Post by multipleminds on Nov 21, 2013 23:58:24 GMT
Chapter Fourteen
A knock on the front door aroused Lester from his thoughts. He paused thinking of who could possibly be visiting today. Lester nor Philip had invited anyone over. Lester rose from his chair, neatly tucking it under his desk, and proceeded to exiting his room. As Lester entered the hallway, Philip bounced out of his room energetically claiming he’d get the door. Lester nodded, though he doubted very seriously that Philip had noticed in his rush to answer the unexpected visitor.
Lester followed at a slower, calmer pace behind him wanting to make sure there was no trouble, and generally speaking, most visitors asked to speak to him anyway because he was the leader. As Lester entered the living room, however, Philip jumped over to his side blocking his path. Lester at first thought it was some game, since Philip had been known for such play, but when Lester attempted to go around him Philip wouldn’t allow it again. It was then Lester stopped and looked down at him for an explanation.
“It’s the Athenos again.” Philip whispered lowly. Lester creased his eye brows deep in thought before realization struck him.
“Where is Christopher?” Lester asked. There was a pause before Philip suddenly took off to Novec’s room. Lester waited, despite the fact that the knocking continued. When Philip’s rant in Spanish reached Lester’s ears, Lester knew he’d been right. Novec had indeed gone out again. Lester closed his eyes a moment sighing deeply and briefly praying he hadn’t been killed. Lester should’ve paid more attention. He should’ve known. He’d thought he’d locked his window… but of course, when had a lock ever stood in Novec’s way? Lester had been too hopeful, and now he was going to have to deal with the mess. He opened his
eyes and then paced out to the door.
“Lester, he’s not there.” Philip said as he reentered the living room a tad bit of fear creeping into his voice. Lester nodded.
“I know. I shall handle it.” Lester replied calmly. He then opened the door facing the Athenos at his doorstep. “Evening Athenos.” He nodded to all of them. He mentally took note that everyone was there except Alana…
“Is Novec here?” Jack asked almost immediately. Lester hadn’t expected a proper greeting from him, but at the rushed urgency in his voice was unsetting. Lester hesitated a moment. Even if Novec was here, Lester wouldn’t allow the Athenos near him. He knew better then that. He knew that had it been his member brutally executed, he too would have the desire to strike it even with whomever had done it. Not that Lester expected the Athenos to lash out at Novec with all of the Humanitarainers around, but he could never be too careful.
“Regrettably not, Jack.” Lester replied carefully. “What is it you wanted him for?” He hoped again that Alana not being present was only a rare coincidence.
“The Atheno’s have him kidnapped.” There was a prolonged pause as both Lester and Philip stared at the Athenos in shock and confusion that they’d actually just admitted to something like that so bluntly.
“What?!” Philip finally demanded angry and concerned. The Athenos must’ve trusted the clan to remain calm during this news, for Lester could see others react in quite another way. Lester shot Philip a look to silence him immediately and to make sure he wasn’t going to lunge out at the Athenos demanding Novec back. It wouldn’t be wise and could hurt their chances for a safe return of their member. Lester begin plotting the situation logically and realized he’d have to give in to Jack’s requests, whatever they might be.
“I am listening, Jack. What is it you want?” Lester asked, his tone sharper and carefully measured.
Jack suddenly seemed to realize how the statement sounded and immediately backtracked trying to get his message across clearer.
“It’s not us. It’s the other Athenos from another dimension.” Jack’s tone became more and more awkward with each word realizing how crazy that must’ve sounded as well. Lester blinked once and gave a polite smile that didn’t reach his eyes. He wasn’t sure how to reply to such nonsense. He tried not to look at Jack like he was completely stupid, but found he was having some trouble.
“Pardon me, I didn’t hear you right. Could you repeat that?” He finally asked hoping that perhaps he hadn’t heard him right. Had Jack lost his mind maybe? Lester could hear Elizabeth enter the room and scoff loudly.
