Meeting
As the girl tried to respond to my half-hearted question, she fumbled over her next few words, "Ye- Yes, uh, Ms Iv? Wh–Where are we, really? Is this heaven? Did I die? Is that why I can't remember anything from back when I was alive?" The last part made me do a double-take. What? She couldn't remember anything? So the Crack really did affect her somehow. Damn it, that's troublesome in more ways than one.
Reorienting myself, I resolved myself to answer her first questions, "No no, you're not dead. Neither are you in heaven. That'd make me dead too, you know? But no, we're as alive as we could be right now," Pausing briefly, I cautiously added on, "–But what do you mean, you can't remember anything? You can still speak properly, so……" The girl quickly continued, "No, no no… I can… uh, sort of remember things. Like I just look at them, and the words sort of pop up in my head. Like that uh… ginormous tree over there." She pointed towards the towering tree in the distance. "Then what about your name? Do you at least remember who you are? Your family? Friends?" The girl looked contemplating upon hearing my words, mumbling, "Friends……fami- family?"
Well shit. This was worse than I expected. After the girl took a moment of contemplation, she slowly responded, "My name… is Abigail, Abigail Everest… I think?" Abigail Everest? Turning my head, I saw Azul briefly jot that down on a notepad he seemingly took out from nowhere. The girl continued, "As for family, I… I- I don't really remember. Nothing's comi- popping up in my head." Disappointing, but at least we had a name. Motioning with my hands, I had Azul leave the room to make some calls to redirect the search with the girl’s newly-discovered name. Now that we had a name, searching the archives for her family would get a lot easier. I would have motioned with my eyes more subtly whilst in front of the girl, but wearing shades 24/7 was sort of counterproductive for that.
Lamenting internally, I reassured the girl, "It’s okay, try to relax. Now that we have your name, we’ll find your family and bring you back to them, safe and sound,” The girl, Abigail, seemed a bit unsure of my words, so I added: “–you can stay here for the next couple of days until we find them. I promise it’s safe here. Whilst you can’t remember them, your parents would be very worried for you.” I didn’t add the part where her parents could potentially be dead. If that was the case…… well it sounds cruel, but then I suppose there was a plus to her losing her memories. Still, I didn’t let my thoughts show. Although there were a lot of casualties, there was still a good chance her parents could have survived, who knows?
Leaving it at that, I told the girl– Abigail, that I had something to do and had to leave for the time being. I comforted her by telling her that a few attendants would be coming in shortly, and if she needed or wanted to know anything, she could always just ask them. Of course, she wouldn’t get answers to any questions too deep or confidential. Just enough to keep herself calm and her curiosity satiated.
Leaving the room, I found the figure of Azul waiting outside. It seems he's finished making his calls. With any luck, we'll find her family in the next few days, hopefully alive. Still, between the search for her parents and the search for Ezra Calvin, luck is something I'll probably be in short supply of. Leaving the girl to organise her own thoughts, I began walking down the corridors, with Azul on my heels. "Azul, have some attendants bring her food and refreshments. I take it you've been familiarising yourself with them the past two days?" The man gave a short, audible hum of confirmation, before getting ready to head off to fetch some attendants. Before he went off though, something else caught my mind. Briefly stopping Azul, I asked, "What's the status on my meeting with the Engineer?" The Azul seemingly remembered something, before addressing me, "In around 2 weeks Miss. From what they've said, the Engineer appears to be rather busy as of the moment, so they've told me they'll contact you on a later date for the exact details."
Go figure. You'd think the woman would make me a priority considering her older-sibling attitude, but apparently not. Meetings with her always took weeks to organise, which was one reason why we stopped seeing each other frequently. Sighing inwardly at the thought of how cold the relationship between Yan and I had become, I thanked Azul, who was still standing there and moved on. There was still work to do, and just because I'd come back to my home didn't mean I had a vacation. I headed for my main office, located not too far away from where the girl currently was.
