Chapter Nine
"Drives Me up a Literal Wall"
Jerusalem
Evangeline woke up the next morning with red-tinted eyes and a particular heaviness on her shoulders. The girl lugged herself around and Malik noticed, but Evangeline made sure that she extinguished any possibility of further questioning by sending her best look of output and annoyance that she thought possible. Malik quickly pursed his lips and put up his hand in surrender and Evangeline returned to the last of the self-prescribed chores. It only became imperative to know what was wrong when Evangeline started to cry softly in the corner of the other room where she thought that no one could hear her.
"Evangeline, what's wrong?" Malik asked and Evangeline thought that by quickly wiping her tears and putting on a normal face could mask her true emotions, but she knew that Malik was smarter than that as to believe that she was alright. The girl sighed as the Dai sat down, knowing that it wasn't going to be easy getting him to go away. "Putting on a bored face doesn't hide the fact that your eyes are red, Eva." The woman stared at him blankly.
"Nothing's wrong, Malik. I'm just annoyed and I don't wish to talk about it." Malik raised an eyebrow to signify that he wasn't going anywhere if she didn't tell him something. She thought a moment. Quick and sly were two qualities that she had from getting out of the house with Azusa so they could spend a day at the market. Why were they failing her in front of Malik? Evangeline knew why. Evangeline knew that she couldn't outsmart anyone there. Malik, Altair, and any other Assassin would know that she was lying. The girl had found her match in wits and, if she weren't so stubborn, she'd probably say that they were smarter. "That other Assassin in there is rude." That was no good excuse; both she and Malik knew it.
"That Assassin hasn't woken up yet and he went to bed at the same time that I did last night. Don't lie, Evangeline. I've been taught for many years to see through the mask of the monster." Malik loosely pulled his legs in and leaned back against the wall. "It will help to talk and I hope that you can consider me enough of a friend to do so." Evangeline could feel the scratchiness of the tactic. It was so obvious that he wanted to place guilt on her as a weight to lower the words out of her.
"Are all men like this? Can none of them take no for an answer?" Malik suddenly looked surprised, as if he wasn't sure what to expect to come out of the woman's mouth, but hadn't anticipated that. She looked at him blankly again, as if this would shut him up and make him leave, but he too could put on an unamused face and play the card that he wasn't fazed as well. And he played that card rather well. "It's Altair," she finally gave in, "He's an awful person." Malik chuckled nervously.
"Tell me something that I didn't know, please. What was Altair doing here again? He should have left for Masyaf last week." Evangeline shook her head at the Dai and explained that the man had been unwilling to leave with Talal coming back so soon. It wouldn't make sense to go all the way home and come all the way back. By the look on the Dai's face, Evangeline could tell that it made sense. "Okay, so what did he do? Tell me everything." The Dai was truly concerned and it showed in every action of his whole demeanor.
"He's been coming by because I told him that his bandages needed to be changed for a week and last night, he was being particularly annoying, so I said something that really angered him and he walked out and I followed him. He pushed me against a wall and threatened to kill me and told me that it wouldn't matter because… b-b-because my family has already moved on." Evangeline could barely make it through the explanation without shaking and by the last sentence she was crying into her knees. "What if it's true?" Malik hesitated and then turned and put his hand on her back.
"First of all, what did you say to him?" Evangeline never looked up from her knees and Malik leaned over to try to see her face through her thick amount of hair. She shook her head in disappointment.
"I was a complete jerk. He told me to get up, but I just wanted to sleep so I said, like an idiot, that I'd only do so over my own dead body. He didn't care that I said that, but then I told him that he probably wouldn't kill another innocent." Malik's eyebrows went up and Evangeline sniffled.
"I can't tell whether to call you the greatest idiot or the most brilliant genius. Evangeline, that has to be the stupidest thing that you've done and I wish that I had done it myself." Evangeline cringed under his judging gaze, but decided that she deserved it. "I'm going to tell you that it's too soon for your family to move on. It's been a month. People have gone missing for longer and been able to return home still. Second of all, Altair knows how to make words hurt, especially when they are not true. You threw something at him and his automatic reaction is to throw something equally as hard, if not harder, right back at you, even if he has to dig through an archive to find the means to do so." Evangeline nodded and leaned back, sighing. "So whom else cannot take no for an answer? Surely it can't be just Altair, though that's frustrating enough."
