Author's Note: And thus we hit the first chapter. Should be longer than the intro, which is normal. I'm not a fan of short chapters. You'll come to notice that I'm very descriptive and detailed when I write. So get ready for a wordy story. ;D
"Vindication of Life" Chapter 1VEV
The coffee shop was quiet this afternoon, which wasn't too out of the ordinary. It was a weekday and all of the nine to fivers were still at work. A quiet conversation about a coming sports event was being discussed a few feet away. She quietly rested on a leather sofa next to the large window overlooking the road. Laptop open to her proposal to the council, the cursor blinking on the blank text document waiting to start forming what could bring about some new reform as to their relationships with the newly forming leaders in other countries. She sipped at her latte as she picked at her BLT.
The very first thing that had been let open to the public was the restore of real food. It was a highly welcomed move as the pre-chancellor's food reserve stations were emptied and stocked store shelves. Evey didn't notice much of a difference seeing as for the past year she had eaten nothing but 'stolen' real food.
Her mind had been wandering now for the past fifteen minutes. Her proposal forgotten, and her computer readying itself to go into hibernate. The street was a quiet one. Being a side road from the main drag, only a few people walked up and down the sidewalk. Passing cars were few in number as the drum of cars whizzed by a few streets away. The few people who were out walking the sidewalk looked busy with their inner monologues. Faces contorted, faces grinning, faces that spoke allowed to themselves. You could be yourself now without having to worry that what you may think or say could come back to haunt you.
She took her eyes from the street and looked back down at her computer. She sighed and rolled her head back on her neck as she realized she'd been sitting there for almost a half an hour and still nothing had been written. It wasn't as if her work was needed the next morning like she had told Finch. She was, after all, second in command in Vars. Her needs and wants came first before the politics, and everyone respected that, even with Finch being a seat above her, he allowed her to do what she would at her own pace. Her determination, recently, she felt, was due to get her mind off of things. At least that seemed like the best explanation.
"Has hell froze over or did I miss the memo?" Evey looked up into the smiling face of the barista. Fresh pot of coffee in hand, along with a clean mug, she took a seat across from her in one of the armchairs.
"Heh, more like lack of inspiration. New proposal for work and I haven't typed a word." Evey said as she swung her legs off of the sofa to the ground to take up the mug of coffee the women handed to her.
"Ahh. That's a bitch. You know what's always a good idea to stir things up. Begin it as if it were a narrative. Superiors love that. It leaves them intrigued to read more. At least my professors in college seemed to always enjoy it." The women laughed. "I had a summary review essay I had to do. It was meant to be bland. Start with an opening paragraph stating the author's thesis and then going on pointing out key points and then bringing in your own thesis and ideas. I mixed it up and put in a narrative about the topic in the beginning working it into the opening paragraph. Scored high on that one." She smiled as one of the gentlemen across the way called out to her. "Heh, woops, excuse me."
Evey watched as the young women moved to the two older men. She joked with them as she approached upon hearing their previous conversation. All three of them laughed and put in their orders.
Her gaze dragged down into the swirl of froth in her mug. So this is how it was going to be. She leaned into the worn sofa and looking at the blinking cursor on screen, her fingers began to move across the keyboard.
VEV
The proposal sat on Eric's desk the next morning like Evey had promised. It was rather lengthy but deep in the topic and never strayed. He was surprised from the beginning of it as it started out almost story like. She had made her points, and they were strong. The council wasn't to convene till next week over the topics that were to be discussed, but as always, Evey was the best at her game and produced quality work. He wondered why she had remained a simple secretary at the BTN when her mind was so strong and compelling.
'Perhaps this spark in her was started by V.' He stopped himself as the name crossed his mind. He hadn't thought of the one person who began this whole new world since the day after Parliament blew. He stood up and moved to the large windows in his office. Gazing down over the road and buildings. Everyone moved along on the sidewalks, watching forward. Hands at ears talking on cell phones, couples holding hands, elderly moving to get onto a bus. Everyone's face looked the same to him for some reason. Everyone's expression was different, be they happy, urgent, distraught, angry, but they were still all the same. Something had happened that he was just noticing. Equality meant unity. But this union that they had all pressed upon getting to that was to be a free unity… had somehow changed.
"What has happened?" Just then, as he starred down at the people all caught up in their own lives and worlds, there came a face. A singled out face that had stopped moving and looking ahead, but instead, looked up, and looked directly at him. It was a hidden face that looked almost blurred out. Everything around the face was as clear as could be, but this one, the one that stuck out in the crowd, seemed to be submerged underwater. And before Eric could rub his eyes, the face turned back down to the continuing crowd around him and almost instantly as it had come, blurred back into the river of renewed diversity.
