Winter our discontent (RP)

Emma emerged from the bedroom in a loosely tied silk robe. Hair slightly tangled, and her cheeks flushed, she looked fresh and at ease, like she's just woken up from a long nap. There was something deeply satisfying about seeing David asleep and resting properly. Her husband was too exhausted to perform like he usually did, but that was fine. She didn’t need anything from him tonight. Sex was the oil in the cogs of the relationship. This was maintenance. Preventive care. The kind of thing she did to keep her marriage running smoothly.

Pleased with a job well done, she crossed into the kitchen to find Sarah standing exactly where she left her, as if she had been frozen in place this whole time. The dinner sat untouched. Sarah didn’t think about starting to eat without them, no matter how long it took.

With a light shrug, she picked up her mug and sipped the cold tea, watching Sarah over the rim of the glass. "Do you want to eat something?" she finally said, posing it more like a suggestion than a question. She took another sip from her tea as she considered things. There was a good stretch of the evening left, and with David out cold, there was no reason to stay copped up. She could run a few errands, do something useful.

Her thumb moved across the screen of her phone.

She had been meaning to talk with Benji about something yesterday, but it was private, and there were too many people around. Maybe now would be better. She tapped his name and let the call ring out, but no one picked up. Maybe he was in Piccadilly again? She remembered him mentioning playing there, and inviting her to listen to him perform. She HAD been wanting to hear him play his violin anyway. She might as well try her luck and hope he was there...

******************

Emma could hear the notes of the violin before she ever stepped off the escalator. The station was bustling, even at this hour in the evening. It was the last working day before the weekend, and the crowd of commuters was now mixed with not only people coming back from work, but with those heading out for dinner, drinks, or other late-night plans.

She smiled to herself as she made her way through the traffic toward him. She was confident that no matter how skilled he was, having a striking woman standing nearby might help loosen a few wallets. But as she arrived and stood by his side, she forgot, for a moment (and a change) all about herself, and instead just stood there, captivated by his music.

"I did try calling" she said with a small smile "but you didn’t pick up, so I figured I’d just track you down instead. You mentioned you play here, so..." She let the sentence trail off "You play beautifully, you know. Honestly, you're wasted in a place like this. You should be performing at the Royal Albert Hall."

It was a very Emma thing to say. Only after the words left her mouth did she consider that Benji might not be chasing fame or fortune. Maybe this was exactly where he wanted to be, sharing his music with anyone who happened to pass by, not just those who could afford a hundred pound ticket.

"It's nothing urgent. Play a few more. I don’t mind waiting. I’d like to hear them."

The casualness in her voice didn’t quite match the way she stood, or how she’d gone out of her way to find him. Still, she didn’t want to disrupt his routine, at least she didn't feel comfortable doing it just yet.

Persephone looks surprised and a bit horrified by Viviana's question. "Selling something? Oh my god no. Is that what you... Is that what you think I was doing? Oh my god, I'm worse at this than I thought..."

Persephone regains her composure and says, somewhat sheepishly, "Look, I was in line, I saw you looking at me, and I thought, you know... maybe you were interested? You're cute, and look smart, so I thought, hey, maybe I'll try talking to her. Maybe ask her to get coffee some time? Maybe that would lead to, I dunno, a date or something? I'm sorry if I... you know, got the wrong idea."

Emma waited for the last of the crowd to drift past before stepping in closer, just enough that her voice wouldn’t carry.

"I tried calling Teddy last night. Some man answered. I didn’t recognize him. He said Teddy wasn’t well, that he couldn’t come to the phone." She watched Benji’s face carefully, gauging whether this was news to him. "Then a woman got on. Lucy. She said he was ‘in recovery,’ but wouldn’t let me speak to him. Like, at all." She pressed her lips tightly with annoyance "I don’t know. It felt… off. Like they were keeping him from me. I think he’s been taken. Maybe because he’s the only one with any real leads on where Elliot fell off the grid. Or maybe because someone is making a power play"

Her eyes wandered around the station again. There was still too much traffic for her taste, so she stepped a bit closer to Benji, close enough that he could feel the scent of her perfume.

"But that’s not the only reason I came tonight" She could have called him about Teddy. Or texted him. But there was something she had to ask him in person. Her fingers already moved inside the pocket of her raincoat, retrieving the tiny sewing needle she brought with her. "When we helped Chablis the other night… she was all over me. She couldn’t get enough of my blood. It was like she was hooked from the first drop." Emma’s tone stayed light, but she was somewhat worried about it. Or was it excitement? "I’d like to think Elliot kept me around for my charming personality. But what if it was for something else too?"

Without another word, she pricked the tip of her finger, just enough to draw a bead of red. She rubbed it across the needle, and took another quick look around to make sure no one was watching before handing it over to Benji "Tell me what you think. Was it just her, or is there something in me?"

