Kawaii-Cherri: I hope you like this chapter. I do. It was satisfying. Also, yeah, they're all bark no bite, though that will change. Wink. Wink. I have to admit even after a decade with my husband, I still become a teenage, blushing mess.
Chapter Twenty-one: From your lips.
It was the early hours when Sebastian had fallen back asleep but Elspeth couldn't do it. She tried to drop off but her mind was racing far too much. Sebastian barely stirred when she slipped out of his grip; it was understandable that he was exhausted. From what Elspeth had learned, which was almost everything he knew about his condition; it took a lot of energy for him to change forms and what with trying to stay alive from the monster attack, he would be out for a while. She rummaged around in her pack and found the drawing pad she had brought with her, just in case. After finding a pencil, she wrote him a note:
-Bazz.
I'm going up to the farm to check on things. I'll be back soon. Promise.
Elsie. X
It was short and sweet and hopefully it conveyed everything she was trying to get across. The lack of phones made things a little more difficult but she wasn't too bothered. Elspeth peeked her head out the tent, it was damp but very bright. Grabbing the spare pair of shoes she had brought with her, she got changed and left the campsite. The air was crisp and held no remnant of the malice and danger it brought the day before. Elspeth did as she said she was going to do and wandered up to her farm, there was minimal damage although a few of her trees were going to need clipping. She took care of her animals and cleared away some fallen branches, putting them aside to dry out before she broke them down for materials.
Still being incredibly early, she decided to take a shower and change once again into clothing that didn't smell like salt. Now she was refreshed, a thought crossed her mind. It was something concerning and she was determined to get to the bottom of it. To find out what the truth of the matter was, it meant that she was going to have to talk to a certain someone.
-x-
'I know you've stolen it, Sebastian. You have crossed a line. This is unforgivable. You wonder why I don't trust you? Well, this is why! You can turn off your phone but you will have to return here at some point and when you do, we are going to have to have a serious talk about this invasion of privacy and thievery. After all I do for you? This is how you repay me?' Demetrius said, angrily down the phone as he walked towards his lab. He had gone in early that morning and discovered that a sample of his salve was missing.
After that, he had spent over an hour in Sebastian's room looking for it. In the end, he had to concede that Sebastian had taken it with him and it didn't matter how many times Demetrius had tried to call him, his step-son wouldn't pick up the phone. Demetrius had even tried to call Elspeth as he was sure that's where Sebastian was hiding but her phone didn't connect either. Internally, he was panicking, a lot could have gone wrong in the last twenty-four hours.
'I'm giving you until dinner to return my property or you are going to find yourself with dire consequences,' Demetrius snarled as he walked into his lab. He was startled to find Elspeth sitting at his desk, swinging her leg as she turned in his seat. With a scowl, Demetrius ended the call and voice message. 'Elspeth,' he said, bluntly.
She smiled at him brightly and flicked her freshly washed hair over her shoulder. 'Demetrius,' she said without a care in the world. 'Good morning!' Well, his greeting confirmed pretty much everything I thought about him. Also, "dinner"? Talk about infantilizing someone, she thought to herself.
'What are you doing in my lab?' He asked as he shut the door behind him, roughly, and slipped his phone into his pocket.
Tilting her head, she wore an expression of fake surprise. 'Oh! Here I thought you'd be more concerned about my well-being,' she said, acting hurt. 'Especially seeing as I have a great big, bloody wound on my head and well, Sebastian and I have just spent the night in close proximity,' she said, slyly, watching his demeanour. 'You know how that sort of thing can be.'
Demetrius' scowl deepened. 'You are aware of his… condition, then?' He said, ignoring her comment about her injury. He didn't particularly care, it hadn't affected her cognitive ability.
'Oh. That!' Elspeth said, her sunny disposition cranking up a notch. 'I am! Thank you, for asking,' she added as she smiled, it was so fake of an expression it almost went into the uncanny valley. 'See, the thing is, after you've spent the night holding the person you care about in your arms while they cry, certain things get a different perspective,' she said.
