The week followed with more emails and more encounters with that woman. Hawks was also beginning to show more open distrust of her. He had started to ask about the emails again but Yuri didn't have an answer for him and it didn't seem to matter how she tried to trace it, it would always come back with an error code. He still wasn't answering any of her messages so she was at a loss.
"So any news on those emails?" Hawks' voice sounded behind her. He really liked to come up and surprise her.
"Like I said yesterday, no," Yuri stated flatly, "I've run traces on them but I'm still coming up empty-handed." Yuri nibbled at her bottom lip, pulling at the dead skin that stubbornly remained. A metallic taste filled her mouth as she pulled a little too hard at a piece on the corner of her mouth. Yuri sucked her bottom lip into her mouth trying to stop the bleeding as she continued to fill out a report for the Hero Commission about the latest villain incident. A hand gripping her chin pulled Yuri's attention away. Yuri looked up and caught Hawks' golden eyes.
"Something is eating away at you and this is not a healthy way to cope," His thumb brushed against her bottom lip freeing it from between her teeth, "What else is there?" Yuri hesitated, dropping her eyes down to where she was fiddling with her hands as she spun her chair around.
"It's nothing really," Yuri said. Hawks forced her chin up so that she would look at him.
"It's not nothing if it's making you this nervous," Hawks said forcibly. Yuri forced her jaw out of Hawk's hand making her office chair roll back slightly.
"You shouldn't concern yourself with my affairs," Yuri said.
"It's not just your affairs when it is happening at my agency," Hawks argued, "You won't let me help you with the Commission so let me help you with this!" Yuri stifled a sigh before bringing her phone out.
"The emails have started to come into my private email," Yuri whispered holding her phone out to him, "The message in these emails is slightly different but I can't quite make it out."
"You sure you don't have a stalker?" Hawks asked, scrolling through her emails.
"I don't see why," Yuri shrugged, "I'm not exactly stand out material for that kind of thing."
"Have you looked in a mirror lately?" Hawks stared down at her with such intensity as he leaned against her desk. Yuri could feel heat rising to her cheeks as it crept up the back of her neck, "There is a reason I put your desk right in front of my office door you know." The sly smirk on his face made Yuri fester with annoyance as he laughed at her expense.
"We are not starting this again!" Yuri turned back towards her desk, snatching her phone from his hands, "If you don't want to take this seriously then don't be nosy!"
"Oh come on, babe!" Hawks smirked, leaning forward to whisper in her ear, "I can't help but tease a beautiful woman such as yourself especially when your reactions are just so delicious" Yuri blushed. Hard. She was pretty sure she would be resembling a tomato if she looked in a mirror.
"That is inappropriate!"
"I'll stop when you tell me to," Hawks' smirk stretched across his face.
"I have already told you to stop!"
"Not explicitly. You just keep saying it's inappropriate because you're my secretary," Hawks' voice deepened as he stood behind her putting his hands on either side of her; trapping her to her desk, "Maybe you're too scared to admit that you like the attention. You want a handsome man like myself to focus solely on you. Maybe this is a fetish of yours? Getting called into the boss' office to get punished." Yuri shivered as he purred into her ear. Her hands trembled as they hovered just above her keyboard; her mind going a million miles at once but no full thought could form.
"Yuri? I need some- oh I'm sorry am I interrupting something?" Aiko said as she stood in front of Yuri's desk.
"Oh no! Not at all!" Yuri squeaked. Hawks let out a warm laugh.
"No, Yuri was just showing me something she found," Hawks took a step back, "Although, I will take this and look into it." Hawks swiped her phone off her desk and quickly walked into his office shutting the door.
"What was that about?" Aiko questioned.
"No clue really," Yuri shook her head, "I've been getting some strange emails but nothing too crazy" 'Thank the gods I wiped my phone of all other contacts,' Yuri thought as she looked at his closed door. Yuri stood up and walked over to Aiko.
"What did you need?"
"Oh right! This paperwork doesn't seem to be quite right but I don't know how to fix it," Aiko said pushing a large file into Yuri's hands.
"Alright let's go through it," Yuri said as she gestured for Aiko to sit next to her. They spent the next couple of hours combing through the rather large file and all that was wrong with it. Yuri had since twirled her hair into a bun around a pen and Aiko was slouching into the hard seat shifting every once in a while to get comfortable.
"I think we should call it a night," Yuri suggested after Aiko yawned for the umpteenth time.
"Good idea," Aiko said as she stood up and stretched out, "You should probably go check on him. He hasn't left his office in a while which is unlike him."
