Some few hours before the Press Conference at the Campbell Hospital, Daisy paces around the station, trying everything to keep the tears from falling down her eyes, her slippers slapping against the floor. Her face is pale, almost ashen, her hair is very disheveled, and her puffy eyes dart nervously toward the entrance every few seconds.“John. I can’t take this anymore.” She mutters, her voice breaking with every sentence she utters. “Where is she? It’s been over twenty four hours! She’s out there somewhere! All alone. She did not even come home all night.”John sits across the room at a desk, speaking to the officer taking his statement. His face is almost calm, but the tension in his hard up shoulders give him away. He’s trying to stay calm for both their sakes, since Daisy gave up on been calm ever since she had woken up and checked Quinn’s rom and seen that the girl had not come home or slept in her bed.“She is seventeen, her name is Quinn Worth. She has long brown hair, brown e
Millicent Atkinson sits in the driver’s seat of her sleek silver colored car, her fingers drumming nervously against the steering wheel. The city comes and goes around her, but her thoughts are locked on one thing.Arthur.She should be heading to her interview, one that Tina, her manager, had meticulously arranged to promote her new movie coming up, but the thought of sitting there answering mundane questions pales in comparison to seeing him. She has never been able to stop thinking of him after all. She hadn’t even known he had returned to New York until that man sent those pictures. Not to talk of getting remarried.The mysterious had sent her name too. He had been paid twenty five thousand for everything but Millicent does not regret it. Her name is Bethany and she is equally an heiress. And she is beautiful too.“You’re throwing away a golden opportunity.” Tina had said earlier, her tone more disapproving than angry. What right did the small woman have to be angry at her anyeay,
In the evening of the same day, the door bursts open and Charles rushes in, sweat beaded on his forehead some running down behind his ears, he has lost a lot of weight and his eeys are red and bloodshot, his lips chapped and his neck has deep wells from being malnourished. He walks briskly past the hall and the dining room until he comes to the living room where Daisy sits with her head between her hands, rocking herself back and forth as though she is grieving over someone that died.Charles came to an abrupt stop, John raises his head to look at him, and then casts his eyes back down when he sees the state of his son’s life.Daisy sits there in the awfully brightly lit living room, her body curled into a tight ball on the couch. Her arms wrap around her knees as she rocks herself back and forth, tears streaming down her face. The silence in the house is choking, interrupted only by her soft sobs. The reality of Quinn being nowhere to be found is sinking further in with each hour.Jo
As the door closes behind him when he steps into the office, he takes off the long white coat and drapes it around his coat hanger, Mason Campbell paces the length of his office, his hands stuffed into his pockets, his expression a mixture of irritation and amusement. The early morning sunlight streams through the tall windows, casting long shadows across the room. Papers and files lie scattered across his desk, forgotten as his mind fixates on something, or rather, someone he can’t seem to shake away from his thoughts.He has been at work since as early as six am because of an urgent surgery he had to perform but even till now, he could not shake off his wandering thoughts.With a frustrated sigh, Mason stops by the window and gazes out at the city and building rooftops below. His jaw tightens as he remembers his last run in with Chara.Their encounters, even right from the start, were never pleasant, always charged with a tension that left him fuming. Yet, for reasons he refuses to
Having gone to bed early from the day’s stress, at night, John opens his eyes to some small sounds in the house. He had not been able to sleep anyway, starting from the dead body he had seen thinking it was his daughter, to the loss of his company’s hopeful source of redemption that is now gone and impending bankruptcy, and above all, the pain in his side from getting kicked. He had not eve able to tell anyone of his family just yet on what is going on with him and the company, and that they might be poor now.He pushes around the bed till his legs dangle off the side of the bed, putting on his slippers. His movements startles Daisy who opens her eyes and sees him sitting up in bed.“John?” She calls out, wearily.He looks to her side of the bed, taking on an apologetic look. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up, most especially when you had been up for two whole days.”“What’s wrong?” She asks, sitting up as well, wiping the sleep out of her eyes.“I thought I heard some noises, so I
After twenty minutes of driving, Arthur parks the car in front of Campbell Hospital, the tires screeching slightly as he comes to an abrupt stop. Without a second thought, he throws the door open and steps out, Bethany following beside him in equal pacing. The chilly night air bites at their faces, but neither of them seems to notice. “Fifth floor, thank you.” Arthur says curtly after speaking to the receptionist, his voice tense with urgency. He presses the elevator button repeatedly, as if sheer force will make it arrive faster. Bethany stays quiet beside him, her hands clutched tightly around her purse. The sight of Arthur’s clenched jaw and furrowed brow makes her heart ache, but she knows this isn’t the time to offer comfort. There is a difference between loathing people and wishing them evil. She won't wish such as suicide on even her enemy, not even her enemy's daughter. Even though has been evil to her in the past, she did not look anything like someone who would take her ow