Reaching it after a short walk, I opened the two oversized doors of my office, another scene made comical by my current short stature. Well, thanks to my Ability, I could easily exert past the strength of an average adult man, by converting more of my blood cells into muscle tissue. I wouldn’t have kept this figure of a child as my main form otherwise, less it inconvenience me far too much.
As I opened the doors, the view of my main office came into view. This one was comparatively larger compared to the temporary one I had set up back in Lyon. Though it was a lot more simplistic than most other rooms in my mansion/castle. A few essential chairs and tables were placed here and there, with half-empty bookshelves running along the walls. As I seated myself on the chair behind my main desk which I used for work, a small picture frame came into my view. This was– right. I forgot I had this. Holding the frame with one hand, I saw the figure of me and a young woman, who looked to be almost as young as 19, walking down a street. I was dressed in my usual flamboyant white, whilst she was wearing ordinary office clothes. As I saw the particularly bright smile I was carrying in the moment the photo was taken, a pang of old nostalgia shot through me.
Alice, my former secretary. Capable in so many ways, yet troublesome in even more. Independent to the point of rebellious, yet the most steadfast woman I’d ever seen. I sighed. After over four years away from my house, I forgot I still had this photo on my desk. Carla and Sherman were probably fully aware it was still here, and what it represented. If I had to guess, they purposely avoided telling the servants to clear it. They knew exactly what they were doing. A feeling of annoyance welled up inside me. Those guys…… they seriously– no, let's keep all this aside for now.
Looking back at the photo, I considered throwing it into the bin, but after a brief deliberation, I convinced myself otherwise. It was just an old photo after all. There was no point in throwing it away. Putting it back down, I looked at the stack of paperwork left neatly on my desk, courtesy of Azul pre-arranging them beforehand. Well, at least that was one part of my workload gone. Pausing briefly, I let out a small hum as I mumbled:
"Maybe a new secretary was the right choice after all."
Meeting
As the girl tried to respond to my half-hearted question, she fumbled over her next few words, "Ye- Yes, uh, Ms Iv? Wh–Where are we, really? Is this heaven? Did I die? Is that why I can't remember anything from back when I was alive?" The last part made me do a double-take. What? She couldn't remember anything? So the Crack really did affect her somehow. Damn it, that's troublesome in more ways than one.
Reorienting myself, I resolved myself to answer her first questions, "No no, you're not dead. Neither are you in heaven. That'd make me dead too, you know? But no, we're as alive as we could be right now," Pausing briefly, I cautiously added on, "–But what do you mean, you can't remember anything? You can still speak properly, so……" The girl quickly continued, "No, no no… I can… uh, sort of remember things. Like I just look at them, and the words sort of pop up in my head. Like that uh… ginormous tree over there." She pointed towards the towering tree in the distance. "Then what about your name? Do you at least remember who you are? Your family? Friends?" The girl looked contemplating upon hearing my words, mumbling, "Friends……fami- family?"
Well shit. This was worse than I expected. After the girl took a moment of contemplation, she slowly responded, "My name… is Abigail, Abigail Everest… I think?" Abigail Everest? Turning my head, I saw Azul briefly jot that down on a notepad he seemingly took out from nowhere. The girl continued, "As for family, I… I- I don't really remember. Nothing's comi- popping up in my head." Disappointing, but at least we had a name. Motioning with my hands, I had Azul leave the room to make some calls to redirect the search with the girl’s newly-discovered name. Now that we had a name, searching the archives for her family would get a lot easier. I would have motioned with my eyes more subtly whilst in front of the girl, but wearing shades 24/7 was sort of counterproductive for that.
