Two Broken People

Control of Illusions (Part 1)

                                                                                    Tori's POV

  "Where are we going to eat?", I had texted him earlier in the day. "Meet me at this address.", he had texted back. When I got into the cab, I told the driver the address Elliot had texted me. "Are you sure, miss? That's not a good part of town.", he asked as he looked at my outfit. "Really? It isn't?", I asked with clear worry in my voice. I started to shift uncomfortably in my seat, and fidget uncontrollably. My breathing was labored, and uneven as I told the driver to keep going. "Ok.", he had said, "What's a beautiful, upper-class young woman like yourself going to do in this part of town?" I looked at him incredulously. "Just curious.", he uttered. "I'm,.....uh......going on a date.", I said nervously. "On a date! With who? A poor homeless shmo?", he sounded shocked. "He's....just a guy I met earlier today in Central Park, and I wouldn't judge someone biased on where they live. You have to start somewhere.", I said with a smile. "You know what?", he looked at me through the rear view mirror," You're alright, kid. I like your attitude." "Thank you.", I just smiled and nodded to him. We stopped at an apartment that was linked to a Chinese restaurant below. 'Oh. Chinese! I hope that we get some Chinese food!', I thought as I walked up the steps to ring the buzzer. He buzzed me in without question, and I walked upstairs and knocked on his door. "Um, Elliot?", I said softly,"Hello?" There was no answer. Then all of the sudden the door opened and I was pulled inside. "Whoa! Take it easy there, tiger.", I laughed as he shut the door and locked it behind me. That right there, sent my pulse racing. 'Again, what did you get yourself into, Tori?', I asked myself that question as he slowly turned to face me. 

  "E-Elliot?", I stuttered as I tried to read his unreadable face,"What's going on?"  "I want to wait a little while before leaving. It's.....not safe out there.", he was looking like he was trying to convince himself. "Um, ok.", I said trying to make sense of what he just said. "You can sit down while I finish getting ready.", he awkwardly said as he went into his small bathroom. 'Maybe this wasn't a good idea.', I thought after thirty minutes of hearing him argue with himself in the bathroom. Elliot came back into the room, looking disheveled. After a long pause of silence I spoke up,"You ok?" "Yeah. I'm great. Where do you wanna go?", he asked me with intense direct eye-contact and confidence. The way he was acting threw me off. "Um, I was wondering if you liked Chinese food. Cause I do. Is that alright with you?", I calmly carefully asked him. "You want Chinese food? Alright we'll go get some Chinese food.", Elliot said as he unlocked and re-opened the door for me. "Ok.", was all I could say as I walked out the door. I heard the door shut behind me and lock, then I turned to see Elliot smirk. "Let's go.", he said confidently. I was starting to think that something was up with him. He lead the way down the stairs and out the door, and offered his arm to me which was totally unexpected, I took it and acted like nothing was wrong which was hard to do because he was seriously freaking me out. "Um....S-So what's it like living in New York City?", I asked him nervously. "It's a filthy, crowded place filled with filthy rich snobs who like to pretend they're in control, but don't let that fool you. We're in the land of opportunity.", he said as he smirked in my direction making me blush. "Huh, I sort of thought of New York the same way. Filthy, crowded, polluted, and full of rude people.", I said in his direction with a small smile, "Of course I don't live here, but that was my guess due to movies and what people say about this place. I've only been here once when I was little, and I don't even remember that." 

  "Where do you live?", he just asked me out of the blue. "U-Um....Kansas City.", I said feeling perplexed. "Well, that's a city. Can't be much different than this place.", he said looking intensely forward. Boy he was intense. "W-Well, I live more in the suburbs.", I said with a nervous laugh. "The suburbs....well that's surprising considering..", he said looking me up and down. "I'm on vacation. When I go on vacation, I like to dress up. My mom taught me that.", I laughed. "So you dress up to relax.", he stated. 'How rude.', I thought, 'Well he's a man, he probably doesn't understand. Some men dressed nice for the weekend but that was a rarity.' There was a long pause. He gripped my arm tighter, pulled me into an alleyway to face him,"This city is a dangerous one, and you probably are thinking that you're safe here with me, but you are not. The high-dollar man is controlling our every move. What we eat. What we drink. What we forge. What amount of money goes into our pocket. They control everything. They even control when we die. Our days are numbered. That's why I have allowed Elliot to take you on a date. You seem like a nice girl. Someone he could use to level his head, and blow off some steam. You may have taken some offence to what I said earlier, but it's true. Elliot HATES his job. I have tried to re-direct him to a higher purpose. A calling that is very risky. So risky that it could end not only his life, but yours. If you want to be serious with him, you'll have to risk it all. Are you up for that?", what he was saying didn't make any sense. He really scared me. 'What did you get yourself into, Tori?', I thought,'A serious relationship was what I was looking for, although I would have to deal with the fact that we lived miles and miles away. The long distance thing wasn't something that I could deal that well with. I had been there before, but this. This was a whole new level of resilience and patience that I would have to learn.' "You're scaring me.", was all I said as I shook.