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Revised version:
One - The Abduction
A cold breeze whispered in her ear as she stood against the tree, her gown unable to resist the rough and scratchy surface brushing against it. A dark red stain covered the greater part of her skirt, sticky and wet to the touch. But even so, her hands probed into its folds insistently, seeking for something.
“You are...late.”
Ariana raised her cup to her lips, sipping gently at the steaming liquid that swished and curled rapidly as she set it gently on the mahogany table. A length of chain ran in a straight line alongside the cup, linked to a small and ancient golden watch. She picked it up, running a finger over the scratches that decorated the glass surface. The two hands indicated it was 10.12.
Her companion clicked his cane on the floor, then leaned to one side and rested his head on his left hand, staring at her with a curious sort of look on his face. “Enough about me. How about you? Have you been eating lately? The works?”
Ariana shook her head, smiling a little at the watch as she twirled it about in her long and pale fingers. “You are impossible, you know that?”
“I’ll bet you haven’t seen another specimen like me yet.” He stuck his tongue out at her and then resumed his laid-back position. “So how’s the family? Is the old man still alive and kicking? The Bellhead still walking around with her nose stuck up in the air?”
Ariana paused, her fingers tightening themselves around the smooth golden edges bordering the ticking face of the clock. “Father is not here.” She set down the clock and pushed it towards him--it slid across the table right into his hands, but he didn’t look happy. Probably worried it would get scratches on its surface. “He...has become one of Lord Vanar’s.”
“You mean he’s dead.”
“To put it bluntly, yes.”
“Hn. I’m curious...” He took the watch and glanced at it, leaning back against his chair. “The old man didn’t somehow go into a building and demolish it with himself in it, did he?”
“Stop joking. I’ll take your hat if you keep that up.”
“This is the first time I’m hearing of it, though! Did he die yesterday?”
Ariana glared at him--he was moving a bit too much in his chair for her taste. Now he was staring directly into her face with those wide green eyes of his. “I sent you an invitation last month, idiot. Will you stop trying to observe every single move I make?”
“But watching your eyebrow twitch is so fascinating!”
Ariana pinched the bridge of her nose. “Theo...”
“Don’t say I’m not allowed to admire you!” He winked, again clicking his cane on the floor, ignoring the way she was glaring at him. “But don’t take my hat, I’ll call you ugly and never talk to you again if you do.”
“Blatant, much?” She shook her again and laughed. “You really are impossible.”
“So the old geezer’s dead, huh?” He sat up straight, staring directly at her. Tap. “I vote we go to Bellhead and make her confess to his murder.” Tap tap.
“Theo...!” She checked herself. How had he known? Knowing him, he had probably assumed it.. He was the King of Assumptions, after all. “Do not say such things. It isn’t wise to do so.”
“I am right, though, aren’t I? She pushed him off the stairs. You saw it yourself.”
Drip, drip, drip. Fresh blood on the floor, pooling around her feet, soaking into her slippers. She stepped back, and her slippers squelched. Her finger tensed against the trigger of her gun. The memory slid into her vision, and she blinked in an attempt to seem unaffected. “L - lies. What are you saying, Theo? I never saw any such thing.”
“More like...” He sighed. Another tap from his cane. “Nobody would really believe you if you told them, would they?” She winced, and he nodded at her reaction. “I thought so.”
“How did you...”
“Never mind how I knew.” He frowned. “Rather, mind what you’re going to do now. Bellhead...she’s clan head now, isn’t she?”
“There is more...”
“You need a place to stay. Annnd...hm.” He looked at her--not at her, really, as he seemed to be rather thoughtful. “I think I know something that can help you.”
“Not one of your...’vacations’, I hope.”
“Not...exactly.” He grinned and adjusted his hat, making it straight. “Come on Ari, we’re taking you to a guild.”
“A guild?”
***
"What is this place?"
Theodore watched her as she looked around with the curiosity of a kitten. The small room was packed with people-- but only a few girls were in here. The room was especially crowded in front of the noticeboard. He took Ari's hand and led her towards the crowd.
"Theo?"
"It's a guild. They post jobs on that board there. That's how I get most of mine."
"You mean your vacations?" Ari wryly smiled back. He only shrugged and grinned at her.
"There's other places for my vacations, Ari. These, unfortunately, are what they seem to be."
"How awful."
"Indeed. Excuse me, sir, excuse me - thankee." He tipped his bowler to the man who had moved of the way. "You see, Ari, it's the modern way of getting work around this country."
"Modern indeed. Father would have both our heads if he found out you took me to such a dingy place."
"Number one, the old man is dead. Two, he'd take off your head, not mine."
"How compassionate of you." She shot back. He wasn't listening, though; he reached for a note and plucked it off, much to the annoyance of a young lady who was observing it. "Sorry ma'am."
He grinned back at her, only to be glared at. He shrugged and turned back to Ariana.
"Here's a good one. Looking for housekeeper, will pay 100 riels a month, no experience necessary."
"Sounds too good to be true."
"Frankly, what isn't?" He tipped his bowler towards the young lady he'd irritated earlier as she passed by him. She simply 'hmphed' and stuck her nose up in the air. "See that? I knew she was too good to be true."
"I thought we were here for me and not her."
"Right, right. Well. You should at least call in and see what's up with that ad. It's got a good pay, no requirements and fairly light work--I hope." He added, earning a sharp glare from her. "I'm just being realistic!"
