For A Star To Fall

Chapter 2: The Art of Deception

Chapter 2

There was a murmuring in the room, sounding like slightly amplified white noise. Scraps of conversation floated around, seemingly muffled to her ears.

"Why...concussion..."

 "...had to...knock her out..."

  "...bad treatment...control your men..."

"Gentleness...not specified in my orders...my mistake...could not convince...an old friend's daughter."

Emyle's eyelids fluttered and she sat up abruptly, her heart thumping wildly in her chest. A tidal wave of dizziness threatened to overwhelm her and her breaths came in gasps.

  "Ah, you are awake," a masculine voice, as smooth as velvet, was heard.

 A dark figure on the other side of the room turned and approached the bed that Emyle was lying in. She recognized him as Dr. Valin, still dressed in his immaculate suit. There was a young woman following behind him, wearing a white lab coat, with wire-rimmed glasses perched on her nose.

  "Here." Dr. Valin pressed a glass of water to her lips. Emyle started and looked up at him, hesitating. Father's voice sounded in her head.

 His eyes were unnaturally bright and his voice was authoritative. "Emyle, my precious star, you cannot be too trusting. If they offer to help you, they are plotting to backstab you. If they give you food and drinks, they will have poisoned it already. You have to be careful." Emyle nodded, her eyes downcast, knowing that he was right.

 Emyle blinked up at Dr. Valin and raised her hand to push the glass away, shaking her head. Dr. Valin's eyebrows furrowed, but after a moment the confusion was cleared away, and he smiled a little. "Oh, I see. You really are Aaron's daughter."

 He then took a large gulp of water from the glass and held her gaze. Emyle stared back and waited for him to drop to the floor, dead as a door nail. Just as she expected, Dr. Valin remained perfectly fine and did not fall to the ground, convulsing horribly.  

 Finally, knowing that the glass of water was not laced with any poison, she conceded to reach out warily to take the glass of water from him. As the water slid down her parched throat, Emyle, feeling a little better, leaned back into the pillows behind her, a mask of relaxation fixing itself onto her features.

 Her eyes drifted around the room, holding only a faked curiosity, nothing more. Taking in as many details as she could, Emyle noticed that the bespectacled woman was hovering by the door, looking rather uncertain. She would definitely hinder Emyle if she tried to make an escape and dash out the door. Dr. Valin seemed to be casual and unsuspecting, and the smile on his face was genial and friendly, but Emyle had already decided not to trust his facial expressions, especially after what happened in the old building. Furthermore, he was keeping his body angled, such that he always had both her and the door in sight.

 But, regardless, she was not planning on escaping until she found Father and the object. He was alive; he had to be alive after all they had been through together. Emyle was his daughter. She had the responsibility to rescue him, from wherever he was and whatever he had gotten himself into. The object was just as important, because Father viewed it as so and thus she had to too. It was still in this accursed place, she knew. They would have taken it and hidden it away again, to serve their nefarious purposes. She had carried it to the building, and all she knew was that it was a thumb drive, but what information it stored, she had no idea.

 Emyle felt the mattress of the bed dip slightly as Dr. Valin sat down near her. After debating whether or not to knock him out and make a break for it, she settled for studying him out of the corner of her eye. He appeared to be calm; his posture straight but relaxed, with no remorse evident in his eyes. Since there was no guilt, she felt that he would have no emotional trouble answering her questions. First came the most pressing unknown, in her eyes, at least. "Where is Father?"