"Aagh uh ahh... Hi. I, um, didn't expect to see you here. How, uh, how are you?"
"Well enough." replies Serena. "What are you doing here Leo?"
He realizes how lame that sounded and quickly follows through, his words coming increasingly fast. "Look, can we come in? My friends and I found Victoria here, she's, hm, had a bad night and we wanted to talk to her principal and her teacher."
Dr. Forn stands at a slight distance, staring in a benevolent but rather intrusive manner at Leo and his lady.
When Sam hears the woman address Leo, he steps back to allow the two to converse. He double takes at the circus performer and back at the woman. The bomb expert turns his back slightly to the woman and gives the tall man a wink and a 'thumbs up'. He then trapes of to retrieve his weapons where he left them.
Woofard glances at the woman that answered the door. Then he looks at the floor. Keeping his head down, he started to walk on in through the door in his best I-am-a-dog manner. Seemingly not paying a lot of attention to much of anything a person would care about, but generally sniffing about... even if he can't really smell anything there besides Ingar. Ingar's smell is the olefactory equivavelent of a person screaming at the top of his lungs all the time.
Serena steps out of the doorway. Victoria immediately launches herself inside, leaving the shirt and the newspaper in much the same manner that she abandoned the blanket. Serena arches one eyebrow as the remainder of the group troop inside.
The interior of the building is dark, lit only with electric lights (it likely comes as a bit of a surprise that there are, in fact, operating electric lights in the building, but there are) and these tend to be rather fewer and further between than most westerners are used to. There is a set of stairs leading up to the second floor, which Victoria is already bounding up. It's clear that the building has seen better days, and that it underwent some serious renovations at some point in its history. But it at least looks clean, at least in a relative way. There are numerous pieces of child art scattered about on the walls, all of it made out of odds and ends and junk, but it is all appealing in that way that kid art is appealing - making up in exuberance what it lacks in professional skill.
Near the door, on the opposite side from the stairs sits a desk with an actual honest to god COMPUTER on it, as well as a load of papers. A couple of offices can be seen down a corridor behind the desk.
From upstairs comes muted classroom noises - singing, a teacher lecturing, the shuffle of small feet beneath desks, etc.
Examining it from the inside, various party members note that the door is reinforced with metal paneling which looks to have been stripped off one or more cars, and has several locks on it.
Serena steps over next to the desk to make way for everyone else, and watches with a clinical eye. One eyebrow raises as Dr. Forn steps inside.
Sam retrieves his discarded blanket and moves to wrap up his 'bundle.' He wraps his ugly stick up too and carries the whole thing inside, smiling like the half-idiot that he is. Sam enters the building carrying some odd shaped 'packages' wrapped in a blanket, stepping lightly past Leo and the mystery woman, who seem to be locked in one of those thousand year-a second moments, and looks around the first floor.
Harvey looks around nervously, tries to tuck the cattleprod under his arm in a nonchalant fashion (oblivious to the risk to anyone standing too close behind him) and follows Sam inside.
Ever curious, Marda ignores all the adults in the room and attempts to follow Victoria up the stairs. Woofard noses around, Marda chases up the stairs after Victoria, Sam looks around, grinning, Harvey tries to conceal his cattle prod as nonchalantly as possible, etc.
* * *
Following Victoria, Marda dashes up the ill lit stairs to the second floor. Victoria dashes over to one of the doors, flings it open, and runs inside.
"I'm here! I'm here! Sorry!" she wails as she runs into a classroom holding about 40 kids. The windows are boarded up, but the classroom is otherwise done up in rather charming, if impoverished style. The kids may remind Marda of her less fortunate companions from Romania - dressed in hand-me-downs or rags, sitting on makeshift furniture.
The classroom erupts into pandemonium as kids alternately laugh at Victoria's pantless status or shriek when they see the burns and bruises on her tiny body. For her part Victoria sets a course unerringly for a middle aged black woman sitting up front, plowing into her in a child-sized flying tackle that would knock most grown ups sprawling. The woman is apparently not most grown ups, however, because she absorbs the impact easily.
"Victoria!" she exclaims, "What has happened to you child? You're hurt."
"There's people downstairs!" says Victoria. "They tied me to a board and wouldn't let me go pee and there was a dog and I couldn't find my pants and they wouldn't let me go and I woke up and I was all sore and had owies on me and then they brought me back here!"
