Participants:
Scene Title | It Wasn't You |
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Synopsis | In the aftermath of her fight with Matt, Kaydence flees upstairs to Kain's penthouse and finds no sympathy from the Devil. |
Date | August 24, 2010 |
Dorchester Towers - Kain's Penthouse
Right from the doorway the sheer size of this penthouse seems designed to impress. The walls and ceiling are painted in a soft eggshell white that seems to only enlarge the perception of the living space, with lightly-stained hardwood floors reflecting the daylight spilling through the partly closed blinds. Immediately across from the entrance is a raised living room with three shallow steps leading up to the carpeted landing it sits on. A plush white sofa covers one wall, with a long glass-topped table between it and a matching chaise lounge. The entire opposite wall to the side of the sofa is a gigantic window that affords a view of the nighttime skyline of New York. Sliding vertical blinds are drawn drawn closed, but twisted so they remain partly open, giving a slatted view of the New York skyline. Up against the window is a jet black leather sofa with a tall lamp with a ball-shaped shade.
Further into the penthouse, there is a large open kitchen that is in plain view of the sitting room, a black marble-topped island divides the kitchen from the main floor, and beyond the island more counterspace and brushed-metal faced kitchen appliances fill the walls. From here, a hallway can be seen that is lined with four doors; one leading to an office, two more to bedrooms, and another to a bathroom.
There's an unexpected ding! as the elevator arrives to allow access to the penthouse suite. Shortly thereafter, the intercom is buzzed.
"Kain!"
Is that…
"It's Kaydence! Please let me in!"
What?
She doesn't have to shout to be heard over the intercom, but she is. Her voice sounds strained. Like she might have been crying. Or might be about to? She sounds like she did when he wound up at her door on Christmas Eve '08. Not good.
Kaydence's voice echoes through the penthouse apartment, she can hear her own voice reverberating through the frosted glass wall dividing the foyer from the actual penthouse itself. At her back, the elevator doors slide shut all on their own, and beyond that glass wall there is not even the suggestion of a response, just silence.
No lights shine in through the penthouse windows to warm the frosted glass and given the hour of morning that likely means the blinds have been drawn closed on those floor to ceiling windows that she knows lie beyond here. Whenever Kaydence Lee Damaris needs Kain Zarek, he seems to pointedly not be available in any sort of immediacy.
"Open the door!" Kaydence demands almost half-heartedly into the intercom, dropping her finger off the button and leaning heavily against the glass divider.
Thump.
Thump!
The woman at first lightly bangs her head against the glass, and then a second time, harder. "Stupid, stupid, stupid." With a bang and a whimper, she slides down to the floor, pulling her knees to her chest and buring her face against the peak they create.
Kaydence's dark hair makes a curtain on either side of her face, sliding off the brown leather of the jacket she wears over a purple tank top. The first tears dampen and make darker the denim of the knees of her flared jeans. Her purse shifts and hits the floor with a quiet thunk!, the straps still caught at her elbow.
Ding.
Having had her back to the elevator when its doors closed, Kaydence had not noticed the numbers going both down and then back up again while she demanded entrance into the closed penthouse. When that chime comes, though, and that door opens there's a familiar figure possessed of dirty blonde hair in a pinstripe suit waiting confusedly inside of the elevator beyond parted doors. Kain Zarek's blue-eyed stare squares soundly on Kaydence, brows furrowed and jaw set, neck tense and looking for all his worth like he might just go back downstairs.
Breathing in deeply, Kain exhales an unbecoming snort and steps slowly out of the elevator, hands tucked into the pockets of his slacks, walking around Kaydence's crumpled form, slipping a key card out of his pocket to slide through the magnetic lock beside his door. "Ain't there laws 'bout loiterin'?" Kain grumbles as the light on the card reader turns green and the frosted glass door pushes inwards, then slides on a hiss of hydraulics into the apartment.
Kaydence quickly reaches between her head and her knees to wipe the tell-tale signs of tears from her face before she lifts her head entirely to look up at the man she's come to see. I totally was not just crying in a heap on the floor here. No. "Who's going to arrest me? I'm the one carrying the cuffs." And she is, too. In her purse, in fact.
The woman is quick to pull herself to her feet without reaching up for help, or expecting any, straightening the hem of her shirt before squaring her shoulders and tilting her chin up. I am perfectly fine. "My Ah come in?" Southern inflection creeps into her tone as it often does in the man's presence.
"No," is about as flatly as Kain has ever interacted with Kaydence, and as he takes one step into his apartment, the Cajun's profile narrows to look at the brunette up and down, eyes narrowed and brows furrowed. "It's always somethin' with you, Damaris. It's your kid or its your job or it's me screwin' somethin' up. Ah' ain't nobody you want t'talk to while you ain't in a good mood, an' Ah' sure as hell ain't your friend. Ah'm pretty sure Ah' made that clear a while back."
