Project X

by Watkins, TM

  “Pants it is then.” He murmured, rather amused.

  “I’d rather go to a salon and have the hair ripped out.”

  “Tomorrow, there isn’t enough time now.”

  Sadly, he was right. Two hairy drum sticks hidden by a pair of black dress pants. But in his statement, there was a promise of something wonderful.

  “Excellent, I can’t wait.”

  Dorian looked at me with shock and I smiled sweetly at him. He had realized he’d slipped up and now it was too late, he was going to have to take me out tomorrow.

  Chapter 51: A second attempt at a second attempt

  Dorian had grumbled but relented, allowing me to continue on with the promise of escape tomorrow. He believed that even though I was having hair ripped from me, I’d still be relaxed. And with the promise that he wasn’t going to go back on his word. He even said that if I was a good girl, I could spend a few more hours outside.

  I was grateful, mostly because Dorian had become insistent that my recovery would be one that was done on the lounge or in bed and that I was not going to be cavorting around the city like there was nothing wrong with me. I had survived a bullet to the stomach and I was going to take it easy, no grumbles or gripes would be listened to.

  When I was dressed I sat on the lounge, Dorian was frowning at his phone. It had buzzed and he had grumbled about Eva, stating that she was becoming clingier with each passing day. I was yet to meet her, Dorian seemed a little uneasy about the subject when I said something about it. It was pretty obvious that she was a giant drain on his life and now that there was someone else on the scene, she was becoming jealous.

  Dorian sighed, almost like he was in a lot of pain.

  “I have to go and see what she wants. Our second attempt at our second attempt will not be delayed for too long. Stay put, I will be back as quickly as I can.”

  Dorian leaned over and kissed me, leaving me wishing for more. Wishing he would stay and lay on the bed with me rather than tend to his difficult sister. She wouldn’t need him for anything important, I’d figured out pretty quickly that she was a time waster.

  With Dorian’s footsteps becoming a distant patter, I waited by the door to hear the ding of the elevator. I know that he’d said to wait in the bedroom but I didn’t want to delay our dinner any longer. It would be a slow path to the lounge room but I would get there. I would take the time of his absence and use it to move at my snail’s pace and be waiting for him.

  Sure, it would be met with a lot of harsh words but at least we would be on our way. Hopefully he will leave his phone in the car or better yet, at the apartment. I know he loved her but she was becoming a pest.

  Lowering myself onto the lounge was a slow process, my stomach turned with pain. I would be strong; I wouldn’t let Dorian see the pain. I had to get out of this place and do something interesting. I’d only been here a few hours but it was no different to being in hospital.

  As I looked at my phone, I realized that I never messaged Tilley about the photo.

  Looking forward to my first cuddle and many more.

  She sent back a smiley face, I looked at the photo again, trying to figure out where the kid was in the image. It was still a grainy mess that I could not figure out.

  Something clicked behind me, the internal door was not supposed to be used and I wondered why Dorian had come up that way. Carefully I turned and saw Eva walking over with a smug smile on her face.

  There was something about the situation that made me worried, maybe it was the attitude that was pouring out of her or maybe it was the fact that Dorian had gone to her apartment at her request and now she was here.

  The alarm bells were sounding rather loudly and I stood up, clutching at my wound.

  “It’s Katherine, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  She nodded, flicking her dark hair off her shoulders as she slowly walked to the glass doors.

  “Such a warm afternoon, don’t you agree?”

  “I suppose so.”

  Her finger flicked the lock and even though it looked like she didn’t have the strength, she pulled the door across the tracks to let the afternoon warmth in. The pool glistened in the partial light, the sun was behind the building, casting a shadow over half of it.

  “I miss swimming.”

  Eva turned with a smile, dark and hiding something wicked.

  “Did you know that he’s halted all efforts regarding the serum. Regardless of what happens to me, he’s not going to continue the research.”

  “I uh, I didn’t know that.”

  She nodded, her eyes grazing down my body and stopping at the wound site. With a deadly smirk, she returned her gaze to mine.

  “Well, now you do.”

  Taking a careful step towards me, Eva closed the gap between us.

  “It’s something that could alter the industry forever. He has the power to be a revolutionary wonder and yet he’d prefer to play nurse to you.”

  She said you like it was a curse word, like I was nothing but dirt. I suppose I was to her. Effectively taking her brother from her, she no longer got to see him as much as she did. Now she tells me that he’s stopping the research on the product that she was desperate to have. I was dirt to her.

  As she moved closer, I knew that I was in trouble. She hadn’t come here for a friendly chat. She’d come here to cause trouble. Dorian was not here, probably searching for her now that she’d disappeared. He probably didn’t even think that she would come here.

  I was alone with her and I knew it wasn’t a good thing.

  Chapter 52: Ding dong, your local psycho is at the door

  Even though Eva looked like a soft breeze could knock her over, I soon learned how strong she really was. Worse than that, she was sick and twisted, clearly the toxin has affected her mind. I was in no state to be fighting her off, even if I was stronger than the average person. Recovery was a long process; especially given that it was a wound that had gone straight through me.

