Chapter 5: I'll send it in waves
It had been a week since the two had arrived back home in London and although most would have seen it as inappropriate Alice had spent the time living with Daniel though he had rarely seen her in the few days she had shared his roof. During her time she had open up her own small bank account and had spent a small sum doing the exact thing he had suggested making herself look presentable.
"I feel ridiculous," she said examining the poofed sleeves and their hideous floral pattern.
"Maybe but it is an improvement." Daniel watched her mope around his study giving him an incredulous look. "What?"
"I look like… like a sofa." The brunette man scoffed lightly, "alright then a stupid chair. This fabric is hideous!" She sat on a bench located by a window that overlooked the city streets.
"Perhaps, but both men and women don't think to fondly of a grown lady wearing boys clothing." He continued to watch as she ripped the bonnet off her head and continued to play her her fluffy sleeves while clicking her shoes together. The sight made him smile as he turned back around studying the box he had recovered from the museum. Apparently not long after he returned so did a box containing all his items from Africa he had not packed in his suitcase.
"Why did you buy the dress if you hated it?"
"It was cheap, and you were the one that advised me to buy something feminine and the women at the store told me nothing was better than floral." Alice continued on her little rant as Daniel surveyed the box and picking a spot where he could get the best access, ripping the top off the top despite the many iron nails, it fell to the floor.
"How?" Daniel looked behind him at the astonished blonde.
"What?"
"How did you do that?"
"Open the box?"
"No, rip it off like that?" Her eyebrows knit and Daniel found himself smiling again.
"I guess I don't know my own strength." This time it was Alice's turn to look him over and he felt strange under her stare as blue and silver eyes swept over his person.
He was thin but somehow broad, he was slightly muscled or even more so then she thought. He was at an age where his skin was clear and his facial hair was still easily maintained so he kept it smooth and shaved. His eyes were a deep hazel that matched his dark brown locks. Speaking of his hair he had always seemed to have it loose at shoulder length, making him look probably younger then he was.
Daniel no longer able to take her penetrating gaze coughed lightly as he began removing items from the box. A bit flustered Alice broke their stare but neither did anything to remedy the awkward silence for some time.
"You should go hang your clothes, there is a wardrobe in my room, I hardly ever use it but for jackets. Go ahead and make some use of it until we figure something better out." With no further coaxing the blonde made her way out of the study and the small set f stairs that led to the second floor.
Daniel let out a small sigh of relief before turning back to the box and began emptying its contents. Why did his stomach feel so tight? It was uncomfortable but he wanted a little more. Perhaps it was because he rarely spent his time around the opposite sex that he had felt these little, what did most people refer to them as… butterfly's?
Deciding not to breathe anymore into it he began to look over all the items: books, quills, ink, papers, ledgers, a pair of unmatched socks, some dirty clothes, a few pieces of equipment, his Journal, and most of all a handkerchief wrapped and tied around something like a bundle.
Undoing the knot and taking out his eyes fell on three pieces of glass. Daniels eyes knit together, trying to remember why he felt the old and familiar déjà vu. When it suddenly dawned on him.
"The orb," he whispered lowly. The memory seemed to flood back through his brain sending sparks of electricity through his body. He remembered going through the strange tunnels, the faces of statues both alien and familiar as Daniel reached the end, then as he entered the final room. Crash! He was trapped, completely alone in the dark, no light could be seen, no warmth could be felt, he was in the void.
Then suddenly when all hope seemed lost after clawing and scratching at the stone barricade for what seemed an eternity, a light glowed off in the distance.
"Daniel, are you alright?" The brunette shuddered as he felt a hand on his shoulder. "It's alright." He watched as her eye's traveled down to the broken pieces of the orb on the floor. "Oh," she said looking at him again.
"You know what this is?" Daniels voice said hoarsely, his throat suddenly felt so dry.
"I found it in your hand when they took you from the tomb. You had stopped breathing, but you were holding onto the pieces so tightly. When you started breathing again and the Arabs carried you back to Professor Herbert's tent you dropped them as you fell back asleep. I wrapped them up and put them where I thought you might find them."
"Herbert helped me pack my bags. He must have stuck them in with my belongings." He looked the strange pieces that looked so much smaller then when they were put together.
"Perhaps you should take it to the museum." Alice suggested, something in his eyes as he watched him look at the pieces slightly bothered her. It seemed as though he was in a trance, much like when Alice had entered the room to find Daniel hunched over and coughing like a dying man fighting for his last breath.
