Twice Lived, Twice Loved

Chapter Five

With her shades shoved up high on her nose, she marches into the lobby of the company. She is "strictly" here on business, as she had clarified to Wild Ride's receptionist earlier in the day.

Tonight is the night of her show with the Ivanowsky family but for now, she has an entire day to do with as she pleases.

The receptionist turns to her, her eyes catching on the simple diamond pendant around her throat. A similar rock flashes on her fingers, and the receptionist's eyes flash down to take note. Each of these extremely expensive pieces are on her to pass a message, to prove a point. It seems that her message is being very well received.

The woman beams at her, all teeth with stars in her eyes as she begins speaking.

"Miss Sanders? It is simply a pleasure to see you." She says.

"I called earlier to make an appointment." Elizabeth says, tough as nails.

"Oh yes, if you'll give me a second, I'll let the CEO know that you are here. Please take a seat." She says and motions to the long rows of chairs to the side.

"I'm fine." She says with a flash of teeth.

The woman nods her acknowledgement and picks up the telephone. "Reception sir." She says into it. "Yes, Miss Sanders..."

Elizabeth looks around while she makes her call. The lobby of the company is pretty basic, functional. The walls are not as high as even her sitting room's but beautiful, inlaid chandeliers reflect a pale glowing light which has almost no effect on the brilliance of the morning sun in the room. On the wall over the door to the reception hall, on the other side of which there had also been a logo is the carriage with wheels insignia carved into the walls. On the pillars, on the walls over the other doors leading away are several other inscriptions of the company logo. She wonders if she is chasing shadows or if this nondescript company actually has something to do with her dream and the supernatural. The thought is as thrilling as it is incredulous and she finds her nails tapping impatiently against her thigh.

"Miss Sanders, Mr. Iyke will see you now." The receptionist says to her and she nods. "Take the elevator to the third floor and walk to the end of the hall, there is a door with his title and name printed on it, you can't miss it." She says.

"Thank you." She says and makes her way towards the elevator.

As she ascends, she sends a silent prayer to God. Let this not be a wasted trip, she prays. The carriage in her dreams is made up of cream and yellow colours, surely it is more than coincidence that this company's logo has absolutely the same colour in the exact same arrangement. Before she can get a divine answer, the elevator doors open and she steps outside.

The hallway of the third floor has many doors attached, leading to several unknown rooms. Her heels click on the tiles as she makes her way to the end of the hall as described. On the last door are the words "CEO" printer in bold bronze colours and "Daniel Iyke" printed below it. She raps on the door and waits. A female voice bids her enter and she steps into a round, delightfully heated room. A woman sits behind a table with a desktop in front of her. She looks up as Elizabeth enters and rises.

"Miss Sanders?" She asks.

"Yes." Elizabeth replies.

"Please, go on." The secretary says, motioning to a door to her right. "He awaits you."

She nods and strides to the final door and raps on it. This time around, a man's voice bids her entry and she pushes the door in.

Mr. Daniel Iyke looks back from his stance in front of the window, the rays of the morning sun bathing his face in light golden hues. He has a tanned long face crowned with shiny black hair. His eyes as they look at her are dark and serious.

"Miss Sanders. Glad you could make it." He says in a rich voice. "Please, take a seat." He says and she takes a seat on one of the numerous chairs in front of his office.

"Thank you." She says, watching as he comes to stand on the other side of the desk.

"Can I offer you anything? Coffee?" He asks.

"No thanks. I would prefer to round this up as soon as possible." She says and he smiles.

"Business-oriented. My kind of person. So, Miss Sanders, if I may ask what exactly has caused you to show interest in sponsoring our humble company?" He asks.

"Before I give my reason, we should talk the terms." She replies and leans back into her chair. Perhaps she should have brought her lawyer for this part but this is just bait to her. It is far from being the real reason why she is here.

"I am all ears." He says and takes his seat opposite her, steepling long manicured fingers in front of him on the desk.

"I am offering five hundred million dollars worth of financial support. And after this year, a close working union with your financial stability, so there is a possibility of my offering aid should you need it sometime in the future once again." She says.

Mr. Daniel Iyke looks thoughtful as he considers it. "That is a huge and tidy sum. There is no doubt that that amount of money would turn the tides of this company around. The prospect of your assistance is also as enticing as they come. I have several questions however. The first is how you discovered that the company might be in need of funding." He says.

She lets out a small laugh. "It did not take alot of calculations to see that, trust me. It took me all but thirty minutes of going through your public affairs to see the extent of your situation."

He looks thoughtful and not quite pleased with that revelation.

"Interesting. I'll have my people work on that. The second question is this. Why would you be interested in our small company's financial status?" He asks.

She leans forward. "Because of my own ulterior motives of course." She says with a smirk.

"Which brings us to that ulterior motive. Your offer is enchanting, nigh irresistible, but it sounds too good to be true. Please, feel free to tell me what you want in return."

"Other than an obvious share in the company's profit? I want one other little thing." She says.

"And what is that?" He prompts.

She leans back into her seat, wondering how she can put this best. "I have heard that this company is involved in much more than meets the eye. I am interested in those things." She says.

