Chapter 4：Out of my hands

"You'll sign?" Alex perked up. The strange look in his eyes dissolved into a puppy-like happiness.

Anna was surprised by this reaction. With all of the lengths he'd gone through to obtain her, had he thought she would do anything else? She didn't have anywhere to go anymore. She could maybe couch surf for a while with some of her friends, but she didn't have many and nor were they in any position to do much to help. "Yes, I'll sign," she told him. "I don't think it'll be too terrible. You don't seem to be a bad person."

He handed her a pen. When she uncapped it, she saw that it was a fancy type, with a metal calligraphy tip. "Er, anything I need to know about writing with this?"

Alex shook his head. "Just sign as you would with a regular pen."

Taking him at his word, she signed her name on the contract, giving away the next three years of her life.

He was smiling broadly, eyes glimmering with delight. The smile transformed his face from a cool, aristocratic stoic to an embarrassingly pleased young man. The change shocked her, and Anna couldn't help but stare for a moment as he happily collected the papers, sliding the second copy over for her to sign as well. She signed the papers in a daze, accepting the folder when he handed it to her.

"That's your copy," he said to her, happy.

Who the hell was this? Why was he so happy? She'd known he was some kind of lonely, but surely this was a bit much?

"You're actually quite expressive, aren't you?" she realized, bemused.

Realizing he'd been overly exuberant, he blushed again, and coughed, embarrassed. "Forgive me," he said. "I didn't mean to be so forward." He straightened his posture, sitting up properly. He carefully tucked his copy of the contract into the briefcase and shut it before placing it back at his feet.

"I'd rather know who I'll be living with," Anna told him. Rather than watching him parade around with a quiet, reserved demeanor, she thought she preferred the earnest reactions. "Anyways, now that I've signed, you'll answer my questions, right?"

"Mm," he agreed. Then, blinking, he suggested, "Would you like to come and see where you'll be living? We can stop by your home and get whatever you want if you'd like?"

Anna grimaced. Alex noticed the golden flecks in her eyes had come to the fore of her pupils, warming them from the chill they'd held earlier.

"I'd rather not go home, if you don't mind."

"Of course," he agreed quickly. He inwardly cursed himself for the lack of sensitivity. Given the scene that he'd walked in on, how could he have possibly asked her that? "Then, what would you like to do?"

"Take me to your home," she suggested. "I might as well start settling in." Giving him a sideways look, she added, "And you can get to answering those questions in a place you're comfortable talking about all of this."

"Thank you," Alex replied. He was a bit embarrassed, having been caught out like this, but he managed to keep from blushing. He stood, briefcase in hand. "Shall we?"

Anna got to her feet, following him to the door. "Alright."

When he opened the door into the hallway, she saw that the men from before were still there, waiting. She tensed, instinctively wary, but they only stepped away from the door, leaving them plenty of space to pass through.

Her discomfort didn't go unnoticed. "Don't worry," Alex told her. "They're very reliable and have their own special points. No one will bring harm to you while you're with me."

"Right," she agreed. She couldn't help but feel awkward despite the reassurance. While it was true they'd been entirely polite about the matter, the reality of the situation was that these were the men that had effectively kidnapped her and brought her into this mess. There was no way she could immediately relax while surrounded by them. "Let's just go?"

He nodded and led the way. The fluer de lis pattern continued even out here, she noticed, moving in a straightforward repeating pattern all along the hallway. The lights were less harsh, and the hallway walls were a lot less flowery than the room they'd just been in. It was a sedate, beige-colored paint. It was way easier on the eyes.

"Where is this?" she asked Alex, curious. "It took a long time to get here." Or maybe it had just felt like a long time.

"It's S Hotel," he answered. "We're almost out."

S Hotel was one of the fancier hotels in the area with a massive emphasis on the history it had. It had chosen not to build a large chain with only a few hotels to its brand, but each was considered to be a top of the line facility with many amenities.