Sebastian's step-father seemed to somehow become intimidating with his posture, moving closer to Elspeth. His lip twitched in anger as he glared at her. 'You do not know anything,' he said, matter-of-factly. He moved closer to a certain cabinet and then noticed that the lock was hanging off. Demetrius whipped around to face Elspeth. She had her bright smile on and had crossed her legs, revealing a syringe in her hand that dangled lazily from where she rested her wrist on her knee.
'Is this what you were going for? Useless in my case though isn't it?' She asked, simply, as she raised the syringe. 'And as a correction to your statement, actually, yes, I do know things. Probably more than you, which I know, seems impossible seeing as you've been experimenting on Sebastian for the last fifteen years… or should I say, subject C11.H17.N3.O8, or C.H.I.T.N.O, as you are so fond of referring him to. Much easier isn't it? Referring to someone as a case study instead of an actual human being.'
Demetrius eyed up the syringe, it was full of the poisonous residue that Sebastian secreted and wouldn't affect Elspeth should she get some on her person. 'You read my files,' he stated, his anger showing.
Elspeth grinned, her own fury at the man almost palpable. 'I did a brief scan; it would have been almost impossible to read over ten years' worth of reports in about an hour. I did have other things to do, after all,' she said as she waved the syringe. 'Though your reports seem to go back a lot farther then ten years… looks like you've been writing about a particular phenomenon for a while.'
'How did you get in here?' he demanded; it wasn't really a question.
She laughs and leans back, resting her elbows on the table behind her. 'For someone so smart, you're really fucking stupid. You left your computer unlocked, genius. Same with the lab door. You've convinced yourself that you're untouchable,' she said with a snort. 'It wasn't hard to break the lock to your cabinet, not after what I've had to break into at the mines. Besides, I feel that I might need the insurance.'
He rolled his eyes at her arrogance, 'why are you even here, Elspeth?' He said, needing to remove her from his lab but also needing to find out what she knew.
Annoyingly, she yawned at him, barely covering her mouth. It did nothing but tick up his infuriation. 'Ugh, late night,' she said through the yawn. 'Oh, yeah,' she said at the end. 'Right, the reason I'm here,' she said with an amused waggle of her head. 'I have this talent, y'see. An intuition-' Demetrius scoffs and glares at her but it does nothing to put Elspeth off. '-It's something I learned once my sister had died, it's not like I've always had it,' she explains.
'I'm sure it's thrilling,' Demetrius muttered, frustrated.
Her eyes narrowed and Demetrius hated to admit that he felt a flash of wariness at her gaze. Elspeth clicked her jaw and adjusted her position on the seat. 'It's how I know something isn't right. That something isn't how it seems and that… there may be something hidden. That someone is being untruthful.'
Demetrius sneered, 'are you here to because you think that Sebastian is hiding things from you? Why are you in here, then? Why aren't you talking to him? You seem to have all the information,' he said sarcastically.
'Sarcasm. A crutch of the desperate,' Elspeth said, giving him a bright smile and revelling in his look of anger that he gave her in return. 'Back to the matter at hand, Y'see, the thing that pisses me off the most about this whole convoluted situation is you,' Elspeth said. 'The way Sebastian defended you,' she said, narrowing her eyes. 'You'd think that after all the years of abuse-'
'I did nothing but protect him!' Demetrius snapped at her.
Elspeth didn't appreciate the interruption and wagged her finger at him. 'You can't really claim that after I've read certain files pertaining to experiments that you've staged and recorded on him,' she pointed out, a vicious tone of anger in her voice. She cleared her throat and continued talking as if the interruption hadn't happened. 'After all the years of abuse you put him through, you'd think he'd hate your fucking guts. Well, there's an understandable amount of resentment there but still, he praised you,' Elspeth spat. 'That didn't sit right with me and so I decided to make my own decision in regards to what was going on. And well, after catching your delightful phone call and the way you've acted so far, I would say I'm pretty on the money.'
