"I found her," Myrnin whispered. Hope and desperation seeped into his eyes all at once, creating a swirling mass that only could be identified as pain.
"Found who?" Amelie casually asked with a bored tone, not bothering to glance up from her paperwork. Stacks of white paper and manila envelopes towered around her in neat rows and piles. Myrnin continued to stare at her, mentally sending a message of his sudden and onset panic and hoping she would get it. It would be much too hard to explain. His eyes flashed back to the computer screen and then back to her face. Computer screen, her face. Screen, face.
With a tired moan he swung up from his seat at his desk and quickly strode across the threadbare, somewhat red carpet over to her, slamming his palms down on the table in front of her and sending the neat stacks of papers drifting into the air.
Finally, with a slightly amused look, Amelie raised her grey eyes to meet his black ones.
"Her," Myrnin whispered again, more desperately this time, more forcefully. His eyes clouded over to a muddy red with panic and he felt the instinctive need to bite something, to bite something hard. That look confirmed who it was; only two people in the world could put Myrnin in that state of sheer desperation and one of them was dead, several times over. Amelie tilted her head to the side, assessing his mental state and stared him down long and hard, telling him he had better be sure.
"Are you sure it's actually her?" Amelie inquired, as if she didn't trust Myrnin to understand her. He didn't even stir under her gaze or rise to meet it with his own mockery as he usually did and this alone showed her that he believed with all his heart that it was truly her indeed.
"God damnit, Amelie, of course I'm sure. I couldn't be more sure about anything in my entire life. I think that I of all people would be able to know if it was truly her or not, after all she is still linked to me," he almost yelled, flinging his hands in the air, much like an exasperated mortal. He spun on his heel and set about pacing up and down the room, in front of Amelie's desk and back, at a break-neck speed, hands clasp firmly behind his back. He shook his head as if it could actually clear his thoughts and Amelie heard his fangs slide down with a sharp snap.
He continued pacing for several more moments, almost acting as if he were waiting for Amelie to stop him, which she wouldn't. She was very content to let him continue until he returned to this world, well that is until he came back or wore a path in the floor, whichever came first.
After a good hour or so of him pacing and muttering, followed by more muttering and pacing she let out a long sigh to show her discomfort. At this he twirled back around and returned to the position he had been in before with his palms spread on her desk. He leaned in close, pushing her authority and daring her to object.
"What?" Myrnin growled in a perfectly impolite tone. Teeth bared and eyes red, this was quite a menacing sight to see but to Amelie it was only a familiar one that showed his underlying hurt. She really did hate to see him hurt, after all he did do a lot for her, much more than most and he deserved something to reward it, but she also hated it for it only showed his as weak, as human. His hurt and pain was self-made, caused only by him refusing to live with the emotions of the immortal, he too often fell for the innocent humans, fated to die and suffer before him. It was disrespectful to himself to let his human side shine through and to do it so publicly. Amelie shuddered, it was much easier to lock the guilt and compassion away and act as if there was none. She herself was a master of emotions, of controlling them and when she felt them, but not even a master could stop the experience of them. All vampires, to their great dismay, felt the same amount of emotions that humans did, but in a more detached state and decades of remorse weighed heavily upon the soul and caused one to act brashly. This brashness only led to more death and more pain in the end. This was why young vampires could be so dangerous. Only fledglings in control, they sprinted away from reason and instinct and let their emotions run wild, guided by a still heart. Amelie knew that these emotions dubbed as "human" feelings were dangerous not only to the vampires but to their mortal companions as well.
She shook her head and sighed again, self- control was not something that Myrnin was familiar with, let alone something that he would have exerted upon himself.
"You can't let this get to you Myrnin, dear. I sent her away for a reason, I did not want you to find her again and so soon at that," Amelie looked at him with cold eyes, a glint of suspicion gliding into them like fog, "In fact, I specifically ordered you not to look for her," her eyes narrowed even more, "Why must you always disobey me?"
"I-I-I didn't, your grace. I came upon her by accident. It seems that my little bird has gone and made herself famous," he stuttered out, his last words once again turning into a breathy whisper and dread creeping over him, "Very famous indeed."
"Famous?" Amelie said questioningly, cautiously, "Whatever for? Has she gone on to be the great scientist that she always envisioned?" Something about the way Myrnin was standing told her that was about the farthest thing as to why she was now "famous".
"No," he whispered hoarsely. He turned away from her desk once again, ripping his hands through his messy black curls and rubbing his eyes in frustration. He had returned back to his manic pacing.
"How could she do this? How could she do this to herself, to all of us, to me? Amelie, I can't stand to see her like this, this, this obsession created by libidinous mortals, lusting after her beautiful body!" he finished, panting from the emotional exertion.
Amelie arched one frosted eyebrow and leaned back into the plush chair, wishing for her own straight backed one in her own office, but no of course they couldn't sift through Myrnin's journals in her own office, they had to do it here, in this fragmented laboratory. She easily glanced around, taking in the true extent of the decay.
The place had gone back into a seemingly endless mess, broken glass and benches piled into corners, cobwebs dangling from the ceiling, dust, inches thick, laying over torn books and papers. There were precariously piled boxes in masses of 6 ft high and a bent and twisted, metal telescope thrown on top of a smashed globe and random bolts and gears were scattered across the scratched floor. It was an absolute disaster.
"You should clean," was all she said, looking around once more and wondering how she could stand to let herself be in this place, it looked abandoned. It even smelled abandoned, she thought, a stench of dust, rotting paper, corroded metal, dead wood and old blood assaulted her. Myrnin of course fit perfectly into this dilapidated room with his mismatched, stained clothes, matted hair and dirty skin. She really hadn't released exactly how much he had wasted away until today.
Myrnin spun to face her with fangs back once again and eyes a brilliant red; he looked like a madman. Pure rapture hung, suspended in time in his inky wells. He was in a plethora of pain and fear.
She only pitied him.
"Amelie please," he begged, "This is my Claire and I simply can't stand to see her like this, all exposed to the world." A hint of desperation was clouding his voice.
"Myrnin, you're making it sound like she's turned herself into some sort of public courtesan or porn star," Amelie said, tilting her head slightly to make it seem as though that was simply impossible and Myrnin was a total fool for making it sound that way.
"Well, with what she's doing, she might as well be," he muttered bitterly, hanging his head.
Despite the fact that Myrnin was a "drama queen" his reaction had startled Amelie and she was beginning to wonder if something might actually be wrong, not that what Claire did anymore was any of their business. Amelie wouldn't even think to stop her if Claire decided to find a career in prostitution. It would be a shame though, the girl was rather ingenious.
"Show me," she said.
Myrnin darted back to the computer pulling up tab after tab, showing Amelie article after article about Claire. There were press conferences, interviews, and talk show appearances on YouTube. Several news sites had more interviews, bios, dates for appearances and her face graced the covers of several tabloids and fashion magazines. There were even ads featuring her on random web sites and she could be found on a pop up commercial for Cover Girl. Teen magazines blared her name, promising her personal secrets to beauty and several tabloids claimed to have the scoop on her new "hottie". Links appeared to inform people about her newly updated imdb page and wiki page, even more were to her latest fashion dos and don'ts, and Google Images was filled with her magazine covers, shots of her at the beach and on the red carpet and photo shoots that she had recently done. She was literally everywhere.
Amelie gasped and stepped away from the screen, very little could truly shock her but the amount of press little Claire had created in one single year was astonishing. It seemed that she wasn't a hooker after all but an illustrious and respected actress, singer and model. She was very famous indeed.
Don't fav/alert/read without reviewing! Much appreciated!