Disclaimer: checks Nope. Still not mine.
Author's Note: And now, another attempt at writing… should be really interesting now as I got a small feel (like .005 feel) of what it might have been like to be V. I got a nice first-degree burn from a jammed copy machine today at work right on the tip of my middle finger. Hurts like a mutha, so we'll see how it is for typing. Lawls
"Vindication of Life" Chapter 2VEV
Still cobwebs. Still dust. Still loneliness. Still loss.
The radio clicked on to a classic hit from the twentieth century, bringing Evey from a sound sleep. Stretching and with a wide yawn she eyed the clock with a scowl. Why had she set the alarm? As if she had to be anywhere today. She never really had to be anywhere any day. Probably just something to make everyday feel normal. Everyone had a schedule they kept, why couldn't she.
She sighed as she swung her legs around the side of the bed, and then stopped in mid motion. She was still in her clothing from yesterday, and as soon at she thought it, the realization quickly came flooding back to her. Eric was still in the hospital. Dominic had taken her home after she ran off into that park, and that strange old man.
She winced as she attempted to stand. She had forgotten she cut herself last night. Her foot was still sore. Checking the bandage the blood had stopped but it was going to make her limp slightly.
Music suddenly caught her attention as she got up and walked to the window. Upon sliding the glass door open, she was greeted by an almost sweet symphony of the morning rhythm as people began to wake up. A bird sang warmly from a branch in a large elm below her; children laughing as they waited for their school bus to round the corner. Everything was better now.
She smiled as she walked to the kitchen to start breakfast, leaving the sliders open to allow a cool breeze to blow in through the apartment.
The television was off, and the book she was reading lay closed on her coffee table, a bookmark sticking out of its side. The dishes were all clean and drip drying in their rack on the counter. There was nothing to do. Picking up her cell phone, she immediately dialed Dominic. She had been taking her time moving through the house in an attempt at believing all of the night's events were merely dreams.
"Evey."
"Dominic. How is everything?" She asked, trying to mask the worry in her voice.
"Still no change. The doctor's said he may have a brain clot that could be putting pressure on his skull, reason for the coma. They need to take him into surgery to release the pressure on his brain, otherwise." Dominic stopped knowing well enough Evey could fill in her own details.
There was silence over the lines for a minute.
"Would you like to come with me and grab a bite to eat somewhere? I don't have the energy to make anything right now."
"Yeah, that sounds good. Diane's?"
"You read my mind. I'll meet you there quarter to ten." Hanging up the phone she looked at her watch. She had a little over an hour to get herself fixed up. God knows she needed it. Even with her shorn head, the little that had grown back still wasn't enough to allow her the pleasure of stating she had a 'bad hair day'. But the giant blue bags under her eyes, and the red veins that punctured her sclera wasn't going to cut it. First thing Dominic would do was check to see if she had gone home and done drugs.
Tossing on the shower, she quickly got undressed, tossed a towel over the top bar for easy access, and climbed in. Gasping as the cold water struck her, allowing her to wake up more, she turned up the heat. The strong heat was a welcome to her muscles. She was so stiff. A chiropractor would have to take a jackhammer to her back just to get all the knots out. She switched the action of the showerhead to a pulse action massage and let it slam against her shoulders.
Her first thoughts came to her concerning Eric. Now he was faced with an extremely difficult and dangerous operation and it was her job to not allow the public to grow frantic as to what might happen with their new voice out of the picture. The best thing for her to do was write about it.
Getting out of the shower, and as she toweled off, she came to the conclusion that before meeting up with Dominic she would head down to her favorite coffee shop and write in her journal. Computers always seemed to lack a sense of self when using them to write. Long hand brought out more feelings and thoughts. Not to mention it was a lot harder to just go back and erase rather than a simple click of a button.
She was fully dressed. A casual pair of khakis and a collared button down shirt with the cuffs rolled up to the middle of her forearms. Grabbing her purse she headed for the door when she noticed her shoes were still soaked from the night previous. But then, it dawned on her.
Dropping her bag at the door, she ran to the kitchen. The bloody knife she had thrown in the sink was no longer there. Her dishes from when she made her sandwich were all clean. Her book she knew she hadn't even opened to read, and yet a page was being identified as being where she left off. The recliner was in no disarray at which point it should have been, considering she had fallen asleep there. And the television should still be on.
"Someone moved me to my bedroom. There was someone in here last night who did all of this." She said out into open air.
Nothing stirred.
She waited and listened. Nothing.
