Participants:
| Scene Title | Wayward Snowflake |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | There was nothing accidental about this tragedy in Little Italy, and the Ferry comes into possession of a wayward snowflake. |
| Date | March 8, 2010 |
Maybe it's a reprieve, maybe winter is finally willing to let its grasp on the city go, maybe it's just a tease. But for the first time in a long time, the sun is shining down on New York City. Even if those clouds are encroaching again in the distance, they can't be around for much longer. Spring has to come sometime soon.
Just after four in the afternoon, the sun is dipped low to the western horizon, ducked down behind skyscrapers and prepared to settle behind the distant Jersey shores beyond. Here in Manhattan, people are trying to fig out from the snowstorm that hit over the weekend. With the sun out and temperatures finally reaching near thirty degrees, people are bundled up and out on the streets, starting to shovel out their cars, lay down calcium and salt on their steps and sidewalks, and motorists are finally braving the icy roads now that the sun and public works are starting to clear the worst of it.
Bright sun draws people out from their homes, brings them out onto the street and has much of the city seeming to be waking up from hibernation. It's perhaps not entirely unlikely that a cris-crossing of paths happens on at this moment on this day, that with just enough people out on the streets there's the potential for just the right combination of lives and personalities to make the unthinkable come to pass.
At Picolli's delicatessen, a federal agent stands in line, two people from the front, waiting on the sandwich that will be his early dinner before heading back to work on the Sylar case. Across the street at a bus stop, a young escapee from the Moab Federal Penitentiary waits for a bus that is a half an hour late due to the icy condition of the roads. Heading down the sidealk, the daughter of a Company agent is bundled up for the freezing cold weather, boots crunching in the thin layer of scraped snow underfoot, sun warm on her cheeks.
At the corner of Mott Street and Broom less than one hundred feet from the bus stop, a young blonde girl has crouched down to re-lace one of her boots, while a crowd of people move across the street at the inception of traffic lights. At her side, a tall and dark-haired gentleman in a dark suit and black overcoat watches the traffic, checking his watch. "We're going to be late for the pickup…" he comments, turning to regard the young teen crouched at his side with one brow raised.
The young girl looks up, blue eyes rolling in her head before a breath huffs out frustratedly. "I know," she grouses, "they're not going to leave without us, don't worry so much…"
It seems just like any other ordinary day.
Melissa has bundled up, all in black as she tends to do. Though today has found her wearing just a touch of color. A hot pink skull on either end of her scarf! Stylish! Her hands are covered in gloves, and since it's actually 30, she's not hiding them in her pockets for once. "Okay, I like snow, I really, really do…But this is really freakin' ridiculous." She looks upwards at the sky. "Stop. Snowing," she mutters, before she shakes her head and tucks her coat a little tighter around her.
Fel's in line, and enduring it with the stoicism of someone raised under the Soviet regime. Which is to say, with sullen patience. He's in his overcoat, wearing the blue scarf Tamara gave him, and scratching at his beard as if it were itching. Perhaps pondering taking it off, when he gets home that evening.
The Company man's daughter is indeed dressed for the weather, looking up towards the sky as she shakes her head. "Stop playing with my emotions weather, please." She says this as she begins to pass the older man and the teen. She's taken her hood off and her blonde hair with the pink streak falls past her shoulders in waves. She decided to leave her hair wavy today instead of straighten it.
Looking down at her phone, she checks the time. Not that she has anywhere to be.. really she just wanted to check the time. Lucille hasn't noticed Melissa, the girl with the great arm for throwing snowballs yet. But it won't be long, surely.
Her black combat boots crunch the snow as she stops and looks at something closer at her phone, the screen has a glare on it. The young blonde is standing right behind the teen and her dad? Though not directly behind, just facing the sidewalk and staring down at her phone. Apparently she's reading a text message that she was sent.
«…authorities are still silent on the murder of Hunter Telecommunications heiress Wendy Hunter, found dead last week in her Manhattan home. New York City's Comissioner Karen Lau stated that "All agencies are working together towards discerning the nature and motives of the killer, and our hearts go out to the Hunter family for their loss. We do not, however, have any further information to share at this time."» The television in Piccoli's carries news about the Hunter murder, and with that ringing in Felix's ear, the drumming of his blood in his ears seems to hasten just a little, will this fucker in front of him just finish ordering his food already.