She sees him stiffen and her brow c***s up.

"What do you mean?" He asks.

"It is off-putting that you would make me say everything plain as day when I don't know the details myself." She says. The energy in the room is not exactly encouraging but this is the only reason why she has gone out if her way to come over here today. "It is rumoured that your company is involved in... strange things. Things beyond the physical, beyond human in fact. All I want is more information on that." She says and she watches his reaction. A muscle ticks in his forehead and his jaw is clenched hard. It seems that she has struck a nerve.

He rises and goes to stand by the window again.

"I cannot believe those rumours are still going around. They were the ruin of this company. I thought that I had been able to truly banish our image of the lingering cobwebs of those ridiculous claims." He says into the morning air.

"What do you mean?" It is her turn to ask.

He turns to her and his tired eyes pierce her. "Please leave. However you got those ridiculous rumours, please keep them to yourself. Rumours like that brought this company to its knees years ago and they have the power to finish us off entirely if they surface again. I have kept the company afloat ever since I inherited it and I will continue to do so." He says.

"But..." She says, rising.

"Please." He says. "Just go."

She watches his back for a few moments, disappointment pulsing in her heart at having met a dead-end one again. There is more to this story than Mr. Iyke is willing to divulge. She has a feeling that she is about to let go of her one opportunity to get to the root of her problems but what can she do about it? It is not like she can shake the answers out of him. She grabs her bag from the table and turns away.

"As you wish, Mr. Iyke. I hope you do not regret your hasty decisions." She says and marches out through the door.

On the ground floor, she strides back to where the receptionist is, feeling like she is doing something criminal. The woman is happy to see her one again.

"I hope your meeting with the CEO was successful." She says cheerfully.

"Not quite. But you can help me out." She says. The woman's smile dies down a little and her eyes flick towards the elevator as she nods.

"Any way I can help you, ma'am." She says.

"I heard rumours about this company." Elizabeth says. "That it is involved in things beyond the ordinary. Do you know anything about that? Perhaps you have seen things happening around here that shouldn't?" She asks.

The woman's eyes flick to the elevator doors once again and up to the camera above her station. Her smile has completely died down.

"No, ma'am." She says a little too hurriedly.

"Are you sure?" Elizabeth asks, letting a little of her need for answers seep into her voice.

"Yes ma'am, I am sure. Please continue on your way. The CEO gets particularly irked when people talk about ridiculous things like this." Her smile returns with full force as she relaxes back into her seat. "We do hope to see more of you in the future." She says before turning to attend to someone else.

If that is not the behavior of someone hiding something, then she doesn't know what is, Elizabeth thinks as frustration curls her hands into fists at her side. She spins around and marches out through the door. The are several ways to lure a bird. She will find the answers she seeks, whether she has to question the entire world. She has an inkling that she is onto something and she will not let go until it pans out.

She strides towards the parking lot where her red mustang awaits her. Perhaps her mistake is in working on this alone. She needs a team, journalists. She could also find the journalists that had been on the case a decade ago while the rumours were strong, they would surely know something about this. She ignores the feeling that she is chasing cobwebs, looking for any lifeline no matter how flimsy to stop herself from sinking fully into her madness. She is onto something, she can feel it.

She is just beside her car and about to bring out her key when someone clubs her over the head.

She falls to the side of her car, catching herself and registers the old man trying to pull her purse away from her shoulders.

"What the f**k!" She yells and swats at him.

He swats back at her, baring dirt-stained teeth at her.

"Gimme the bag!" He says urgently and continues pulling it. The bag is slipping out of her grasp.

"You foul little bastard. Let go!" She yells back, wondering why there is no security rushing in to help her. The bag contains alot of important cards, she will not let him take it.

She gives it a great yank, raising her knees to throw a kick into the man's stomach. He doubles over with a grunt, but his grip is still firm on her bag.

"Let go!" She tries to pry his fingers off the bag. She does not want to do any lasting damage to the beggar, she just wants her bag back.

"You little b***h. T's just a bag to you!" He says and his fist crashes into her jaw. She collapses to the floor, tasting blood, and for a moment, her memory is superimposed by a similar situation in another time, in that chamber where she had been punched in a similar manner. The feeling of dejá vu leaves her weak and unable to give chase to the victorious beggar that is scampering away with her bag.

She watches from the floor as he makes his escape but right before he can clear off, a man comes around the corner. He takes in the situation within a blink of an eye and slides to block the beggar's path, throwing a punch which connects with the man's jaw, causing him to stagger back.

He grabs the pink bag from the man and gives him a shove away.

"Get out of here." He growls at the beggar. Having met someone bigger than him, the beggar does not attempt to fight back but dashes away to make his escape.

"Are you okay?" The new man asks, coming forward with worry etched on his forehead. He wears the cream and yellow uniform indicating that he is a member of Wild Ride staff.

Elizabeth gets up from the floor and smoothens her suit jacket.

"Actually, yes. He just surprised me." She says.

The man hands the bag over to her and she takes it.

"You should get your jaw checked." He says with a wince as he looks at her.