Reprimanding her subconscious of allowing her hopes up, she moved to the door and picked up her purse. What had triggered her sudden notice of the changes in her house was the fact that her shoes were all arranged neatly next to the door. With the rage she was in once she stormed into her apartment last night should have shown clearly by the un-uniformity of her front door. Shoes should have been kicked everywhere. Welcome mat askew. Nothing even showed that she came home.
Her head moved to take one last glance into her apartment. Someone had come in and taken her to her bed from the recliner. They had done dishes, cleaned up her front door area, and even took a time out to either read a little of her book, or make it look like she had just stuck a bookmark in it so as to not loose the bookmark. But why?
She thought about the masked men who had taken Eric and threw him out to die in the rain. Either it was a personal vengeance against a man who was once a cop of this city, or a new terrorist group against Vars. Or maybe a few people who supported the reign of Norsefire, and are now putting their plans into action to bring down Vars. Or even outsiders from other countries are finally taking their anger out on London for not helping them when they needed it.
Shouldering her purse, she made mental notes of what had happened to her, plus the ideas about these masked men. Grabbing her keys, she finally, giving her apartment one last look and again reprimanding herself for thinking like that, left to meet a cup of coffee and an open journal.
VEV
Her thoughts flooded the pages as anything that came to mind was jotted down. She was once again, on the same sofa, in the same coffee shop as the day previous. She had come to this coffee shop for as long as she could remember. She was a regular, and a welcomed one at that. The elderly men and women who came in every morning for their coffee and conversation sat together at a table. Going over the latest news reports, activities that were going to be happening over the coming months, and sharing each other's sudoku results.
She leaned back into the sofa as she checked her watch. She had written non-stop since she arrived, and it was now nine-thirty. Collecting her things, and finishing off her cup she got up to leave until the door swung open. The jingle of a customer being announced rang through the small shop bringing the barista back to the front counter.
"Good morning, Mr. Rookwood. The usual today?"
"Yes, dear." Evey stopped dead in her tracks as the man walked, hunched over, to a small round table off in a corner. The barista brought him a hot cup of coffee and a biscuit. Taking the money he offered her she returned to the cash register. Evey just stood their starring at him. It wasn't until he looked up and straight at her that she realized that she was being rude and looked away. She then quickly took her leave and headed out down the road.
She knew what she was looking for in that face. Why she did while knowing was absurd. The face was normal. Wrinkled by age, with a graying beard and mustache, those dark glasses still covering his eyes. This time he carried a blind man's cane. Clearly denoting his lack of vision.
Why did she find this man so intriguing to her? All he had done was help her get her head while out in the rain. She shook her head to clear her thoughts when her alarm went off on her wristwatch.
"Damn!" She cursed as she quickly sped up her pace down the road, an old man's eyes, following her.
VEV
"You're late."
"I'm sorry, Dominic. I lost track of time."
He laughed. "And here you're making the times and you arrive late. I can't say I wasn't a bit worried. What with the things that have been going on." She took her seat at the table and looked at him seriously.
"Things? What kinds of things?" The waitress then came up and asked the two of them what they'd like to order. Waving her off for now, Dominic turned to Evey in confusion.
"You haven't heard? It's been plastered all over the television reports."
"Yeah, well my cable was knocked out last night in the storm, and I just didn't bother to turn it on today to see if it was fixed. I had a bit on my mind, you know." She said into her coffee, which had been ordered previous to her arrival, courtesy of Dominic.
"Right. Well then, it turns out the same masked men who attacked Eric, have also somehow cracked into the police records database and deleted many different people along with important documents concerning Three Waters, and St. Mary's. We're currently doing a sweep of the database trying to figure out who could have done this, plus trying to identify the missing people. We're under the belief that the people who were deleted might be the people who are committing these acts."
Evey nodded. "Seems understandable. Erase evidence of your existence and it makes finding you rather difficult."
"Right. But until we find out who the people were that were erased, we're left shuffling our feet."
"So, anything could be happening with these people. They could be the killers themselves. Or marks in which the killers are after. Possibly even people who are already dead."
"That's what we assume anyway." The waitress returned and Dominic ordered a Belgium waffle. Evey added her own order of a slice of toast and one egg over easy.
"What's the news on Eric?"
Dominic took a sip of his coffee before answering. "The doctor's took some x-rays this morning. They say that the blockage isn't dire, but does need to be removed. He still needs to go in for surgery, but they want to wait a bit until his body has healed some. The high loss of blood from the other stab wounds could put him at risk if they took him into surgery right away."
"Thank God for some good news." She sighed as she looked out over the river.
A silence fell over the two as they contemplated their thoughts. It wasn't long until their meals were served. Dominic looked at his waffle hungrily. It looked more like a desert than an actual breakfast. And Evey's-
"Hold on. I didn't order this." She stared at the slice of toast with the over easy egg that sat on top of it.
