#brought to you by meeting the man who hired me but I didn't recognise him

[eraserspiral]

being in a large workplace when you have prosopagnosia is erm, fun

"hi [name], how's it going?"

I have no idea who you are. we may have met once or known each other for years. keep talking and I may get some context clues, but for now you are NPC_01 and I will smile blandly until you let me escape

[antaxzantax]

Umbrella Pharmaceuticals - Chapter 51

Summary: Alex Paterson [Alex Wesker] murders James Marcus and associates with Oswell E. Spencer, her biological father.

I

The bullet pierced the skull and embedded itself in the frontal lobe. The barrel of the revolver burned.

The body crashed limp to the ground.

She grabbed a saw from the toolbox and cut off the head. She put the trophy in a vacuum bag.

She dialed an international number on the hacked phone.

“Who's calling?”

“Get me Mr. Spencer. It's urgent.”

“Lord Spencer won't see anyone without an appointment and without first meeting the caller.”

“Tell him I have the virus and James Marcus's head.”

II

She rode in the 4x4 with the virus and the head of James Marcus. A group of individuals in protective suits entered the basement of the ranch. A man with a thick British accent assured her that they would get rid of the body and the lab. The SUV started up. She would travel by private plane to Luxembourg.

III

Spencer examined the severed head of James Marcus with a clinical eye. A clean shot to the forehead had killed him. A single shot had extinguished the sullen Texan.

A single shot.

Spencer went to light a cigar but gave it up for the shocking sight of the head. The damned head with the glassy eyes and the jagged features, eaten away at the edges and yellowed with decay. He'd loathed Marcus in recent years, but cold-blooded murder and mutilation like that... On a par with what he'd done to Trevor.

He asked Patrick to turn his head away, for the putrid smell had congested his nostrils. He blew his nose into his handkerchief. The disturbing thing, however, had not been Marcus's death, but who had killed him: a twenty-eight-year-old woman who claimed to be the biological daughter of Oswell Ernest Spencer.

Alexandra Paterson.

“Hide the sample. It will be our secret,” he ordered Patrick.

IV

The woman who claimed to be his biological daughter had inherited his blond hair, blue eyes and features. He recognised the mother at the mention of her name. The daughter of a millionaire rancher whom he had met at a party in California. The same mother who years before had sent him a letter to charge him for the care of a supposed daughter of his. And there it was: his worst nightmare.

Alex didn't drink tea and her American accent bounced off his ear canal as if he were at a rodeo. American on top. Stereotypically American. Spencer sipped from his teacup.

“And you're from California?”

“Arkansas.”

“Oh, cows and cowgirls.”

Spencer set the cup down carefully and smiled condescendingly at his appearing daughter.

“I worked with Brandon Bailey in Africa. I befriended him so he'd trust me. I gave him the ranch and the lab when Marcus wanted to escape,” Alex said.

“Why did you kill Marcus?”

Alex looked down.

“He attacked me. He suspected me. He pointed the gun at me and wanted to kill me so I wouldn't steal his research. He thought you'd sent me; that I was a spy. He went mad. He hated you.”

“Why did he hate me?”

“Because all you care about is money and politics.”

Spencer laughed.

“He was a good friend... Brilliant at science, but stupid at social relations. Anyway, and you brought me his head as proof of loyalty?”

Alex shrugged.

“I doubted you'd listen to me if I rang the doorbell.”

“And what do you want from me?” Spencer prepared himself a cigar. “Money? Connections? A house on the prairie? A new cowboy hat?”

“I want to be your daughter.”

Spencer smiled.

“Sure, with that accent and manners. My family will welcome you with open arms.”

“I want to work at Umbrella. I want to research that virus.”

“What?”

“I'm a virologist, and you're half physicist, half economist. Who have you hired to translate the reports for you?”

Spencer got serious.

“And you've come to save me, Alexandra. That's very kind of you. But I don't require anyone's services. No one. Let out of my house.”

“Marcus' virus is a variant T-virus untested in humans, only in insects and arthropods. It's capable of inducing exaggerated mutations in a very short time and replicating certain genetic structures.”

“Replicating?”

“Mimic the genetic structure of the host, like cloning. I started working with Marcus in 1983. I know how that virus works, and I know a few things about you and Umbrella. You're just gonna let me walk away?”

Tough as nails and twisted, just like her father.

