Chapter 30: Morning with Leeloo.

“Luckily I had 10 days and I didn’t have to pay anything extra.” I say as I’m walking out from Fergucy’s Studio and Boutique while holding two boxes which contains the red dress and the red heels that I promised Ana. I wave my hand to the smiling attendant, she helped me a lot. I put both boxes in a big paper bag as I stood in the middle of the right wing of the shopping center, I take out my phone to watch the clock, is already ten past two.

“What should I do? Is already too late to even go to the workshop… Come to think of it,” I scratch my head lazily, “I had classes today with teacher Durian, hope nothing important happened today.” I take a deep breath as I start thinking what to do, “How should I convince Leeloo? Why is she being so distant with me? Ana said that Leeloo bid farewell to her, but since the Sunday I haven’t seen Leeloo once, is she mad at me?” I say in a low voice while walking but I couldn’t come to a conclusion.

I lean my body in a railing of the second floor watching towards the first floor. I stand there for a couple of minutes just staring blankly. At the end I couldn’t come with a reasonable conclusion, “Arrrgh, whatever, she will talk to me eventually, I might as well drawing the sketch of my custom VRD.” I say with a voice only I could hear while my eyes are filled with resolution.

I reach my pocket with my hand and then I take out a golden card embedded with black letters. “Downfall of the Champions, in my opinion the RPG genre is only challenging to inexperienced players, I wonder what is so special about this one that a thousand elite players haven’t been able to clear the prelaunch event in eight months...” Although I stopped playing for three years, I’m confident in what I’m saying.

When any game is released, there’s always a group of players that will clear the game ultimate content while the newbie players are just completing their first quest. If Downfall of the Champions couldn’t be cleared in eight months, it means that is either greatly challenging or extremely huge.

With a lot of thoughts in my mind, I just decide to call it a day and return to the apartment, after all, I will soon see it with my own eyes what’s going on inside that game. Before going to the apartment I make a detour towards a convenience store that is nearby to buy Leeloo’s favorite snacks in an attempt to bribe her stomach.

Without anything else to do, I go straight to the apartment. In my way up I greet the guard, and then I use the elevator to go to the third floor. I pick up the keys from my pocket and after opening the door the first thing I do is to try to find Leeloo within the living room, but it seems that she is still locked in her room.

Sighing inwardly, I decide to try a direct approach. I go towards the door of her room and then I knock the door three times. “Leeloo, I bought you chocolate cake with almonds, is still freshly baked.” I say loudly while nearing my head to her door.

*Thud, thud, thud, thud.*

*Creaaaaaak.*

*Swhiiiiiiish.*

*Snatch.*

*SLAM.*

“What the actual f…” I exclaim while I stand there stupefied. In less than one second Leeloo opened the door, snatched the bag I was holding in my left hand with the cake, and the closed the door in my face. I only was able to barely see a strange delight in her eyes as she saw the logo of the bag in which the cake was, but still, her speed was just crazy.

However, before I could do or say something, she opens the door again. Her eyes falls into the bag I’m holding with my right hand, the one with the Fergucy’s Studio and Boutique logo. “Hooooooo…” Leeloo just exclaims, looks at my face while smiling, and the closes the door again.

“Hey Leeloo, the cake is not only for you, I bought two portions!” I yell while knocking the door heavily.

“Not giving you.” Leeloo yells back at me and then laughs loudly.

“God damn it.” I clench my fist and then I step out of the door. ‘At least she is okay.’ I think inwardly while walking towards my room.

I turn on my computer and start working on what will be my next mini project. Since Mr. Smith gave access to such huge treasure trove, I must make my best effort to build the most suitable Virtual Reality Drive that suits my needs. Logically speaking, there are some pieces that I will not find in the warehouse, obviously I have to buy some extra equipment, so I have to be ready for that.

Building a high end computer doesn’t takes more than 15 minutes if you know what you are doing, you just need to know a good brand, buy the best pieces for your needs, assemble, and install an operative system. Building a high end VRD takes 15 minutes, if you have no idea of what you are doing. Since that’s not my case, I choose every transistor and sensor with extreme care.

