Counter Swap

Lena stood alone as all the people in the mall disappeared and she could only see one person in front of her. It wasn't the terrorist who was holding her hostage just a couple of minutes ago, nor was it any of her subordinates.

Instead, it was a young Blake. His back was facing her at first, but when he turned, his face was completely blank. It had neither of its eyes, a nose, or even a mouth. Despite that though, the boy was still able to let out one word.

"Goodbye."

Someone grabbed Lena's shoulder, snapping her back to reality.

It was Miles, who was already carrying Ethan away from the scene.

"Hurry up!", he shouted.

"But..."

Miles dragged Lena away with his free arm. The entire time though, Lena just stared at the camera. And just like that night many years ago, she was forced to let Blake go again.

Almost immediately, the entire mall had been cleared out. 

"Are you serious about this?", Eva snarled.

"Catch me and find out.", the intercom responded.

A couple of seconds passed and the voice on the intercom gave the go ahead.

"Good luck."

Eva already knew what she was looking for, however. The use of the intercom meant he could only be in one place. She raised a walkie talkie to her mouth.

"Make sure to lockdown the security office right away. Even if he's moving, we should be able to catch the bastard on his way out."

As soon as she finished speaking, she walked toward her destination. 

She walked and walked until she found a group of her men surrounding a see-through office.

"No one was seen exiting this room, ma'am."

Taking note of that silently, she stepped through the glass door, which had been shattered already. Immediately, she saw the back side of a bunch of computer monitors sitting atop a table. They did a phenomenal job of obscuring the person she presumed to be sitting in the chair behind them. 

When she got close enough to see over the monitors however, she was shocked to see no one sitting there. She checked for any other exit to the room, but she found none. He couldn't have just disappeared, she thought. But that's when she noticed something.

It was dark outside, and the police had set up a secure area for all the hostages to settle down in. Ethan as well as anyone else who was wounded was being carried away on a stretcher. 

As the officers went around asking everybody questions, Lena kept begging any who passed by for help.

"Please, there's someone still inside! You need to-"

"I'm sorry ma'am, we're doing everything we can right now."

Time and time again, she was brushed off like that. Just as she was right on the verge of tears though, a familiar voice called out to her.

"Oh Lena, I finally found you."

She recognized the voice immediately and turned, in disbelief, to face the person behind her. 

"...Blake?"

He was shoeless and more than a little sweaty, but alive. Lena grabbed both of his shoulders almost as if trying to confirm she wasn't imagining things. 

"B-But... how are you... here?", she asked.

Blake couldn't help but let out a proud little chuckle in response to that question.

There was something else in the security room. Eva had glossed over it at first, but it was sitting in plain sight for her on the table. Something that was smaller than the monitors beside it. 

There, right next to both the microphone and intercom button, sat a simple and portable voice recorder. 

Eva's face was stone cold. She showed no sign of her emotions as she picked up the device.

*Beep*
The recorder was played. And a voice came through, just as staticky sounding as before.

"I have the stasis bomb. And if you hurt anybody else, you're never getting it."

In complete silence, Eva listened to the device play all the responses she'd been given throughout her conversation with it accompanied by gaps of varying sizes separating all of those responses.

*Beep*
The device was turned off. Eva motioned to one of her guys to take it. Once they did, she turned silently to face the computer monitors. 

A couple of seconds passed as everybody wondered what she was going to do. Then, suddenly, she ripped one of the monitors off the table, even tearing its wires in the process, and smashed it onto the floor. 

Its screen shattered instantly, but Eva wasn't done. She grabbed the chair and then struck it over and over again with little to no break in between each of her attacks. It wasn't clear to her how much time she spent doing this, but by the time her rage subsided, the monitor had been broken into so many pieces it was almost impossible to tell what they made up originally.

She fell onto her back, finally taking a chance to recuperate. They were completely surrounded by the police now, and without their hostages as a bargaining chip, her odds of escaping were dicey at best. But none of this mattered in comparison to what she thought about next.

The one who left this voice recording for her. She couldn't help but wonder what kind of person he was to have been able to best her so completely. And as she did, Eva broke into laughter which soon spiraled into an uncontrollable fit.

Neither Lena nor Miles seemed to fully understand Blake's trick even after he'd finished explaining it. But one was more vocal than the other.

"But that doesn't make sense. I mean, you had a full conversation with that psycho. How'd you know what she was going to say and how to respond to her?", Miles asked.

"That doesn't matter. Blake, we need to have a talk.", Lena puffed.

Blake didn't respond to either of them. He simply stared at his wristwatch.

"I played my role pretty well, didn't I?", his reflection laughed.

"Blake. Listen to me!"

*Tick, tick, tick*
Once again, he didn't respond. Blake was too busy watching the hand counting down the seconds spin continuously. 

*Tick, tick, tick*
Looking back and forth between the watch and Lena, Blake stayed alert for anything else that might be in store for him. 

*Tick, tick, tick*
Seconds turned into minutes, but the minutes refused to turn into hours for a while. Thankfully though, the world decided to show mercy and the clock finally struck midnight.

"Congratulations. Lena lives another day."

Blake balled his fist in triumph. 

It was then he felt a light bump against the top of his head. Confused, he looked up to see Lena looking back at him, tears gently streaming down her face. And the shaky fist she was just barely able to make was still sitting atop Blake's head, almost as if resting there.

"Please... Promise me you won't do anything like that ever again..." 

Complete silence. 

Blake was at a total loss at what to say. He couldn't bring himself to say the following words, so he thought it to himself instead.

"Sorry... Lena. But this feeling I'm experiencing right now...

I wouldn't trade it for the world."