Warning everyone. My "P" Key, now has a success rate of about 50 percent, so if there are any words which look stupid, look to see if a "P" would make it better. I will obviously check it all, but mistakes may get through, as they may still spell correct words, therefore spell check would not pick them up.
Please note that for some silly reason i cannt include the "equals" sign, as seems unwilling to let me save it, so i have been forced to substitute it for this: -> Apologies for that, just assume it means "Equals".
Chapter 2. - Movies.
Patience.
Patience was always important. In any job, any walk of life. Be it a lorry driver waiting for the traffic to die down. Or a researcher waiting and watching the changing atoms. Down to an assassin, waiting for her target to drop his guard.
Mireille was good with patience. Indeed it could be the difference between life and death. Patience came to her easily.
She wondered why today was different.
Not just today, yesterday too. In fact it had been two days since the two of them had entered this accursed security bunker, to hide from the fanatical rebellion above. Two days, and the General had still not managed to drive back the angry mobs. Had not tried in fact.
Of course Mireille knew that this was his best option. To wait until their blood lust faded, before committing troops. But still!
"Gahh! I'm going to lose my mind in here!" She complained angrily, directing her words to her partner, as if it were her fault. Said small Asian girl looked at her with a blank expression, shrugging once before turning back to the news reports on the screen.
Being cramped in a small hole with a monosyllabic girl for two days wasn't Mireille's idea of a good time.
She was bored. Utterly bored.
There were certain things that you took for granted in life. Food, family, friends, etcetera, but featuring more prominently in Mireille's mind was the freedom you had, to just go out for a brief walk, or to go to a restaurant or a cinema.
Cinema?
Cinema -> Movies! Well, popcorn too, and annoying people who stood up in front of you, but the movie was the main point.
So... if Cinema ->Movies... The implications of her mathematical foray were beginning to dawn on her bored mind...
CinemaMovies, Alternatively; TV + DVD player + DVD's ->Movies...
Then...
Cinema ->TV + DVD player + DVD's ! QED! (1)
"YES! I knew math had a purpose in life!" Mireille shouted as she punched the air in victory.
"Mireille? Are you alright?" A concerned voice asked, making Mireille review her past two minutes. Wow, boredom was dangerous.
"I'm fine Kirika, just a little bored. But I've got an idea, why don't we watch some movies?" As she said it she indicated the player and the small rack of DVD's next to it.
"Okay." Kirika answered calmly, happy enough to do whatever Mireille herself wanted to do. Mireille had to wonder if Kirika even knew what boredom was! After all she does seem to find sitting staring out of a window entertaining.
Five minutes later found them each sitting on the floor with a pile of DVD's spread out in front of them. Kirika thought that she wasn't very well equipped to deal with this, but was willing to help anyway. Besides, she was bored as well, she just didn't want to bother her partner with her problems.
"Alright, if you see a good looking one then tell me. The General said he had this made especially for us, so let's see what he thinks we'd be interested in!"
Kirika nodded in reply, hazarding a small smile as well, Mireille beamed back as she grabbed a large group and dragged them over to her, sorting through the cases. Kirika imitated her with another large group.
A lot of them seemed to be garishly covered, with bright colours and various different names. Kirika had seen a few of them already, after all in their time off they had been to the movies before. Jobs were sparse but paid well, allowing them a lot of time to themselves.
Mireille was tossing them haphazardly aside, looking at one, grimacing, then sending it spinning to the side.
Kirika looked at one. Daddy Day care? What? The cover showed a dark skinned man being hugged or tackled maybe, by a host of children. Huh?
What was she to do now? She read the back of it, she wasn't interested in one of those silly humour movies, but was Mireille? But if I ask Mireille after every one, then she might as well be searching through them... Kirika hated being forced to make decisions for the both of them, she didn't want to make a mistake that might get Mireille into trouble.
It's a movie... Kirika tossed it to the side, it's hardly a life or death situation. Any more?
After a while Kirika stopped reading the titles, after all they didn't really tell you anything. She just read the genres.
Action, Action, Action, Romance, Action, Humour, Comedy, Action...
A blank case caught her eye, red writing visible on the front, but no picture. But one of the words raised a question she had kept intending to ask Mireille, she never understood what it meant...
Mireille looked at another romance sop story, this General seemed to have some bloody stupid ideas of what women watched. Kirika had seemingly not found anything yet either. Oh well, the pile was not yet searched through. She began to dig in again when Kirika's voice stopped her.