With a software I acquired as a student in Tidem, I start doing the sketch while doing research on the specs of BME parts. I am very careful with everything, I will be using deep dive mode for extended periods of time, so I can’t chose anything that will stress me out.

If any student of Virtual Reality Studies could hear me saying in my thoughts the words “Sketch” and “Stress me out,” they will probably punch me several times in the face, because what I’m doing is too detailed for being called just a sketch, and the specifications of the VRD are extremely high. They are so high to the point that an average person can’t withstand more than five minutes inside that hell machine.

I work on the details for ten straight hours without resting until I finally finished, to be honest I lost the sense of time. I watch the clock in my wall, it’s 1:45 a.m. I was too concentrated while working in the details that I didn’t feel tiredness, but now that I finished, my back and shoulders are in pain. I turn off the screen of my computer and then I stand up. I stretch each of my limbs while doing a soft massage in my shoulders, if I go to sleep without relaxing my body first I will be extremely tired when I wake up.

I take a bath before sleeping, luckily tomorrow my first class is at 11:00 a.m., so I don’t have to wake up too early. Normally I would wake up early anyways, and use the early morning to work in the workshop, but I really feel the need to rest. As I put my head in the pillow, I smell a faint fragrance, this is the same fragrance I smelled when I caressed Ana’s hair. ‘Ana…’ The last thing I do before my consciousness fade is to think of her.

♪ ♫ ♪

In half sleep mode, I hear my cellphone alarm ringing loudly. I feel still slightly tired and I programmed the alarm at 7:00 a.m., so I try to reach my cellphone with my hand in order to turn it off.

*Clang, clang, clang.*

However, not only it proves to be impossible because I couldn’t extend my right hand towards the phone, I could hear strange metallic sounds ringing each time I try to extend my hand. Cursing inwardly and hearing the phone still ringing madly, I try to reach the phone with my left hand, yet again, it proves to be impossible. In fact, I can’t move my entire arm. In fact, I can’t move the left part of my body.

Feeling helpless, I could only open my eyes to see what’s going on.

*Clang, clang.*

“Uh? What’s this?” I exclaim astonished as I see that the reason why I can’t move my hand freely is because it’s cuffed to a bedpost.

“Shut up, will you?” A weak feminine voice comes from my side.

My drowsiness vanishes immediately as my gaze moves from the cuff towards the source of the weak voice. That smooth and tanned skin, that long black hair, I don’t have to think it twice to know what’s going on. “Leeloo?!” I exclaim loudly.

“Marcus?” Leeloo answers lazily and then yawns.

“Leeloo? What are you doing?” I ask the first question that comes to my mind.

“Just resting.” Leeloo says as she wraps her body tighter to mine. I could feel her exquisite figure pressing towards my chest and abdomen.

“Resting? Why here?!” I ask as I hear Leeloo’s bold answers.

Leeloo opens her eyes and using both of her hands she lazily lifts her body from the bed. However, instead of getting out of the bed, she swiftly sits in my stomach. She is using light clothes, a faint green top with a matching short. She supports her hands in my chest and then lowers her head slightly, “What? Ana can sleep with you and I don’t?” She says while smiling.

“Wha… What are you talking about?!” I ask with embarrassment.

“Fufufufu, the saying goes ‘once bitten, twice shy,’ but you instead were just shy the first time and then enjoyed it, I’m actually jealous.” Leeloo says with a coquettish smile.

“I…” I look at her directly and I am short of words for a moment, “That wasn’t the reason because you stopped talking me this past days, isn’t it?” Although I can’t say that I know everything about Leeloo, I know that she is not the kind of woman to be upset for such small things.

“Of course not Marcus,” Leeloo’s expression suddenly turned serious, “I was actually busy after Leeloo spilled the beans, you are such a naughty boy.” She says as her gaze turns cold, but in contrast, she started playing with the tip of her fingers on my chest.