"There, there, Victoria," says the woman in a soothing voice that calms not only Victoria but the class of chaotic children as well. "They won't hurt you no more." She looks in Marda's direction. "Who is your friend? Was she with the other people? What's your name child? You can call me Elinor." As she speaks, Elinor rises, and Marda realizes that the adult has a brace on one leg. She begins limping in the direction of the door with Victoria (who is now crying again) still in her arms.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you."
Marda can't help but notice that the leg brace is improperly maintained, somewhat bent and worn in places, and of an inferior workmanship and design that she could most certainly improve upon given a power source, an ascetelene torch, and some precision micrometers.
Marda looks skeptically at the grown-up. She hasn't had much luck with adults in positions of authority lately. "I'm Marda," she offers, and then adds, "This's Teddy," presenting the rag-tag bear.
"Hello Marda. Hello Teddy." says the woman kindly. "Are you friends of Victoria's? I need to take her to get some medicine for her hurts. Would you like to go with me?"
Marda isn't really sure how to answer either question. After a bit of deliberation with Teddy, she decides on answering, "Yes," hoping it carries the implication that she means both of the questions (and also hoping that Victoria won't make any sudden vetos in the situation.)
Elinor carries the still crying Victoria out of the room. "Come along Marda, come along Teddy," she says as she passes Marda. She turns in the doorway, her leg brace clacking.
"Children, I'll be back in a few minutes. In the meantime I will send in Jonny to tell you some stories."
"YAY!" cry the children.
Elinor goes clicking and limping out into the hall. "Jonny?" she says in one of those quiet voices that can nevertheless carry a great distance. Down the hallway, the head of a young Mediterranean man in his early twenties pokes out of a doorway.
"Yeah Miz Smith?" he says, his accent pure Al Amarjan.
"Victoria is hurt. Could you watch my class for a few minutes?"
"You bet Miz Smith!" replies Jonny with enthusiasm, sauntering down the hall. Marda notes that he seems better dressed by far than anyone else she has seen in this place, with expensive name brand clothes, Nike running shoes, and lots of gold jewelry.
"Come along Marda, come along Teddy," says Elinor, and starts limping down the hallway. She stops abruptly, hearing conversation downstairs. She turns back to Jonny. "Jonny, there are people downstairs, could you see who they are?"
"Sure Miz Smith," Jonny replies cheerily, turning to head down the stairs.
"They're the ones!" sniffles Victoria. "They're the ones who tied me to the board and wouldn't let me go pee and brought me here and took my pants and... and..." she bursts out crying again.
Jonny looks at Victoria, looks at Elinor, looks downstairs. He
stuffs his hands into his pockets and withdraws them with a switchblade
in each. Both open with an ominous *SNAP*. "You mind the kids
Miz Smith, I'll see what they want," Jonny says, starting down the stairs.
Harvey looks quizzically at the cattleprod. "There's a safety on this thing?" he murmurs, examing it more closely in the hope of being able to turn it off.
Leo looks at the young woman dumbfounded, entirely oblivious to his companions entry en masse. "Serena!" he finally manages to utter. "What on earth are you doing here? When you ran away so fast, I thought you must be in big trouble. That's why I'm here, I thought you needed help and I managed to track you to Al Amarja. But I had no idea you were 'here' here! What's going on, for Heaven's sake?" He gestures wildly in his agitation, his hands acquiring a life of their own. He looks like a matchstick figure that's just been set on fire...
Serena regards Leo with an expression of good-hearted amusement as he speaks, then turns to Harvey. In a fluid, boneless movement so much like Leo's as to be noticeable by practically everyone, she has the cattle prod out of his hands before he even realizes that she has reached for it.. She flips it around and points to a small switch in the handle.
"Right here. This is the 'off' position." She flips the switch and hands the prod back before returning her gaze to Leo.
Harvey checks over the now safe cattleprod, noting how to turn it back on again if necessary. He then attempts to follow Leo and Serena's conversation.
"Leo, je sais que tu viens d'arriver sur cette île, mais crois-moi, il vaut mieux ne pas demander. Je ne peux pas te répondre, et même si je répondais tu ne m'en remercierais pas." [Leo, I know you've just gotten to this island, but trust me, you don't want to ask. I can't answer you, and even if I did, you wouldn't thank me.]
She nods her head in the direction of the stairs leading up. "Qu'est-ce que tu as à voir avec cette petite fille?" [What do you have to do with the little girl?]
Leo looks at Serena with very, very sad eyes and suddenly it's as if the spring of a wind-up toy had given out. His shoulders slump, and he shakes his head slowly. He leans down and whispers near Serena's ears: "Elle a été jettée d'une voiture dans le stationnement près d'où nous étions hier soir. Elle a été examinée par les docteurs... Elle a été violée. Pour l'instant elle ne s'en rappelle plus, le psychiâtre l'a mise sous hypnose." [She was thrown from a car last night, into the parking lot near where we were. She's been seen by doctors. She'd been raped... For now she doesn't remember it, the psychiatrist used hypnosis.]
