Disclaimer: I could never even begin to have the imagination to think up Alias, that imagination however, belongs to JJ Abrams. I got the idea for this and some information from The Doomsday Conspiracy by Sidney Sheldon.
A/N: Sorry for the delay, hope you had a great holiday (if in fact you choose to celebrate one.)
I'm updating because I've got an AP test next week and I'm not sure I'll be able to update next week. The updates will slow down to about 1 a week.
Andrew-Squee, she merely had a shirt with the British flag on it.
Suggest listening: Miss Independent by Kelly Clarkson
Previously on Above Top Secret: "What do you say? It's definitely an interesting opportunity." Sark asked.
I thought it over in my head. Dad had said the same thing. Don't go to someone they'd expect me to go. But, he had to have another angle, didn't he?
Chapter 3-Kamal
---Sydney's POV---
I glanced over at him.
"You wouldn't be here if you thought I'd say no." I answered.
"Is that a yes?" he asked.
"Whatever…" I murmured realizing that if I went any further down the rabbit hole I was going to go tumbling down out of control. "Just drive." I turned on the radio and flipped through the stations until I found a station playing a song I liked. Glancing quickly at Sark I tried to subtly place a bug underneath the armrest.
"You're not planning on singing along, are you?" he asked when I rose the volume.
I laughed and in spite of his disapproval I began to sing along. "So, by keeping her heart protected, She'll never, ever feel rejected, little miss apprehensive, said ooh, she fell in love…"
"How you weren't discovered, I'll never know." Sark made fun of my singing.
I curled up in the seat as a wave of insomnia washed over me. Reassuring myself that the bug would record any verbal activity Sark undertook within a 7 feet radius of the device, I allowed myself to drift off to sleep with Kelly Clarkson's voice in my ear.
So, by changing a misconception, What is this feeling taking over
She went in a new direction
And found inside, she felt a connection
She fell in love
Thinking a word could open the door
Surprise, it's time to feel what's real
What happened to miss independent's
no longer need to be defensive
Goodbye or you will love, it's true
Hours later
---Sark's POV---
I placed Sydney's body on the couch before I made my way down the hallway.
A boy who looked to be about 5 or 6 with shaggy brown hair ran up to me with his arms extended.
"Can we do superman now? Please? You said next time and now is next time!" the boy begged.
I ruffled his hair and smiled, "Hold on, let me just check on Mommy for a second, okay?"
"Okay. Can I take a candy from the candy jar?" he looked up at me and flashed me his best puppy dog face.
"But just one, you don't wanna have to go to the dentist." I warned him.
He nodded and ran off, heading for the kitchen.
I opened the door to the room to the left of me and sighed, not surprised by what I saw.
30 minutes later
---Sydney's POV---
I woke up on a strange white couch. It was plump and comfortable like an overstuffed bed. The lighting in the room was barely noticeable, obviously hinting that the bulb would soon need to be changed. Except for a loveseat decorated with a flower design and a glass table the room was bare of any furniture. The walls were an intense red with a ceiling fan that illuminated the room. The floor was rich wooden color with a strange pattern carved into it. Getting off the couch I combed my hand through my hair and went to look for Sark. Vaguely, I could make out a child's voice somewhere in the house. I walked turned a corner and headed down a hall, towards the sound of voices arguing. A little while later the arguing stopped. When I had reached the right door, I could hear someone crying. I stopped myself from knocking on the door, attempting to will myself to sit back down on the couch. However, I couldn't go sit back down and in the end I just opened the door a crack. I saw a woman crying with her knees drawn up, hugging her legs and staring down at the lavish king sized bed with Sark standing near her angrily whispering things to her.
"I'll be back, I've got to go check on something." Sark informed the woman getting ready to leave the room.
Unsure of what to do I promptly knocked on the door.
"Yeah" Sark called from inside the room.
"Umm," I began, unsure of what to say. "Where are we?"
I watched Sark walk to the door and open it fully giving me full view of the woman on the bed and a discarded red fishnet shirt.
"Wow, Nancy Drew hasn't figured it out, whatever will we do now?" he asked in an amusing high pitched voice. He spoke again in his regular voice. "You're on a need-to-know basis right now."
"Yeah, and I need to know." I smirked.
"Will you excuse us?" he called back to the girl in the room. He passed through the doorway and closed the door silently. "Look, for the safety of everyone in this house, I can't tell you. Anything else?"
I was about to retort something when a boy appeared. "Can we play superman now?" he begged.
Sark glanced at me. "Watch her will you?" he asked.
I nodded, heading into the room Sark had come out of.
---Sark's POV---
I picked up the little boy and turned him parallel to the ground and began running around the house.
"Bad guys beware!" the boy yelled.
I set him down on a chair in the kitchen and in my most villain-like voice I boomed as I grabbed his action figure, "Haha evil prevails!" I ran off with the figure and screeched in a high pitched voice, "help me superman." Somewhere between the kitchen and the dining room he jumped on me and I collapsed to the floor.
"No one can escape me with my superhuman speed. And now to borrow Static's powers!" he yelled.
"Nooo!" I yelled playfully as he pinned me to the floor.
---Sydney's POV---
By now the woman had stopped crying. She began to shiver and attempted to get off the bed, falling down in the process. I ran to help her, but she shrugged off my help. I noticed her red, bloodshot eyes, but remembered she had been crying.
"Cayou c-c-call" the woman seemed to be concentrating hard on just trying to speak properly. "Mark."
"Mark?" I asked confused.
