I am the Kraken (part 3)

Hey there!

Part 3 was totally going to be the last part of this story, but it kinda ran longer than originally intended because I was having so much fun with these scenes.

Check out Part 1 and Part 2 if you haven't yet, or just continue reading if you want to jump in the middle of a story.

Trent had warned Emma not to turn up at the ball, but he wasn’t able to talk to her directly. He was unsure whether the message was conveyed with the urgency he had intended, so he watched the crowd intently from his place at Jareel’s side. He wasn’t happy with Emma’s lack of trust towards him, especially since Jareel trusted him without question, and he wasn’t even on his side. Jareel sat on his chair like a king on his throne, inclining his head politely at all who came to show their respect and support. While Trent’s mind was occupied with the buffet table, Jareel grabbed his shoulder forcefully, causing him to jump in alarm. If it was Emma, he was going to prove his worth this night. Jareel brought him closer, turning him away from the crowd to hiss in his ear.

    “That girl, I want to know who she is. I want her.”

    Trent was whirled around to face the people again, and caught sight of the young woman. She was around his age, with a pale, but beautiful face surrounded by a head full of golden curls. Her dress was soft pink with gold trimmings, and her pearl jewellery set her apart as belonging to a rich household. Trent stared at her, awestruck, as she moved over to the punch bowl. He received an aggressive push from behind.

    “Go,” Jareel commanded. “I want to know everything about her tomorrow.”

   Trent stumbled and turned to glance back at the smitten look on Jareel’s face before he sidestepped couples on the dance floor. Hopefully he could talk to this girl and watch out for Emma at the same time. She was finishing her drink as he approached. She was even more breathtaking up close, and he bowed slightly, feeling somewhat self-conscious next to her radiance when he wore a simple suit vest with a black bow tie. She curtsied politely in return.

   “May I … have this dance.” Trent hoped his voice wasn’t shaking as much as he thought it was.

   She gave a coy smile and nodded, taking his hand to lead him.

   “Sorry, I didn’t introduce myself, I’m-”

   The woman shushed him. “Lets not share names tonight. We’ll leave everything as a mystery.” She pulled him close for a slow dance, and Trent continued to scan the room over her shoulder as they turned. It seemed like only a second before the song ended and they pulled apart. Trent opened his mouth to ask for another dance, but was interrupted by a tall man with a black goatee, and the girl accepted his offer, leaving Trent to wander off to the food. Chocolate brownie in hand, he looked over to Jareel, staring at the young woman, who had already managed to pick up a new dance partner. He had to drag his eyes away from her to keep an eye out for anything amiss at the party, and he soon fell into a pattern of searching the room, letting his gaze rest on her, then moving back to the room. As his glance passed over her once more, he noticed something strange and watched her closer. She was disguising it well, but she seemed to be keeping tabs on Jareel. He almost groaned out loud as he realised she must be Emma’s spy. He hoped this didn’t mean she was going to make a move.

    Trent turned his attention back to the doors, and was surprised when he was approached from behind.

    “You’re not thinking of escaping, are you?” the spy-girl asked him, tugging on his hand to take him back to the dance floor. “You’re the most interesting thing at this party.”

    “Except for him?” Trent inclined his head towards Jareel.

    The mysterious woman looked down. “This party is for him, isn’t it? It would be rude of me not to be interested.”

    “You came to a party and you didn’t know who it was for?”

    She gave a short laugh. “It’s a ball. How could I resist?” she pulled him close again. “Tell me about him.”

    

Emma glanced up at the clock. It was almost midnight. She had a little more than an hour until Frank’s spell wore off. She suppressed a sigh as she saw another man approach to ask for a dance. She hadn’t asked him to make her more attractive, just unrecognisable. Though she had to admit, it was easier to get the information she wanted when she was receiving so much attention. She rejected the newcomer and pulled her sandy-haired partner from the dance floor, heading for the courtyard. He continued to do that thing he had been doing all night: scanning the crowd as if for someone specific. It was probably his girlfriend, she guessed. And yet, the way he looked at her when their eyes met again made her think twice about her assumption. They were alone in the small walled area outside. She wasn’t distracted by keeping an eye on Jareel, and he wasn’t watching out for his mystery person. She stared into his deep brown eyes, wishing it wasn’t just Frank’s magic that made him look at her with such intensity. She wondered at how she had spent an entire night with this young man, but he’d never recognise her if he saw her again. Emma sighed, meaning to pull away from his gaze, but they had begun a slow dance once more, and this time he pulled her closer. She closed her eyes as his lips met hers in a sweet kiss. It was just a few seconds, but seemed like forever, before Emma remembered where she was and realised what she was doing. She pulled away from him, not looking him in the eye again before she escaped back into the ballroom. She moved towards the closest exit as quickly as her clumsy, high-heeled shuffle would allow, calling out to Frank with her mind. No one was around, and she whispered as much to Frank before he appeared in front of her. She vaulted onto his back, only slightly hindered by her dress and shoes, and realised that her mystery man had followed her, standing in the doorway and calling for her to wait.