“Let's make a deal. Suppose I hire you, you work for Umbrella, and I assign you to a lab. Suppose I let you research that virus and many others. Would I end up with a bullet in my head, or would you worship your father?”

“I can't inherit your fortune and your family will hate me, so why would I shoot my only safe conduct?”

Spencer finished his cigar.

“I'll give you one chance.”

One chance.

[talesofsorrowandofruin]

Manuscript Search Tag

Thanks for tagging me, @kaylinalexanderbooks! :D

Words: present, just, unaware and always. These are from The Unfortunate Moth:

Present:

Yo-han wasn't present for that part. The passengers had begun to depart. He had brought his luggage off the ship and was waiting near the passport check-point to meet Miss Patton and Mr. Király when they disembarked. He idly watched the passengers milling by. Some he recognised, some he knew by sight only, some he didn't know at all. One mousy, non-descript young man brushed past him.

Just:

I accepted the job. You know what happened next. But I swear this is true: I had no ulterior motives in befriending you, and my friendship is genuine. When I first spoke to you I had no idea I'd been hired to kill your aunt. When I found out… I have a strict rule of never allowing emotions to interfere with my job. If I had been hired to kill my own aunt I would have done it just as surely. All the same, I wished you weren't so closely linked to her.

Unaware:

Mr. Colman and his friend moved on to another table, blissfully unaware of the chaos they had unleashed. Rachael fixed Phil with her most icy, beady-eyed stare.

Always:

What happened in the murder mysteries? The murderer always wanted an alibi. Phil knew with a sickening sense of dread that she didn't have one. She had specifically chosen a hiding place where no one would find her. True, she had passed a few people on the way back to her cabin, but how many of them would remember her or know when they'd seen her?

Tagging @on-noon, @theimperiumchronicles, @weaver-of-fantasies-and-fables, and anyone else who wants to do this! :D New words: long, lift, luggage and luck.

[written-within-the-stars]

Be My Valentine’s? - Part Two – Together

Continuing on from...

❁ Harper ❁

“I... I didn’t pack these...” I hadn’t packed anything like pictures or memories. I had heard #Kenzi and #Jenna telling the guys they didn’t want everything going into storage.

Moving the bubble wrap I took out the frame sat in the top. And smiles, my eyes stinging a little as I looked at the three of us.

“A weekend at the lake, and Kenzi wanted a serious picture to keep. Whereas Jenna and I couldn’t stop giggling.”

Shaking my head, I showed it to him. Pointing the girls out to him. Laughing at the next one. “And Jenna is dangerous with a camera! It doesn’t matter is you are asleep; she will take a picture.”

Smiling as I saw the next. “Jenna and Me.. and Kenzi telling up to pout. It didn’t work out.”

❁ Collin ❁

I smiled as she lifted the pictures, one after another. I recognised #Kenzi immediately from the video calls and picture that #Seth had sent. It was nice to put a face to the name for #Jenna. “Those kinds of pictures are always the best.” I said. “When you can’t stop laughing or looking at something other than the camera.”

I smiled and looked at the pictures. “They are really beautiful girls.” I smiled; you should hang these. “Bring a little of Thompson Falls into your life here… something to make you smile when you come home.”

“You don’t need those cheap Instagram tricks… all three of you are beautiful… And a smile is always better than a pout.”

❁ Harper ❁

My fingers traced the glass over the pictures. I knew the girls would have put some thought into which ones they packed.

“They really are beautiful.” My voice a little lower, and sure I missed them like crazy in the moment. However, I was smiling too.

“You are right, I really should put these up.” Setting them on the ground over the bubble wrap I glanced into the box again.

Looking back to him. “Instagram models? So, I don’t have a backup career? I’m heartbroken.” I laugh softly pushing my elbow into his arm.

“Oh.... No!” I could have died at what the next set of frames were. “How could they!” I was laughing and my cheeks burning up all at the same time.

The first was of the three of us at our dance class, and then the others of my childhood. Remembering how my mom loved my hair in two pigtails.

❁ Collin ❁

I blushed a little and shook my head. “I mean if you ever give up you day job you’d get hired in a minute.” I chuckled, I lifted my hand gently brushed my thumb over the rosy apple of her cheek. “But a truly beautiful picture captures the truth. It freezes a moment.” I smiled at her… there was nothing about her that wasn’t perfect exactly how she was.

