Something Pinned

Ed sat in silence as he stared at the video camera set up on the tripod, that stood head-height high on the steel table in front of him. The lights were dimmed, but he knew that the camera had more than adequate low-light filming functionality. He had stared into the camera for the better part of a half hour, saying nothing, thinking, contemplating which of the stories he would tell. He finally opened his mouth, and closed it again. Smiling, he finally leaned forward, still staring dead into the lens.

            "It was a good night," he began.

Ed sat at the bar, and flirted with some random brunette he had caught with his eyes when they first arrived at the hotel a few days before. He and Sarah had had a falling out right before they left Paris for the third time. Ian saw this and came over.

            "Hey now! Careful with that drink, or you're going to have to convince me to buy you another," Ed joked and stroked a strand of hair from her forehead. She merely laughed with. "Oh hey!" Ed then said as Ian ordered a drink right next to him.

            "Thinking of calling it a night?" Ian asked rhetorically. He knew that Ed knew he only tried to keep him from straying. He also knew that Ed would do whatever the hell he pleased, and it would not bother him too much, had he not also cared for the girl they left behind in Paris.

            "Not yet, I still need to show Laura my particular set of skills."

            "Yeah. You should also leave my girl the fuck alone," said another man from right behind Ed.

They turned around and saw that he was huge, towering at least 2 feet above Ian, who was the tallest of the two of them -- even if just marginally. Ed smirked and politely lifted Laura from his lap, then got up. The mere height of the man caught Ed slightly off guard in his drunken state. Ed looked at Ian and back at the huge man.

            "Who's she to you?" Ed asked.

            "That's my girl."

            "She's your property? Get this, dude. Laura over here is considered property."

Ian got up from where he sat and leaned back against the counter. He did not particularly want to get into a fight, but he was also prepared to do whatever he could do ensure the huge idiot in front of them would go home at least a few hundred IQ shy that morning. The man looked at Ian then back at Ed.

            "So you need your boyfriend over there to back you up now?" He asked with a sneer, and two other massive goons stood up from a table in the corner of the bar.

            "I just want you to apologize to the lady," Ed said.

            "What?"

            "Se jammer," Ed said in Afrikaans. This seemed to get him even more mad, as indicating by the massive fist that was flying in the general direction of his head. Ed ducked out of the way and hit the man with a left hook in the stomach, ducked out of the way of the retaliating blow, and put a right in his stomach too. He ducked around, and one of the other guys managed to grab hold of his collar, yanked him back against the wall and kicked him in the side. Ed struggled to get up as the huge man walked up to him and picked him up by his throat.

            "Not so big now, are you?" He asked, the irish in him more pronounced than ever. "This is what you get for chatting up my girl and calling me something in a different language."

            "Jy het nog nie jammer gesê nie," Ed struggled. At the sound of that, the man let go of his neck and slammed him into the wall with his shoulder, then grabbed hold of his neck again.

            "What did you just say?" He breathed, so close that it would have looked like they were kissing to people who have just walked into the bar.

            "He said, you should be sorry you dumbed down imbecile," Ian said and stomped forward onto the back of the joint in his leg - causing him to buckle forward. His grip on Ed loosened and he managed to stay standing while the man fell forward onto his knees.

            Ed shot a glance at the rest of the room and saw that Ian had already taken care of the other two. He then looked down at the once-tower of a man, and cupped his face in his hands. "Are you going to apologize now or what?" Ed asked. The man spat at him and tried to get up, but Ed smiled once before he plowed his right hand into the man's jaw.

Ian threw some bills on the bar counter and helped Ed as they made their way out the bar and into the lobby area. Ed saw the way Ian was looking at him and straightened up, shrugging Ian away from him.

            "Do you really think I would have gone up to that room with her?" Ed asked, then proceeded to rub at his knuckles.

            Ian sighed and put his hands on his hips. Shrugged his shoulders and looked at Ed matter-of-factly. Ed saw this and smiled nervously.

            "Yeah yeah," Ed said and extended his hand. "Sorry. And thanks."

            "Don't mention it. Now lets get upstairs and get to the bottom of this weapon's dealer..."

Ed got up slowly, his knees popping as he did. All the while, still staring at the camera. He then glanced at the clock to his right and saw that another half hour had passed, just as he recounted the story, looked down and sighed.

            "If it weren't for Ian, I would probably have been unfaithful to Sarah. If it weren't for him, I would probably have been a dead man, too. Probably... Needless to say, Laura ended up being the one selling the weapons. Good thing I knew her weakness to be alcohol and flattery."

            Ed straightened up and switched the camera off, walked around and out the door into Prime's hallway where Connor was waiting for him.

