Elektra's Treasure (1/?)
It was a cold December morning. There was snow on the ground, and the sun above seemed to collect the flurries in the air, as ammunition to feed the clouds that would show up later.
Elektra walked up the hill in the graveyard, silently approaching the figure kneeling in front of a freshly covered grave.
When she came to a stop next to her, the figure looked up, with no surprise on her face, as though she had been expecting to see her there, despite having virtually no contact with her in many years.
“You’re late,” Abby said, sounding tired.
“I’m sorry,” Elektra apologized, “I came as soon as I could.”
“Hmm.”
Elektra took in the woman in front of her. Abby had grown a lot since she had last seen her. At twenty-three, she looked taller - though she couldn’t say by how much in her current position - and leaner, having lost her baby fat sometime along the way. Her hair was shorter, resting just below her ears, though still in keeping with the light blondeness of her youth. She was wearing a pair of dark jeans and a black turtleneck jumper. She seemed harder somehow, though that could have been the color of mourning on her.
“I’m very sorry about your father.”
“Thank you.”
“He was a…well, you know, a good man.” She tried, feeling at a loss for words. What could one really say at a moment like this?
“He was.” Abby nodded wordlessly, hanging her head.
“If there is anything you need, anything I can do -”
“There isn’t; thank you.”
She sounded distant, quiet and proper. Elektra didn’t like it. She took a step closer to Abby and really looked at her. Her cheeks had sunken in; the lines of her face were too defined. She had always been athletic, being the treasure guaranteed that, but now she looked like she was in urgent need of a good meal. Before she could think better of it, Elektra heard herself asking, “Have you been eating lately? You look like you’ve lost some weight.”
Abby looked up at her in surprise. That wasn’t a question she had been expecting,
“I’m fine.” She muttered, dismissively.
She didn’t look fine. She looked weak and fragile.
A distant voice in her head told Elektra that it wasn’t her place to question Abby. Abby was an adult now, fully capable of taking care of herself. She dismissed that idea as soon as she took in Abby’s red eyes and the dark circles under them. Before long, the bluish tint to her lips and the soaked knees of her pants had Elektra speaking again. Feeling her worry rise within her, she asked, “How long have you been here?”
“A while,” Abby answered silently, after a moment.
‘A long while,’ Elektra thought.
“Do you have a jacket? It’s really cold; you don’t want to get sick.”
“I’m fine.” She repeated, tightly.
“Here, take my jacket.” Elektra made a move to unbutton her coat.
“I’m not a kid, Elektra! Stop looking at me like I was your little sister, I’m not your sister!”
Elektra’s breath caught at the sudden outburst. There had been no warning of a building anger. Or maybe Elektra had read the signals wrong.
“I know that,” she said cautiously, putting her hands back down.
“Do you?”
Abby sounded desperate, her eyes suddenly raging. Elektra tipped her head, trying to understand the reason for the raw emotion written across her face.
“Why are you so angry?”
Abby gasped, and looked away, trying to hide the sudden tears that were filling her eyes. “I’m not,” she croaked after a moment, the break in her voice giving her away even if the sight of her hadn’t already.
“Hey,” Elektra reached out a hand to touch her shoulder. “What is it?”
For a minute it looked like she was going to respond to Elektra’s soft touch, let go of this mask she was wearing in defense of something, but then she pulled away instead. After taking a moment to collect herself, she stood up and turned sharply to face Elektra. Her eyes dry and cold once again, she spit out.
“Why are you back Elektra? Why now?”
Elektra felt herself falter at the look of pure fury directed at her. What had she done to deserve that?
“I wanted to be here, for you.”
Abby chuckled humorlessly at that, “Really?”
“Yes.”
“Now, after all this time, you want to be here for me.”
“Yes.”
“What has it been, six, seven years?”
“Six years, three months. Yes.”
“How did you even know about this?” she asked motioning towards the grave.
“Your father and I, we kept in touch. I called the house, Sandra…she told me.”
Sandra, his wife of seven years had been heart broken. She had started weeping over the phone. “Elektra, Mark is dead. He passed away three days ago.” It had taken Elektra two days to get her affairs in order and fly back to the States.
“That must have been nice, keeping in touch I mean.”
“Didn’t you get my cards?”
“One every birthday, yes, thank you. Very thoughtful of you.”
“Abby, I…”
“And now you’re here.”
“I’m here.”
“If I had known death was all it would take to bring you back, I would have killed someone sooner.”
Elektra felt the sting of her words just as sure as she would have felt it if she had slapped her.
“You didn’t kill your father Abby.”
“Didn’t I?”
“No. God, no.”
“Might as well have.”
“You can’t mean that. You can’t possibly think this was your fault.”
