I am the Kraken (part 5)

Part the last. Yes. Seriously, when you get to the bottom of the page, it's the end of this saga. Oh, the ways I can comment on this last part ... I'll leave that to you. Comment. More on this phenomenon in my closing remarks.
And if you haven't read the rest of the story yet, click these links: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4

Trent sat on the floor of the Kraken’s office, breathing heavily and looking distressed.

     “That was ... you’re ... it’s ...” He took a deep breath. “You’re the one I met at the ball.” His teeth showed as he gave a brilliant grin.

     Emma just stared. She had wondered whether Trent had really noticed Frank that night, or if he’d believed it actually was a unicorn. Now her question was answered and she didn't know how to react. She’d just risked a lot to save this boy, and all her plans had failed. She wasn't exactly sure how to proceed.

     Trent was still panting and looking disheveled, so she reasoned fixing him up was the best way to start. Leaving him on the floor, she walked out to get a glass of water. None of her assistants were around, so she had to find a glass herself, and by the time she returned to the office, Trent had dragged himself over to the couch and was slumped against it. She crouched down in front of him and put the glass to his mouth.

     “There aren't any of my people around, so I’m going to have to do this on my own.” She put her free hand to lightly caress a bruise on his face. “I can’t say I’m a great nurse though.”

     Trent smiled, taking her hand gently. “It’s you, so I won’t mind. You just saved me, after all.”

     “I only found you. It was Frank who did the saving.” Emma pulled herself away from Trent to retrieve the first aid kit behind her desk. Trent waited until she had pulled out antiseptic before speaking again.

     “Frank. That’s the name of your unicorn?”

     Emma frowned as she dabbed the cream a little too roughly. “No, his name is Fios. And he’s not mine. Fios is his own unicorn.”

     “Oh,” Trent said, wincing. “Sorry.”

     There was silence between the two as Emma wrapped his wounds in bandages and gauze.

     “He doesn’t like you,” Emma said thoughtfully.

     “Oh? I guess I’m going to have to endear myself to him, then?” Trent gave a half-grin, clearly exhausted. Emma helped him onto the couch.

     “I ... have to go see if Fios is okay. He was pretty mad at me.”

     “I’ll come.” Trent tried to sit up, but didn’t get more than his head upright again.

     “No, you sleep here. Everything’ll be locked up, there’s food in the fridge. I’ll be back early tomorrow morning.”

     “Fine,” Trent sighed. “You go make sure your unicorn-friend is okay. I’ll just sleep.” He closed his eyes. Emma moved to the door and stopped, turning to watch Trent for a moment before continuing out.

Emma walked in her front door and shut it loudly. The light in the front room flicked on. Fios knew she was waiting for him to make an appearance, and managed to hold back for about a minute before he stepped into the room, his eyes dark with resentment. She waited for him to speak first, and he did.

     “Why did you make me save him, Emma? You know I don’t like the boy.”

     Emma was quick to answer as she had previously. “But we need him, Frank.”

     Fios tossed his head. “We do not need him. I told you that. And now he is the only other who knows of my existence. That is not right, I am here in the human world only for you, Emma.”

     “I don’t know what your problem is, Frank. If I want to–”

     Fios snorted, interrupting her. “I want to be the only one at your side, Emma. You will make a choice between Fios-Rente-Narve-Kassa and this Trent.”

     “Frank, you know I can’t make that choice. Trent is human, people can see him and understand that he’s my partner.”

     Fios stepped forward holding his head at her eye level. “If you need another human, then you do not need me.”

     Emma kept her gaze hard, and Fios realised she wasn’t going to change her mind. She wanted him to share her with the boy, but Fios just couldn’t do it. He couldn’t bear to watch her be with Trent and expect him to be happy about it. He lowered his head and looked away.

     “Your final decision is that you want to keep us both?” he asked.

     Emma sent a wordless affirmative into his mind and Fios sighed. He looked to her once more and pressed his nose to her cheek. “I wish you the very best in avenging your father’s death,” he told her. “But I cannnot stay with you.”

     Emma jumped abruptly as Fios pulled away from her. “What? Frank, no, you can’t–”

She reached out to him, but Fios transported himself from her world back to his own meadow. The other unicorns looked up as he appeared, and Fios turned his attention away from them to the grass beneath his hooves. This was where he belonged, whether the others of his kind would accept him or not. Emma had made her choice.

It was the crack of dawn when Emma slouched back into her office. She’d waited up all night to see if Frank would come home, but he hadn't made an appearance.

