3Hey! It's me the writer! I really don't do a lot of A/Ns, but when I do, they are often important and slightly self-depricating. That's my sense of humor. Anyways, this is my new story, so be kind and review, please? It helps me write...
Isn't it strange how the most peculiar things seem to happen on the most uneventful of days? Well, this story is no exception. It was a perfectly normal July day in Prof. Eli Morris' flat on the shore of River Thames. He was in his basement laboratory, working on his latest project for the British government, a contraption to help zephyrs fly faster and farther. He had gotten a bit stuck, okay, really stuck on a part of the project that was pretty important part. The prototype. So he decided to do what he always did when he got stuck on a project, take a long stroll through London. He once walked all the way from his flat at the top to a diner he had eaten at on the lower side. He was really having troubles that day though. Today, he simply was going to walk around the main streets for a little while.
A little while though, has an undefined limit and Eli was so lost in his thoughts that he ended up wandering for two and a half hours before he snapped out of his daze. He had accidently wandered into the sketchy part of town where the street rats and dangerous people lived. Compared to where he lived, the slums of London were terrible. Most of the buildings had no windows, broken-in doorways, and paint peeling off by the bunches. Weeds overtook the unused streets, as no one here could afford a carriage, and trash littered everything. It was everywhere. But the unfamiliar sights were not what had shaken Eli from his reprieve. That was all okay to him. Even the overwhelming stench of death as the sick and poor heave their empty stomachs onto the already trash covered streets. No. The thing that had knocked Eli out of his mind when he was so deeply in thought had been a scream. A loud, shrill screech of pure, unmasked fear and anxiety. It ripped through his eardrums and bounced around his skull until it felt as if that sound would be forever etched on his brain. It was from one of the alleyways behind him that were especially menacing in the dusky light of sunset on the decaying stone monsters that rose as if guarding the terrors that have caused that scream.
Eli debated for a second on whether or not to just turn around and continue, but as another inhuman wail was emitted from the darkness, Eli felt his feet move forward towards the mouth of the alley. He stood at the beginning of the wall of black and gathered his courage. He stepped forward, and that was it. One step quickly led to another and another. Soon he was walking through the dark, listening for footsteps or materials being shifted to guide him in the pitch-black room.
Nothing for what felt like hours, and then, suddenly, a loud metal creak from Eli's left and about three pairs of heavy footsteps running the opposite way of him. He held his breath in case any of the heavy thuds returned, and then crouched down and scurried over to where the entire ruckus had occurred from. What he had though would have happened when he saw the owner of the shrieks? Whatever it had been, the reality was about five times worse.
A young girl, looking to be no older than eighteen years of age, had been thrown carelessly on top of a rather large pile of particularly foul smelling trash. Her eyes were closed and her chest moved shallowly and rapidly, as if she could not get enough oxygen into her lungs. Her appearance was appalling, but not because her face was hideous, but rather that her blond hair was matted and stained red with blood and her eyes were swelled shut with dark black bruises forming around them. Eli simply ached at just looking at the poor girl.
He slowly walked over to her, but as soon as he got within five feet of her weak and slumped body, she let out the biggest whimper and shrank into herself more. Eli immediately halted his measured steps and shrank down to her level on the floor. He reached out to push her hair out of her face, in hopes that he could recognize her or something. Instead, what happened was that as soon as his hand got mere inches from her face, her red-stained hand darted out, quick as lightening, and knocked his hand from its path to her face. He pulled it back hastily and looked at her face, only to notice that her eyes were opened a bit and that two beautiful, shimmering pieces of obsidian with silver flecks in them glinted back at him with cold calculations.
Her cracked, split lips broke apart and she asked in a harsh, unforgiving tone, "What do you think you are doing?"
He stumbled back at her icy tone and landed on his rear in the trash. "I-I was t-trying to help you," he managed to stutter out of his uncooperating mouth.
"Well, I don't need your help," she replied, looking him up and down, no doubt seeing the white, well used-to-be white, lab coat he wore and his goggles protruding from his trouser pockets, "especially from rich know-it-all scientists like you." Ouch. Her words stung like a whip to his back. That was exactly the kind of stereotype that he had come across before in his line of work, but it wasn't true. He barely made his monthly dues, let alone had enough extra money left over to be even called well-off, let alone rich. He shook his head and closed his eyes in an attempt to push back the feelings that he would not show. When he opened his eyes, he saw the girl standing over him, looking down as well as she could at him. She then realized that she had been caught staring and abruptly turned on her heels, prepared to walk away.
"Wait, where are you going?" Eli rose to his feet as well, staring at her back.
"Away from here. Find somewhere to sleep, recover." She said over her shoulder, without turning around.
"Oh no you don't. You're coming to my flat so that I can at least clean up your cuts and things." His voice left no room for argument, but she was obviously a defiant one at heart. She turned around slowly and glared through the slits of her black and blue covered eyes.
"I'm going to do what now? Go to a strange scientist's house so that he can play doctor on me? No thank you. Have a nice life!" She called the last part as she strolled away into the darkness. Eli was left cross at her blatant refusal and suggestions that he was a dishonest man. He began walking home, to angry to continue his musings and walking. He got home in a quicker time of half an hour by using the alleys and back ways that hardly anyone knew about. He got home at no later than 10:00 pm and decided to go to bed. He got all ready and had just pulled back his duvet when a rather loud and demanding pound came from his front door. He muttered under his breath about the inconsiderate hour and rude people as he stumbled sleepily down the hallway to the front door. What he say when he opened his door made his eyes widen in fear and panic. He was defiantly awake now.
At his door, in a crumpled, defeated pose, was the defiant, rude girl from the alleyway.
Well then...