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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 11, 2011 18:01:13 GMT -5
"Micaela-" But she was gone. Adrian sat down and closed his eyes, opening them again only when Bubastis padded in and nudged his hand with her head. He sighed. "Hello, girl..." Bubastis looked up at him with big liquid golden eyes. Adrian halfheartedly scratched behind one of her ears and stood. He glanced at the clock. "Come on," he sighed. *** He'd been sitting alone before the televisions for a few minutes before he realized that Adrien must have heard Micaela. " God damn it-" Adrian jumped up and hurried to the building's central intercom control a few rooms away and flipped through the assorted music he'd sent down for Adrien's benefit months before. Within a few moments, the whole building was echoing with the sound of the kind of cheerful ballroom music Adrien seemed to like. Better. Not ideal, but better.
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Mar 14, 2011 1:42:53 GMT -5
Adrien didn't know he and Micaela both could have been spared a great deal of misery had she only joined him in his room. He'd returned, distracted, walking sadly and uncertainly through his room, going through a few Kleenex and changing his clothes a few times. He hated Karnak, and he hated it more than ever if he couldn't have Adrian his the entire time. The last time he'd been here had been bad enough, but he'd at least had Micaela for card games and charades, when she wasn't stuck training with Adrian. Being here now, it was like a ghost town. Everyone seemed distant and just out of reach, very different from the last time, where there had been more people. Now there was nearly no one about, and he'd not seen anyone since Adrian'd summoned them all to the vivarium. He supposed they were still there, drinking and mingling, celebrating New Years. He was so desperate for company that he thought of joining them, even though they all treated him a bit funny. But he changed his mind, and sat on the edge of his bed once more. Again his thoughts returned to Micaela. Somehow, with her, Karnak's constant darkness had felt like an overnight party 24-7. Even though it was bright now, it only served to highlight that outside it was white and howling, like they were in some foreign hell that only the Egyptians had words for, perhaps because in Egypt there could be nothing more alarming than this knifelike chill and permanent daytime...
A scream cut through Karnak, just distant and muffled enough to be in itself frightening. His posture stiffened; gooseflesh spread over his arms, and he clutched at his own elbows in terror. That had been, almost certainly, Micaela's voice. Had he summoned a ghost to Karnak? Was he going mad? What if it had been her ghost?
A deeper chill passed over him at a new thought that came to him, fresh and disturbing, worse than before. What if something had happened to Micaela.... what if she had never disappeared at all, but had merely been relocated to Karnak? What if Adrian had been keeping her here, and for some reason or other he had needed to be with her here at New Years?
What if Micaela had gone mad... oh God.
But as soon as Adrien ran to the door in fear, a soft and scratchy noise began softly wafting down from the sound system. He recognized it immediately. It was "Stairway to Paradise;" he had sung it with Adrian once, dancng with him in Micaela's Meritites outfit. The day Adrian had said he'd take care of him as long as he lived, a day before he'd tried to poison him. Adrien's body felt very cold and then he ran down the hallway at top speed, panic giving him winged feet to bring him to Adrian as quickly as possible, for answers... if not peace of mind.
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 14, 2011 1:49:39 GMT -5
Adrian turned around slowly.
"I thought I told you to stay in your room."
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Mar 14, 2011 1:52:21 GMT -5
"Micaela-" he gasped, leaning against the doorway but shrinking against it at the stately way Adrian turned around, like a stranger, a dangerous one.
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 14, 2011 1:53:38 GMT -5
"You don't need to worry about her," Adrian said quietly.
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Mar 14, 2011 1:55:38 GMT -5
The flash of horror was obvious.
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 14, 2011 1:56:51 GMT -5
Adrian calmly walked toward him.
"You should lie down."
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Mar 14, 2011 1:57:38 GMT -5
Adrien stumbled backward and screamed.
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 14, 2011 2:01:15 GMT -5
"Adrien-"
Adrian caught him and pulled him close, swaying very slightly to the music.
"See? Everything's going to be all right. There's nothing for you to worry about..."
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Mar 14, 2011 2:07:27 GMT -5
He let himself be lulled, a dull-eyed thing after such a surfeit of terror. But he snapped to in a moment. Adrian's suit was hard and unlike Adrian himself. It didn't feel like it usually did. Wasn't it supposed to be just, you know, a mock-up?
"I heard a scream-"
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 14, 2011 2:08:39 GMT -5
"Don't concern yourself with that."
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Mar 14, 2011 2:10:17 GMT -5
He wanted to scream. "You admit there was a scream but say it's not my business? Jesus Christ - "
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 14, 2011 2:12:06 GMT -5
"Micaela was here. She's gone now."
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Mar 14, 2011 2:16:15 GMT -5
"What do you mean, Micaela was here?"
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Mar 14, 2011 2:17:25 GMT -5
"Hadn't you figured it out? Micaela was practically another Dr. Manhattan. She's gone to the world she came from again-"
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