He's gone, isn't he? BOOK 1 - Espressleine - EspressoxMadeleine

Beds With Blood

"Click.. Click.. Click.."
The annoying sound played on loop in Espresso's head, as he slowly opened his eyes to find a bright light in his face. He couldn't tell if it was the ceiling or just Madeleine. His thoughts were in a blur, was he dreaming or was this happening? He sat up and rubbed his eyes, just now being aware of his surroundings. "What.. the hell?" Espresso said to himself, looking around the place. There was a bunch of other people, and the first thing he noticed is that everyone was wearing the same thing. He looked down, as he had a number on his vest. "47" is the print that was on his jacket and shirt. He scouted his eyes around the place, as some of the people were talking in groups. Espresso didn't recognize most of the strangers in the room, mostly because he separated himself from the crowd due to attaching himself to work. But it wasn't just that, he could tell when someone was not from the Kingdom. When he ventured with Madeleine they would always bump into familiar faces but some people here just weren't recognizable at all. But the question on who everyone was wasn't the question on top of his mind. The real questions were, where is he and where did Madeleine go? The memories of Espresso passing out in the car were coming back, yet since he passed out before Madeleine he couldn't recall if he passed out or anything afterwards.

"Mr. Espresso?" A Familiar voice said, as the sounds of small footsteps neared closer to Espresso. It was Latte, she recognized him right away at first glance. Since Espresso was her superior, with him being the Headmaster of the school she worked for. She did not expect to see him here, yet again she was unaware how she even got there herself. She remembered she was sleeping, and then the noise of a window breaking followed up along with her being grabbed. "Huh?.. Oh, it's you." Espresso said, with "that" tone of voice. He wasn't trying to come off as rude, he just could care less about other people right now. He practically got abducted, although even said and done he figured it would be best to dig information out of others. "Ah, apologies.. I don't really care about polite introductions. I mostly focus on work and success only, but this situation sets all of that nonsense aside. Do you mind answering a simple question?" Espresso sighed with annoyance, asking the simple question.

Latte didn't really take the impoliteness to heart. She had chatted with Espresso before and got a taste of the bitter personality. She didn't hate him for it, it just was kind of who he was. "I wish I could inform you, I don't even know how I got here. All I remember was my estate was intruded and I passed out, so I couldn't grasp on what happened. What about you though, surely you also couldn't have been abducted without knowing!" Latte explained, trying to make sense of all the events taking place inside of her head.

"It was less dramatic then your story, honestly you should up your home security if people could break in without a sound." Espresso complained, becoming a slight bit worried for Latte. Although he knew he shouldn't have to be worried whatsoever, he couldn't change the past. "I was with Madeleine, we found this weird card with symbols on it and I called it. We were told to meet in front of the castle, the next thing I know is we both fell victim to sleeping gas." Espresso explained, his head beginning to ache as he tried his best to recall everything. He looked up at Latte, as she was giving him "the look."

"With Madeleine huh? When did you two start dati-" Latte said teasingly, getting cut off by his words right before she could finish. "No no, its nothing of the sort! I don't.. I couldn't even-.. He's way out of my league alright?" Espresso said, with a somewhat fierce tone in his voice. He didn't even have a solid excuse, only because now in this scenario isn't even the best time to be talking about silly relationships with anyone. "Speaking of which, have you seen Madeleine? We both passed out, and now i'm somewhat wondering where he could of went." Espresso added, looking around the room with his eyes once more.

"Actually now that you mention it, I did speak to him a few hours ago. We have all been here for countless of hours, probably 5 or 6 now. That weird screen thing just says Intermission so we can't indicate how long we're waiting to figure out whats going on. He was asking about you, and I couldn't say where you were because I didn't know." Latte said, adjusting her hair again. She looked around to see if she could attempt to spot him from the crowd, which she eventually did.

"Theres so many people here, its hard to even tell who is who." Latte complained, walking off to go talk to Madeleine. The distant noises of chatter continued to fill up the room, as for some people here weren't even questioning how or why they were here. "Mr. Madeleine, I believe your boyfriend is looking for you." Latte teased again, crossing her arms and pointing off to wherever Espresso was laying. Madeleine looked off into the distance, eventually spotting him. He didn't even say thank you to Latte, he just walked past her.

"Oh thank the Divine you're alright, I was worried something else happened to you but. Turns out we all ended up here." Madeleine said, giving Espresso a small hug. He would of extended it, but knowing Espresso would probably push him off anyways. Yet for some reason, this time he didn't even complain afterwards. Perhaps he was one of the only people to not see Espresso as cold hearted.

"Im glad you're safe as well, even if everyone here slightly gets on my nerves I would most likely not wish death upon them. Nor you, you're strangely an important aspect of my daily life." Espresso said, trying somewhat to compliment him. Madeleine sat down on the little bed Espresso was laying up in. "Do you also wonder what they're going to do with us? I tried talking to some others but they just aren't questioning it. Im starting to believe they know something we dont." Madeleine said, looking at Espresso with a hint of confusion.

"I doubt it, everyone here is confused to some point. Just some others are handling it more lightly, and dusting it to the side of their shoulder. Which is quite idiotic in my book, but whatever you live by I guess. As long as you're aware that something is most likely going to happen to us then its all that matters." Espresso replied, shrugging as he couldn't give much more of a detailed response. The confusion and questions made his head hurt, but he couldn't ask anyone around him yet since no-one else had the answers he wanted.