    “Am I trotting away or are we galloping?” Frank asked.

    “Neither. He’ll just follow, and I want to get out of here quickly.”

    Frank gave an affirmative thought and stepped forward, taking them immediately to the lounge room of the apartment Emma had been using since she had begun to be the Kraken. Emma leant forward, resting her head on Frank’s neck.

    “I gather it was an interesting night, Emma. Were you found out?”

    “No, but perhaps you should have toned down the magical beauty. I had men hanging off me for the entire night.”

    “I didn’t think to add or subtract from your looks, Emma. I only caused you to be unrecognisable. Anything else was due to your existing looks.”

     Emma slid from Frank’s back and stepped into her bedroom to check herself in the mirror there. She was unnerved by the unfamiliar blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty who stared back at her. Her curls had dropped to fall onto her bare shoulders over the course of the night, and her lips had returned to a duller shade of red, but the black lines around her eyes had seemed to have become darker, drawing her attention back to her eyes. As she looked down to the way the light fabric of her dress fell around her ankles, she noticed a slight change. Glancing up to her face once more, she realised she was herself again, but the prettiness of the girl in the mirror was not wearing off. She watched the reflection of the dark unicorn come up behind her, causing her pale skin and pink dress to stand out more.

    “See?” he told her. “What those men were seeing was not due to magic.”

    Emma blushed. “Yes, well, the sooner I get out of these clothes, the more normal I’ll feel.” Emma started off, glancing over her shoulder on the way to the bathroom to see that Frank was still staring into the mirror.

The ball allowed Emma to take stock of Jareel’s security measures and how many bodyguards the new boss would keep at his side on a regular basis. She also noticed some nifty new alerts which must have been the reason she was warned away from making a move at that party. Her boy Trent certainly knew how to spy, and she thought it would be nice gesture to thank him personally.

    She set up the meeting and waited in a cafe across the street from the arranged place, watching her messenger politely browse magazines on a newstand, then give the hand signal. She walked over and took the arm of the sandy-haired man, who joined her without missing a beat. As they walked away, he stopped abruptly.

    “It’s you.”

    “Yes, it’s …” Emma finally looked at his face. “… Me …” She stared, not knowing what to say to the guy who had kissed her, and who she’d run away from, just a couple of nights before.

    He disentangled himself from her to run a hand through his hair, then gave an awkward kind of bow. “If I had known that you were coming to meet me, Miss Jensen, I would have dressed for the occasion.

    Emma waved her hand dismissively, realising that he couldn’t possibly recognise her from the ball because she was magically disguised. “Call me Emma.”

    “I will,” he inclined his head. He was the perfect gentleman, as he had been the night they danced.

    Luckily, Emma didn’t have to find any other words to exchange with him, as her car had pulled to the curb to collect them.

    “Where are we going?”

    “To show you the Kraken’s operation.”

    Trent opened the door for her. “And will I get to meet this Kraken? The rescue he pulled after Jareel’s coup still has everyone talking.”

    “He … likes to keep himself a mystery,” Emma explained, wondering why she was feeling so guilty for lying. “I think I’m the only one who knows who he is.”

    “Not a chance he’d show himself to the new guy then.” Trent got into the car.

    Emma frowned at his nervousness. He’d been nervous around her at the ball, but then he’d been quiet. Now he was babbling. “Am I making you anxious?”

    “No, it’s just … Your Dad, he always talked about you, and I’ve been waiting forever to meet you.”

    Emma was surprised by his answer. “What did he say about me?”