I laughed and looked at the next four she pulled out. “Oh wow…. So when you say they are family you mean it… You’ve known each other that long?” I smiled. Thompson really wasn’t that different from La Push. I’d my friends my entire, there were a few that drifted in later on, like Luke… but for the most part, I always knew them, my circle was mainly the pack…. So some of them remembered me since before I could walk.

“Friends come and go…” I touched the frame with the three of them. “Family is for life. These have to go on the walls too!” I added the last part quickly, knowing she’d blush and get embarrassed.

❁ Harper ❁

“Thank god, here I could have been so worried.” I knew he was joking and teasing me about the modelling thing. However, I played along because it was funny. I saw him out the side of my eyes, without knowing or thinking I lent into his touch. Heart rising in the Apple where his finger brushed.

“I couldn’t agree with you more.... I just... guess... it never occurred to me... how vital those moments are to hold on to.” I said finding my voice. He took the frames from me and I let him. “Thompson maybe a little bigger than here, however the size doesn’t really matter.

Kenz’s mom, Ruth. And Jenna’s parents Richard and Emma, grew up with my dad Will. Ruth and dad went to the same college, where dad met my mom.

And Ruth met Kenzi’s dad. I guess I was lucky that mom and dad fell madly in love, where as Kenz’s dad.....” I trailed off, because it wasn’t my story to tell. She didn’t know her dad, and she never wanted to know about him. “All I know is that he was from the same town as my mom. But that’s all.”

Shaking my head my cheeks turned a deep red with the embarrassment of putting childhood pictures up. “Oh no... no...” However, he had a point. “Family is for life...” and they were more than family to me. I resigned myself to the idea. “Of course, you would want to put them up. You love photographs.” I really wanted to see his work even more now.

My hands reached into the box to remove the other layer of bubble wrap. At seeing what sat in the box next, my heart leapt, beat faster but the sensation was the same as when I was nervous around Collin.

“Mom and dad...” is all I said. These were some of my most loved pictures of them from my childhood.

❁ Collin ❁

My mouth seemed to flood with saliva when her cheek stained a deeper shade of pink. I nodded when she explained about #Kenzi's dad.

Another puzzle piece fell into place. The Great Wolf building connection with another tribe... and curiosity flared up in me about which one it could be, but it was too soon to dive into her genetic history.

"Everyone loves photographs!" I pointed out with a laugh. "But that, not the point, you are the greatest thing your parent ever did, and they obviously thought that these moments were important enough to freeze. You should come to my house and I'll even the playing field with the ones I have up."

I knelt on the floor beside her and lay my hand on her back making a slow soothing movement. "Your mom is beautiful... you like so alike." I smiled and kept my eyes on the pictures.

❁ Harper ❁

I opened my lips to disagree with him, to say not everyone did like photographs. However, it was something that I knew my family did like.

“Dad used to have the main hall filled with them. Mom started it before....” she died. “Most of these lived on those walls, before Jenna and Dam - moved in.”

My fingers moved over the one with my mom hugging me as a baby. “She was so beautiful... dad always says she was out of his league... however she used to counter with her heart was the kindest she’d ever seen.”

I was thinking of them dancing in the kitchen when I felt Collin’s hand on my back. I brushed my hair over one shoulder, hearing the invitation to his place to look at his baby photos. “You think I look like her?” I smiled watching him as he looked and took in the photos. There was so much warmth there, and care. He really wanted to see this part of me.

“I like thinking it is true.” I set the photo frames to the side careful not to damage them. Glancing into the box, smiling from ear to ear. “And ... this is what you wanted to see... mom’s work.. or at least a few of my favourites.”

The first was of the lake, then of the girls and me playing by the lake, dad holding me, and then dad in the lake. They all brought back so many good memories.

❁ Collin ❁

"Well... judging by his moustache I might agree!" I chuckled. "But it’s the heart that counts." I smiled.

I turned my attention back to her and ran a fingertip along her nose. "You have her nose and her lips."

I beamed at the artwork. "Oh wow... she really was good. These are incredible." I picked up the one of the child sleeping on a man's shoulder. "You and your father?" It sounded like a question, but it was clear.

"Beautiful." I muttered to myself, scanning each one carefully.

❁ Harper ❁

“Hey... he told me it was a phase. One my mom explained was over if he wanted to keep kissing her.”

