Well it's certainly been some time now hasn't it?
I've kind of hit a rough spot in my life. Specifically the unemployed part, I have an interview tomorrow and will hopefully get my life back on track. But until then it's going to be rough from here on out.
But I guess there is a small good part to this, because during my unemployment I have somehow rekindled the spark I had for this story, and thus re-read the whole thing again.
Now to continue from where it left off, with David and Monika about to face off with David's father. So strap yourselves in and get ready for a show.
Begin!
Revelations
"Enter."
The voice was unmistakable to David, for he had heard it countless times. The authority, the power laced within the tone on the one man David despised above all others.
It never failed to set his teeth on edge, make the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. And as he opened the great door with Monika's hand held in his, the young woman besides him didn't need to look at her beloved to feel the utter loathing he had for the man ahead of them.
David's father.
If he was aware of his son's current state, his face showed no reaction to it. He merely looked down upon them, a small, mysterious smile on his face.
Monika took in the great hall around her curiously, the sheer vastness of the room making her feel very small. There were pillars to either side of her, three of them at each and made of what had to be some kind of rare stone. The windows were stained glass, each depicting some kind of battle with knights and monsters.
The floor was another rare stone, but the centre was covered with an immense red carpet, all of it leading up to a throne-like chair, laced with flecks of silver and crimson. To the side of the throne stood two women, both of which Monika knew, both of which were looking down at her and only her with different expression upon their faces.
Her eyes were almost twinkling with barely disguised glee, a low sneer, smug and subtle, yet detracting nothing from the natural beauty that was her face.
And the other, a curiosity within her gaze, but an otherwise emotionless expression upon a face that had a more mature beauty to it.
'What is Alison doing here?! And…that woman, oh I can't remember her name!'
In the middle of them sat David's father, dressed in an expensive looking suit. Even from the beginning of the hall, Monika could see a build not too dissimilar from her David's, though his arms were clearly straining the sleeves a little with powerful looking muscles.
'He has more hair and their eyes are different colours. But this is David in a decade or two, they look so alike.' The thought was not too unsettling and might have even pleased her…if not for the whole kidnapping thing that was happening to her and David.
They reached the far centre of the hall when David stopped moving, the motion or lack off so abrupt that she almost fell over, managing to catch herself before she did only by sheer luck alone. If David noticed this, he showed no reaction, simply looking up at his father with undisguised hatred.
A moment passed, the another before his father stood up and walked towards them, stopping a few feet away and regarding the two of them with a look Monika couldn't identify.
"Welcome home, David," he said, looking at his son with a small smile, before turning his attention to Monika and tilting his head politely. "And to, Miss Salvato, welcome to my home."
It took strength for David not to attack the man. His mere presence alone had made him as stiff as a board, his hand holding Monika's so tightly that she could barely feel hers.
"David…"
David blinked and looked at Monika's pained expression, a wave of guilt hitting him as he loosened his grip on her hand.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to…" Monika's smile was all the reassurance he needed to halt his apology, his attention returning to the man before him, who's gaze was regarding the two of them with amusement.
"I must say, David. I never quite expected you to find anyone who could affect you so," he mused, his small smile infuriating his son. "Let alone a woman, but I suppose it could happen to any man."
"What you did to us was sick," David snarled, fighting himself not to lay into the man before him. "You've done some shit to me before, but you've never kidnapped me from my home. And Monika, you-"
His father put a hand up, the action silencing David on the spot, as if by reflex.
"Enough." The word alone made Monika shiver unpleasantly, for it wasn't a suggestion, it was an order, a command. "I am only going to say this once, son. So listen closely and listen well."
The man crossed his arms and regarded David as one would a petulant child. The condescending expression made Monika twitch, her hand squeezing David's in anger.
"You were asked not too long ago to come home, and you ignored it. You were asked not too long after again, and you ignored it. You were then warned yesterday of my impatience and instead of coming to your senses, you chose instead to ignore it again and became intimate with this young woman. So yes, you may be angry, in fact I welcome it. But son, believe me when I say this…I am all out of patience with you."
