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The first few times I had met him, he had seemed pleasant enough, lately though I had an inkling that things had changed with him and it was beginning to show in his dealings with Sam and I, mostly with Sam. I felt a little on edge as one of my guards told me he was due to visit again, sure enough, the illusive and secretive Director of Requiem appeared at the door to my room and the tests begun. Today, I was charged with a gruesome task, a member of the Omega group was brought into my room, tied to a chair and left there as the room was cleared, leaving me, the Director and the soldier to ourselves. Needless to say, the experience wasn't exactly nice, once I had done as I was told the body of the soldier was removed and disposed off.
“Today vas a good day”
His words echoed in my head, my rational mind trying to make sense of them, yet I came back to the same thing again, I knew we were gearing up for something big and I knew that was why these tests were being done. He wanted both of us to be able to call upon these abilities a the drop of a hat, so that when it came and it was definitely coming, we would be ready to stop it. As I was internalizing all this information, a part of me was half staring at the lone camera in the top corner of the room, I really didn’t care at this point if I was being watched at all times, I kinda always knew that was the case but when the camera actually pivoted to face me I found myself a little freaked out. I tried to sleep, failing miserably, spending the entire night awake and aware, it begun to show in my test performance and I could tell the Director was not happy. He insisted he would be returning later that day to have a ‘friendly chat' as he had put it and immediately I was on high alert.
It started of fine, he mentioned the progress, stating that he is pleased by this in the short time frames, among other reasons and then his demeanour changed almost instantly, a flick of a switch. His face contorted with anger, arms gesturing wildly as he ridicules me on my string of incompetence with these last few tests and that he is extremely disappointed with the relapse, slamming his fists on the table we were sitting at, causing me to startle a little. Instead of getting frightened of him, as I had done in the past, my tired brain wasn't processing far enough ahead and my mouth literally ran itself before I could stop it.
“What the fuck is wrong with you”
He stopped talking, eyes wide, he seemed almost shocked by my sudden words and then he did something I never thought would happen, he struck me across the cheek, hard and I recoiled from him. Rubbing my stinging face I turned to face him properly, mustering as cold a glare as I could, I watched as his own face changed for a split second and then the scowl remained in place. I didn't stop there, despite the fact that he had hit me, I continued onward, I was going to give this bastard a piece of my mind. I hit him back, same place he had hit me, catching the Director of guard, he lost his balance and ended up on the floor on his backside. “If you think for one second that I am going to tolerate you doing that ever again, you can think again, I don't know who you think you are but I hope like hell that you realise that this is bullshit” I growled, standing over him as he looked up at me from his position on the ground, “I have no idea what is up your ass but you should probably go see a medical professional and have the stick removed”
Without another word spoken, he stood, brushed himself off and left the room, leaving me stunned silent and sick to my stomach. I was done, I was utterly sure of that fact, he was going to terminate me after what I did just then and I spent the entire night awake and pondering my demise. Little did I know, The Director had gone back to his office, speaking to no-one, shutting the door firmly and locking it behind him. A few objects were promptly ejected from the desk in anger, which lasted seconds, his attention was siphoned towards his monitors when he heard faint sobbing coming from the speakers, he knew the sound wasn't coming from Sam's room and he knew why she was crying. The Director sat down in the chair taking up position in front of his network of camera surveillance, gazing towards the camera in my room, he watched as I remained awake all night, something clinging at his heart painfully as he watched my inner turmoil send me into a cycle of emotions. Turning away from the screens with a stifled yawn, he made his way to his sleeping arrangements and lay awake that night thinking over everything that had happened up to this point.
It was a few days later when he resurfaced, I noted that he seemed more muted, distant and to the point, he didn’t seem to take as much time with the tests as he used to and I couldn't help but think it was from what happened earlier. In a way, I felt a little bad about what had happened but mostly I was still wary of him, in case his anger came back and I felt like I was walking on eggshells around him. After about a week of this behaviour, he changed again, going back to his usual demeanour and a part of me wondered what the hell was this guys deal. Things got even more odd on one particular night, he never worked at night, ever, yet here he was, standing in the centre of my room staring at the camera.
