Chapter Text
Emilie Lokken kept a firm hold of the leash as she walked her dog past the docs of Norway. A cigarette was in hand and it was early morning, keeping a slight chill in the air, despite it being early summer. She tended to go out early in the morning, sometimes she’d standing for hours staring out at the sea, watching the tide go out.
The year was 1968, a lot had changed for her since returning to the surface, away from that place. Clayton was in college in New York studying acting. He’d wanted to keep his inventions as a past time and hobby, it wasn’t a career he said he wanted to pursue. Em had a sneaky suspicion that he’d started studying acting because he was still trying to get his head wrapped around Fontaine’s act. Even now… the man was like a constant thorn in their side. She tried not to think of him, it was better that way.
Em walked her Irish wolfhound back to her home. It doubled as a repair garage for cars. A far cry from her days as an electrical engineer, engineer and mechanic of Rapture. Or being head of the department for Fontaine Futuristics, but if anything she liked the distance. Fixing cars was simple and easy compared to the things she’d done in Rapture, it was a nice quiet way to earn money without bringing up any bad memories.
When Clayton and Em had arrived in Norway, it had changed a lot since she was last there. She knew that she wanted to move somewhere far away from most people, in a quiet place where they were less likely to draw too much attention to themselves. So She’d taken Clayton further and further up north, until finally settling on a costal town of Hammerfest. Once she’d set up her business it was easy to settle into life back on the surface. She got Clayton enrolled in school and while it took him some time he was able to make friends. Soon he was acting like a child should’ve been at that point, Rapture far behind them.
Em slipped her coat off after entering her home, letting her dog off the leash, before she wandered into the kitchen to make some coffee. She blamed her time in America and Rapture for her dependence on coffee. She’d also brought a few other Americanisms with her on her return to Norway, but over time those had dimmed. She liked Hammerfest because it was quiet and not easy to get to. It meant that anyone from her past that she didn’t want to come calling would have a hard time tracking her down. Not that there were many of those people left, however, most of them were dead now. In fact they’d been very dead for some time.
She glanced over at her message board, that along with several orders and receipts for car parts, there were a few post cards from New York. Clayton was staying at Opal’s home while he studied there and he sent Em a postcard every month to let her know he was okay and what he’d been up to. He seemed to be enjoying the acting career he was picking out for himself and she was very proud of him for it.
A knock at the door tore her out of her musings and she slowly wondered over to it. Her dog came trotting up behind her, but she put her hand out to tell him to wait. It was still very early, only just going eight, she didn’t open technically until nine. The locals knew that, mostly because the place was pretty small, you almost knew everyone. The other reason Em wasn’t ready for big crowds and bigger cities, she wasn’t used to all the people. When Clayton and herself had first landed in Oslo she’d almost panicked. While she had spent two months in New York that was mostly in Opal’s home and gathering the correct paperwork so they could move back to Norway.
So whoever this was, couldn’t be a local and she double checked the gun she kept under the table by the door was loaded before she opened the door. What she didn’t expect was a man standing on the otherwise wrapped up in a long coat, dressed in a blue suit. He had a hat on and his eyes looked tired. He was probably in his late thirties and he was carrying a briefcase.
“God morgen, kan jeg hjelpe deg?” She asked, using her native tongue.
Hopefully if this was some kind of reporter who’d heard about the mysterious woman who just popped up, they’d go away if they didn’t think she could speak English. That had happened a few times before when she’d first moved here, especially since most of her clothes and mannerisms were very dated, like she’d just popped up out of the 40s, would you believe?
“Ah, Good morning, Ms Lokken,” the man tipped his hat. “I’m Detective Mark Meltzer.”
Em rose an eyebrow. A detective? An American one at that, well she supposed she shouldn’t get in trouble with the law no matter where they came from, so begrudgingly she went back to speaking English.
“Ah, an American,” she said, accent thick and heavy after spending time back home it had slowly become more prominent again. “You’re a little far from home. I didn’t think your juristriciton stretched this far.”