"N-no. Slark." the woman shook her head. "S-sar-k"
"Sark?" I asked to make sure I had the right name.
The woman nodded her head. "Asklim if hean ome ere, to my ouse."
Just then I remembered that she had been shivering, but just as I was leaving to get her a blanket I noticed that she was sweating. She grabbed my arm and glared at me. "Call him!"
I noticed something red on her arm and before she could stop me I had twisted her arm just enough to spot it. Her wrists had slashes and cut on it, the depths of them varying. She pulled back her arm and withdrew from me. Tears began to fall from her eyes as she rocked back and forth on the bed.
"Stop l-ooking at me like that." she cried.
I walked closer to her and bumped into something on the ground. Bending down I picked up a bag of what looked like Ecstasy. On my way back up I spotted a bag of what appeared to be Cocaine tucked in between the bed and the box spring. I pulled it out and confronted her.
"Did you take these?" I questioned.
She turned her head away from me and wiped her nose. I watched her pull the covers over herself and heard her shivering underneath them.
"I, uh, saw a boy out there. He looked like he was maybe 6 years old. Is he yours?" I asked. I wasn't sure if she heard me or not but she soon started crying again underneath the covers. I glanced once more disgustedly at the heaving form on the bed and walked out of the room.
---Unknown POV---
I smiled at my husband and began eating my food.
"You don't look too good." I informed him.
"I'll be fine." he reassured me. Suddenly he grabbed my hand and scrunched up his face like he was constipated.
"Are you okay sweetie?" I asked.
He nodded, but this time I didn't believe him. I hurried to find the manager. By the time I came back we found my husband slumped over in his chair with a yellow liquid coming out of his mouth and his tongue a sick black color.
The manager quickly took my husband's pulse and shook his head at me. "I'm so sorry M'am."
I knew we should have never taken this vacation. I hurried into the bathroom where I began crying. My breath came I short gasps and when I looked at myself in the mirror I didn't look my normal color.
"Just breathe." I instructed myself. "It's just from seeing the man you love die like… that."
---Sark's POV---
I watched Sydney sit down at the island in the kitchen before I joined her.
"She had stopped taking them shortly before she got her job as a chef at a restaurant down town. She promised me she wouldn't start again, but what can you do? She'll be fine in about 3 days. Granted, she doesn't take anymore in between now and then." I explained.
I searched Sydney's face for a reaction but found none.
"I gotta get started helping you." I told her. "I'll be back in a few days. Pick a room to stay in." I got up and left the kitchen before she could argue.
3 days later
---Sydney's POV---
I had learned that the boy's name was Kamal (ka-mall). That was as much information as he would give me about himself. He'd only told me that so that I could call him by a proper name when I needed him. We were eating breakfast at the island in the kitchen. I was eating eggs, toast, and bacon and Kamal was eating Lucky Charms. It was just then that sleeping beauty arose and joined us for breakfast. Her long brown hair was messy and her eyes were still a little bloodshot. When she spotted me eating with Kamal she pulled him away from me and began yelling.
"What the hell are you doing with my son?" she demanded to know.
"I was looking after him because you were sleeping off the after effects of who knows what kind of drug combination you took and Sark was off doing me a favor." I yelled. "So in short, I was cleaning up after your mess. Taking care of your responsibilities."
I watched her put a pan on the stove and turn on the stove. "Just like everybody else. You'd already formed your opinion of me within the first few minutes of meeting me. Kamal, sweetie, go watch TV while Mommy talks with this lady."
"S-s-syd" Kamal began. "n-ney?"
I nodded reassuringly.
"Syd-ney, her name is Sydney." Kamal informed his mother.
"Oh" the woman commented. Her eyes lit up with recognition ad Kamal ran to go watch TV.
She poured some type of oil-like substance into the pan and then placed something that looked like meat into the pan. Oil flew up from the pan and the woman had to move to avoid being splattered in the face with in. She scanned the cupboard for some ingredients and promptly began to add them to the concoction. While that cooked she searched the fridge for something.
"I'm not some kind of druggie." she began. "Well, not anymore. I had finally managed to quit all together a few days before I got a job as a Chef. I couldn't get many jobs. I had been forced to drop out of my private school once they learned I was pregnant. I was good at cooking so I began to cook things and sell them, but I knew once I had my child I would need a steady job. But the stress of raising a child was just too much. So I took to drugs. Don't get me wrong. I love Kamal, and I love to see him happy. So much that if him being happy meant he got expensive toys then so be it. But, because I also loved to shop for myself and have designer clothes I found myself in a bit of a predicament. One of my friends at the restaurant which I work at told me I could make some money, on the side, doing work for a man named Ken. She gave me the address at which I could find him. The pay was incredible. I convinced myself that I'd only work there for a little while and then quit. Once I got used to having that much money, and the bills grew, I knew that I couldn't just give up the job. But Ken, he pressured me to use again. Most of the highest playing clients used, and here it's legal as long as it's not shipped overseas. I couldn't come up with the excuse and then he gave me a choice. Either use or lose… the job that is. Sure, they'd give me energy and make me happy for awhile. But the days following are always so much worse."
She flipped the meat in the pan and left it to finish cooking.
"I'm Chrystal, by the way." she introduced herself. "and obviously… your Sydney."
I bit my lip wondering if I should ask her the question that had been on my min for days. "Chrystal, is um, is Sark the father?"
A/N: Questions? Comments? Don't worry I didn't forget about the real reason Sydney is there.