Knock Knock.“Please come on in.” Henderson invites Chara inside his office, motioning her to a seat. “Thank you for taking on that work in such short notice. How do you like your team? Are they fit to work with?”“I think some are a bit rough around the edges and will need discipline, but they are doing pretty good. Is there an important thing I need to hear or some news I need to know? I’m getting some weird feelings about getting called to your office twice in a row as soon as I resume work.”Henderson sighs, stifling a laugh. “Yes. Please read this.” He extends his phone to her and she takes it from him, reading the message.Her eyes cloud over. “Who sent this?”“I received it yesterday from Campbell Hospital and apparently, from the Managing Director, Mason Campbell. He seemed to have some reserves about the work yesterday. I did not peg him for the picky type though. I mean, you took care of a troublemaker for him, that should be more than enough to be grateful for.”Chara holds
In front of Campbell Corporation, Arthur parks the car after driving here to drop Bethany off at work. He kisses her right hand. “I have not forgotten about our honeymoon, far from it. I just don’t hate my sister enough to ignore her when she is in such pain as a time such as this.”Bethany smiles. “Even I would consider it weird if you decide to ignore her at a time when she needs you like this. My heart breaks for her. I cant imagine having to go through something like that.”“Our children will never.” Arthur reassures her. “I’ll head to the hospital after filing another case at the same one where they had filed the missing one. They will be able to start their investigations from the point where she had been found.”Bethay nods. “You should get going. I’ll head inside as well. I’ll come over there after work.”“Just give me a call, I’ll come pick you up.”“Alright then. I love you.” Bethany says with a small smile.Arthur chuckles. “I love you till the end of time.” He responds, wa
The hallway is dim and seemingly never ending. Just like is her job to do this once in a while, she is going to do it once again before clocking out of work for the day.Ana Yang walks briskly down the sterile, silver lit corridor of Unique Auditing’s private floor. Her heels click sharply against the marble tile, echoing between the glass walls and chrome doors, ignoring everyone she meets on her way since she has one single focus in mind, do this and get the hell out of here.She clutches a thick folder to her chest, filled with updates, invoices, coded communications. The usual weapons of their currently losing war, she’ll be dropping off the file with the ceo before leaving.Ahead of her, the double doors to the CEO's office loom like the gates of some modern day hell.She swipes her keycard.The lock clicks and the doors swing open.Inside, the room is dim, only thin shafts of light cutting across the floor from narrow windows.And, as always, the swivel chair behind the vast mah
The fourth day in the hospital after the blast seemed just as bleak as the first three days that had come and gone, waiting for Bethany to wake up and open her eyes to absolutely no avail.Arthur hasn’t left her side. Not once, making sure to make sure that she is attended to every single time and cleaning her unconscious body every morning and night.The nurses have stopped trying to convince him to take a break and go home or something. At this point, he’s more permanent than the IV drip standing by her bedside. Martha comes and goes, bringing fresh clothes, home cooked meals that Arthur barely touches, whispered encouragements he barely hears but nods smilingly at anyway, the old woman already has too much on her neck so Arthur always manages to persuade her to go back home as well each time.He sits beside her now, as he has for four days, one hand curled over Bethany’s motionless fingers, holding them as though he is using his body’s warmth to remind her of the way back to him, b
Time slows.Bethany’s fingers brush the handle of the driver’s side door just as the second beep-beep fades into the air. A bird chirps from the lamp post above the lot. The wheels of a nearby shopping cart squeal as someone exits the pharmacy across the road. Arthur opens his mouth to say something…And the world erupts.BOOM.It’s not just a noise., it’s a force. A living, monstrous thing that tears through air, glass, and metal like paper. The car explodes in a big explosion of fire and shrapnel, its roof splitting, hurling into the sky. The windshield vaporizes in a white hot flash and for the person standing right next to the explosion...Bethany is thrown violently backward. Not a stumble. Not a fall. She is launched into the air like a ragdoll and what goes up, always comes down.Her body hits the ground very hard. The sound is sickening, skin on pavement, ribs crunching, skull cracking and the audible sound of all of it.Then stillness.Alarms scream in every direction. The