“What are they doing here?” She demanded to assumedly Philip who begin briefly filling her in quietly in the background, but Lester attempted to block out his member’s voices focusing on Harmony, who’d decided to attempt to clarify Jack’s statement.
“They’re in their dimension, the other pack. And they have Novec and they plan to torture and kill him.” Harmony said quickly. Philip head’s snapped up at the statement.
“You plan to do what with Chris?” He demanded.
“It’s not us!” Harmony exclaimed back. “The other pack’s from a different dimension! It’s not us…they just look like us.”
“I will politely ask you to leave now.” Lester said staring at Jack with a blank, humorless expression. He wasn’t sure what was going on but joking of killing one’s member was not a good way to keep any leader’s respect. With the story they were telling, it was obvious to Lester that they were either mocking and trying to make a fool of him, or that they had really lost it and therefore Lester could not help them and found it risky to keep around psychotic werewolves.
“But it’s true!” Drake insisted. As Lester was about to ask the Athenos to leave again, Polly suddenly ran into the room adding to the noise and chaos.
“Lester! Lester! Lester!” Cried a teenage girl with long auburn hair. A device was held tightly in her hand. Lester tried not to show his slight irritation that his clan was acting so wild in front of the Athenos today. He couldn’t blame them, they were only required to calm down and act civilized in public, but since they were still in the warehouse the rules seemed not to apply.
Lester turned to address Polly and then paused seeing the device in her hand. He meet her eyes with disapproval and she quickly looked away as if just remembering it was breaking his rules to have the device out. “I know, I know.” She quickly amended. “But just listen, will you?”
“Perhaps this can wait, Polly?” Lester asked preferring not to expose such chaos to the Athenos. Though Lester knew the pack’s opinion of them was not really an opinion he valued per say, but having the clan’s true flaws in behavior in the open for anyone, including enemies, was just embarrassing in a sense.
Polly’s eyes flickered to the Athenos outside and she straighten up immediately eyeing them all suspiciously before turning her attention back to Lester.
“Lester, look, please?” Polly pleaded placing the device in his hands and pointing to the message. Lester reluctantly did so trying to settle his clan down a bit. He then looked back at Polly curiously.
“What is this?” He asked handing her back the device.
“I don’t know. I don’t know who these people are.” Polly replied honestly. Philip came over and took the device from her reading the message as well.
“Who’s Salt?” Philip asked out loud.
“I don’t know.” Polly shrugged.
“What’s Demmy 876?” He questioned.
"It's the dimension of the other Atheno pack." Jack said desperately, trying to think of a way to explain without looking insane. "They have Novec there because he killed their Brandon! They want revenge!" Jack knew how illogical this sounded, but he had to get it through their heads somehow. "Look.....Just come with us and we can prove it. Isn't it better than risking the life of one of your members?" Jack had to challenge Lester. He knew very well that this sentence would convince him, but he wasn't sure about the vampire.
"Pardon me for sounding blunt, but risking lives would be exactly what I would be doing if I choose to come with you." Lester shot back thinking over what Jack was saying. All of it sounded like nonsense to him. Why would Jack be here in the first place over one of his members? Two and two didn't seem to add up to Lester. "I have no reason to trust your word. Since when have you ever cared of any of my member's lives, especially Christopher's? Even if the situation were true, I would still question your motives. Malicious motives could befall my whole clan, which is something I'm not willing to risk." His clan behind him had fallen silent. He could feel some wanting to say something but held their tongues knowing Lester was only doing what best for them, or what he considered would be the best for them.
Jack nodded in agreement, feeling the usual annoyance that washed over him whilst in Lesters presence. Jack knew that the vampire had no reason to trust him and he knew that he would be the same way if Lester came to his door with such a story, but all the same, Jack hated to be questioned. Especially by Lester, whom he always felt was challenging him.