Smiling, my nose tickling as he touched it, this feeling is calm washed over me again and the pull to stay close to him was back.

I shook my head free from these thoughts. Was this how mom and dad.... Biting my lips. ‘Nope. No way. This was crazy people thinking ’ I told myself. We were just getting to know one another. “I love the thought of having something of hers in me.” I told him.

“She really was talented, wasn’t she?” Nodding my head, my eyes tracing the water colour painting my mom had made. And then once again I found myself watching him taking it all in.

“Dad loved to watch her paint, to give her time alone. So, he would try to keep me busy, and she still painted us and not everything she had around her...” I couldn’t stop the smile “She was amazing.” I whispered more to myself.

❁ Collin ❁

I couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Hey, you have to respect a woman that knows what she wants." I listened to her... my eyes moving from the paintings to her and back. They were such beautiful paintings... and it was clear she had a clear style if you put these between other similar pieces by other artists; you could quickly pick out which ones she had painted.

"She really was, and you have so much more of her than that. We aren't half of our mom and half of our father... we are all of both of them. Who we are is determined by how those souls combine to become one person and the paths we choose? For people like #Kenzi... they get all of the parent that chose to stay and the path shapes the rest of them."

I heard her whisper and leaned in to kiss her cheek, I couldn't protect her from missing her parents. I didn't want to; it was something she needed to do... it was something that proved how fiercely they loved her. But I could protect her from missing them alone.... not always but right now. "I would have loved to meet them... but I feel like the more I know you; the more I know them too."

❁ Harper ❁

The kiss to my cheek made me smile some more. How could it be possible to spend time with another person and feel this happy?

#Nova had curled up beside us and was watching with drifting eyes. The baby girl really wanted to sleep, however she didn’t want to miss out on anything.

Setting the paintings down I turned to face him now. I was a little taken aback by what I was hearing him say. For a man to have such in-depth thoughts and a level of understanding had to be refreshing.

“You’re nothing like... I expected you to be you know that?” I quickly continued before he misunderstood me. “I mean, guys I see and talk to, they...”

I thought for a moment. “...they don’t have this level of understanding or insight. They want to drink and party and... well... just have a mad fun time.” He wasn’t like that. Not from what I saw.

“Is there something you are hiding?” I wave my hand in front of him. “You are a weekend party boy in hiding right? It’s all about the raving?” I was smiling and teasing now as I spoke.

I could hear #Kenzi telling me to stop. To stop waiting for the other shoe to drop. And to have some faith.

❁ Collin ❁

I got where she was coming from… but when you had a direct link to the minds of a packs worth of other guys… From the mature, to immature… artistic to wild… enlightened and well…. Not so much. It gave a pretty grounded sense of the world; I had grieved for parents and grandparent. I had felt the heartbreak of more breakups than I had to my name. I missed friends and family that had left or passed away… Sometimes a few of those things all at once. But I had loved people before I really met them or knew them. I had felt the joy of holding your baby for the first time, first kisses… first loves… only loves. The sight of a bride walking to her groom through his eyes... so… I would never trade it. At least… not yet. I smiled at Harper at the thoughts.

I laughed and shook my head at her. “Oh yeah… I’m totally a secret raver. Warehouse parties… body paint… the whole nine yards.” I brushed her hair behind her ear and smiled. “No hiding… but there a lot about me I want to tell you… and a lot about you I want to learn. But we have time… at least… I really hope we do.” My eyes settled on hers and I smiled. “This isn’t like one of those situations when you met someone you like and you feel like there’s a clock ticking down… how fast or slow things are supposed to move. It all feels kind of… limitless, you know?”

❁ Harper ❁

“Oh, I so called it! Warehouse raves... yes... so, you...” I laughed softly, my eyes on him. Goosebumps covered my skin as his fingers brushed my hair out of my face. I listened to him, and what he was attempting to say. And surprisingly some aspect of it made perfect sense. I just couldn’t put my finger on why or how.

However, as we were being honest with one another I felt a pull to tell him my fears. “I know what you mean, and yet I don’t understand why I do.” My eyes were on him, and I knew this was so confusing for me. So, I was sure I wasn’t making any sense to him.

