Gone.

[Byron]

Seven o'clock, that was when the alarm clock began ringing, sounding with a mindnumbing melody that instantly suffused the room. The blinds were opening automatically, showing Manhattan's blue sky which was in fact unusually clear today, only a few perfectly white clouds were traversing through it. The sun had already climbed over the horizon, its beams desperately trying to find a path through the variety of skycrapers and other tall buildings blocking the way. In spite of the still early hours, streetlife was already showing itself in all its aspects, with the lanes being filled with passer-byes, may it be businessmen, tourists or simple inhabitants, who had crawled out of their apartments and were now hectically aiming either for their workplaces or for the gigantic spaceport in the middle of the capital city, every now and then taking a quick look at their watches from the corners of their eyes. People were honking their horn, frustrated about the traffic jam, an inevitability when crowds of people were colliding, or snapping at each other for unintentional jostling and thus the spilling of the holy coffee in the pedestrians' hands. When you were living a life on Manhattan, you would have to get used to this constantly noisy backdrop, for better or worse, no matter if it was seven o'clock in the morning, midday, afternoon or midnight. After all, there was always a deal to strike, always a bud to meet or a date or party to have.

From Elena's perspective, an ordinary day - which surely wouldn't stay that way - dawned on her as she awoke from her quiet slumber and naturally found herself where she had fallen asleep several hours before - at her boyfriend's place. Situated on the highest floor of one of the skyscrapers, the view through the large, panoramic windows happened to be a very fascinating one, the main nature parks being only a few further blocks away. A large couch complex dominated the middle of the room, before it a flatscreen was situated, while in another corner the obligatory kitchen could be found. Her first reaction, rolling to the other side and checking whether he was lying beside her on the bed, got followed by a second reaction, a deep sigh, one that had almost got traditional by now, as she realized he didn't. It wouldn't exactly surprise her; never had it been uncommon that she had to hit the sack without him, but apparently the prior night had been one of the ones when he actually didn't show up at all. May it be because his work as a Navy officer had again struck him down at his desk or whatever else it had been, it was certainly nothing new to Elena. Thus, a shrug; it was all she felt was needed to comment on this situation that usually didn't gladden her, and neither did it this time. An annoyed expression slowly crawled on her face, and buggedly would she turn off the alarm bell, cursing herself for adjusting it for such an early time of the day. Taking a look at the room however, she realized she prefered her boyfriend's over her own. It had a lot more space, was far tidier, was better furnished - even though she missed her Wraith model on the shelves. Who she however didn't miss was her roommate back in her own apartment. She favoured every day that could pass without her having to witness this poor, misprogrammed KSR hitting the walls or telling the worst jokes mankind ever thought of.

For another two hours would she just lie in bed, mostly procrastinating - an ability she thought to have perfected by now -, attempting to fall asleep again as she didn't exactly feel like getting out of bed just yet. It was one of these days again, bad hair day you would call it: she felt worse for wear, as if somebody had stolen her incentive while she had been asleep. Motivation to get up and wash herself was closing up to non-existant. Her belly felt weirdly heavy, heavier than usually even though she had gained quite some weight with her little offspring residing and growing up inside her. Thinking of it, it would capture her attention for several minutes which she just spent staring at her belly, lost in thoughts and dreams as she pictured certain scenarios to herself which would ultimately be painting a smile on her face that had shown concern before. She couldn't deny pregnancy had turned out to be not the easiest of all undertakings, especially in her line of business and with the obligations she felt she had, yet was it certainly a unique experience, one she was all in all glad she was allowed to make. Despite the numerous troubles it had by now caused and would probably keep on causing.

Finally she would bring herself to cast off the blanket and head for the bathroom to wind up her daily morning routine - consisting of toothbrushing, washing, blow-drying her hair, skin care and putting on some in no way flamboyant make-up. Followed by a quick, rudimentary yet nutritious breakfast and she would be ready to get started with working. Different to many people and much to her delight however, she had quite flexible working hours, meaning that she could show up at Glendalough Orbital, the Headquarter of the Forlorn Hope, the organization she was working for, whenever she felt like it. The only thing she was obliged to do was getting done with the stuff she had been assigned to until certain deadlines - how she managed to get to that point was of her concern only. But duteous as she of course was without any doubt, she always did her daily stint, no matter how she felt about it. With a few exceptions of course, exceptions that were slowly clustering, but everybody knows exceptions prove the rule after all.

And today, she would have been thrilled to make such an exception. But there was work needed to be finished, thus she exited the apartment after she had grabbed her leather jacket from the hallstand and yomped down to the spaceport. Still in a drowsy state of mind, walking proved to be a bit of a difficulty as she found herself stumbling more often than not. Nonetheless, she used the opportunity to soak in the fresh air while she was ambling through the busy streets. Even though many of the other passer-byes were far too focused on their PDAs, Elena would naturally draw some attention from other people due to her unusual hair colour. Not that she minded attracting notice from others, she actually enjoyed it, knowing that people were actively looking at her, was it because of the hair, the baby belly or whyever else, she didn't care at all. Allowing herself plenty of time - after all nobody expected her to be anywhere soon - she decided else and paid a visit at her favourite nature park which she had just come across. Sighing in relief as she found a free bench where she could sit down and relax instead of walk around further, she leaned back, closing her eyes and letting the scenery unfold its effect on her. The birds' twittering, frogs' croaking, ducks' quacking, the rustling of leaves in a cool breeze. She lost herself in her surroundings, almost forgetting there was work needed to be done - but for once, she didn't care. This day had by now already stressed her out enough. It kind of seemed to be off a bad start already, so she treated herself to a few minutes of chilling.
What a gorgeous construct nature was, she kept thinking, over and over again.

"You got an appointment", a deep, male voice suddenly said in a neutral tone, taking Elena by surprise and making her cringe. Taking gulps of air, wide-eyedly would she hectically look about herself. Whom did she just hear? Had it just been a delusion, possibly? Caused by her thoughts drifting further and further away from reality? And if so, why the heck did she just hear these four words, these exact four words?

"Who ... what ... what kind of appointment?", she asked puzzledly. In the meantime, she came to the conclusion someone was actually standing behind her, a man, dressed in a coat, looking down to her. He had the same confused facial play as Elena, though.

"Uhm, that was a question, Miss", the man replied, clearing his throat and adjusting his tie. Yet one of his eyes narrowed, wondering what had caused her reacting so scared. "You got an appointment? I mean, you ... seem like you're just idling right now. Maybe you, uh, would wanna fetch a drink or something? With, uh, me?"

Slowly Elena would realize what all of this was about, and couldn't contain herself from sighing loudly in relief. It was just a man asking her out for something, apparently. No subconsciousness playing foul games with her. It did however remind her that she was, as he just said, idling around, and thus she stood up, smoothing down her clothes and giving the man a friendly smirk, though at the same time opening the view upon her belly to demonstrate he could ask all he wants. "Oh well, I just got carried away by nature", said she, tilting her head a little and eyeing the man further. "Happens a lot to me. You know, sometimes nature just makes you forget about the rest of the world, right? Eh ... a-anyways, I'm sorry, but I must be on my way. When there's a job, it needs to be done, right?" She wouldn't give him time to ask her for her name or her number, but went straight out of the park, not looking back. In the background she heard him bidding goodbye, however Elena decided not to react on that further. She didn't feel too garrulous right now.

There was some bad taste on her tongue when she left the park, feeling rather uneasy about what just happened. Even though it had turned out to just be a man ready to mate, something had anchored in the back of her mind and wouldn't let go of it easily. Elena didn't know what it was. But would it turn out that she had all and every reason to feel uneasy.