[M] The Unseen (IC) (S)

[Koti~]

DATE: August 16th, 2042
TIME: 4:13 PM
LOCATION: Downtown, The City Cafe.

Stephanie flinched some as the man clenched his fists, making her heart flutter some. She looked up again from her food, but the man had relaxed again. She lowered her head again, but kept them up enough so that she could look at the man, looking at his hands and occasionally looking at his eyes before quickly darting her eyes again. She had relaxed enough to allow her beating heart to slow down to a more normal pace, yet she still glanced around now and again.

She listened to the man talk again, speaking of how he avoided that place and that what they did there was wrong. She agreed with what he said, but mostly liked listening to him talk. His voice didn’t hold any malice or disgust. It was calm and open, glad that he didn’t seemed angry or annoyed. She watched as he slide on of the laptops in front of him, his face covered by the black casing of the machine.

Finishing off the cinnamon bun carefully, she watched as he slide the machine close, looking back at her and smiling. She enjoyed the smile, carefully looking at his clean teeth and glancing back at her empty dish. She took another sip of water, a thin film of water having formed on the outside of the glass, the icy water contracting with the air. She looked up again to see that he was looking off again into the bar. He had offered her another one of the buns, and was about to say no when her stomach growled again.

With a blush, she glanced down at her lap, feeling uncomfortable again. Glancing around the room, she noted three people, burly looking men wearing all black. Their eyes veiled behind glasses, low hats sitting low on their heads. The flush from her face drained like water from a spigot. Glancing back down at the table, she started quivering lightly, trying to keep a steady breath and not bolt out of the chair towards the door, which unfortunately they were closer to the door.

“Could I have another bun?” Stephanie said meekly, just managing to keep the tone of fear out of her voice. She figured if she could seem normal, the men wouldn’t try to take her back, but that was crushed as one of them shifted in their seats, coughing lightly. She looked back into her lap, her mind taking over again.

*Ma..maybe he is one of them, and was just stalling for backup. Who knows what he was typing in … * her mind started, spiraling downwards into even darker thoughts. She eyes darted around as a second voice spoke up, a female voice this time. She didn't know who it was or really cared, but the woman said that she should come with. Her heart sank like a rock when these words finally wormed her way into her brain. Her body, now numb from fear, gripped her hands into fists as her mind went blank, ignorant with the current surrounding.

Her mind running with every urge to run, but she was rooted, fear having oddly enough slowed her breathing. Her body felt strangely heavy, and her stomach was in slight turmoil, her eyes transfixed on the table and the deep wood graving. All she wanted to do was run away, staring at the wood as though she could literally sink into the wood.

"No..no thank you?" She said, her voice barely a whisper.

[~N~]

Date: Agust 16, 2042
Time: 4:12 pm
Location: Downtown, The City Cafe


"Something about them doesn't seem right," Richard thought to himself as his eyes narrowed down on the group of three men. They were all dressed in black suits with their faces hidden behind black sunglasses and low hats. Every few minutes they would look over at Richard and Stephanie. Their eyes focused mainly on Stephanie with only a cursory glance at Richard.

"Marco, whaddya tinkin' with this join'? The fuckin' wait staff all look like high school virgin's here," Big Tony said, pulling out Cuban cigar.

"Uhhh... I'm... I'm sorry sir, this is a no-smoking establishment..." said the ever loitering Leon as he shakily approached the table where the three gangster-looking men had just sat down.

"What?! You tellin' me what I can and cannot do, kid?"

"No, no... sir... just the law.... I mean..."

"Why don't you ask me what I want to eat before you start spouting legal nonsense like you're some fuckin' cop, eh?"

"Y-y-yes, sir... what do you want?" Leon replied, flipping out his tablet to take Big Tony's order.

"I'll have the Surfer Cheeseburger, with some of dem cheese fries you got goin' on here, you two-bit, pencil-necked, pimple-faced pushover."

The other two men laughed at Leon's expense. "Anything to drink with that?"

"Well you ain't got no alcohol here, so I'll have a Coke."