"Mireille?"
"Yes Kirika?" She replied, picking up a case and examining the back as she listened for the question. Kirika didn't talk that often, and Mireille was always attentive to her when she did, after all the girl had to feel that talking achieved something.
"What's a lesbian?"
"..."
Oh yes, Mireille always wanted Kirika to talk more...
"Where the hell did you hear that!" She managed to gasp out past her embarrassment, sometimes Mireille wished she'd sent Kirika to school for a year. But then, judging by her lack of knowledge she'd have been eaten alive.
"It's just on this case." The girl relied easily, showing it to Mireille. It was blank, thankfully, but the flowing script across the top did indicate what it might contain. Oh I'm going to strangle that General when I see him! What did he think they were!
"Ummm... well... a lesbian..." Kirika leaned in, making Mireille lean back slightly, why did people always have to be really interested in what you didn't want to have to explain to them? How much to tell her? Christ, I can't tell her all of it, I'd die of embarrassment, and she'd probably ask what sex was!
"Well, when two women live together in a close relationship, well, then they are lesbians." Mireille finished with a deep breath, not a bad explanation, and Kirika was nodding happily enough. Danger over...
"So we're lesbians." That comment, spoken with complete certainty, managed to freeze Mireille's brain instantly.
"What! NO! No no no no no!" Mireille waved her hands quickly in the negative, really, some subjects were just destined to go badly! "Kirika, we are NOT lesbians, lesbians live together in a much more .. intimate... relationship..." She desperately hoped Kirika got the idea.
"Intimate how?"
Mireille almost whimpered.
"Look... Kirika?" Mireille asked warily. Kirika nodded to show she was listening. "Some time, when I'm in bed, or having a shower, play that and find out. But we. Are. Not. Lesbians. Just trust me on this?" Mireille thanked her lucky stars when Kirika nodded, accepting what she said as truth.
"So our neighbours were wrong." Kirika concluded to herself, but loud enough that Mireille heard her.
"Pardon?" She had a sinking feeling that she knew what Kirika was going to say.
"Oh, our neighbours, they must have gotten mixed up. They keep calling us lesbians." Kirika went back to her searching as if the conversation had never happened. Mireille sat there, mouth agape, eyes wide.
Calm down Mireille... anything you say now will just land you in more trouble. You can kill them quietly when you get back to Paris. Yes, it was defenitely time she and the other residents of their building shared a nice long talk.
"Okay," Mireille sighed as the disc was being read by the machine, she scooted back to the long couch that Kirika was sat at and sat next to her. The DVD had been chosen. Perhaps badly, since Mireille had just grabbed the one after their embarrassing conversation, to stop Kirika thinking up any other questions. Mireille hadn't watched a good horror film in a while.
"What is it?" Kirika asked as Mireille settled down beside her. Mireille picked up the silver remote and pressed the play button.
"Dawn of the dead I think, have you seen it?" Kirika shook her head, "good, neither have I. Hope it's not too scary for us." She added with a laugh.
"Look out, look out!" Mireille cried in fear, letting out a quick shriek as a dead man fell from the ceiling latching onto the shoulders of one of the nicer characters and tearing his throat out. The rest of them screamed as more zombies poured forwards, Mireille promptly hid her face behind a pillow.
Hearing the sounds but not seeing it was worse! After only a few seconds she peeked back over the top of the cushion. It was peaceful again.
Mireille lowered the cushion a little embarrassedly, she hoped Kirika hadn't noticed, though she couldn't see how the girl could fail to have noticed her cries of terror throughout the entire thing. She risked a glance at the young Asian.
"Kirika?" The girl was ram rod still, brown eyes wide and mouth open slightly as she stared infallibly at the television.
"Mireille...?" She managed to whisper.
"Hmmm?" Mireille managed to reply.
"I'm frightened." It was barely a whisper but reached her ears nonetheless.
"Me too. Should we stop?" She didn't know if she wanted to, strange as that seemed.
"No... I can't... it scares me... but I want to know what happens..."
Mireille could only nod in reply, hesitantly she sidled up to Kirika, giving them both a place to cower if need be. She had a feeling that they'd need it.
"Eeep!" Kirika let out and clutched onto Mireille's shoulder, quickly hiding her face in the blonde's loose night shirt, trying desperately to keep out the hideous sounds of the movie. Soothing hands stroked her hair as Mireille held onto her, calming her down and chasing away her fear. Another minute passed before Kirika began to peek back out again, curious again to see what was happening despite her fear. She hated this movie!