"Or he left out one of his windows," Yuri said slumping back into the chair, "I'll go check on him in a little bit."
"He still has your phone right?" Yuri shot up.
"Shit! He does!"
"Got some naughty texts you don't want him to read?" Aiko asked slyly, "And here I thought you had the hots for him given all that flirting earlier."
"Of course not!" Yuri snorted, "That's just who he is."
"Well tell me how it goes," Aiko winked as she walked away. Yuri shook her head at her coworker's antics as she settled behind her computer pulling up her reports she needed to finish before she left. Her computer was pulling up notification after notification of emails. She had long since silenced the notification sound since they were coming so frequently. Pulling up her tracer program, she allowed it to run in the background as she finished off the last of the Commission's reports. With one last look over, she sent it in and focused on her program. Yuri typed away as she coded the next step of a tracer program which would narrow the countries the email's server was bouncing off of. Her fingers flew across her keyboard with precision and skill as she set about trying to find this emailer making her completely unaware of the world surrounding her. The email notifications kept coming and something felt different about the incoming batch. It was bouncing off of different countries. Instead of South America, Italy, and Canada. It was coming out of Mexico, England, and India. Yuri frowned as she pulled up the latest email.
From: Phoenix
To: Snow Angel
Subject: Meeting
img src=" .jpg"
iframe src=is="url" title="description"
psampFile not F1 to continue/samp/p/mine/
'What is this!' Yuri's frantic mind tried to comprehend the coding garble that was splayed across the email but no matter how hard she tried it wasn't real code talking. It was like someone had thrown together some coding strings and thought they would form a message. Yuri let her body's muscle memory guide her hands over the keys as she tried to decipher what it could mean. The tracer program pinged as the program stopped at a location. Another dud. A hand on her shoulder shook her from her thoughts bringing her attention to her boss standing beside her.
"You okay?" Hawks asked, concern laced in his honey eyes.
"I-I don't know," Yuri stumbled, "The email completely changed." Yuri pointed at her computer screen.
"Well that's slightly terrifying," Hawks stated, "I don't think you should walk home alone tonight."
"I'll be fine," Yuri shook her head, "Whoever it is is probably just messing with me."
"Yuri, I don't feel comfortable with the idea," Hawks retaliated, "Please, for me? Let one of the sidekicks go with you." His eyes pleaded with her to listen to him and she could never say no when he was being so protective.
"Fine," Yuri conceded, "I'll let Jay or Mockingbird follow me home."
"Good. I'll call Jay over to take you in a few minutes," Hawks pulled her phone out of his pocket, "I couldn't get anything from this but it looks like it's memory has been wiped recently."
"Wiped?" Yuri stared at her phone in confusion, "That's strange."
"Very," Hawks agreed, narrowing her eyes at her, "Go home and get some rest. If you need anything don't hesitate to call, okay? I put my phone number down as an emergency contact." Yuri nodded, taking her phone and putting it in her purse as she made to head out. Jay was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs motioning for her to hurry up.
"Have a good night, Hawks," Yuri waved back at him. He didn't reply verbally but waved back at her.
The next couple of days continued in a similar fashion with Yuri trying to multitask between doing the paperwork for Hawks and running the program for the emails. They were getting more insistent coming every 10 minutes rather than every hour. This combined with the late night conversations with that mysterious woman was starting to get to Yuri's head. She was jumping at everything and sleep was more elusive than it usually was for her but she didn't know what to do about it. The President would have her head if she distracted Hawks from his mission and that was something Yuri feared more than these emails.
It was Friday when Yuri made a break in the emails. They were coming from Kyushu in a neighborhood not far from her apartment. Maybe it was a stalker? But why? The only time she went out in public was for mundane errands and she never interacted with anyone. Too many questions and not enough information. He wasn't responding to any sort of message code either. The day went by quickly with most of the office busy with small time villains and robberies. Yuri's brain was in such a turmoil that she barely registered anything but the work in front of her. Hawks hadn't been in the office all day so she assumed he was on his mission for the Commission but it also left her without an escort for the night as both Jay and Mockingbird were dealing with the various crimes happening.
Yuri walked home as fast as she possibly could. She had been at work for another 3 hours and at least 60 more showed up in both her emails. The messages had started to change. Always saying something along the lines of 'He's mine' but it was garbled between code text and the original email which made Yuri suspicious that someone had hacked into his network and took the email, but was unable to change the message entirely. Why spoof the email at all? The coding Yuri had on her email usually protected it against such spamming, but the program was only known to herself. A hidden defense shield. Whoever was sending them was getting on her nerves. She hadn't been able to focus on her other more important work because of them. Yuri was tense as she walked down the street toward her apartment complex. The woman was there waiting outside like always.
