The Fall

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Chapter Zero, Chapter One

Chapter Two - "Guardian"

Part I

Her presence was becoming insufferable. There was no good reason for Nathan to be so irritated, but whether the reasons were good or not, they nevertheless continued to stack up. He had no desire to converse with the girl, and yet the fact she'd said not a single word in eleven days was a bother to him. The habit she'd adopted of flicking through the top 100 on his smartscreen, only to end up settling on the same live stream every time, was becoming infuriating. Even her dietary habits had begun to anger him. Only three floors below them was a kitchen offering the most diverse range of exquisite dishes available in London - and yet day after day, night after night, she ungratefully continued to order nothing but fruit and the same boring salad to eat.

For these reasons and a million others, Nathan felt he couldn't stand to bear her in his penthouse apartment any longer. But most enraging of all, was her appearance. Without the makeup she had been wearing during their first encounter, and now dressed in the clothing he had encouraged her to order on the second day of her stay, she appeared so very different. If not for the emotionless expression that seemed to burden her face in perpetuity, one might easily overlook her stolen innocence. She looked far too young, and far too pure, for him to have any chance of convincing himself that it would be acceptable to send her back out into the world alone.

The searching of his mind for a suitable way to be rid of her was interrupted by the sound of a bite and the turning of a head. Ellie paused, looking at Nathan anxiously with an apple in her hand and a mouthful of fruit she seemed too afraid to chew. Nathan relaxed his shoulders and his jaw. He hadn't realised he'd been staring across the couch at her in an irate trance. He turned his attention towards the smartscreen, not at all surprised to see the journalist Chloe Petrov's live stream looking back. Chloe was an exceptionally beautiful woman, with long red hair and piercing grey eyes, so bright they took the appearance of silver. A mere thirty seconds of her face might have provided Nathan with the aesthetic therapy he needed to escape his feeling of annoyance, but Ellie's misinterpretation of the situation denied him the opportunity.

In the hopes of appeasing his frustration, she switched to the next live stream. Nathan turned his head away from the teenagers scaling a skyscraper and towards Ellie, who, still refraining from chewing the apple in her mouth, appeared to be seeking his approval.

"No." He said, attempting to communicate that she did not have to switch the stream for him.

Misunderstanding once again, Ellie clicked her way onto the next stream.

"That's not-"

Nathan's words, intended to offer clarity on why he had told her no, were cut short. A glimpse of the live stream now occupying the smart screen took complete hold of his attention, and his heart began to race.




Part II coming soon.