CHAPTER 4
A/N – Hello my dear readers! I am so grateful for all of your amazing feedback, it means a lot to me! And I am having hella fun writing this, I must say, it's coming out even better than I thought. But we all know – Gilbert's awesomeness is inspiring and in this story he IS truly awesome, do not doubt it. Thus, enjoy the new chap ;)
Warning: implied violence
There had been quite the hectic day – police had indeed come and taken statements from everyone and she had stuttered more than once during her turn, but only because she had gotten horribly nervous all the sudden. No, she had been scared, and she still was, Elizaveta realised, spinning the golden liquor on the bottom of her glass. At least the… Grim or whatever that evil ghost was supposedly called hadn't showed up, it would have been the last thing she needed. Still, the tattoo was there, sinisterly adorning the brunette's delicate wrist, which meant that he would show eventually… Maybe he only showed up at night?
"In which case he isn't of much help as it is…" the Hungarian grumbled into the glass while downing the last of its contents. Because Ivan Braginski was somewhere out there too.
No, she would not think of all that shit now, Elizaveta decided, motioning to the bartender for a refill. No, tonight she would just sit there and get completely wasted, watching how Feliks and Toris were making fools out of themselves on the dance floor. For the occasion she had put on the shortest dress and the highest heels, just for the adventurous feeling they gave her, being something she wouldn't normally wear. Well, she wouldn't normally go out to a club during the week and get wasted either.
A few men had offered to buy her a drink, but she wasn't in the mood for flirting, she only wanted to brood, so the brunette had politely but firmly sent them on their way. But she would look up from her glass every now and then to glance around and that was when she saw them.
There were three bulky men, all sitting at the same table and clearly looking like they were there with a purpose beyond the beers in front of them. Maybe she was just getting paranoid and seeing Ivan Braginski's minions everywhere, but the men were looking at her, of all the people in the damn club.
Elizaveta took a deep breath, telling herself to remain calm as she set the glass down slowly and fixed her skirt, standing. She left the coat on the chair, as if she were to return to it, and decided upon inconspicuously heading towards the exit. Yet the three men's stares seemed to burn her back and her wobbly feet surely didn't help as she tried to push her way through the crowded club.
Fuck, this really was a bad idea, she thought, cursing the high heels which only counted as a gratuitous complication. But she pressed on, not daring to look back and see if they were pursuing, it would have looked like she was running away. Fuck, Feliks and Toris! But she couldn't even warn them, there was no way any of them would hear their cell phones in that deafening noise. Still, the Hungarian did pull out her phone from the miniscule purse and texted rapidly as she advanced.
And then suddenly the world seemed to turn upside down and Elizaveta nearly dropped the phone as a pair of arms swept her off her feet and she was lifted over someone's shoulder. She kicked and thrashed with all her strength, screaming, but to no avail, her captor carried her towards a back exit of the club and nobody seemed to notice.
Several moments of utter horror passed while the brunette's heart pounded madly in her chest, before he reached the door and stepped out into a back alley. The cold wind instantly made Elizaveta shiver, but helped clear her head a bit as she was lowered down to stand on her own feet. Blinking, she looked up at her captor – a young man wearing a dark green hoodie over a striped shirt and dark faded jeans – and realized it was… the Grim. In modern clothing he looked somewhat less fantastic, but his sheet-white skin and garnet-colored eyes were still giving him a sort of unearthly appearance.
Oh, shit. So he really existed. SHIT!
"Uh, Mr. Beilschmidt, I… " the brunette stuttered, panting and instinctively retreating until her back met a hard wall.
"Just Gilbert."
"I-I'm really sorry about last night… I-I wasn't feeling well, and I panicked and I-…"
But the frown she expected to see on his face never came, instead the albino tilted his head a bit and grinned. "Zhere's no problem, zhe awesome me has seen vorse reactions zhan zhat," he said.
Uh… had he just referred to himself as 'the awesome me'? Elizaveta blinked, momentarily uncomprehending just what the hell-… eh, whatever. "Right, so, Mr. Beilschmidt, I saw someone following me just now…" She nodded quickly to emphasize the idea, folding her arms because fuck, it was really chill outside.
"Just Gilbert. I know, ja. Ve'll take care of it, don't vorry."
The Hungarian scowled, plagued by a sudden suspicion. "So, 'just Gilbert', you're not really… like… one of Arthur's friends, or coworkers, or something, and he sent you to take care of me, right? Because I'm in some really deep shit and unless you seriously are some evil ghost from hell I don't see how-"
"Oi, mate, we've got some business with the lady here, so sod off, yeah?" a voice said and suddenly the three men she'd spotted earlier showed up, effectively blocking any escape paths they could have taken.
The Grim's smile vanished and he turned abruptly to face the intruders. "Or else vhat?" he inquired dryly.
"I said bugger off!" the man repeated, and the muzzle of a gun was pointed in Gilbert's direction. "Are you going to make me say it again?!"
"I vill say only zhis: if you start a var, you must fight it. But if you fight me, I vill kill you," the albino said calmly.