“Excuse me? Now I really need to know what you are talking about.” I ignore the fact of my hand still being cuffed to the bedpost and that an alluring woman is sitting with light clothes in front of me, the way Leeloo is behaving is not normal.

“Don’t feign ignorance honey, wait, I should treat you with more respect, shouldn't I? Do you prefer Mr. Marcus or Mr. Trevor?” Leeloo says with a cold tone.

My eyes widen as I hear Leeloo’s words. “Ana… did… tell you… about that?!”

“Of course she did, how could she know that you haven’t told me that after ten months? I’m that unreliable that I had no right to know?” Leeloo says as her expression turns from cold to extreme sadness.

“No, please, don’t misunderstand, it’s just I didn’t think that it was a big deal!” I answer her with nervousness.

“Not a big deal?” Leeloo raises an eyebrow and then she stops supporting her hands in my chest to fold them beneath her chest. “Not a big deal?!” She repeats the same but raises the tone of her voice, “Are you stupid or what? I couldn’t care less about the background of someone, I never asked you about your past because I thought that it should be some sort of painful memories you didn’t want to recall, after all, when I met you, you already was on your own…” Leeloo makes a tiny pause and takes a deep breath, her expression shows slight hints of being annoyed, “But how can someone overlook the fact that you are a little prince?” Leeloo yells at me.

“Prince? My family is a normal family!” I yell back at her.

“Normal? HAH!” Leeloo rebukes me loudly. “There are maybe thousands of Trevor families in the world, but yours? Yours is far from being normal, wake up and open your eyes, you are not a child anymore!” Leeloo raises her tone and points at my face.

I look stunned at Leeloo. Not because what she said is true, but because I could feel that even if her words are striking some sensitive points that I wouldn’t want to discuss, she was doing so because she cared for me. Leeloo sighs deeply and then looks at me while calming herself and trying to change the rhythm of the conversation, “I would have loved seeing your face at the disco, that’s what you deserve for deceiving me. Fufufufu.” Leeloo says with her playful tone of voice and then she laughs childishly.

I slap my face with my free hand. ‘How the hell did she convinced Ana?’ I think inwardly and then I recall something, “Ok, I get the point of the prank that day, but then why you didn’t want to see me for three straight days?” I ask as I recall that she hid in her room from Monday to Wednesday.

“I wasn’t hiding, I was actually busy.” Leeloo says frankly, “In fact, I was busy because of you.” She says and her expression turns serious again.

“Because of me? I don’t get what you are trying to say.” I answer her feeling confused by her words.

Leeloo sighs deeply. “Tell me honey, what do you know about your family affairs of the past three years?” She asks casually and my expression stiffens. To be honest, I always try to ignore any notice on the internet that has some relation with my family. Seeing my expression, Leeloo supports her hands in the bed, at each side of my head. She leans closer to me and moves her lips slowly with a charming tone, “Let me guess, my honey knows nothing.” She says as if she is reading my mind.

“Fine, fine, I admit, I haven’t heard anything.” I say helplessly as I feel slightly intimidated by Leeloo. Is not that I fear the closeness of a woman, but at this point I don’t know what Leeloo is thinking.

“I knew it,” Leeloo smiles and leans back her body. Her expression turns complicated suddenly, “However, although there are some big news about your family company that you may want to know, the real problem is you.” She says with some concern in her voice.

“The real problem is me? What do you mean?” I ask hurriedly as I see Leeloo’s expression.

“Every bit of information about you for more than three years ago has been erased, as if you have never existed, and I doubt that you were the one who did such marvelous work. In other words, Marcus Trevor, son of Richard Trevor and heir of T.I.R.G., is just a ghost that few people know.” Leeloo says while looking at me directly in my eyes.

“What?!” My face pales as I hear each word. Leeloo is very skilled with computers, for her to not be able to find anything, means that there isn’t anything to be found!

END OF CHAPTER 30.

And so, the book two begins! I'll try to release a bit faster the first chapters (meaning less proofreading and possibly slightly more mistakes) to get the plot rolling, then after doing a round of proofreading to the chapters and maybe skipping a day I'll go to the usual schedule.