“I’m here on official police business, un-officially,” Meltzer admitted looking more than a little upset. “I need your help, Ms Lokken. I need proof of..” He looked around nervously. “Do you think we could talk inside?”
“I haven’t done anything wrong have I?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Then tell me, why you’re here and I’ll debate letting you in.”
Meltzer sighed, rubbing at his eyes. “I am investigating a missing children’s case. Little girls have been kidnapped across the American coastline and if my sources are correct, more little girls have been taken across the globe.”
She’d heard about this. With Hammerfest being a costal town they’d had their own disappearances and kidnappings with no leads. She’d seen the posters around the city, little girls smiling faces on blank and white grainy image with the words ‘missing’ above them in big, bold, black letters. It reminded her eerily of Rapture. She wanted to push that to the back of her mind. It wouldn’t be anything to do with Rapture. Just because she was on the surface, didn’t mean that it was safe. There were monsters on the surface after all, where did the monsters of Rapture come from.
“I’ve heard about it,” she admitted. “I don’t see how I can help you much. I just fix cars,” she shrugged. “And I don’t live next to the coast. I haven’t seen anything.”
Mark Meltzer opened his briefcase and pulled a photograph out. He held it up for her to see and Em felt her whole body freeze over. It was old and grainy but there she was. She was twenty three in that photo, dressed in the jacket that Clayton still owned and had taken with him to New York. She was so young, her face soft in the old grainy image. Both eyes of course and her hair was curled around her face in soft waves.
Now her face was slightly more angled, she had a streak of grey hair running through the red and she’d had it just sorter and kept straight. Not a wave in sight, with only one eye and the scar running down her cheek.
“Where did you get that?”
“It was in the papers after you disappeared. A missing persons was put on you, but nothing came up,” Meltzer said. “And it wasn’t just you, either. Hundreds of people across the globe, all notable in their professions suddenly just disappeared. The papers called the even the ‘Vanishing’.”
“Creative,” she said dryly. “But as you can see, I’m standing right here.”
“Yes, but you’ve been missing since nineteen forty eight. Then you suddenly reappear in nineteen sixty,” Meltzer narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re were gone for thirteen years, Ms Lokken. Then you return missing an eye, with a son and still refer to things like they were in the 40s.”
“I was alive during the 40s,” She replied, glaring at him. “So yes I do still refer to things in that manner. It’s nineteen sixty eight, Mister Meltzer, I don’t see how my sudden apparent disappearance has anything to do with why you’re here.”
“Because no one knows where you went and from what I can gather, you’re not talking.”
“I have no reason to divulge my whereabouts to anyone. As far as I was concerned, I hadn’t vanished. I knew exactly where I was and that’s all that mattered,” she pulled out her cigarette case, already itching for one. “So I’ll ask again, what has this have to do with these missing girls?”
Mark Meltzer looked a little uncomfortable. He shuffled on his feet a moment, before looking back at her seeming to have made his mind up. He looked like a man that was under a great amount of stress and she could almost feel sorry for him. She’d seen men like him work themselves to death, if Mister Meltzer wasn’t careful he’d work himself to an early grave.
“I came to talk to you about… Rapture.”
It was like someone had just sucked all the warmth out of her body. She was standing their frozen, a cigarette in her fingers, staring at him. No doubt there was a haunted look in her eye at the mere mention of that place. How had he found out about Rapture, no one knew. On one was supposed to know, it had been a secret. One that Andrew Ryan had made strict instructions about. No one outside of his circle was supposed to know about Rapture. Oh sure, there’d been that Jonny Topside guy that had randomly popped up. Em didn’t even know what had happened to him. He was there and almost an overnight celebrity and then he kinda just vanished. She couldn’t say she was too surprised when it happened and at the time she knew better than to ask questions. The less you knew, the less likely you’d end up vanishing along with him.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t surprised that Rapture, the name… had somehow.. reached here. How did this Detective know and what the hell did that have to do with the missing girls?