In the next moment the gun went off and Elizaveta screamed, crouching down next to the wall and breaking into loud, terrified sobs. But to her shock the Grim was still standing and when the smoke cleared she saw that his right hand was balled into a fist. When he opened it, the bullet was there, resting on his palm demonstratively before it was dropped on the concrete.
"So, Miss Elizaveta, vere you explained about zhe details of zhe contract?" Gilbert wanted to know, turning to face her trembling form.
"W-What?!"
She couldn't think of an answer right then and when the men lunged at him from all sides she buried her face in her hands, not wanting to see it. There were a couple of shouts, another gunshot, some muffled screams and then, eventually, the sinister thud of bodies hitting the ground.
Taking a deep breath, Elizaveta forced herself to open her eyes. All three attackers were lying on the ground unconscious or maybe even dead, she couldn't tell and really didn't want to know. But it would have been me, the accountant thought, in utter horror. Who knows what they would have done to me? She gulped, trying to push the disturbing images away from her mind.
"So, does zhis answer your question? Ja, I am vhat you said."
She couldn't say whether this was necessarily reassuring or not. What now? He'd asked about the contract, right.
"I-I was told, yes," the brunette replied eventually, clearing her throat but not giving up her crouched position near the wall. "So I believe that now-" Oh, FUCK! Now he will ask for payment. Suddenly she was horribly afraid and began trembling much worse than before.
The Grim noticed and at least figured that she must have been very cold, because he took off his hoodie and offered it to her, together with his hand to help her up to her feet.
"T-Thank you," Elizaveta mumbled, nodding. "Um… I need to go to the bathroom…"
"Shit, what the hell do I do now?" the Hungarian muttered once she was safe in the confines of the small toilet stall. She wrapped Gilbert's hoodie closer around her body, rather enjoying the feel of the warm, soft fabric bearing a vague scent of cologne. Rapidly she pulled out her phone from the purse (the coat was lost, but at least she still had the purse) and texted Arthur, inquiring about the whole payment thing.
'It was rather unpleasant at first, I daresay, but the painful part was brief and a senseless, fantastic shag against the bathroom sink followed. Got used to it quickly'
"Idiot, don't tell me this shit!" she grumbled furiously, stuffing the phone back. What the hell did the contract entail exactly? She hadn't even seen any contract per say! What a fantastic CRAP this was!
The brunette made her way out of the restrooms and found the Grim waiting outside, ever-patient. She figured she would have to ask him directly, but first…
"Uh, Gilbert… I was thinking," Elizaveta began, hoping that what she was about to suggest sounded reasonable enough. "That perhaps we should, uh… talk and get to know each other a bit better, uh, before…"
"Before vhat?"
She paused, unsure how to phrase it. "Well, actually I was told by another contractor – who explained to me the details of the contract, to be precise – that the… um… payment part may also consist of a… of a more… intimate sort of interaction." Namely against the bathroom sink, but that was better left out.
"I see." Gilbert sighed. "But nein, the payment simply consists of you letting me bite you. Zhere is nozhing else and if your friend got more zhan zhat it vas because he vanted it, make no mistake."
Oh. Well, then, come to think of it, Alfred was obviously very attractive. But he was also an evil ghost. And Arthur was obviously a little hypocrite.
They left the club and walked quietly for a while, heading back to the apartment. Elizaveta had already texted her brother about it, but Feliks had replied that they'd be out a while longer. At least he was alive and well, those men neatly disposed of, which reminded her she still had the Grim to handle until she could actually call it a night.
"So… you're a Habsburg? Like… Austrian?" the Hungarian asked, after some effort of remembering some of the stuff she'd read on that page before burning it. Goodness, how did one make conversation with an evil ghost?
Gilbert grimaced visibly at the suggestion. "Mein Gott, nein! I am Prussian, like from Königreich Preußen," he clarified. "Zhe Habsburgs vere our enemies… but zhat vas a very long time ago."
Huh, I guess it would have been sort of lame to 'order' an Austrian after all, Elizaveta told herself. Anyway, the Grim looked nothing like Roderich, but he was alright. He was rather cute. No, he wasn't cute, he was actually quite stunning, but then again there was a reason for that and she had better not forget it. Her stomach sank at the thought that they were now, as Arthur had put it, 'bound'. How would the rest of her life look like, being bound to this man who wasn't exactly a real person? Would she even have a life? Darn, she really hadn't thought this through, but then again probably without him there wouldn't have been a life to think about in the first place.
"So… uh… this is it, I guess."
Damn, the apartment looked bad even if you were bringing an evil ghost back home with you, the Hungarian observed. She hoped that Gilbert Beilschmidt – she still had a hard time accepting that he had the same name as his boss – had no qualms about where his contractors lived.
She led him into her miniscule bedroom, just in case her brother and his boyfriend did decide to come back earlier and closed the door in their wake. Cue awkward moment when the Prussian turned to face her and they bumped into each other in the narrow space between the bed and the window wall.
"Okay, so now-… uh…" Elizaveta looked up at the Grim, almost shaking with nervousness. She gripped his sleeves in anticipation, but Gilbert only leaned in to whisper in her ear.
"It's alright, I vill do it in your sleep. You von't feel a zhing, it von't hurt."
"Wha-…"
"Shhh, you must sleep now."
To be continued