Eric wavered away from the window and sat back down in the chair at his desk. Turning around after running a hand to his forehead to see if he was hot, as his pulse had definitely grown stronger, he starred at his computer monitor. A flashing envelope in his system tray caught his eye, indicating a new e-mail had been received.
Double clicking it, he was greeted with his e-mail center. There was no subject to the e-mail. He looked to see who it was from and shifted uncomfortably in his seat as the name punctured him straight through the chest.
Rookwood, William.
VEV
The day hadn't been too extravagant. Time traveled the same way for her like any other day. Nothing unsuspected happened. She realized she was growing bored almost. Going to the office early in the morning to drop off her proposal to Eric. Then receiving a lunch invite from Dominic in which they simply talked about business as usual. She then felt like stopping by the library and picked out a few books. One she hadn't read in a while was one of her favorite murder mysteries. "While My Pretty One Sleeps" by Mary Higgins Clark. It was one of those books that made you jolt up in your seat nearing the end crying aloud, "I can't believe it was him!" Then finally she finished the day with some food shopping.
Dropping her bags on the counter she flicked on a light, and threw on the television. The weather was on, reporting strong storms that would last through the night with strong winds and rain. The advisory stating that people should remain indoors tonight. Then the drawl of the weeks forecast came out starting with sea advisories.
Putting away the little amount of food she bought, she then preceded to start making a tuna fish sandwich, water boiling in a kettle on the stove for a warm mug of tea.
"-Breaking News- It seems that the leader of Vars, Eric Finch, came under attack today-" Evey spun around, dropping the knife she was using to the ground, to stare at the television. "He was leaving his office late this afternoon, when a large white van pulled up along side him and pulled him inside and took off. Eyewitness reports say the men who grabbed him wore black plastic masks, with bleach white eyes and a cynical looking mouth. A drastic contrast to the mask 'Code Name – V' wore during his assail on Norsefire. Eric Finch has been taken to a private hospital after he was found in a back ally, badly beaten and stabbed. More on this at 11."
Evey was out the door with a flurry of her jacket into the piercing rain.
VEV
The steady beat of the heart monitor above the man's head kept Evey in a state of oppression. Her anger and fears dulled by the rhythmic beeping. Eric Finch lay unconscious. His exposed arms and face that weren't under the comforter were bandaged. His forehead looked the worst. He had apparently taken a strong blow to the head, as there was a large welt on the side of his head. Unfortunately, the damage that had been dealt to him was so severe; it had put him into a coma.
The nurse who brought her to see Finch returned after about a half an hour with a dripping wet, Dominic. His face was serious and downcast at seeing his former partner. Evey looked up to him, her face red from oppressing tears. Dominic moved to her and rested a strong hand on her shoulder.
"I should have been there for him. It was getting dark and I told him it wasn't a smart idea to go home to late while the sun was setting. He said he'd be fine as he had a few things he had to get finished." His hand tensed on Evey's shoulder. She rested her own hand on his.
"It's not your fault, and you know that. It's always easy to blame yourself." She squeezed his hand to help give him strength.
"I'm going to stay with him tonight. You should get home and get some rest. I have an officer waiting to drive you home." Evey jumped up to look at him in protest.
"I'm not going to leave! He'll wake up soon, and then we can find out who did this to him! We can't let those people run free!" She declared as her argument slowly began to direct itself at her shoes. She began to shake as tears began to seep from her squinted eyes. "Eric's like a brother to me, Dominic." She brought her gaze back up to meet his own eyes. "I wasn't there for my little brother at Saint Mary's. I will be here for Eric. I won't let anything else happen to the people I love!" She declared.
Dominic moved and pulled Evey in close to him, hugger her tightly to offer her his own strength. She let her self break down on his shoulder. The last time she cried like this was when she held V, dying in her arms.
Her eyes opened wide as she suddenly shoved Dominic away from her.
"Evey." Before he could ask what was wrong, she was running down the hall and out the front doors.
It was pitch dark outside now. The rain and wind lashed against her tiny frame. She had forgotten her raincoat in the hospital room, but at this point, she didn't care. All she knew was that she was a curse to everyone she ever let herself get close to. Now it was Eric, and who knew what was to happen to him. Some people who fell into comas never again woke up. And then, who next, Dominic? Her obligations to Vars were too strong to let her give up everything and take the easy way out. But she would make it so her life wasn't filled with loved ones. She would put walls before all those she met. Keeping everything she had with those people purely business.
