Appointment With A Difference

[Byron]

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Elena was aimlessly milling around the ample hall, agitated, hasty steps were resounding against the walls. Outside, a heavy snowstorm was raging, trademark California Minor, and the severe wind was clashing against the large panorama window showing a snowscape, making it creak, maybe almost crumble. If anything, the storm was by no means conducive to soothing her already uptight mind at all. It only set her teeth on edge even more, she was tearing her hair. Pacing up and down hectically, veering whenever close to a wall and walking back again, she was staring at the metal ground, busy with doing her dyed hair to make it look more or less acceptable. Her steps were echoing and reechoing in the room. To wave about with her hands frantically was merely another, though vain attempt to relieve stress, of which she more than enough already had.

When done with her hair, she leaned against a nearby wall, forcing herself to concentrate for a few brief seconds. She looked around the ample room, inspecting it once again despite her having done that a dozen times already since she had entered. It was a big one, two exit doors opposite to each other. A large table stood in the middle of the room with a few chairs spread around it. Obviously it was some kind of scenic outpost from which visitors could lay eyes on the scenery of California Minor. If there hadn't been that particular snowstorm, it might have been a good sight, she thought. But most importantly, there was an alarm bell situated near one of the doors, easily noticable in its bright red. To some degree, it alleviated her mind, knowing there was something she could do in case of an emergency. And with that sort of business she had got enmeshed in, emergencies were most likely daily fare. While she kept one hand covering her mouth, mostly to keep herself from hyperventilating, the other one pawed at her fastened up leather jacket, feeling the gun that was hidden under it. Elena was well aware a gun would only be an adornment in case the whole story went sideways, but maybe she'd be able to be fast enough to shoot her in the head. All those were naive deliberations though, as she knew she would draw the short straw in the event of this escalating. Elena wasn't able to avoid thinking of a piece of advise she had been given some time ago. Never go on such meetings alone. Now here she was again, had some irony to it, though she couldn't find any bit of it funny. At least this time she knew well what was in store for her, which was at least something.

She was about to get even deeper into the sh.its, she knew. While she could have easily copped out of this whole deal, just by not making an appearance at all, Elena was not a woman of backdowns, and neither could she help thinking it would only make things even worse. If anything, she was not keen on angering her appointment needlessly by not showing up. It was not a woman you would want to antagonize, that much she had grasped. Elena hated acting with no backbone, but she was quite sure backbone could mean death. Not to mention she was in the heart of Liberty, here she maybe even had the edge on said person. This woman creating problems on this planet, risking captivity, was highly unlikely. Hopefully. Elena would have to keep her cool, however intricate it might was. Her heartbeat would probably betray her the very first second of their meeting, but there was nothing she could do about this. Top priority was to clean her mind of anything that could inconveniece her. If she listened closely, she could actually already hear it: the squeaky, girly voice in the back of her mind, pressing for making Elena's life a living hell again. An outbreak of her emotions, like which she had suffered often already, would come extremely amiss. Having no other choice but to disallow it, she tried to think of something else, something that was not revolving around last month's events. It was much the same as with a pink elephant, though. If you were told to not think of one, guess what you would imagine the first.

Elena took a deep breath. In fact, she was on the verge of going into hysterics, but neither could she allow herself that. Again, she tried to clear her mind, still breathing rather fitfully. Momentarily she shot a glance at the panorama again. The weather wasn't getting better. A sigh was audible. Then she delved into her thoughts again. Fabricating lines of words. She would have to get over this fast, as keeping up an act would become more and more difficult with time passing by.

Being in state of agitation was natural, for she was awaiting Enma Loyola.