There was no denying the anger in his tone, Monika could practically feel it. But if it affected David, then he was doing a good job of hiding it, for the only expression on his face was hatred.
"Was there a point in that speech where I suddenly start caring?" David asked quietly, his voice so cold it made Monika's hair stand up on the back of her neck.
David's father merely stared at his son; his expression just as cold.
"You call me son, but you have never been a father to me. Fathers care, fathers love, and fathers understand. You've none of those traits, you've never had those traits. So yes, you can stand there and act all the disappointed angry father you want. None of it can change the past, and none of it can make up for stealing us away from our home and terrifying Monika."
A moment passed where Monika didn't dare breathe, the atmosphere in the room was stifling. The two men simply stared at the other, silence became their weapon.
And then David's father smiled ever so slightly.
"You are more of a man now than when you left," he said softly. "It seems that I was not mistaken in letting you go."
David blinked at his father in surprise, a disbelieving look upon his face. "You let me go?"
His father chuckled. "Of course I did, I could have brought you back here at any time. Did you really believe that merely shouting some nasty words at me would be enough to stay my hand?"
Smiling slightly at his son's expression, he returned to the vast chair and sat down, regarding David with an expression that belayed his previous anger.
"I let you go to see who you would become," he began to explain, gesturing to Alison on his left. "But I did not do so without eyes of my own to keep an eye on you, you were never out of my sight, David."
"But you hated that I wanted to become a practitioner," David retorted, disbelief giving way to anger as he looked at Alison.
"Which drove you right to it," his father replied. "Where I already had a daughter of one of my clients working there. It took little time to get you in the job you wanted, they never would have hired you by your CV alone. It lacked…experience."
David couldn't speak, his whole world was beginning to crash down around him.
"I thought I was free of you," he growled, letting go on Monika's hand as he took a few steps forward. "I thought I was building my own life away from you!"
"Yes, that was the idea," his father answered, regarding his stunned son with apathy. "Your brother was given everything he ever wanted and now he is my biggest disappointment. Wasting his life with parties and flings, throwing his money, my money around as though it grew on trees. My fault I suppose, I spoiled him too much after your mother…"
An expression that so closely resembled sorrow appeared upon his face, but it was gone so quickly that neither David nor Monika could claim to have seen it at all.
"No, David, you were never out of my sight," he continued. "I have needed a suitable heir to carry on my legacy, but you weren't ready at that time, you needed to live life as one would without wealth, without a silver spoon in your mouth and I knew you would take to it with greater ease than Mark. So I proposed a scenario I knew you would reject and allowed you to live life away from me and all the comfort you have known."
"You knew I would reject the marriage proposal?" David asked, barely able to get the words out.
"Of course I did, unfortunately I couldn't let young Lucy in on my plan, but her genuine despair to you rejecting her made it all the more genuine, so it worked out in the end."
"You used Lucy?"
"I had to, she was made aware of it shortly after and has since then kept an eye on you from the shadows. She really does love you, David. A shame really that you've found another."
David winced and glanced at Monika.
But the young woman didn't even look at him, her heated, hate filled glare was focused entirely upon David's father.
The older man looked down at her and allowed an eyebrow to raise, a small smile upon his face.
"I detect a bit of anger, Miss Salvato?"
David swore then and there that it was a trick of the light, but as he looked at Monika her eyes seemed to almost glow, a crimson tinge dancing within them.
"You're a horrible man and even worse father," she spat, her voice so low it was practically a growl. "You used to abuse David, and now you use him and everyone around him, and for what, some game? Some way to continue your corrupt legacy?"
She moved so quickly that David barely had time to blink before she was beside him, her hand interlocking their fingers tightly.
"You won't hurt my David again." Her voice sent a shiver down David's back. "I don't care if I have to tear your eyes out. Stay away from him!"
There were a few seconds pause before David's father laughed, an otherwise pleasant sound outside of the situation. Monika simply snarled at him and narrowed her eyes dangerously.
