V.I.A. and the Gallery door opened allowing V to enter. Instantly a burning smell alerted him that something wasn't right. The heavy door closed and he rushed into the center of his home to scan the area.
The television blared, and alerted people of the capture and incarceration of Chief Inspector Eric Finch. A band of writing flowed across the bottom of the screen. The smell of a roast burning in the oven left a slight haze of smoke that lingered in the kitchen. V checked the oven contents, then slammed the door and turned the knob off.
"Evey?" He called out. The mask faced the ground and waited for her reply, fully knowing there would be none.
The door opened to a darkened bedroom except for a thin line of light that shined from within the bathroom. V crept over to the bathroom and pushed the door until it revealed the room's contents.
Empty.
The brick metal doorknob was still in place on the hidden door. Evey went through the tunnel.
"No. No!" He scowled as he rushed to open the door.
From the blackness, a door opened in space that seemed to float on nothing. Its occupier behaved tormented to an extent that even a Guy Fawkes veneer could not hide.
"Evey. EVEY!" he screamed to the nothingness.
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Her eyes opened. White. And agonizing pain in her head and neck. Her hands were tied behind her chair and the bind cut into her flesh. Voices and footsteps became louder, and a door opened and closed.
Evey shut her eyes and inhaled the white bag on her head. Try to feel now what you felt then.
Someone removed the bag. She opened her eyes slow on purpose.
A man with blue eyes sat across from her at the other end of a long rectangular table. He stared at her as he toyed with the overgrown nail on his pinky finger. Evey matched his stare, and observed his uniform at the same time. A General. A notion hit her of this being another one of V's tricks, but it couldn't be. No. This was real. The proof now prepared to say something; the glare from his eyes nearly burned into her skull validating their terrible authenticity.
"Fearless, are we?" He bit the side of his lip and looked down at the pinky now tapping the table. "It seems we have a live one here, Lieutenant," he said, without looking up.
A chuckle sound came from behind. Evey startled from a manila file that slapped down on the table beside her. A hand pushed it. It slid to the officer with the blue eyes. The man gave her a dirty look and then opened the file in front of him. He reached into his uniform pocket and pulled out a pair of small reading glasses. While he leafed through photos and paperwork, Evey's eyes wandered.
A large room with stations along either side. Cabinets, paint marks, the smell of plaster, and dust, lots of it. A hospital room? Speckled floor. On top of the black tabletop, a white bag, and a dry caked substance.
Blood.
The man looked up. He observed her as she searched the table and the floor. Streaked blood. It must be. And small shavings of hair. Someone made an effort to clean and didn't do a good jobExpressionless, Evey let her vision settle back to the General, who smirked and stared at her again.
"Well, you've got quite a history here Evey Hammond. Seems you've been busy being elusive for the past year. Our boys at Scotland Yard have been up to their necks in it, actually." He continued turning pages, and then stopped to clasp his hands on top of the file. "Where have you been?"
Evey's face turned red as he sat waiting for a response. She could feel his irritability grow at her stoic expression. He removed his glasses and stood up, grasping something behind his back.
"I'm going to get right to the point Ms. Hammond. From this moment on, you will call me General, and you will SPEAK!" He pulled out his pistol with one hand and pointed it at her. "Or die."
Undaunted, Evey didn't budge. It wasn't because of her lack of fear, or death that threatened her. It was because she knew where he was going with his line of questioning. They didn't want her. They wanted V.
"What do you want from me?"
"Ah. She speaks. Smart girl." He withdrew his pistol and put it back into its holster. "There are always consequences Ms. Hammond. The advantage or the malediction, the choice is yours. Now, where were we? Ah, yes! Your whereabouts for the past year."
"Living in a flat in Paddington Station."
"Oh, that's rich!" He laughed. "She was right under their noses the whole time." Someone snickered in the back of the room. "And um, where is that masked friend of yours…er…this Code Name V?" He asked, as he pinched his bottom lip with his two fingers.
