Chapter 25

It was almost a week since Sil spoke to Rick through Clair and since the beginning of the week, Clair barely saw Rick for more than ten minutes a day. He always left in the morning when she'd still be asleep and come back late at night only to say as much as good night before retiring to his own room. He'd instructed Todd to make sure she took her tea and keep an eye on her while he drove himself to work. She was beginning to feel like he was avoiding her but she wondered why.

The day was almost over and she was bent on talking to him. She struggled to keep herself awake and when her eyes seemed drowsy, she went to wash her face. Just as she was about to give up and retire to her bed, She heard the door open. It was Rick.

Ha! in your face sleepiness.

Rick could see a silhouette beginning to stand a little distance in front of him but couldn't make out who it was. He stopped suddenly and switched on the light to see who it was. It was Clair.

"Why are you still awake? Can't sleep?" He asked with concern.

"No, I'm fine. I just wanted us to talk." She paused. "How was your day?"

"It was normal. What is it you wanted to talk about?"

"Oh! Uhmm... Nothing exactly. Just you know stuff, about how you've been."

"Clair, I'm really tired and I have no time for this."

"Oh yeah. Really? How about we talk about how it seems like you have been avoiding me. How you haven't explained what happened to me the last time I passed out countless times? How about that?" Clair asked anger building within her and almost raising her voice.

"Don't do that, Clair."

"Don't do what?" She asked louder.

"Do not raise your voice at me and do not ask me questions that I do not want to answer. As you can see, I had a very busy day unlike some people who just sat at home doing nothing." Silence ensued with only their harsh breaths sounding in the air. Rick sighed regretting what he said and walked to his room.

Clair, angry and disappointed also walked to her room. Fell on her bed and sobbed into her sheets.

The day had just started when Clair heard a knock on her door. She had woken up a few minutes before the knock though but couldn't bring herself to stand up from her comfort zone. The knock had also brought her to realise that while enjoying the comfort of her bed, she had veered off into her thoughts. Her thoughts about Rick. She was somehow beginning to understand why he kept somethings from her but still she needed to know because it was her life.

She rolled her eyes and stirred on her bed as a reply to the first knock. She covered her ears with her pillow when the knock persisted. Tired of hearing the persistent knock on the door, she finally stood up from her bed and made to answer the door. She opened the door as her eyes met the clear blue eyes of the man standing at her door.

"Uhhmm.. Good morning." She said.

"Good morning. So..." He followed her as she walked back into the room. "I would like you to have dinner with me."

"Oh, is that it? You want me to? Yea right. You can have your fancy dinner with Todd for all I care."

"Hey, okay. Would you like to have dinner with me?"

"Now that's right. Yes I would." She said smiling forgetting that there were more reasons why she should be angry with him.

"Seven?."

"Yes, Seven is fine." Clair made sure Rick left the room before she squealed out of excitement and jumped onto her bed.

About an hour after Rick had left her room, she perceived the sweet smelling savour of breakfast.

Rick's chef is just amazing. She thought. She smiled as her stomach gave a little rumble as if to tell her that it was ready for business. She went down to the kitchen/dinning to see the chef display his talent.

"Oh Grover! You are the best I can smell..." She stopped in her tracks and mid sentence. There was a chef alright, but it definitely was not Grover. It was Rick. The CEO, Erick Silver.

"Huh?" He looked at her for a second, then turned to continue chopping the vegetables. She watched in silence as he held on to the knife and skillfully chopped the vegetables that laid on the chopping board. He cooked on, paying no attention to the salivation his cooking caused her.

"I see. So you cook." She said taking a seat at the dinning table. "I wonder what kind of stomach ache I would get from this handwork of yours." She mocked him failing as she tried to keep a sick face. They laughed. Silence ensued after the laughter, then Rick said.

"I'm sorry about yesterday. I shouldn't have said or done that."

"It's fine. We all have things that wile us up once in a while. And I pushed a bit" She said with a smile. There was silence.

"Well, yea. I do agree with you on that." He said as their eyes locked.

"So is this like a bribe or something. Something to make me forgive the mighty you?" She said releasing them from their gaze.

"So you still up for dinner?"

"Yea, sure. Anything for food." Clair rose her glass and they clinked their glasses to that.

It was dinner time and Rick had dressed up in his fancy suit waiting for Sil. Todd went up to Claire's room to get her. She had been quite confused about the impression she wanted to give. Whether to go for the its-just-casual-friends-dinner look or the i-kinda-like-you look or her usual stark and masculine look. Funny enough, after all the confusion, dressing, undressing and redressing, she decided to go for chic but simple. It was surprising how the new clothes Rck had gotten her fitted her figure perfectly. As usual, she took extra time for her hair. It was after two styles and restylings that she realised that she was putting too much effort to her look. She chuckled to herself and choose to go with just a simple let down hair style. Ready for dinner, she followed Todd down the stairs to where Rick waited for her.

"Bang." A shot rang through the air. Rick and Clair had just arrived at where the car was parked waiting for them. The shot was heard just as both of them stepped out of the car. Todd was beside Clair holding the door open for her.

"Down! Down!" He shouted. He had not noticed Rick writhing with pain on the floor. Clair noticed this and ran to Rick's side. The car from which the shooter had shot sped past them into the road to exit the island.

"No! No!! No!!! Rick stay with me. Call 911." She said to Todd who had just ran to join her at Rick's side.

"No don't!" Rick managed to say with his eyes closed. But Todd already ran off to the other side of the car to get his phone. She was just about to press down the blood when she saw something almost impossible happen.

"Eric? are you?" Clair's eyes went wide as the blood pouring from Eric's chest began to flow backward from where it pooled on the floor, back into the bullet wound. She sat there holding him up. The blood soaking her hands also began to make its way back inside his body. Then his eyes opened.

Clair dropped him back to the ground. One hand over her mouth and the other waving around, gesturing to him, then the spot on the floor that should be covered in blood.

"What the? Oh my God, what is going on? What just happened" She wasn't really asking, just ranting.

"What the holy fuck are you? Are you even human? What is this place? Oh my god! Are you going to eat me?" The look on her face said she believed it. Her eyes were so wide they threatened to absorb her entire face. "I want off this island! you hear me? Get me the fuck out of here now!"

Eric sat up, rubbing his chest where the bullet made its way out, and the wound had begun to sew itself shut. Clair walked to him and rubbed his chest too.

"But... But you were just. Why the hell did I even agree to this whole thing?"

"Clair, I'm not going to hurt you. I don't want to hurt anyone. My life's work has been to prevent death, and I've gotten very good at it." Clair started to breathe again, but she could smell bullshit.

"No, that wasn't some miracle of science! that was fucking unnatural! The way the blood... Either you tell me exactly what is going on and who and what you are, or you'll have to keep me as a prisoner because I'm out of here." Her chest was heaving now. She looked more pissed off than scared. She walked towards nowhere in particular but stops and covers her face with her hand.

"I almost got killed, I've been losing track of time, passing out and throwing my guts up like I've got some horrible disease and now I get to find out that the man I've been staying with is some kind of thing? Is my life going to get any worse? I should've just listened to Hailey. Oh shit! You know what? I need to leave this fucking place right now. Someone tell me how the hell I can get out of this place."

"You wouldn't believe me, even if I told you. it wouldn't change anything. You'd still leave, you'd still be terrified of me. I don't blame you. I'll get Todd to take you in the chopper as soon as the island's locked back down." Aelfric said trying to hold her and sounding as though he had just lost everything again.