He looks down, sorrowful.
Serena nods, as though Leo is telling her something that she already knows. Her expression also softens slightly. Again she nods her head, this time to encompass the others in the room. "Et eux?" [And them?]
Leo shrugs one shoulder. "Juste d'autres touristes que j'ai rencontrés depuis que je suis arrivé sur l'île." He grins wryly but humourlessly at the young woman. "Tu vois, je fais moins de mystères que toi..." [Just some other tourists I've met since I got to the island. As you see, I make less mysteries than you do...]
Serena responds with a slight shrug of her own and a sad smile to match.
"M. Barbeau, si seulement vous saviez... Mais il vaut mieux que non. Si vous saviez, vous..." She stops, shakes her head. "Non, oubliez tout ça. Vous avez ramené la fillette, vous m'avez trouvée. Que ferez-vous à présent?" [Mr. Barbeau, if you only knew... But better that you don't. If you knew, you would... No, forget all this. You brought the little girl back, you found me. What are you going to do now?]
Leo looks at her squarely, his eyes searching hers for some answer. "Je vais continuer à essayer de savoir ce qui t'arrive," he says slowly, deliberately. [I will continue to try to figure out what happened to you.] "Si tu crois que je suis venu jusqu'ici pour retourner bredouille, tu as mal compris ce que c'est qu'un ami." [If you think I came all the way here to turn back like that, you have a poor understanding of what a friend is.] He sets his jaw and lifts his chin, as if daring her to disagree.
"Ne faites pas l'idiot, Léo!" Serena snaps, losing patience. "Cette île vous bouffera tout cru..." [Don't be an idiot, Leo! This island will eat you alive!]
As suddenly as it came the fire goes out of her and she slumps, looking down at her shoes. She continues in a tired voice. "Léo, retournez à votre cirque. Il n'y a rien pour vous ici. Celle que vous êtes venu chercher... Elle n'existe pas. Elle n'a jamais existé. Même si vous le vouliez. Même si je le voulais. Rentrez chez vous, Léo, rentrez chez vous." [Leo, go back to your circus. There's nothing for you here. The one you came to find here... She doesn't exist. She never did. Even if you want her to. Even if I wanted her to. Go home, Leo, go home.]
Then she squares her shoulders and is all business again. "Je dois vous laisser, à présent, j'ai du travail qui m'attend. Ca m'a fait plaisir de vous voir, M. Barbeau. Profitez de votre séjour sur Al Amarja. Mais je vous recommande de trouver un coin plus sécuritaire -- Broken Wings peut-être, ou la banlieue. Vous voudrez bien m'excuser..." [ I must go now, I have work to do. It was nice to see you, Mr. Barbeau. Enjoy your stay on Al Amarja. But I recommend you find a safer area -- Broken Wings, perhaps, or the 'Burbs. If you'll excuse me...]
Serena once again heads in the direction of the door outside.
Ingar is still staring intently at Serena and Leo, his visage grows progressively more sad as the conversation wears on. He has retrieved his little black book from a pocket, and is scribbling with his glistening pen in it, without looking at what he is writing. At times he twists the book around, holding it at varying angles to the pen, and seemingly writing in different directions...
Chris speaks a little French, though it mostly revolves around places to eat or sleep so this conversation is over his head just a tad. He makes eye contact with Leo: "What's the deal? Are we any closer to finding the bastards?"
Leo stares blankly at Chris for a second, then seems to get back to reality -- or what passes for it here. "I didn't ask," he confesses. "She's an old friend I never expected to see here. Hold on..."
He whirls away from Chris and takes a few long strides behind the young woman. "Serena!" he calls, not too loud. "Attends!" Catching up with her, he drops his voice to a low, confidential murmur. "La fillette... Il faut trouver les enfants de salauds qui ont fait ça. Aide-nous." He plants himself in her path and looks at her pleadingly. He catches her hand in his. [Serena! Wait! The little girl... We have to find the bastards who did it. Help us.]
Serena looks at Leo, then to her hand, then back at Leo. She makes no effort to extract the hand, but instead replies, sadly, "Leo...," she pauses, on the verge of saying something, then changes her mind. "Leo," she begins again (and en anglais!), "get out of the way."