Silence.
"He's dead."
"Ah. Well then." He spoke to someone behind her. "I guess we won't have to be saving you for anything."
An arm came around and grabbed her in a chokehold. She strained and flailed against the arm, but it was too muscular, too strong. It cut off her air and pulled her neck upward, and then let go.
"Care to change your story?" He asked.
Evey coughed and gagged on the fluid in her lungs.
"Now." He gestured at her lace bra, touching it with the end what looked like a leather riding crop. "I know that you didn't wear that for me." His face moved in close-very close. She could smell alcohol on his breath. Evey stared down at the table.
"Or did you?" He waited for a response, and when he received none he stood straight, his lower body almost touching her. He looked down at her. Thinking.
Evey got the impression that he had something in store for her to go along with her ensemble. It made her face hot, and her heart race.
"It's alright. We'll find out soon enough." He whispered, mocking a sexy tone. "You see, we have reason to believe your friend is still very much alive, and when he finds out about your affair with us…well…it's just a matter of time before he comes here like a stilted lover."
She felt comforted at the thought and it must have shown on her face.
"Oh come, come now my dear. You don't actually believe he would be any match for four thousand Marines do you?" He paused and rubbed his chin. "Do you even know who he is?"
Evey looked at him directly in his eyes as if to ask what he meant, and then quickly focused on the table once more.
"Could this be possible? You don't know the horrors that lurk beneath the mask?"
No response.
"Well, allow me to clarify." He smiled and turned his back at her and walked along the length of the table in the opposite direction. A finger slid on top of the granite. "Your friend, uh excuse me, lover, is responsible for the St. Mary's outbreak."
That news hit her like a fist in the chest. She didn't believe it, but she still wanted to know what he had to say.
"It's true. He's a carrier… this…this enigma you're whoring with. He's an experiment gone twisted. He should have died in a fire, but for some reason, he didn't. He survived! He survived fire! And now, he's loose on the world, this evil…this…this murderer…this…this TERRORIST!" The General worked himself up to a frenzy. His eyes crazed and wide now turned their attention back on Evey.
Something shattered inside of her, something in her gut said that this was truth. Proof cannot lie. The bullets. No scars. Her heart could not lie. I watched him die… and yet…
… he lives.
The General collected himself and stroked an imaginary beard and mustache. He appeared as if he didn't quite know what to do with her. "Do you know how many lives you are putting in danger because of what you are doing? Do you?" He gestured at the blood on the table. "Did you know Chief Inspector Finch?
Evey followed his eyesight to the table and the blood. She gasped. "NO! NO!" She screamed. "YOU MONSTER! You killed him! You killed him!" Evey tried to get loose from binds that were too tight. Her body lurched and tossed until an arm came around her and silenced her once more. She wept with her eyes squeezed shut.
"The one man." He interrupted, shaking his head and ignoring her. "That could devastate our entire enhanced society." He bit his bottom lip and looked up in the air. He was losing his patience. He turned his attention to her once more.
"DO YOU WANT TO DIE?" He screamed.
He came closer to her again, his face brightened as if reacting to the question. He grabbed her chin and squeezed with such force. Almost nose-to-nose with her, he whispered."Who are you? What are you?"
His eyes were an inch away from her own. They stayed, those blue eyes that could cut glass, they stayed, and Evey saw nothing else. Then, he let go.
"Of course, we don't speak that way anymore in the Union." He laughed with his mouth closed and walked to retrieve the file, and then tapped the edge of it on the table. In haste, he made his way to the door.
"Goodbye, Ms. Hammond." The General passed her without looking at her.
It was all over. The arm from behind let her go. Evey felt her heart turn rapid with the knowledge of her death. The General gestured to the person behind her, and the door opened.
She heard the distinctive sound of a leather holster, and a clicking noise. A pistol.
The door opened again, and the General's voice whispered. "Wait."