Velika: The story of a lover

Early in the morning around six, Daniel Heinrich woke up to the screaming alarm. What a beautiful morning, he thought ironically when he saw Velika O'Sullivan standing at his bedside, looking at him mockingly.

"Rise and shine, Heinrich." She turned off the alarm and said loudly.

"Damn it, O'Sullivan." He mumbled and put on his shirt.

"What?" She turned back when she was almost out of the door, she didn't catch his words.

Velika O'Sullivan was sitting comfortably on the couch, watching the morning news when he finally finished his breakfast and ready to go. She threw a small pistol at him, he caught it successfully but was somewhat annoyed.

"Why did you give me a girl's gun?" He lifted his eyebrow.

"You hadn't touched a gun for almost three years, be grateful for having one." She said, didn't even look at him while putting her gun in her pocket, he noticed that her gun had the same snake as her hand tattoo. When she held the gun, the two snakes formed a perfect mirror image, "Romeo booked us an appointment with Dr. Mills, if you were done whining, we better leave now."

"You must love your pistol, don't you? You got a tattoo for it." Said Daniel Heinrich scornfully.

Velika O'Sullivan stopped what she was doing, turned to look at him and said broodingly: "It was my friend's gun, she gave it to me before she passed away."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Said Daniel Heinrich, even though he didn't want to apologize to her.

"Don't be sentimental, Heinrich," Velika O'Sullivan sighed, "People in our business walk on the edge of death every day, you and I both know this."

Daniel Heinrich sighed too.

"You are pretty close to your boss, aren't you?" Daniel Heinrich put back on his contemptuous tone, "I would like to meet him."

"That depends on how you define the word 'close'," She switched off the television and taunted him, "Oh, and if I were you, I wouldn't try to dig up Velika O'Sullivan's background, it's dreadful and not interesting at all."

"That's something I prefer to decide myself, and, I thought we are friends already," He shoved his pistol in his pocket and opened the door for her, mocked her back in the same tone as she did to him, "We kissed, and it was good too."

She rolled up her eyes and stepped outside without saying anything.

The plan was simple and easy, with no effort at all. They were going to Dr. Mills' laboratory and find out who hired the doctor to poison Mr. Leontes. Whoever did this give the doctor a huge amount of money, or by other means to keep him quiet so that they wouldn't be compromised? Sources from Romeo Leontes were unclear, whether there were guards from other employers would be around was unknown but Daniel Heinrich and Velika O'Sullivan concluded that the percentage of the armed force around could be significantly high, and they had to stay highly alerted.

"We'll see." Said Velika O'Sullivan when Daniel Heinrich started the car.

A quiet cold morning, the sun was gentle, not as hot as at the noon and the breeze calmed his nerves. After two long years, which felt like decades, he had finally returned to his so-called normal life, even it was abnormal for ordinary people. Yesterday he was still a bartender, devastated about his future and today he was driving with the woman who interfered, almost destroyed his life but also, built a new one for him. He almost convinced himself that she was a psychopath.

Velika O'Sullivan was leaning against the window that rolled halfway down, the morning breeze was swaying her dark hair back. She sensed he was glancing at her, so she turned to him. Now somehow, he could feel the tenderness under her heavy makeup, after all, she was only a human who was loaded with secrets and chose to take the burden all by herself. Daniel Heinrich was shocked and ashamed by what he was thinking, how could he pity that woman, the maniac took everything away from him? Then he realized, that perhaps he was nothing but admiring her the whole time. Velika O'Sullivan was different.

"What?" Said she, still leaning against the window.

"What?" He questioned back.

"You were staring at me, come on Heinrich, are you nervous?" Her tenderness was gone, and she was wearing that patronizing tone again. Indeed, Daniel Heinrich thought, this was the true Velika O'Sullivan, "It's okay if you are, you haven't been in the field for so long."

"I'm not nervous," He fake laughed, "And courtesy to you, I was out of the field for two years."

"Uh-uh." Velika O'Sullivan smiled and turned away, she was checking the view outside, "Well, I did give you a choice. Feel lucky that you had one, I never had a choice for anything."

"Well, I'm sorry then." Said Daniel Heinrich softly, he hated himself being gentle with her, he supposed to be sarcastic. Solitude, that's the word he thought of when he looked at her.

"Don't be." She didn't look at him, "People say they have control over their fate and there are no destinies. Well, they are simply following the paths others created for them. But regardless, it was me who made the decisions for everything I was put through."

Daniel Heinrich kept quiet. He wanted to tell her she had to fight no matter what obstacles others forced on her, but he decided not to do so. Why would he care about her? She had nothing to do with him, all he wanted is finish this job, found out whether his hypothesis was right.

Besides all that, he didn't know her much, she refused to tell him her story, but he was sure that she knew all about him, except who he used to work for. Then he heard she mumbled:

"Why the hell did I say that to him?"

A smile climbed on Daniel Heinrich's exquisite face.