Snippet #2409819

Donovan sat for a moment, savoring the taste of the croissant. He was still reeling from the sudden influx of information. First, he was being hunted. Second, people were offering him refuge. Granted, these were the same people who had stolen his wallet and then lured him here with it, so what was to say they weren't the ones behind all of this? Donovan huffed to himself, then stood up and approached the young girl, as well. He'd heard the acceptances of the other three, and with such social pressure, who was he to refuse? This was going a bit far just to get his wallet back, but he'd take what he could get if people were trying to kill him. He didn't exactly want to take chances if he would have to, 'expect death within the week,' otherwise.

Coming to a stop in front of the girl, he didn't bother kneeling to talk to her as he said, "I'll take you up on your offer, as well." He expected that more questions were to come, so he didn't say a word. Neither did the girl. She let the three stand there for a minute in silence before extending her hand so quickly Donovan hardly caught it before her small hand was around his wrist. Out of reflex, he pulled it gently away from her, but her grip was firm, so he let it alone at his side, looking down with curiosity at the young girl who stood before the four of them and staving off the urge to apologize to her for trying to hit her hand away. The urge, however, was quelled suddenly when something else called out for his attention.

There was a voice in his head. A young girl's voice. In all his years of hallucinating, years he spent questioning reality itself, he had never once heard the disembodied voice of a girl in his head before. Its voice was sweet yet unnerving, not unlike a music box in a silent room with terrible dampening or a lullaby on a stormy night. Out of place. What it said to him, however, was what caught his attention.

Would you ask the others to please take my hand?

Donovan, though shocked, obliged, seeing no reason to refuse. How, exactly, to word the statement escaped him, so he simply murmured, "She'd like you to take her hand." As if on cue, the girl pushed up the sleeve of her dress and extended her arm to the other three, still not speaking a word.

After waiting a few moments, the girl's face twisted in concentration. Donovan wondered, wary, what she was doing. A telepath? Was that how she was putting words in his head? He certainly wasn't hallucinating her, as the others were all reacting to her presence, as well. Or were they, too, hallucinations, and he was just acting like a crazed man in the middle of a café? But the girl cut off his more paranoid thoughts with her own, high and bell-like. Interrupting him. Either she was very rude or she couldn't read minds. If it was a case of the latter, he was very relieved. He did value his privacy, living alone after spending his childhood an only child.

My name is Elsie. First, I apologize for my father's dramatics. Second, I apologize for my inability to speak— I'll have a whiteboard in a minute, if you'd like to have a more coherent conversation. Third, and most importantly, I'll be answering any questions you might have now that you've all accepted our offer. The girl glanced at the group with a small, polite smile. As for 'who the Hell I am,' all you'll need to know, moving forward, is that I'm to monitor and document your progress to ensure your safety over the course of the next few weeks... or months, depending on how long this takes. As you well know, nothing comes for free, and in exchange for your own safety, we request that you perform a number of tasks for us to cover various... fees. She paused, glancing up at the ceiling, trying to find the next few words. And, as it happens, the very first is right here in San Francisco. How do you all feel about heading to a party tonight?

Donovan took a double-take at the girl. She was grinning like— well, like a girl who'd just announced she was going to a party. Was he really losing it? Resisting again the impulse to shake off her hand, he watched the others for a reaction just to verify his own sanity.

That said, he was verifying his sanity via a winged man and two women in red jackets, so he wasn't sure how definitively it would work.