Yes, it worked. Rue was now alert. Rue was awake. And what did that mean? It meant Rue was spiralling. He felt like his mind was a high speed train that was going full speed off of anxiety alone.
Technically he had had some time to prepare himself for this before they called in the nurse, and also before Mica called for the guys. But anxiety cared very little for that supposed truth during this moment. As he sat there in the van, trying his hardest not to meet anyones' gaze, he felt anything but prepared.
What was about to happen to him? And how was he supposed to deal with all of this? All the courage and sureness he'd felt when he decided to take action and meet up with this woman, was now but a ghost of a memory. He did not feel brave. He realistically knew he was not alone. Not physically at any rate, but that didn't matter. The person he wanted there by his side wasn't there, and without him, Rue felt completely and utterly alone. It had been his choice to distance himself. His choice not to let anyone know about the "incident". He still believed he was right to act the way he had acted, but he had not expected it to be this hard. He didn't realise it would affect him this much, that it would feel quite like this.
In spite if himself, he looked up from his lap and was startled by what he saw. Several eyes met his and a slight blush emerged across his cool cheeks. He did not realise they had been watching him. But they were smiling at him and they looked kind. He tried to figure out how best to respond. The sides of his lips quirked up for a shadow of a second before he pressed his lips together, desperately trying to keep himself from talking up a storm.
"You're awake." Jules said in a pleased tone.
"I told you that I knew what I was doing." Raven murmured, utterly unaware of the effect his voice would have on Rue.
He knew that voice. He knew it, but he wished that he did not. In his heart he found himself praying, very near chanting, that the voice was an illusion. Something his traumatised mind had cooked up. Because that would mean that the other man was not truly there. He wanted, no, he needed for him to be a mere illusion. A figment of his overactive, anxiety ridden imagination. Merely his nightmares taking solid form. But it was not. The man was real and he was standing there right in front of him.
"How are you feeling?" Lune asked, completely disregarding the fact that Raven had spoken at all. In fact, he paid so little heed to him being there, that for a moment Rue dared hope he truly was not.
"Are you in pain?" Bly wondered.
Remembering he had to respond, he wet his lips. They suddenly felt bone dry, as if he had not had a drop of water in days. What was he supposed to tell them? And would his voice carry his words, even if he did figure out what he ought to say?
Only one way to find out.
"Nn-no, I am well." frowning, he shook his head once, "Not well, but I am here and I shall find the strength to cope somehow." He looked around curiously and noticed an absent face. "Mica." He thought aloud without meaning to do so.
"I am very glad to hear that." Lune smiled.
"As are we all. But do be sure to tell us the moment that changes. Alright? If you begin to feel unwell, or become unable to cope in any way, we must know about it."
Rue nodded once.
"Good. Mica is sitting in the front part of the van as Marcus is driving," Jules went quiet as he listened carefully, "and it appears we have arrived. We are here."
"Are you sure?"
"Quite." Jules said just before Marcus pulled the doors open.
"You are awake!" Marcus burst out delightedly. "How are you? Are you in any pain? Any at all?"
"We have covered that already, Mac. He is okay. Are we?" Lune asked.
"What do you mean?" Marcus frowned.
"Has she actually showed up for the meeting?"
Mica frowned as he gently took hold of the wheelchair as Lune placed it in front of the van, just before the others. "What do you mean?"
"He means to express his concern that this might be a trap after all. A way to end things once and for all. Are we so certain that it is not?" Bly clarified.
"There is no way to know for sure, I suppose." Mica mused, "But the other party - the actress - is to remain seen as innocent until proven guilty. Trap or sincere effort to make up for her sins, we must still give this meeting a proper chance. Give her a proper chance. We did not come all this way for naught. If there is a chance the boy will have his peace, then whatever risk the situation holds, is a risk I am willing to take."
"As am I. Good or bad, I want to hear what she has to say. I need to. I realise I am being selfish, but I cannot think of another way to act presently." Rue declared.
"Stop. You are not selfish and we all know that. That much has been clear since we met. You do not have it in you to spread such nonsense. I am not—"
But what he was not, the others did not get to hear. The phone in Mica's hand went off, and whoever was on the other line was calling from the girl's phone. He showed Jules the number and he mouthed "Answer". And so he did.
"Hello? Who am I speaking to?" Mica asked in a tone that was far more confident than he was currently feeling.
"It's me. There's been a change of plans."
"How so?"
"I can't make it to the meeting place in time. I'm afraid I will have to be a little late. Someone has been watching me since we last spoke, and I am worried it might be them. We can't be too careful, any of us. We cannot let them find us."
"By them, do you mean Cole and Nass?"
"Yes, naturally! The police did not catch them. Were you not aware of that? Adam must have helped them escape. And if they are with Adam, then all the more reason to tread lightly. God help us all."
"Who is Adam?" Lune whispered.
Jules shrugged. "Ask him" he whispered to Mica.
"Who is Adam?"