She was surprised that Trent was already awake. He was looking refreshed, and his wounds hadn’t been so bad as to keep him from moving about freely. She watched him limp over to the fridge, giving her a questioning look. But Emma was determined not to speak first.

     “What happened to the unicorn?” Trent asked.

     “He left. I can’t get him to answer me anymore. We’re on our own.” Emma watched Trent pull a carton of milk from the fridge and pour some into a glass. Looking him now, she couldn't remember why she had rushed off to save him against Frank’s wishes. He was nothing special. Frank was the one who was  special.

     “We need a brilliant plan,” he said cheerfully, oblivious to her overnight mood change.

     “Here’s my brilliant plan, Trent: we storm the building. Then maybe I can call Fios back to me.” Emma had screamed for him to return and he'd given no answer, but she knew that Frank would come back if she proved she could do it without him. He had to. She was going to do this without Trent, as well. She wouldn't follow anyone else’s plans anymore. It was time to follow her own path.

     Emma scowled all the way through her breakfast with Trent, though he did his best to cheer her up. As the morning wore on, her staff floated into the warehouse to work for the day. She moved to the top of the stairs outside her office, Trent hovering just inside the door nervously as the staff waited and looked up warily as she stared down at them. They waited patiently, only speaking in quiet murmurs until it seemed everyone had turned up. There was an eerie silence when Emma finally spoke.

     “Friends, I know that yesterday was a disaster for us. But it was a disaster for Jareel as well. They will be recovering, and so today is the day to hit them hard. I have waited too long already to reclaim my family’s business. The Kraken and I have discussed this at length, and today is all or nothing. He will support me in my rise, or he will watch me fall. Gather everything together, because today we will no longer be splintered, but be under the direction of myself or of Jareel.”

     Emma didn't wait for any reaction to her speech, she just stepped back into her office. Trent followed her like a puppy.

     “You spoke with the Kraken? Was the unicorn ... Fiot? The Kraken?”

     “Fios-Rente-Narve-Kassa,” Emma said quietly without looking at him, “Is not the Kraken. I am the Kraken.”

     Trent took a deep breath and let it out. Emma could feel his eyes on her back as she watched her employees scramble about on the factory floor through her viewing window.  

     “Guess it was a short discussion, then,” he said, in an effort to lighten her mood. 
     Emma cringed inwardly. She found his lightheartedness attractive and endearing, but Trent was no replacement for Fios – her Frank, so hardened herself against it. She and the unicorn been together for so long she couldn't bear to imagine living without him. Emma didn't understand why he had to leave just because of Trent. She felt empty without her constant companion, and she had to end this campaign against Jareel so she could focus on bringing him back to her side.

Emma stormed into the main building of her father's business and shot wildly into the foyer. A security guard and two reception staff fell to the floor. Within a few minutes, her staff had surged into the room and secured the ground level. As men and women started for the stairs and went down to the basement cells, Emma took the stairs going up.

     “Hey!” Trent called after her. “Where are you going? We have to do this together.”

Emma turned in the stairwell to level a glare at the boy. “Jareel is mine,” she said.

Trent was too far away to hear her words, but she saw him give a worried glance back down before running to catch up with her. “You’re not going alone.” He passed her to take the lead up the stairs, and Emma let him. It was his place to keep her safe as part of her staff.

     The shot came from further down the stairwell. Emma and Trent ducked and Trent fired his own gun back in that direction.

     “So much for the element of surprise,” he said, glancing upward to make sure no one was above them.

     Emma only nodded. It was only two levels to the floor of the main office, where Jareel would be. She dashed up the stairs as Trent inadvertently laid down cover fire and she heard him yell some kind of expletive behind her.

