Kill Me, Kiss Me

TEN

    THE call came much earlier than he expected.

    Theo's limbs seized, and he set down the papers, glancing at Alexandr's door. It was shut tight. And yet, he couldn't seem to erase the chill of his voice and the smell of his cologne from the fibres of his shirt. He had gone to the washroom, he had wiped his skin with a dampened towel, but it was that man's wretched scent that he couldn't scour off, nothing else.

    It plagued everywhere he went, that musk like an invisible ever-present touch, and he couldn't get away.

    Opening the narrow door of the storage cupboard besides Mariah's desk, he folded himself into the darkness behind the document shelves. Why? He couldn't tell anymore, it was just, sitting outside there... Even the splash of blue light piercing the restricting darkness eased his stomach better than the sight of That door.

    "Hello?"

    "Theodore!" Magda's words floated through the stuffy air, each word coated in syrup, "I made a reservation at Grana LA for half-past six tonight, what do you think about that?"

    He buried his head into his arm and pushed the hard edge of his nose into the stiff fabric, "Tonight? I am n—

    "Only one dinner, Theo." Her voice softened into a velvet lilt, "It's to thank you, and I assure you, you will enjoy it after a day of work there."

    Letting out a stagnant breath, he pushed his back into the wall and stared up at the fragment of ceiling fading in and out of recognition, "Ok." He muttered, "Ok, just one dinner, send me the address."

    A clear, tinkling laugh flooded his ear until nearly all the remnants of Alexandr's chill were drowned out into a wave of heaviness that washed over his chest, "Aww, don't sound like that Theo," She paused with a light puff of air, "I'll tell you all you want in return, anything you ask. That's not a bad deal is it? I know there's a lot you want to understand hmm? "

    "Anything at all?" He tried to hold back the words, but they flowed from his mouth without any restraint.

    "Anything at all."

    He pressed his lips into a thin line, "I'll see you at half-past six."

    Ending the call before she could say anything else in that laze filled voice of hers, he took a deep, shuddering breath and massaged the ache pounding behind his eyes. This was a chance, and chances were hard to come by, he knew, but he was getting tired, very very tired. He was burning from the inside, slowly but surely, seeing Alexandr, thinking about him, everything, it seemed to be even more draining than before.

    The clues, the fear, the ominous foreboding that loomed over his head seemed at the same time, a million miles away from him and everything to do with this life. He wasn't caught yet, there wasn't a whirlpool threatening to drown him, and yet why did it feel as if everything was on the line? This world wasn't even his to begin with.

    Theo smoothed the loosening strands of his hair back into place and stepped out into the light outside, blinding despite the seeping gloom of approaching night cascading through the space. A sharp stab of discomfort cut through his chest; he looked up slowly.

His heart slid up into his throat, and a sudden cold froze the tips of his fingers.

Alexandr stood in the doorway of his office staring at him, eyes unblinking, unmoving, pupils still. Very still.

He wore no expression on his face, those lips hinted at no joy or displeasure, those brows lay neutral, unbending, but that gaze. That gaze bore into him. And it held no emotion. It was just black, so silent, relentless, the overwhelming night. It allowed no room for thought, no room for will, the only thing it allowed him to do was slip his fingers from the sharply burning door handle.