Down the street, Melissa Pierce can see the bus approaching, emerging from spring street onto Mott, a puff of smoke coming out the exhaust as it rumbles onto the road. Passing behind the bus stop at Melissa's back, Lucille's eyes down at the text message read over the message with a certain mixture of scrutiny and confusion.
Turn to your right. You will see a blonde woman sitting at a bus stop. Introduce yourself to her.
Whh— what the fuck?
Finished with her fixing of the laces of her boots, that small blonde teen rises up to her feet and dusts off her fingers. "Okay, all set." She begins to just head out towards the curb, despite the large orange Don't Walk icon flashing at the crosswalk. The man in the black overcoat practically swallows his tongue when he sees her stepping off onto the street, grabbing her by the back of the collar and yanking her back.
"Liette." He hisses out, jerking her back as a car rushes past. "You— you have to wait for the walk sigh." A hand motions up to the traffic signal, and her escort furrows his brows, exhaling a tired sigh as his fingers unwind from her collar. She offers a sheepish, somewhat helpless look, then rolls her shoulders. "They would've stopped, right?"
Liette doesn't get an answer, just a woeful frown and a shake of a head, one gloved hand moving over the darkly-dressed man's face slowly with a sigh. "What'm I going to do with you, kid?"
Melissa…is not the most patient person in the world. So while she watches the bus she rocks from her heels to her toes and back again, humming softly under her breath. If she wasn't so focused on that, she might notice Lucille, the woman who approves of random snowball fights with strangers. "Why the hell did I forget my headphones?" she mutters to herself with a sigh.
The look on Felix's face is enough to give the woman right in front of him pause, when she turns around from yapping on her phone. Enough to shut her up, before he realizes what he's doing, and adjusts it to something more neutral. The man ordering the Most Intricate Sandwich In the World has finally described his opus to the frustrated-looking teenager behind the counter, and steps aside to await his order. Fel curtly nods at Cellphone Woman to hurry the fuck up and order her goddamn sandwich. Not that he says this aloud.
"What.. the fuckin.. fuck?"
Lucille's breath stops as she stares down at the text message and then towards the woman, who she recognizes from that night she was walking home from Harlem. This is freaking weird. The faux blonde scratches her head and then types in a reply to the person who has texted her.
Uh.. who the hell are you?
As she finishes her reply, she walks over to Melissa and waves a hand with a soft smile. "Goth chick.. threw a snowball at that weird guy the other night?" Luci grins as she puts one hand behind her head and stretches. "Name's Lucille." She says softly, though her expression is a strange one. She looks around her as if whoever is watching her, she could spot and then she types out another quit message back to the guy/girl.
You happy? Now what?
A light smirk tugs at her lips, though she's pretty freaked out.. who the hell would be texting her that?
There is a federal agent across the street at Piccoli's Delicatessen named Felix Ivanov, he is currently in line. He is going to emerge shortly, and you will need to distract him. The woman you are talking to is named Melissa Pierce. You are going to need her help to save a life today.
Inside of Piccoli's, the woman on her cell phone rolls her eyes at Felix and grouses into the receiver. "Hold on Sandy, I'm at the sub shop, I gotta— Piccoli's. Oh yeah you know I've been going here for about six years now…" The woman on her cell phone holds up one hand towards the register clerk, head cocked to the side. "Oh no it's wonderful you need to try their Reubens they're just heavenly, the saurkraut is made fresh, not the canned stuff y'know?" Dante Alighieri wrote of circles of torture in the 12th century, and Felix Ivanov is left to wonder if perhaps that list should be ammended; the 10th circle, a hell for discourteous cell phone users.
"Okay, it's about to change." Out on the corner of the street at the crosswalk, the young Liette and her guardian stand watching the crosswalk sign flashing silently. Lights begin to change, cars move, others come to a stop. On a midtown bus bound for Chinatown, the driver takes a moment to look down when his CB radio begins squawking and shrieking loudly, leaning forward to turn down the dial as his brows furrow. The light ahead is green.
The walk sign comes on and the crosswalk plays a friendly melody of chimes and tunes for the seeing impaired.
