Who: Isolde and Kayla What: A friendly first meeting Where: The US Attorney’s Office When: Tuesday, October 19th (backdated) Warnings: Kayla’s thoughts are really creepy.
It was a work day, a day like any other. Kayla rode the bus in the morning, got to the office by 8. She sat down at her desk and went over paperwork, planning her cases and ordering interns about when necessary. Then a brief lunch, inhaled over further paperwork, and afternoon meetings. After ensuring that her sandwich hadn’t smudged her lipstick too terribly, Kayla took the elevator up to the sixth floor, where she was to meet one of the senior attorneys to discuss an upcoming case she had been assigned. So far its details had been largely hidden from her, the entire thing kept fairly hush-hush. She was terribly excited to see what exactly it was, to the point where she bounced slightly on the balls of her feet as the elevator rose.
When the doors opened, she expected to see the petite secretary that usually greeted newcomers to the sixth floor. Instead, the front desk was empty, void of any life. Frowning slightly, Kayla moved forward carefully, raising a brow at the woman’s absence before heading down the hall. Just as she was about to reach the proper office, the door opened, ushering out two people. The first, Harold Warner, was expected - it was, after all, his office. But the small blonde beside him was not, in any way, someone she expected to see. She was unknown to Kayla, a nobody, but Harold seemed quite taken with her. He barely noticed her presence until they were just feet apart. He looked up, surprised. “Kayla?”
“Mr. Warner,” she said, hiding any irritation that surface as she realized he had forgotten about their meeting. “I hope I’m not too early.”
He hesitated, staring at her blankly. “Too early,” he repeated numbly before shaking his head. “No. No, of course not. I’m sorry, I lost track of time. I was just returning from a...late lunch with Isolde, here.” He smiled briefly, patting the young woman on the shoulder. “But she was just leaving.” He hesitated again, looking from the women to his office door. “Actually, Kayla, would you mind seeing her out? I have to get a few things, it won’t take a minute.”
Suppressing the urge to strangle the man then and there, Kayla nodded. “Of course not,” she said politely before looking to the woman apparently named Isolde. “Please. Follow me.” Isolde personally, had thought things were going well until the second hour of their ‘lunch’ had passed. Despite Warner’s charming nature, fine manners, wealthiness, position, handsomeness - really, all the details she’d been looking for - he fell apart. He’d placed a kiss to her neck and she knew, once again. This wasn’t going to work out. In fact, she needed to get out of there. Immediately. She mumbled an excuse about having to leave - he had a meeting or something and she needed to feed the cat she didn’t have - pushing him off of her.
Blouse and skirt straightened, she’d managed to convince him to only walk her downstairs. The only reason why she couldn’t walk out on Warner was his size and combination of wrapping an arm about her shoulders. She bit back a cough, moving onwards- planning on a bath and possibly a romantic comedy - until the new woman showed. Isolde sized her up for a moment before taking her arrival as a blessing. She smiled sweetly at Warner until he vanished back into his office.
Then Isolde heaved a sigh of relief and stepped forward to sling an arm through Kayla’s. “Don’t tell, but he’s a dreadful bore.” Accent evident, she offered a dazzling - or what most would term as dazzling - smile up at her. “You have my eternal thanks for saving me from him.” Acting as the chaperone for Mr. Warner’s little girl-toy was not one of Kayla’s ambitions in life. Though she remained perfectly pleasant on the outside, she was internally screaming. She was a lawyer, damnit, not an escort. She could have easily been an escort, but no, she went to college and law school and fought through the bar exam. And for what? The opportunity to babysit trophy girlfriends.
The fact that this girl had the audacity to touch her made Kayla want to vomit. How dare she? She was a lawyer, not her little friend. She wanted to rip this girl’s hair out, strand by strand, for daring to speak with her like an equal in this horrible situation. But she played along. She walked arm-in-arm with her, looking over at her with a smile. “Don’t worry,” she said. “Lawyers know confidentiality. I won’t tell a soul.” Because she’d blank out this horrible memory the second she had the chance. “I’m Kayla, by the way. So how long have you and Mr. Warner been...acquainted?” She laughed lightly. Isolde didn’t want to second guess other people - not right now. Not when she had no chance of bumping into this woman again. She didn’t plan on bumping into Warner again, nor into this blonde woman. As it was, she could be careless and was free. No edit button; Isolde could simply be honest. “I appreciate it.”
