1. “Infrared Scope”

It was scary that I had a photograph of Edward; it was like catching a ghost. Scarier was how much it bothered me.

Becca had sent it to me - a grainy little portrait of her ‘family’. Ted, Donna, Peter and herself. But it wasn’t Ted staring back at me. It was Edward; his face cold and still.

He may as well have been holding his Beretta to their sweet little heads.

‘Course, it could’ve been the flash-saturated red-eye making him look like a killing machine. But he hardly needed his precious gun to make that point. Just that stare.
 

2. “Empty Shell”

Becca was a piece of irony sitting there, wrapped up in her red blanket on his living-room rug, watching The Wizard of Oz – a bright drab of color in the sterile environment that was his Santa Fe home.

Edward kept his distance, staying in the shadows of the hall, watching her through a haze; a haze that had been separating him from the Parnells since Riker’s. Soon, Ted would disappear, and the hunt would be all he’d long for again.

On the TV, the Tinman was spouting about lack-of-heart. Maybe that was why he never let go of that axe.
 
 

3. “Cold Cylinder”

It was strange - being hunted by Edward every night. Tends to upset me. And not for the obvious reasons like having his Beretta aimed my way.

I thought we’d become close in New Mexico. But the nightmares were telling me something else:

They began in a metal hallway - there was a framed picture of the Parnells, but something was missing - Edward.

-I realize this just as a gun would cocked behind me.

I ran. The hall pulsed like a robotic heart valve without blood. There was nothing organic here. All man made. Van Cleef came to mind. Edward’s Maker.
 

4. “Weaponless”

Edward is a machine. The metallic footsteps chasing me say so. No gun required. Just the coldness of his hands will do. And just as I realized that this is another nightmare, dream logic takes over.

The metal hall I am in quickly becomes a forest. It should’ve been a relief, with living things around me. But Masks hang from all the trees: the Mask he wears when he kills. This is where I would die if I stopped running.

But stop I did. I was surrounded. I turned, weaponless, to meet the cyborg that was no longer my friend.
 

5. “Target Acquired”

Once she awoke, he’d be sure to chastise her for how easy it was to break into her home. She’d need some lessons in fortification.

Edward shook his head as he gazed down upon her as she spelt - she knew better than to leave herself vulnerable like this. He stood for a long time beside her, letting the soft glow of her lamp wash over him.

Shifting the holster under his arm that held the Beretta, he finally sat in the chair beside her bed and waited.  He frowned when he saw a photograph of himself by her bed.
 
 

6. “Powder Burns”

I awoke from the nightmare with a jolt and found the monster in question sitting on my bed, frowning, and cradling a 9mm Beretta.

I blindly pushed away from him before I could think straight, or find a weapon.

“Anita! It’s just me!” Edward said, bravely giving me a shake.

No shit! Then once I got my breath back, my vision cleared:

No glowing eyes of cyborg-hellfire. No metallic flesh. In fact he was smiling; his hands warm on me; sunburned and human.

I sighed. “Thank god.”

Serves me right for keeping that creepy Parnell family portrait by my bedstand.