Xaviers!

Getting to the roof had been trivial while everyone was fleeing the building in a panic. Somehow she'd stayed calm, or maybe detached and empty would be more accurate. She pretended that she was being aloof and in control, but in reality she just didn't really care that much about the possibility of going up in a blaze along with the building. Still, she made it up to the fresh air, ditched her heels and leaped over to the next building. There she stood a while, watching the flames flicker behind the windows as vampires scattered into the darkness. She'd told herself she'd try to find Alessia who surely is fleeing as well, but Instead she'd been looking at her hand and the vague mental impression of a mask she's holding on to and the feelings coming off of it that stung more than any flame could. When she noted the sirens and the blue flicker of fire-engines playing in the urban canyons she tore herself away from the latest location of her life going up in flames.

The hotel concierge in front of the Sheraton briefly raises his eyebrows at the pale woman in a torn dress, reeking vaguely of smoke that walks up, but quickly 'decides' that this is not worth making a fuss about, he should just do his job and open the door for her. There's too many people in the lobby to suppress the whispers and hushed outrage among the guests, but the receptionist only opens his mouth without managing to make a sound before the woman makes eye-contact with him and her blue eyes pierce his as his mind is overwhelmed. He turns around with mechanical movements and reaches for one of the keys hanging on the wall behind him, jerking himself back around and handing it over to the strange woman. Somehow he knows she's not to be disturbed and that he would regret it if she was. He doesn't question how he knows this, because somehow he feels like she would know. Instead he just quietly turns away and updates the computer, noting that the woman has checked in and paid the room for a week.

The few people unfortunate enough to be between the reception desk and the elevators find themselves shying away as the woman stalks past them and the elevator cabin she takes up remains empty save for her, a number of people suddenly deciding they will wait for the next one. Behind the reception desk one of the monitors showing a grid of tiny black and white images shows elevator doors closing on an empty cabin and a button seemingly pushing itself.

Left alone she is until just after sundown the next day. There's a quiet knock on the door. It was quiet enough that a normal inhabitant might have missed it, but Miriam's senses easily pick it up. She can sense two human minds outside the door in an apprehensive mental state.

Miriam groans as she rolls over on the bed and into a sitting position. "I asked to be left alone." she loudly informs whoever it is at the door.

There's a whispered conversation outside the door. Then one of the minds seems to screw up her courage and knocks on the door again. The other mind is less sure of the soundness of this plan.

Miriam groans and forces herself to get up and shamble towards the door. She yanks it open with an annoyed "What?"

She immediately recognizes Laura and Anna standing there, both wearing backpacks. Sitting on the floor between them is a suitcase and a garment bag of decent quality. Anna looks sheepish and Laura just looks scared. "Sorry," Anna apologizes, putting on her best smile. "Some men came by the house and told us to bring this to you... and then they kicked us out of the house. Said Alessia had gone back to Italy."

"Great. Of course she did. How did you even find me?"

Anna offers her a piece of paper, "They gave us this." The paper was off a notepad with the hotel address and room number written on it in a precise hand.

"We tried to ask some questions, but they weren't answering," Laura says quietly, almost under her breath.

"Bloody hell..." she mutters. She really doesn't want to accept any more of Alessia's hand-outs, but she does kind of need her things so she angrily steps forward to grab the suitcase and garment bag. "I really hope you're not expecting me to be your next gravy train, because Alessia left me out to dry just as much as you."

Laura's glare at Anna screams 'told you so' and Anna looks particularly disappointed. One might even say she looks crushed. "Oh, well, okay then. If... you do need something... just let us know." Laura tugs at Anna's arm and Anna looks flustered as Laura tugs her away. "We'll just go now. It was nice... well, you know!" Anna calls as Laura pulls her down the hallway and out of Miriam's sight.

Miriam basically slams the door shut after hauling her stuff inside. She has a hard time really placing her anger, all she knows is that it's enough to make her turn down the sheer convenience. Maybe it's that on some level she feels like this act of sustaining her is too... vicious, too malicious to be almost begged for. Like it doesn't deserve to be downplayed. She throws her things on the bed and let's out a sigh. At least she's got some things to wear now...

Inside the suitcase is an envelope, the front addressed to Miriam in Alessia's handwriting. It seems like there are several things of varying sizes in the envelope.

Miriam frowns and unceremoniously tears open the envelope and let's the contents fall onto the bed.

Several pieces of paper and a small notecard fall to the bed. The notecard is the only handwritten thing, also in Alessia's handwriting:

Code: Select all

I always take care of family.
-Alessia

One of the pieces of paper has the letterhead of UBS and the address of their London office. There's an account number on the paper. Another piece of paper has what looks like a phone number on it. Another has the following:

Code: Select all

Paterson Court,
Peerless Street,
London,
EC1V 9EX

B-7

Miriam frowns and flips the paper over in her hand a couple times. She's too angry to just accept Alessia buying herself some absolution, but if this is what it seems to be then... she can't really turn this down, can she? She bloody well deserves it after everything she's lost in the wake of all this. With a resolute sigh she picks up the phone and calls the bank to make an appointment in the late evening. At the very least she should take a look at what precisely she's being left with, right?

An appointment isn't terribly difficult to get, they are a service-oriented bank after all. If anything, the attendant gets more solicitous after she looks up the account.

The bank building is an imposing affair, but the staff is professional and friendly enough and soon she's sitting across from a man who looks up her account and nods, "As you understand, this is a trust account. We're authorized to pay you a regular discrete sum out of the investment income. More than that would have to be approved by the trustee owner, Miss Abate."

"And I take it Miss Abate can stop these payments at any time as well?"

"She has revocation rights, yes. Standard procedure for living trusts like this. She can also notify us to change the amount of the payments. Our purpose is to facilitate the execution of the trust, i.e. giving you the money, and managing the investment portfolio of the original investment to provide the best possible return to fund those payments."

"Of course. Well, you have all my details for my personal account. Pleasure doing business with you." she says. She should be happy, yet somehow she can't help but shake the feeling that she's willingly walking into a trap. Alessia may have bailed, but here she is, stepping further into her shadow instead of cutting ties...

"Of course," the man says, standing as she moves to go. "We'll start the transfer process for the first payment shortly. You should see it in your account within 24 hours."