Jurassic Park II: The Lost World (Victoriana)

Chp. 1: The Cruel Truth

The subway thundered into a station underneath Manhattan, its doors whooshing open as commuters emerged out while others piled in. An elderly man with a slight limp hurried down the platform just before the doors began to close. A small hand prevented the doors from closing completely, allowing the man to come on the train just in the nick of time. The hand belonged to none other than Dr. Victoria Monét. She smiled at the old man, though her eyes now forever held a hard wisdom in them from what happened a few years back. The incident that transpired at Jurassic Park had changed her – for better or worse, she didn't know. Nor did she really care.

She found herself living life more freely after being so close to death. So far, it was proving to be quite beneficial for her. At least, that was the case until she received a call from Mark Fischbach. The Korean-American wanted to see her, but he didn't go into much detail about why. Nonetheless, here she was, traveling to his home further up in the city upon his request. She found a seat on the crowded subway car before sitting down. She decided to check her social media before noticing a guy across from her staring at her. The ebony inwardly grunted as the man got up to approach her, seeming a bit on edge the more he kept his eyes on her. He sat next to Victoria with a creepy grin.

"You're her, aren't you?" he asked.

"...excuse me?" Victoria asked, attitude laced in her face as she side-eyed him.

"The woman," the man said. "The scientist chick! I saw you on TV."

The man leaned in and whispered to her.

"...I believed you..."

Victoria stared dead in his eyes unamused before the man teasingly roared like a dinosaur. Clearly, he was trolling her, and she didn't have the time, nor the patience for it. With no shame, she got up and moved to another seat. As she sat down, she noticed two other commuters across from her who were also staring at her, only their look was the kind that was reserved for people who were involved in some kind of scandal. Victoria stared right back at them challengingly before they looked away. Before long, Victoria made it to Mark's neck of the woods in the Bronx. She stood in the foyer of an expensively decorated Park Avenue apartment just as a uniformed butler approached her.

"Whom shall I tell Mr. Fischbach is calling?" he asked.

"Victoria Monét," the ebony smiled.

The butler returned the smile before going down the hall. Just as he turned the corner, out came Seán McLoughlin, carrying a sheaf of papers. The Irishman saw Victoria and hesitated before smiling a tight-lipped smile. The two of them knew each other but had a strong dislike for one another. Victoria could only assume that whatever he was here for wasn't good.

"Well," Seán said, "Dr. Monét. Here to tell a few campfire stories with my dear friend?"

"Do me a favor, McLoughlin," the ebony said. "Don't ever pretend that you and I don't know the truth. You can convince Time magazine and the Skeptical Inquirer of whatever you want, but I was there. I know what happened."

Seán scoffed as he organized his papers and put them in his briefcase.

"You're lucky we didn't sue you," he said. "You signed a non-disclosure agreement before you went to the island that expressly forbade you from discussing anything you saw. You violated that agreement."

"And you lied," Victoria combatted with. "You do realize that the academic world is quick to condemn, right? Me speaking the truth cost me my livelihood and reputation in it, no thanks to you."

"As I understand, your university revoked your tenure for selling wild stories to the press. I hardly see how that's my- "

"You're so full of shit," the ebony chuckled. "If I was 'selling' something, I would've followed all the way through with it – package it, sell it on merch, overprice everything – just like ya'll tried to do with that god forsaken death trap you tried to pass off as a park. Nah, what I did was tell the truth."