  As Eva pinned me to the ground, she injected something into my legs. I felt the sting of the needle as it went in and then the burn of the drug.

  “A relaxant. You won’t be able to stand or runaway. Just you laying on the floor like a little cripple and me, ready to fix everything.”

  My shirt was ripped open, the bandage over my wound torn off and as she dug her finger in, I cried out in pain. Tears streamed down past my temples as she broke through the skin and reopened the wound. It had been repaired, I was better but not any more.

  Eva stood with a smirk, walking to the nearest wall she dragged her bloodied fingers over the pristine white.

  I can’t take it any more

  Then she pulled a cloth from her pocket and wiped her hand as she returned to me. I cried out in pain again as she took my hand and dug my finger into the wound.

  I knew what this was, this was a staged suicide note. It would be presumed that I had written the note on the wall because of my bloodied finger. There was little that I could do, my legs would not work, I’d already tried to wiggle my toes. The serum was working its way higher, my arms felt heavy and I could barely lift them.

  “It’s perfect, don’t you think? I’m in my little hiding spot and refusing to come out, Dorian has a very good alibi. He’s down there now, trying to convince me to come out and take my tablets like a good little girl. The staff are there; they will tell the cops that he was with them for the entire time. There’s even a trail to confirm it, the message on his phone, the key card scanner. It all confirms that he was in my apartment at the time of your death. As for me, I don’t have the strength to do anything untoward and besides, I certainly didn’t escape my room.”

  Eva chuckled and stood, rounding my body. Taking my arms by the wrists, she began to drag me to the door.

  “You know, as a teenager growing up, I always hoped that Dorian would find someone nice. He deserved someone that loved him as much as my parents and I. Then you come along and he is blinded to the truth abou
t you. You’re a dirty little spy, you came here to rob us and you did it without a single care for Dorian. You think that I don’t know about you, well you’re wrong. Amy told me everything.”

  The metal track of the sliding door grated against my skin as she dragged me out to the pool area.

  “Did you know that there is no one as high up as we are on this side of the building? The view stretches for miles over the land, all of it without a single witness. Truly marvelous.”

  Eva let go of my arms, as my body slumped to the floor I heard a crack that could have only been my head. I couldn’t feel a thing. She squatted beside my body, poking at my face as she smiled supremely.

  “Don’t worry about the autopsy, it won’t show anything in your system except the pathetic pain medication the hospital gave you. That is of course if they do an autopsy. You’re just a fool that jumped off a really tall building and went splat on the sidewalk.”

  Eva gripped my jaw, making me look at her. Like Dorian she had the most incredible green eyes, she was gorgeous. Her let down was the fact that she was in fact a complete nut job. Between her and Amber, I was done with this town. Maybe being thrown off the building was a good thing. The only issue would be Dorian and my family. They would ask why.

  I was a person that even though she had just been shot by her best friend, still had the world at her feet. A gorgeous guy that adored me, a repaired relationship with my father, siblings that were closer than before and about to be an aunt. There was little that could be found as faulty in my world.

  Except for this nut bar in front of me.

  “He’ll mourn you, I am certain of that but it won’t be for very long. And me? Well I’ll be there to comfort him and tell him that there are plenty of fish in the sea. At least ones that didn’t try and steal from us.”

  Her words hissed at me, like venom they poured out of her mouth. She really did hate me and I couldn’t help but wonder if Amy had over extended the truth because she was angry about losing her job. I had to alter this situation and I had to do it fast.

  How was I going to escape? It wasn’t going to happen, not when I couldn’t move my limbs to fight her off. Could I even use my mouth? I didn’t know but I had to try, I had to buy time. If I was lucky, Dorian would get frustrated with Eva refusing to leave her bedroom and return to me, if only to apologize for not coming back quick enough.

  “Cameras.” I rasped through my squished mouth.

  Eva looked at me with a sneer, letting go of my mouth.

  “There are none. Dorian doesn’t like them in his private residence.”

  It was hard to move my mouth, even though my mind was going into overdrive, I could barely form words.

  “Changed, mind.”

  Her face twitched as she narrowed her eyes. Then she let out a huff.

  “Whatever, I don’t care. So long as you are dead then that’s all I care about.”

  Eva stood, dragging me with her. This was it. This was where she threw me over the balcony and I plummeted to the ground.

  Chapter 53: Bang, bang daddy-o

  Eva struggled with the weight of my body. It wasn’t as if I was heavy, it was just because it was a dead weight. Clutching me around my waist, she held me to her body as my head rolled.

  My vision started to blur, my hearing was wavering. I thought I heard her complaining about something but I couldn’t be certain.

  Shadows moved, dancing on the walls like nefarious imps. My vision came back briefly, I thought I saw something move inside of the apartment. When no one appeared at the door, I knew that I was wrong.

  No one would save me, I was doomed to be a mess. I only had the comforting thought that my neck would break long before I hit the ground and I could hope that no one would be hurt when my body finally got there. I dreaded the thought of people having to see it, that wasn’t fair on them. Worse yet, there might be children down there. That thought broke my heart.

