"Monsieur Lensherr?" those were the first words that came from her lips and she never knew how much of an impact they would make. Erik Lensherr remained seated for a second, adjusting the tie on his grey designer suit before he stood up and nodded sternly at her. His lips were pursed as the little blonde led him through the marbled floors of the bank. He listened to her heels click against the ground and could not help himself from admiring the view which her tight grey pencil skirt was giving him. She slowed down to walk beside him as he noted large white doors come into view.
"Il vous voir à travers eux les portes doubles, mon nom est Annalise si vous avez besoinquelque chose de plus une fois que vous le laisser." Annalise spoke to Erik, her voice full of routine and boredom as she told him where he would find the manager and if he needed help after his meeting by giving him her name.
"Merci," he replied. She looked up to his face for a momentary glance whilst he stared straight ahead. She said nothing in return to him and instead looked down at the leather bound diary which she was holding in her hands and pushed the door open, stepping inside and looking at the man who sat in the chair behind his mahogany desk.
"Monsieur Lensherr," she introduced Erik as he stepped into the room, his face still stern looking. Annalise observed him as he walked over to the seat opposite the manager. He had his hands clenched into fists and the briefcase he was holding was tightly to him, as if he was scared to part with it.
"Merci Annalise, vous pouvez aller," and Annalise was dismissed. Normal routine would have suggested that she should go back to the desk in the reception. She should have continued working on the stacks of paperwork which sat there and needed to be completed. That is what a normal employee should have done and it was what she had been doing for the past several months. But there was something about Erik which she knew was not right. Annalise looked behind her after hearing the footsteps of people but they went by without noticing her. Sighing once and pushing her blonde hair to behind her shoulders she remained stood by the door, pretending to busy herself with the diary as people continued to pass her by. She shook her head at the thought which embedded itself into her mind. She had sworn never to use what she had. She knew the trouble which it had caused and she could not risk it again. She simply wanted a normal life and because of what she was made it impossible. After five minutes Annalise heard something from the room. The pitch of the noise was quite distinct from their previous talking which had been mumbles, incoherent to understand if you shall. This sounded like someone was in pain. With a moment's hesitation, Annalise turned the handle of the large plush office door and moved into the room, her eyes going wide with what she saw.
"Excusez-moi," she spoke out loud and clearly and then she saw it. She saw metal move from the manager's mouth and into Erik's hand. She had been right about her instinct. There was something different about him. Erik turned his attention to the secretary, his blue eyes which were once calm now narrowed into rage. He raised his hand quickly but Annalise was faster.
"Je ne ferais pas que si je vous," she warned him off of his thoughts and he raised a brow. She had managed to speak without opening her lips. Erik's eyes turned from those of rage into curiosity as the blonde stood before him, the diary cradled in her hands and her eyes trying to challenge the intensity of his but they were no match. "Vous devirez aller avant qu'il appelle la police."
Annalise told him to leave silently before the police arrived and Erik gave her a smug grin, his mouth falling open for a moment in a gasp at the shock of what he was hearing. He replied back to her in his thoughts, not wanting to know the manager to know they were having a conversation which did not involve him.
"Il n'oserait pas," Erik replied mutely, telling her that he would not dare call for the police. Annalise shook her head at him once, the curls on top of her head moving over her shoulder as she did so.
"Mais je voudrais," she promised him, informing him that she would call the police. Erik shook his head, moving out of the room, his shoulder brushing past Annalise's as she turned and watched him leave.
"Etes'vous bien?" she asked the manager, checking that Erik had not done permanent damage to him as she walked over to his desk. He nodded quickly, raising a hand with his palm outwards as his other hand probed into his mouth, looking at where the filling had been taken from. Annalise looked at him until something shining caught her eye. The desk which was normally full of dull white paperwork with black writing on it was present. But in the midst of all that there was a large piece of gold.
"Depuis quand avons-nous accepte que?" she snapped at the wounded man, her voice an octave higher than before as she asked him since when did they accept Nazi gold.
"Il n'en est pas de votre preoccupation," he huffed back at her, reminding her that it was not in her place to ask questions which did not concern her. Annalise glared at the man, dropping the leather bound diary onto his desk which caused a large thud and snapped him out of the daze he was in as he slowly withdrew his hand from his mouth.
"Je prends aujourd'hui au," she spoke and turned on her heel, allowing the manager to shake his head, yelling at her and telling her she could not take the day off or she would be fired. Annalise sighed slightly at hearing his threat and paused momentarily at the door. But she continued to walk out of the bank.
...
"Si ce n'est pas l'espirit assez pue de lecture blonde," Erik drawled. He stood at the door to his apartment in his robe as Annalise stood on the hallway to his apartment. She had her brown Mac coat wrapped around her body tightly, tied up by a long length at her waist which showed how slim she was.
"We can speak in French or English," Annalise informed him. "Whichever you would prefer."
Erik raised a brow, a hand resting on his door as he held it open and he crossed his legs over, a smirk unable to resist playing on his features.
