The Seven Days of Hallowe'en Challenge - Day 2 - Gluttony

[jantojones.livejournal.com]

The following day, Illya woke with a pounding headache. He put it down to having slept fitfully, before remembering the events of the night. He thought back to what had happened and tried to convince himself that it had only been a dream. Unconsciously, his fingers went the all-too-real wounds on his neck, which caused him to sit up in alarm.

Illya forced himself out of bed and stepped into the shower. Initially, he very carefully avoided looking in the mirror. He figured that, if he ignored it for as long as possible, then he wouldn’t have to face it. Unfortunately, as he stepped back out of the shower, he caught sight of his reflection.

The face that looked back at him was pale. Illya was naturally pale anyway, but now he looked almost grey. His eyes were red-rimmed, and had dark shadows beneath them. Standing out starkly against his washed-out skin were the two small puncture wounds.

Illya tore himself away from the mirror and hurriedly dressed. He deliberately chose one of his many black turtlenecks in order to hide his neck from everyone; including himself. The word ‘vampire’ kept trying to enter his consciousness, but he held it back. Whoever the woman in the park was, it was illogical to believe she could be a vampire. Such creatures simply did not exist.

Heading to the kitchen, he searched for something for breakfast but, despite having a deep hunger within him, nothing tempted him. What Illya really craved was a juicy, extremely rare steak. Glancing at his watch he noted that it was 11:30 am. Due to the long hours the previous day, Illya wasn’t expected at the office until after 1am. Although it was still before noon, it was late enough to be classed as lunchtime.

There was a restaurant two streets away from headquarters which was well known for providing meat-heavy dishes. It was a regular haunt for many U.N.C.L.E. agents, so Illya wasn’t surprised to find Napoleon there, with the newest member of the communications team. It was a habit of Solo’s to take new female staff members to lunch; usually on Illya’s dollar.

“Hey there, Tovarisch,” the American called out in greeting, frowning as he noticed Illya’s red-rimmed eyes and sallow complexion. “Would you care to join us?”

Illya glanced at Napoleon’s lunch date, whose mouth was smiling, but whose eyes were begging him to say no.

“No, thank you, my friend,” he said, noting the relief on the woman’s face. “I am more than content to eat alone.”

“No problem,” Napoleon replied. “By the way, whatever you had planned for this afternoon, you’ll have to put it on hold. We’re going out on surveillance at 1:30.”

“Very well, I shall meet you in the motor pool.”

For the next half hour, Napoleon’s attention kept being drawn away from his date, as he watched Illya order steak after steak after steak. He knew the man could eat but, even for him, seven steaks were a bit much. What struck him as even more weird was that Illya kept demanding that each one was cooked rarer than the last. By the end, he was practically eating raw meat, but hadn’t touched any vegetables or salad.

.

Comments

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

I'm almost finished with the 7th chapter. No Short Affair either, maybe tonight I can write one.