Eternity

by Teresa Federici

  I had a heart-stopping moment when he shifted, another chuckle floating back to me, and I was certain he had found me. What he was going to do with me was beyond my current capacity for thought, but I froze, waiting for discovery. He started whistling again, and I gave an inaudible whimper of relief.

  I started moving forward again slowly, gaining the second row from the front and moving across the aisle. I had to rest, and I tried to sit as quietly as I could. My protesting legs were stretched out in front of me, and I was trying to rub feeling into them when it hit me.

  I could actually escape. If I could rest my legs enough that I could shuffle over to the door, unlock it, and then bolt out. I could make the stairs before he realized someone had been in the room with him.

  Quite possibly I could take the chance of making a phone call and risk him hearing me. The door was just two workstations away, then a ten foot shuffle, which would put me in plain sight, but he was still intent on what he was doing. I looked at my watch and was amazed to see that only twenty minutes had passed since I saw him in the doorway.

  Where were the night guards? I knew they did rounds, because I had been in here a time or two when they had come in, plus we had monitors in all the labs. Had he disabled them somehow? Killed them? I shivered at that, the tremors wracking my body as I pictured poor Gerry with a bullet in his head. I tried to shake off the image, knowing if I fixated on it, my resolve would falter.

  He had to be about done with whatever he needed off my computer. My research on the mutated gene and broken DNA wasn’t that extensive yet. Taking a deep breath, I decided to go for the door. He might get up any minute, or be ready to stay the night. My legs hadn’t fully recovered, but they would have to do. I pulled them under me, my shoe scraping against the bottom of the cabinet.

  I cringed as it made a sound like fabric ripping, plenty loud enough for him to have heard. He had.

  I heard the stool roll out from under him as he stood quickly, the sound of it crashing into the cabinet loud in the quiet room.

  “Who’s there?” he demanded, and my heart sped up. He did not sound happy.

  “Answer me!”

  What the hell was I supposed to do now? Should I sit quietly and wait for him to resume what he was doing, or make a run for it? Would he even go back to what he was doing? If he left now, he would see me sitting here plain as day, and the row I was in didn’t conveniently have spaces at the end of the workstations that I could shove myself into.

  “If there is someone in here, just have patience. I’ll be with you in a moment.” His voice was so cold, and the words so precise, that it made up my mind for me.

  As I heard him tapping again at the keyboard, I dropped to all fours and crawled as quickly and as quietly as I could towards the door, until I was lying underneath the lock.

  If he really believed someone was in here, wouldn’t he have come looking? The question barely entered my mind when I heard him moving.

  I was out of time.

  Gathering myself, I sprung at the lock, hearing a curse behind me. With a vicious twist I turned it and the knob at the same time, spilling myself out into the corridor with my momentum, just as a chunk of wood came flying off the doorframe.

  My mind tried to process the splinters of wood that swirled around me as I gained my feet and pounded for the stairs, my legs finding a second wind through adrenalin. My breath screaming out of me, I hit the stairwell door just as I heard something ricochet off the steel door and I gained the stairs.

  I practically dove down them, counting landings as I hit them, my brain interested only in survival. I could hear the pounding of feet behind me, and the terror of being pursued almost froze me. My heart threatened to beat out of my chest, and I couldn’t be sure that I wasn’t screaming.

  With just two floors to go, something hit my cheek just as pieces of concrete wall shattered next to me. I pushed my exhausted body forward, asking it for more speed.

  “Bitch, get back here!” I heard him shout, and I hoped that him taking the breath to call to me, gave me a few seconds on him.

  I cleared the last landing and had the door to the lobby in my sights. As I pounded down the last flight of stairs, I drowned out the sound of him closing in on me, knowing that any second I would feel a hand in my hair that was streaming out behind me, feel the pain as he yanked me back by it.

  So when I hit the lobby door and fell out of it, I was completely surprised to not have him right behind me.

  I was equally surprised to see Charlie, the night guard, leap up from the desk and hurry toward me.