"You really don't know anything, do you?"
"If you are trying to insult me, it is not working. What are you talking about?"
She made an unintelligible noise and groaned. "I'll tell you everything when I get there. But in short, Adam is the man who pretended to be that other lawyer at your firm. The one that you had previously fired. Adam is almost as sick as Cole, and certainly as diabolical. Nass is the most sane one out of the three, but he is likely too self-preserving to stand up to the other two. The police do not know about Adam."
"Where did they find him? He is not an actual lawyer, is he?"
"No, of course not. He is no more a lawyer than I am that young man's relative's friend. But while I am an actual actress, Adam is merely a very talented and well-practiced liar. You cannot trust a word he says. And if it is to avoid getting caught or to make sure his lies are believed, there is no action he would not take. He does not feel things like most people do. In fact, he can't. It's like that part of him is out of order. He will never understand why his actions are bad, nor will he ever change. He can't."
"Do you know where he is? Or better yet, does he know about our meeting?"
"I don't think so. The other two take a personal interest to all of this, but Adam could easily have found another 'job' by now. He is dangerous, but there is nothing in this world that he values more than money. He is therefore easily distracted and can easily be manipulated to follow the money. If Cole is no longer the one offering him the largest amount, or if he found their 'job' to be too much of a hassle, then he could definitely have jumped ships. He is only loyal to the highest bidder."
Mica sighed deeply. This was becoming more complicated by the second. "Let's say you're right, now what?"
"Now you wait for me to get there. Lay low. Don't let anyone see you there. Keep an eye out for Cole and Nass. If you do see them, don't be an idiot by trying to be brave. There is no use. Pride is useless when you are dead. If you see them, don't look back, just run. Got it?"
"I understand. We'll wait for you here."
Mica hung up the phone and met the others questioning eyes. "She told us to wait for her here. Let's go inside."
They parked behind some trees a short walk from the meeting place that they had now reached. They were standing on asphalt and behind them was a moderately well kept fence. It wasn't too tall or too sturdy, so it would be easy for kids to climb over it to get there. There were a few ragged and overfull containers there on the lot. All sorts of things were sticking up out of them. Anything from bookshelves to old cereal boxes. The content wasn't organised in any way, so most likely the containers were used as a dumping site or they were used by a less than honest corporation that got paid to take care of people's waste. Many corporations like that didn't actually take care of the waste, but simply took the money and then dumped the waste in a place like this. Without their customers knowledge, of course. Though many of their customers knew their fees were too low compared to the rest of the market, and realised what that likely meant. But looking for a more reliable firm would cost more, so they made the decision to look the other way, and not think too hard about where their waste ended up.
Behind the containers was a warehouse and it had definitely seen better days. The windows were just long rectangular holes. There was no glass. The walls looked to be made out cement, but it was filthy. It might have been white at some point, but now it was like a rainbow made out of shades of grey. Out of one of the windows hung a comically large sports sock that looked oddly clean compared to the building it hung out of.
They walked up to the entrance, which was a broken sliding door. Jules and Marcus more or less had to find a way to move it to the side as they struggled to lift it off the ground. The sliding mechanism didn't seem to have been working properly for some time, and it didn't help that the door was very solid and made out of some form of metal. The two could barely get it off the ground, so the others helped to move it all the way to the side.
"We are not putting it back when we leave." Bly announced. "It's not like it is going to make a difference whether it is there or not. If someone wanted to get in, there is no shortage of ways to get in."
No one disagreed, which made Bly smile, clearly pleased that he had gotten his way.
Lune smacked his arm to get his attention. He was about to complain when one look from Lune made him silent. He gestured toward the wheelchair where Rue was trying to look away and keep from blushing with discomfort of having to be moved about and tended to like this. He felt like such a bother. But no one else saw it that way. Bly and Lune helped lift the chair over the door post and into the surprisingly cold and dark building.
Suddenly something black sped across the floor and they all jumped.
"Please tell me that was not a black cat?" Rue asked.
"It wasn't." Mica grimaced, "It was a particularly well fed rat."
"I'd rather it had been a cat." Lune shuddered.
"I hope it was a solitary rat." Marcus said.
"Oh, I doubt that," Jules said in a neutral tone. "In a place like this? It must be rat paradise."
"Might be best to put our trouser legs in our socks. We don't want to make it easier for rats or flees or whatever else is here to nibble on our legs." Mica suggested and bent down to fix Rue's trousers before he fixed his own. The others did the same.
The walls inside were not as filthy as the outer walls, though they were filthy enough. And the floors seemed to be more covered in sand, dust, grovel and all sorts of waste. It was barely noticeable that they were in fact standing inside the building now. Thanks to the open window, the temperature was about the same as outside.
There were two low benches, one to each side. On the walls hung hooks attached to long wooden boards. It looked a little like a locker room. They must have walked through a separate entrance, perhaps one made for employees.