'What do you want?' Demetrius snapped at her, he crossed his arms and leaned against his broken into cabinet. 'I've done nothing wrong,' he adds.
'Nothing wrong,' Elspeth laughs and rolled her eyes. 'All I want is a conversation,' Elspeth said simply, enjoying the fact that she was winding him up just with her presence. 'In fact, stand there while I lay a few facts on you. Things I've discovered,' she muses, standing up and pacing in front of him. 'As for you doing nothing wrong, well, I'd have to disagree.' Demetrius couldn't say anything as Elspeth began to pick apart everything that she had discovered. 'I'll admit, it's a clever cover. Pretend to be a scientist, documenting the environment and the flora and fauna that exist in it,' she said almost impressed. 'But the real reason that you came to this town was because of the mermaids, wasn't it? You're a government scientist. Trying to unlock the reason behind their longevity, hidden under the explanation that you're studying… oooh, pretty much everything? Must have been a stroke of luck when Sebastian fell into your lap.'
His lips thinned and he cracked his knuckles, closing his hand into a fist as he listened to her. 'You read fast,' he mutters.
'Extrapolate fast, actually. I pieced things together after skimming a few reports,' she muses. 'Y'see, what I don't understand is why your government briefing states that you're trying to find a cellular composition that'll cure some of the most aggressive illnesses and genetic problems, but your personal findings all focus on something you call, the Lazarus gene. Not very inventive, Demetrius. I mean, really?' Elspeth scowls at him. He went to move closer to her and she raised the syringe, 'don't think I won't,' she threatened, simply. Demetrius had to freeze and step back, going by the look in her eye, she had no fear about hurting him. 'Sebastian heals when he changes form and mix that with the seemingly endless life span of the merpeople, it was too much to resist, huh.'
Demetrius slammed his hand against the table, 'you are a small minded, pathetic, little girl! You have no idea of the work I'm trying to do here! The possibilities that you can't possibly fathom!'
'You are a narcissistic, twisted, controlling, son of a bitch!' Elspeth hissed back at him. 'You want nothing but glory and recognition. You've gone so far as lying to him about almost everything! The fact that the toxin oxidises about ten minutes after it leaves his skin,' she snarls. 'That the toxin itself couldn't kill a fucking fly! That all it can possibly do is put someone into a paralysis for about half an hour at most! There is literally no threat to anyone's health at all! It doesn't even slow breathing rates or restrict blood flow!' She snaps back. 'You beat him down, abused his trust for your own gain and you fucking despise that he started to defy you. Started to behave against your wishes, and why? Because of me!'
He threw a tray of instruments across the room and stormed closer to Elspeth, causing her to turn and face him, glaring in defiance. 'You know nothing,' he growled, his eye twitching in anger.
'I know that you've been anything but a father to him,' she hissed.
'I was never his father,' Demetrius spits back at her, his height towering over hers as he grabbed her arm. 'That…thing isn't any family of mine and his only worth to me, is that of data. He will be useful for once in his life and project my name into the history of humanity-'
Elspeth had heard enough and roughly pulled her arm back and as he fell forward, she pierced him in the stomach with the syringe and while holding his eye, she injected him with the full amount. He stiffened almost instantly before going limp and falling to the floor, his eyes moving frantically from side to side as he looked for her. Oh fuck, I didn't think I would actually have to use that, she thought in a brief panic and then shoved all fear to the side. Her heart was racing in her chest; having a man advance on her the way Demetrius did, it was terrifying. She had no doubt that he would have tried to physically restrain her and perhaps, coerce her into keeping silent.
