The Waiting Game

Please note that I have paraphrased the conversation between Eldritch and Eichorst as I can't recall it verbatim.

Eldritch anxiously paced the floor. A short distance away a team of medics were working on Coco. His heart and mind were praying for help. He wanted the Master to come.

He had since learned that Dr Ephraim Goodweather had been arrested. He had fired and missed but his errant bullet had hit Coco. Eldritch knew that he had been the intended target. Coco hadn't set out to take a bullet for him but, if she died, Eldritch knew that he would find it hard to carry on without her. She couldn't die. Surely the Master would come and give her the White? Eldritch didn't like where his head was at this point in time.

That morning, which already felt like a lifetime ago, had been magical. He and Coco had been in a post coital euphoria snuggled up together in his bed and, for the first time, she had said the words that he had been waiting his whole life to hear from a woman's lips.

"Eldritch, I love you,"

The way she had said his name had made it seem like an ancient, very powerful, magic word. He knew that he would keep that memory for the rest of his natural life. Right now it was all he had as a reminder that he actually meant something to the beautiful woman lying in the bed. It was a beautiful memory but, if the worst happened, he felt it also had the power to become a curse, a cruel taunt about a love choked of the chance to grow and enrich both their lives.

He also knew that he would no longer be able to hold back from telling her everything about his association with the Master. Fair enough he could yet lose her but he felt he owed her that honesty and would lay his soul as bare naked as their bodies had been that morning. She had taken a bullet for him and he owed her that honesty. He owed her the right to make that choice.

He was pretty sure Coco believed that Eichorst was blackmailing him over something in a shared past. In a way she was right, but it wasn't blackmail in a sense that she would understand.

He blinked back the tears stinging his eyes. He had to be strong for her.

"I love you, Coco," he whispered into the tense silence, a silence broken only by the whispers of the medical and surgical personnel gathered around her bed.

"Love entangles and weakens you, Eldritch," Eichorst had emerged from the shadows, a sly grin on his face which Eldritch was desperate to slap.

"She's human. They're fragile and they will always disappoint in the end."

Eldritch looked at him and Eichorst stepped back as he could feel the anger coming off Eldritch in huge tsunami-sized waves.

"The Master has to come," Eldritch said,"He has to give her the White. You tell him that, if he does not, then his cause won't get another cent from me. I will withdraw my support entirely,"

"I will tell him, but matters of the human heart are not a priority. You bluster and threaten purely so you can continue fornicating with your secretary. The Master does as he wishes. Maybe you should just give her her last rites and kiss goodbye to your sweet love affair."

The taunt in Eichorst's tone riled Eldritch. The way it cheapened the love he and Coco felt for each other as though it was nothing. But Eldritch knew from past experience that verbal sparring with Eichorst achieved nothing. Eichorst had said similar to him when he was on his death bed and the Master had come. All Eldritch could do was hope. Despite his immense wealth faith in the Master was all that counted for anything.

"I will of course pass on your message," Eichorst said as he melted away into the shadows.

Eldritch sat down. It was going to be a long wait. He wondered if she was thinking about him, if she was currently capable of thought. Little did he know what was happening in Coco's world at that time.