The other two men ordered, and then their conversation turned to the matter at hand.

"Sammy says he's got something with the usual stuff.... something that would be worth quite a bit to the right people, but he can't get it through customs."

"He's where again?"

"Moscow."

"I think their mob ran the place for chrissakes," Big Tony muttered.

"Fuck if I'm going to Moscow," Frank, the third man replied.

"This thing is valuable he says..." Marco reiterated.

"Well, but he's stuck there with it. Now we gotta get 'im out without gettin' caught ourselves. Fuck. Should just let him stay there. He causes me too much damn trouble."

[Black]

Date: Agust 16, 2042
Time: 4:16 pm
Location: Downtown, The City Cafe

Richard breathed a sigh of relief. Just another bunch of mobsters. His heart went out to poor Leon. If things got rough he would step in, otherwise Leon would have to deal with their stupidity on his own. Richard couldn't always come to the rescue when someone was having a bad time and this was a good time to learn how to stand up for yourself. His eyes lingered momentarily on the three. They thought they were quiet but they weren't even fourth grade whispering. The entire diner could hear the ruckus they were making.

Richard relaxed and ignored them for the moment, turning his attention to a man who had been watching him from across the bar. The man looked like he had recently been in a fight. Richard tilted his head at the man, his eyes clearly focused on the man. Richards message was rather obvious,

Stop watching me.

He then turned his attention back to Stephanie once more, while watching the three men and the lone man out of his peripherals. He smiled and ordered one more bun for her and another drink for himself before pulling his black laptop towards him once more and beginning the rapid tap-tap-tapping on his keyboard once again. This time he was distracted for a few seconds longer but he quickly moved it to the side again and looked at the girl.

"So Stephanie, where are you from? Where are your parents?" He lowered his voice substantially and leaned forward so that it was so quiet it was barely more than a whisper. No one in the cafe could have possibly heard him ask, or seen his lips move overly much to give it away. "Why were you in that--"

However before he could finish the question a woman sat down at the table and told Stephanie to go with her. Richard frowned. He looked the woman up and down his eyes catching every detail and he leaned back and tilted his head to the side.

"Who're you, miss?" he asked, not rudely but not with the nicest of tones.

[calamosis]

Date: August 16, 2042
Time: 4:17 pm
Location: Downtown, The City Cafe

Terence wasn't suprised when Richard turned to give him a look that may have threatened his life. It made sense that the man had, really. And now, in order to simply irritate the man (as well as in favor of keeping the brutes in his line of sight while replying) he stared at this Richard's head. And stared. He sat there with a Cheshire cat grin on his face the whole while, purpously imagining lasers in his eyes drilling holes through his skull, then brain matter, and skull again. ....His imagination was intact, after all. The images themselves were very nicely graphic.

As he did this his attantion was held by (the mobsters in the corner, yes) a few people around him. Especially....

The woman who had gone up to the pedo and the girl was still there, and was apparently trying to get her away from assumed-pedophile-Richard. However, the girl didn't want to go.... He couldn't hear what she said, but with her body language, it was loud and clear. She felt safe with the pedo, huh? Weird. And women claimed they had intuition....

Richard seemed a bit standoffish to her, which was a bit odd considering the woman's...curavture. He let a small grin escape at this thought. So maybe ol' Richard was just chivalrous....

Yeah right.

Either way, he couldn't wait to see what would happen. Would Richard turn around and throw a napkin holder at him? Would nameless lady #1 steal the girl away? Or would maybe pedo-Rich' be the good guy? It felt like a live action movie of one of those soap opera's (the ones that middle-aged women seemed to like so much)! However, he did have a backup plan, just in case this ended up being a dud.

After all, there were mobsters in the Cafe, right?

[Aheris]

From the expression on Miss Stephanie's face, she was beyond unnerved. In fact, that cinnamon bun looked like it was going to come back up the way that it went down. Looking at Stephanie's clothing; she saw several tears, and the shirt was too loose---she needed more than sugar to feel better. Her small feet were tucked under her, too. Her posture, her expression...it all read that she didn't feel safe, or even that she was allowed to sit across the table from two seemingly-ordinary people.