The man walks in front of the station like he’s trying not to walk into a landmine, slow, tentative steps. He stops at the top of the stairs, takes one deep sigh, rubs his weak looking eyes and takes the few more steps into the building.He does not take big strides and no waving hands. Just quiet, precise steps through the front doors of the Precinct, wearing a weather beaten hoodie and jeans that have seen better years. His eyes are the kind that don’t blink enough, too haunted to remember how.Or at least that is what it looks like to whoever cares to give him a glance.At the front desk, Officer Laney gives him the once over. She’s halfway through sipping her third iced latte when she asks, “Can I help you sir?”The man doesn’t answer at first, first choosing to check if she is a police officer since she is in civilian clothes, then seeing her badge in her hands, he sighs audibly before responding, saying…“I need to talk to someone. Someone in charge of a particular case here.”L
Rumors begin less than three days later.Apparently, grabbing a cup of coffee with a beautiful female Major is grounds for rumors, and even people whom you don’t know who begin to study your every move. The rumors, with truths in them however, rage on the barracks.They spread like heat on dry bush. Fast, wild and pretty much unstoppable. A Major seen sneaking smiles at a Lieutenant during drills, the same Lieutenant caught slipping out of the officer's quarters too early in the morning.Chara doesn’t as much as flinch when she hears then, she’s pretty much used to the weight of judgment.Chara doesn’t pretend to care, not at all.She keeps her chin high, her stride sharp like the boss lady that she is, like no one dares say it to her face, because they really do not dare say it to her face.But Mason hears it.He hears them and unlike Chara with her own steely indifference, he is not indifferent to it.And it gets harder to ignore, mostly because it is not all about him but her.Mason
It is a new day on the barracks, the morning frills are done and so are evening ones, it’s just past the time for everyone to have dinner but someone is not headed to the cafeteria for food.The knock on the door announces his arrival to his caller.Major Chara’s office is dimly lit but bright enough fir the time of the day, considering she is in the male fields, she knows just how to be careful enough to not have too much light on, not too much to help the stalkers peek through the window at her perfectly figured body. She’s currently halfway through dressing, uniform pants already snug around her waist, boots laced to perfection, but her shirt still hanging on the back of a chair.“Come in,” Chara calls, her voice calm.She doesn’t bother rushing. She knows exactly who it is and why she has sent for him.The door opens, and then nothing.No footsteps. No greeting.Just silence from who it is that stands at the door.Private First Lieutenant Mason Campbell.She turns slightly, still
The courtroom is brightly lit, smells like polished wood and paper and different, different smells of perfumes and cologne.It's still early in the morning, the sun barely slanting through the tall and somewhat dusty windows, but the room is already full, a lot of people seem to be quite interested in the case and other than that, there are also students who have come to just witness one and some other purposeful individuals, albeit, the courtroom is filled. The silence is thick, every cough or chair scrape feeling louder than it should because every sound that is not inevitable is not allowed in the court, it should always be bone silent and they all try to keep to the rule, although the silence can feel a bit suffocating but they can’t help it.At the defense table, John Worth stands stiffly, his head cast downwards staring at his feet or at the floor, either, wearing the same annoyingly orange jumper he has worn to every hearing in the past week.His hands rest by his sides, fisted
Detective Reynolds has never hated walking down this damned hallway more than he actually does now, with what he knows his mission it, he does not look forward to the next few minutes since he’ll be walking down the same hall again.The keys jingle in his hand, cold metal biting into his palm as he squeezes it more than he should, causing himself pain. He passes the front desk, the vending machines, the bulletin board with the crooked missing persons flyer... all of it feeling a little more annoying than usual.For the first time in a very long time, he regrets his job and for once wishes that he was in a position of power to refute the corrupt order that he is about to go ahead and act out. He had spoken to Daisy Worth just some minutes ago before he decided to accept his fate and do as ordered unless he wanted to risk his job, and even if he does risk his job for the sake of his integrity, the five bastards will still get released anyway so there is basically no point dragging out t
The morning sun filters through the trees in the large, green park that overlooks the pretty lake ahead.It’s warm. Peaceful. A soft breeze rolls across the lake, lifting the petals from scattered white roses and tugging at the corner of the prettily covered altar. Everything looks like it was summoned out of thin air, a lakeside setup, simple chairs, a path of white laid across green grass, and yet it all feels perfectly right.They didn’t plan it. Not really. They did not have the time to do so anyway, because every minute now counts.Every. Single. Minute.But love doesn’t always need a plan. Sometimes, it just needs now and that’s how everything was planned overnight, some people who still haven’t slept yet are in the congregation.By the water’s edge, rows of white wooden chairs are arranged in quiet perfection. A floral arch leans over a makeshift altar, the blooms fresh, delicate, almost too pretty to touch. There are photographers present, it is a memorable one, everyone wants