N/A: Second Chapter! Yay! So I decided it'd be better for me to churn out the next chapter as soon as possible, instead of waiting for all sorts of things... Heh... Anyway, you guys had BETTER enjoy it OR ELSE. Haha! Just Kidding... Seriously though... Only one review for the first chapter? *pouts* I NEED REVIEWS TO CONTINUE PEOPLE!
Karis caught a glimpse of him as she and Ariadne left Professor Miles' class that afternoon. He was striding into the university, his confident gait and smooth pace indicating that he knew his way around. Only his gaze which seemed to be warily taking in his surroundings implied that he hadn't been in the university for quite some time. The sight of him made Karis feel awash with cold. Against her will, she found that she was frozen to the spot, her hand on the metal banister of the stairs, just standing there, staring, as panic trapped her heart and squeezed it.
"Karis?" Ariadne stopped a few steps down and looked back to see her roommate staring into space, her face clouded with anxiety. Her shoulders were rising and falling with shaky breath, as if she had run a long distance.
"Karis, what's wrong?" Walking back up the two steps that separated them, Ariadne reached up and lightly touched the cold hand that was gripping the banister with white knuckles, only to hear Karis gasp as she jerked away from Ariadne.
"Don't touch me!" Karis snapped, her blue eyes wild as she stumbled backward, away from Ariadne. Her movement made her fall backward, hitting the stone steps painfully as her bag tumbled of her shoulder and down the stairs. Ariadne frowned as Karis sprawled on the stairs, desperately pushing herself away from Ariadne.
"What the hell, Karis?" Ariadne said, bending down to pick up Karis' bag as she strode up the stairs to close the gap between them.
Karis whimpered and panicked, knocking away Ariadne's hand with a ringing slap.
"I said don't touch me!"
People were staring at her. I'm dreaming, Karis thought, as her vision began to blur and distort as she began hyper ventilating. I'm dreaming, he's here. Oh God, oh God, I'm crazy. They're staring at me. Don't touch me, Ariadne, don't touch me!
"Karis! Stop it, you're scaring me!" Ariadne yelled, shoving Karis' bag into the girl's chest. "Snap out of it!"
Karis gasped as Ariadne reached down and forced her to stand up, jerking her out of her panic with a rough pull on her hands. A ringing slap forced Karis back into her wits as Ariadne grabbed her face and forced her to meet her roommate's eyes. Shocked, Karis pushed Ariadne away –gently this time- as she rubbed her stinging cheek.
"I'm sorry, Ariadne," she said wretchedly as tears spilt over her black lashes. "I'll see you later, in the room."
"Wait, Karis-" Ariadne began, but she was already gone, her black hair whipping behind her as she ran away.
Sobbing, Karis locked herself in the comfort room and bent over a sink, splashing cold water on her face.
"Calm down," she said to herself, her eyes closed as she hugged herself, the water in the sink left running. "Just calm down. This is real. This is real. Remember, Karis? You dreamt that he would be here, remember? He even told you himself, didn't he?" she said to herself, her deep voice shaking and broken.
Finally slowing her breathing, Karis opened her eyes to find that despite the water droplets clinging to her face, she was outwardly calm and composed, her face more or less expressionless. Fixing a sardonic smirk on her lips, she dried her face and strode out of the comfort room, her head held high and confident. I know what to do, she thought to herself, her mind chilled with cunning and manipulation.
Arthur walked briskly, holding a slip of paper in one hand, his luggage in the other. Finally coming to the address indicated by the paper, he slowed down and looked up at the building.
Originally meant to be a storage building for a museum, the building had some pretty impressive doors and columns, but overall, it gave off the feeling of an abandoned warehouse. Inside, it was much brighter than a warehouse, much better actually. Smaller versions of the columns outside supported the ceilings, and the walls were practically all window. Frosted glass, luckily, so they could keep the same amount of lighting without the risk of someone seeing inside. The lower levels of the building had even more of a warehouse feel, or rather, underground parking. These rooms were lit only by flourescent lamps, and had the choking atmosphere of old cement. These rooms, they wouldn't use.