"Little person-light means go!" Liette chirps as she leaps, both feet first, down off of the curb onto the snow with a crunch, then begins trundling through the crosswalk. Breathing out an exasperated sigh, the man in the overcoat behind her follows her out onto the street with one hand tucked into his pocket, fishing for something. Liette turns on her heels, walking backwards with both arms outspread. "When's it going to snow again?"
Do not panic.
Several things happen in this moment: The driver of the Chinatown bound bus looks up from behind his wheel, eyes wide as he spots what's in front of him that isn't tail lights. He slams both feet on the brakes, the pressurized hiss coming as the bus begins to skid and fishtail on the ice. On the street, Liette looks up and turns to the sight of headlights coming straight at her. A traffic camera pivots slowly to witness the event clearly. Liette's darkly-dressed handler sees the oncoming bus and rushes forward, screaming an unintelligible cry that might have been the word "no."
At the bus stop, Melissa Pierce witnesses the bus she is supposed to board smash into a man standing in a crosswalk, crushing him against the grill and then dragging him beneath the vehicle. The bus fishtails, swerving out of control before colliding with parked cars ont he side of the road with a massive crash, showers of glass and the noise of car alarms going off.
Pushes away from the impact of the bus, Liette is clipped by the driver's side mirror of another passing car, that tries to stop and swerves on the ice once the brakes are applied. The sedan skids out of control as well, turning backwards before going down the wrong lane of the street, crashing into an oncoming car and bouncing off into another parked vehicle with an explosion of safety glass and crumpling metal.
A hubcap rolls past where Liette lays on the ground, clutching a broken arm, tears welling up in her eyes. Cars are trying ot stop, smashing into each other, skidding around on the sheet of ice that is the road.
Melissa looks over when Lucille walks over, and she arches a brow, nodding. "Yeah, that was me. Can't say I expected to run into you again though. Ever." She shrugs a little. "But hi, Lucille. I'm Mel." Then the sound of the bus trying to stop has her head whipping around, just in time to spot the man getting hit, which has her eyes widening.
She didn't get the text telling her not to panic, and she is a bit of a do-gooder, so what do she do? Why, she darts out towards the bus, slipping on the ice as she tries to duck down to get a look underneath, to see if the man is beyond hope. She points blindly towards Liette, yelling to Lucille. "Check on the girl! And call for an ambulance!" Which briefly brings the doctors and paramedics she knows to mind, but then she's right back to focusing on who's here now and who needs to get here!
The commotion in the line behind him and beyond has Felix turning away from his contemplation of the perfection that is a turkey sandwich from Piccoli's. The yell for the ambulance has him deserting his place and bolting for the door. Not at full speed - trying to go full throttle in these winter conditions is likely to leave him pasted across a wall like a 'toon.
As Lucille reads the text messages, she looks up and all these things happen at once. The blonde looks at the scene in shock and she places a hand on Melissa's arm as she jumps back further away from the sidewalk. Her eyes widen and she gasps as she takes in what really just happened. "Shit."
Lucille looks down at her phone in shock and then towards Melissa. "Melissa, I need you to stick by me." She says softly and then her gaze is staying on Piccoli's Delicatessen. She nods at Melissa and then takes off running for the teen. "Hey, let's see. What's your name?" she asks softly, okay so she's not a paramedic. The teen doesn't look like she has any noticeable wounds, besides the arm being broken or fractured. Breathing heavily the bartender types out a hasty reply to the text.
Okay.. any clue how I'm going to exactly be able to know who this Felix is?? I'm blanking here!
After the message is sent, Lucille looks over to Melissa, "Mel! Come over here!" she calls loudly and then she's waving for the woman to come to her. The mystery person said she's gonna need Melissa. So she doesn't need to lose the other woman in the frenzy that will become this street soon.
From Lucille's phone there is a chirp of a call coming in and then the black and white image of a gaunt looking man in an overcoat with a scarf appears. It looks like footage from a security camera, depicting the man standing in line impatiently behind another customer. She barely is able to get a few good glimpses down at the device as she makes the run towards the blonde girl laying in the middel of the street. No one's approached her yet, the horror and shock hasn't come off of most people, but practically everyone on the street is on their phone. A few concerned citizens have come out to move onto the crosswalk, hushed and horrified voices filling the air.