"However..." Lester paused looking straight at Jack for any indication he was lying. "I shall come with you for Christopher's sake." Lester then turn back to his own clan and looked to Philip. "Make sure no one else leaves, Philip(e)."
"Lester....I need to come with you." Philip objected. Lester shook his head. "This could be a trap."
"Then I would diffinately prefer you to stay here and safe-guard." Lester replied firmly. "It shall not take too long to come to a negocation of some kind." Lester then looked to Polly. "Polly, will you please bring me my...'device'?" He requested and she nodded clearly not approving of his decision either but decided not to voice her opinion.
Jack and Bridgette pulled out their own devices. Jack eyed Lester. "I just wanted to point out that I don't care about your precious 'Christopher'. I just know that saving his damn life is the right thing to do and call me cliche', but I value that sort of thing....Even if he doesn't." Jack added scornfully as they waited for Polly to return with Lesters device.
Lester nodded. "Glad to have that cleared." He replied as Polly came back in the room handing him his device. He felt uneasy taking it. These devices were far different than anything he'd ever seen. He was willing to bet they were well beyond their time, but he couldn't figure out why they kept recieving them. "I shall be back soon." He told to the clan.
"Y si no estás?" Philip asked. Lester paused a moment having to translate that in his head.
"Then do what you think is best." Lester replied before stepping outside with Jack and Bridgette. He hoped he wasn't walking into a trap, however, Lester couldn't ignore this. If Jack and Bridgette did know where Christopher was, then it was Lester's job to go get him. Lester wasn't sure about the clones and alternative dimensions, but he did know that the device had lead him into a strange white room like magic and so perhaps whatever it was they were saying could be true. Lester however, did not trust them, and was watching both very closely.
"Okay, now go to the main menu on the device and click on the dimension options and type in 876." Bridgetter instructed, "Then I figured out that you can type in names. I'll type in my name. It'll track down Salt, leading us to the dopplegangers." She quickly typed 'Bridgette Darnell' into her device and an orange dot appeared, along with the rest of the dopplegangers surrounding Novecs red dot. "Just type in any of our pack members names. It'll take us to the doubles." Bridgette hoped that she wasn't confusing Lester too badly. This was a lot to take in, she was just learning herself.
Lester stood silently trying to understand what she was telling him. She was typing in her name to track down Salt? Didn't that mean her and this Salt were the same people? A blue dot appeared labeling Bridgette outside of the Atheno cabin. There were several other dots labeling the rest of the Atheno members. There was then one red dot labeled Novec in the middle of all this. Lester looked a bit alarmed but then creased his eye brows in confusion when he saw a dot labeling Brandon. Lester looked up at Bridgette curiously.
"It shows Brandon's name." He observed. That fact alone lead Lester to assume this was in fact a set-up. Brandon was dead. Why would they label Brandon's name on the map? Then again... Bridgette had said this was doubles of them. Therefore it was possible that there was a double Brandon, if Lester believed such impossibilities. Yet, that still didn't explain why Brandon's dot was a different color from the rest of the Athenos.
"They want revenge because Novec killed their Brandon instead of ours, remember?" Jack reminded him, but then his voice faltered, ahamed to say his next line. "Our Brandon...feels the same way. He wants to avenge his doubles death by helping the others kill Novec."
Lester struggled to keep up with the information. He was not grasping everything they were saying really. He merely blinked giving them an apoligic look before finally shaking his head. "Please, just show me. I'm afraid I won't understand unless I see this all myself." Lester finally said. It was true. There was so much doubt and confusion with all these explainaions, Lester knew he was not going to believe them without proof. He wasn't sure what to really expect, but seeing Novec's name did leave Lester uneasy. He would have to hope that Jack and Bridgette would really lead him to his member. What would happen after that, he wasn't sure. He supposed he'd figure something out.
Jack and Bridgette sighed, exchanging uneasy looks as they pressed the switch button on their devices, after instructing Lester to do the same. They weren't sure how well this was going to work, but trying was the only thing that they could do.