"But it's cute. I remember when my parents made that for me when I was a little boy." Dominic smiled. It was as both of them remembered.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but that's what I have written down. A slice of toast and an egg over easy." The women handed her the slip of paper. "Our chef just likes to get creative with his dishes sometimes." She said with a smile.
"Why so upset? Mine has a smiley face formed by the strawberries." Evey looked at Dominic's plate and he was right.
"Did you get a new chef?" Evey asked. She had frequented this restaurant enough times, and ordered the same breakfast quite often and it had never come to her like this.
"Hmm, well, we did just get a new chef a few weeks ago. A young German man, named Victor. Sweetheart, really." The waitress said with a smile. "Do you know him?"
Evey starred at her plate as she thought. 'It couldn't be him.'
"Would you like to talk with him? We're slow right now, so he can't be too busy." Evey didn't say anything but nodded slightly. The waitress walked back to the kitchen and called his name. She spoke to the man as they sat with the door swung open, blocking their view. The waitress looked down at her slip of paper, and read off Evey's name. From the small window, the short black hair swung from side to side, indicating a 'no'. The man came out regardless and walked over to the table.
He was a handsome young man. Couldn't have been out of his late 20s. Short cut black hair, hazel eyes, and a strong face, he nodded to Dominic and looked to Evey.
"I'm sorry, ma'am." His voice had a strong German accent. "I don't believe we've ever met, but I can fix your order if you disapprove of it." He said calmly. She gained enough courage to look up at him. No scaring. His hands were perfect. Not him.
"No, I'm fine. I'm sorry to have troubled you… I just thought you were someone I knew from college." She said quickly, thinking up some excuse.
He smiled. "Not a problem, ma'am. Enjoy your breakfast." He returned to the kitchen, shrugging to the waitress as he walked through the swinging doors.
Dominic eyed Evey closely as she started to pick at her toast.
"What was all that about? I didn't know you went to college. Interest in the Culinary?"
She shrugged. "I only attended a few classes before I dropped out. I couldn't afford it, or the time that was needed." Dominic nodded in understanding, albeit sorry that she wasn't able to continue school. He had eaten at her home before and she was a fine cook when she wanted to be.
They sat in quiet conversation, discussing their next plans while they finished their meals. The council was rescheduled to convene early that week after the recent incidents. After they were finished, Dominic said he was going to the office to see if he could find out any clues as to what might have happened to Eric. Evey nodded, saying she was going to pay Eric a visit in the hospital for a while. It hurt her that she didn't stay with him through the night like she had said she would. Instead, selfish, painful memories made her run.
With a swift hug, he saw her off at the bus station and hailed a cab in the other.
Evey's mind swam.
VEV
The rest of her afternoon was spent at the hospital. Eventually a nurse had come in telling her visiting hours were over and that they were taking Eric to the lab to run a few tests on his blood count etc.
She left and walked home. It was a cold night, which certainly wasn't out of the ordinary seeing as it was the middle of January, but it felt refreshing. The cold stinging her down to the bones, letting her know she was alive.
Reaching her apartment, everything was as she… or whoever was in here the night before, left it. Rubbing her arms, she moved to the small indoor fireplace and started a small, smokeless, fire. Making herself a cup of hot cocoa, she settled in the sofa, and starred at the book on the table. A thought crossed her mind that there might be a note place inside it. Before she reached for it, her cell phone rang.
"Dominic?"
"Evey. Sorry it took so long for me to get a hold of you. I spent half the afternoon just trying to get into Eric's office."
"What? Why? I thought you had a key."
"I do. Apparently the locks were changed."
"What?!" She exclaimed.
"Yeah, not to mention the door was dead bolted, and chained from the inside. I don't know how any of this happened. But I finally got into the room. I just discovered this now. I hadn't thought of it earlier." Evey waited for him to continue, as he seemed a little on edge.
"Evey. I checked Eric's e-mail." He paused as he starred at the screen. He had re-read the message what felt like a half a dozen times. He then continued with a heavy voice. "He was pre-warned of the attack. By someone named, Rookwood."
The phone dropped from Evey's cold hand.
Author's Note:
Wonderful. Chapter 2 is complete. :D I would like to say thank you to VnEvey for being my first reviewer, as well as +fav. It seems I've had quite a few people who have checked out the story so far. Let me know what you think so I can make this story as enjoyable for you guys as it is for me while writing.
Pretty interesting so far, imho. I was rather surprised at some of the things I'm running across while writing this. Everything seems to be coming together unexpectedly. Ahh the wonders of writing. smile Well, please R&R on your way out and until next time!
Ahro