"no...No thank you?" Stephanie said sweetly, obviously not trusting Guiliana's sudden appearance.

At this moment, the chevalier with the gloves looked at her too.

"Who're you, miss?"

Guiliana lowered her head, speaking in low alto. "My name is Guiliana..."

She looked at the young man, trying to gauge his intentions. He could be an honest do-gooder; or he could be crossing that line of just-plain-creepy.

From the bar, she could smell the excessive hair gel and axe coming from the under-taker looking mobsters. Smells like North Jersey..

"I apologize. I didn't mean to frighten you, Stephanie," And then she turned a focused gaze on the young man.

" From the two words I heard you say---and the rest that I didn't--you two have something in common that shouldn't be shared with the cafe. I was suggesting that the three of us get somewhere a little less public."

As she spoke, her eyes saw another man, boring his eyes into her tablemate's head. Then he turned his scruffy gaze on her, attempting to undress her with his eyes. Guiliana avoided his gaze and waited for her companions' answer.

[Koti~]

DATE: August 16th, 2042
TIME: 4:20 PM
LOCATION: Downtown, The City Cafe.

Snapped out of her spiraling trance, she heard something that she wasn’t expecting. The woman, who had only joined them a few minutes ago, was apologizing for upsetting her. Taking a quick glance up, she looked at the woman, and was slightly thrown off. Dressed elegantly, her hair an odd mixture of purple black and red, and she was wearing a black dress. She looked back, staring again at the shirt she still wore from the hospital.

Raising her hands and placed them on her head, she waved them back and forth, causing her hair to dance back and forth like it was caught in a strange breeze. She smiled warmly, a truthfully genuine smile as she sat there for a good minute doing this, mentally calming herself down. She had started doing this the second year she had lived at the hospital, finding it a good way to ease her mind and slow her heart, or in this case, start it back up.

Somewhat calm now, she took a sip of water, the ice clanking lightly as she gripped the cup, and rested her hands on the table. Feeling utterly drained of life from what happened, and relieved that the woman didn’t seem to be part of the task force to take her back. The man she was now still unsure of, but was not as worried, as typing for him seemed to her like a distraction more than anything else.

She was also glad that the three men in black were not going to take her away. Leaning forward and resting her head on her hands, the time seeming to have caught up with her, her head now feeling vastly quite for a change. She was tired now, her stomach still roiling, but now just out of aftershock to the initial roiling of her stomach.

Sighing outwards, she closed her left eye, the right drooping a bit as she stared outwards into the blank abyss.

“I’ll be good here” She whispered, her voice half lidded with sleep and exhaustion. Her body relaxed more into the table, her back curving more naturally as she adjusted herself in the chair, so that her chest was a few inches from the table. Her breathing evened out a bit, not truly asleep but just not all there, wishing she could fall asleep where she sat. A small portion of her mind told her that falling asleep in a public place was a bad idea, but it was drowned in a sea of exhaustion that swirled around her brain, putting her at ease rather quickly.

[Anne Bonny]

Date: August 16, 2042
Time: 4:15 pm
Location: Daylight Hospital

Tansy kept up with Jill’s quick steps easily enough, nodding her head and smiling politely even though she hardly knew what the woman was talking about. A few words were familiar here and there, “pediatrics ward,” “trauma unit,” things that she had heard enough on tv. But as she scribbled notes in her book, she noticed that hospitals have a lot of abbreviations for things that she knew nothing about. ER, OR, DC… it was enough to make her blond head spin. And here she always thought she knew was SOB stood for. No wonder doctors have to go to school for so long, Tansy mused.