"In that case we shall have a change and go for English," he told her, his voice deep as she looked up to him. "You have me at a disadvantage Mademoiselle. You can read my thoughts but I know nothing about you."
"I wouldn't say it is a disadvantage. I would just say it is unlucky," she replied, her thick French accent coming through as she spoke to him. "Where did you get that Gold from?"
"The gold?" Erik asked her, moving back from the door and allowing Annalise to enter. She did so hesitantly, pushing the door shut gently behind her as she looked around his simple room which contained a large bed, two chairs and a desk. "So you don't want to know how I managed to rip his filling out?"
"I'm a mind reader Monsieur Lensherr," she told him. "A telepath I prefer. I know how you did it. You can make metal do anything to your own will. I have to say that I have yet to see anything like that."
"Excuse me?" Erik replied, a coin moving through his fingers as Annalise observed the notion he was making. "What do you mean you have not seen anything like that?"
"Ah," Annalise said, divulging into his mind. "You didn't think there was anyone else like you, did you?"
"I had my doubts," he admitted, the coin falling to the desk with a clatter whilst Erik picked up his clear glass of water. He pressed it to his lips softly, his eyes never leaving the blonde who was moving around his room. She stopped by the window, looking onto the view of Geneva which he obtained through the glass of the apartment.
"So you are here because of the Gold?" he checked, gently placing the cup back onto his desk as Annalise turned back around, her arms folded as she nodded.
"There should be none of that Gold left. It is illegal Monsieur Lensherr."
"I am aware."
"Then you shall do well to tell me where it came from."
"If I told you that then I may have to kill you," he teased her and she rolled her eyes.
"I would like to see you try," she replied. "I want an answer."
"A friend," he spoke. "He recommended the bank which you worked in quite highly. Besides, the Gold was of no interest to me."
"Then what was?" Annalise asked.
"You're an inquisitive creature," he murmured, placing a piece of hair back onto his head from where it had fallen from. "Why are you really here?"
"I'm here about the Gold," she lied to him and Erik shook his head, looking at her face as her cheeks turned a slight red. He walked over to her, his hand outstretched as a locket lifted up from her chest. It had been resting on her cream blouse as it rose into the air. Erik grasped onto it, stepping a foot away from her. She remained silent, her breathing deep. She had seen how powerful he was. She had seen how he could turn in an instant. Erik pressed down onto the button on top of the locket and it popped open. He looked into the metal at the black and white photo which sat there and Annalise closed her eyes.
"You saw what he did to me when you looked into my mind," Erik whispered at her. "You saw what he did to my mother."
"I want him just as much as you do," she murmured back and Erik closed the locket and dropped it back against her clothes.
"What happened?" Erik enquired simply and she moved closer to the window again, looking onto the scenery, not able to face Erik as she told him.
"He murdered my mother. She protested about giving me to him...I take it you remember the office?" she checked with Erik.
"How can I forget?" he complained to her and she managed a small chuckle. A twisted sound which moved past her lips.
"She told him that she would rather see herself dead then have me used as his experiment...and I suppose he took her words literally and killed her then and there," Annalise replied in a small voice. "I was eight...I didn't understand what was happening..."
"I never saw you there," Erik informed her, pouring her a glass of water from the pitcher he had in his room.
"He channelled my powers...he...he never hurt me though Erik. That was the strange part. He just told me how to use what I had...I can't understand it. You went through pain and I never did..."
"He never took you into that room?" he whispered and she shook her head and took the water which he was offering her.
"He killed my mother. Revenge is all I have ever wanted," she assured him. "I just didn't know how to get it."
"And you think I am the answer?" Erik checked with her.
"I fail to care if you want to help me or not Monsieur Lensherr," she said, taking on the prude and uptight secretarial role he had seen when he first met her. "I can just read your mind and find out for myself. Don't think I wouldn't do that. This means too much to me."
Erik remained quiet, watching as she drank the water which he had given to her and his eyes narrowed, his hand pulling his robe tightly against his body as she sipped on the water, her eyes never leaving his.
"You're as messed up as I am," he informed her.
"We have Schmidt to thank for that, do we?" she checked and Erik raised his own glass of water.
"We can toast to that," he promised her and she managed a small smile at him and walked over to his desk, looking up at where he had pictures and strings moving from each other. It was like a spider's web. And Erik was tangled right inside of it.
"All of my tormentors," he explained to her. "Everyone who has hurt me in the past or who hurt my mother...they're all there."
"But Schmidt is the last one, isn't he?"
"Of course," Erik nodded at her. "Your full name may be useful Mademoiselle. I have tickets to book for a flight to Argentina soon and it seems your intent on coming with me."
"You don't mind me coming?" she checked with him and he shrugged.
"As long as you don't get in my way and annoy me then there won't be a problem and besides, you seem hell bent on coming along regardless of if I invite you or not," he told her and she nodded at him once again.
"Two minds are obviously better than one."
"Especially when one mind can read other people's thoughts."
...
A/N: Reviews are good! Give me encouragement! I have so many ideas for how this is going to go so let me know what you think! Please!