Abandon The Night

Chapter Nine: Elise

There is a moment. Always a moment. Just like an unless or an until or the underground. People come and people go, countries do as well. But that moment, whatever moment it may be, might be, could be, stayed. A spark –> a wildfire. A death of a child –> revolution. The burning of a bridge. Dumping of tea. A stomping of a flag. A knee on the ground or a team standing tall. Neither here nor there or anywhere, right?

There is a moment. A moment. Whatever moment in time or in space or in history–there is a moment where shit hit the fan.

This was that moment.

Oh, Anca was sure there were many more to come. So many more moments to come. As she stood there staring at the scene she just watched, the one she was powerless to counter–in any way at all–Anca was speechless. What was going on?!

Armeq mentioned green hazes taking people. Was this something new? Something else? What was going on?!

Anca stared at Elise. 

Elise stared right back. 

It wasn't often one watched a creature one had no idea of what kind change into something else. Into, as it were, something that one recognized. Elise stared at Anca, her eyes were frozen, and her face was slacked.

The silent night stretched out all around them. The hover-bus had to have been driven by Elise, Anca didn't even know Elise could drive a bus let alone drive at all.

Shaking her head, Elise got up into a sitting position and gaped at her boss. If Tynfyr was here, he'd probably be sharing a shocked look with her, but he wasn't. Anca narrowed her eyes. Because he was gone. Like the others. Gone in the banks of a green haze.

Her eyes narrowed more.

"You will tell me what is going on and tell me now," she said.

The moment lasted for a little longer. Silence stretched before them as they stared at one another. Anca could see the words and the questions spinning in her employee's mind. Anca was staring, her thoughts focused on a sole question. Anca thought it was a fair demand. Even though she had been following in secret the very person she was now demanding. It was still a fair demand.

Elise, on the other hand, had too many questions going on in her brain. Anca saw the wheel a-turning. Turning fast. Much like her own rampant fired questions when Elise got back from Lanng.

Elise, on the other hand, was not frozen in place with a demand. She was shaking with questions. Her body was quaking from shock and the first thing out of her mouth, "Where did you come from?" wasn't what she really wanted to ask. Anca could see it in her face, the fall of determination as it were.

Anca would have closed her eyes but she was still in a state of damnable demands. She wanted them acquiesced. And acquiesced now.

"Well?" Elise prompted in which Anca did close her eyes, and she hissed. Not a human one either. Teeth elongated without much effort on her part, and her contact lenses dissolved into tears. The brown hair-dye dissipated and all that was seen was red. Red hair and red eyes: The true appearance of Anca Sala de Partes Transsylvana. She hadn't been that way in a long time.

Red hair was gone

She opened her eyes. Elise was staring more at her hair than her teeth. Anca pulled a strand in front of her face and swore. "Fuck, sixty thousand nars down the drain."

"You are a red head." Anca nodded, keeping an eye on her. "You have red hair." She said. "How do you have red hair?"

Anca smirked. "Answer my question and I'll answer yours." It was a teasing remark by her tone of voice, but Elise stiffened.