Jareel heard a few gunshots. Louis looked up from the paperwork he was reading.
     “Did we have any training scheduled for today?” he asked.
     Jareel waved his hand in dismissal. “I don't plan that sort of thing. Now continue with your report from yesterday.”
     Louis shifted nervously at the sound of more gunfire. “Yesterday, we, uh, suffered few casualties, but have many wounded missing today. Unfortunately, I don't think the other side has many dead, either. There were no bodies left behind, so we can't confirm-”
     The intercom crackled to life. “Mr. Nolan, Sir, we have a situation.”
     Louis looked alarmed, dropping the papers onto the desk and drawing his gun from inside his coat.
     Jareel sighed as he pushed the button to respond to his receptionist. “Let me guess: Miss Jensen is making another move. Proceed to crush her as we did yesterday.”
     “Sir ... We're not getting responses from the ground or first level teams. By the time I heard about any of this, they'd gotten to the second floor.”
     Louis swore. “How did she recover so quickly? We have to get you-”
     “Go take care of things, Louis.” Jareel strolled over to a cabinet and withdrew a shotgun. “I'm not in charge because I fail to take care of things myself.”
     Louis hesitated for a second, but knew better than to disobey an order. Jareel began to load ammunition into his weapon. He was going to blow a hole in that girl's head, as he should have done in the first place. Then he'd deal with that fool who called himself the Kraken. He moved out into the reception area, finding his receptionist cowering behind her desk. He did only hire her for her looks, after all. He held his gun with one hand and grasped her arm to pull her to her feet. A pretty, unarmed girl would make a useful human shield. He let go and nudged her towards the door with his gun. She put up her hands as if he was going to shoot her, but moved obediently.
     “Put your hands down,” he told her. “You're just going to check hallways for me. You're unarmed, so no one will just shoot you. I want Emma's head.”
     “O-okay.” The girl put her hands down and opened the door a crack, poking her head out. She looked both ways before opening it wider and stepping into the hallway. Jareel was about to follow her when she gave a shriek and raised her hands. He raised the gun and took a purposeful step outside, noting the newcomer was his old courier, Trent, before blasting him through the chest. The boy crumpled to the floor as the two stood watching.
     “Good,” he said to the girl. “That's exactly what I want you to do. And when we find Emma-”
      He was interrupted by the cold steel of a knife at his back, but before he could turn it had penetrated his flesh. His assailant wrenched the shotgun from his grasp.
     “When you find Emma, she'll stick a knife in your back.”
     Jareel groaned and fell to his knees.
     “Go find Jareel’s closest and get them here,” Emma told the girl. “Your boss and I are going to have a chat.”
     The girl scurried off and Emma kicked him in the side. 
     “Get up and into your office,” she said. “We've got some things to discuss if you want to live.”
     Jareel got to his feet. Emma wanted to gloat, which meant he had a chance to turn the tables. Like father, like daughter. He smiled to himself, stumbling through his reception area just in front of the stupid progeny of his old boss. Emma kicked the door closed and turned to Jareel, holding up the stolen weapon. Jareel opened his mouth to speak, but the blast of the gun was faster than his words.

Emma put down her gun as the door burst open. Some of Jareel’s goons were there, led by Louis. She stepped aside to show them the prone form of their former boss.

     “It’s over. I’m in charge now.”

     When they lowered their weapons, Emma raised hers again. “And take Louis to the basement cells. I want him tortured for his part in assassinating my father.”

     “What?”Louis put his hands up in surrender as a the man and the woman directly behind him grabbed his arms. “I was just following orders. Please. Boss. Please.” They dragged him away, leaving a group of five armed men standing in the doorway. Emma glared at them.

     “Go tell everyone I’m in charge and they don’t have to fight anymore,” she growled at them. “We don’t want more people dying unnecessarily. This whole saga’s already going to cost us enough in compensation to the city.”

     When they’d left, Emma leant against the desk, looking down at the corpse of Jareel, her enemy. She didn't take pleasure in causing pain, but this man had left her with a lifetime of anguish. She glared at him.

     “I wish I could have spent more time killing you,” she told the lifeless body. “Everything was perfect before your stupid coup. Now I have to run this business on my own.” She sighed. “Well ... with the Kraken.” She looked up to the ceiling. “Fios! Come back. You can be the Kraken!” She waited, but there was no reply, no flash of his grey flank appearing in the room. He had gone to the meadow, he had to be able to hear her. “Fios!”

Now for my post-I-finished-something rant...

Sometimes I wonder if I’m writing this blog for the 500 hits its had - from which I’ve gained an entire two comments; for those who tell me that my blog is cool or they like certain stories (and yet, never comment); to advertise I’m writing stories for friends; or simply for myself. 

The only reason that leaves me not depressed over the lack of comments is the last one, and that’s just sad, because I don’t need to post things to the internet for myself.

So ... you know ... comment. It shows passers-by to my blog that other people actually take the time to read it. And if you have a blogger account, follow? And share my blog with other people. Coz you do know that’s the only way I'm going to get anything out of writing this junk, right? And like my Facebook page. If you like what I do, do something in return, because otherwise my (semi) hard work is for nothing.

In summary: comment, like (or +1, even), share, follow.

 Do it! I'll love you forever!