Mime Spent Apart

Part 9

The floor was cold and his joints hurt. The mime slowly opened his eyes to see his lounge right in front of him. He could hear the sound of someone moving around. He very slowly straightened himself and then brought himself up onto his haunches. He saw a large figure in his kitchen seemingly using his blender. He could smell something citrus-like and tart in the air. He was making a fruit smoothie? He recognized him as the hairy beast who laid him out at the door. Had he seen him? It didn't seem so. He quickly looked to the left to see if his front door was open. It was firmly shut but it didn't look like it had been locked. He felt his pocket and his keys were in there. It seemed like a good idea to just escape from now and work out his next move. He didn't have his make up on so he shouldn't attract too much attention, though he normally didn't like going out without his face on.

He slowly lowered himself back to the floor and started squirming towards the door as quick as he could, trying not to make any sound. The hairy one seemed caught up in his smoothie. He got to the door ad reached up to the handle.

"Better if you don't." The beast growled from in the kitchen.

The mime let his hand drop, along with his hopes. "Why are you here? Why did you hit me?"

"It is easier to get people under control first before I deal with them. Normally."

"You could have just told me why you were here."

"Once you knew, you may have tried to escape. You may have tried to trick me or hurt me. I can't take that risk."

The mime slowly stood up, his jaw was killing him. "So why are you here?"

"I know who you are." The mime was puzzled. He didn't really have anything in his past that he needed to hide, aside from his recent explosive run in with his past. But that was no-one's business but his own and the mime academy, and this guy definitely wasn't from the academy.

"Look, you are big and strong and have the ability to cause me major further pain. So I'll be completely honest with you and say even I don't know who I am, really. So what are you talking about? Am I meant to be scared that you "know who I am""?

"You are Nicholas Gettz."

"Nicholas... OH."

The man said nothing but picked up his mixture from the blender and poured it into a tall glass he had ready on the counter and sipped from it, all the while with his gaze fixed on the mime. The mime slowly repositioned himself so he was seated with his back against the wall and thought about his next move. This was going to be delicate.

"I'm not Nicholas though. I know why you would think I am though."

The man put down his drink. "There is no point in disputing this. We have been tracking your movements since you first made your public appearance at Prague."

"Yes, that's the point! He never made a public appearance!"

"What do you mean?"

"He hired me to make the appearance for him. I'm an actor. People get me to appear for them when they don't want to, and I take on aspects of their personality."

The big hairy man appeared to be thinking this over. "Is there any way you can prove this to me? Do you have your correspondence with my client?"

"No, I keep that all on separate data stores, far away from where I happen to be living at the time. But if you look in my printer right now, I was actually printing out the data for a new job when you came in."