    Trent just leant back and smiled. “He told me how much he loved you, and how even your frown could make a man as tough as him feel love.”

    Emma frowned at this, and Trent gave a light laugh. She tried to suppress her smile, but that only made him laugh harder.

    “Then what did he say about my smile?” she asked, accepting that she’d lost the power in the conversation.

   He turned his soulful eyes to her, the smile gone from his face. “He said it would light up the night.”

I'm more than slightly irritated that every time I post, the font seems to be different. If anyone wants to help me out with making things uniform and easier to read, I'd be forever in your debt. 

I Am the Kraken (part 2)

Here is the highly anticipated (lol) part 2 of I Am the Kraken. Part 1 is here. I know exactly where this is going, so lack of story isn't the reason for the delay in posting. It's just the problem of exactly how to get the story out that bothers me.
As soon as I get my broken old laptop back from my computer-savvy friend, I'll have a plethora of short stories to attack your brains with, so look forward to that :)

Fios-Rente-Narve-Kassa made a point of returning to the Meadow of his home realm only when it was absolutely necessary. The uneasy glances from his kin caused him constant frustration, and he much preferred the easy company of Emma, living in the Earth realm. The others were afraid of him, and they rarely made the slightest attempt to hide it. Upon his arrival, the unicorns of the Meadow had been spread thinly across the lush green grass, and now they huddled together in groups, mindspeaking in whispers about him and his sudden appearance. It was not unusual, and in the years since he had stopped living among them, they had ceased hiding their whispered thoughts from him, only causing further frustration. Most unicorn's coats gleamed with an unearthly white, and their auras glowed with happiness and contentment, but Fios-Rente-Narve-Kassa had a grey coat and a black mane, and from when he was a foal, it was always said that his aura emitted a restlessness and frustration. He was to be feared and rejected - the Dark One who inexplicably lived in the flawed human world when their own realm was so perfect. Fios looked up into their perfect sun: the bright orb that never slept. It gave a pleasant amount of light and warmth, and unlike the harsh Earth sun, it didn't hurt the eyes if you stared up into it. Back on Earth, the sun would sometimes be covered with clouds, and even then its rays were still enough to burn uncovered skin. In the evening it would switch off, hide beneath the horizon. Emma told him that when her part of the world was in darkness, the sun would be shining on another section of the Earth, so it wasn't so different from the constant sunshine of the Meadow, but Fios appreciated the dark. He and Emma preferred to be a part of the world the humans called night.

     Thinking of Emma made Fios paw at the grass anxiously. She was the reason he had returned, as it was easier to hear a call from the Meadow than from Emma's house. The foggy atmosphere of the Earth clogged up his senses, and while he could usually hear her summons, he couldn't take the chance of missing her this time. He had sensed she was in danger. Something had changed in his human's life, but he knew better than to dive into the fray. Though she was in trouble, he would have to wait for the right moment to intervene, so would wait until she called him. But waiting wasn't something he did well. He tossed his mane, pacing backwards and forwards as he tried to distract his thoughts once more, but Emma was not an easy person to expel from his mind. Ever since the young girl had come into his life, he'd wanted to protect that fragile human, and she had protected him. They were a part of one another, and he couldn't bear the thought of another human harming her. The second that call came, he would gladly vanish from the presence of his own kind to be at her side.

Fios hadn't known where he would end up. He'd charged into the human realm too quickly to sense the surrounds. He materialised in the human world in a corridor, Emma's thoughts of him broadcasting clearly once more. Two men were holding onto each of her arms, and Fios didn't even hesitate as he lowered his horn to aim for the heart of the big one. He died instantly as he was impaled, and Fios reached out with his hind legs to kick the smaller man into the wall. Emma cringed at the thump, but went immediately to her friend, pulling a handkerchief from her pocket to wipe the blood from his horn. The man against the wall groaned and struggled to stand. Emma approached his prone form and placed a foot on his chest, slamming him back into the space between the wall and the carpet. She knelt to remove the pistol from the holster of the semi-conscious man and hit him across the face with it.

     "Don't you know who I am?" she growled at him.

     The man squinted, looking past her to where Fios stood. Emma hit him again, causing blood to drip down to his eyes from a cut on his forehead. She stood and kicked him from his place propped up against the wall so that he was lying on the floor.