Oh no… unless…
The icy feeling only got worse. It couldn’t be what she was thinking about surly? That program had to be dead, there was no one else alive down there to start it up again. Everyone was spliced up, so even if there was someone down there who could maybe do something. Maybe make the Little Sisters, all those splicers? It would be too much of a risk. Plus they’d need sea slugs, as Em recalled they’d been on short supply which was why they’d needed the little girls in the first place. Then again, no one had been down there in eight years, the population could’ve gone up and the demand would still be there. There was also that horrible truth that they’d been unable to rescue all the girls because there simply wasn’t a way to get to them.
Em shook her head. There were too many ‘what if’s, but she was positive, certain that no one down in the place could control anyone. Most sane people were probably dead and all that was left were the splicers. They wouldn’t be able to organise anything. She wondered what kind of condition they’d be in now.
“Get out.”
“Ms Lokken.”
“I said get out!” She snarled, pushing him towards the door. “I have nothing to say to you about that… place!”
Meltzer fiddled with his inside jacket pocket. She immediately tensed, waiting for a gun to pop out and already preparing herself so she could react. What she wasn’t expect was him to pull out a small coloured photo of a little girl with blonde curls and startling eyes.
“This is my daughter!” Meltzer pleaded. “She.. she was taken! Taken just like all the others.. please! I.. I need to find her!”
She tightened her jaw and glared at the photo, before he eyes drifted to the picture she had of Jack and the girls. In that photo the girls were ten and eleven, all beaming smiles, dressed in latest clothes for children. Jack was standing behind them proudly, a broad smile on his face, their farm lay in background of the shot. It had been during one of the summers she’d gone over to visit them, Jack had sent it to her in the post about a week after she got back.
Em sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, mumbling under her breath. She’d promised herself she’d leave the past buried. That she wouldn’t touch that rock or lift it up. No matter how many people came to ask questions, no matter what they were threatening. This time they weren’t threatening though, they were begging. Begging for some kind of help in finding a lost child. She recalled so many others down in Rapture doing the same thing and she’d always looked the other way at the time. It was easier to keep your head down then to face it.
“Alright…” she mumbled, looking up at him with a glare. “But what I’m about to tell you… you don’t tell anyone else. Do you understand?” She pointed in his face, glaring up at him. “Rapture cannot reach the surface. It has to stay below. Left to rot, understand?”
Meltzer nodded slowly.
“Good,” Em turned on her heel, stalking back into her kitchen, beckoning for him to follow her. She heard his hesitant footfalls, but eventually he joined her at her kitchen table. Em set to work making him a cup of coffee, placing it in front of him, before pushing the milk and sugar to him. “Alright… look. I don’t know how much help I’ll be,” she said as she watched him make his coffee how he liked it. “But I’ll try. I left Rapture in nineteen sixty, so I have no idea what kind of condition the place would be in now.”
“So.. it’s real?”
“As real as the horrors that live in it,” Em said, she got to her feet and made a wait there motion.
She wondered into her bedroom, pulling out a case from underneath her bed and carried it downstairs. Once she was there, she flipped it open and turned it around for Meltzer to look inside. It was a mixture of things, documents, some of the ammunition she’d made, photographs, Clayton’s air grabber and even the masquerade masks from the New Years. The last one she’d celebrated with her friends.
Meltzer stared at the contense, picking up the mask and staring at it. Em couldn’t look at those the same way anymore, not after seeing the splicers wearing them. There was water damage on her own mask, it was broken in some parts, but it still held some of the eerie beauty that most of Cohen’s works did.
Next Meltzer pulled out one of the photographs. It was the workers of Hepheastus. They’d decided to document the occasion after getting it fully up and running. Em was standing near the back with Kyburz, Daniel, Bill and Pablo. That seemed so long ago now, almost like a dream or nightmare…
“You were so young…” Meltzer mumbled.
“Gee, thanks.”
“I meant no offence, Ms Lokken,” He shifted in his seat looking up at her from across the table. “Rapture. What can you tell me about it? I need to know as much as I can before I go down there.”