  “Miss! Are you alright?”

  I scrambled to my feet, turning to watch the stairwell door, but it didn’t fly open.

  Charlie came to a stop next to me, looking from the door to me.

  “Miss?” he questioned, his hand on my elbow.

  “I was being chased.” I said, turning to look at him. Just before I passed out, I saw his eyes widen as he looked at my face.

  The first thing I noticed was cold hands on my face. The second thing that pierced my consciousness was a stinging sensation in my cheek. The third thing I noticed was a huge sigh of relief blow my hair back from my forehead.

  Then I heard his voice, the relief in it palpable.

  “She’s coming around. Back off, Charlie, let her breathe.”

  I opened my eyes slowly, his brown eyes slowly coming into focus. They were the most glorious sight I could see at that moment. I tried to sit up, but firm, cool hands held me down.

  “Don’t sit up. Paramedics are on their way.” His hands were on my shoulders, curiously cool through my blouse. I looked at him, crouched next to me; my guardian angel.

  “Where is he?” I whispered, my throat sore. I remembered screaming as I came down the stairwell.

  I watched a shadow cross his eyes, and then he was looking up at Charlie, those eyes cold.

  “Any trace of him?” With a tone equally as cold as his eyes, he questioned Charlie, and I watched Charlie shake his head.

  “No, Dr. Macgregor. I found where he had tapped into the security cameras. He had them set on an hour loop. Carlos and Robert are looking for his point of entry.”

  “Well, he couldn’t have bloody well jumped off the roof, now could he? I want all access ways checked, all venting ducts and elevator shafts combed over, all receiving docks monitored.” Gareth stood to tower over Charlie, his voice rising with each word until he was shouting. Charlie looked nervously from Gareth to me, lying on the floor. I took pity on poor Charlie.

  I made a whimpering sound and tugged on Gareth’s pant leg. He dropped into a crouch next to me as quickly as he had stood up, and gently touched the side of my face that stung.

  “Does it hurt? I could give you something for it, if you wish.”

  I watched a spasm move across his face, like he was in pain, and he twisted his head away. He took a deep breath and turned back to me, a smile on his face.

  “Are you okay?” I said, swallowing past the pain in my throat. I tried to sit up again, but he gently pushed me back.

  “Am I ok? I’m fine. I just hate seeing you hurt. You shouldn’t be worried about me though, not with a bullet graze along your cheek.”

  “What!” I sat up too quickly for even his hands to stop me, and I lifted a hand to my face. I could feel something wet and slightly tacky where I touched my face, and a furrow in my cheek. I quickly ran my tongue along the inside of my mouth, counting teeth and feeling smooth skin on the inside of my damaged cheek.

  He moved to kneel in front of me, coming out of his crouch. Taking another deep breath, he took my hand away and held it in his, and I could see blood staining my fingertips.

  “You were shot at, Anna. Charlie found bullet holes in two doors and in the stairwell. How you aren’t dead is completely beyond my ken.” His voice broke on the last word. Detachedly, my mind focused on that word-ken- and how distinctly un-American it was. I think I’m losing it.

  He hung his head over
our joined hands, and I could feel a tremor move through him. His head dipped lower, and he gently kissed my fingertips, the ones covered in blood.

  I don’t think I saw him move away from me, but my brain was still recovering from shock, or I was still in shock. One second he was next to me, the next he was fifteen feet away, his back to me. Tremors were coursing through his big body, his hands clenched at his sides.

  “Gareth?”

  What had I done? I put my hand back to my cheek, pulled it away and looked at the blood on my hand. I looked to Gareth, a thought forming in my mind, one that made as much sense as him not having a heartbeat.

  “Oh good, the police are here.” I heard him mutter then he was striding to the front doors of the lobby, although flying would probably be a more appropriate word.

  I moved with trembling legs over to one of the leather benches that wringed the lobby and sat down heavily. I couldn’t hold onto a coherent thought, and the swirling lights on the walls were making my eyes cross, so I closed them.

