Ahh, I'm really getting into this story. It's starting to consume all of the free-space in my brain.
Expect several updates soon. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
"Thank you Myrnin." Amelie said with a sparkle in her deeply set alabaster eyes. It looked like a storm was brewing inside of her, and Claire guessed that there was. The storm was Frank. Myrnin didn't answer and Claire didn't bother to take her eyes off of Amelie to read his expression. She couldn't fully process what was going on. Was Amelie still Amelie, or was she Frank? Was Amelie being controlled by Frank or had Frank become her? Either way, it wasn't good for Myrnin or Claire just then, or Morganville in general. Claire tried to compose herself.
"Amelie…?" She asked, straightening out her posture. She had been cowering against the wall, catering to her sprained ankle.
Amelie's head swiveled neatly down to Claire. She would have seemed almost normal if not for the hint of malice in her restless eyes. Claire gulped uncomfortably. "Yes, Claire?"
Way to go, genius. She hadn't even thought of what she was going to say next, so she blurted out the most mundane comment ever. "How are you feeling?"
Yeah, that's right. She'd asked a vampire how it was feeling. That had to be some weird symbolic sign of how things were starting to change, and drastically fast. Amelie caught a very thoughtful expression. "I feel a little odd, on edge. What happened here?" She asked, sounding disoriented while keeping her air of grace. It confirmed what Claire was thinking. Frank was too smart to try and take over Amelie entirely, it would be too obvious. He would instead make subtle alterations that could possibly destroy the balance of the town while still remaining discreet. He was way too smart because his plan could actually work, and that scared Claire more than anything she'd witnessed in the last twenty four hours.
Myrnin took a step towards Amelie. Claire could see that his profile was not in the least bit amused, and that he genuinely seemed confused. "I don't know. Perhaps you should sit. Perhaps I should sit. I have the most monstrous headache." He knocked dust off of his velvet suit jacket. He was wearing a pair of long black jeans that clung to his skin and his bunny slippers. He looked well dressed, for once.
Amelie nodded in approval and set out ahead of them both. Myrnin was about to follow when Claire grabbed his sleeve. "Did you not see what just happened?" He looked down at her hand as if it were a pesky flee.
"Unhand me, heathen. Why must you result to physical actions before verbal?"
Good question, she thought. Truthfully, she didn't know what she thought. Myrnin was acting like he'd just woken up from a nap and all was well, and he didn't even seem to remember what had gone on earlier that day. It made Claire's stomach hurt. He was about to say something else when a resounding crunch echoed across the room.
"Beakers?" Amelie asked. Myrnin rushed over to her side and examined the scattered pieces of broken glass more closely, although, it was hardly necessary. He had the eyes of a vampire, but Myrnin was all about theatrics. He stood on his very tippy toes and glared down at the mess.
"Why yes, those are my beakers. Strange, I must have misplaced them."
A weird feeling washed over Claire. It was like a startling premonition. They didn't know. It felt sort of like before when everyone's memory had been set back for several years, except this time they were talking only a matter of minutes. A sense of dread made her body suddenly heavy, but she knew not to say anything. Frank was in control, he could easily flip a switch that out casted her, so her best bet was to play along and think of a strategy that didn't involve putting her life on the risk.
They re-entered the lab in silence, and then Myrnin gasped wolfishly. "This chaos will not do," He was moving things around rampantly, dust billowing in harsh clouds. Claire coughed and covered her nose with her sleeve. "I do apologize, Amelie. I don't remember leaving such a mess."
Amelie stood frozen facing the room that Oliver was in. She didn't say anything; she just stood there and stared. Claire felt that she should say something but nothing good had managed to come from her mouth all day. Myrnin was still scattering about, adding more chaos to his chaos. The lab was never clean, and Claire really hadn't thought about there ever being a sense of order in the place, but apparently to Myrnin there had been. "I'm missing a dramatic amount of my supplies."
"Yes, there seems to have been a raid. I'm having the most trouble trying to remember what I am here to do in the first place." Amelie said turning towards Myrnin. "I believe I came to give you orders."