Leo lets go of Serena's hand with a reproachful look, but does not move. "You're not going to close your eyes on this?!" he exclaims softly, creeped out.
Serena sighs. "No Leo," she says finally, "I'm not. But you should. You're in over your head Leo. This just might get you and your friends here killed. Just what do you think you can do about this anyway? Hunt down the perpetrator like some sort of comic book hero? They'll KILL you, and hide the body deep enough that your mother will wonder for twenty years what became of her son."
There is the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs. In an instant Serena eels around Leo, planting a brief kiss on his cheek in passing, and is out the door. "Thank you," she breathes, Leo isn't sure to who, or what, and closes the door behind her.
Leo's fair skin betrays a deep blush. He watches Serena leave, a bewildered expression on his face. Then the bemusement changes back to stubbornness. He frowns darkly. "Who the hell cares," he mutters to himself. "I don't have a mother!"
He glances at his companions. "I don't know what the hell is going on," he growls, "but I think this place needs a spring cleaning!"
Woofard got tired of watching Leo and Danger Chick babbling away and
decide to follow the girls up stairs. He gets to the first couple of steps
before he sees someone coming down towards them.
"Hey yo!" he says looking down, "Can I help you?"
Leo, still all hypered up, whirls to face the newcomer. "Yes!" he announces in a ringing voice. "I called earlier and I spoke to Mr. Norman Souster. We brought Victoria Moss back, but she's been hurt badly. We'd like to talk to her parents."
"Hey, Norman, these guys call you?" yells the black guy down the stairs.
Woofard stops. Even though this spud is dressed like a sleazy L.A. lawyer, the akita is getting a weird deja vu vibe from this encounter. Back to another dumpy building filled with dangerous people. The only thing missing so far are the flames and the maniac death cult. He pauses, waiting to see if the man will come on in and talk to the rest of the party, leaving Woofard an opening to go on upstairs.
The young man is about two thirds of the way down the stairs, and is showing no inclination to move further down at the moment. He eyes Woofard carefully. "Folks, there's children present. Put a leash on your dog please."
Woofard decides, for the sake of the party, to let this man live.... but he really doesn't want to. He waits quietly to see how this encounter develops.
Sam moves out of the hallway and finds an unobserved place to put down his bundle. He unwraps it and draws out his improvised weapon. Standing to the side he waits and listens to what the others are saying. This is accomplished without drawing much attention to himself. He doesnt know a word of french but gets the gist of the conversation by the actions of Leo and the woman. He whispers to his performer friend "Dump the [insert favorite degrading term for the gentler sex]. Get focused man, we'll deal with her later." Despite the small amount of noise, the black guy still doesn't seem to notice Sam skulking in the corner beside the stairs with his head knocker.
"Hey, Norman! Norman! You down there?" says the black guy. "Damn it, where's he off to now? NORMAN!" The young man mutters under his breath. "Dumb geek mother..." Without looking away from the group, he yells, "Miz Ashwari?"
From down the hallway behind the desk, a tired sounding female voice with a distinct arabic accent replies, "Yes, what is it, Jonny?"
"Theres some folks here to see Norman. One o' the kids got hurt and they say they brought her in." Jonny pauses. "There's a bunch of 'em, and I don't like the way they look."
A frazzled looking arabic woman in her late forties wearing worn, but serviceable traditional garb, shuffles out of one of the back rooms and walks around the desk, peering at the various party members. "Good morning," she says with professional cheerfulness that is in stark contrast with her thin and drawn demeanor, "I'm Lotte Ashwari, the school administrator. Can I help you?"
Chris is totally confused by the situation. This is not usual for him, which increases his discomfort. "Ah-you see-ah-er....Somebody hurt that little girl and we want to see what we can do about it."
Those looking at Ms. Ashwari for a reaction will not notice much by way of surprise in her face at this statement. Weary resignation, and some sadness, but no real surprise. Until the end, as "...we want to see what we can do about it" rolls out of Chris's mouth, surprise DOES become evident on her face. Surprise mixed with a number of other emotions that pass by too fast for anyone to catch them.
"Do you know the little girl's name?" she asks.
"It's Victoria. Victoria Moss," says Jonny from the stairs.
Ms Ashwari shakes her head. "You had best come into my office," she says wearily, turning and leading the way.
Chris follows along. There is a gleam in his eye (left). It cannot be told if it is a mad gleam, a hateful gleam, a confused gleam or just a glitter flake from a child's craft piece. Nevertheless it is there, and Chris really isn't.
