CH 25: Uncovering

~ At The Vees Tower ~

"Well, this just took a turn~" Valentino smirks, sipping from his coffee cup.

Velvette sits at the table, finally looking up from her phone with her jaw unhinged and hanging open. Vox begins to glitch out at the front of the table, "W-What is she d̷̠́o̸̮̓į̴̈ṅ̵ͅg̷̡̐?̷̭͝!̶" he shouts, pounding his fists on the table.

"Z̵̨̿O̸͐͜Ò̸̮M̷͓̅ I̵͓̋N̸̰͝!̷̟̒"

Velvette presses a button on the remote and the picture on the television moves closer. They all squint their eyes as they see both Alastor and Esme glitching on the screen.

"Why is she moving? We should be able to see her." Valentino says in a confused tone. "I thought only he could do that, why should she not appear on the camera?"

"Has she ever shown up on the camera before?" Velvette asks.

"Pull up the tape from the studio." Vox demands. Velvette once again clicks another button and pulls up the footage from the day Esme attacked Valentino.

Valentino sighs and turns away, "This again, come on it's not that funny.."

"Shut up." Vox says, standing up and pointing, "There!" Velvette slows down the tape to reveal Esme perfectly on screen. Every detail is noted, every fang, every bite, it's all clear.

"She looks fine here." Valentino sighs, "Can we stop, now?"

"Why would she not glitch out in both if she has that ability now?" Vox begins to pace across the room. "It makes no sense, and that little bitch is too smart to let me into her mind to figure it out. I might be able to manipulate her thoughts, but I can't read her thoughts." His nails claw at the table as he continues his manic spiral, "Why? Why now after all this time is she going to cause such a fucking problem for us?" 

His mind goes back to when he first met Esme, the hope he had for himself, Alastor, and her. She was the only one who seemed to believe in him, mesh with him right off the bat without a second glance. Of all the things that that Radio bastard took from him, he never thought that he would take his, dare he say, best friend. The demon he called his person. The line was drawn in the sand, and he didn't know what to think of it. 

"She's playing with me - she's fucking playing with me!" He slams his fists against the walls of the aquarium, warped static overcoming the air. "She has given me nothing on him! Everything she reports is useless crap. She's using this as a way to play her fucking little games." He begins to mock her in a sing song voice, "Oh, Vox, I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression, but I'm a married woman - blah, blah, blah - Where is that energy now, Esme?! HUH?!"

All the while, Velvette keeps flipping back and forth through the two videos. She narrows her eyes and gets closer to the screen. As the minutes tick by, he grows more and more impatient. "I should've never fucking allowed her t-"

"There!" Velvette shouts, pausing the tape.

Vox and Valentino both walk over, narrowing their eyes, "Wh-What am I looking at here?" Vox says, scanning through the frame.

"You don't see that!?" Velvette sneers.

"Yeah, hermosita is going for the throat, rawr~" Valentino whistles.

"NOT THAT YOU FUCKHEAD!" Velvette sighs, zooming in on Esme's hand, "That!"

Perfectly turned to the camera, Esme's left hand rests on the dock, her ring burning brightly at the camera as soon as she makes connection with Alastor.

"So what? It does that all the time." Vox rolls his eyes, turning away.

Velvette grabs his arm, turning him around, "What does that ring do?"

"Protect her."

"Who normally has the ability to keep himself off screen?" Velvette persists, standing up and tapping her foot against the floor.

"Alastor?" Vox raises an eyebrow.

"And why do you think he does that?"

"Because he's an arrogant asshole who wants to keep his face off camera. Always said it was to protect himself."

Velvette smiles and narrows her eyes, stepping closer, "Mhmm, and so why would Esme not be on the screen?"

"Because he's kissing her." Vox scoffs, "Something I would rather not see, so please turn it off..." He turns from her.

"Voxy...." Velvette sighs, dragging her eyelids down, "Who gave her the ring?"

"Her husband...duh."

"Uh huh....someone who would want to protect her, yeah? Besides, what do we know about Esme." Velvette throws up her hands, "I mean, are you two that fuckin' blind not to see what's going on here? Vox, you've gone into her mind, you've seen her past. Everything she is holding. Do you really mean to tell me that you have zero fucking clue what is going on?" 

It was true, even though Esme had zero recollection of her life, Vox had enough power to enter her mind and see those suppressed memories. The only issue being that every single time her husband would come about, his face would distort and his name would sound like muffled static. As if he was watching it from a fishbowl, which he basically was. The only things he could piece together was that Esme had traveled throughout her life and died in 1932, exactly one year before Alastor did. Alastor never shared anything about his life, but when the two of them did discuss about romantic affairs, he had always said he wasn't interested. 

'It's just not my style, let's put it that way..." He would laugh, 'Besides, I've been down that road, and I have no desire to repeat myself...'  

But there could be no way that he could allow such a revelation to slip right past his nose. Esme could not possibly have deceived him, and at this point he wouldn't fathom any further betrayal from his once old pal.  "Sit on it for a minute." Velvette sighs, sitting back on the chair, looking at the clock to count the minutes before reality set in. It was only a matter of time before he would accept it.

Vox rolls his eyes and leaves the office mumbling to himself and slamming the door.

The door closes and a few moments pass before the lights in the office begin to rapidly flicker on and off, the televisions glitch, and the power goes out

Ṯ̵̢̘̺̟̓͟͡H̸͚͈̒̒̂̿̌̓̓̉Ẻ̶̲͕̺͕͖͉̞̙͙̫̬̅̃̈́͘̚͜͟ͅṘ̸̡̤̫̣̟̽Ȇ̷̢̡̪̠͎̯̺͇̫̺͍͙̻͟ͅ I̷̳̮̪͇̩͇͊̽́̈́͒̎̆̒̃͆́̍͟͡͝ͅS̶̰̦̤̼̉̍̅̋͑̍̉̂̈́̈́̽͝ N̶̢̡̳͓͔̙̮͇̩̜̈̓̆̿̀̾̾̆̐̿̈̇̽̚͝Ỏ̷̧̡̪̦͖̤̜͚͕̯͇̮͉͙̬͐̋̐̌̽͌͊̊̄́̀͆̚ F̵̢̧̠̤̗̪̠͍͈͍̰͕̦̤̈́̂͟Ų̸̤̱̣̮̟̩͇̗̋̓͛̓̔̂͂́͐̚͘͟͝͠͝C̸̣̣̣̊͆͂͊͜͡K̵̡̧̙̪̪̜͕̺̬̮͔̗̗̀̽̏̈́̉̃͘͟͠I̸̮̭̜̥̟̲̊̎͐́̄͐̏̇̓̚͘N̵̢̡̘̖̩̼̯̗͓̑̏̃̊̄̏̈́̓̓̊̾̊͆̚͟͠G̷͕̒̇͛̍̂͌̂̇͆͝͡͝ͅ W̷̱͑̂́͛̊̑̈̀̃͆͘͘͝A̵̞͎̭̟̭̲̻̝̹̝͙̰̱͐̎̐͐̄̓͒̄͊̓̐́͟͝͝Ȳ̶̢̻̦̭̀͘͟͜ͅ!̴̼̌̍̌̈́̉̍̈̓̿͛̈̽͐̚͠!̷̤͍̝̺̭̥̫͋͜

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~ Artemis🦌💗