"You pick your women well, son," he complimented, his small smile now a grin. "She defends you as a tigress would her mate, well done. I won't deny that I was heavy handed with David when he was young, it is not something that I enjoyed. But as my father taught me discipline, so too did I teach David."
"It was wrong, there are no if, ands or buts!" Monika all but snarled at him, putting herself in front of David protectively.
"Perhaps so, but you cannot deny that when compared to his brother who I never once disciplined in the same manner, David is most certainly the one who turned out better for it."
There were a few more seconds of silence before he put his hands together and looked down at the young adults, his gaze finally resting upon Monika curiously.
"Alas we could be here all day discussing my choice of discipline. It is neither here nor there anymore, it is the past. The present is my current concern, or moreover you are my current concern."
"What are talking about?" David asked, eyeing his father with a harsh gaze.
"I believe you know exactly what I am talking about, David."
Outwardly, Monika showed no reaction to his words. But on the inside, she was panicking.
'What is he talking about, he can't possibly know about…about me, right?'
"You must understand that I was watching David for some time, through other's of course. And then out of nowhere, you seemed to just…appear. Remarkably around the same time as when David got struck with lightning." He stopped talking and narrowed his eyes a touch, suspicion clear within them.
"I must admit that I was quite confused, and I am rarely confused. So I got in contact with a few good friends of mine to see what they could find out, and yet they returned…empty handed. You simply seemed to appear from thin air, which left me with three possible explanations."
He took a deep but short breath and then continued.
"One, you were an orphan who simply slipped through the cracks of the system, a sad fate but it does unfortunately occur. Two, you are a very well hidden child of one of my political enemies. Which if true makes you dangerous to have around my son."
He stood up quickly and walked towards Monika, stopping a few feet away and only when David stood between them. His gaze however was not for his son and remained on the now visibly scared woman.
"Or three and perhaps the most ludicrous. You and the lightning that hurt my son are…connected somehow."
"What do you mean, connected?" David asked, his face giving away nothing.
His father looked at him for a few moments before he clicked his fingers. Vincent, the man that gave Monika clothes was beside David's father in a moment, a single sheet of paper in his hands.
"Alison, kindly leave the hall for now. These words are not for your ears."
Alison looked like she was about to argue, but a look from the woman beside her was all she needed to comply and leave the hall swiftly.
"Fiona, make sure she does not eavesdrop."
"Yes sir," Fiona acknowledged, a short tilt of her head following before she too left the hall.
A moment of silence passed on by, David and Monika's hands holding onto the other's tightly as they both regarded the older man before them.
"You asked what I meant," his father continued quietly, taking the sheet from Vincent and turning it around slowly. "What I meant David, is that sometimes the strangest things can occur. Even those you could deem impossible."
David looked at the sheet, or rather the picture that was upon it and his face went white. He didn't need to look at Monika to know she was of a similar description.
It was a picture of Monika…except it wasn't a picture of the Monika beside him. It was a picture of her sitting behind the desk in the game!
"The similarities are beyond coincidence," David's father said quietly, regarding the two and frowning slightly. "At first, I thought it an impossibility, but there have been signs of…unusual activity around Nuneaton lately. I'd suspect you'd know more if you ever watched the local news channel or read the paper, but you never have, and I doubt that changed when you left. Still, imagine my surprise when Vincent found his son playing a game that revolved around young Monika here."
His gaze rested solely on Monika, the woman in question frozen at the revelation.
"I still didn't believe it," Vincent said suddenly, looking at Monika curiously. "Until I saw you earlier. Your eyes are the same, not just coincidentally but exactly the same as the game I found on my sons' computer. Your face, your hair even without the bow, everything."
Monika didn't even consider trying to lie, her face had given her away. Both of them had the moment they saw the picture.
"The question now is, what do we do with you?" David's father stated, his voice lacking in any emotion as he looked at her. "As far as the world is aware, you don't exist. You are no more than an idea, no more than speck of data come to life. You've come to my home and if I choose, will not leave. And the world will not care, for they will not know. So tell me, Miss Salvato. What happens now?"