Jill seemed nice, not overly friendly, but professional. She seemed a bit rushed to conduct their little tour, which was just fine by the visitor. After all, she didn’t need that much information. Just enough to prove that it was indeed a clean facility with competent workers. And in all honesty, Tansy was sure that reading too much about a hospital would be boring. The whole idea of her being in the building itself was silly, in her opinion. Really, who cared about…

"So that's most everything! I'll take you back down now, so you don't have to find your way out." Receptionist Jill suddenly spun around to face her in the middle of the corridor, making it clear that the tour was over. Tansy blinked in surprise. Most everything? But the hallway kept going!

Her blue eyes moved from Jill’s expectant face to the dark hallway behind her and back again. "Really?” she asked, regaining her friendly smile. “Well what’s down there?”

Jill shrugged and took a step back towards the way they came. “Just storage, really. Nothing any tourists would want to see, I’m sure. I should be getting back to Maria.”

Tansy’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “But we already passed dozens of storage closets and labs and all those things,” she pressed on, her smile frozen and her feet rooted in place. The hallway ahead seemed to beckon to her. Call it woman’s intuition or whatever, there was something there. She could feel it in her gut.

“Look,” Jill began, a bit more sternly this time. But she was interrupted by a handsome man in a white coat. After some friendly banter with the frustrated receptionist, he introduced himself as Dr. Fynn with a stunning smile.

Perfect, Tansy thought as she beamed and took the doctor’s hand. This one would be much easier to charm than Receptionist Jill. “Tansy James,” she said, holding onto his firm hand for just a second too long. “Not a patient, no. I’m a journalist with ‘Break Time’ travel magazine and I’m doing a story on the island. Jill was just giving me a tour of your lovely facility.”

“We were just finished,” Receptionist Jill interjected, and Tansy let a hurt expression cross over her features before regaining her composure.

“Actually,” she continued, “it would be very nice to get some information from you, Dr. Fynn, if you have a moment. I would love to get a more personal view of the hospital. And I’ve been meaning to interview a local too. Get a view of real life on the island, you know? Maybe you could help me kill two birds with one stone?”

She avoided looking back down the hallway, hoping Jill would think she had forgotten about the hidden section of the hospital, having been distracted by the handsome doctor. But within, uncontrollable curiosity was burning inside of the younger girl. Patience, she told herself. Curiosity killed the cat, you know.

Tansy smiled at the doctor expectantly. It was a damn good thing she wasn’t a cat.

[ashford211994]

Date: August 6, 2024
Time: 12:46 PM
Location: One of the many beaches located on the island; Maritime Beach.

Suddenly Rachel had been thrown out of her state of silence and peace. She stopped drawing and then looked up to see who it might be, but as usual she didn’t know this unexpected visitor. She found him very overly flamboyant and flirtatious and it almost got on her nerves, but in a way it was charming as well and she became immediately engaged into a conversation with this person. “Oh well, I am drawing the beach.” She said looking down at her drawing in the sketch book. “I am just sketching it out right now so you can’t exactly see the difference between the waves and the beach, but once I start drawing with colored pencils it should turn out very nicely.” She explained to him in a soft warm voice that showed her admiration of her hobbie.

“I am Rachel Young.” She added when he had asked for her name and then she had closed her sketch book since she was now distracted by him. She watched as he lowered his sunglasses down to the edge of his nose reviling his striking green eyes. As she looked him over she couldn’t deny that he was very much attractive, but it was always those kinds of boys you needed to watch out for and she knew this from experience.

[Kris]

Date: August 17th, 2042
Time: 9:20 am
Place: "Section G" Printing house store.

The place was rather empty (with only 4 customers) but the copy machines worked non-stop, each time getting millions of pages outputted that the logistics guys were called about every 20 minutes or so to fill the trays with new supply of papers. You can probably understand that the noise was, therefore, still unbearable and annoying, just as if it was any other REALLY busy day.

And… another machine malfunctioned. Great. Luckily Sarina was behind the reception desk today, meaning she had an excuse not to dash for the rescue and try to fix it (as much as she could fix it anyway, she was not a technician last time she checked. She would just do the simple stuff like opening the cover, trying to see if any page was stuck there… and if all fail she would do the thing that solved all problems with machines at least 92% of the times: shutting it down and restarting it.

