Well, is Jake dead? I can't tell you yet… or then again, I may have already told you.
Am I playing around with your head? You bet I am.
Should you be reading the scenes with the new characters? Yes… if you don't things will shortly stop making sense.
And like the show, everything here is connected everything. Just watch carefully.
Do I want reviews? YES! (That one goes without saying now doesn't it?)
8 –
Onica changed out of her business suit in record time waiting impatiently for the sun to set. There was a lot to tell Erik, and she needed nothing more then the crash of the ocean to calm and sooth her. The entire day she had been forced to exercise a huge amount of self-control, burying laughter and keeping a straight face at the nervousness everyone had shown around her. Karen had practically jumped with guilt when she'd asked to borrow the stapler. Everyone was treading carefully, and unbeknownst to her, it was because they were beginning to think that maybe just maybe, Onica Kohl wasn't just the ice princess, but a woman as well.
As the sun finally set Onica walked away from her apartment and onto the beach. When she finally reached Erik, she couldn't help but take a step back, letting a gasp of surprise and horror escape her.
***
As Luka finished loading his last suitcase into the car, he wondered if he had any idea at all what he was truly doing. All he had for now was the sketchiest of outlines, and a bluff that could be far too easily called. Instinctively his hand moved to his breast pocket, numbly patting what was inside. That little object was what this was all about, or at least part of it. His father had been a scientist and a businessman, only his youngest son followed his footsteps having helped him with research in his last years. In a way Luka best understood what it was his father had meant to do, and with his cunning, his father had almost succeeded in his final experiment. Unfortunately with his death the delicate balance he'd created evaporated.
***
Sarah returned to the hotel with her precious box clutched closely to her side. Going to the reception desk she was about to ask the woman there to alert Irons that she'd arrived, before she could speak however the woman asked if she was Ms. Pezzini. When she nodded the receptionist pulled out a black felt bag and handed it to her, telling her that a messenger boy had left it for her. Taking the bag that looked like a purse without a handle she saw that under the front flap there was a zipper, she would've unzipped then, but the need to get her box to her room without letting Irons see was greater. Quickly she went up the stairs and deposited the box in her overnight bag, then finally letting her curiosity get the best of her, she unzipped the bag, pulling it's contents into her hands. When she saw what it was though disbelief forced her to shuffle through them once, then as if they were hot coals she dropped them. "Oh my god." Then managed to escape her lips.
***
Erik heard Onica's gasp and turned to see her taking a step back, at the sight of his face however she seemed to calm down slightly. Her expression moving from terrified to relieved. Baffled at her actions Erik cocked an eyebrow He was perplexed at her reaction to is change in hair color, he had her to laugh at him perhaps, or not even notice. Fear was something he had never put upon that list "Are you alright Onica?" She nodded numbly, then murmured something in audible. "Come again?"
She turned her face up and looked him in the eye, speaking clearly just as the wind blew her hair back from her face. "An icy chill ran through my frame; a sense of insufferable anxiety oppressed me; a consuming curiosity pervaded my soul; and sinking back upon the chair, I remained for some time breathless and motionless, with my eyes riveted upon her person. Alas! Its emaciation was excessive and not one vestige of the former being lurked in any single line of the contour. My burning glances at length fell upon the face. … Dicebant mihi sodales si sepulchrum amicae visitarem, curas meas aliquantulum fore levatas," The last words she said with force, and just as she finished speaking the wind died. Giving her monologue/quote an eerie air.
"Poe." Erik thought that Onica was in this moment, the embodiment of Poe's Berenice a woman as beautiful as she was haunting. "You thought I was A Doppelgänger… but of who?" She looked him in the eye again, her ghostly aurora suddenly vanished, replaced instead by one of fear.
"No one…." She looked down again, then turned as if to flee. "I should go, it's nothing I want to talk about." In two strides, Erik was beside her taking holding of her shoulders, he immediately turned her around to face him.
"Then I won't make you talk about it." He looked down steadily at her, wondering what made this normally calm woman suddenly so frantic and fearful. She returned his gaze for a moment, then burst into tears against him. Erik drew her close, not knowing what else to do, her past had scarred he, he knew that now. What he also knew was that this gave him something with which to manipulate her, a means with which he could learn all he needed to know about Excelsior Biotechnology's. The only thing that remained for him to do, was push away his morals, his conscious, and in essence his very humanity.
***
Kenneth Irons hung up his cell phone and poured himself a glass of a Sherry. Things were most definitely going his way. Almost everything had fallen into place, like a game of chess well played. The Witchblade was so close now that he could feel it in his hands, all that remained was the manipulation of its welder, a difficult task to be sure but a challenge that he almost relished. Turning around, he studied the rigid posture of the only person whom he had thought he could trust, and without a word turned back around. There was enmity there, it was well concealed and unless you looked for it you wouldn't find it, but now he knew, it complicated things, but Kenneth Irons always did enjoy complication, especially when he knew that he could bend it too his purpose.
***
Ugh! It's amazing how one typo can give away an entire plot. For once I'm glad I reread this thing.