"Perhaps," Daniel's gaze broke from the shards, he clenched his hand together opening it to find that shards had changed shape slightly. His eyebrows pinched together as worry lined broke out across his forehead. "It would probably be best if I do."
It had been days before Daniel was finally convinced that he couldn't figure this strange phenomenon out by himself. After carefully cataloguing all the events in his journal he soon found that the small stone pieces changed shape and color more and more often as though they were alive taking on different textures and remolding themselves.
Could such a phenomenon even occur, as he continued to study the strange fragments he had spent less and less time with Alice. Whatever butterfly's he had previously felt where long forgotten in his new discovery. Daniel still had not received any further word from Herbert and the expedition about their progress which bothered him slightly.
"Daniel, would you like me to get you something?" Alice said slightly leaning against the door frame sporting a long dark green dress, the shoulders sort of loose while the sleeves tightened making her body look slimmer. Alice's hair which was starting to look healthier as well was tied in a bun on top of her head instead of the usually loose frump.
"No," Daniel grunted as he wrote in his journal tomorrow he would have to venture out to see a Sir William Smith. He needed to learn more about rocks and minerals and their qualities. Surely this was just a natural phenomenon that Daniel was not accustomed to.
"I have been going out to find work; a woman who owns a small bakery told me I have a charming personality. She offered to give me some classes and let me work for a pretty good fee."
Daniel just grunted as he began to sort through his papers and continued to examine the pieces of broken glass.
Alice's shoulders sagged; she couldn't help but feel put off. Daniel had done nothing but gawk at the small fragments of glass these past few days. They had barely talked and when she had tried to help he just shooed her away. She couldn't help but once again feel like some silly country girl who had no clue what she was doing in the city.
"Goodnight, Daniel."
"Goodnight." He mumbled back as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.
"Interesting," said Sir William Smith. "What would make you ask such questions.
"Consider it subtle curiosity," Daniel exclaimed as he watched the geologist fumble about the small room. Looking at various books as samples of crystal and earth lay scattered about.
"Yes, it's true glass does have a tendency to change shape."
"Really, how?"
"Well, it's hard to put in words, but glass is to be believed much like a very viscous liquid. Observations of just window panes will show that in many old buildings you can see how the glass slowly over decades will somehow ease its way to the bottom."
"What is it wasn't smooth or flat like most glass. How about shards, fragments of glass, how would they act."
Smith stopped shuffling about and looked at Daniel, scratching the small brown hairs of his beard he looked to the younger man with mild curiosity. "I suppose they would act in a similar fashion, collapsing into themselves over time. Why?"
"Nothing sir," relief flooded Daniel and most of the tension in his body gave way. However a still familiar sensation flooded Daniels mind. Worry…
"Is there another reason why you're here Daniel?" The Brunette could feel sweet perspire on his forehead, should he tell him. Should he show him the orb, or rather it's fragments.
"No sir, I believe I will be going now. I have someone waiting for me back at home." It wasn't necessarily a true statement however it wasn't false. Alice could take care of herself, she was strong and showed plenty of quick wit when they argued but she would usually be waiting for him when he got home.
"I understand," Smith said with a smile watching as Daniel excused himself before taking out a book of notes about the varying layers of limestone.
Daniel looked over the documents at the customs house. Confused by what he read, he immediatly looked through the various other items brought back from Herberts expedition and found nothing of value that could bring any light to the subject. The brunette felt a great sense of worry for his predecessor, and only wished his documents held more information.
According to Herbert's documentation they had found an orb, but how? Daniel kept mulling over the idea that another orb could have been found. When he had been trapped in the tomb he could only remember seeing one. The one he broke was now with him if what Alice said was right. He made his way down the cobble streets and found his way to a small bakery. The place was called the truffle shop, a small little building that sold decently made and decently priced sweets, pastries, and jams.
Alice had been working there for two weeks and he knew very well what her hours were. As he made his way past the murky window heading for the door what he saw stopped him in his tracks. Making a double-take he looked inside and saw the very person with whom he had made this little trip to see talking to a rather good-natured looking fellow in fine clothes. He had never seen the man before but immediately recognized he must have been a rather well to do chap. Worst of all was how Daniel's roommate looked so enthralled with what the man was saying . She was smiling and laughing as him with rosy colored cheeks and big blue eyes as the wealthy playboy was probably showering her with flattery.
