[ooc note: same night as Chaos Theory, later on in the night.
“Hello?”
He hadn’t been expecting a voice on the other line, just a quick bitch-buttoned attempt to ignore him; apparently he had lost his number like he said he would. It almost made his breath catch in the bulge in his throat as the other's accent hit him off-guard. He had deleted his number. He was now anonymous as long as he didn’t push the air past his lips.
“Don’t hang up the phone,” he said, doing just that with a voice that held only as much conviction to get the message through the phone line.
There was a pause, a bitter laugh, an “ah mon Dieu”. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” His voice was far away, as if the other had put the phone down and left Nikolai hanging.
“Jean-Luc,” he said sharply, hoping to draw the elder’s attention away from his anger. “Why would I call you if I didn’t have something you wanted to hear?”
There was a pause; consideration perhaps. Nikolai couldn’t be sure so he kept talking. “The Mimic Demons have left the city. They’re gone. Bowser told me himself that he was taking off.”
“Don’t call me again.” Stubborn bitch.
“Would you listen to me, damn it!” He raised his voice and heard it echo off the walls of the house behind him. “I am telling you that they have left. They’re not patrolling Risk anymore. They’re leaving this planet, or plane, or whatever. They’re gone!”
“How do you know this?” Even. Disbelief. Cold. Icy.
“Haven’t you been listening to me? I just fucking talked to Bowser yesterday and he said he was leaving. He let slip that they all were, at least most of them. I raided his fucking house and he’s gone, Pierre. They do things as a species, ok? Everyone knows this! That's why the Oligarchy had so much fucking power. They do things as a group. Look around the city yourself, you won't see them! They're gone!”
Another pause. A shame. He wanted to hear his voice.
“It has something to do with that article that was written a couple nights ago in the paper. Did you read it?”
“Yes.”
He sighed into the phone, frustrated at the lack of response. “Look. Everyone knows they’re the only reason no one can touch the Oligarchy. They're too damn strong and there's too many of them. They back each other up and act as a group. They're indestructible and now they've left.”
He paused, weighing his words. Did he really want to set the ball in motion?
“If Damien was looking for an opportunity - and the entire world knows he is - now’s the time to do something.”
One more fucking pause: heavier. With enough weight to tell him he was listening. He was listening.
“Why are you telling me this?”
Because I could smell you on her after the Masquerade.
No, not that.
Because I miss –
No… No.
Because I couldn’t stop thinking about everything once I knew you were next to Sony—
There was a blinding scream in his head that spun his head three times around. When it stopped, he felt nauseous and on the ground, but very much the same.
“Nikolai?”
He paused and smirked. He threw a glance over his shoulder towards Awelfor Manor. He sat down and let the beach water settle between his toes. “Call it luck.”
He tapped the end button on the phone and looked out at the sea crawling up his legs.
