9

9

         “Excuse me.”

         A blonde man opened the door and looked in. There was another blonde man inside the room, sitting behind a huge desk, which was surely heavy. He seemed to be busy with his iPad when his guest came, but he quickly looked up to greet his guest.

         “Hey, Marquis – great, I’ve been waiting – come in, please.”

         Waiting? It sounded a bit strange, but he walked in anyway. The other man tapped his iPad a few times, then he stood up and walked towards his guest.

         “Let’s see… I’ve got something for you to do.”

         I knew that. “And what is it, Giuseppe?”

         “You’ll see,” was the only answer for him, and it wasn’t a very good answer, of course. However, Marquis, being the guest, didn’t ask too much. People always have something to hide after all.

         But who cares? Opening the gift before it’s given will only spoil it.

         “Okay.”

         “Why don’t you stay here and wait,” Giuseppe said. “You’ll know very soon.”

         “…Whatever.” Very soon, I hope so.

         Well then, he was being lucky. The door flew open soon after, where there was a bald man walking into the room. He was wearing thick glasses and a white coat, and why, he wasn’t alone. A girl with long brunette hair was standing next to him, her eyes blank and her face expressionless. Giuseppe smiled upon the two, and gestured them to come in. Marquis looked at them for a while as they stepped in, without any expression on his face, even when the bald scientist gave him a slight nod.

         “Now, let me tell you, Marquis,” Giuseppe said. “You’ll be responsible for this ‘doll’. Is that clear?”

         “Of course.”

         The scientific looking guy then smiled to the girl next to him, then he turned to Marquis as she walked over to him. Marquis kept looking at her with no ‘interest’, but then he smiled discreetly, without anybody noticing of course.

         Not exactly what I wanted, but…

         Well, I guess it won’t really kill me.

         “You can leave her to me.”

         Giuseppe smiled and grabbed Marquis’ right shoulder, feeling relieved to finally have someone to do the work aside from him.

         “Be careful,” the bald man said. “That thing can just cost your life, you know that, no?”

         “I know that, don’t worry,” Marquis said with a smile. “This is what I’ve been waiting for, after all…”

         He smiled and looked at the doll for a while, feeling something in him jumping in happiness, perhaps – he could feel an emotion growing up in him and making him feel happy.

         “This is the kind of job I like, for I am always so close to death…”

~•~

         “So, at the end Marquis got the responsibility?”
         “Yeah.” Giuseppe poured some brownish liquid from a metal water heater into a white mug. “I have no idea of who else to trust. Abigail might get stressed, and Connor too, I was thinking about Ala, but he’s still inexperienced.”

         “You’re so full of consideration now, Giuseppe,” Frederich said as he typed something on his keyboard, then sat back and watched a white bar on one of the screens shown filled up. He then turned to his friend, who was having some dose of caffeine, and turned back to the screen. No, not yet.

         “Should we be younger, maybe I’d choose you instead,” Giuseppe said. “But those days were gone. Can’t have them back.”

         Yeah, should life have a rewind button…

         Frederich smiled as he saw the bar on the green screen being totally white, and typed something on it. Giuseppe turned to him, sipping some coffee, then he put down the empty mug and walked over to his friend.

         “Do you remember?” he asked. “When we were still young, and angry, Maureen always gave us imposibble missions to do. And we’d always fight to be so good in those.”

         “Sure I do,” Frederich answered with a smile, remembering all the happy times he’s gone through. We kinda hated each other, right?”

         “And Maureen scolded us often,” Giuseppe continued. “I still remember when she told us that ‘the lose of a comrade is the biggest lose’.”

         “We sure got preached often.”

         “Hahaha…”

         “I wish that old woman doesn’t have to die,” Frederich said. “It’s got kinda lonely here.”

         “Ah, before we knew it, our turn will come, Frederich,” Giuseppe said as he walked to the door. “Don’t bother too much about it. See you again.”

         “See you again.”

         He sighed silently and slid his chair to the back, then he looked up to one of the neon lamps above his head as his mind drifted away.

         I can only wish…

         That everything can go back like it used to be before…

~•~

         London, 2200 hours

         “So, you finally got it.”

         “Of course I do,” Marquis said proudly. Alan was sitting next to him, drinking some a glass of American Beauty. He would look at his friend every once in a while, then gets back to drinking.

         “So what’s next?”

         “Well, we’ll just wait and see, you see,” Marquis answered. “You know how things can turn all the way round, especially at these times.”

         “Who’s out there?”

         “You talk like I know.”        

         They sat in silence for a while, as the blonde bartender in front of them wiped a wine glass. He turned to Marquis and threw a smile.

         “Would you like to drink something else?”

         “No, got something to do, sorry,” he said as he stood up. “However, this little guy seemed to want a bit drink, so why don’t you let him?”

         Marquis walked out of the bar, entering the dark night of London. There should be more things to worry now, but he didn’t seem to be worried at all. He took out a stick of cigarette and lit it, with a smile

         “Hey, I wonder, now that it’s done…”

~•~

         RIIIIING

         Julia turned to the ringing sound, coming not very far away from her, as she took off her necklace. She walked to the bedside table, where the sound came from, and noticed that her phone’s screen was blinking vigorously. She smiled and walked to it, then she tapped the screen once as she sat down on her bed.

         “What’s wrong?”

         “The order changed a bit,” a voice said. No pictures were shown on the screen of the phone – the screen was dark and it only outputed the voice.

         But, well, who cares.

         “Into…?”
         “Get the ‘doll’.”

         The voice disappeared, but Julia kept staring at the phone for a while. She then sighed and tapped the screen once before lying down on the bed and turning off the lamps, through a screen planted in the bedside table.

         And there she was, in the pitch-black darkness, smiling.

         This will be interesting, no?