With a deep breath in, she brushed her hair away from her face, clearing her throat as she kneeled beside him, looking into his face. Elspeth could feel her chest tighten and there was the tell-tale prickle of fear and adrenaline running through her body; triggered when he grabbed her. 'You promised to be a father the moment that you married his mother,' she hissed as she yanked out the syringe. She could feel tears welling up but she refused to let them fall in front of this monster. With a sniff, she stood up, aware that he could see everything she was doing.
'Here's how it's going to go, Demetrius,' she said conversationally to his limp body. 'I already started the process of copying your hard drive to this handy little stick thing that I found,' she said as she as she turned on the monitor where he could see a progress bar. 'It was labelled, 5 TB, which I am going to assume is a large enough memory capacity to store twenty years of word documents. I mean, I'm not tech savvy like Sebastian but I'm not stupid,' she laughed lightly. The computer dinged and she pulled the stick out and smiled at Demetrius. 'Now that's done,' she said as she looked at the computer. 'I'm just going to…' she began the process of setting the computer back to factory settings and Demetrius groaned from the floor. 'I'm pretty sure Bazz said to click this and then… yay!' She said as she clapped her hands, having done it correctly.
She spun on her foot, 'of course, you have backups,' Elspeth mused as she looked around the lab. There was a cabinet which was organized in only the way a Type A personality could do. 'And, oh here they are,' she said opening a drawer. 'Yes, here they are, so neatly labelled, backups,' she laughed as she took them out and put them in the bag she had brought. She raised a brow and continued to chat. 'No doubt this will be all your data. You're far too paranoid to allow it to be accessed by the internet in case someone managed to hack your network and steal your discovery.'
Demetrius was fighting the toxin and almost writhing in pain on the floor as he desperately tried to regain control of his body. Elspeth looked at him and grinned, wickedly. 'Now, the thing is Demetrius. I can destroy you. I have all the evidence I need in order to do so,' she said, bluntly as she kneeled down beside him.
'-Itch!' Demetrius spat at her in a feat of anger.
'Careful,' Elspeth said simply as she placed a finger on his lips, condescendingly. 'I won't only destroy your reputation in this town, your job, your own self being… I'll destroy every relationship you hold dear. I'll come for your wife. Your daughter. I'll completely isolate you, just like you've done to Sebastian for the last decade,' she hissed, her anger dripping from every word. 'Leave my Sebastian alone, Demetrius, and I'll allow you the time you have left with your adoring family,' she whispers.
He glared at her in confusion and fury. With a smile, Elspeth stood up brushing herself down. 'The truth will find its way out and that'll be so much more devastating than anything I could do,' she explained. 'How do you think Robin will take it when she finds out that the man that she loves and trusts wholeheartedly, has been abusing her son? The child she had with her true love before he was torn away? Something tells me that you wouldn't even care about anything else, because I know I wouldn't,' Elspeth shrugged.
She walked over to the cabinet and opened it, tearing the lids from every sample he had in there; causing them to oxidise and become worthless. Demetrius swore and groaned from where he was lying on the tiled floor. His face was bright red with retained anger and it was clear he despised Elspeth with every fibre of his being. She had erased over twenty years' worth of research and stolen his archives. 'Like I said, I'm not clever,' she said conversationally. 'You on the other hand, are an absolute walnut,' she laughed making him writhe. She pulled out a device from her pocket and he recognised it as his recorder, it was what he used when he made verbal notes and he would often leave it on his desk. 'It was very much a, "he said, she said" situation but now, it's what you said, on tape! Just a little more evidence and a safety net for myself should you try to twist anything when things start to come out. Which, they will. Which, I can't wait for,' Elspeth laughs.
Now, she had a recording, destroyed his samples and his life's work. Elspeth walked over to the door and met his furious gaze; she blew him a kiss and tilted her head. 'If I see you even talking to him, I'll make you regret it,' she said perkily. 'Nice seeing you, Demetrius!'
Extra long chapter today. Enjoy!
Stay safe. Be well.