"So, tell me again Richard; what are we looking for?"

I really shouldn't say again; this is the first time I've asked but since he's dragging me out to the middle of the desert I figure it must be important. That fact alone is enough to make me almost forget the fact that I've killed a man and to top it off, it wasn't even the person I thought it was. Right, shouldn't focus on that for too long lest I bring myself to facing a fact about the whole incident that I've been doing a good job of avoiding so far. He doesn't answer me right away, no, he hesitates. Tries to by himself a few more opportune moments with stammering that's very uncharacteristic of him. Almost as if he's trying to think of the right way to explain it, almost as if- no of course not. He's probably just flustered; this revelation, whatever it is did come from out of nowhere and he's trying to contain himself. That's something he's told me plenty of times; that he's hard to follow when he's excited or anxious.

And I believed him without question.

Goodness me, I can be an idiot.

"Gah! Is it really necessary right now? Can it not wait until we get there?"

He grips the steering wheel tightly, biting hard on his tongue. Startled to say the least, I jump back and bit and press myself further into the leather front seat I'm strapped into. His eyes deviate from the road just long enough for me to nod and silently drop the subject. I let it die without so much as a hope of resurrection. Just like Bennett Thompson. I really need to stop thinking about him. Focus all my attention onto Richard. The frustrated tone; his reluctance to answer; the way he avoided a contraction to sound more authoritative; my word he's pulling the same tricks on me that he does on a target he's trying to scam.

And he thinks it'd work. I don't know which is worse.

"Okay, if that's a secret, may I ask you some other questions?"

He may have shut me out on my first question but that doesn't mean I'm going to give up. He sighs and rolls his eyes, letting his grip on the wheel loosen and letting one of his hands fall into his lap.

"Fine. Go right ahead. Just know that if you ask me the same thing I'm not going to answer."

Well, that was to be expected.

"Did you really expect me not to know that?"

"Why, you gonna shoot me if I say yes?"

If I could slap that smile off his face I'd do it in a heartbeat.

"Not funny," I say with a sniffle and hanging my head.

It was true though. It wasn't funny. Not because the murder was something that affected my psyche; or crushed me emotionally like I let on. It was because I didn't feel anything about it. Not guilt, anyway. Fear. That's what it was.

"Anyway... who am I?"

That's where I think I should start. He raises an eyebrow and cocks his head before laughing.

"Funny."

"No, I'm serious. Who am I?"

He groans.

"You're Indigo Ana Thorne right now."

"I know that. Who was I before that?"

"Does it matter?"

"To me it does."

"Why? What's so important about that, that you need to bring it up like it's some urgent matter?"

"Because I can't remember any of it. Not a single bit. No names, no memories, no anything. Not since I became Indigo Ana Thorne that is. And something tells me you know why."

I look over at him after letting out only a small fraction of the rant I had in mind to see him sitting there completely blank. No expressions, just his eyes peering at the road ahead of him with no real reason. He's gone limp; the hand he kept on the wheel isn't even gripping it anymore.

"You, you weren't supposed to-" he begins before I cut him off.

"I wasn't supposed to what? Catch on? How many times have you done this huh?"

He keeps the same body language and demeanor though I see a rejuvenated look in his eyes. Something I said gave him confidence again. Now, if I could only figure out what it was and I'd be able to deduce which part of the upcoming, inevitable lie is the fraudulent part.

"Lots of times. Always after a new identity. Can't risk you saying the wrong name now can I?"

"And you have some uncanny ability to keep your identity straight?"

"Yes. I figure I implied that well enough that I didn't have to say it directly."

"How?"

"How what?"

"How do you manage to wipe my memory?"

"It's a complicated process. I'd love to get into details, but..."

He holds the vowel sound on but as he slows down and puts the car in park. I can already guess his next words and start to mouth them along with him as he starts.

"We're here."

And then, he opens up his door, unhooks his seatbelt and hops on out. I mimic his exact move to the dot and walk around the front side of the car to get to where he is. All I can see standing next to him is a vast expanse of desert. Sand as far as the eye can see.

"You're sure we're here?"

"Absolutely. Follow me."

I shake my head, looking down at the ground but follow nonetheless. I'm either stupid or I'm crazy but right now I don't really care which. There has to be something about this that'll help me find some of the answers I'm looking for. Either that, or information that'll send me on a new hunt. It's a win/win for me.

We don't make it too far into the ocean of eroded rock particles before he stops dead in his tracks and grabs me by the hand.

"Here."

I look down at the bare, empty, unremarkable ground in front of him. Then at him. Then at the sky.

"Where?"

"Right there!" he exclaims, making an X in the sand with his foot

"What's so special about it?"

Then, he takes my hand that he still had a grasp of, and shoves down onto the center of the X. I struggle to pull my hand up and away but he forces it down just long enough for a blue aura to start peaking out of the ground below. Soon this aura encircles my hand and then my whole body. The sand begins to part and Richard's grip loosens, allowing me to pull my hand away. The center of the X is now devoid of sand as something else floats to the surface. A knife or at least I think it's a knife. The handle is jagged and the blade's dusted over my sand, though glowing a strange purplish color.

"Aha! Finally!"

Richard bends down and picks the knife up from the invisible pedestal on which is stood, careful only to touch its handle.

Then, I feel something start to crawl under my skin and my head starts to throb and pound like it never has before. My knees feel weak and wobbly and the urge to cry out; to scream almost overtake my entire body and I open my mouth but no words come out. No ghastly shrieks escape through my agape lips. I see everything a shade of blue, a shade of indigo coincidentally enough.

And just as soon as it arrived; it's gone.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," I say, holding my head in my hands.

Once more, I try to think. Try to remember back before I was Indigo Ana Thorne.

Then it hits me.

Everything comes rushing back to me; information flooding through me; so much that I can't even begin to take it all in in one sitting. Now, that leaves me with one question left to unlock.

Who am I?