Another note had caught Ari’s eye, however--it had been pinned to the board with a pin or rather gorgeous design, and her eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to it. “Looking for a companion. Pay will be negotiated on contact, advanced knowledge in runes of course necessary,” she murmured, an eyebrow raised. “Looks as though someone has high expectations. This pin, however...” She picked it off the board, her eyes fixed on the accessory rather than the note itself. “I wonder...what do you think, Theo?”
She looked around. “Theo?”
He stood not far off, staring apprehensively at a group of people standing near the exit to the guild. There was nothing positively different about them--the same shabby coats and bowlers, moustaches and canes as any other man in this guild. But most notably, they kept glancing at Theo--and herself, she realized with slowly growing alarm. "Theo, who are those people?"
"No one you want to be involved with, in particular." His bright green eyes swept the room at a glance. He steered Ari to the back of the room cautiously, trying not to attract attention. "How long has it been that you have a bounty on you, Ari?"
Her tongue darted out and licked her bottom lip, which still felt dry as before. "Since Father died."
"Why didn't you come to me before?" His eyes bore into hers. "An entire month...why...?"
"Isabella kicked me out just the day before yesterday." Ariana smiled wryly at him. "Apparently I was besmirching the family name."
“She took her time.” Theo shot back. “If you had come to me earlier, it would’ve been better. At least the hunt wouldn’t have been as serious as it looks right now.” He shook his head. “Bellhead knew what she was doing.”
“What are you saying? Is it really all that...?”
“The newspapers tomorrow will have a story with your face on it, count on that.” He looked around suspiciously, checking for anyone who might’ve noticed them, and reached out for the handle of the door they were standing near. With a wrench it flew open. “Come now, Ari. No need to waste our time anymore here.”
“I found something--” She found herself unable to complete her sentence as he dragged her forwards by the arm. “Theo, listen--”
“Not now, let’s get out of here!”
***
Her hands quaked as she aimed the rust-stained gun at her pursuer, unable to think properly. What happened? I don’t understand. I don’t understand at all! She took a step back, just as he homed in and launched himself at her, making her shriek and fire off a few warning shots in response. He hung back warily and stared at her. Predator and prey, analysing each other’s every move.
Ariana gulped.
Snip.
His head dropped from his shoulders, severed as though by a precise and clean blade, his blood swishing through the air and all over the fabric of her already stained gown. A dark shadow stood behind his carcass, the bright green eyes unusually radiant and piercing. A mad grin framed the rest of his words. “What are you still doing here, Ari,” he whispered, licking his lips, “when this is already the land of the unknown?”
She had been running for a long time, her hands still wrapped around the compact revolver. People shrieked and screamed at the sight of her--a few people had called out to her to stop. She didn’t care, really--considering she had just seen a Hunter having his head sliced off. Not a big occurrence at all. It was just merely your everyday run-of-the mill news.
Those Hunters had chased them clear out of the guild and into the park--she had been running, she knew, even though Theo had stopped. Her skirt felt wet. Had she stepped in water? She couldn’t remember. All she could remember was running... and then that had happened.
“Madwoman!”
“Is that...darling, is that blood on her skirt?!”
“Don’t look, Milly!”
Her eyes were closed, her heart pounded insistently against her chest, demanding to be let out. She could imagine it ripping itself from her bosom, veins and all, and leave her a sodden mess of of clothes and dead body lying on the streets of Bodrem. Her hands shook, the gun still firmly grasped in her hand. Concentrate, Ari, concentrate. There’s a pack of Hunters on your tail now. Don’t think--don’t think about him. What you saw was nothing more than your imagination. Just a nightmare, Ari. You probably went to sleep without realizing. Just a nightmare, really. It couldn’t really be Theo, could it?
Could it?
The gun slid from her sweaty palm onto the ground, and her heart thumped more insistently. For a moment the world became a sea of dim lights and brick roads twisting and coiling into a whirlpool--of the unknown, as he had said. “The unknown...do you want to know what the unknown really is, Ariana Lawrence?”
She turned around, slowly--her gown had by this time become too heavy to allow her to move freely. Shadows lurked in the corner of her vision, attempting to crawl into her consciousness and claim it for their own. She stood steady, but felt as though she could drop below the ground and nobody would notice.
“Who are you, Ariana?” The boy--no, he was older, Ariana realized. Maybe even older than herself. He sat in a wheelchair, staring at her with blue eyes--radiant and eerie, sharp and ghostly, just like the eyes of the shadow. It couldn’t be Theo. “You have some interesting thoughts there. Would you like me to help you?”
Where am I? She stared down at her hands--the gun wasn’t there. It lay a good distance away from her, nearer to the boy rather than herself. She couldn’t help thinking he was a boy. She also couldn’t help thinking that the buildings seemed to be trying to close around her. “Who are you?”
“I believe you were thinking much, much more than that, Miss Lawrence. You were thinking the thoughts of the like that say...‘I wish to faint’, were you not?”
“How would you know...” The strength in her legs faded--it was as if it wasn’t there in the first place. “What’s happening...to...me...?”
“I would watch what you pick up in the future, Miss Lawrence. That artifact in your pocket is so much more than a simple accessory, after all.” He wheeled over to her, looking at her more closely as if she was a lab experiment. “Yes I am...very interested in what you have to say.”
“Stop...”
He smirked and leaned forwards, clasping her face in his hands. Ariana stared bleakly up at him, trying to make out the details of his face. All that swam in her vision, however, was Theo...Isabella...papa...
“You’ll...perfect...” His words became dim to her ears, as the entire world began to shut down. Am I dying? Is this death? Her eyelids flickered in a last moment of rebellion. Theo...I mustn’t die...even if Theo...even if...I must...he must...
“Goodnight...Beatrice.”
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