A.N. Sorry for the LONG delay, I've been having a hard time in my life right now, I almost lost someone very near and dear to me to suicide so uh, yeah. If this sucks it's because I have no emotions right now.
Two Faced Souls
By: AAHB ShadowFox
Chapter Five
Bouvetoya
"If you believe everything you read, better not read."
Japanese Proverb
Lethargically she walked, a pang of wear at her muscles. Lex proceeded to the night cast of the ships decks, awaiting her was the forge of ghoulish flesh stretched of temper over Manak's face. It wasn't her fault that she was tired, that this late night escapade was dragging her senses into the utmost drear.
He studied her, his spheres unanimated, inertly controlling her feelings. Unnerved, Lex glanced towards the world above her. A sky of navy seemed somehow securing, the stars tracing wonders across the atmosphere as if stitched avidly by hands unseen, each a brilliant sparkling pendent. Amongst the fabric, impressions of paint wave in the cosmic winds, luminous of greens and blues, yellows and curtains of pigments in between, free of cloud blemishes. What an anomalous backdrop to her turmoil wringed innards.
"Mrs. Woods," Manak's calm drawl withdrew her attendance from the sky, lowering to meet soulless eyes. Shuffling against the icy floor of the deck she permitted her legs to stop a few feet from him, not daring to get any closer or further.
"This way Mrs. Woods," his politeness was far more ominous than a demanding bark would have been. To her his feigned gentlemen tone was a stabbing indication that he had uncouth thoughts on his mind, all of which he was trying to keep under screening. He certainly wasn't a tyro at this game, he assured as he moved towards a helicopter, a smaller one left for emergencies only.
The icy stir that swept over the frozen sea nipped at Lex's bare cheeks, arctic fingers curiously rustling her winter wear. Despite, Lex began to move, trudging forth to the copter, making note that not another soul was around. Surely there had to be someone, but only that innate lonesome dread crept over her spine, leaving her helpless and sunken.
As she climbed into the side seat of the cockpit, fastening her belt with unsteady digits, it was a wash of sudden realization that redeemed her irresolute. It is in the circumstantial detail, the embellishing touches of probability, the general air of scrupulous, almost of pedantic, veracity, that the experience is recalled from forgotten.
OO
The hole. A vast emptiness that overpowered the mind and the senses, it lay dormant, quiet of all dust and debris now. From the side window Lex could observe it, a lurch in her stomach reminding her of the circumstances which forgone the islands heart. Where once stood a ghost town, cups frozen to tables, stories quiet as the oil mill, was now blackness.
The shaking of the airborne craft strictly woke Lex from her dreaming, her hands finding something, side of the seat, chest strap, anything to grip.
"Don't like the descend?" Manak grunted with amused cur, his voice an anchor for the already strewn minded Lex to rely on for distraction.
"I've done this before. Plus, I climb mountains Detective, I think I can handle a little descend," her voice was shaky with the rattle of the copter, but still held a relish of derision. As the aircraft reached the icy snow of the island, a fair ways from the crater, the windows were filled with rising snow left from a late, short, snowfall before they began to Bouvetoya. The length of the blades above them whistled and screamed against the air as Manak began to shut down the transports engine. The mechanics of it clanked, hollow, dismiss of rhythm.
A few more switches flicked down were all that was needed for the power of the metallic beast to sleep. Manak sat back in the fabric of the seat, his mannerism blasé. Lex side glances at him, wondering what now, what was next. The uprising of snow about them finally began to rest back to its place, or on parts of the copter itself.
"How are you feeling right now?" He asked, it was simple, no malice in his voice, almost as if attempting to start a friendly conversation. It was a trick, no doubt.
"Kind of cold, tired."
"No. How do you feel? Emotions." Lex watched him, not once did he look at her; merely he peered out the front, watching small gusts of wind play with the snow on the windshield. Her mind filled with wonders, what was his masquerade now? Why did he care what she felt?
"I don't know," She glanced to see what he was looking at, but discovered nothing of interest. Her fingers twiddled with the fastener at the end of the belts securing her to the seat.
"Come now, Mrs. Wood," his eyes finally traced along the dash, finding themselves the face of the undefined Lex, "you know what you feel. You feel dread, fear…." His voice began to roll off his tongue in quiet persuasion, "you're confused, unsure."
"I'm afraid you're mistaken," Lex let his words remain untouchables, he couldn't sway her intuitions. Manak, though, mirrored her, remaining subdued in his emotions.
"Get out." Lex peered at him, taken back but his sudden monotone blurt.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me, Mrs. Woods, but I will repeat myself," He reached over and grasped the fastener that Lex has earlier been playing with the snapped it open with forced pressure from his thumb, "get out." Lex at first merely stared at him before complying with his demand, finding it futile to argue and forced the door open. The cold blasted her in the face as she climbed out of the copters relatively warm enviroment into the dismal cold of Bouvetoya Island, gripping the tot bag to her shoulder. The snow was hard beneath her feet, crunching as she took a few steps back and slammed the door closed against the resisting force of the wind.
Manak stared her down from the other side of the copter before he too unfastened his belt and maneuvered from the vessels confinements. Marching over, boots smothered in ice, he came into clear view of Lex once more, a calmed composure falling over him, but a hint warned of an undermining verge.
"What now?" Lex inquired, sweeping her hand out towards a distant nothingness, "Now that we're here, like you wanted."
With a petite simper he retorted with a surely dogma, "We're here to jump start you're pretty little head," He stepped towards her, "this landscape will give you the incentive I need to get you to open your mouth and tell me what you know and what you really did here." He ceased his proceed a foot adjacent to her. With narrowing eyes, Lex studied him. Something cold within her leapt, a panther of doubt suddenly devouring her once courageous assumptions. The cold wind, burning against her cheeks gave no help in the situation. A thousand miles from help, civilization, only a foot from a man who looked to her as a scandalous criminal. Scrupulous attention fell on his hands that hovered close to his hips, as if readying for something close to his digits.
"Maybe you can't handle the truth, Detective Manak," she evenly countered. A fire exploded behind the male's eyes, he strode forward, his eyes piercing into Lex's with thirsty spears of unforeseen gratification. He took her chin between his lithe fingers and forced her face towards his own towering above.
"That's exactly what I want, my dear," He lowered his face towards her, taking enjoyment in her futile struggle to lean from him, "a truth I can't handle."
Lex felt his breath against her face before it crystallized into the cold air. She glared at him as he rose from her and retracted his hand. Her lips pursed in disgust, trying to keep quiet the beast that wanted to right out and blast him in the face.
Peering to the side she warranted her patience on barren scenery. What sort of detective was he! Surely a determined one, far too determined of one. As the detective filtered away back to the copter to retrieve a momentarily forgotten item Lex could sense finally the boil in her stomach begin to settle. Her arms rose to fold over her chest.
The air shifted, an abnormal interference. Lex flicked her eyes towards it, thinking it was the wind but found a short interest in it. The air moved in an unstressed line, the newly lifted snow became contorted in the vision. Lex watched the ghostly contortion before it disappeared as if never there. The breath was caught in her throat only after it had dissipated, a dark feeling overwhelming the bowels of her mind. She became suddenly aware, but she wasn't sure what she was now suddenly aware of.
The moon, in shrinking size, became engulfed by a cloud as it reprimanded its presence, casting a new brand of shadow over Bouvetoya.
E.N. Thanks to all of my readers! I love you all! If you want to contact me you can reach me on AIM at CONtayJUS666 or on Yahoo! Messenger at hekubinsentsu. I'd love to hear from you! Next chapter up soon! I hope.