She smoothed her hands down the pure white suit she wore, and her eyes fixed on Claire. "You are now responsible for Claire and everything that she does. I would prefer that you keep her in the lab as much as possible until I can settle things amongst my people. Havoc is coming with the new balance of order, and I don't need Claire or any one of her friends in my way. Is that clear?"
"Hmm, I suppose." He threw an empty box across the room and placed his hands on his hips. "Though, I must say, I have no idea what you are talking about. It seems I have forgotten how positively mad I am." He smiled the most breathtaking smile and then went back to ripping the room in half.
Amelie didn't even blink. "I'm very sorry Claire, but this has to be done." Two of her guards appeared out of the shadows. She would never get used to seeing that, and hid the urge to yelp. "I am only preparing you for what is to come. I have decided that you must leave Morganville. You, Shane, Eve, you will all be escorted by Myrnin next week out of the town. I know how troublesome it is for you to be so far away from your ill father, so let this be a representation of my mercy."
She dipped her head and then turned to leave, her guards following her out with only a moment's hesitation from the female. She made quick eye contact with Claire that said all that Claire needed to know. She was confused, she still remembered. She was a missing piece in Frank's plan. He'd forgotten all about the guard who'd witnessed Oliver's crime scene, and knew that he had been eliminated.
"Wait!" Claire said, and Amelie paused to look over her shoulder.
Claire was unsure if it was her place to ask, but she had to know if what she'd heard was true. She knew that as long as it was true not a single one of them would be leaving Morganville anytime soon. "What about Michael?"
Amelie's face stayed hard and stable. "He will stay here. He's one of mine, and I must take care of my people. Again, I'm terribly sorry Claire. You will never see your friend again." And with that, she was gone—the lab door slammed shut on all of Claire's hopes. She still had to fight. She had to fight somehow, but she felt completely helpless. She knew that Myrnin would obey Amelie no matter what so she couldn't do anything. Frank was going to destroy all of the vampires, which would have seemed logical when Claire first entered Morganville, but things were different. She'd actually grown fond of some of the vampires, and knew that they too had a heart. They had to have hearts for Michael to be one.
Myrnin on the other hand was questionable on a lot of different levels. He was like a less sane version of Amelie. It was hard to tell rather they simply did things out of instincts and for their own survival, or out of the kindness of their hearts. She thought of this morning with Myrnin and how thirsty he was. He'd kissed her like someone who had been loved and loved. She knew the difference because it was how she shared kisses with Shane. There had to be something in Myrnin, no matter how much he claimed otherwise, and he couldn't die.
She turned around to see him staring at the floor with a puzzled look on his face. "Someone was here, Claire. Did you let them in? I feel awfully in the dark about something, but I can't put my finger on what it is." He walked over to the shattered book case and shook his head. "You know that I don't like people uninvited coming down here."
Claire played with her fingers nervously. She could tell Myrnin about what was really going on, well, because he was Myrnin. He was crazy and he would believe her. "You're right, someone was here." The next part made her stomach bubble nervously. "Oliver is dead. Fr-Shane killed him."
Myrnin waved a casual hand through the air. "Tell me something I don't already know. Oliver is dead. Amelie will take over the town. Your incompetent boyfriend has lost his mind, a typical day in this boring town."
Claire had to pick her jaw up off of the floor. "You know what's going on? Myrnin, look, we have to do something. She's going to kill you." Words tumbled off of her tongue faster than her mind could register. "She's going to get rid of all of the vampires because she's being controlled by—"
Myrnin's hand suddenly came hard around her face, blocking her mouth from uttering the last part of the sentence. Myrnin was standing close to her, her back pressed up against him. She could feel portions of his body that she would have never wanted to even imagine before that morning. It made her swallow back a nervous glibber. Yeah, she was being so mature.
His lips came near her ear, and she felt the warmth of his breath tickling her from the insides out. "When will you learn? There are things that should never be spoken. There are things that we have absolutely no control over." He paused to chuckle darkly. "I know that's strange coming from my lips because I can accomplish more than the average man, but in truth, child, I am only this way because I don't bother to babble on about my knowledge so that the average man would become me. Do you understand what I am trying to say?" She nodded, even though she didn't know what he was getting at.