"He was here again last night," the woman said, "It has been over a week now. I wonder what has his attention?"
"Who knows with heroes. They always know about the most minute things before any of us do," Yuri said as she looked up at the sky.
"Are you judging him?" The woman's voice came across sharply, "You really shouldn't judge those above you. Especially given that interesting chocker you have on."
"Oh no," Yuri defended, "I would never. Just stating that they take into account every detail. It is quite amazing." The woman's tone put her on edge. Something felt wrong. Like the slightest movement could cause the whole situation to turn. It felt dark and oppressive. It felt dangerous. Yuri was no stranger to killer intent, but this was different.
"I should hope not, little miss secretary," The woman sang. Yuri tensed.
"I should be getting to bed. Gotta get up early and all that," Yuri turned to walk away when a hand caught her arm pulling her back.
"Oh no no no no," The woman tutted, "We aren't done with our conversation. We still have another hour before he appears."
"I really should get going," Yuri tugged on her arm trying to pull away.
"Oh but you can get him to come down!" The woman screamed enthusiastically, "So be a good doll and let me use you!" Yuri grunted in pain as her arm was twisted behind her back. Her purse slipped from her shoulder spilling its contents onto the ground in a scattered mess as she was pulled into the small alleyway that resided adjacent to the complex.
"Please, don't do this. He's been absent from the agency all day!" Yuri pleaded, "He might not show tonight!"
"Of course he will," The woman said, "He comes and sits on the rooftop and then moves onto your balcony and watches. It took me a while to figure out whose apartment and why he was visiting you every night. Then a little birdy told me about a weakness in your email." Yuri's blood ran cold.
"I don't know what you think is happening but-"
"He's mine! You understand! Mine!" The woman frantically shouted, "They took everything from me. Now it's time for me to take what is mine! What belongs to me!" The woman shoved her on the ground, knocking the breath from Yuri's body. Her chest ached in protest as her breasts were squashed against the hard concrete and the weight of the woman's body pushing her down. Her phone was shoved into her face unlocking it to the person above her.
"Please, who are you?" Yuri cried out.
"Me? You can call me Lilith," The woman, Lilith, cooed out, "Now I'm going to call your boss and you're going to tell him to come here." The phone was pressed against the side of her face as Lilith ground her knee into Yuri's back. Yuri grunted at the force.
"Hello?" Hawks' voice filtered out of the phone, "Yuri? Are you alright?"
"Hawks?" Yuri wheezed, "I'm fine. Must've accidentally dialed you. Sorry for the inconvenience." The knee in her back pressed harder and her arm was yanked up causing a slight popping sensation to send chills down Yuri's back. Her eyes began to water as the sensation sent pins and needles down her arm and into her hand. Yuri bit her lip to keep silent.
"Okay, if you say so." The line went dead.
"You bitch!" Lilith screeched letting go of Yuri's arm and taking to straddling her back. Yuri's world tilted into an array of bright lights and shadows as the crazed woman grabbed a fist full of her hair and slammed her head on the ground. A sickening crunch rang in Yuri's ears as her nose broke against the concrete. Tears and blood mixed as they streamed down Yuri's face as the woman continued to smash her head into the ground.
"Now, we will try this again," The woman took a deep breath settling her over-enthusiastic breathing. Yuri grunted but offered no other concession, "This time you will get him here." The phone was pressed against the side of her face again making Yui wince as it touches a spot where the skin split. The phone began to ring. Yuri squirmed under the weight of the other woman. Bucking her hips back, Yuri managed to get Lilith off balance. She swung her leg around rotating herself on her back, knocking the woman into the wall. Lilith's head hit with a loud thud and the woman remained on the ground in a heap. Yuri grabbed her phone and blindly looked around for her keys.
"Yuri?" 'Shit! She did call again.' Yuri ended the call and raced toward the entrance of the alleyway. The glint of metal caught her eye making her slow her gait. Her keys were shoved against the wall and if it hadn't been a full moon that night, Yuri doubted she would be able to see them.