Em was quiet, fiddling with her cigarette case for a moment. She contemplated what to tell him. What she should tell. He was still going through the photos, pulling out the image of the lighthouse and staring at it. Em knew what he was thinking. She still remembered the time she saw it for the first time, standing on the chilly deck of a ship that was taking them to Rapture...
“Goddamn it all,” Pablo growled as he failed once again to light his cigaret. Scowling at his numbing fingers while Em happily took a slow drag of her own.
The other electrical engineer snatched a third match out and tried his hand at lighting his cigaret that dangled haphazardly between his lips. He struck the side of the match box, once, twice, three times. It finally lit and then the wind blew out.
Cursing he threw the matchstick out into the ocean and Bill McDonagh finally took pity on him, handing his lighter over. It still took him two or three tries to light his cigaret, but eventually he was able to do it.
The cold Atlantic rocked the boat they were standing on and the cold ocean air blew past them, ruffling their coats and hats. Em was glad she’d pinned it in place before they’d stepped on board, it was the only hat she owed and she didn’t want to loose it to the North Atlantic.
“It’s colder than a witch’s tit out here,” Pablo grumbled, finally taking a drag of his cigaret. “What the hell was Ryan thinking sticking this thing in the middle of the Atlantic? What’s he got against warmer climates?”
“Hey watch your language,” Bill scowled. “There’s a lady present.”
“She’s worse than me,” Pablo argued gesturing to Em.
Emilie leaned on the railing and took a slow drag of her cigaret. “Don’t you fucking forget it.”
Pablo threw his head back and laughed while Bill sighed in defeat and shoved his hands in his pockets. He idly casted a glance up to the top cabin where the richer and closer to Ryan were situated. Technically he had a place in there too, but he’d rather stay with Em and Pablo then rub shoulder to shoulder with those posh tots.
“How come you ain’t up there?” Pablo asked, gesturing with his hand to the very cabin Bill had been staring at. “Ain’t you supposed to be one of Ryan’s favourites?”
“Sure, I got a place,” Bill shrugged. “But if I’m up there, who’s going to watching you two.”
“Think we’ll get into trouble, Bill?” Em laughed.
“I know you both too well, luv,” Bill grumbled glancing at Pablo and then at her. “You both get into more trouble than you’re worth sometimes.”
“Admit it,” she laughed pushing away from the railing. “You just didn’t want to sit with them posh bastards.”
Bill sighed before nodding his head in agreement. “There’s also that.”
“But c’mon now,” Pablo slapped his arm and grinned from ear to ear. “You’re big shot Mister Ryan’s best pal these days. What you doing down here with us commoners?”
“All equal in Rapture, Pablo, you know that.”
“Yeah.. yeah…” he gazed down at his cigaret, watching as the glowing embers blew away in the wind. “Nice sell that, weren’t it?”
“I think it’ll be a new start,” Em said, trying her best to be positive. “Have you seen it, Bill?” She asked raising an eyebrow. “The city, I mean.”
“Only once,” he said, gazing out to sea as he remembered seeing Rapture for the first time.
It was amazing. Like nothing he could’ve ever imagined. Of course he only saw it in the middle stages, none of the finer details had been added yet, but the fact there were building down there at all? He could scarcely believe it. Felt like he’d need to pinch himself. Didn’t mean he wasn’t glad that he never had to be one of the poor sods that built the damn thing.
“Any good?”
“Well, I’d hate to spoil the surprise, mate.”
Pablo snorted and took another drag of his cigarette before looking up as a shadow fell over them. He had to cover his eyes because of the sunlight reflecting off the top of the towering structure. There was no sign of any other buildings or land for that matter, just this singular tower in the middle of the Atlantic and it took him a moment to realise it was a lighthouse. A lighthouse made of gold.
His eyes widened and he felt his mouth hang open in shock. Just how much money was Ryan putting into this damn project?
“I’ve never seen so much gold…” Em whispered staring up in awe.
“See,” Bill grinned at them, the ends of his mustache curling up as he smiled. “Told ya’. Mister Ryan isn’t doin’ anything half arsed. ‘E’s putting in all the stops for this project.”
