Laura Laurent

I let myself get caught by them.

I was about 4 miles outside of Chicago, waiting under a tree. They rolled up in about five vans. Four men jumped out of one of the vans; they all had pocketwatches hanging from around their neck. They wore suits, and all four seemed to be quite old.

They surrounded me, and pointed their pocketwatches towards me. Before I could say, "I surrender, just give Laura up to us" they somehow knocked me out. I don't know how. All I remember is four flashes, and suddenly, I'm in a chair; dazed and confused.

In a chair, and before me is a man partially covered in shadows. His face is innocent and charming, but I know that he's a monster underneath the mask; his eyes reminded me of wolves' eyes. So bright, and yet, so dark. His hair is cut short, and his suit is finely pressed and clean. He looked like an important individual.

The room wouldn't stop spinning. So dizzy.

He was wearing a name tag; "Marcus." His name was Marcus.

He faces me, and smiles.

"Well, you're awake now! Hello! Let me introduce myself; my name is Marcus, and I am going to be with you in your last few hours."

I struggle to speak. My throat hurt, and my mouth was extremely dry.

"Last few hours... what do you mean? You're going to kill me?"

He laughs.

"No! Of course not! I can't kill you; or rather, I will not. You are integral to this company's future. No, I need to eradicate you, as in, yourself. As in, everything but your body, The Key, and Padriac's energy."

 "So you can bring about the Singularity or whatever..."

His grin vanishes.

"...So you know about that. That wasn't in our plan. We did not expect Padriac to turn against us. No matter. What's done is done. This will not hurt anything in the slightest."

He walks out of my sight. I only hear his footsteps.

The room is silent for a full minute before I speak up.

"Where is Laura."

He walks back into view. In his hand, he is holding an album.

Lifted, or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground; Bright Eyes.

And as he shows me the vinyl record, he begins to sing:

Laura, are you still living there
On your estate of sorrows?
You used to leave it occasionally
But now you don't even bother
To ride that commuter train, west to Chicago
To stroll through the greenery in the park past the statues
How their eyes seemed to follow you like a hated addiction
Their beauty carved out of absolutes that you could never claim
Or even envision

He was singing from a track called Laura Laurent.

My mind refuses to notice that she shares the same name as the song.

"...That answers nothing! You bastard... let me know where she is, or I'll use the power of the Key to-"

Before I can realize it, Marcus has a gun out and his finger presses down on the trigger. Pain explodes throughout my body, and blood scatters everywhere. One drop lands on Marcus' cheek.

I feel myself die... darkness consumes all... but then, I'm alive again.

"Amazing... I never thought the Key would be that thorough. We've seen healing before, but never at this rate. Is this even what one could call "healing?" It's like time reversed. All the blood is gone..."

And he was right. Vision completely returns, and I notice that the wet feeling of the blood was gone, and there was no traces of it anywhere on my body.

My chest had been healed.

Marcus laughs.

"What did you do to Laura...?!" I gasp out. The wounding from the gun had taken alot out of me.

In the distance, I could hear Padriac screaming from afar. 

Marcus opens his mouth again, and sings.
 

Laura, you were the saddest song
In the shape of a woman
Yeah, I thought you were beautiful
But I wept with your movements
But I hope that you're laughing now from that place on the carpet
Where we shared a sleeping bag in your sister's apartment
Oh, how she would worry so
You know, I was just a stranger

 But she asked me to care for you, yes she did
And I went and betrayed her

He was still playing around with me.

 

I kept myself calm. I didn't completely lose it.

 

"Only a few more seconds..." I think to myself.

 

He begins to sing again. In his hand, is a pocketwatch. He slowly gets closer to me...

 

But do you know we're in high demand, Laura, us people who suffer
Because we don't take to arguing
And we're quick to surrender
Well, I think I would call tonight if I still had your number
Your thoughts have always lain close to mine
Yeah, we were both skipping supper
But you should never be embarrassed by your trouble with living
Because it's the ones with the sorest throats, Lau-

He could not finish the final part of the song because of my teammate Nathan attempting to stab him directly in the back. Unfortunately, Marcus seemed to have been aware of Nathan, and jumps to the side.

The pocketwatch falls to the floor, and in the scuffle, it gets knocked away somewhere.

And then the rest of the team emerge from the shadows and begin to close in on Marcus. Marcus tries to get his gun but Nathan kicks it away from his hand.

"Everybody!!" I shout.

There were far more than just Corina, Mike, and Nathan now.

Our team had grown incredibly once we started recruiting for others interested in taking down the traitors. 

 

We all surrounded him, and to fuck with him, we were chanting the "la la la" part of the song.

 

Now he's tied up and we will soon know where Laura Laurent is.