Kill Me, Kiss Me

NINE

"SHIT." He spat out.

All vision of the girl's almost frightening gaze wiped from his mind, he crouched down and fumbled for her figure in the dark.

"Are you ok?"

She made no answer, but her rushed breath told Theo all he had to know. The rhythm, the gasping chokes, they were just the same as Lily's when she had her panic attacks.

"Miss, how can I help you? Do you have any medicine to help you?"

She took a long shuddering wheeze, and a clawing grip seized the fabric of his suit sleeve. Now that his eyes had adjusted to the dim light, he could see the girl shake her head, chest heaving.

"I'm right here, I won't leave." He reassured, patting her sweat covered hand, "You're safe. Concentrate on your breathing, I'll count to ten, is that ok?"

Her grip tightened, and she continued shaking her head, eyes shining faintly with tears or sweat, he couldn't tell.

"—Lullaby." She gasped through her quickening breaths.

"You'd like a lullaby?" A sudden blankness came over him, "Uh, lullaby, lullaby... Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are..."

The song came out tuneless and bland, the words slipping in and out of his mind, but the girl's breaths started to calm and gently slow, her grip still remained as tight as ever, but the rise and fall of her chest steadied.

Bling.

Light flooded back into the elevator from overhead. Theo squinted his eyes against the blinding waves, and when he regained his sight, the girl was already composed again with her hair perfectly arranged over her shoulders and her eyes still like glassy waters. She slowly loosened her grip from his jacket and smoothed down her rumpled dress.

"Thank you very much." She smiled, the remnants of her previous joy warming her eyes, and now, even those dark orbs looked nothing like the frigidity of Alexandr's.

"You're welcome, here," He extended a hand and helped the girl to her feet again, "I'll call emergency."

She gave a nod and examined the rest of the elevator coolly, a momentary look of ice cold calculation descended over her red lips, and it was almost as if she knew exactly why the elevator had stopped working. He blinked; the girl regained her smile again, but he hadn't seen wrong, he knew it.

"Hello, the elevator's stuck. Which floor? Somewhere around 5 and 6, yes, yes, thank you." He set the emergency phone back on its receiver and turned towards her, "They said they'd take another five to ten minutes."

Her smile bloomed even more splendidly, all signs of her previous apathy and even fear completely gone, as if they'd never and couldn't have existed on someone as perfect as her.

"Five minutes? Why, that gives us just enough time to get to know each other!" She stuck out her slender hand, "I'm Magda Hew, nice to meet you."

Magda Hew? She was... Alexandr's sister? Where had he heard something about this sister? Something throbbed at the back of his mind, but somehow, he couldn't recall just what at this moment.

"Sir, hello?" She waved her hand.

"Ah, my apologies." Theo shook her hand firmly, the coldness of her smooth skin thrumming through his flesh like a current, "I'm Theodore Harrow, it's nice to meet you too."

"Theodore Harrow." She ran her tongue over each syllable with an unexplainable attachment, "Could you give me your number?"

"My number?" He asked, incredulous.