“You weren’t kidding…”
“Bit conspicuous innit?” Pablo gestured to the lighthouse. “I mean.. it ain’t subtle.”
“Don’t worry about it, mate, you’ll see… Mister Ryan’s got it all sorted out.”
Pablo frowned before he took one last drag of his cigaret. “Think you put too much faith in Mister Ryan,” he muttered before throwing the cigaret out into the ocean. “He’s not all he’s cracked up to be.”
“You’ll be eating your words when you see Rapture.”
“If we make it down there in one piece.”
“You’re cheery,” Em said dryly, finishing off her own cigaret and stubbing it out on the railing before letting it drop carelessly to the floor.
The boat stopped and an announcement was made for people to collect their luggage and make their way carefully to the walk way that would take them onto the island.
Slowly the three made their way over, each only having one suitcase and yet it carried all their belongings in it that they weren’t wearing. It spoke more of their pay than it did anything else.
Em’s long coat fluttered around her ankles and she pulled it tighter around herself to stop the chill from reaching her. Pablo was shivering slightly from his spot as he waited behind Bill for their turn. It was taking a long time, it would seem this part of the process hadn’t been as well thought out as the rest. That or people were being inpatient and sneakily trying to push in front. That honestly seemed more likely than anything else.
“Well it’s good to see they got this part structured,” a voice spoke behind Em and she turned to see a young woman maybe only a few years older than her wearing an outfit that left vary little to the imagination as she checked herself in her compact mirror. Gently fluffing her hair up and making sure all her curls were still in place under her hat. “Honestly, they can’t expect me to stand up here for hours. I’m in heels,” she glanced down at her shoes and grimaced. “Better not get any sea water on them either. The stain will never come out,” she glanced at Em and smiled. “Know what I mean?”
“Not really…” she mumbled glancing down at her battered and pealing brogues.
The woman looked down at Em’s shoes and rose an eyebrow. “Oh honey… you can’t go like that..”
“I don’t recall asking for your opinion.”
“Does anyone ask for a miracle?” The woman countered battering her eyelashes at Em. “Looks like I came right in the nick of time. Why, a little polish and I’ll have you looking like a pearl.”
Pablo snorted, leaning over Bill’s shoulder to whisper to him. “Gonna need more than a little polish to make old Norsky look like a pearl.”
Em glared and kicked the back of his ankle making him hiss and glare at him.
“The hell’s your problem?”
“I’m looking at it.”
Pablo glared at her before looking behind Em at the woman who had since gone back to busily checking herself in her little compact. He whistled appreciatively and that caught her attention. She snapped her compact shut and stared at him and Pablo grinned back.
“Hey toots,” he winked. “Need any help getting off this tub just holler. I’m real good with me hands.”
The women slipped her compact mirror away in her purse and smiled coyly at him. “Why thank you sir, I think I might just do that,” she cooed, before looking Pablo up and down. “Yes.. yes I think you’ll make a very good plank for me to walk across.. then again,” she looked over the railing at the gap and seemed to mull it over in her mind. “You might be a little too short. Not quite got the width…? Ah.. I’m struggling to think of more polite words here.”
To say that Em was having a hard time holding her laughter in was an understatement.
“Oh so you do laugh,” the woman smirked, holding a hand out to Em. “Kelly Christie.”
“Emilie Lokken,” she said taking her hand and shaking it.
“It’s nice to meet you, Em,” Kelly grinned at her.
“Emilie.”
“I like Em better,” she said with a shrug before smiling at her. “I think this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship.”
Maybe not a beautiful one, but certainly a crazy one. Em almost smiled as she remembered meeting Kelly for the first time, before she abruptly squished any feeling of missing her down and focused on Meltzer instead.
“Rapture it hell on earth. Can you shoot?” She asked.
“You mean.. a gun?”
“I sure as hell don’t meant a camera.”
“.. Yes, I can shoot.”
“Good,” she nodded approvingly. “You’ll need to be able to shoot without hesitation too. In Rapture, you choke? You’re dead.”