With a slight dip of the head as they passed the empty secretary’s desk, she responded, “Nice to meet you. I’m Isolde.” It didn’t even cross her mind that Warner had mentioned it a few moments ago. That was being blocked from her mind. Her nose wrinkled up and her eyes rose to the ceiling. “Not very long, but it was more than long enough. Three days?” “It’s my pleasure,” she said, keeping any bitterness she felt out of her voice. Oh no, she just lived to serve. Really. It’s what she existed for. The fact that she was being kept away from her case, her strange and magic case, was eating at her. But she could be patient. She just had to wait.
When the girl repeated her name, she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Warner had already said it. She knew. God, people were idiots. It made her wonder why she didn’t have a higher body count to her name. But now wasn’t the time to think of that. “Three whole days, huh?” she asked with a practiced smile as they entered the elevator. “Practically a lifetime.” Though the intent was full of bile, her voice was playful and teasing. As if they really were best girlfriends. “Don’t worry. If I have the chance, I’ll accidentally kick your phone number off his desk and into the garbage can. He never keeps numbers on his phone, always on slips of paper.”
As she pushed the “Ground Floor” button, Kayla absently wondered what this girl’s heart felt like. She could feel it just slightly, but she needed to dig deeper. As she started to root around, she realized something: this wasn’t right. It was as if she were almost dead, barely hanging on. Kayla was no doctor, but she knew that people didn’t feel this way. This was a dying girl’s heart, a weak little blip that couldn’t impress even a baby. Puzzled, Kayla pushed a bit harder, finding that even the blood in her veins was the same: weak and sluggish. What was it? This girl couldn’t be dying, she was so vibrant. There had to be something else. But what? Another laugh as they entered the elevator. A little friendly chatter was a relief after the usual stress of things. (Stress generally being whether she’d ever figure out her true purpose and path in things.) She pulled her arm from Kayla’s, offering an appreciative smile. “It feels like eternity with someone like him. I can’t imagine working with him.”
It might have been cruel to old Warner, but Isolde was over him. He was only boring right now, uninteresting. Her tongue merely wanted to extol on faults now, justifying her sudden apathy. Wasn’t that fine? “Only if the trash is taken out immediately afterwards. Otherwise it would do little good.” A high opinion of herself? Isolde would never. Distracted from her wonder of what was wrong with this girl, Kayla realized she had to actually keep talking to her. Painful as that was. “He’s not so bad,” she said with a shrug. “But I never had to have dinner with him.” She let out a small laugh, polite and social in nature. It was enough to suggest she agreed with the mocking of Warner, but not enough to be terribly obvious were someone to witness this. She had to cover her ass, by the way.
“Our cleaning staff is very diligent,” she said with a nod. “You’ll be in the dumpster and out of his life soon enough.” And forever, she hoped. However, there was just something not right about her. What was wrong with her heart? As the elevator passed the fifth floor, Kayla absently looked down at her own left hand as it rested comfortably at her side. She reached into her own hand, closing in on the water in the tissues rather than the nerves in the muscles. This was a little game she often played when bored, practice for later. She dug her mind into that water, forcing each finger of her hand to contract.
But something was wrong. This didn’t work the way it was supposed to.
She was able to move the fingers, but it hurt her mind much more than it should have. After all, this was a simple task that she had repeated so many times before: why was it so hard now? Looking over at the other woman, she tried to find answers. “As long as you don’t live around here, of course. If you’re close, he might be able to tail you.” Isolde paid little attention to Kayla beyond what she said. Reaching into her purse, she pulled out a small compact mirror and a bit of lipstick. They seemed to have enough time for a reapplication - which she needed after Warner. With a murmur of “Don’t mind this-” she lined her lips pink again, smacking them before giving an answer. “I can only hope.”
