AN: I cut out an entire chapter here. If things seems a little choppy, let me know and I'll try to smooth is out. This is going to be a long enough fanfiction without entire unnecessary chapters in it.
Reviews:
Guest: My new favorite review, followed closely by one of the first I got on Lifetime: "What the ****."
SuperKassu: Sorry about the cliffhanger, but if I didn't use them at this point there would be one chapter about 10,000 words long. Some people have that time of time. I don't.
6 now, I think
[29] Interruptions
6 June, 6:00 PM
53. Lea
I can't help it: I start laughing.
Jack and Jeff watch me, concern on Jack's face, but confusion on Jeff.
"Sorry," I say, "it's just this is all so crazy."
Kaylee strides over and looks out the front window.
Minerva appears from the next room, flushed with embarrassment but triumphant.
"Lea," Jack says, "are you okay?"
I take a deep breath to calm myself down, "Ya: I'm fine."
Kaylee opens the front door. Immediately both of the men tense and I feel myself respond to their nervousness.
The woman on the other side of the door is tall and dark. She has a very business-like air about her. I like her almost immediately.
Then I see the look on Jack's face and I change my mind. Something is wrong.
The woman looks right past Kaylee, and her eyes land on me then flick to Jack.
"Damn," she says, "and here I thought I might beat you."
Jack moves to me and pulls me against his chest, not like he's protecting me, but like I'm holding him up.
My fingers are suddenly itching for something to hold but I just ball my hands into fists. Jack puts some of his weight on me.
The woman frowns a little.
A man pushes past her, pushing Hobo-Heart in front of him. A large black dog trots in behind him.
Jeff says something under his breath that I wish he wouldn't with Janey in the room, but I agree.
The man steps into the house. He has a nice face with a strong jaw and his shoulders are broad and muscled. There's something about his eyes though, both alien in the sense that I've never seen them on someone else before, but familiar in a way that tells me we're more similar than I would maybe like. I tense when he steps over the threshold, brushing past Kaylee with a slight nod.
The man bends slightly and unlocks the handcuffs binding Hobo's wrists. The creature in turn darts forward and throws his arms around Jeff.
I decide not to try to figure out what's going on anymore.
Jeff looks like he's resigned to his fate, and he does his best to comfort Hobo. The whatever-he-is seems traumatized.
The man who uncuffed Hobo looks at me, "Did you have to be in the last place we looked?"
I don't reply. I've decided to stop talking.
He frowns at me.
Kaylee loses it, "What in God's name is going on now?!"
I just look at the woman. She looks right back at me and I can't read her expression. Then she flashes a brilliant smile and turns to Kaylee.
"I'm Ana," she says, shaking the shorter woman's hand, "and he's Mitch, but don't expect a greeting."
The dog walks up and sniffs at my hand. He puts his head against my leg and pushes until I scratch his ears.
"And that's Rabbit," Ana finishes. "As for what's actually going on, your guess is as good as mine. Mitch won't tell me."
"The last thing we need is your Organization with a trump card," Mitch explodes, "do you know how much damage you could do with this girl?!"
Ana turns on him, "And I told you at least ten timed: I told Jack I'd call you as soon as I found her."
"They've been doing this for three hours," Hobo-Heart says in his slow soft voice. The dog whines in agreement.
"Promises from you don't mean anything," Mitch goes on.
"And you're any better?" Ana shoots back.
"At least I can be trusted to follow orders. Where do your superiors think you are?"
Ana doesn't have an answer for that so she switches to attacking him directly. "I've accessed your criminal record, Mitch McJonas, I know how many restraining orders are filed against you."
Jeff pushes Hobo-Heart out the back door onto the porch. Jack lets go of me and sits on his chair again. I sink back into my own. The dog puts its head on my knee and blinks at me through intelligent yellow eyes.
Kip barks at it half-heartedly and gets no response.
"Occupational hazard," Mitch responds.
"Oh please,"
"You try following people around sometime and see how good you are at it."
"Except one of them was filed when you were sixteen."
Jack gets up without a word and follows Jeff outside.
Ana glances around, sees that they're gone, and says, "Whoops."
I scratch Rabbit's ears. "You're making them nervous." They're making me nervous too.
"Ya," Mitch says, "that happens." He takes a closer look at me, "You actually hit your growth spurt. That's a surprise."
I just look at him. I'm getting very used to people I don't know talking as if they're familiar with me.
Mitch shifts uncomfortably. "Right," he says, "the block."
Minerva can't stay quiet any longer. "You're with the SCP foundation?" she asks Ana.
"No," Ana replies, "those science nuts have their own agenda. We deal with what they can't."
Mitch is in his backpack. He hauls out a laptop then the battery and slots it into place.
"But then who?" Minerva looks perplexed.
"The Organization," Ana says, "you probably haven't hear of—"
"Oh my god," Minerva says, "you're telling me this involves Slenderman?"
I feel something squirm in the back of my head, a memory trying, rather painfully, to break free. I rub at the side of my head.