Lamenting internally, I reassured the girl, "It’s okay, try to relax. Now that we have your name, we’ll find your family and bring you back to them, safe and sound,” The girl, Abigail, seemed a bit unsure of my words, so I added: “–you can stay here for the next couple of days until we find them. I promise it’s safe here. Whilst you can’t remember them, your parents would be very worried for you.” I didn’t add the part where her parents could potentially be dead. If that was the case…… well it sounds cruel, but then I suppose there was a plus to her losing her memories. Still, I didn’t let my thoughts show. Although there were a lot of casualties, there was still a good chance her parents could have survived, who knows?
Leaving it at that, I told the girl– Abigail, that I had something to do and had to leave for the time being. I comforted her by telling her that a few attendants would be coming in shortly, and if she needed or wanted to know anything, she could always just ask them. Of course, she wouldn’t get answers to any questions too deep or confidential. Just enough to keep herself calm and her curiosity satiated.
Leaving the room, I found the figure of Azul waiting outside. It seems he's finished making his calls. With any luck, we'll find her family in the next few days, hopefully alive. Still, between the search for her parents and the search for Ezra Calvin, luck is something I'll probably be in short supply of. Leaving the girl to organise her own thoughts, I began walking down the corridors, with Azul on my heels. "Azul, have some attendants bring her food and refreshments. I take it you've been familiarising yourself with them the past two days?" The man gave a short, audible hum of confirmation, before getting ready to head off to fetch some attendants. Before he went off though, something else caught my mind. Briefly stopping Azul, I asked, "What's the status on my meeting with the Engineer?" The Azul seemingly remembered something, before addressing me, "In around 2 weeks Miss. From what they've said, the Engineer appears to be rather busy as of the moment, so they've told me they'll contact you on a later date for the exact details."
Go figure. You'd think the woman would make me a priority considering her older-sibling attitude, but apparently not. Meetings with her always took weeks to organise, which was one reason why we stopped seeing each other frequently. Sighing inwardly at the thought of how cold the relationship between Yan and I had become, I thanked Azul, who was still standing there and moved on. There was still work to do, and just because I'd come back to my home didn't mean I had a vacation. I headed for my main office, located not too far away from where the girl currently was.
Reaching it after a short walk, I opened the two oversized doors of my office, another scene made comical by my current short stature. Well, thanks to my Ability, I could easily exert past the strength of an average adult man, by converting more of my blood cells into muscle tissue. I wouldn’t have kept this figure of a child as my main form otherwise, less it inconvenience me far too much.
As I opened the doors, the view of my main office came into view. This one was comparatively larger compared to the temporary one I had set up back in Lyon. Though it was a lot more simplistic than most other rooms in my mansion/castle. A few essential chairs and tables were placed here and there, with half-empty bookshelves running along the walls. As I seated myself on the chair behind my main desk which I used for work, a small picture frame came into my view. This was– right. I forgot I had this. Holding the frame with one hand, I saw the figure of me and a young woman, who looked to be almost as young as 19, walking down a street. I was dressed in my usual flamboyant white, whilst she was wearing ordinary office clothes. As I saw the particularly bright smile I was carrying in the moment the photo was taken, a pang of old nostalgia shot through me.
Alice, my former secretary. Capable in so many ways, yet troublesome in even more. Independent to the point of rebellious, yet the most steadfast woman I’d ever seen. I sighed. After over four years away from my house, I forgot I still had this photo on my desk. Carla and Sherman were probably fully aware it was still here, and what it represented. If I had to guess, they purposely avoided telling the servants to clear it. They knew exactly what they were doing. A feeling of annoyance welled up inside me. Those guys…… they seriously– no, let's keep all this aside for now.
Looking back at the photo, I considered throwing it into the bin, but after a brief deliberation, I convinced myself otherwise. It was just an old photo after all. There was no point in throwing it away. Putting it back down, I looked at the stack of paperwork left neatly on my desk, courtesy of Azul pre-arranging them beforehand. Well, at least that was one part of my workload gone. Pausing briefly, I let out a small hum as I mumbled:
"Maybe a new secretary was the right choice after all."