One man, kneeling down in the street, is hunched over the bloodied body of the man who was struck full force by the bus. He has a hand ghosting near his shoulder, trying to see if he's conscious, trying to reassure him everything is going to be okay. The snow is streaked red all around him. Nothing is going to be okay after this.
Screams of pain and confusion come from the bus, and people who were jostled around inside are trying to find their footings, though from the street it's impossible to tell how many people were seriously injured. The driver of the sedan that clipped Liette is already out of his car, his airbag deflating in the driver's side seat. People from Picolli's are on the sidewalk on their cell phones, some taking pictures of the accident and others moving to the bus, another trying to cross the street to get to the sedan driver to make sure he's okay.
Out on the sidewalk, Felix can see the bus plowed into the parked cars, the sliding doors stuck on one side from being crushed by the impact. The back doors are only now screeching open and people with bumps and bruises are getting out. There's a din of confusion of some people on the sidewalk as they look to their cell phones, and on the curb, Felix can hear two people grousing about how their phone won't take pictures. Someone else complaining that they can't get a signal to put out a call.
At a full sprint, Lucille arrives at the crosswalk where Liette lays in the snow, skidding to a halt with a scrape of her boots on the icy pavement. Liette's eyes are teared up, and the little girl is breathing shuddering, sobbing breaths as she holds her arm, small whimpering cries escaping her as she wrenches her eyes shut and breathes in deeply through her nose.
Turning her head, the young girl looks towards the man in black laying in the pool of blood, and her eyes grow wide, voice lost in a silent scream as her lips part and no sound comes out. Tears freeze to her cheeks in the cold breeze.
Lucille's cell phone vibrates again from an incoming text message.
They will be here soon, you must hurry. Hand Melissa your phone, and tell her that I am from "the Ferry." Sound convincing.
Melissa winces at what she sees beneath the bus, then she's looking at Lucille. "What are you talking about?" she asks, even as she pushes to her feet, mostly, to move towards the girl, since the man can't be helped. "Hey there…What does it hurt?" she asks softly, though she looks at the arm Liette is holding. She glances around, noting all the people, and grimaces faintly. They'd be sure to notice if she got a nosebleed without being touched.
It takes a moment, though it no doubt feels longer for the injured girl, then Melissa reaches out, to touch the girl gently, trying to make it look as though she's searching for injuries. But fingers do come to rest on the arm, feather light, as she does her best to ease the pain without pushing hard enough to cause a nosebleed. It's still not an easy thing for her, or a pleasant one, but she does so hate to see people suffering unnecessarily.
Fel comes out like a Colosseum lion bounding for the first Christian martyr of the day. He's got a funny, too-heavy tread, but that's perhaps how he's not slipping and breaking his neck on the ice. It's chaos, of course. He turns for a moment, sticks his head back in the deli's door. "Hey," he says to the clerks behind the counter. "Call 911. Cell towers are out." Let's hear it for the ground lines. He's got his badge out already, and is heading for the worst of the injured - Liette's handler. "We got any doctors, nurses, medical professionals handy?" Because Fel doing first aid….well…suffice to say he's much better at destroying than at healing.
The blonde bartender takes another glance at the photo before she spots Felix running. She nods her head as she looks back at the text message and then looks confused.. why would she be giving her phone to Melissa. She blinks and then looks towards the woman. She might as trust the faceless person, they've been right so far. Thrusting her phone at Melissa, Lucille looks over towards Felix and then gives Melissa a rather serious look. "For you, he's from the Ferry." She says softly and looks Melissa in the eye before taking off towards Felix.
The blonde's hair whips into her face as she runs towards the man and tries not to slip on the pavement. "Excuse me, sir? Felix?" she asks with a tilt of her head and raise of her eyebrow, she briefly looks back at Melissa with her phone, she's without her guardian. But they said to distract Felix.. so she's going to do it. She intercepts the agent and looks at him with wide eyes. "My dog! I think he was hit by the bus! You have to help me!" Lucille cries out and then she's thinking.. cry cry cry cry.. cry. When she thinks about her mother and how she use to bring her and sister out to play in the park when it snowed the water starts to run from her eyes and freeze on her cheeks.