But not today.

Today she just leaned against the rail, looking bored and annoyed. She has had another "great" night of 3 hours sleeping and waking up early thinking she would be able to get into the 8 hours shift just fine. Obviously, she was too tired to work seriously.

Music played in the background from the CD she burnt: "The best of Queen", but sadly the music crushed around track 5 ("Bohemian Rhapsody") Just when Freddie Mercury reached the part of "Easy come Easy go".

That has to be god undoing for sure.

Annoyed she fixed her baggy blue shirt uniform that held the title "Section G" (The store's name) all over it (Where the "G" part was covered with the plastic badge with her name) and pulled it until it reached over her knees (like a toga) as she got up from her place and turned for the stereo to change the CD into another CD that had many tracks of famous Irish theme songs from old action movies.

Once she replaced the music she sat down again, enjoying the melodies when the phone rang.

"Section G, colors at your reach without the needs of drugs", she said (Actually it wasn't the real slogan, but ever since they stopped recording the conversations she used to play jokes around like that).

"Hello there, we call from FMJ and we'd love to have you answering some questions about our products-!"

Sarina hang the phone. She hated surveys. It seemed to her that the guys working for surveys service over the phone had no real life and wanted to make the poor people that actually took the time to answer their questions suffer just because they had nothing better to do with their life for they couldn't get into a real job.

The phone rang again.

"Section G, Postcards, papers, copying and more, how can I assist?"

"Hello? Oh, I think there was some problem with the line before. Well, anyway, I'm Tina and I'm calling from FMJ. I'd like to take a bit of your time and ask you to answer our questions about-!"

"WHAT?!", Sarina yelled into the phone, "I CAN'T HEAR YOU VERY WELL!! HELLO?!", And she hanged up again.

Ten minutes passed.

Just when she thought she got away with it the phone rang for the third time. With rage she picked up the phone, "Section G, how can I assist?"

"It's Tina again, can you hear me?"

Sarina lowered her head and rubbed her forehead, and later dug her whole face within her left free hand, "Yes… I can…" (=sadly)

"Good, we'd like to ask you some questions about-"

"Tina, right?", Sarina asked.

"Yes"

"You see, I'm only replacing someone until the guy comes back from the bathroom. How about I move you to another section?, I'm sure they will be more than willing to help"

"Wait, but-!"

Before the woman could protest Sarina pressed the "Hold" button and closed the phone. She was sure Tina was hearing now the company theme song (The waiting "song of death" as Sarina liked to call it), probably wondering rather she should hang up or wait for human to answer.

Another 10 minutes passed… 20…. 40…

Hour of silence.

Victory.

***

Date: August 17th, 2042
Time: 13:00 am
Place: "Section G" Printing house store.

Around 10:20 people start to flood the place. Tom, one of the "Service Representative", handsome yet silly young man with dark curly hair, helped a couple (with a really annoying young kid) to have their pictures they enlarged and printed from their cell-phones into albums they just bought.

Sarina took her camera from her bag and moved closer to them. She smiled just before she took a picture. The flash was a bit too strong and Tom pressed his hands against his chest, pretending he was shot (mind the pun) and fall down slowly while whispering: "But I'm too young to die".

Needless to say the couple were surprised from his childish stupid behavior and turned for Golan (another customers' service helper) for the rest of the service.

Sarina turned back (While hearing Tom trying to get another chance from the couple) and took her sit again, noticing that Amilia was sitting on a small stool that was empty just few moments ago.

"I just lost customers, mind you", said Tom with anger knowing he won't get the bonus percent now that Golan was taking care of the couple.

"It's not her fault you're a fool", Amilia said and smiled widely. Tom smiled as well. The thing about Amilia was that you couldn't resist her smile. In fact if she wanted something, it was almost a sure thing she would get it, and why not actually? By all means she was good looking with pretty face which always held a smile.

"Gotta admit it was a good one", said Tom.