Ingar lumbers along, closely behind Chris, giving him further reason not to be -quite- there. Dr. Forn is still holding pen and notebook. Also, like always he gives off a terrible smell reminicent of raw meat and thinners. Additionally, he makes slight squelching sounds as he walks.
Sam, anticipation building, is about to spring on 'Jonny' when Ms. Aswari speaks up and invites everyone into her office. The omni-bomber will hold his position to see what Woofard and the others are going to do. If the guy gets rough with the Akita dog, Sam will use the distraction to suprise and pummel him with the 2x4.
Woofard, seeing the man is standing between him, and where the girls have gone, and is now being an asshole, decides that he's got to do something. Keeping his head down, as a good dog would, continues up the stairs after the girls. He doesn't run, but he doesn't show any sign of hesitation. When he runs into the man, he'll just try using his bulk and low center of gravity to shoulder past and after Marda and Victoria.
Jonny reaches down as Woofard moves past and grabs him by the collar. "Whoa there pooch!" he says. He is not trying to strangle Woofard or anything, just stop him. Woofard doesn't even acknowledge the man's effort. He just keeps his head down and tries to shoulder through, as any very determined dog would do. Not using momentun, but just calmly trying to push past the man. Even when his collar is grabbed, other than making some overly dramatic choking sounds, he continues to push on. He also, without seeming to, tries to make use of the man's hold upon his collar to pull him off balance to make pushing him aside an easier task.
With the sluggishness of a bad dream, Leo tries to focus his thoughts and starts moving to follow Ms. Ashwari. But out the corner of his eye he catches Woofard sneaking attempt. Hmm, he would feel reassured if Woofard was up there with Marda and Victoria.
"Oh, it's Marda's dog!" he calls to the hospitable Jonny, pitching his voice to try to startle the man just enough that Woofard may get a chance to zoom past. When he gets even minimal eye contact with Mr. Jonny, he continues more soothingly: "She went upstairs with little Victoria. They're about the same age, looks like." He smiles benignly (an expression which far less effective for him than it seems to be for Dr. Forn, must be all that training as a psychiatrist.)
"Um, OK," says Jonny, "but you need to have him on a leash. Somebody can take him up, though." He looks at Ingar. "Not you," he says flatly.
Ingar stares blankly at him for a moment and then shrugs fluidly, palms upturned towards the heavens in his best "I know nothing - I'm from Nidhoggsoey; Why is everybody picking on me?" fashion. He considers whether he should confront Jonny on precisely why he wants to exclude him from the potential dogwalkers, but decides that this can wait.
"Sam? Why don't you go?" Chris says in the same kind of low, intense voice that might say something like "Leatherface, I'm a hungry, go find me some vittles."
"Hey! HEY!" yells Jonny as Woofard shoulders by. He manages to get hold of Woofard's collar but is not prepared for the Akita's continued 'dogged' resistance, and is yanked along up the stairs for several steps. "Heel! Stop! Somebody control this mutt! Knock it off!" he says, giving Woofard's collar a jerk.
"Bad dog, Woofie!" says Leo in his best 'fawning, ineffectual dog owner' voice. "Is Woofie missing Marda? Yes he is! Yes he is! Don't bother people, Woofie!" With that, surely no one will ever think that Woofard is a sapient being? They certainly won't guess it of Leo, anyway.
Sam rolls his eyes at the mention of his name. He puts his fancy stick down where nobody can see it and steps into the open in all his 'fashion statement' glory. He does a piroette and then proceeds up the stairs like noones business and gets a hold of Woofies collar. Trying not to step on the prone boy he says "Sorry about that, puppy gets nervous sometimes. Hope he didnt pee on you or anything that looks like a nice suit..."
Pee on him? I can't even go in a public restroom unless I have a few
beers first, thought Woofard. Instead he leans over and, with as much slobber
as he can manage, delivers several very friendly schlurps to the fallen
man's face, with as much dog breath as he can exhale without getting dizzy.
Tata proceeds up the stairs with puppy in tow looking for exorcist
bait and her new little friends. Woofard lets his nose guide them
to the missing girls.
"Uh, OK," says Jonny, stepping aside to let Sam and Woofard go past.
The pair head up the stairs to the second floor, where there are several
open doors, with varying numbers of children sticking their heads out into
the hallway to see what is going on. There are general cries of a
"Look, a doggy!" nature, but Woofard's nose unerringly guides the pair
to a door with a piece of paper on it labeled "Infirmary" which is where
Marda apparently it. The two burst in to find Marda standing off
to one side, and Victoria sitting on a table being given the once over
by a middle aged black woman with a brace on one leg.
To Be Continued...