Appointment With A Difference

[Byron]

The silent, yet still perceptible ticks and tocks her wristwatch were constantly uttering had been bugging Elena a great deal while she was waiting for her rendezvouz to arrive. She had been clandestinely peeking at the time over and over again while having her arms folded in front of her chest and nervously tapping with her fingers on the upper arms. Almost biting her lips open with discomfiture, she gazed at the opposite wall as she tried to look as nonchalant as possible by casually leaning against the metal. Thoughts were rushing through her head. Maybe Loyola wouldn't make an appearance and spare Elena a horribly disgusting meeting. Then again, she knew that was unrealistic, and just a glimmer of vain hope in the end. Loyola would arrive sooner or later, and due to the snowstorm outside a delay was only normal. It would make her lips slip a sigh filled with unease.

She had spent the last minutes bracing herself for what was to come, but when the door creaked open and the blonde figure appeared behind it, Elena's mind promptly emptied out. Quickly glancing at Enma, she tried to pull herself together and establish eye contact, failing promptly. Shying away from looking her into the eyes, she instead weighed her head to the left, copping another look outside the window; except snowflakes over snowflakes rushing by, there was barely anything else visible. Elena would have to begin this conversation already having a lump in her throat by the sheer thought whom she was sharing the room with. It was accelerating her heartbeat even more, and she was palpitating with anxiety. Adrenaline was just as well kicking in, rushing through her veins, yet the kick she got out of this was anything but pleasant. It was angst-inducing.

Assaying to swallow down the lump, her mind was racing to find a proper way to reply, now that she had already fouled the first eye contact up. The vacancy that had infested her mind was of little to no help, as all the lines she had been carefully concocting before had just vanished from one second to the other. It would take her several seconds to come up with an opener, then she just feigned a disbelieving headshake. "Horrible weather today, don't you think?", said she with a thin, feeble voice, doing an acceptably good job at suppressing a tremble. As she willed herself to turn her head around again slowly, she would catch sight of the other person in the room again. Her mien was quite vacant, neither showing joy nor fear, or rather just obscuring the latter. Then though, a small smile - quite factitious it was - which she had to force was litting up her face. Still in a leaning position, Elena ogled Enma. Different to other infectees she had met, this one actually seemed more or less normal from the outside. If she hadn't known better, she would have written this woman off as a usual city chick, just judging from her looks. Frightening was something different, definitely, but it was Elena's meager knowledge of Loyola as a whole that frightened her.

The smile she had put on was already proving to be difficult, as keeping her cool was even more so. "Good evening, Miss Loyola", she said in a cantedly gallant tone of voice, gulping almost audibly and taking a step forward, away from the wall she had been leaning against, opening up her arms.