The Last Corvus (completed)

Ch. 34 Isadora

Chapter 34

Isadora

After nearly two hours of wandering around aimlessly, I finally find the warehouse that leads down to the Complex. Using the same window from my escape, I enter and cross to the elevator. A nagging feeling tells me something is off; but what? Looking around the cavernous room at the door, rows of windows, cluttered jumble of cardboard boxes and dead leaves, everything looks like how I remember it.

Something moves across my Conversed foot and I squeal, lifting my skirt to reveal a daddy long leg. Trying to suppress a shudder, I wonder at the fact that I was able to feel that. I guess ultra-senses aren't always good things.

Watching the creepy little spider cross the floor, I see something I never would have noticed if not for the spider... a tiny grease spot. Of course. Linden's car, that's what's missing. I'm standing where it would have been parked. So he's not here (or somebody borrowed his car, which I somehow doubt he'd allow), and I just remembered the elevator has a finger scanner.

How am I going to get in? I'll just have to wait for someone to open the elevator.

Twenty minutes of being bored out of my mind later, I notice an old ladder that starts halfway up the wall and leads up to the ceiling support beams. Some of the bricks under it jut out slightly and could probably be used as holds up to it. Before I can stop myself, I've already knotted my skirt above my knee and grabbed the jutting brick just above my head.

It's an easy climb, my only trouble is gripping the bricks and ladder due to the layers of dust that coats the rungs, then my fingers, as I climb. Before I know it, I'm at the top of the ladder with one of the supports right above my head. With nowhere else to go but down, I grab the rafter with one hand, then the other, and find myself dangling above the empty room.

Shifting my grip to be able to lift my right foot, my left hand slips.

Crap. I know I should have wiped my hands.

I hang here by one hand, nearly thirty feet off the ground, and try to figure out what to do. A thought finally comes to me (that doesn't include falling or jumping) and I swing my right leg up over the beam. Following it with the other, I let go of the beam, my legs taking my full weight and my skirt enveloping me in darkness as it inverts itself over my upper body.

It's a good thing my Converses are knee-length or my legs would probably be in shreds by now. What would happen if the beam cut open my legs and they healed around it? Almost shuddering while trying not to think of the pain, I try to swing myself to the ladder. Grasping it through my skirt, I, in a feat of contortionism, climb to the top rung, my back screaming in protest. I really should consider yoga.

Yup, I've considered it. I'm gonna learn yoga.

Now that my head's above my shoulders, I gather my skirts and tuck them at the base of my neck. It's a good thing I still wear Janet's bloomers, otherwise things could get very embarrassing if someone walked in just now. Lowering my legs back down to the ladder, I think of a different approach. This time I'm going to get on top of the beam and will be able to (hopefully) walk across. Once again standing on the top rung, (this time wiping my hands) I pull my torso up and hoist a leg up, making sure not to get caught in my skirt.

Letting go, I balance precariously until I lift up my other foot. Once again I marvel at my new balance; I never would've been able to do that before.

Before, I think of it so easily, as if it wasn't the life altering finding-out-you're-a-half-vampire-and-then-being-bitten-by-one, but something as mundane as getting my braces.

Walking to the middle of the beam, I sit and swing my legs, enjoying my eagles-eye view and the fact that that evil little spider is down there (if I really focus I can somehow still see its tiny black body as it walks across a collapsed box) and not up here, with me.

Hooking my knees around the beam, I lean back as far as I can, luxuriating in the fact that, if I did fall, I could probably land on my feet like I did right before I 'fought' Hank. My body jerks to attention, nearly sending me flying forward as I spring to sitting. I hear something. A car. Definitely different from the trucks going by every now and then. Not diesel... somehow familiar. It gets louder, closer, and finally stops in front of the double doors.

A car door opens and I hear footsteps, then the screech as the doors are opened to reveal the front bumper of a familiar blue and black car. My heart quickens just as the car door slams and it turns into the warehouse, parking just to my left.

He opens the door and I jump. Wind on the back of my neck is such a strange feeling, I'd almost forgotten my hair was just chopped off not three hours ago. I land as he steps out and we stand, me with reverberations still coursing through my body, nearly nose to nose. I'd forgotten we were the same height.

He jumps back, understandably surprised, and looks around as if to figure out where I came from. Also understandable. Then he looks up at the rafters and back to me, his eyes like saucers, and I try not to giggle when I feel his quickened breath on my nose as I nod. "It's fun up there. You should try it."

He steps back and closes the door slowly, as if not to spook the specter that he possibly thinks I am. I know I look strange; what with my hair probably in a spiky mess and my wearing a corseted dress (a shudder-inducing thought. I haven't worn a dress since I was seven, but it is surprisingly comfy, if hard to climb in.)

He takes me in slowly, starting at my hair and working down, and I remember the knot in my skirt, my thighs exposed. Fiddling with it, I unknot it right before he notices and let out an internal sigh of relief.

Seeming to realize that it is actually me, a shadow leaves his eyes, eyes that are surprisingly dark brown, no longer red, and he sighs in relief. Almost like he's relieved I'm okay, which is kind of nice, if unnecessary.

"Kitty?" he whispers, still not completely sure. I nod and before I can stop him he grabs me by the waist and whirls me around and around. I almost giggle but then come to my senses, pushing off his biceps and sending myself spinning ten feet across the room. My body on high alert from the adrenaline, I whiz back to him and glower at him until he apologizes.

Surely he couldn't have already forgotten why I left in the first place, the unwarranted kiss. Some part of me remembers why he kissed me; he likes me, and, for some unknown reason, I like him, too. I extend my hand and he takes it. We shake and suddenly he winces in pain. Realizing I was squeezing, I let go and remember he's no longer a full vampire, that I'm stronger than he is now.

Tucking my hand between folds in my skirt, I try to rub away the tingling feeling his hand left.

"So, how are you adjusting? To the whole no-longer-a-full-vamp thing?"

He doesn't respond, just keeps gently rubbing at his hand (I must be a LOT stronger than him) and I realize he didn't hear me. "Oh," I say, getting his attention, "you can't hear me anymore."

He looks up. "What are you talking about? I can't heat you anymo...?" I can see the understanding in his eyes as he figures it out. He looks so crestfallen, my heart gives a little squeeze for him. It's almost like he just lost something precious to him.

Remembering something, he smiles, his sadness practically forgotten as he grasps my hand and pulls me to the elevator. "Come come come. Everyone's missed you so much, they'll be so excited to find out you've come back." Not wanting to correct him about my coming back only for my stuff, I follow him into the elevator, knowing that without Linden I'd still be waiting for someone to use the elevator.

The elevator's surprisingly warm as we descend and I realize that our hands are still intertwined. I decide I can give him this small thing before I move out and squeeze his fingertips. He squeezes back oh so gently, as if I were the fragile one, and my heart melts a little.