I had made up my mind when I woke up that I wouldn't "give in" per-say. Just tease him a little. Nothing would go down tonight other than a few kisses. I peeked my head around the corner and saw him nowhere in sight. Well where could the guy go?
"Damned hidden rooms" I murmured under my breath. How big could a warehouse be? With that massive...torture chamber I was forced through yesterday! I huffed and went to go take a shower before he could come out and bug me again.
In the bathroom I glanced in the mirror just to see what face I was making. I wouldn't call myself vain by any means but I would sometimes just stare at my face to see what it did. I very strange thing I used to do as a child was to sit in front of this massive mirror my...fourth family's house I believe. Sure they stared at me as if I was nuts but I was at least amused. Eying my face critically, I touched where dark circles were forming under my eyes from the recent lack of sleep lately. I took a deep breath and let my hair down from it's ponytail, whipping it around for a few seconds before stepping in.
The warm water worked as a makeshift masseuse with my sore muscles from the violent trap yesterday. If today's was just as bad as that one I'd have a conniption. Since I figured he wasn't paying for the water I stayed in there as long as I could.
Once out of the shower, I wrapped myself securely in a towel and peeked out. He was still out of sight. I gathered up my dirty clothes and tip toed out cautiously, looking around like I was on a secret mission or something.
"If this is what I get for sleeping in, I might find myself doing it more often."
I squeaked and hid behind his chair instinctively, like it could help at all. I deep flush was coming around my chin as I wheeled his chair backwards towards my room, using it for shelter. That smug look was smacked across his face again as if it was a permanent fixture.
"Cover your eyes!" I hissed.
"And miss the opportunity to see you in a towel...nah I'm good."
I tried not to break eye contact as I fumbled with the knob behind me. After a few seconds of bungling his grin widened.
"Having trouble with opening a door?"
"Go to hell." I snarled as it came loose. I slammed the door in frustration and whipped off the towel, putting on normal clothes before he could get his security footage up and running. Just as I pulled my shirt on a frustrated groan came from the main room
"HA!" I yelled. "Too slow!" Man, I needed to get a grip if this guy was going to succumb to me and not the other way around. You had to give a little, pull a little.
I inserted the key into door three and came upon a simple room like the first with a table set up in the center. On the table was a strange looking device that looked to be some sort of a child's toy. The only thing from keeping it from being just a metal box was a spinning wheel of letters, all scrambled in some way to spell 'enigma'.
"Do you like it? A new invention of mine. I call it the enigma machine." I looked around. Nope, no projector this time.
"Really ingenious name..." I yelled, turning in around in my hands.
"Yes, well it's still in the experimental stage. Anyway you're going to test it out for me."
"Gee, thanks. It's just what I've always wanted." I sneered.
"You can thank me later for making this so easy. Right now I have business to attend to. Answer the riddles on the back of the machine and bring it back when your done."
I turned the thing around in my hands and eventually saw five riddles on the back. All had been asked to me before, so of course I had all the answers inside my head. But what the hell was this thing supposed to do? I shook it up a bit like you would a present and it rattled.
I figured out that the answers were already incorporated into the machine, you just had to turn the right gears to match the two halves of the word up.
When I marched into the room, my head held high, I was expecting my door to give right in when I pulled the knob, but for some reason it stuck tight. I rattled the knob more and came to the very strange conclusion that it was locked.
"Huh." I simply stared at the knob for the longest time, maybe hoping it would open by my oh so brilliant telekinesis skills.
When that (unfortunately) didn't work, I picked the lock. It wasn't that hard, easier than cracking a safe in my opinion. Wow, I've been hanging out with the wrong crowd.
I left the door ajar when I stepped out. About in the middle of the room I noticed no one was around, no water was going, and there was a very...funny smell wafting around.
I coughed as the strange smelling fume drifted into my nostrils. What-? The room was beginning to distort in front of my widening eyes. I head Eddie's furious outcry but didn't feel any hands. My skin felt all prickly from...something. I squeezed my eyes shut and flexed my muscles to see if it was relieved any. It wasn't.
When my eyes opened again I was in a police station, but it was devoid of color. Where had the room gone? Was I free? Where was Eddie?
Everything was black and white...that was except for a trail of blood. Everything in my body seemed to freeze as my roving view came to Edward's body on the floor, devoid of life.
A strangled cry of "no" left my lips and my legs gave out. The tingling feeling was gone, but I would have given anything for it to be back, it was so much better than not feeling a thing. I crawled over numbly to check his pulse but my touch was only greeted my the fading heat in his body. My head bowed to look into his dull, glassy eyes, a trickle of red coming from his parted lips. I forced my hand to lift his head up from the floor. I felt his hair. The silky texture so like his shirts. A greater pain than anything physical thundered up and down my abdomen, weighting my diaphragm down and making it impossible for regular breaths to come out. Shuddering sobs racked my whole body as the full situation broke through. My brain clouded and all I could think of was how I would never feel any more kisses, no more banter or teasing. No death traps or pervy remarks. I may be free, but everything was so...colorless when I looked at it from this new perspective I seemed to have.
Cradling his lifeless form against me,I did nothing to stifle the flow of tears. I never could have imagined anything like this. Nothing so horrible like the feeling coursing through my body right now. I buried my head into his neck, feeling the last of his heat I would ever feel seep into my forehead. I savored every last second, memorized his scent, pressed it into my brain until it was no more. I rocked him back and forth until it went through my head that he was no longer here. He was somewhere better, where he could openly taunt everyone who had ever called him a moron, solve a million crosswords in a day if he wanted. That made me feel no less pain.
I wanted him, but could never have him now. He was beyond my reach. My blurred vision picked up the small details of everything I wanted to miss. His eyes no longer sparkled with life, the vibrant green now a sage color that had death injected into them. Open lips were made to be almost calling out to somebody unknown. Maybe even to me.
Fresh tears watered in my eyes and I held his body closer. I wanted so badly for the limp arms to wrap around me, to hold me just as close as I was holding him. To stroke my hair and to say that everything was going to be okay...then everything began to fade.
The body in my arms dissolved into nothing and I was all of the sudden clinging to something that was living, breathing and holding me in return. I wasn't the one rocking, the one holding me was. I felt heat, blessed heat through a green jacket.
My lungs shook with fresh breaths as I looked at a very much alive Edward Nigma. Usually I would have pushed him away, exclaiming; 'You tricked me!'
Nope, I just clung on tighter and bawled into his shoulder, letting relief pass through me in a tidal wave of emotion.