“Berlin”
I wrinkled up my nose at this, what the hell did Berlin have to do with anything? I looked at him, awaiting an explanation for this simple statement. He finally meet my questioning gaze, a faint smile forming on his lips as he sighed heavily and asked if he could sit down on the end of my bed. I patted the spot next to me, looking ahead out the only window I had, which showed a large old oak tree and a small strip of grass. “Berlin, vas, vhere I was staying vith my, family” he spoke softly, he rubbed his chin and covered his face with his hands, almost as if saying these words was hurting him and I finally clicked as to what he was trying to say. The Valentina Incident in Berlin, it all made sense now, why his moods shifted so wickedly and why he had been that way since that time. Without thinking I placed my hand on his in an effort to show understanding and comfort, I thought that he would recoil, pull away from me and that this contact was unwelcome.
I should've learnt by now that this man is full of surprises
Instead of pulling away from me, he held my hand tightly, a fraction of a second later I felt him lean into me and rest his head on my shoulder. We stayed like this for what seemed like forever, he told me of his loving Wife and Son, how Valentina’s plot took them away, the spot she had picked to open up a breach in Berlin happened to be merely meters away from where they were staying and the opening of the portal to the Dark Aether had killed them instantly. He was in tears after telling me what happened, having a sinking feeling he was the one to find them after what had gone down, I wrapped my arms around him, trying to hug away all his pain and he returned the gesture, hugging me with a fierceness I had not felt before.
"I'm so sorry for your loss"
I rubbed his back trying to help soothe him, he let out the breath he had been holding in, his tears had stopped and I could sense he was exhausted, “Zhank you, I didn't realise I needed zhat” he said, kissing me on the cheek and making his exit. It left me feeling funny, I wasn't a hundred percent sure of him yet but a part of me felt a care for him, it would be stupid for me to be falling for him, there's no way I like him like that, do I? And even if I was true, me feeling like that, did he even feel the same?
These night time visits kept happening, I learnt more and more about him everyday, turns out he actually has a bit of a sense of humour, making me laugh out loud at one of his stories and he also seems to have a tendency to be a bit, mischievous. It was after 2 weeks of these visits that I finally got the answer to my unspoken question, expecting to see him visit shortly I was slightly confused when one of the guards came by my room. He had told me he was here to escort me, placing me in cuffs, the guard led me through a series of white washed corridors, until we came to a set of rooms, looking quite like office dwellings and we stopped in front of the one that said ‘Director'. The soldier knocked twice, ‘come in’ could be heard from the other side as I was rudely pushed into the large office space and sitting behind a large wooden desk was the Director, he asked the guard to leave us, something he looked to be in two minds about until the Director gave him a stare suggesting the his statement wasn't negotiable and the guard finally left. The Director then turned to me with a rather cheeky smile, I rolled my eyes at him as he removed the hand cuffs, tossing them onto his desk and pulling me into a hug. “Zhis is better” he said, I leaned into his embrace and rested my head on his shoulder, taking notice of the coffee mug sitting on his desk. “Best Director Ever?” I asked pointing at the mug and eliciting a small chuckle from the man I was cuddling into. “It was a gift, from Dr Grey” he explained, leading us to a room adjacent to his office, within this room was a double bed, a side table with a picture sitting on it, I knew who the people within the photo were and I smiled at that. I sat down on the bed, making myself comfortable as he took of his coat and sat down beside me, he glanced at the picture on the side table and smiled, I took his hand gently and gave it a affection squeeze, he turned to face me, using his free hand he rubbed my cheek lovingly and his lips met mine in a sweet kiss. “Ich Liebe Dich” he whispered in my ear as I giggled and kissed him again, laying down with him on the bed. “Mr Touchy Feely, I love you too” I replied earning a wickedly sexy smile from him.
“Edward is fine Liebe”