Nina Vale: Meeting between whom?
D.N.S Akina: Your wait is over.
Disclaimer: I do not own "Huntik."
#!$%#%&^*^)($^%#&^~ #%$WE%R&^$(%*$ &^%#!# %$&$EU&Y^$~%# $
Chapter 9: Mistaken Identities
At the same time that Wilder was taking the team to the cave of the Hippocampus, Grier was walking down the halls of the mansion towards the dungeons. Two of his soldiers had come to him and told him about a young woman who had tried to steal from a farm not far from town. Normally thieves were taken to the prison in town, but his soldiers had told him that there was something strange about this one, and that they thought he should take a look at her. With a sigh, Grier had set down the reports he had been working on and headed towards the dungeons to see just what his soldiers were talking about.
Stepping into the dungeons, he made his way towards the cell that the soldiers told him they had placed the girl in. He reached it, stopped, and looked inside. The girl was sitting on the floor by the back wall of the cell, with her knees pulled up to her chest and her face buried in them. Grier heard quiet sobbing.
"Excuse me," he said, and the girl looked up. His eyes widened as he saw what the soldiers had been referring to. "Sophie Casterwill?"
Even as he said it, he knew that the girl in front of him was not Sophie. Their facial structure and eye and hair color were the same, but that was where the similarities ended. Besides the fact that Sophie was not the kind to steal from anybody, and that she was on a boat with her team and Wilder headed for the cave of the Hippocampus, there were other differences.
This girl's long hair was knotted and tangled, and there was a teal streak in the front on her right side that didn't reach the top of her head. Her face was dirty, and you could see the paths that her tears had taken from crying so much. Her green eyes were rimmed with red, more evidence that she had been crying, and there were heavy bags under them that said she had not gotten very much sleep lately. They were filled with pain, but there was a hint of mischief and laughter in them; she had been happy once, but that time was long gone. Her pant legs had come up a little bit from sitting down, and Grier could see evidence of old burn scars.
The girl shook her head slightly and said in a low voice, "Sorry. Wrong girl." Another difference that Grier noticed was that this girl didn't have a British accent like Sophie did.
"Who are you, then?" Grier asked. The girl shook her head again.
"I can't say," she answered.
"Can't or won't?" The girl was silent for a minute.
"It's best if I don't tell anyone my real name," she finally said.
"Well, I need to call you something," Grier said. "Is there a name you like that I can call you by? You can think of it as an alias." The girl smiled slightly, but the smile didn't reach her eyes.
"How about 'Annabelle'?" she suggested.
"Annabelle. That'll work." The girl nodded and Grier smiled. It wasn't much, but it was a start. He noticed that she seemed very uncomfortable. "My men said that you put up a little fight when they brought you here." Annabelle looked at the ground.
"I don't like cages," she quietly said. After a few minutes of silence, Grier figured that he wouldn't get much else out of her unless he took her somewhere else.
Luckily, there were a few empty rooms off of the dungeons that the soldiers used for interrogations. Grier called to the two soldiers that were on duty in the dungeons at that time and asked them to release Annabelle. The second the door was unlocked, Annabelle sprinted out and stopped just outside of it. She let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding, and Grier could immediately see the relief in her eyes. He placed his hand on her shoulder and escorted her to the nearest interrogation room, the two soldiers walking with them, one in front and one in the back.
The soldier in front opened the door and stepped back to allow Grier and Annabelle to enter. The room was plain, with a table and two chairs as the only furniture. There were no windows, and the only light came from three light-bulbs in the middle of the ceiling. Annabelle stiffened up a little as she walked into the room. Grier still had his hand on her shoulder, so he felt her tense up.
"Are you alright?" he asked as he led her over to the chair that was facing the door.
"It doesn't look like a cage," Annabelle said as she sat down, "but it's still a prison." Grier sat down in the chair opposite her.
"You obviously have a fear of confinement," he noted. "Care to tell me why?" Annabelle shook her head. "Will you at least tell me why you were stealing, then?"
"I can't show myself to people," she answered, "so I can't work for what I need to survive."
"Why can't you show yourself to people?" Grier asked. "Are you trying to avoid confrontation with anybody?" Annabelle was silent, so Grier tried again. "Are you just extremely socially awkward and don't want to put yourself in that situation?" Again, no answer. "Are you running away from something or someone?"
"I can't let him find me." The words escaped her lips before she realized what she was saying. When she did, Annabelle gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. Grier fought the temptation to smile at this breakthrough.
"You're running from someone," he said. "A man. Is he a relative or a stranger?"
"Why does it matter?" Annabelle sounded angry with herself for revealing even the slightest bit of information. "He wants me. He's willing to kill to get to me. I avoid people so that no one can answer him if he asks them if they've seen me. I also avoid them to protect them. This guy doesn't want anyone knowing about me, so anyone who gives him information of any sort is eliminated." She looked up at Grier with a pleading look and more tears in her eyes that had yet to fall. "I'm begging you; let me go and forget you ever saw me, for your own safety." Grier shook his head.
"I'm not the kind of man who will just sit back and allow something like this," he said. "I would give you the option to stay here for as long as you wish, but I know that you would just leave the second you could." He stood up. "I know you dislike confinement, but it's for your own safety." He turned and started to walk out of the room. "I'll send someone in periodically to check up on you and take care of your needs," he called over his shoulder.
He would have said something else, but, while he was talking, Annabelle was reaching into her pocket. The soldiers noticed when she removed an amulet.
"Raypulse!"
Annabelle screamed a bit as the Raypulse hit her hand, causing her to drop her amulet. She reached for another one, but the soldiers had crossed the room and reached her already. One of them grabbed her arms and held them behind her back as the other one picked up the fallen amulet and searched her pockets for more. Annabelle had a total of three amulets.
"You're a Seeker," Grier observed.
Annabelle was about to reply with a power when the soldier holding her snapped a pair of handcuffs around her wrists. That didn't stop her though.
"Boltflare!" she cried. Nothing happened. She tried again. "Boltflare!"
"Don't bother," Grier said. "Those cuffs are designed to neutralize any Seeker powers." Annabelle cried out as if she were in great pain.
The soldier with her amulets handed them to Grier, who pulled out his Holotome. Scanning them, he learned that Annabelle had Pegasus, the Night Mares, and Hippocampus. He narrowed his eyes at the last one, knowing that a certain Seeker team was on their way to retrieve that exact Titan. He handed the amulets back to the soldier.
"Hold on to those," he ordered, then looked at Annabelle. "I would normally use Sorrowbond, but I'd like you to trust me rather than think of me as your enemy."
"This is supposed to make me trust you!?" Annabelle cried out. "The man who's after me could attack at any moment! If he does, I'll need my powers and Titans to escape!"
"Then I'll leave you with some protection," Grier said, not missing a beat. "You two," he ordered, pointing at the soldiers, "stay with her and keep her out of trouble."
The soldiers nodded before taking their places on either side of Annabelle, who had been pushed back down into her chair. She lowered her head and sighed, a mixture of defeat and sadness. Grier gave her one last look before walking out of the room and closing the door. He walked back towards his office, ordering a passing soldier to inform him when Wilder returned with the Huntik Foundation team.
!#$%#$%^&%^($%^ #$TR$#%%U^&%$#%^! $T%$^*^*OI$%#^%T! TWEY$%#^!
And we find out a little more about our mystery girl. More revelations in the next chapter. Read and review.
P.S. At the end of chapter 7, I offered cyber cookies to whoever could guess where I had gotten some of my plot ideas from. So far, no one has guessed. Those cyber cookies are still available to anyone who wants them.