Daniel felt his stomach knot uncomfortably as his insides boiled. Sure she looked rather nice wearing a blue cotton dress, a white ribbon in her hair but wasn't she supposed to be working. He scoffed forgetting why he had come here in the first place he began to march back to his little home.
When Alice returned home, her face was covered in a little flower and some dough clung to her sleeve, she immediately went through the same routine both her and Daniel shared.
"Hello," she would ask. "How are you? How was your morning, afternoon, evening? Should I make something to eat? Is there something you need?"
He would curtly reply with, "Hello, I'm fine, today was good if not a bit boring, I'm not hungry but you can make something for yourself."
In fact Daniel was now truly noticing his change in lifestyle. Clean house except for his study which she never ventured, food was always present, tea was made for him in the mornings without him having to ask, his clothes were always washed, and he always had someone to talk to.
How could life have changed so drastically, it wasn't a bad thing but the fact that he settled down so well without even realizing just how much she was affecting his life.
"I'm just not the type who likes to sit back and do nothing." Alice had exclaimed but he knew it was probably because he had taken her in. He could remember the bitter things she said the first time he had met her in that little hovel of an inn. Who would have thought he would come across this girl again, that she would be living with him now.
Daniel lay on the small sofa in his living room with an old feather down pillow supporting his aching neck and an afghan to keep him warm from the chilly London air.
"I wish I could sleep in my own bed," he thought ruefully. The fireplace cracked as the embers and coal glowed letting off the only light in the otherwise dark room. Daniel forced himself to close his eyes in an attempt to sleep and found that it was harder than he had initially thought. After nearly an hour he fell into a deep sleep.
Daniel's nightmare was horrible. The whole dream sequence seemed to take place in a tunnel different from the one in Africa, this was stone stacked on stone, a man made structure far more familiar. The walls seemed to scream as blood and pus oozed from the walls, he was ankle deep in water that seemed to grow thick with blood, doors around him opened and closed as he heard people screaming. Screaming for him to save them from something, but then everything went dark. He felt his feet soon become dry and a glow caught his attention.
"What? What is that?" He had to shield his eyes to keep the overwhelming light from blinding him.
"Daniel," who's saying that? Daniel looked into the light.
"Don't leave me Daniel," leave you? The voice sounded very melodious as it flittered through the air encouraging him to look.
"Stay with us forever Daniel," He could see it now, laying on a stone alter were four little pieces, shards of the orb. Daniel watched as they changed color rapidly before they shook moving together and fitting into place perfectly.
The brunette man stared in awed fascination. This was what he wanted, a complete orb like the it was before, as he reached out to take it, an angry light emanated from the orb. "Join us Daniel." A voice whispered as the room around him shook violently and a loud howling cry resonated through the air. He felt something grab his arm as he turned to see the bloody mess of…
"Herbert?"
Daniel awoke with a shudder, his body shook and he soon found himself gasping for air. He felt cold, even more so then he had before and soon he realized that the flames in the fireplace and been completely extinguished.
Daniel felt fear creep through him as goose bumps rose on his skin. An audible creak came from the stairs and he felt himself close his eyes tightly. Go away, go away!
The man couldn't help but shudder slightly as he felt warm, thin fingers caress his face. Immediately reacting to the realization that this being wouldn't hurt him he knew it had to have been Alice.
Daniel felt the light flutter of her fingernails as they brushed his skin and the strings of hair were pulled behind his ear. With an audible sigh he could hear her make her way back up the stairs where he heard the door shut.
Instantly Daniel through the covers off his makeshift bed and made his way to his study where he saw the remaining pieces of the orb on his desk. The male picked up the pieces and noticed his hands shook violently, "Calm down." He muttered as he crept to the kitchen grabbing a tinder box he light the stove and put the kettle on.
It took him several moments in the study to find what he had been looking for, grabbing his tea and making his way to the cluttered desk, with which he soon remedied with a quick sweep, letting everything fall to the floor. Like a design he had known all along grabbing some tar Daniel set to work gluing each piece together configuring this unnatural puzzle until…
"I did it…" Daniel spoke through the silence. "I actually did it."
A/N: This Chapter was actually done a long time ago and it is still a little boring. I really want to get to Brennenburg and write the crazy chapters and get out of this stuffy London business. XP
Well tell me if you like it or not, I don't know if I am doing a good job until you TELL me. And for those who gave me reviews I want to personally thank you it was wonderful to come home after being in basic for 2 months and see people liked my story.