And yet ... She needed to watch it... needed to see what happened to them. At least Mireille was in much the same state as her.
"Just remember," Mireille began again, "it's just a movie, none of it is real..." Kirika nodded against her shoulder, too thankful that Mireille was holding onto her, she felt more protected with her partner nearby.
Not completely safe though, she added to herself as she ducked back down again in fear, shivering slightly. Mireille joined her a second later, the both of them hiding together.
She felt so stupid. The two of them were seasoned assassins for God's sake, and neither of them dared look up to see who it was who was dying. Letting out that horrible scream as he was eaten alive... Mireille's shivering intensified.
Kirika was drawn up into a ball, her knees against her chest as she huddled against Mireille's side, which was fast becoming her front as she continued to hide further from the television. It was nearly over now, Mireille was sure of it, you could always sense when a movie was drawing to a close.
"Nearly there... nearly there..." She whispered to Kirika, holding onto her, as much to make herself feel better as Kirika.
Never again. NEVER again. No wonder the neighbours called them lesbians, if only they could see them now! Hugged against each other! But Mireille was too frightened to be embarrassed.
A few minutes later, and a teary ending from the both of them. It seemed the fear was making them both fairly emotional, and the credits finally came on. Making Mireille sigh in relief.
"Well, thank God for-" Mireille began, climbing to her feet.
"Wait," Kirika interrupted, pointing to the screen, "There's a bit more..." Kirika dragged her back down with a surprisingly strong grip, unwilling to lose her security blanket. She was right, a few more scenes flashed between the credits. Showing how the survivors managed themselves after they left...
They both watched. The group had landed on a strange island, hoping for salvation, they jumped off the boat and headed into the town.
Mireille and Kirika leaned closer to the screen, both feeling uneasy. The survivors were in a forest... there were strange sounds coming from nearby... Kirika whimpered and Mireille leaned closer.
"Ahhh!" The both of them cried in surprise and terror as they clung to each other, people died and the screen went black, bathing the room in complete darkness.
They both screamed again.
Before the credits came back on, lively music playing loudly and the two of them pressed together in fear, shivering badly.
Mireille didn't think she had ever run to the light switch so quickly before, pressing them all down in her hurry and covering the room in bright lights as she rushed back to the couch and turned the DVD player off.
Kirika was still sitting there, her shivering was under control, and Mireille could see that the girl was trying to assemble her unbreakable mask again. It wasn't working. Her face was calm and unmoving, but her eyes were wide and darted around, just as Mireille's own were, inevitably searching for dead people.
"Look at us two." Mireille managed to laugh out, making Kirika laugh too, though Mireille could tell it was a nervous one. Brittle. "Well, at least we managed to watch most of the movie. When we weren't hiding behind each other, but let's not do that again, eh?"
"Hmm hmm." Kirika nodded emphatically.
Oh great, so the two of us can't even watch a horror movie? Some assassins we are... Not to mention the embarrassment she now felt, from holding onto Kirika so tightly. Yes, maybe they did have some basis for their accusations... Not as if that would stop them from becoming acquainted with Mireille's angrier side...
Turning off the TV Mireille turned to Kirika and yawned slightly, making the small girl blink tiredly in reply.
"Coming to bed?" She asked, knowing that Kirika would come too. It took her only thirty minutes to finally realise how foolish watching that movie so late had been. As they lay awake three hours later, neither being able to close their eyes for fear of hungry monsters...
Mireille hated that movie.
(1) QED – Mathematical quote. Quad Es Dominus, I think. Which means "it has been proved", you can put it on the end of long equations as a kind of "Yeah I've done it!" Kind of thing.
Okay people. Please don't tease me about that movie. I don't do horror movies well, and that DID scare me. Yeah, yeah, I'm a coward I know... Just don't think I'm saying girls are wimps, because I get frightened too, and yes I couldn't sleep for a long time after watching it. Probably one of my bad nights.
Anyway, my first boredom solver for Mireille and Kirika. To Everyone, Please if you have any ideas, I have loads, but more are welcome. Any ideas on what they can do to stave off boredom. Make suggestions, or even plan out bits if you want and email them. I welcome ALL suggestions!
NEXT EPISODE: COMBAT TRAINING..