Her running slowly ceased as she came to a light post a ways from the hospital. She looked up into the brilliant white light, rain cutting through the light, pinching her face as it drove into her.
"How do we know what a wrong and right choice is!?" She cried out into the night air. "Are we all doomed to live in misery!?" She fell to her knees with a splash from the puddle-strewn ground. Her face fell to the ground as tears screamed from her eyes.
"No man is an island entire of itself."1
The rain suddenly ceased its painful fall on her as she looked up from where she knelt. An elderly man, bowed over from old age, one hand leaning heavily on a cane, the other holding up an old umbrella over her, stood over her. She looked at him his face was undistinguishable. He had a large scarf surrounding his face and over his nose. Dark, black glasses hid his eyes, and the hood of his jacket was pulled over his face allowing for no recognition at all. The glasses, she determined, signaled the old man was blind.
She slowly climbed to her feet. So upset and distraught, she didn't even care about this old man being out in this weather. She would normally have seen to helping him home, right now, she chose to be selfish.
"And what is that suppose to mean?"
The man's gaze didn't move from staring straight ahead of him. His gaze, if he could see, rested on the street beyond the park fence.
"No one person can or is isolated from one another. Mankind is connected in more ways than one. A chapter is never erased but rewritten. You should take heed of those words, and not forget them when things turn gray." The man handed the umbrella to her as he then slowly moved past her. She stood there, contemplating what this man had just told her. Watching him walk away, the rain pounding his frail figure, she quickly ran back up to him, hovering the umbrella over him.
"Thank you, sir. But you need this more than I do. Can I ask to help you home?" She questioned now allowing the full meaning of his words hit home. She noticed a slight incline of his cheeks as the glasses moved up on his face slightly, hinting at a smile.
"Thank you, dear. But I'll be all right. I don't live very far away. The rain just reminds me of better times." He said quietly as the rain began to lighten up to a soft trickle. "You should best be getting home yourself. It's not safe for a young women like yourself to be wandering around this late at night." He said as she handed the umbrella back to him, clasping his gloved hand in her own in helping him take the umbrella.
"We wouldn't want this new revolution of yours to be swallowed up in tears." The old man then moved away from her, heading along a side path through the trees, leaving her there, standing in the now still air. The soft sounds of drops of water falling from heavy leaves.
Rushing footsteps dragged her attention away from the man as Dominic came running towards her.
"Evey! What's wrong with you!? That storm was brutal and you just up and run out!" He exclaimed as she starred at him, expressionless.
"Just, take me home, Dominic." She said as she lowered her gaze and moved past him to the cop car that sat parked back on the road.
The cruiser pulled up alongside her apartment building. Dominic walked her to the doors, making sure she was okay before he returned to the hospital. With her twentieth declaration that she was 'okay', he hugged her tightly and headed back to the car and drove off.
Tossing her muddy shoes to the ground at the door, she walked into her apartment. The lights were all off, the television hummed with static. Apparently the storm had knocked out the cable. She walked to the kitchen, and turning on the faucet she splashed some cold water on her face. With a sigh, she moved to the towel rack only to be brought fully awake by a painful stab as her bare foot stepped on the knife she had dropped earlier.
"Fuck!" She yelled as she picked up the knife and chucked it into the sink. Picking up her foot to examine it, she had simply sliced the bottom soul of her foot. It wasn't deep but enough to allow a small amount of blood to ooze from the inch long cut.
Limping to the washroom, she opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out some ace bandage and antibacterial spray. Cleaning up the cut, she wrapped it tightly to stop the bleeding then returned to the kitchen. After cleaning up the small amount of blood that she had let track through the small journey from the kitchen to the washroom, she moved to the living room and flopped down in the recliner. Her book still untouched lay on the coffee table in front of her.
She had a nice quiet evening planned for herself not to long ago. How fast things could change. She starred at the television, snow filling up the screen due to the storm. The silence in the room and the almost hypnotic static from the screen brought her back to reality of how late it really was and before she knew it, she had slipped off to sleep.
Author's Note:
And we've come to the end of chapter 1! Woo! I love stories that as you write things open up to you for future chapters. It's very exciting. :D Now we have to ask ourselves what the true meaning the old man gave Evey was. What's going to happen to Eric? And what will Evey do for Vars now that she has to take up all of his roles in Vars. Can she really take on the heaviness of continuing her love's revolution? Or will her buried thoughts bring her, and the new revolution to ruin?
1. John Donne, Meditation XVII