PARIAH

Avoiding

Chapter 39

My eyes suddenly shoot open. I push myself off the couch and look around me expecting for some huge explosion to have woken me up they way I did.

Breathless, I take a look around me. I'm met by the crackling fireplace and the cozy eeriness of the dark room. Alone, I try to real in the film in my brain, desperate to remember what I dreamed.  The thing I saw prior to waking up have left me with an uneasiness inside. I don't know what to think or how to feel and the worst part is not knowing what made me feel this way.

At least, I can be thankful that Vico and Nathan are nowhere around. I am not in the mood for a fine piece of scolding to be handed to me on a silver platter. They both told me, in the hospital, that the moment I was back from Milan, I had to to go see them and explain the truth. To be fair, I landed at midnight, last night, and I have been sleeping this whole time.

Honestly, at that time, before the trip, I was so busy trying to come up with a credible lie to tell Pope and Tito that I could not give less of a care as to what the guys wanted me to do after the trip.

I ended up telling the oh-so-holy In Tenebris leaders that I was at UniCredit headquarters. Not a lie. To meet with someone who was to bankroll our future endeavours. Technically, not a lie. And this person was to agree to allow In Tenebris in positions of power. Still, not a lie.

Come to think of it, I didn't lie at all. Well, I did specifically mention bankers and investors from the European Central Bank, but the President is investing his time and banking In Tenebris members in his government and he technically oversees the ECB.

God, I'm one of them. Manipulating words and taking advantage of technicalities. You know what? You know, if I'm doing anything, it's lawyering them and I do it better than them.

I force myself out of bed because I need to prepare the meeting that will take place today between Jada, George, Pope and Tito. The Walker-Arthur duo hasn't said anything about it yet, but I'm almost sure this is when they will be telling them both what they have been planning against them this whole time. Today will possibly be the end of Tito and Sir Theo's reign. For people that are putting the lives of my family on the line just to keep me as an employee, they should at least let me in on everything they're doing.

I pick up the remote on the table between the couches and I turn on the TV that was hidden by the curtains behind my assigned sleeping couch that I had never noticed before. I've always went in that corner to change behind the folding screen, but never thought of pulling aside the curtain.

I turn it to the news channel to serve as my favourite white noise of the moment.

"As of today, June 4th 2016, the US president has..." the American news anchor starts. I tilt up my head from folding my clothes to check the time on the TV. 12:34 PM. Great. I slept in. A lot. Well, what did I expect from having rested a total of four hours in the past 48 before I got in last night.

I clean up, my room and myself, before changing and going straight to work.

I rush to Tito's office. I first make myself comfortable at the desk and get the job Jada and George asked of me, done. I call into the hotel where I've set up all the important people we've blackmailed and bribed to be in Rome. I don't want to work for In Tenebris, let alone have to do two different jobs for this society because it has more than one leader.

Once I'm done doing my rogue mission of a copious amount of phone calls for one pair, I organize for the weaker duo of leaders. This has practically become a weekly job for me. I clean up the papers, put them in the right files. Only this time, I have to put aside anything they will need for the meeting later today. Any financials they want Jada and George to take care of, any mew members they want to initiate and very unfortunately, I also have to grab the folder all about my leadership plans.