Issue 1 Downtime

Aiden walked onto campus after working at the embassy. He had put his foot on a bench to tie his shoe when he noticed a notebook underneath it.

After tying his shoe Aiden opened the book to try and figure out whose it was.

"What is this?" Aiden asked eyebrows raised as he started reading some...uh...bad poetry about a certain team leader.

To be fair to the person who had written it, it wouldn't be totally obvious who the poems were about. Technically, they could be about anyone.

Green-my beloved's hair
Green-his daughter’s frog
Green-His wife’s dress
Green-the color of my heart
Green with envy

Could refer to any number of people.

Aiden turned more pages trying to figure out whose notebook it was. He may have also been reading the poems because that'd help, right? Or it was like watching a train wreck, you just couldn't look away.

The next poem wouldn't provide any additional clues, although it did hint at the identity of the unnamed beloved.

I can rest in the shade of my beloved’s spreading branches.
I can lie on my beloved’s soft cushions.
But I cannot
I must not
Hold him in my arms.

Forbidden love...There are a few too many green haired students on this campus. Perhaps there is a green haired professor I have not met? Why would it be limited to campus though? it could be some random person in London for all I know.

Aiden sighed and continued reading.

The next poem might offer a few hints about the writer's identity.

My touch
Corrupts
Tears
Breaks
Heals
Mends
Repairs
his body.
I touch him
I hurt him
I make him whole
in body
She makes him whole
in spirit.

"Most likely somebody who works in the medical building," Aiden said, "A place to start at least."

Aiden walked and read at the same time.

The poem's continued.

She loves him
as a puppy
She loves him
as a bear
She loves him
as a table
She loves him
as a chair
I love him
as a man.
Who loves him more?
Which of us, loves his true self?

"Will," Aiden mused, "Must be, there cannot be many mutants who are green haired, shifting, married, and a parent."

Aiden continued walking towards the Medical building looking for another clue that would at least lead him a bit closer to the person whose notebook he had. Because one honestly does not want to just ask random people if they've lost a notebook.

If he kept looking in the notebook he'd find more poems.

He saved my life
He broke my heart
He rescued my body
He captured my soul
He set free my limbs
bound with ropes.
He tied my feelings up
into tiny knots.
He saved me from death.
He sentenced me to an eternity of tormented longing.

Aiden leaned against the wall not wanting to go into the medical building just yet because whoever wrote this might not want people reading it. It was after all kind of embarrassing.

The girl who will rescued...I can't remember what her name was...

There were, thankfully, only three more poems in the notebook. The rest were sketches, and poems she'd printed out and pasted or copied into the notebook. And, on the back page, the initials I.G.

The first read

I try to forget
his laughing eyes
I try to forget
his clever hands
I try to forget
his protean form
Then I see him.
And I try to forget he belongs to another.

The second was shorter

Love
when he holds his daughter
Love
when he looks at his wife
Love
Will never be mine.

The third, and final poem was opposite a rough sketch of a tree

Shade
Shelter
Protection
Comfort
He offers to all who pass by.
A noble oak
Bitterness
Sorrow
Death
I offer to all who touch me.
Deadly mistletoe.
Killing the tree I love.

Aiden closed the notebook and sighed. He then walked into the medical building and headed for the infirmary.

What was her name...