At the far left of the space was an open doorway. There were old hinges that half-hung to the frame, making it seem like there had been a door there once, but for whatever reason, it had been torn off. The inside looked quite murky, but they had no choice but to push on. It was better that they got to know the building as much as they could before she got there. Or before they did.
On the other side of the doorframe was the warehouse itself. It stank of rat urine and something similar to wet dog. As they moved further inside, it was clear why. The floor had some sizeable dark puddles from where the rain water had settled. There were even tadpoles in one of them. With no glass to protect the inside against the weather, the rain could just pour inside without anything to stop it or slow it down. Considering how many windows there were, and how tall they were, it was a miracle the building hadn't flooded. With only about a meter and a half of wall in between each window, the windows also covered most of the walls in height. They begun a foot from the floor and ended a foot beneath the ceiling.
The reason it was so dark and murky was because most of the windows had been covered by mountains of wet cardboard boxes. They likely had been dry at some point, but now they made up multiple sad looking sagging, leaning towers. A few wiggled a little from side to side when a wind blew through, but they didn't fall over.
The ceiling consisted in part of thick, metal beams. They was one after the other installed throughout the entirety of it. In the middle of the space there were three columns that divided the space in two. In between them, there were meter long crossed, black metal wires. Each had a square shape and all the joined parts had been welded together. The wiry exes continued for a few meters before they joined with the next brick column.
"Why did she want to meet here?" Marcus frowned. "Can we really trust her?"
"You can." A female voice said behind them. It sent shivers up their backs as it sounded ghostlike within a space with acoustics such as these.
They all turned around to face her. Rue's mind went blank as he could see just how much she looked like a younger version of his great aunt. It was eerie. He couldn't understand why she was still dressed like that, or more importantly, why she still wore her hair in that tight do.
"Oh," she self-consciously placed her hands upon the bun at the back of her head, "I don't usually look like this. I have had to rehearse for this role for months, all while wearing clothes like these," she stretched her arms wide, "and keep my hair in this kind of style. I can't seem to recall how I looked and what I used to wear before this. It's been so long since I have been allowed to choose what to wear and how to wear it. I guess it will take some time to adjust."
Rue frowned. "You mean to say that you knew what you were getting yourself into? You chose to play this role to deceive me?"
"No, I had no idea what this was until a few days before you met with Adam. Before that, I had been told I was to play a character at a reunion. It seemed harmless enough, and it had been a while since my last job. Performing at children's parties or acting as an illusionist's assistant pays even less than one might expect.
I don't have a place to live, and finding enough food to eat has been difficult. Strictly speaking, I was at my wits end. I was only too happy to accept the job. Especially since they paid up front. Since I trusted Adam, as we had gone out a few times and he let me stay with him occasionally, I thought this was going to be the best thing to happen to me in some time. The opportunity that would turn my life around. I was given clothes and instructions on how to behave, how to speak, what my body language should be like and things like that, but nothing else."
"How did you end up finding out what was really going on?" Mica asked.
"I saw them looking at photos that were..." she shut her eyes tight and frowned, "they were clearly not taken with your knowledge or consent. You were never facing the camera and there were hundreds of them. Then I overheard them talking about you. About what they planned to do to you. I ran to the elevator after that, and went to tell Adam, naive as I was. I didn't realise at the time that he was not only in on it, but that he was the one to suggest that they'd hire me. When I got to his office and saw that he wasn't there... I don't know what came over me, but I decided to snoop. I took care placing everything exactly where I found it, but when I pulled out a book and opened it, I realised it was no real book. None of them were. Each one had the bindings of real books such as encyclopaedias, dictionaries and works from famous novelists, but the content within each one was vastly different. The insides were more like photo albums, scrapbooks filled with photos and memories of his conquests, his victims. There were locks of hair taped to many of the pages. Then there were photographs and a few written notes about each one. He called them his "gifts". Gifts to himself from himself. He had written down what he had done to each of them, how he rated them, how they had reacted and," she breathed deeply, "how much blood they had had in them."
"Did they catch you?" Marcus asked.
She shook her head and a few strands came loose. "I wouldn't be here if they'd did. I couldn't just leave, so I decided to see it as the role of a life time and I pretended to be the naive actress. I needed them to believe I was clueless and a threat to no one. That way they wouldn't stop me from leaving."
She turned to Rue and stared deep into his eyes, hoping to convey the regret in her own.
"I am sorry. You have no idea how much I wanted to tell you it wasn't real, that day in the office. I hated what we were doing to you. As soon as you ran out they decided my services were no longer needed, and I was paid. I left and intended to stay on the move, keep travelling. But I couldn't get you out of my mind. I wanted to make sure you were okay. As I was the only one to discover the truth about them, I had to let you know. You deserve to know what I know."
"And that's why you're here?"
"That's why I am here. I am here to help."
"Oh, and you certainly have." A slithering voice bounced off the walls behind them.
No one dared to turn around to face the speaker. Judging by the shade of grey the woman's face had turned, this could only mean one thing.
They had been found.