She blinked once before shaking her head. “Aubade isn’t too close to here fortunately.” She blinked and looked up, snapping shut the compact and dumping it into her purse. “And security is good enough there that he couldn’t. I’ll drop a note about masks or something - they all seem riled about that.” The application of lipstick didn’t bother Kayla in the least. She didn’t care. She wanted to know what was wrong with this girl, that’s all that mattered. If she didn’t get answers soon, she’d strangle the delicate creature right then and there, leaving her body a broken mess on the floor of the elevator. And wouldn’t that be such a terrible mess for maintenance to clean up?
However, she was stalled in her murderous rage by just one word: “Aubade.” Kayla kept her reaction internal, but it was a reaction all the same. She was a Creation. That made sense. It would explain why she felt like sludge in her presence - she was holding her back somehow. Kayla didn’t like this. Not at all. Something had to be done. “Wait, you live in the Aubade?” she asked, allowing surprise to show on her face. “I live in the Bathos.” She smiled brilliantly as if she had just discovered her long lost best friend. “It’s not every day you meet another Creation out and about, huh?” She’d glanced down at her nails, inspecting them for a moment before Kayla’s tone turned to recognition. Her head came up, hand falling to her hip as a faint smile crossed her face. Honestly, Isolde could care less about where people came from. She’d yet to befriend many people on the forums - people were still people no matter whether they were Creations or humans. “Oh really?” She gave the barest shrug. “No, I suppose not. How long have you been here?” Traditional questions. It was obvious that this other woman wasn’t interested in prolonged conversation, but Kayla was determined to change her mind. Having her fingers in another Creation, such a forgettable and ornate one at that, could only work to her benefit. “About ten years,” she said, not particularly interested in giving away much. “I came here to go to school. Start up, all that. What about you? Been here long?” The elevator doors opened at last and Isolde stepped out, looking back over her shoulder to Kayla. “A couple months, if that,” she said carelessly. “No good reason other then being bored.” She shrugged, giving a known look amongst women of Musings - she was older then she looked. Though Kayla was a Musings baby - barely legal when she came to Humanity - she had met her fair share of old souls hiding behind young masks. It was something she was unnerved by about Humanity, the fact that everyone looked as old as they were. It was so creepy, the idea that you’d wear such an important thing on your face. So it came as little surprise to her when the bubbleheaded Isolde gave her that known look. In fact, it pleased her.
“Well this place isn’t much better,” she said jokingly. Stepping out of the elevator with the other woman, she guided her through the lobby and towards the exit. “But if you ever need to alleviate some of that boredom...” Reaching back into her pocket, she pulled out her wallet, extending one of her own business cards. Her cell phone number was listed, along with her name and position - boring things. “I’m always up for something fun. And I’m great at stealing phone numbers from overbearing ex boyfriends.” Isolde took the business card after a moment’s debate, scanning over the name and numbers for a moment. Why not? She gave the blonde woman a practiced smile. “From what I’ve seen so far, little is different-” Beyond suddenly finding new wrinkles each morning. Perhaps that was paranoid though. She gave a small shrug before slipping the card into her purse.
“It was nice speaking with you,” she said, raising a hand for a small wave. She was out the revolving doors a moment later, whistling for a taxi to get back home. Oh, there was a lot different about Humanity. Kayla’s smile was perfectly innocent and sweet, but her eyes held just the slightest hint of a predator’s stare as she watched the woman slip the card into her purse. She’d been trying to find a way to get the Kappa known, and what better way than to kill a Creation? Killing masks was one thing - they were asking for it. The Mask Killer lacked vision for that. If you wanted to cause a stir, you targeted an ordinary citizen that had never done a thing wrong and make them pay for sins they’d never committed.
“You too!” she said, returning the wave. “Have a great afternoon!” And with that, Isolde was gone. Stuffing her hand in her pocket, Kayla turned on her heel and walked quickly back to the elevator. Though she was now much less thrilled about meeting with Warner than she had been before, she at least had something else to look forward to. Things were looking up.