"My mother gave him to me, she died.. oh please! Don't let him be dead!" Lucille lays her head on Felix's shoulder and cries harder taking in gasping breaths every so often when it seems appropriate. So this has to work.. right?
The moment the phone passes into Melissa's hand it vibrates and a chirp comes to indicate a new text message.
This girl needs to be extracted to a safe location. The location itself does not matter but should be one you are comfortable with. She has valuable information. Will she require medical attention?
The question seems oddly phrased, but at the same time demanding and authoratative. Melissa's never gotten a text message over the cell from the Ferrymen before, but she's heard stories of a veritable ghost in the machine that works for them called Wireless— maybe this is her?
"Mm— My arm— M— Mmmy arm." It's all Liette can say as she stares out at the body on the ground some hundred feet from her, the black-clad handler that is being checked out by one of the men who had come to his aid. People are hanging back from Liette, thanks to Melissa being right there to keep an eye on her. The phone vibrates again, chirps again, another text message.
Look to your left, ten yards down Mott street, you will see a yellow cab waiting outside of Eagle Photos. It is waiting for your arrival and is charged to a credit card. Tell the driver you are "Anna" and that "thank you for waiting. Leave before the young woman who had this phone returns to claim it."
While all this chaos is happening, while Felix is being told to search for someone's imaginary dead dog, he notices the traffic lights blinking in and out, walk and don't walk signs flashing in no particular rhythm. There's a propensity of people in the crowd hitting their phones or looking confusedly at them. Something isn't right about this whole scenario of events.
Melissa looks up, startled, at Lucille, but she doesn't hesitate to take the phone, even if it means that she has to stop pulling the pain from the girl. She reads both messages and softly mutters, "Shit." Then she shoves the phone in her pocket and starts to help the girl to her feet. "Com on honey. Let's move you out of the street and I'll take care of your arm. It'll feel much better very soon. I promise," she murmurs, starting to try to herd Liette towards the waiting cab. "It already feels a little better, now doesn't it?"
Well she tried.. right? And then Lucille looks around and she spots Melissa helping the girl to stand. "Shit." She mutters before she gives Felix one last look and she's charging after the other blonde. "Hey, Melissa!" she says as she skids to a stop next to her, "Need some help?" she says to the other woman. Her eyes wide as she looks around. "It's gonna be okay sweetie." She says softly to the young teen.
Then the bartender is fixing the pain manipulator with a stare. "Come on, move it." She says and she's waiting for Melissa to lead the way, apparently.. the mystery person thinks Melissa is one of the good guys. The flickering lights and such draw Lucille's attention, "This is nuts." She says softly to Melissa and the teen.
The moment that Melissa reaches out with her ability and withdraws the pain from Liette, the young girl swallows awkwardly and looks not the least bit confused. Blue eyes lift up to look towards Melissa and there's a warm, innocently trusting smile spread there as she uses her good hand to grip onto Melissa's forearm, boots scuffing on the sidewalk as she pulls herself up, though the overwrought look she had becomes comes when her eyes settle on the blood-smeared body of her handler on the street. "Is… W— Why isn't he getting back up?" She asks in a hushed tone of voice, her tiny fingers clamped tightly on Melissa's arm.
Without so much as a question as to why she's being led away, Liette seems more than completely willing to go with a complete stranger. Her boots scuff on the ice street, brows lift up to her hairline and eyes are wide, cold wind blowing at her tangled blonde locks. The phone in Melissa's hand vibrates again.
Is she going to need medical assistance?
Pushing past Lucille and moving towards the black-clad man laying on the pavement, Felix can see that he's conscious and probably in shock. He's lost so much blood that it looks like someone killed the Kool-Aid man and decided to make snow cones out of his remains. The traumatized bystander crouched at his side offers up a look to Felix, brows furrowed in worry. "I— I can't get a signal on my phone. I— he's…"
When blue eyes settle on Felix, the man laying in the street croaks out a wet noise. "Ivanov?" There's no recognition on Felix's end, whoever the suit is marinading in a pool of his own juices isn't a familiar one, even before he got turned into human hamburger. Apparently Felix's reputation has transcended to the dead and the dying; he's been on that doorstep enough times, perhaps he's letting the Fed know his spot is next in line.