  Chapter Six

  I was back at work, after being out for two days. They had tried for five at the hospital, but I was adamant. The counselor they brought in to see me really thought I wasn’t ready emotionally to go back, but I couldn’t stay at home.

  I spent those two days trying to work from home, but my laptop didn’t have a quarter of the files on it that my work computer did, and I didn’t make much progress. I tried not to think about Gareth, and there were no more nightly visitations.

  I did have a few instances of feeling watched, but that could have been from the police patrol car that sat outside my house at all hours of the day.

  I tried to call Gareth so that he could call off the watchdogs, and to give me an update on what was taken from my computer, but he was never in the office.

  Or he was ignoring me.

  I also tried not to think about him bent over my hand, kissing my finger tips covered in blood. Or his curious lack of heartbeat.

  When I went back to work, it was a Friday, and I was half tempted to just stay away until Monday. I couldn’t though. I had to get in, to check my files, here about what had been found out. See Gareth again.

  If the days away had done one thing for me, it was to make me realize I wanted, no needed, to be around him. Despite, or maybe because of, his mysteriousness, I had to have him in my life.

  Gerry welcomed me with a hug and a smile, which shocked me to no end. Not being much of a hugger, I was slightly uncomfortable, but suffered through it.

  “You should know, Dr. Greer, Charlie feels horrible about what happened to you. And you can rest assured that if you’re alone at night, someone will be up in the lab with you. Dr. Macgregor’s orders.” He added with a wink.

  “Well, tell Charlie I’m fine.” I brought a hand absently to my bandaged cheek. It still smarted, and although I wasn’t a vain woman, I hoped that the plastic surgeon that Gareth had brought in had done a good job and it wouldn’t scar too badly.

  Gerry eyed the bandage as diplomatically as possible, and I dropped my hand.

  “He’ll be happy to hear. Take care.”

  I nodded to him and proceeded upstairs, wincing inwardly when the lab hushed as I walked in. I glanced at the door frame, but it had already been repaired, and I pushed the vision of wood splinters floating around me out of my mind. How I hadn’t gotten more than a grazed cheek was completely beyond me.

  I moved down the main aisle, memories of that night assailing me everywhere I turned my head. I kept my eyes forward, focusing on my workstation, but even that proved traumatic. My steps faltered as pictured the stranger at my desk, his blonde head bent towards the keyboard.

  Gathering what courage I had left, and conscious of the stares from my co-workers, I walked resolutely forward. As I slid around Grace, she reached out and patted my back, murmuring words of comfort I didn’t hear because of the sound of blood rushing through my head.

  I thought I was going to pass out again, but I bit the inside of my cheek, hard enough to taste blood. I would not pass out in front of my co-workers.

  With a deep breath, I pulled my stool towards me and sat down. I bent to put my purse under the cabinet, turning on my computer before straightening.

  A tiny shudder rolled through me as I heard the chime as it came on, but I kept my eyes open and waiting patiently for it to boot up.

  “Atta girl, Anna.”

  I heard the words from Angie first, and they were repeated by many voices around the lab. I turned with a grateful smile to where Angie was peering at me over her computer monitor, and I caught sight of my little hidey hole, where I had shoved myself when he had first come down the aisle.

  The blood drained from my face, and Angie’s look turned to one of concern.

  “Does your face hurt? Maybe you should step out for some fresh air, Anna. Do you want me to come with you?” Grace asked as I stood abruptly.

  “No, thank you, I just have to go…” I rushed passed her, not even trying to contain the fear. I ran with it.

  I ran out the open lab door and hit the stairwell doors again, going to the exact place I should have wanted to avoid at all costs, but I wasn’t going down the stairs this time. I was headed for the roof.

  My lab is located on the fifth floor, so I figured I had fifteen floors, plus the roof landing, to run my fear out of me. I ran passed startled people, almost knocking over a poor man just coming into the stairwell on the tenth floor, but with barely an uttered “Sorry!” continued on my way.

