Loving Eros

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

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By the time the whole group had gotten to Spera, Pascal was in Araceli's office, talking to a girl Story had never seen before. Once Ozzy arrived he stood silently beside the stranger, and Araceli had cautioned her not to disturb them after a moment of observing. The woman he was speaking to was small and blonde, looking quite sickly, even from a distance. While everyone around her seemed to know what was going on, Story obeyed Araceli and headed to her own office, awaiting phone calls to redirect. It was a really simple job that she didn't completely mind, but she wanted to know more than what was being shown to her.

Within the hour, Pascal had finished talking to the woman just in time for Scarlett to arrive and be led to Araceli's office, passing by the blonde. A rush of pity briefly ran down her body when she glanced at the stranger, but it quickly passed. Pascal ushered the sickly woman to the 'lounge'-- which was really just a small room with a bench where everyone would get their coffee for the day. Or for Araceli, tea.

Story hadn't gotten any calls, and she hadn't expected to in that short period of time. Normally, if she hadn't been sleeping, she would have been the one to get the phone call that the church was on fire. When she wasn't answering calls, she was looking at daily police reports-- which admittedly was never uneventful. Since she wasn't doing that, she was reading the mysterious journal she had discovered. Suddenly, in the midst of this, there was a knock on her doorframe.

"Chief Executive is holding a meeting," came the void voice of Ozzy.

Story put away the journal and shut down her computer, rising from her desk. "What for?"

"She didn't say, but it's about the woman in the lounge room." By now, Story had gotten used to Ozzy saying facts no one had revealed yet. He always knew things ahead of time, it seemed, and although it never came normally to her, she was beginning to get well acquainted with the fact that's just the way he was.

However, despite what Ozzy had described as to the purpose of the gathering, when they arrived in the conference room, that did not appear to be the source of the current conversation.

"I'm sorry, Scarlett, but it's a little suspicious. You were already there when we all arrived. Why didn't you call us in?" Araceli said sternly.

"Well, I--"

"You know that if you spot anything you're to report to us immediately," Pascal interrupted. "That's one of your jobs. If you didn't do it this time, how can we be sure you haven't done it before?" He took a sip of his coffee, his tone holding slight apathy. "At least, I'm sure that's the wife's concern."

Araceli rolled her eyes. "'The wife'," she repeated. "Never the less, you saw how destructive and dangerous that fire was. You need to be careful and know your limits on where you should and shouldn't be and what you should report."

The moment Ozzy spoke up, Story's heart sank at his words. "How pathetic of you to run away from responsibilities."

"Knowing my limits doesn't make me pathetic!" Scarlett snapped.

Ozzy raised an eyebrow. "Really? Whose limits? Scarlett's, or Kyleigh's? Walters', or White's?"

The stench of silence filled the room.

"I-If I may," Story struggled, "what exactly... are we addressing? Limits of what?" She assumed the names 'Kyleigh' and 'White' were at least parts of Scarlett's several forged identities Ozzy had informed her about.

"Limits of what times are appropriate for Scarlett to be loose from her base, and limits of her self control." Grey's voice reached Story's ears from a dark corner on the opposite side of the room. He pushed himself off the wall and walked towards the rest of them. "Personally, I don't see why anyone's surprised."