Emma blinked at Benji's reaction. She glanced at the bloody needle in her hand like it was no more alarming than lipstick. It's not like she was waving a machete around. People mind their own business, and even if someone did notice, its not like their first thought would be that 'vampires are real'.

She slipped the needle back into her purse out of respect for her friend, and followed along behind him as he packed up, letting him take her hand and guide her across the ticket hall.

"You really are no fun sometimes" she pouted as he made her promise not to put any of it in her novel. A real shame, because she was sure it was going to be fantastic! "Fine. I promise" she said, when he looked at her, 'dead' serious. It didn't look like he was going to change his mind about it, so there was no point arguing with him.

She hesitated when the stairways beyond the door turned out to be steep, and dark. She hoped she didn't get Benji all wrong, and that he wasn't leading her to some secret murder-torture dungeon. She definitely didn't want to go first, but when he insisted, she pulled out her phone and turned on her flashlight, stepped through the threshold, and started to make her way down, one hand trailing along the wall "good thing I didn't wear heels tonight..." she tried to jest, more to alleviate her sudden nervousness than anything else.

Emma kept the light from her phone aimed at her feet, careful not to trip on the uneven steps. She froze when a rat darted past, holding her breath until it disappeared into the shadows, then quietly resumed following Benji.
"Is this really necessary?" she murmured "All I wanted was to give you a little taste of me."

She didn't protest more than that. This was quite interesting, actually. She already promised not to write about this, but part of her still itched at the idea of keeping all of it a secret. To think there was an entire world unknown to everyone. She wondered how far the tunnels stretched, and who, or what, might dwell down here.

"Do any of the Morlocks come through here?" she asked as he led her deeper inside "The ones Elliot mentioned... the vampires so ancient they lost all sense of humanity?" She glanced at Benji's back. Maybe one day he would end up down here permanently too, lurking in the shadows, slipping out through his little secret door only to drag some unsuspecting commuter in for a quiet bite...

Persephone laughs and says, "See? I like that. You're smart. Let me guess... programmer? IT? Hmm..." Persephone glances down at Viviana's outfit, noticing that her clothes are plain, but expensive, so she says, "Oh, but these are luxury brands. Are you a finance quant? I should confess, I was a project manager for a software company in Silicon Valley, and I worked with a lot of venture capitalist. The programmers and finance gurus always were my type." She smiles and shrugs. "And hey, 'get coffee some time' is just a nice way of saying 'go on a casual date.' So, what do you say?"

Emma rarely felt fear. She liked to think of herself as someone who could handle most situations, even the strange or surreal ones. But there was something unnerving about walking through a maze of underground tunnels in pitch darkness, with the occasional rat brushing past her ankle, and air thick with the scent of rust and mold.

What if the battery of her phone died and she were left without any light?
What if Benji disappeared? Ran ahead or just… vanished, and she was left alone down here? No reception, no clue how to retrace her steps. She’d tried to keep track of how many turns they’d taken, but after the third or fourth, she lost count.

When they finally reached the room and Benji flipped on the light, Emma took a long look around and didn’t say anything right away. Not because there was nothing to say. On another day, she would be cataloging every detail, writing half a character study in her head by now. But instead, she just stood there, arms crossed, her expression a little too still.

"You really shouldn’t bring people down here" she said firmly "You might be used to it, but this place is spooky as hell. Any other woman would have died from fright by now." She actually would have preferred somewhere more public. Or at least somewhere within screaming distance of other humans....

She walked toward the desk, running a finger across the wood and inspecting the thin trail it left in the dust. Then, with a soft sigh, she perched herself on top of it, folding one leg neatly over the other. There wasn’t exactly a comfortable chair to choose from..

"You’re sure you’re not going to lose your shit if you taste a bit of my blood, right?" she was a bit unsure about all of this. She remembered how much Chablis hungered for HER blood, specifically [ref] [ref]. What if Benji had the same reaction to it? Then she could die here, and no one would ever find her body...

"You better not make me regret this" she said, as she pulled out the needle again

"In front of your audience" she repeated after him "You know what? I'd think I'd rather not find out" she slipped the cap over the needle "Not tonight" It was probably a bad idea anyways. The idea of being trapped underground with a ravenous vampire unsettled her more than she liked to admit.

She hopped back off the table, and brushed the dust from her behinds. Benji took the trouble of bringing her here, but she was eager to go back into the world of the living. But as long as they were already down here:

"Anyway, I actually wanted to ask you something. Alastair Sinclair. Ever heard the name?" she asked. "He’s supposedly a member of a gentlemen’s club, and according to Pers, there might be a whole decadent infernal cabal thing in their midst. Anyways; they’ve invited me to a weekend retreat. Tomorrow, actually"