"No," Minerva goes on. "you're telling me Slenderman actually exists?"
"She's heard of it," Mitch says without looking up."
"I figured that out," Ana snaps at him.
I can't hold my tongue any longer, "What's a Slenderman?"
They both look at me for a long moment. Ana is shocked, but Mitch is displaying some other emotion.
"That," he says, "is the single most heartbreaking thing you've ever said to me." I realize that's pity in his eyes. It makes me feel sick.
Mitch sets the laptop on the table and powers it on. The machine buzzes unpleasantly and Mitch slaps the keyboard.
"Come on," he growls, "work."
The computer complies grudgingly.
"Minerva," Kaylee says, and from her tone of voice I know that if there weren't guests in the house that she would be yelling.
Minerva ignores her and turns to me, "Didn't you read that stuff I sent you?"
"No," I reply.
'Why not?"
"It felt like spying."
"Lea," Mitch says, and I note that I never told him my name, "would you grab Jeff?"
I get up without thinking, "What should I tell him?"
"I need Ben to fix this computer."
I pause but then shrug and go to the door. Behind me Kaylee takes the opportunity to pull Minerva aside and berate for bringing up such foolish things as internet horror stories. I'm not brave enough to tell her who's right.
Janey has followed me to the door, and I scoop her up before I open it. I think that what the Laughing Jack stuff means is that they won't touch her.
I open the back door and step outside. They're in the shadows. Jack has one hand pressed flat against Hobo-Heart's chest, the other with two fingers against his neck, taking a pulse.
"No," He says, "completely regular. Your heart if fine."
I pause, uncertain how to react to Hobo. He looks up at me, His eyes are luminous blue in the dark.
Jack tilts his head, "Hello, Lea."
"How'd you guess?" I ask.
"Heartbeat sped up."
I put Janey down because she's squirming and turn to Jeff. "Mitch says he wants you to get Ben for him."
Jeff growls in annoyance and stalks past me into the house.
Hobo starts to follow him but Janey stops him by grabbing his hand and tugging at it. He looks down at her.
"What's on your face?" she asks.
Hobo raises a hand to the markings around his eyes, "This is just how I look."
Janey pulls him with her, childlike and excited, leaving me alone with Jack.
"What's wrong with his heart?" I ask.
"It's wearing out, but right now nothing." He sighs, "Jeff says he's having panic attacks, thinking it's stopping."
"Why?"
"He spent about twelve hours without one."
I wince, "Ouch."
"You okay?" He asks.
"I nod, "Fine."
"You're scared of something." He's obviously seeing right through me.
I don't reply, and Jack walks over and loops his arms around me again. He squeezes hard, but at this point I don't care. I am absolutely terrified about being thrown out into the wind and not having anyone anymore. I don't want to be alone.
When he senses that I've moved through the fear a little Jack physically picks me up and carries me into the house. He puts me down again inside and tilts his head.
"What?" I ask.
"Candy."
I take a piece out of my pocket and hand it over, then pop one into my own mouth.
"Should I be panicking?" Ana asks. She's standing, leaning against the banister of the stairs.
Jeff is the one who replies, "That stuff is Laughing Jack's it's fine."
Kaylee comes back into view from another room. "My daughter," she says, "has just informed me that I'm standing in a room with two serial killers."
Everyone just looks at her. I'm holding my breath.
Finally Mitch says, "Three."
Jack corrects him, "Four."
"Four what?" Kaylee asks.
"Four serial killers,"
She raises an eyebrow, "All four of you?"
Ana looks alarmed, "Good god no."
"What?" Mitch says at the same time, "Do you think I'm that far up the chain?"
Janey is suddenly tugging at my hand, "Laughing Jack isn't happy."
Kaylee throws up her hands, "This Laughing Jack business again.
"That's three," I say.
"He's Janey's imaginary friend," Kaylee says.
Even though he's several feet away by the computer I see Jeff tense. I put a protective hand on Janey's head.
"Imaginary isn't how I'd put it," Jack says.
Ana says something under her breath that sounds like a fragment of a prayer.
"All of you shut up," Jeff says, "I'm trying to think."
I cross the room to look over his shoulder at the computer. On the screen is a blank white website, with Cleverbot written across the top. From the look on Jeff's face I figure it's better not to disturb him.
Everyone else seems to have come to the same conclusion because the room is dead silent except fir the sound of Kip growling at Rabbit.
Then, suddenly, Jeff's fingers blur across the keyboard at a speed that isn't possible for a human to achieve. A long stream of numbers and letters appears in the dialogue box.
Jeff looks up, "Is anyone epileptic?"
"No," Kaylee says slowly.
"Good." He hits enter. Nothing happens for a second, and then the screen flickers, changes color slightly, and settles again, and now there is no title on the website.
A line of green words appears on the screen, "And what the hell do you want?"
AN: This is as much as I can put in one chapter. It's not really a cliffhanger, not like last week. You all know exactly what's going to happen. I'll see you all next week.