"Good. We are not to speak of what's going on in this town, we fix it. That's all we must do." He let go of her mouth and Claire breathlessly let out a strangled cough. His hands smelled like oil. "But how are we going to do that?"
He stepped away from Claire and walked across the room to stand on top of the fallen shelf. He looked back to his normal amused self, and Claire realized for the first time that he was wearing a bow tie with polka dots on it. "First! We find out who on earth tore through my lab this way. I'm not very pleased at their attempt to remain anonymous. That raises the obvious question, was that their purpose? To remain anonymous? We shall see."
No, Claire though. He still wasn't getting it. Something wasn't connecting right in Myrnin's memory. What was he missing? "Myrnin, Shane did it, I told you. He knows about…" her voice shook. "He knows about the machine."
He waved her off again like she was being a stubborn child. "Oliver has been recovering from the silver poison he suffered, he hasn't been in my lab nor do I detect his scent anywhere but in the room he lies in now. There is a very ghastly hole right above his body, so I'm assuming he was thrown into my lab. Oh, but this is just a wild guest!" He shouted gleefully and hopped onto one of the crowded tables. He had the steps of a maniac, a very smart maniac on to something.
"No offense towards you or anything, but your puny boyfriend isn't strong enough to lift a fully grown vampire several feet off of the ground and through a wall. The blood was tastelessly flung across the room very unconvincingly, etcetera, etcetera. Ultimately the mess in my lab down here has nothing to do with the mess with Oliver. You have been thrown terribly off track so that you may be confused and act out foolishly. Me myself, I quite enjoy a good mystery every now and again. This has to be the most exciting one yet."
Well, crap. Claire needed to sit down. Was she that off kilter? Right when she thought that she'd be onto something she had it wiped right from underneath her. Who was responsible for killing Oliver? She was positive it was Frank, but if Shane didn't do it himself, did that mean Frank had possessed him just as he was possessing Amelie? What about Myrnin? What about their kiss, and him pushing that button? Oh man, she felt sick.
"What are you trying to say?" She asked, suddenly teetering to her left. That was strange, she felt like her leg was about to give out on her. Right, she'd pretty much twisted the crap out of her ankle. She'd forgotten. Myrnin noticed just as she noticed and in a short amount of seconds he was lifting her from the ground and spinning her through the air. Claire screamed rather girlishly and felt her head spin.
She landed on one of the tables and Myrnin dashed off in search of something. Claire bit her lip trying to still the world. Once the thought had entered her mind, it had become harder and harder to repress. It was sort of juvenile. Morganville as she knew it was under the control of the most determined man she'd ever known, and she wasn't sure if she'd ever see one of her best friends again. But she also felt…well, gross. It was bad enough that she thought from the very beginning that Myrnin had taken advantage of her, but what if he had taken advantage of her with Frank controlling him? What did that say about their little kiss?
It made her insides squirm and she felt the words surfacing on her lips. She was definitely going to regret this.
"Um, Myrnin?" Her voice sounded smaller than usual. Myrnin picked up weaknesses like a hawk and immediately returned to her side with an arm full of gauze and surgical tape. "You know," He said, ignoring her. "I have received several PHD's over the centuries. It was not because I wanted to know how to help people, but so that I could learn how to dissect my food with precision." He held up a pair of scissor and smiled wickedly as he cut into the gauze.
Alright, so this would be harder than she thought. Still, she pressed on. "I need to know why you did what you did this morning."
"Hmm?" he said, busy measuring the gauze around her swollen ankle.
Something was pounding in her head, heart, her whole body was pulsing. She felt so embarrassed, but she had to know in order to make herself feel a little more grounded in all of the chaos she was already in.
"When we kissed," As soon as it fled her lips she regretted it. Why Myrnin of all people? He wouldn't sympathize with her at all. Even if he had kissed her without the control of Shane's father crippling him, he would never admit to it. She guessed that she deserved it.
Myrnin didn't pause in his actions. He placed both of his cold hands around her ankle and looked up at her with eyes full of mischief behind dark full locks of hair. "There are things that should never be spoken. There are things we have absolutely no control over."
He went back to work, the force of his hands clamping around her ankle becoming stronger.
"This will only hurt for a few moments." He said, and then Claire screamed.