"A suitor has been stalking me. He says that he can clear my name in Damascus and I know he can, but he keeps putting marriage as a deal sealer." Malik nodded. Evangeline had become well acquainted with the feeling of being so close, yet so far from something that she missed. It occurred in even the smallest of things, like the pillows the night before, yet there was always a life to be taken from her side or a quarrel to be had before she could do anything normally. "He's probably in Masyaf right now banging on Dalphine's door and wondering why it's taking me so long to answer."
Evangeline sighed. "Why do you not accept?"
"Malik, I'd still, after all of the events, rather marry Altair than that man." Malik suppressed a smile, but it didn't last long. Evangeline tried to stay mad at him, but she couldn't.
"That bad, huh?" Malik asked. Evangeline giggled and nodded. "That says a lot about him. On a scale of one to Altair and he manages to break it and go the extra mile. I'm amazed." Malik smiled and apologized for lightening the mood. Evangeline didn't care, though. As much as it still bothered her, the feeling was muffled and the dark clouds were a lighter shade of grey.
"Malik?" Evangeline asked as the Dai stood up and began to walk into the other room. He turned and looked, ready to answer whatever question that she had. "How does someone apologize to Altair? Where would I start?" Malik pondered it a moment. He had never had to do so. Altair had always been the one in the wrong. The man sighed and glanced back at the girl. Evangeline, though she caused it, felt awful. She needed to mend the bridge with Altair because she liked him. Evangeline knew that the blade was for effect and simply a hollow threat and a broken promise of blood. Altair wouldn't hurt her and she could almost be sure of it.
"Why would you want to? That man is arrogant and awful and he has done more to hurt you than you have done to hurt him. I would tell you to wait for an apology from him first, but it seems that you'd be dead before you ever heard the words come from him. I'm sorry, Evangeline, but only time will tell." Malik continued into the other room. She knew that his answer was biased. She knew that Malik hated Altair, but the same thing applied. Only time would tell before Malik Al-Sayf forgave Altair Ibn-La'Ahad and before Altair Ibn-La'Ahad forgave Evangeline Harper. Altair really was the center for many issues that took a lot of time and effort to resolve. Time and effort was something that Evangeline was willing to give.
The day was slow, but it came and went in the blink of an eye when Evangeline thought about it. Before anything else could happen, it was nighttime again and the young woman was watching the Dai close the hatch to the peculiar little building and placing the key in a bowl on the counter. Evangeline wanted to cry again. Altair was locked out, but she wondered if it was for the better. The man was dangerous and, until she could safely get her apology known, he could easily kill her. He made it known that Al Mualim may be above killing others, but he was just below it.
The girl lingered in the small hallway and gazed up at the oncoming rainclouds. Lightning flickered in the sky to the west and Evangeline watched as the rain started to come down in buckets and drench the stones. The inside of the bureau started to puddle faster than the slightly slanted floor could drain it out. A flash of white darted past the bureau entrance and Evangeline dashed for the key and stepped up to the lock, seeing that Altair was staring back at her. The man looked awful and she couldn't deny him the entrance to the bureau in that weather. His posture was slumped and his robes clung uncomfortably and tightly to his body.
Evangeline started to soak as well as she pulled herself onto the rooftops. "Altair, come inside." The Assassin just sat there, glaring at the girl from his peripheral vision. Evangeline sighed at his stubbornness. "Let's go before you catch a cold, Altair." The stoic man remained and shook his head, making himself look comfortable against a chimney pipe.
Evangeline shivered in the harsh winds and torrents of rain. "I would assume that the bureau was closed because of me?" Altair questioned and Evangeline nodded, telling him that she was against it. "But Malik knows of last night?" Evangeline knew that he had also cornered her, once again, in her own actions. She told Malik for her own safety, but betrayed Altair in the process. But he threatened to kill her. But he was also the first victim. Evangeline was too confused to think of it, so she threw the trap door open and walked towards the man. "No, no. You'll catch a cold out here. I'm fine. You just go inside and worry about yourself. I'm perfectly capable of adapting." The words stung.
"Altair, I said one thing. One stupid thing; I didn't even mean it. I was angry and angry people are not wise. Please come inside." Altair scoffed and shook his head unbelievingly. "Altair, this isn't healthy. I thought we were above this. I thought we were frien-" Altair shot her a look and the girl immediately shut her mouth. Evangeline started to doubt whether Altair could say the same of her. The thought pained her, but did not surprise her.
"Evangeline, you really know nothing. About me, about the past, the Templars, the Assassins. You probably don't even know much about yourself. Evangeline, you know the surface- the first thin layer of a whole ocean of truths and to call me a friend is only proof that furthers my point of how little you have knowledge of. It's better if you mind your own business, Eva, because this war is not yours and I will not have you prancing around with the thought that you have an understanding of something that you do not and never will," Altair spat. Evangeline bowed her head.