"Ff— Fuck I can't move…" A wet, gurgling noise comes out of the wounded man, and his leather-gloved fingers are twitching at his side, maybe he's trying to move his arm, but the bones in it would have to not be shattered and his elbow would have to not be dislocated for that to happen.
Melissa looks rather irritated to have been caught while trying to get away from Lucille before she noticed, but she can't exactly tell Lucille to leave! She looks at the phone in her hand, typing out a quick message, sending it, clearing it and the other messages she read, then she shoves it back at Lucille. "I've got the girl. See if you can help her friend."
Yes. 602-555-7767
Clearly she can't communicate on Lucy's phone anymore, so she's passed on her own.
"Lie still," Felix orders, looking down into the man's face. Distracted he definitely is, even as he tries to examine the downed one to see what the worst injuries are. "You, you," he looks up, points out two bystanders. "You, go north until you get a signal, you run south." Maybe it's a limited area of effect. He can hope, right?
"What's he saying?" Or her, who knows? Lucille asks as they continue to move. When she's handed the phone and notices the messages are erased, her eyebrows are raised. She shakes her head at Melissa, continuing to move with the pair. "Unfortunately, can't do that sistah girl. Agent didn't fall for the story.. and he's right there. Our 'friend' asked me too." She jerks her thumb in the direction of Felix and shakes her head. Looks like they are stuck with each other? Lucille bites her lip as she looks at Melissa and then to Liette.
"I can help, obviously you've seen that." She says to the other blonde. What the hell is going on? Lu runs a hand through her hair as she looks back down at her phone.
Melissa's phone does not respond, perhaps everything the person on the other end needed to know went through, perhaps not. But the silence is indicative of something. With Lucille in tow, Melissa makes her way hastily away from the scene of the accident, slipping into the crowd of onlookers with Liette in tow. Since the girl is being brought away without so much as a fuss and isn't visibly bleeding, the onlookers assume — and perhaps they're right in that thought — that she's being taken to safety away from the street and the accident. Most everyone's attention is on helping people out of the wrecked bus and tending to the driver of the sedan who clipped the girl they're escaping with.
Further down the street and at the intersection, Felix's eyes meet those of the man laying dying on the road. There's still no sound of ambulances coming, no police sirens, nothing. Down the end of the street the bus had come from, Felix can spot a police cruiser likely making its daily rounds through the city, knowing it will be on them soon. A few people have headed in that direction to try and flag it down while two other people are headed up and down Spring street to the north and south sides trying to find cell phone signal at Felix's request.
"Oh God Ivanov…" The man in black breathes out the words with a shuddering exhalation. "Where is she?" He asks with a wavering quality to his stare, chest heaving for a moment. "Wh— where is she?"
"Clearly you can't, or your dog story would've kept him busy," Melissa mutters. "And our 'friend' told me to go someplace that you can't go. So do something good and go help that man. While he can still be helped," she says softly, trying to spare the girl from it. Then she looks down to Liette. "Who was that man, honey?" she asks gently, still moving towards the cab.
"Where is who?" Fel demands, going still. It's disturbing, the way he's crouched over the dying man, like some anthropomorphic vulture. He looks up keenly, glances around, as if there might be some obvious explanation.
"Look, that agent over there is helping the man. There's nothing I can do for him. This one, I can help with." Why she can help with the teen, she doesn't know or say.. but um.. she wants to help so let her. "Go somewhere without me? Well that fucker started this, texting me weird stuff. You think he would have texted you if you were the only one meant to help?" Lu looks down at Liette, "Sorry honey." She apologizes softly to the girl for the swearing.
Lucille can be stubborn, something her father says she got from her mother and she'll be damned if she's left staying up at night, driving herself crazy just to figure out what happened today. Enough drives her crazy already. "I'm coming with." She says and shrugs her shoulders. A brief look is thrown over her shoulder, towards Felix and then she keeps moving the other two.
All Felix spots is the crowd, and slowly sweeping over the street shadows of dark clouds crawl up the man's body from the overcast quality the skies are taking. Flurries of fine snowflakes blow in on the next gust of wind, and the man stares up at the encroaching clouds blocking out the blue sky with a gagging swallow. "Liette," he breathes out, starting to hyperventillate, a rasping gurgle coming over his breath, "she— she can't be alone— oh God she can't be alone— she— she doesn't know— " He swallows again, broken fingers twitching as his throat works up and down, tongue slides across his lips and his pupils stay fully dilated, as if he were staring at some great dark expanse and grasping for whatever scraps of light he could find.