Anna decided she was going to save this tidbit of information for later, when her brain could handle more freaking out. As things currently stood, she was already pretty occupied. In a daze, she stepped into the parking garage, and then the car, easing herself into a seat and using the seatbelt automatically.

The man from before was back, she noted distantly. The one that had guided her there. He was driving.

Unlike before, the other men in their group didn't step into the car, leaving it to just the three of them.

As soon as they'd exited the parking garage, Alex spoke up from beside her. "You asked a lot of things earlier. I'm not sure if this will answer all of your questions, but I'll do my best. Feel free to ask more."

Her inattentive state dissolved as she returned her full attention to him. "Please."

"My name is Alexander Burke," he started quietly. "I've been alive for more than three hundred years."

Something in her brain stuttered to a halt as the words entered into her mind.

Still, he continued as though he hadn't just broken her perspective, going on to say, "I started life as a regular person on the Eastern Continent long ago, before I moved to this place back before the creation of this country. I've kept a very low profile as a non-human entity. I've never met anyone else like myself, but it's always been something of a lonely existence. I have accumulated plenty of wealth and resources over this long time."

"Hold on," Anna raised a hand to press at her forehead, rubbing her temples. "You're telling me that you're basically the ultimate geezer with a stupid amount of money." Swallowing, she asked, "Do you have any proof that you've been alive for so long? Should we be taking you to a psychologist or something?"

Taking no offense, he chuckled at her words, shaking his head. "I've plenty of proof if you need it. Though I don't know where the earliest documents I had have gone, I've plenty to prove that I've been around for a very long time."

"And the guys you keep around? Your, uh, hit squad?"

"Hit… squad…?" Alex seemed perplexed at this, meeting the driver's eyes in the rear-view mirror. "Kenneth, is there something I ought to know? I thought I instructed you to bring her without violence."

The man that had guided her - Kenneth, apparently - coughed a few times, before responding. "I followed your orders to the letter," he said. "We went to greet Miss Walker and invited her to come back with us. We blindfolded her to keep her from knowing where we were going, but no harm came to her."

"Th-that's just how we were dressed! There's nothing wrong with black!"

"You were all wearing long-sleeved black shirts, black pants, and some of you guys were wearing black beanies!"

"Miss Walker," Kenneth protested in an injured tone, "Surely you can't mean you assumed we were going to harm you because we were wearing black clothes? They're inconspicuous! And it's easy to launder and there's never a need for bleach!"

"There were TEN OF YOU! At least!" she said indignantly. "What was I supposed to think?"

"Not that!" he scowled. Then, grumpy, he muttered, "We were very polite."

"You were very polite," she agreed. "While you were scaring the life out of me."

Beside her, Alex laughed outright. "It seems we still have a great deal to learn about regular people," he chuckled. To Anna, he said, "Kenneth has been with me since birth, so please forgive any strange behavior we may exhibit. There's a lot we never learned about regular people."

"You're not wrong," she retorted, easing back in her seat. "You sent ten people dressed all in black in three black cars to find me in an alley and tell me that you had my sister."

Wincing, he muttered, "Well, when you put it like that, it doesn't sound great."

Anna crossed her arms. "That's because it wasn't."

There was a long moment of awkward quiet before Alex awkwardly admitted, "You're taking this very well."

At that, she turned to look at him, unimpressed. "I'm only sitting here, in a car with my new roommate and boss, listening to how you're some sort of supernatural force and I've just been sold to you for the next three years after being kidnapped out of my life. I'm very much freaking out right now, but there isn't a lot that freaking out is going to do for me. We're going to get to your place and I'm going to have a complete freak out, but I'm going to do it in the relative privacy of my assigned sleeping space."

He blinked at her, startled by her reply, and then exchanged looks with Kenneth in that rear-view mirror again.

"Uh, yes, of course."

Anna sighed. "Don't worry about it. You didn't know you were going to turn my life upside down when you offered my sister this thing."

"Your sister approached Mister Burke," Kenneth protested.

And didn't that just make her feel a hundred times worse?