midnight.”
“SHIT! Shit shit shit shit SHIT! I’ve gotta run, I have ten minutes to get to a meeting that is NOT easy to find - My trusty MapQuest doesn’t work on this one. See it’s supposed to be in this-” She stopped short, realizing she was about to say something quite stupid. “Anyway, I gotta go NOW! See you soon, Jade darling!”
Jade was halfway through a bemused “Au revoir!” when Thorna suddenly wasn’t there anymore. That’s quite a subdued exit for Thorna, she thought absently. No flames, no noise or dense mist. She must really need to be somewhere!
She smiled to herself, but below her musings, deeper, darker, and far more worried thoughts were racing quickly through her mind. Who was Thorna working for? All she knew was that whatever she was doing was dangerous, and her employer was powerful as all hell. Of course, she had speculated at length about the specifics. Was she an assassin? She certainly was a deadly enough fighter for it. Whatever it was almost definitely included violence, from the little clues that she was constantly searching for. Abbey did not always come across as an alert person, but that could be very deceiving. Sure, if one was to catch her in the few hours after she had woken up, one could guarantee that she would not take in a word one said. Most, of the time, however, her sharp mind was always working. She had an uncanny ability to notice things in people’s manner of speech and carriage that she would always interpret with an equally uncanny accuracy. She nearly always knew when people were avoiding the truth or just flat-out lying, and she often could tell just how they really felt about what they were speaking of. She knew that Thorna liked her mystery job, but also that it scared the living shit out of her. Or rather, her employer did, which led to the next big question. Who was this mysterious person, or people? They were certainly quite dangerous, supremely powerful, and very secretive. There were so many groups out there that wielded the sort of power that Thorna’s organization seemed to have, it could be one of thousands. 
“The only way to find out is to follow her, but I’m not sure that I dare,” Jade murmured aloud. “It could mean my head.” She yawned, took one last look at the silent, moonlit graveyard, and vanished without so much as a whisper of sound. The graveyard slept on, ancient headstones standing undisturbed by the midnight wanderings of two powerful beings.