…
"If you touch her, I will kill you."
In all the time Monika had known him, in all the times he had shown anger and hatred, even today when confronting his father and discovering all of his manipulations.
In all of that time, Monika had never heard David sound so dangerous.
"David." Her voice, usually enough to snap him out of his rage did nothing to change his murderous expression as he looked at his father.
"I don't care if you break every bone in my body. If you so much as touch Monika, I will use everything I have, everything I have ever known and find some way to kill you with it. Father or not. You do not touch her!"
Father stared at son, and son stared at father. Neither backed down as eyes met and words, silent yet loud were said.
And then, without warning, David's father…smiled.
"Why would I do anything to harm Miss Salvato, when she has clearly changed you into a man of strength?" he said, pride clear within his voice as he looked at his son.
"When why did you insult her, and say you were going to hurt her?" David asked, still between Monika and his father, heart pounding in his chest.
"Is it not obvious?" his father asked. "I wished to see what you would do. And like the lioness defending her mate, so too does the lion protect his. You are more my son now then you have ever been. And I am proud of the man you've become."
The words alone were ones David had always told himself he never needed to hear. Not from a father who repeatedly told him what a weak and pathetic son he was. And yet upon finally hearing them, it made his eyes itch terribly.
"The both of you will stay here while I make the necessary arrangements to get Miss Salvato an actual identity. Then once that is done, you may leave as and when you wish."
"An identity?" Monika asked, the question slipping out without warning, the fight, the self- righteous anger on David's behalf fading away as she listened. "You mean…"
David's father smiled at her and tilted his head politely. "Yes, Miss Salvato. You will exist in this world beyond the physical. A birth certificate, passport, a license should you desire to learn. All shall be yours within a few days. As far as the world will be aware, you will be as real as the rest of us."
Monika could only stare at him as her world, for a moment, suddenly felt much lighter.
"Thank you."
David's father merely nodded his head and smiled gently.
"Call me Tobias, please. We are after all going to become close in the coming days."
Monika could only nod, her head spinning as one of her pipe dreams became true before her eyes. With her face buried in David's chest, she didn't notice David's expression of distaste as his father, Tobias Foam left the room with Vincent.
She didn't notice the self-loathing in his eyes as he looked at her, the woman he had come to care for so much and found himself torn like he had never been torn before.
Because unlike the young woman clinging to him so happily. Unlike the young woman who not a few minutes ago had been ready to tear out his father's eyes just to protect him. David had looked at his father and saw straight through his pretty words and promises.
He saw through them and felt something that had nothing to do with Monika's happiness.
David Foam felt fear, true fear.
Promises made and words spoken like honey, like a spider to the fly, a trap set and the both of them were stuck in it.
Neither of them were ever leaving here.
"David?" A hand upon his face, a gentle, loving touch that brought him out of his thoughts and back unto reality.
He looked at Monika and opened his mouth to speak, to crush her sudden happiness…when he noticed something. Something within her eyes as she looked, stared, gazed into his.
Amusement.
"You didn't really think I bought any of that, did you?" she whispered, a sly smile upon her face.
"I…" Embarrassment, clear as day for her to see, to hear in the tone of his voice. "Might have done, yeah."
"A few pretty words and promises and I'm sold?" she quirked an eyebrow at her stupefied boyfriend and giggled lightly. "David, I'm not just a pretty face hon."
"And here I thought I'd have to break your heart," David whispered, chuckling at her amused expression.
"Mr Foam, Miss Salvato?" A young woman dressed in formal uniform poked her head through the vast door to the main hall, looking at the two of them with a soft smile. "I've been asked to show you your room, do you require two separate beds or…"
"No, no, we're good with one," Monika said, cutting across David before he could say anything. She turned and smiled gently at her confused boyfriend, taking his hand in hers as she took the lead.
Together they left the great hall and together they remained.
But for how long…
Time would tell.
Whoosh, not as long as the last chapter. But it should do for now :D
Cya, Stay Snuggly!