“I’ve always been the one who tells others to slow down, to take their time and to really get to know someone before jumping in. And I do truly believe in this advice. But when I’m with you. I tell you things I’d never tell someone I just met. I feel.... well.... like I can open up to this... to you... and it’s a little scary.” Biting my lips, my eyes dropped a little.

“I don’t have the best track record when it comes to men...”

❁ Collin ❁

I laughed... Spirits... Laughing with her was so easy, so freeing.

I smiled at her saying she was the sensible one, telling people to go slow and take their time. "Yeah, me too." I smiled. At least when it wasn't an imprint. "I have my fair share of bad choices too. The last time... I didn't listen to my own advice... I didn't follow my instincts and it ended badly. But my instincts are telling me to follow my heart now." I smiled, my eyes connecting with hers. "So... here I am."

❁ Harper ❁

Slowly I allowed my eyes to lift until I found him watching me.

My head tilting to the side as I listened to what he was sharing with me. His ex, had been the person he’d gotten #Nova with. My eyes moved to her now asleep, and then back to him.

“We don’t always listen to those small voices, and we really should have some faith in them.” However, the fact that his voice was telling him to be here.

“I’m glad both our hearts are saying the same.” Biting my lips, my cheeks flushing.

❁ Collin ❁

I rested my hand on her shoulder, leaning in with a warm smile. “Me too.” I whispered and pressed a soft kiss to her lips.

The new warmth spread across my chest and my heart pounded. I touched my forehead to hers, the tip of my nose touching hers. My eye closed and the cooler touch of her skin was like a cold compress on a fever. Soothing... relieving. Grounding.

“It’s so much easier to breath when I’m near. Like I never realized how hard it been... until you walk in and there’s suddenly more air.”

The came easily, and there was no regret, no doubt.

❁ Harper ❁

My eyes closed for the moments his lips touched mine. The sweet tenderness from his kiss sent a flush over my cheek, and my ears tickled.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself touching my lips. Smiling, before my hand found his and I squeezed it. Listening to everything he shared with me. “I know the feeling, however add to it that magnetism you bring with you?” Was it mad for me to share this?

“When you come into a room, there is something about you. There is a pull I feel deep in my chest tugging me to you.” I hide my face. Saying it out loud, hearing myself say it. “Sorry, that’s... I hear how it sounds...” lord help me!

“It’s okay if you want to run now.” I half laughed trying to hide my embarrassment.

❁ Collin ❁

I couldn't help but smile when she pressed her fingers to her lips after I'd kissed her. She wrapped her hand around mine and my insides turned to jelly.

I chuckled softly when she got embarrassed. "I like how it sounds." I drew her a little closer and smiled, tilting her face back up to mine. "And I don't want to run, not at all. I've never been more sure of anything in my life than I am of that.

❁ Harper ❁

My heart skipped a few more beats, as his arm moved to draw me in. The warmth I always felt around him making my cheek blush a deep red when he spoke.

“So much for keeping a little mystery.” My voice had become a whisper, and my eyes moved to take in his smile. My deep brown eyes flicker to find his again. “Let’s be foolish together.” I said more as a reminder to myself. The more I gave him chances to walk away the more he moved closer. ( or pulled me in closer. )

The moment froze for me, all I could see was him again, and the sound of the song from my dreams and my time with him hummed in the air.

❁ Collin ❁

I was as still as I could be, like if I moved off made a sound I would shatter the moment. I dare to move my hand just to stroke her hair. "Oh, trust me, Harper. You still mystify me. But something tells me... You'll never stop doing that."

I chuckled softly and wrapped my arm around her shoulder and held her closet me. Spirits... it was like coming home for the first time after far too long away.

"I'm really starting to like the sound of that." I whispered.

❁ Harper ❁

“Me too...” is all I could reply.

Moving into his side I rested my head on his shoulder. It wasn’t something I ever felt I could do. Just rest my head and close my eyes.

But with him, it felt so natural, no thought had to be given into how he would perceive it. And it occurred to me. I didn’t want to run; I didn’t want to push him away. And that thought in itself should have scared the life out of me. And if I were honest with myself, it did.

However, at the same time there had been a whisper in my mind. Telling me to ‘𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒻𝒶𝒾𝓉𝒽’.

“Thank you for today.” Turning my head, I kissed his cheek, before resting back on his shoulder.

We were sat here on the floor of my bedroom, amongst the memories of my past and for the first time, I wanted to see what the future held in its hands for us.