  Where was my sedate life now? I had been so worried about it the other night when the only problem I had was a stalker, now I had a maniac on the loose who might want to finish what he started.

  After all, I had seen his face.

  Gareth had been particularly interested in what he had looked liked, and when I mentioned to the police that he had been blonde with a lanky build, Gareth had seemed almost puzzled.

  Had he been expecting someone different? Did he see who had been in the lab with me, or did he know of someone that wanted to break into the lab?

  All these thoughts and more raced through my brain, keeping time with my legs as they carried me up the stairs. I didn’t even slow down until I slammed into the roof door and dashed out onto the top of the building.

  I stood for a moment, my hands on my knees, taking deep, gasping breaths of cold air, feeling its frozen passage deep into my lugs. Between the pain of the stitch in my side and the throbbing from my lungs, the fear slowly subsided.

  I straightened up, rubbing my side, and walked to the little courtyard that was on one side of the big roof, put up here for the handful of smokers that worked on the upper floors. The helipad was on the opposite side of the building, and I could see the company helicopter tied to the struts protruding from the roof.

  I didn’t realize I wasn’t alone until he spoke. He was always catching me by surprise, it seemed.

  “You shouldn’t be alone.”

  His voice was surprisingly gruff. I don’t think he had ever talked to me in such a grudging way.

  “Obviously I’m not alone. You’re here.” I watched as he rose from where he had been sitting in the shade of a potted maple, the long camel overcoat he was wearing buttoned up so high that the collar framed his stunning face. My blood started to heat up at the sight of him, and I longed to go to him, but his posture was as gruff as his voice. I couldn’t see his eyes because of the black sunglasses he wore, and his hands were encased in a pair of camel colored gloves.

  “You didn’t know I was up here when you came storming out that door, alone. I could have been anyone, Anna.” He stood well away from me and I bit back an angry retort. He spends the past weeks pursuing me, and now he’s holding himself back, I thought with a burst of anger.

  Then I thought again of the lobby, of bloody fingertips and held breaths. Maybe it was better this way.

  “So, what have you found out about the break-in? I haven’t heard a thing. When I call the police,
I’m referred to you. When I call you, you’re conveniently out of the office. I’m completely in the dark, Gareth, and I don’t like it.” My voice was harsher maybe than it should have been. I saw him wince when I said he was out of the office, but it hadn’t occurred to me that my words could hurt him.

  He sighed and looked out over the trees, which was pretty much all you could see from the roof. I had no idea how the thief could’ve gotten away from up here.

  “He jumped from here to a tree that was growing close to the building, but ten feet lower than the roof. He hurt himself in the fall, but not enough to slow him down. The police found blood on some of the branches. We think he had falsified a badge and was waiting around on various floors throughout the day. He was good at what he does; no one noticed him.” His voice was bitter, as though he was taking the break-in personally.

  I moved toward him, but he stepped away quickly, back into the shade of the tree.

  Trying to conceal my hurt, I turned away, not wanting him to see the tears that had sprung up. Just when I needed him, he was backing away.

  “What did he get from my computer?” I asked, keeping my voice even.

  “He burned a disk with your research on the mutated gene and broken DNA strand. He attempted to erase it, but it had already been copied to the main server. If you hadn’t been in there, he probably would have tried to get into the server room and delete it from there, also. So your work isn’t lost.”

  “Good.” I replied, nodding my head.

  Neither one of us said anything more, but there was tension between us and I wanted so much to make it go away.

  I tried to remember all the things that set alarm bells off in my head in regards to his curious behavior; how he seemed to be able to read my mind, how he could tell when I was uncomfortable and took pains to change the subject, how he seemed to have no heartbeat, how he moved so quickly.

  How he had kissed my bloody fingers. Had he really been kissing them?

  “Gareth…”

  “Anna…”

  We both stopped, waiting for the other to go first. I wasn’t sure what I had been about to say, something along the lines of, Please come back to me, but that would have been silly.