Her fingers rise up to touch a small portion of scraped skin ad she shrugs.

"I'll be fine. Thank you for the save." She tells him, securing her bag on her shoulder once again.

"You are welcome, and we are very sorry for that." He says, indicating the company. "The boss keeps meaning to install some cameras down here but resources are tight, and so the beggars keep on finding ways to get back in."

"That is a security hazard right here. The next person might not be lucky." She says and he nods.

"I'll let him know to make it a priority. Have a good day, ma'am." He says and turns away to go wherever he had been headed.

She turns to her car to finally get in when a thought occurs to her.

"Wait, excuse me." She says, turning back around. The man also turns around to look her with a raise of his brow.

"Everything alright?" He asks..

"Yes, I mean, not really." She says, striding towards him.

"Do you know the reason why I came here today?" She asks.

"No, but it does not seem like you got what you came for." He says.

"I didn't." She admits and comes to a stop in front of him. The man is not much older than her, late twenties at best but he works here, perhaps he knows something.

"How long have you been working with Wild Ride?" She asks him.

Her new friend looks at her suspiciously but he visibly thinks back before replying her.

"About four years I guess. Why do you ask?" He asks.

"Because I need to know of the rumours surrounding this company about something supernatural." She says. His face is immediately wary and he glances back the way he had come from.

"Boss does not like us talking about that." He says, shifting on the balls of his feet and she feels immense relief that he at least knows what she is talking about and is not refuting it completely.

She digs into her back and brings out a fat wad of minted cash. His eyes zero in on them and holds. She feels a little twinge for using money against the man but she needs answers, and she needs them fast.

"All yours if you can give me some information." She tells him. "I have no plans of bringing Wild Ride to its knees or any other crazy conspiracy theories that your mind might conjure up from my wanting to know. Damn, your company is already on its knees." She mutters the end. "I just need some answers and I'll be out of your hair as soon as I get them"

The man scrubs a hand over his mouth as he glances behind him in the direction of the company again, obviously weighing his options.

"That is a helluva lot money to be throwing around for a few innocent answers." He says, his voice colored with suspicion.

"Then I suppose it is a good thing I have the money to waste." She says. "The offer is still on the table." She says, holding the cash out.

"You intend to buy my loyalty? Do you think I am so shallow?" He asks, though his eyes never leave the cash.

"I resort to this only from desperation. And it is only about fifty thousand dollars in cash. I would call it a little transaction. Take it. I don't have all day to waste." She says.

Coming to his decision, he takes it from her and stuffs it into his back pocket with another glance at his surroundings.

"Okay, so what do you want to know?" He asks, running a hand over his buzz-cut chestnut brown hair.

"Anything and everything there is to know about the rumours." She says.

"Okay." He says and leans his side against the wall of the garage "So before Boss, his father, Mr. Vincent Iyke apparently ran this company. It was prosperous then, generating alot of income and all. It was not only involved in carrying messages and deliveries then, but also in producing machinery like cars. All of those has been long sold out." He pauses, probably filtering out what to say. "And then Mr. Vincent Iyke was hit with dementia. It got worse and worse over the years and about a decade ago, it took a horrible turn when he started seeing things. He would point at empty air and swear that there was something there, and he would swear that the company did not just carry messages for humans but also delivered messages across worlds inhabited by the supernatural."

"Hmm." She says, urging him on.

"Well, word soon spread on tbe street about Vincent Iyke's claims and the patronage of Wild Ride decreased considerably. As Mr. Vincent Iyke's illness got worse, so did the rating of the company. So by the time that Mr. Daniel Iyke inherited the company from his dad, the company was pretty much bankrupt. Mr. Vincent was shoved into a facility for the rest of his days and Boss has worked hard ever since then to bring the company back on her feet." He finishes.

Mr. Vincent Iyke's situation is uncannily similar to her grandmother's. Her own grandmother had no company to ruin but other than that, the two cases are incredibly familiar. What if Mr. Iyke had not been lying? What if her grandmother also had not? It is toeing the edge of madness to even be considering it but what if her childhood with her grandmother and her own dreams and memories are not just figments of her imagination but something... other?

"Where is he?" She asks him.

"Where is who?" The man asks, a little startled.

"Mr. Vincent. Where is he? Is he dead?" She asks, hoping he is not. If she can find him, she can unravel this. The old man is the key to finding her answers.

"No, no, he is alive. He is still in the facility he was kept. Why do you ask?" He asks.

"Because I need to talk to him." She says.

"Wait, wait, wait. That is not part of the plan. I was supposed to give you the information and you be on your way back home merrily knowing more than you should." He says.

"I never said that. Which facility is he being kept in?" She asks.

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you. If Boss finds out I have told you this much..."

"He is not going to find out unless you tell him yourself." She says and digs into her bag for another wad of cash, feeling like the world's biggest asshole.

"This is yours if you can tell me where. And double of this if you can follow me there." She says.

When his eyes snatch onto the wad in her hand and light up, she knows that she has him.

"I am Elizabeth, what is your name?" She asks.

He runs a hand over his face with a groan before straightening, his decision made. "Chris." He replies.