Arthur returned to the higher floors, and began setting out their equipment on the left over, rusted furniture, briskly and efficiently looking over the suitcases and the extracting equipment they held inside, as well as setting out the phials which held the drugs to put the team under. As he was going about cleaning things up, his mind turned to the new architect, whom Cobb had briefly pointed out to him before he took her for the "job interview". She's cute, Arthur thought to himself, smirking slightly. He still wasn't so sure if she could be trusted though.
Then he remembered. The tail. That's right. What to do about that one? He remembered as Cobb told Ariadne to wait a moment at the foot of a flight of stairs which led to the roof, before coming over to Arthur. Ariadne did as she was told. Further down the hallway, Arthur noticed a tall, black haired woman with gaunt and high-cut cheekbones making her way towards Ariadne. Arthur could tell she was focusing on Ariadne because of the way her gaze roamed. She strode with a destination in mind, but her gaze wasn't focused ahead. No, it skittered and shifted, looking furtively and warily around, looking everywhere except at Ariadne. Just before she walked into Ariadne's direct line of sight, the black haired woman turned and faced the row of lockers by the wall, and, fumbling with her pockets, dropped the key. As she stooped to pick it up, her gaze did a last sweep of her surroundings, before her eyes, over Cobb's shoulder as he walked, met Arthur's gaze. That was the one moment that proved to Arthur that she was tailing either one of them. It could be him, Cobb, or also their new architect. As her gaze accidentally met Arthur's, for a fraction of a second, her eyes widened, as if she were scared, before she picked up the key and opened her locker, and began to concentrate too much on simply putting her books inside. As she pulled out what must have been the last book from her bag, Arthur watched as she opened up at a random page, and began to read. Her eyes bored into the page she was holding before her eyes, but didn't shift back and forth the way they should when reading text. At that moment Cobb stood in front of him, holding out a small sheet of paper.
"I'm going to see if she's good enough. Get this place prepped up in the meantime," he said quietly. "We'll see you there."
Before Arthur could even nod, Cobb was walking back to where the architect was waiting. Arthur shook his head slightly in irritation, before looking back at the black haired girl. She was still "reading" but as Arthur turned to walk away, he saw her close the book and lock it into her locker hastily, before picking up her bag and moving towards the door, trying to look as if she weren't following someone. Nice try, he thought smugly. She clearly wasn't working for anyone, as her look, her manner, her books, everything, told Arthur she was a student. And there was something in her gaze, some determined, immoveable will, that told him she was doing this for herself. But still, there was that question: Why?
A rusty sounding buzz jerked Arthur out of his thoughts. He paused, waiting, and counted the seconds that passed. One, two… Two more quick buzzes, followed by a long one that lasted two seconds. Hastily, Arthur ran down to open the door for Cobb.
"Come on in, this place is great," Arthur said dryly as he opened the door and admitted Cobb and Ariadne. "So are you our new architect?" he said to Ariadne, noticing too late that Cobb was shaking his head slightly.
"I'm sorry, what?" she said, a puzzled frown appearing on her face.
"Oh, nothing," Arthur said, quickly covering it up. "My name's Arthur."
"Ariadne," she said, shaking his hand.
"Let's get to work," Cobb said, all business and urgency as he pushed past Arthur to head upstairs.
As Arthur closed the door, he peered outside. Sure enough, leaning against a lamppost, the tail was there, holding open a sketch pad and drawing what seemed to be, by her gaze and position, the building next to their new work place. Arthur smirked as he closed the door and locked it. First of all, you were, again concentrating too much, second, you just gave away the fact that you're also taking architecture. Interesting, but I'll have to tell Cobb before you get too troublesome, Arthur thought amusedly. And then another thought struck him. She looked familiar. He was sure he didn't know her, but still… She looked way too familiar to be good.
KYAAA! So there's the second chapter! Yay! I REALLY NEED REVIEWS RIGHT NOW! Sorry, but Favs and Alerts aren't enough for me *grins sheepishly* Heh. Just hit the Review button, please? Or else I might find it REALLY HARD to continue (I already am actually :-/)
Anyway, thanks for reading!
~P. Viper