Abby looked up at her then, for a long moment, searchingly, without saying anything. And then she turned back to her father’s grave. She put her hand on the stone, brushing her fingers across the cool white surface as though she was caressing the skin of a loved one. She closed her eyes and stood there for a long silent moment, her lips twitching in silent prayer. When she was done, she took a step back and turned to face Elektra.
“Thanks for coming Elektra, but I’m fine on my own. Have been for years.”
“Abby,”
“Take care of yourself,” she said dismissively, and then, quite literally, in the blink of an eye, she was out of there. And Elektra was left standing over Mark Miller’s grave, on her own.
* * * * * * * * *
Six hours later, Abby walked into her dark apartment, dropped her bag onto the table in the foyer, picked up her mail and walked into the living room. She went through varying sizes of envelopes, picked one to open and threw the rest onto the coffee table. Ripping the side of the letter, she raised her head and quite casually looked to the darkest corner of the room.
“So, now you’re the one breaking and entering?”
Elektra grinned and switched on the light right next to the couch she was sitting on.
“I guess so.”
"What do you want Elektra?"
"Well, a place to stay would be nice."
"You want to stay here?" She asked, as though that was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard.
"If you wouldn’t mind."
"I don’t think-"
"I don’t know anyone else in town, and I guess I could go to a hotel but in all honesty I would rather stay here, with you."
"I don’t know. I’ve got..."
“I was in China before I came here.” Elektra cut her off, changing direction. “Was there for a few weeks actually, have you ever been there?”
Abby looked confused for a moment, looked like she wanted to say something but then shut her mouth, giving up. She shook her head as though saying ‘whatever you’re trying isn’t going to work.’ But answered her anyway, “No.”
“It’s really beautiful there, this little village north of Jiangze. Anyway, there was this little girl of six who was rumored to be the new treasure.”
From the way Abby’s eyes widened, Elektra knew that Abby hadn’t heard of the girl.
“She was a martial arts protégé, like you, and Stick wanted me to meet her. There were many interested parties there, as you can imagine, trying to see if she was the real deal.”
Elektra let that information hang for a little while, waiting for a reaction.
“And?” Abby questioned finally, her curiosity getting the better of her.
“And, she was sharp and fast and definitely talented.”
“Why are you telling me this, you want my card back?” Abby asked sarcastically.
Elektra smiled, “No, no that won’t be necessary. She has a lot of potential but she’s no treasure.”
“Too bad.”
“Is it?”
Abby shrugged, noncommittally.
“Did you know that, of all the treasures that have come before you, you’ve been the treasure the longest?”
Abby looked anything but happy when she said, “Yay.”
They kept silent for a while and then Abby, with a touch of spite in her voice, asked, “What exactly is it that determines you’re the treasure? I mean, how do people like you decide whether one is or isn’t?”
“People like me?”
Abby looked apologetic for a moment but didn’t say anything.
Elektra let it go, “It’s a combination of things really: speed, strength, reflexes, abilities, the potential of growth, character to say the minimum.”
“Typhoid used to be the treasure and she was a psycho.”
“Yes, well, a combination of things as I said.”
Abby looked thoughtful.
Elektra watched her a while and added, “Everyone has their own ideas about this I imagine, but for me it’s not an exact science. It’s more of a feeling. Like I don’t know what makes you the treasure,”
Abby raised an eyebrow at that.
Elektra tipped her head and clarified, “What I mean is, other than the obvious - your talents and all that - there is something more when it comes to you. I don’t know what it is exactly; I just know that you have it. The way I know that you are the treasure is the same way I know that the others aren’t. You’re just…special.”
Abby looked away with a blank expression on her face.
“And I don’t mean that just because you are the treasure.”
Nothing.
Elektra worried about Abby’s reluctance in keeping eye contact. It made it all the more difficult to read her and she talked so little now. It was frustrating really, where was the chatter bug of her past. She cursed herself silently; she had stayed away too long and now there was practically a stranger standing in front of her.
"I’ve missed you, Abby." Elektra said after a long moment.
She looked up at the sharp turn of Abby's head.
"Is that so hard to believe?"
Abby looked away instead of answering, gave her back to Elektra and walked into the open kitchen, “You want something to drink?”
Obviously, she had had enough of talking.
“Um, sure, whatever you’re having.”
“Scotch.”
“Sounds good.”
Abby pulled up a bottle of whiskey and two glasses, placed them on the counter, next to an answering machine that was blinking red.
“Ice?”
“Please.”
Picking up her glass, Elektra took a sip and motioned towards the answering machine. “You gonna get that?”
“Later.”
Drink in hand, Abby walked back into the living room and moved towards the stairs. At the last minute she turned back, "The guestroom is upstairs, second door on the left at the end of the hall.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m going to take a shower. If you want, afterwards we could have dinner.”
“I’d like that.”
* * * * * * * * *