Bethany steps through the doorway, her heels clicking softly against the hardwood floor. The room is dimly lit, thick with the scent of expensive cologne and alcohol, the mini strobe lights just make the sense of thick drugs in the air only increase, and she already has a headache.The moment she enters, four pairs of male eyes snap up to her, taking in her appearance with a mixture of curiosity and predatory amusement.She lets her gaze drift lazily from one man to the next, feigning a slightly dazed expression. Then, as if just realizing something, she presses her fingers to her lips and lets out a soft giggle."Umm... I was told someone was looking for me?" Her voice is intentionally high-pitched, flirty, tinged with just the right amount of uncertainty and girlishness.Mostly with the naivety they are looking for.One of the men, a tall, broad-shouldered guy with slicked-back hair and an eager smile, immediately rises from his seat. His dark eyes roam shamelessly over her body, an
Bethany reaches the door, her heart slamming against her ribs. She twists the knob…Nothing.She tries again, this time pulling harder.Locked.Panic surges through her, but she tamps it down. She’s not trapped. She won’t be trapped.The room goes silent behind her.She slowly turns.The men are no longer laughing. They’re staring at her, their drunken haze lifting as realization sets in."You’re not drunk, you don’t look drunk at all." one of them says, his voice low and dangerous.Bethany forces out a nervous giggle. "W-What are you talking about?"Slicked-Back steps forward, his face darkening. "You set us up, didn’t you? You little vixen."Bethany doesn’t hesitate. She yanks her phone from her clutch and shouts into it…"Call Officer Reynold now, Daisy!"Then, she hangs up.A deadly silence follows.All four men straighten, their expressions shifting from confusion to cold calculation."You little bitch," one of them hisses.Bethany backs against the door, gripping her phone tight
Detective Marsh strides into the station with an unmistakable swagger in his steps, whistling a low tune under his breath. His leather jacket swings slightly as he walks, his confidence practically radiating off him. The morning sun filters through the windows, casting a sharp glow across the room.He does look like he has achieved something… He really has. Even though he looks nothing like he slept all night, his smile is still unfaltering.He did not catch a wink of sleep but he has some business here at work today.With John Worth.At the coffee vending machine, Detective Halloway eyes him with suspicion as he stirs his coffee. He raises a brow and takes a slow sip before asking, “Alright, what’s with the strut? You win the lottery or something?”Marsh chuckles and shakes his head. “Better. You’ll see, come along.”Halloway sighs, dumping his half full cup into the trash before following his partner down the hall. “I swear to God, if this is another one of your dramatic reveals, I…
Red and blue lights painted the darkened club exterior in flashing bursts as police officers stormed through the entrance. As always, whenever there is the sound of even the slightest movements of the police within a club’s surroundings, there is an unheard hush that goes through the crowd…In this case, especially the long line outside waiting to be admitted into the building.A group of onlookers had gathered just outside as well, murmuring in hushed voices, their curiosity piqued by the commotion of the police vehicles. The club's music still thumped through the walls, seemingly oblivious to the chaos unraveling outside.Bethany stood beside Daisy and Quinn, breathless, her heart still hammering from the near disaster she had narrowly escaped, although a bit calm now compared to when her back had been against the wall with slicked back’s hands to her neck.Arthur stood beside them, his jaw locked, his fury simmering just beneath the surface.She knows that a part of his anger is at
The sun was barely up in the sky when Arthur pulled into the lot outside the station. The sky was overcast, painted with streaks of gray, as if the clouds themselves knew what kind of day it was going to be...Other than that, it looked like a really gloomy day.No one said a word as the car slowed to a stop outside the police station.Quinn was the first to move, opening the door and stepping out, her face pale but unreadable. Daisy followed, then Bethany, and finally Arthur, locking the car behind them. They walked together, a tight line of four, but it didn’t feel united, not with everything that hung in the air.Daisy had woken up to the phone call from Marsh saying that John would be transported from the holding cell at the police station to the penitentiary where he would stay until his trial ends, that will decide whether he’ll continue to stay there or otherwise.Detective Marsh was already waiting at the entrance, his hands shoved into the pockets of his coat. He gave a small
The bus goes on its way along the cracked asphalt, its huge tires just as wide as the same look on John’s face when he comes to the realization.John sits hunched in his seat, his handcuffed wrists resting on his lap. He stares out the window, but the view feels more like a movie he’s watching from behind the barricaded glass of the bus, people walking, shops opening, the world moving on without him. He won’t be a part of it for a very long time, and maybe even never again.Then it hits him.A sleek, black Audi R8 glides past the bus, shiny, unsuspecting and beautiful. For a moment, it’s like the world slows down. The car catches the light just right, a sharp glint bouncing off its chrome details.His stomach twists.That car. The exact same model he had seen drive into the parking lot outside Sienna’s building the day she died, just as he drove off, a bit wary of the black-black dressed driver.He lurches forward, startling the officer seated a few feet away. “Officer! Please, I need
Mason shrugs off his lab coat with a sigh, the fatigue of the last surgery still clinging to his shoulders. He tosses the coat over the back of a chair and loosens the top button of his scrub shirt before sinking into his desk chair. An open file rests on the desk, the patient's file for the next surgery in two hours. He flips it open and scans the notes, but his mind isn't fully in it yet. He is really exhausted, he has had three consecutive surgeries today and this file belongs to the last before he calls it a day.Sighing, he opens the file and begins to read and take note of surgical procedures.The door opens without a knock.Chara steps in like she owns the place, dressed in her black-on-black security uniform that hugs her frame a little too well for Mason to ignore. Boots, cargo pants, tight-fit tee, the faintest glint of her belt buckle catching the light. She raises an eyebrow, arms folded, lips pursed like she knows exactly the kind of distraction she is.Like the kind of
The silence in the rental office’s reception tightens like a noose on a criminal’s neck.Travis looks like the criminal while Marsh seems like the executioner.Marsh paces slowly in front of the reception desk, fists clenched at his sides, jaw clenching and unclenching with held back fury. Travis, the kid behind the counter, glances between him and Halloway like he's deciding which cop looks slightly less ready to blow, and maybe when to dash back to avoid a swinging fist.Halloway, standing just off to Marsh’s right, clears his throat and steps in. “Is there any other way we can identify the person who rented that car?” His tone is calm but firm, the kind that invites cooperation without threat. It’s a good cop move, and one Marsh doesn’t have the patience for today.The classic good cop, bad cop.Travis blinks at him, then nods. “I… uh, I can call my manager. He’ll know more about it sir.”“Good,” Halloway says, stepping back, folding his arms. He throws Marsh a sidelong glance that
It takes about an hour.One long, slow, silent hour between the couple.Bethany stubbornly keeps her back turned toward Arthur, stewing in her own complicated swirl of already fake anger and her pride not wanting to speak first.Bethany tries.God, she tries to stay mad at him but...For a full hour, she gives Arthur the full on, patented silent treatment, staring stubbornly at the wall on the other side of thr bed, answering in one word grunts if he so much as breathes too loudly so he’ll catch himself from disturbing her ‘sleep’.But she’s very terrible at it.She’s always been terrible at it when it came to people she loved.She cracks before the sixty minute mark, because when she finally turns her head, awkwardly and carefully because of the neck brace, she sees him sitting at the very edge of her hospital bed.Not looking at her.Not doing anything visible to her.Just… sitting there by the bedside.Palms flat on the mattress. Head bowed.Like he’s waiting to be sentenced. He do
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