"It'll be M— Mmnn— " The words are wet and slow to come off of his tongue, "It'll be— It— " A few more quick gasping breaths, like someone struggling for air, and then nothing but silence, his lips still and eyes unfocused as they stare up at the overcast skies, tiny snowflakes melting on his still warm face while the wind freezes tears and blood with equal chill.
Too far away and by the taxi cab, Melissa stands with one hand carefully on Liette's shoulder, and the young girl has a hand on Melissa's forearm. The question she's asked about the man is elicited with a blue-eyed stare and silence, brows furrowed and the lack of any kind of answer at all. She deflects with a look to the taxi cab, "Are we going for a ride? I'm supposed to be picked up soon…" The young girl stares at her own reflection in the glass, watching silently as Lucille and Melissa argue over things. "You're not supposed to say bad words 'cause it hurts people's feelings," Liette adds after the moment of silence, watching Lucille's reflection in the glass.
Melissa looks like she's getting a little irritated. "You did your part, Lucille. Now let me do mine, alright? You got your phone back, now go." She nods at Liette, opening the door and urging Liette inside. She slips in just after, and shuts the door quick enough that she almost catches her foot in it. "I'm Anna. Thanks for waiting. Now drive," she says to the driver as she locks the door, if she can. Otherwise she just holds the door shut as best she can and hopes the driver listens to her demand. Then she's smiling reassuringly down at Liette. "So what's your name, honey? And who was your friend?" she asks softly.
"Liette," Felix echoes the name back to the dead man. And stares down at him, for a long moment. Like he's trying to remember - his expression's curiously lost, just as it was to when he awoke to shadows of leaves on the wall and no memory of his own name.
And then he shakes it off, and draws off his glove to pass a hand over the corpse's eyes, draw down the lids, and then straightens. "Liette!" he calls, as if she might have merely wandered off.
"Wait— I." Lucille blinks at Melissa. "Rude bitch." She says aloud. Well at least Liette isn't there to hear her, right? "Melissa Pierce," She says softly and then she's entering the name into her phone. She'll find the blonde haired goth. That's for sure. "Fuck you!" she yells after the cab as it drives off and she clenches her fists and stomps on the ground. The Ryans girl looks after the cab before shaking her head, nothing she can do now.
So she takes Melissa's advice, she runs back towards Felix and stops in front of him. "Is there anything I can do to help?" Hopefully he doesn't remember her as the crazy girl with the dog.
He will, but Felix Ivanov has more pressing matters on his hands right now. Calling out Liette's name to the sky, there's a bellow of his voice, projected over the crowd. But the girl does not answer. She can't see him where she is, or hear him in the confines of the cab. But as the snow falls down quietly on Mott street, flurries drifting and swirling around, collecting on a dead man's bloodied face, one very unique snowflake is being drawn away from where she needs to be, and where is safe for her to be.
Seated beside Melissa in the back of the cab driving slowly down the road, Liette turns to offer a blue-eyed stare up towards the other blonde. Her lips creep up, a smile too honest for a girl who just watched a man die, who has a broken arm, but thankfully cannot feel the pain save for but a tingle. She considers Melissa for a while, watching the older woman with a wrinkle of her nose.
"I like your hair…" The young teen offers to Melissa with a pucker of her lips and a quirk of one brow, looking down to the fingers of her broken arm. "My name's Liette, and I can't tell you who he was. M'not supposed to tell anyone, 'cause it's a secret." Fair brows go up and Liette offers a look back to Melissa.
"You have a really cool power… wanna tell me how it works?"
The cab's read view window reflects distant, blue flashing lights from a squad car approaching the scene of the accident. NYPD first responders emerge from the vehicle, radioing in for assistance and paramedics. Cell phones begin to work once more, traffic cameras come back on, and the mysterious blackout of all electronic recording and voice devices in a square city block radius finally ends.
As if Felix Ivanov doesn't have enough to do already.
This is just what he needed.