"Yeah", said Amilia, moving aside strips of long red hairs, "I give you 3 out of 10, and that's just because I'm nice"

"What are you talking about? I deserve at least 6"

Sarina looked at them with annoyed gaze. As always they got into this goofy flirt talk and forgot completely she was there. She sighed and ignored them as she got up and headed for the dining room.

***

Date: August 17th, 2042
Time: 13:30 PM
Place: "Section G" Printing house store, dining room.

"I think he's an idiot", said Sarina answering Amilia.

"Just because he's a bit crazy doesn't mean that-!"

"Please! You need to actually have a brain to be crazy "

"He's just silly like that", said Amilia, "He makes me laugh"

"Well sure, he's funny and all, but… I dunno…. ", Sarina said, taking another piece of bread. Just before she grabbed the ketchup Amilia seized it up, "Hey what's the big idea?!"

"Well, I'm not giving it back until you tell me what you think about him! And no, 'Idiot' is not an answer", said Amilia with confident.

Sarina looked even more annoyed. Amilia was so used to get things done her way that she forgot it didn't always work with Sarina, "Fine, I don't need the Katchup".

***

Date: August 17th, 2042
Time: 19:30 PM
Place: The Majestic

"Wow", said Amilia, "You actually look decent!"

"Don't try to flatter me! you're late!"

"Oh, c'mon, don't be like that"

"45 minutes late"

"Really that long?"

Sarina nodded. She watched as Amilia scanned her from head to toe. Sure, she wouldn't put much of a show to work, but some nice dress and makeup can't completely change the person right?

Then she watched how the surprise expression Amilia had changed into disappointment, "Did you have to bring that darn thing with you?", Amilia asked pointing at the black camera that hanged around Sarina's neck.

"Yes!", Sarina almost barked. Ignore her friend's comment she walked inside and Amilia followed.

"Look at all the cute guys!", Amilia said with a gaze full of lust once they were inside. The show hadn't started yet, but the place was already set for it: Dim lights and loud music. Sarina grabbed her camera, removing it from around her neck and holding it closely with both hands. She was nervous, she just wasn't the type for places like that, but keeping her hands busy made her somewhat more eased.

Well, aside of taking pictures just to have something to do, Sarina really enjoyed it. She thought that it was the best way to keep memories of events. She considered photography as objective kind of art, not like painting or sculpting for example, where the artist has a bit more space to "mess" with the product. Pictures were just that: frozen in time mementos from real life.

"Oh great, Amilia?!", too busy with her thoughts she found herself alone and Isolated within a sea of crowd. She looked around and noticed a place to sit beside the bar. She decided to wait for Amilia there. If Amilia won't come back soon she'll just watch the show from the side (far far in the shadow as she could, unnoticed) and leave the moment she can.

[Black]

DATE: August 16th, 2042
TIME: 4:23 PM
LOCATION: Downtown, The City Cafe.


Richard eyed the woman suspiciously, his eyes seeming to bore into hers. He didn't trust her very much at the moment. She seemed to want to help the little girl, much like himself, but then again he could never truly know if the stunning woman in front of him was good or evil. Or even worse-- an agent for the hospital. His eyes narrowed slightly at the prospect, then his glance passed over her entire body.

But it wasn't a lecher gaze. It was one of a man sizing up a potentially deadly enemy. If his eyes lingered at all it was obvious he was searching hard for concealed weapons, or nervous tweaks. His eyes moved back up to hers and once again he stared intently.

It wasn't like he didn't have a choice. He had plenty of options. He could get up and leave now, leaving Stephanie to the strange woman. He could deny her completely and take Stephanie and get her to safety as he originally had planned. He could do a lot of things. However when danger was in front of you you didn't turn your back, you kept it in your sight.

Then all at once he smiled lightly and turned his gaze back to the scruffy man trying to bore holes into his head and grinned. Then he brought his hand up and made a finger gun and fired a fake bullet.

Then he turned his attention to Stephanie who was falling asleep and gently patted her head before turning back to the stranger. "Im Richard, this is Stephanie. Where did you have in mind, Miss...?"