Challenge #143
Charles De Lint quote: "If you're not ready to die, then how can you live?"
Note: I never knew how hard it would be to write when you have a small four month old puppy around. Hopefully, I'll find my groove again soon.
Peeping Alice pt.12
Vincent lets his legs collapse beneath him so he can land beside Alice's fallen body with quickness. The dark place in the Aetheric disappears as Vincent's attention to it dissolves into worry for his ward.
Alice?! He tries to let his mind search hers, but the impressions left behind by other people's thoughts, memories...lives get in the way.
It takes a few moments before the souls she had not yet finished guiding fade from her; lost to find their own ways. The unnatural wind dies down, and the air is returned to a tense, but breathable state once more. Vincent sits bent over her, and watches her breath come in shallow barely audible breaths. Minutes pass slowly as he tries to determine whether she's been physically injured in her fall. When he does finally decide it's safe to move her, he picks her up in a swift movement and carries her to the cramped security office.
He watches over her for nearly ten minutes, trying to clear her thoughts (and those left for her) so she can wake more easily. Eventually, she comes around, the oppressive and overwhelming emotions of those she guided finally cleared from her mind. Immediately, Alice reaches for her head, and leans into her own hand as she meets Vincent's worried stare.
"What?" She demands, her green eyes fierce, almost angry.
"You. Fainted." He returns her deep gaze, but with a kindness most uncommon of him.
She quirks an eyebrow in a question as she rubs the back of her neck, sore from her fall. She turns her gaze from him briefly to look at the security monitors. The entire place seems deserted during lunch time, and there's nothing there to hold her attention for long.
"Alice..." his voice is calm and soothing as he waits for her to turn back to him, "what did...what happened?"
Alice watches him steadily for a few moments, thinking through everything that she saw, and felt. I can't tell him everything... she thinks, I'm not even really sure what I saw.
"I'm not sure Vincent. I felt a surge in the Aetheric, and I was positive I could take the last row as one, instead of one at a time. I guess it was too much..."
"One at a time from now on." He looks at her, his mouth a thin line of disappointment. "There was something out there, and until we know what it is, you need to be more careful."
"The dark spot; what was that?" She looks at the monitor showing a clear view of the main room and stares at it, trying to remember where exactly she saw the spot. "I think..." I let something in.
Vincent nods in agreement, and follows her gaze to the monitor. "We will need to be more careful from now on."
"Vincent..." she breaks her gaze from the dull monitor glow to look at him, her eyebrows creased in worry, "what if it was from one of them?" With a tilt of her shoulder she gestures to the monitor without turning back to it.
"One of the souls you were guiding?" His blue eyes spark with some semblance of recognition as he looks at her.
"I felt everything, I dunno, increase. As if I wasn't just using my own power, but something...borrowed."
"Keep your Sight open today Alice. But, stay guarded, don't use any more of your Talents."
"Vincent, what do you know?" She leans forward, reaching out for his arm. He pushes her hand away in mid-air and stands up quickly.
"I am not sure. Be careful, I will return." And before she can move from her chair he's out the door into the main room, and when she turns to follow him on camera, he's already vanished.
Alice sits in the security office for the rest of her shift, quietly watching the cameras and silently thanking the gods that the afternoon is uncomplicated. In the evening, when her shift change comes, she moves quickly out of the office, and the area entirely. She stops in the hallway, and with her Sight into the Aetheric, she glances around carefully. I don't even know what I'm looking for. She shakes her head slowly, chiding herself for even considering exploring the rest of the building.
I'll just go to the car, and if he's not there... "I'll just drive myself home," she answers herself, with a bit of defiance in her voice.
She keeps her Sight open to the Aetheric energies as she starts to make her way to the parking garage. She waves to the guard on her way out past the employee exit, and he gives her a conspiritorial nod of his head as she passes. She stops, and backs up the few steps to his desk.
"Heya George, you on or off?"
"On, but not for much longer. Theo's a little late this evening." He winks at her, brown eyes smiling as he runs a hand through his thinning gray hair. "They treating you good down there Alice?"
She smiles and nods. "George, mind if I ask you a question?"
"Don't mind at all for a pretty girl like you."
She flashes him a bright smile and leans against the counter so she can stick her head closer to the glass between them. "I noticed a dark spot this afternoon on one of the morgue monitors, it was probably just a shadow...but I was wondering if you saw anything? Maybe about lunch time?"
A flicker of worry crosses his lined face and he glances down at all the monitors before standing. He purses his lips and glances back at her, all worry gone from his expression.
"I'm not sure I should say anything," he whispers through the glass. "But, this afternoon there was some "technical difficulties" with some equipment," he says as he gestures quotations in the air.
"Oh. Nothing else?"
"Hmmm. I don't think so, but I'm not sure that these were any scheduled outages. Reports came in from all over the building of downed cameras. I'm actually suprised you didn't lose anything altogether." He glances through the class down the hall behind her, and sits back down in his chair.
"Nope, figured it was a shadow...but I feel better knowing it wasn't just me. Thanks George." She grins at him again, but less wholeheartedly this time her mind reeling with ideas.
"No problem. Have a good night girl." She waves at him absentmindedly as she starts back down the hall.
"'Night George."