"Get back here, you filthy villainous whore!" Lilith screamed behind her, "I will have him!" Her phone buzzed in her hand but she ignored it. Yuri rounded the corner toward the apartment complex entrance pushing her legs to move faster when she felt something slippery wrap around her leg. Yuri shrieked as she saw a green snake hiss up at her from its position on her leg. Yuri dropped face first, her cheek taking the brunt of the impact. Stars danced in her vision as pain erupted from the offended cheek. She scratched at the ground as the snakes pulled her back toward the alleyway. With a harsh tug, Yuri was flung deep into the alleyway.
"Shit," Yuri heaved as she propped herself up against a wall, "He won't come! We have no relationship outside of work!"
"That's where you're wrong. You will make him come!" Lilith threw her phone at her feet as more snakes crawled up her body trapping her in place. The phone was ringing silently on the ground. 'If only I could access it! If only I could do something!' Yuri panicked. Lilith shoved the phone in her face.
"Now, answer the phone like a good little secretary," Lilith crouched before her. Yuri panted as her heartbeat escalated. Shadows started to surround her vision as she narrowed in on the brightness of the phone. A sharp tingle on her neck brought Yuri's awareness back to the woman in front of her. Lilith's blonde hair was ratted, caked with mud and her skin that had once been pale looked dark from the amount of dirt that laid on top of it. Her eyes were what caught Yuri's attention the most. They were glowing red. There was no pupil, no whites, just a glowing red that took over the entirety of her eye. Yuri let out a small scream as tears pulled at the wounds on her face. The salt in the tears caused them to throb in agony but it only made Yuri cry harder. The snake at her throat grazed the delicate skin with its fangs once more.
"Focus, little secretary," Lilith gestured with the phone once more. The screen lit up to another call from Hawks, "Let's answer this one shall we?"
"Yuri!? Yuri? C'mon talk to me!" Hawks' voice rang through her head like church bells. It was too loud.
"Hawks," Yuri shuttered out, "Can't come." The snake wrapped around her throat once bumping its nose against her jugular. Yuri felt her body shake as a sense of hopelessness came over her. Was she going to die here?
"What's happening?" Hawks demanded.
"Can't c-" The snake tightened its grasp around her neck, its fangs brushed against her skin. The metal collar dug deeper into her neck as the snake's body pressed up against it. Yuri gasped as she became lightheaded. She tried to reach up towards her neck but the other snakes pinned her arms down. Lilith sat in her lap with a whimsical grin on her face, humming quietly with her eyes closed as she listened to Hawks speak.
"I'm on my way! You're at your apartment right?"
"Bring others," Yuri choked out.
"I will." Yuri could hear him grinding his teeth in frustration before the line went dead. Lilith squealed causing Yuri to jump making the snake on her neck break the skin just above the choker slightly. Yuri keened in pain as blood slipped between the broken skin.
"Oh shush!" Lilith preened as she petted Yuri's head, "Your hero will be here soon."
"You're going to wait a while then," Yuri gasped, "He's not going to care enough about little old me to come at top speed. Hawks has more important things to be doing than rescuing me."
"Then I guess we'll be here all night," Lilith said, keeping herself situated on Yuri's lap. The snakes squirmed around her body tightening and loosening their grip as Lilith preached about how well this was all going.
"You know, I didn't actually think this would work but when that lady told me about the opening in your email that would get yours and his attention, I just knew I could do it!" Lilith gushed, "I didn't even have to try very hard. I hired a small time hacker to get me in and then I took it from there! And now I can finally be with my love!"
"He won't go with you," Yuri strained against the snakes, "My life is forfeit when it comes to him. If you kill me here tonight, someone else will replace me."
"Then he will die as well," Lilith's gaze sharpened. Yuri let out a wet laugh.
"Like you could kill him. He didn't make it to the top 10 at such a young age on sheer luck. He will be too fast for you," Yuri smirked, "This is the end of the line for you. Even if you manage to inflict some damage the Hero Commission will make it so you never see the light of day again." Lilith growled and pulled a chunk of her hair. Yuri's neck strained against being bent as the snake resided there. Black dots danced in her vision at the lack of oxygen. Yuri wheezed trying to get any semblance of air into her lungs. 'You can do this, Yuri,' she thought, 'Slow your breathing and focus on your heartbeat.' Yuri shut her eyes letting the beat of her heart drum in her ears, the rush of her blood tingle against her skin. Slowly her racing heart calmed and the pain in her body bled away into numbness; she opened her eyes.
"We'll just have to wait and see now won't we, little secretary," Lilith tossed her head back causing it to bound off the wall with a crack!
"She won't have to wait very long," A harsh voice called out. Yuri tilted her head toward the entrance where the silhouette of a man blocked out the light from the street. It wasn't Hawks.