     "I am the Kraken," she hissed, rolling him over onto his stomach with her foot.

     Fios sent out a question about the statement, and Emma shrugged, stuffing the pistol into the belt of her jeans before jumping up onto his back.

     "I need a flashy name to scare them. Do you think you can make your stab wound there look like a shotgun hole?"

     Fios concentrated his magic, pointing his horn towards the dead man. "Done."

     Emma put her arms around his neck and leaned forward. "Thanks for coming to get me, Frank," she sent to his mind.

     "You always feel the need your feelings into words when I am already aware of your gratitude," he said with a smile.

     "Yeah, well put it down to my humanity like we usually do." She pointed to the window and Fios trotted over to kick it in. The glass fell onto the carpet as if it had been smashed from the outside. He moved to the next window to smash it outwards. As they were five floors up, it would look as though Emma's rescuer had used a helicopter to save her. It would be sure to confuse and terrify whoever thought it would be a good idea to kidnap his human.

The contingency plan that Emma's father had put in place fit with Emma's plans perfectly. At first she had been frustrated when a lawyer turned up at her house - she had never told him where she lived, but was it any surprise that the mob boss had needed to find out every detail of her life? When he had presented her with details to accounts with more money than she knew he had, she was less upset at his intrusion. What use were lawyers, if they couldn't find a way to sidestep pesky inheritance and estate laws? He had joked with her, sipping coffee from a tea cup because Emma had never seen any point in owning mugs when she didn't drink the foul concoction herself.

     While the matter of distributing his legal estate was going on, Emma had bought a failing factory to use as her base of operations for the Kraken. She'd reached out to a few old friends from work and convinced them that she was now working for him, using those she knew for a fact were loyal to get the word out that they should join her. The loyalties of those in her father's business were shaky, she'd always known that, so she chose those she contacted carefully, and those she appeared to even more so. Within a week, she had a staff of a receptionist, two bodyguards and a runner, with the addition of a business manager her father's lawyer had recommended to keep the factory running as a factory as well as some people left on the inside to recruit from Jareel's business. They were understandably curious about the Kraken, but they didn't take much convincing to follow his rules when Emma explained he was going to help her reclaim her father's business and create a partnership between them.

The Kraken was ruthlessly efficient at getting his name out into the city. He managed to attract half the cops to his side of the conflict, and even pulled off a few successful hits on some of Jareel's leading men. It became more of a certainty than a rumour that Emma had joined with him. Emma had a few sources on the inside of his operation to confirm that the Kraken was certainly making Jareel nervous. One of the informants was the boss's personal runner, a young man named Trent. He sought her out, explaining to one of her people that he was once loyal to her father, but couldn't accept Jareel's coup like he was meant to. Suspicious of him, Emma would give him duties through a middle-man. She didn't want to reveal herself and have this guy come out as a triple-crosser. He was useful though, and slowly proving himself. It had been a few weeks since her father's death, and Jareel was having a party to congratulate himself. Trent had mentioned that Jareel expected her to go and try something, so had set up a trap. Emma's plans didn't involve gatecrashing a party, but upon hearing this news, she decided she couldn't miss it.

     Upon finding that her stuck up nemesis's idea of a celebratory party was to throw an olden days-style ball, Emma was less enthusiastic about attending. Nevertheless, she found herself sitting in the chair of a blabbermouth stylist, insisting that even though she said she'd wanted to look as different from her normal self as possible, she didn't want to dye her hair. Dressing up was already far out of her comfort zone, and Emma wasn't about to do something semi-permanent just to spy on Jareel. When it was done and she finally had the courage to look into the mirror, she was impressed with how well the stylist had done. Her face framed by golden curls, rather than her usual straight-but-messy style, made a huge difference to her appearance. The face staring at her from her reflection was still her own, but a perfect disguise, especially when combined with her look of surprise instead of her usual scowl. It wouldn't take as much of Frank's magic as she had thought to be sure that no one would recognise her.

You know, I broke my own writing trends (I can't really call them rules, because they're not) doing this. I usually make at least three drafts of what I write before showing it to anyone else. This is a first draft, so when telling me how horribly-constructed this is, just give some gentle nudges in the not-crappy-writing direction. I'll probably re write this later to take the first draft edge off. I'll definitely re write this if I contradict myself in the next part of this story. So until next time, faithful readers...