  It was at this point that I thought of my mother. Crazy, I know. After all of our issues, I wished for a moment to speak to her. To ask her why she abandoned Walter and I. She didn’t even want to have us part time, she didn’t want to see us. I wanted to know why.

  Was I not good enough for her? Was I a bad child? Did my father stop her? Was it too painful for her to see him after what she had done? It felt like there was a hole in my life and I knew that she was the only one that could fill it.

  Walter had hinted at the fact that she’d had more kids with the new guy, that out there in this horrid world there was more of her in the form of half-siblings. I had three of them now, I didn’t need any more.

  Or at least, I never used to. Now I thought differently. Now I wanted a second chance at everything and that included a relationship with my mother. The possibility of there being more people like Walter out there, well that was a wonderful thought.

  “Aunt.” I rasped.

  I hoped that I could make her think differently if she knew that I would be an aunt soon, that I had a reason to live and it was growing madly in my sister’s womb. No more words could come out, I tried to talk again but nothing was sounded.

  Eva looked at me with confusion, she pressed me against the glass balustrade and sneered.

  “I don’t care if I’m going to be an aunt, I wouldn’t want a creation of you running around this place anyway.”

  I looked at her, even though she had misinterpreted my word, it still showed that she was a vile woman. The serum had altered her so much that it was obvious that she wasn’t the same woman any more. Dorian might still love her but I would wager it was not as much as he used to.

  “It’s probably not Dorian’s anyway. Amy said you were spending a lot of time with that emo barista, it’s probably his.”

  The view of her sneer blurred, I felt like laughing at how her and Amy thought that I had a fascination with Wal. If only they knew the truth. I was fascinated by him, he was crazy smart and completely loveable. But, he was my brother and the way they were talking was just gross. Blah.

  Eva struggled to lift me, sliding me up the glass panel of the balustrade. Blinking made the world focus just a fraction, I looked at Eva who had an air of supremacy about her. Everything was going according to her plan.

  She gripped my body, pressing me against the barrier.

  “Well, it’s been fun.” She huffed a laugh. “I lie, it’s been hell. You are rather heavy Katherine. Didn’t think Dorian liked that much junk. Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll be back to his models in no time.”

  Ouch. I wasn’t fat but hell, telling me that he’d been with models before me wasn’t very nice. What a bitch.

  Eva lifted me from the glass, wrangling me backwards over the rail. My head rolled to the side, the vision blurring in and out as she lifted my arms over. She huffed and dragged me from the balustrade, muttering about the awkwardness.

  As my body slumped onto hers I saw a blackened figure at the doorway. Shots rang out and the body that held me jerked with each bullet that pierced her skin. As she turned the remaining shots sliced through the air, delving deep.

  Still holding onto me as if her life depended on it, Eva staggered backwards and together we dropped into the icy cold water. Slowly submerging to the bottom.

  Well, death by drowning was better than a broken neck then becoming a sidewalk pancake. At least then no one would have to witness the horror of it. I could be grateful to the person that shot Eva, whoever they were.

  Maybe it was the so called vampire hunter that believed she was a vampire. What a ridiculous thought. Eva was harmless, aside from this nonsense of course. With me out of the picture, she would go back to being normal Eva.

  As the darkness took over the blue, I let the last of my life go without a thought of the woman who had taken it from me. I thought of Dorian and wished that I could have said goodbye to him, to hug him and tell him how grateful I was that he had put our beginning behind us in favor of something better. A future together.

  But we weren’t g
etting that. Instead I was getting death and he was getting weeks of suffering, questions and the inability to make sense of the situation. I could only hope that he would be able to move on and not mourn me or his sister for too long. It was a rather large ask but it was one that I was prepared to wish for him.

  Chapter 54: Swimming in the fishbowl

  I gasped and then choked, water spluttering out of me as Dorian rolled me onto my side. My whole body heaved as the water gushed out of me. In the pool I could see my father dragging Eva’s body out, it was lifeless.

  Dorian rolled me onto my back and lifted me up. He was soaked to the bone, looking at me with so much pain it wasn’t funny. Hugging me hard, I thought I heard a sob. He pulled me back out again and kissed me.

  I looked up into those green eyes as his thumb caressed my cheek.

  “I’m sorry KC.”

  I wanted to say that it wasn’t him that injected muscle relaxant into me nor was it him that tried to throw me over the balcony but crazily, my body still wasn’t working properly. It had to start working soon, we had dinner plans.

  Dorian lifted me into his arms, standing as he moved. As he set me onto the pool lounge, a cop walked over to him. There was another taking photos of the so called crime scene.

  “Does she need a paramedic?”

  “I’ll have one of Eva’s doctors check her over.”

  Gee, was that wise? Now that Eva was dead they would technically be out of a job. I did not want to become their reason to stay.

  A woman walked out from the apartment, blankets in her arms. Dorian took one from her with a lot of gratitude and wrapped it around me. I looked at the middle aged woman who offered a sympathetic smile, Dorian took another one from her and laid it over my legs.

  “Miss Bryant, are you well enough to tell us your version of the events?”