isaysimplewords | (Eventually) OOM: bird song

"That makes it more difficult. You want me to check this bird out with you?"

"Would you?"

Cal may have been hoping for this outcome. Bela is just a tad more experienced with the sneaking around than he is.

"Why not? I bet it would be ridiculously easy to break in, should we need to."

Doing a job with Cal - this is new and exciting!

Cal grins.

"Sorry to deny you the chance to show off," he says, "but I came in from there. I was just shutting down for the night - everyone else has left."

"You deprive me of all manner of fun, Cal Chandler."

She does not seem upset in the slightest.

"I'm ready if you are. Let's go be sneaky."

"It's what I'm here for," Cal tells her.

He puts his mug down and gets up, leading Bela over to the Door, which he opens. On the other side is an unassuming lobby-type space, clean and partially-lit in the way businesses shut down for the evening often are.

"After you."

"All right."

She walks in, her senses aware, looking for tell tale signs of things not being what they seem.

Nothing seems amiss from her view of the lobby.

"Elaine's office is down this way."

Cal heads toward the corridor at the back of the room, to one side of the front desk.

"She left about an hour ago. We're lucky, she doesn't leave early very often."

"I'm good with distractions even if she hadn't," Bela laughs. "I like sneaking around with you."

Maybe if she's lucky the office door will be locked. She can at least show off that much.

Guess what, Bela? You're lucky.

It's your basic office building lock, without any special surprises that anyone from planet Earth is likely to be familiar with, but hey, you take what you can get, right?

Bela opens the door feeling extremely unchallenged.

"There are no special security measures that I can see. So unless some alien measures are in place... this is a normal set up."

"Okay."

Cal is unsure of whether that's strange or not. On the one hand, this is just an office in an ordinary animal shelter, so why have extra security? On the other hand, if the bird is unusual, why not have extra security?

Either way, he lets Bela go through the door first. It kind of flies in the face of his protective instincts, but she is the professional here. It's kind of why he brought her.

Bela is not alone in the office.

Bela expects even run of the mill offices to be locked. If they aren't, then it's more suspicious. She steps through the door and-

Demon.

There's a demon.

No, it's not her world.

Bela's eyes widen as she takes in the creature - alien? - and she steps back, pulling the door shut. She's never been the type to scream in the face of surprise monsters.

She turns to Cal, to tell him to run, but the thoughts fade away like-

Wait... what just happened? Puzzlement crosses her face.

Was there something in there?

. . . Cal blinks at her.

"Is something wrong?" he asks. "Is Elaine in there?"

That would be a little awkward.

She blinks back.

"I don't-"

There's nothing she can hold onto but the instinctual feeling of something not being right. She unholsters the gun she keeps concealed at the small of her back.

"I don't know whether I saw anything or not. I can't remember. I'm going to open the door again. You stay behind me, but try to look in."

She can't remember something that happened ten seconds ago?

That - is very worrying.

"All right."

(By the time the door opens, the office will be empty.

The Silence may be arrogant, but they're not stupid. This one isn't giving Bela a second chance to try to kill it on sight.)

The office is empty. Bela checks behind the desk and in the corners.

"It's fine. Only I thought..."

She shakes her head. She's not sure what she thought.

"Okay. Bird investigation time."

Odd. It's not like Bela to . . .

Anyway. Cal turns his attention back to the matter at hand.

The birdcage is in the corner of the room. It holds a small scarlet bird, which is watching them with its head cocked intently to one side.

Bela walks over to the cage. She's not a bird expert by any means, although she did run a couple of cons in which she impersonated a zoologist.

"It doesn't act like a bird."

The birds watchful silence coupled by the strangeness she can't remember keeps the warning bells ringing.

A woman appears behind them. Surely she walked through the door, right?

In actuality, she stepped from behind a perception filter. She'd been waiting for this moment. She figured Cal would be showing up here sooner or later. She wonders who his friend is and where they're both from.

"The poor thing. He used to be much livelier. I think he's worn down."

Cal turns, startled. His expression says oh shit for a second before he manages to smooth it away into something more relaxed.

"Hi, Elaine," he says. "My friend here knows something about birds, I thought it might be helpful for her to take a look."

Yeah, he knows they're fucked, but he has to at least try. Elaine doesn't look angry, or even all that put out, but he's not sure that's such a good sign. If this is a totally innocent situation, then she should be pissed that he brought a stranger into her office after hours.

"Oh?"

Wariness crosses her face, but she has no reason to believe Cal is a threat. His friend, on the other, hand, is an unknown quantity with a gun. This leads her to believe she's human, but you never know.

"I wish you'd consulted me first, Cal."

She does not step in between Bela and the bird. That would give too much away.

"It's all my fault, I'm afraid," says Bela, turning on the charm.

"Isabella Talbot," she says, reaching out her right hand. "I was intrigued and I'm going out of town tomorrow, so I insisted on coming with Cal tonight."

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