Thanatophobia | VICTOR ZSASZ [DISCONTINUED]

thirty five | new day rising

While he slowly walked over to her, he watched as she checked her phone every couple of seconds before she went back to eyeing the people that filled the room.

Due to the fact that Annabelle would normally either be angry or amused by the pain of others, it was odd for him to see her so freaked out.

So, once he reached her, he asked her, "What's going on with you?"

She quickly looked up at him as she replied, "What are you talking about? Everything's fine."

He sighed as he said to her, "Annabelle, you look as if you're ready to rip out the throat of the first person that bothers you." After looking her over, he said, "Plus, you're not acting like yourself. I've never seen you act like this before, so whatever is causing you to be like this has to be serious, so I'll ask you once more what the problem is."

She silently eyed him before she sighed and said to him, "Fine, but you have to promise me you won't tell anyone. You can't tell Oswald. You can't tell Butch. And most importantly, you cannot tell Victor. Do you understand me?"

He nodded his head, which got her to sigh once more before she told him, "For some reason, late last night, I appeared to have blacked out." When he opened his mouth to ask her what she meant by that, she narrowed her eyes at him as she said, "Let me finish, Edward."

When he nodded his head and waved his hand for her to continue, she said, "I went to the alleyway after Oswald sent me off because of my choice of pissing off Butch when I chose to grab every politician I could think of and bring them to him. That was mostly for my own amusement, honestly, but that's not the problem. The problem is that I was in one of my alleyways, ripping out the throat of one of my victims. Everything seemed normal. Next thing I know. I wake up to find myself crushing Victor's throat and I don't even know how I got there or where I even was. All I know is that I almost killed him and I don't know what caused me to be like that."

He asked her, "Do you think it could be you, uh, blacking out?"

She shook her head as she told him, "No, of course not. I only blacked out once in my life and that was nine-hundred and ninety-nine years ago. When I did black out that one time, I ripped out the throats of three people that were very important to me."

He narrowed his eyes at her as he asked her, "Who were the three people you killed?"

She yelled, "It doesn't matter who they were! The only thing that matters is that I don't recall ever walking out of that alleyway."

He sighed before he shoved his hands into his pockets and asked her, "Okay, but what makes you think you didn't black out?"

She told him, "Because during that one time I blacked out, I ripped out their throats and woke up to find myself covered in their blood. From what I gathered from that event, I would seem to rip out someone's throat if I black out, not try and crush their throat with my bare hands."

He started to ask her, "Are you sure you didn't just black—?"

While her veins came onto display, she said, "Yes, I'm sure."

Edward eyed her and silently watched as her veins slowly disappeared before he asked her, "Okay, well, how do you plan on figuring out the cause of it?"

She sighed as she said to him, "I don't know. I'm having some old allies of mine try and figure it out, but none have gotten back to me yet."

Edward silently stood there and watched as she stared down at the floor, only to raise an eyebrow at her when she quickly looked up at him with wide eyes, while she said, "But you can help me."

He chuckled as he asked her, "I'm sorry, what? How could I possibly help you when I don't even know what's wrong with you?"

She groaned as she said to him, "Oh, come on, Edward. I know you have a thing for solving mysteries, puzzles and what have you. You would probably enjoy helping me figure this one out." When he didn't respond, she told him, "I could owe you another favor, if you'd like."