PROJECT HECATE has only just begun. The runaways are running the night.
❝IF YOU EVER WANT TO JOIN ME, BABY, I'LL BE DANCING IN THE DARK.❞
❝cause we were just kids when we fell in love, not knowing what it was. I will not give you up this time. but...
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❝First comes the blessing of all that you dream, then come the curses of diamonds and rings. Lonely at first didn't have it's appeal, but now you can't tell the false from the real. Who can you trust?❞
Gold, by Imagine Dragons
◀⚜▶
IT WASN'T LIKE ELIZA LAUFEY TO BE HOME SO EARLY, but with her daughter having plans the whole day, and the Pride meeting that evening, it may be her only chance.
Her silver Audi drove up to her now empty home. She glanced around to see if anyone was watching, and, with lightning speed, she unlocked the front door the moment she saw it, making sure it was locked behind her.
The woman let out a sigh as she placed her handbag on her desk.
The study resembled her office in the museum, as if she couldn't keep away from work. Still, her reasons for being there was far more important than her career. It was for the greater good, she reminded herself constantly. Especially considering it involved her daughter.
There were bookshelves covering the wall behind the desk in the study. Eliza casually walked up to the bookshelves, and pulled on three hardbound books that didn't seem to stand out from the other's physically. Specifically: Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations", Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. With each book pulled, there was a small click sound, like a switch when she did.
The moment the last book was pulled, the bookshelves then began to shudder, moving to the side. Eliza didn't seem at all fazed by it. If anything, she would have been disappointed if it didn't. The shelves parted, revealing a staircase that led to the basement.
A secret passageway. But what did Eliza have to hide that was so important?
Florescent lights lit up the passageway as Eliza stepped down. When she reached the last step, the bookshelves on the top closed, and the rest of the lights illuminated the entire room.
The entire set up resembled a library. Four long, mahogany tables with different sorts of papers like papers as well as leather bound books ontop were placed neatly around the room. Bookshelves, and a few gray file cabinets lined the walls. It even had the smell of old ink and parchment that Eliza was so fond of.
"Having second thoughts?"
The voice cutting through the silence startled Eliza, and caused her to raise her guard. Immediately, her left hand reached out, palm opened, and, somehow, the wooden staff that had been sitting on the nearest wooden table, flew into her hand. Acting out of instinct, the turned, with the other end of the staff pointing directly at none other than Victor Stein.