For all the dismissive nature of Kain's words, it's hard not to see that he isn't enjoying saying them. "Unless Danny sent y'here, Ah' ain't got time for whatever troubles'r goin' on behind your little white pickett fence. Ah've got real work t'do." Something is clearly crawled up Kain's ass and has him on edge, more so than usual.
Lifting his brows and looking at Kaydence expectantly, Kain does his best to set his jaw and look firm.
Kaydence is still full of pent up anger from the fight downstairs, and it doesn't take much to set her off again. She tugs her purse straps up to sit on her shoulder before she roughly shoves the man into his own apartment with both hands on his chest. "Get the fuck outta mah way, I am havin' a drink!" And right on past him she stomps, making a bee line for his kitchen.
Right up until her bicep is snagged by a large hand and she's yanked back towards the door, at least.
"Hey!" Kain barks like an attack dog, swinging Kaydence around and slamming her up against the inside of the glass wall to his apartment, pointing one finger up at her with brows furrowed and lips downturned into a scowl. "You ain't got the permission t'be runnin' around in here like you own this joint missy." Blue eyes sweep up and down Kaydence, and Kain keeps his hand fastly held at her arm in a way that does indeed hurt and more than likely will leave marks.
Behind Kain there is an easel set up with a white cloth draped over it, halfway between kitchen and living room. "Th' fuck's gotten inta' you Damaris? Ah' ain't got no time for your suburbian problems. Now get outta' mah apartment 'fore Ah' throw y'out."
The breath leaves Kaydence's lungs in a surprised whoosh of air past her lips when she hits the glass. She honestly doesn't know how to respond to his reaction and his own anger except to return it in kind again. One hand comes up and pounds against the man's chest. Not as hard as she could.
"Ah'm not here to talk about shit, Zarek!" Kaydence hits him again just for good measure, this time in the shoulder. "If I wanted to talk, I'd call someone with more brains than you!"
"Like flies an' vinegar," Kain drawls with a shake of his head as he drags Kaydence around the wall and to the door, giving her a shove out of his own and a crease of his dark brows in a furrow. "Well if'n you wanted a drink Ah' hear there's a great bar round the corner, Damaris. Or maybe you can just go ask your big jolly husband t'fix you up a mojito when he gets back from bein' Captain Facist for a day?" Someone has been hanging out with liberals.
Nodding his head in a dismissive motion, Kain looks to the elevator doors. "Go'n an' get your ass outta here 'fore Ah' throw you out more. Ah' ain't got time f'your bullshit, Kay. Ah' got's me a business meetin' t'prepare for."
"He's not my husband," Kaydence shouts in Kain's face, reaching out to grab hold of his arm with the same sort of grip he's got hers in. "He's not my anything anymore!" Well, he is her ex, but that would just be a silly thing to say. Not nearly as much impact.
She doesn't start crying again. That would be showing a weakness, and that seems the opposite of a good thing in the current situation. "What happened, Kain? We used to like each other. What did I do?" Her dark eyes search his face for some sort of clue. "I don't understand… Please, just give me that much."
Emotion briefly flashes across Kain's face, bare suggestions of something deeper than the surface going on, something powerful and unfortunate. "It wasn't you," is the old saying, "it was me." Too much guilt there to even speak the truth, but it's Kaydence's story of a marriage cancelled and a future crushed that has Kain hesitating on doing anything further. He stays in the doorway, blocking it, but he hasn't slid it shut in her face yet. Maybe because the slow hissing close of that glass door isn't as dramatic as slamming one in her face, maybe because he's second guessing himself.
"Ah' ain't your therapist," Kain grouses bitterly, closing his eyes and shaking his head as he rests one arm against the glass door frame. "Get outta' here an' go cry on someone else's shoulder, Ah— Ah ain't got th' time fer this t'day."
Kaydence slowly releases her grip on Kain's arm and swallows back the lump in her throat. "I came to you because I didn't think you would let me cry." She steps back and turns around, stepping toward the elevator in a slow, deliberate stride. She presses the button to call the car, determined not to look back over her shoulder.
She does it anyway.
"Ah should'a never come here," she says in a quiet voice. It rings familiar. "Shouldn'a bothered…" Bothered him, or bothered to come is questionable. "Ah'm a selfish bitch." Her gaze turns back to the doors in front of her, head tipping up so she can watch the ascent through lit up numbers.
The entire time Kaydence is moving to the elevator, Kain's eyes are averted down to his feet. What he wants and what he knows he should have are two wholly different things. There's a firestorm coming, one that he knows is going to take lives with it, and the last place Kain Zarek wants Kaydence Damaris is in the fire with him. That, and he couldn't bare to have that responsibility, not after the things he's done. Not at least, until the Devil has paid his due.
"That goes fer both of us," Kain murmurs as he hits the close button on his door, letting the glass slide shut with an automated hum and hiss. It isn't the most dramatic way to end a conversation, but the narrowing sliver of Kain's silhouette mimics the slow open of the elevator doors for Kaydence.
They're both very selfish people. That's why they'd be so good for each other. Maybe in another life, they were.