"Whether you come inside or freeze to death is not my decision," Evangeline said forcefully, though her voice was shaky and broken. She was hurt and there was no denying it. "But whether you wish to drag me down with you is not in your hands. The door is open, but no matter whether you come through or not, you can consider yourself alone now. Maybe that'll be a change or maybe it will not, but it's hard to tell now because you are so confusing." With that, the girl walked down the fountain once again and into the main room, kicking her pillows into place.
The sound of a crash in the other room made her jump. Malik sat up and so did the other Assassin, claiming a knife from the table that separated their sleeping spaces. "What was that?" Malik asked. The other Assassin went to burn a candle, but faintly Evangeline could see that Malik stopped him. "Evangeline, are you awake?" The girl shivered and sat down.
"Yes, Malik. The crash was just the skinny little table falling over in the other room. The water levels were higher than it could handle." Malik relaxed a little and the other Assassin hesitantly placed the knife back on the shelf.
"Are you positive?" Evangeline replied with a yes. Ten minutes later, Malik and the other Assassin returned to their slumber and Evangeline went into the other room with Altair, ready with a blanket. However, the water had gotten to the pillows that were near the fountain and they looked to be saturated in the murky liquid. Altair simply glared at the girl, but she paid no mind to it.
"Get up, Altair, and come with me." Altair, though unhappy about it by the look on his face, followed the woman into the stuffy other room. The man sat in a wooden chair and eyed the woman's movements. Evangeline could feel his penetrating gaze on her back as she gathered three of the heavier style blankets from the shelves. Handing them to the man, she said, "Take these. However, they won't do much if your clothes are still wet, but I'm not sure exactly where to get more. Do what you will with it and take the pillows in the corner across from whatever Assassin that is."
Altair's face hanged drastically, from hatred to a grateful confusion. "I thought you said that I was alone when I jumped through that door. If that was the case, then what is this charity?" Evangeline didn't look back at the man as she spoke and arranged her own cluster of cushions.
"I also said that people are not wise when they are angry." Altair grimaced and looked down upon his dripping robes and Evangeline had a small inkling of hope that something had clicked within his mind. The Assassin went into a small alcove in the back of the room and noiselessly retrieved another pair of regulated pants and an undershirt from the closet-like enclosure. "And I don't enjoy, friend or not, seeing those that I love in the rain unless they have learned to dance in it. You were drowning in it, Altair." Altair nodded and walked into the other room to change, probably standing in the last few feet of dry flooring before the doorway.
Evangeline's stomach knotted at her own words. Those that she loved? Could her admiration for the man be considered love? The idea scared her, considering the fact that she wasn't even supposed to be friends with him, but she couldn't really deny it, but it also made her want to smile. Evangeline frowned despite the feeling because she was mortified by what she wanted: for him and from him. She did want. She could tell herself that she was not even sure what she longed for, but the void was there, just like the hate and anger were there before. But she did know. She wanted to be around him for eternity. Evangeline watched the man come back in and retrieve the blankets from the table and lay down soundlessly on the pillows. Evangeline Harper finally admitted to herself that she loved Altair Ibn-La'Ahad, no matter who he was or what he did or how angry they were at each other. Just like the windows in the streets of Masyaf and the broken stands back in Damascus, this too could be fixed. She cut off the flow of oxygen to the candle and shuffled her way to the last grouping of cushions, sleeping peacefully until morning.
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone except for Evangeline Harper, Yasir Halabi, Haleem Wasem (TELL ME WHO HE IS GOD DAMMIT.), the spirit of Dalphine Babineaux, Azusa Kanaan, Abd al Rashid (by now we should know that that's the horse), and the Harpers, the Kanaans, the Halabis (you'll meet- possibly- them and you'll hate them.) The rest is Ubisoft, who I worship day and night. :)
Okay, so I'm trying to keep Malik civilized because he is, after all, friends with Evangeline. He's disappointed in her for her choice of company, but I can't make him fault her for it because that would just ruin the aura that I'm trying to give him. So please bear with it in the fact that he's technically not out of character. Malik and Altair WERE friends at one point. Let me know how I'm doing! This isn't just an idea that I had. It's an attempt to better my own writing through the use of my favorite characters. :) So please rate and review! I want to thank all of you for your continued support for me and my story! I've been getting beautiful reviews and favorites and follows to not only the Experiment, but to me as Violyss as well! THANK YOU SO MUCH! Until next time, cherubs!
-Violyss
