Uno and Fog: Left Behind

As much as I wanted to cut out for Second City, to investigate April’s family, one of us had to stay in the city to protect her and since my father had been asking questions, it was decided that I would be the one to remain behind.

As much as I was relieved that April wasn’t a member of the undead, I had seen how she had looked at the wounded at The Menagerie and just because she wasn’t one type of monster, didn’t mean she wasn’t in fact a monster of a different sort.

After the Shadows and now her, I had discretely placed some UV lamps around my penthouse that would turn on at aa voice command.  Being slightly paranoid and prepared for something that never happens is considerably better than being laissez faire and regretting it later.

There is a certain human tendency, which I suspect comes from an instinctual conservation of effort that makes people generally do the minimum in life.  Those that don’t generally have something driving them to do so.  It is sometimes especially true of those that have been given much in life, especially in terms of abilities.

Regardless, The Fog headed out, leaving me with April.

I didn’t ask for how he was getting halfway across the country, except that I was certain that he wasn’t flying commercial.  The guy disliked ever being in a position where he didn’t have some control over what was going on and exert some measure influence over the outcome of events.

We elected not to tell her what he was doing, or really anything about her family at this juncture.  I wasn’t sure she even wanted to know, she was very reluctant to talk about them, gave very few details, and never brought them up without be asked.

I was essentially stuck with escort duties.  The Fog had set up a fake identity for her before he left.  After discussing it with her, she had chosen Abrielle Taylor because it was close enough to April that if someone called out either name it would be easy for her to register and either pretend she thought it was Abrielle.

One of the easiest clues that someone is using an alias is their inability to respond to their given name.

So The Fog set up a fake birth certificate, fake driving record with two tickets on it, fake school records, fake past residences, and even got her showing as a second year at a New Amsterdam University auxiliary school which really wasn’t more than a community college attached to the university system and working on a nursing or physical therapy degree.

It wouldn’t hold up to close scrutiny, but a cursory look at her background wouldn’t raise any serious red flags or cause to look deeply into her background which I expected my father to do at some point, and possibly someone one the society page.

April, now Abrielle, didn’t like staying in the base and insisted that I escort her outside s soon as I returned from work and got furious if I didn’t immediately comply.  She however never left without me which I wasn’t sure was healthy despite being extremely prudent considering the circumstances.

During the day, when she wasn’t sleeping she was either reading, watching movies, or binging on television shows.

Whenever I was out, she accompanied me and so we had to get her appropriate clothing, nothing too expensive, but respectable enough that the people in my circles didn’t treat her with obvious, if indirect, disdain.  I spent cash on the clothes just so there wasn’t any record of me paying for them in case my father was checking my accounts.

I even discussed topics to avoid that would give away class distinctions, like asking someone what they did.  The upper class never asks that question.  She took it all in, asking questions when she was confused.

I felt uncomfortably like Pygmalion about the whole thing.

We went to the park together to look for signs of the woman that had attacked her fiancé and maid of honor at the restaurant.  I had a black overcoat for her and even a mask if it came down for it, but I told her that if something happened she had to do what I told her immediately.

We found no sign of the woman, and other than a couple thugs that though they were hunting us, before I put them to sleep, we discovered nothing in the park.

So it was that I found myself heading to Sunday dinner with my father in the company of one young lady that refused to be left behind.

I was hoping The Fog was having a better time of it