Ice Cream (RP)

Emma sighed to herself. She and David could barely make rent, and Eliot there was picking up properties like gum at the checkout. If she did feel guilty over taking his cash, it would have evaporated in that very moment. All his acquisitions didn't mean anything to her, but just the same, she pulled up a map on her browser and started pinning the locations one after the other, wondering if some pattern might emerge

That's interesting...

The tracker logs were more troubling. She had expected him to vanish outside the city, not right in the middle of his own domain. Hyde Park seemed to be a confluence of supernatural activity - of the worst kind. Demonic activity. Disappearances. Lots of different factions were interested in what was going on in there. Vampires. Cults. Wizards. Maybe Eliot was dragged into some kind of dark portal, the same way she had?

She stopped for a moment to listen to the rain at her window. Her cozy bed was so much more appealing then going out in this weather at this hour and start her investigation. This could wait for tomorrow. And besides, she couldn't go alone, not after what happened in the penthouse...

Closing her laptop, she leaned back, her fingertips brushing against the smooth skin of her thigh. She still found it hard to believe it wasn't some sort of an illusion, and felt compleled to make sure she wasn't dreaming it all. It has been a long day, and she was tired, but there was another concern still in her mind. She called Bev last night to fetch her some clothes so she could leave the hospital. She even left her a couple of messages, and still haven't heard back from her. She wanted to believe she was busy, but the long silence was starting to bother her.

If there was no message from her by morning, she would stop by her apartment to check up on her, she decided.

Curling up against David's body, she closed her eyes at last and fell asleep.

It was still dark outside when Emma slipped out of her apartment. She would have loved another hour in her cozy warm bed, but she was growing increasingly worried for Bev, so much that she had trouble going back to sleep. She kissed David goodbye and murmured something about having to go to work, then tiptoed out, careful not to wake her parents-in-law still sleeping on her living-room sofa.

The sky was still black at that hour, a shade deeper than the usual depressing gray. She took the Underground to Kennington, trying to focus on her phone rather than the odd early birds on the train.

Bev lived in a quiet working class neighborhood, long rows of old gray houses darkened by a century of soot. Most of the houses were partitioned into flats a long time ago, and most of the residents were the type who had no choice but squeeze into the tiny apartments. Bev's building, however, was one of the better kept ones on the row.

Slightly damp from the rain, she closed the umbrella and approached the doorway. She waited for a response after pressing the buzzer, but there wasn't any. She slipped inside the building when someone emerged from the building, brushing past him quickly. She walked past a couple of bicycles leaning against the wall, and climbed up the three flight of stairs as she closed her umbrella and took off her wool beanie hat, running her fingers through her damp hair.

Standing in front of Bev's apartment, she started to consider her options. Leaving and calling the police for a welfare check wasn't a bad idea, but who knows how many hours or days could pass until they declare her missing and do something about it? She was right here, wasn't she? Picking the lock did go through her mind, but knowing Bev, she likely had a spare key with one of the neighbors. She decided to try the door across the hallway, the one with the few potted plants outside. If whomever was living there didn't have a spare key, they could perhaps know who might, or at least tell her what they know about Bev's whereabouts.

It was really hard not to show how irritated she was over the old woman’s choice of words, but she managed it, if just barely. As much as it annoyed her to see Bev reduced to her sexual orientation, she knew that quelling with her wouldn’t serve her agenda. She needed to get inside Bev’s apartment; her safety was more important than arguing with an intolerant old hag.

She took a deep breath to calm herself, and to keep her voice steady:

"Oh, no. Nothing like that. I’m just a friend of Beverly’s" she decided to go with the truth. At least, a part of it. "No one’s heard from her in days. I’m worried" she let a hint of urgency slip in, hoping she would understand this wasn’t just idle concern "Maybe you could open the door, and we could check on her together? I’m sure you would want to know what’s going on too…"