            "What's the matter?"

            "Well, nothing in particular, other than the fact that I suspect Abigail of being that shadow thing."

            "We've investigated once -- I doubt she is."

            "C-Net himself told me that he found a trace of that thing at my bar..."

            "That could have been anything... look: I doubt that she is anything of the sort, but even if she is, I don't think she's aware of it. Elizabeth is with her right now, visiting some family of hers, some kilometers away from the blast at the mall."

            "Why haven't you told me this! I thought she was gone."

            "Just because she doesn't want to talk to you, doesn't mean she disappeared, Connor." Then it hit Ed like a 2-by-4 against the face. "You love her, don't you?"

            "What's that got to do with anything?" Connor defended.

            Ed looked at him and sighed yet again. "C-Net gave me another lead to follow last night that I failed to get to today. Meet me round back with your car."

            "It's already 7 o clock!"

            "Which makes this the ideal time to follow on this lead!" Ed walked off toward his room while Connor merely shook his head, looked up at the ceiling and skulked down the stairs and toward the backdoor to the garage.

Ed closed his bedroom door slowly and breathed in calmly. For some reason he felt extremely strange, as if he had been drinking one glass of whiskey too much that day. He hadn't had his lips on alcohol once that day. Ed walked toward the bed, but fell short a few centimeters and hit his head against the end table. 

            He tried to get up before his knees buckled and he fell forward. He was certain that he looked like a rag doll to those who was now watching him. The room around him became dark and open. He knew he wasn't alone.

            "What do you want now?" He breathed, flailing around and falling back. Even though nothing was there, it felt like he hit his head against the side of his bed. (But it was there).

            "I'm sorry," a voice called, followed by a bunch of others trying to muffle it. It break through once more before it became muffled completely.

            "Leave me alone," Ed breathed again, the scars that now lined his body like circuitry began to flare up. "You don't exist anymore," Ed suddenly burst out, not knowing himself why he yelled those words he felt compelled to carry on, "leave me the fuck alone!"

And as quick as that he was back in his room, on the floor. By what he could tell, only a few seconds had passed but he felt like he had just woken up. Slowly getting to his feet, Ed heard a voice from behind him. He reacted, but was too slow. His elbow got caught mid-action and he was now held in a lock.

            "Tisk tisk," the man said, and Ed knew full well that it was Elizabeth's brother. "Wouldn't want your arm to get ripped off, now do we?"

            "What do you want?"

            "Oh, so you're a negotiator, is that it?" He asked and let out a devilish laughter. "Look, I only do as the old man tells me, and right now you are his biggest concern. So here I am!"

            Ed lunged forward and launched him over his back and into the vanity unit where Elizabeth usually did her makeup. Ed jumped right and extended his hand for one of the arrows that were in a display case on a small coffee table in the middle of the room but the shadow came down on him with monstrous speed and accuracy - even more so than what Ed was capable of.

            He pinned Ed to the ground with his knee, an held Ed's extended arm with his left hand. He laughed once more. "You haven't told her about me yet, have you?" He asked with a smile that made him look more crazy than Ed first thought. "Oh, you haven't told any of them yet!" He said and jumped up, then down as suddenly as he got up as he remembered he had to pin Ed to the ground. "What were you doing in Egypt?" He then asked and leaned closer to Ed's face. "We all know that you did not really go there to follow up on a lead! That's just foolish! Must have been fun, though, whatever you did. Really did. I mean, you did have my sister with you, after all..."

            He then got up slowly and paced the room. It looked strange to Ed -- a shadow, with actual physical form, pacing the room. It looked strange, nonsensical, quite awry. Ed got up slowly, this time not going for the obvious weapon. He knew that C-Net had long since already sent out an alert to Ian. He hoped, anyway.

            "I watched you, in Egypt. Or tried to, anyway. You were... distant. I never really could get to you. The old man told me about you, your connections. He taught you well. So much so that your best buddy can't even be sure of what you are capable of, let alone your new... love interest, bless her beautiful soul. Why did you have to go and bed my sister, you fucking prick! But it's okay. I forgive you. You are going to die now, after all."

            "Think again," Ed said and threw his knife at the thing. It did not hit as Ed had hoped, but it caught flesh nonetheless.

            He practically flew forward and pinned Ed against the wall. Ed saw the knife sticking from the thing's arm and tried to reach it, but he then got thrown to the other side of the room. His vision was blurry but he could see the thing coming toward him.

            "Now you had to go and fuck my whole speech up..." He said and picked Ed up again. His grip was cold to the touch, and hard as a vice -- he was chocking Ed to death.