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Chapter One

Markus

I keep toup the bench and the dumbbells in the corner so I don’t have to wander around mid-workout I putin hts and the noise froym, the walls dappled with da to be in their oorlds, too, which suits me just fine

I puhts and focus on that alone, the heat, the burn in my muscles

I gritthe strain in h h my whole body

I add row quieter with each successive rep

Then I stand and start the deadlifts, straight after the bench press, glancing at myself briefly in the mirrors that cover many of the walls That’s the only downside to this place, all these da my attention away from my workout

I look in thein his – es and black in the middle I catch my own eye and wonder if I always look this haunted, this eerie look in ine

Well, that’s fitting

I have

I turn away and keep on withtothem in the drenched fabric

Finally, after an hour of nonstop body punish up I wipe down all the surfaces and put away all the weights, leavinguntouched, like I was never there

That suitsin the s It’s been a year since I retired from the military and since then I’ve hopped fro…

For what? a voice ym, toward the exit

I don’t kno to answer that question, really

I never planned what I was going to do when I left the lory and e Some of my fellow soldiers did, those with families, mostly, with their five and ten year plans

But not me

I head toward the exit, the world already turning dark in the late afternoon, the Maine winter sending flurries of snow across the darkened glass of the double doors

“Hey, wait a sec,” someone calls out behind me