Maybe Weather man lied when he said that the Storm will be over in 2 days. I mean it’s less aggressive but there’s still wind, rain, and thunder. What signal are we in right now?
I overslept and now I’m rushing to pack my things and leave. I need to go down to the station, Jax needs to know that I’m going somewhere. Where? I don’t know yet.
I can’t stay here. Denise still has the spare key I gave her. She’s out of her mind and I’m afraid that she might do the same thing she did with Ocean to me.
Call center lady asked me what’s the rush, but I didn’t get the chance to answer her. I climbed inside my car and rushes to the station.
“Hey, Detective!” I see Detective Archer taking his smoke break in the corner of the parking lot.
“Jess.” He walks toward me. “Your boyfriend’s not here. He’s got an individual case to work.”
“Individual?” He’s working independently now? That’s new.
“Yeah. Boy needs some training so if I retire, he can work and manage the team on his own.” He’s smiling like a proud dad. The smile vanished when he saw the look on my face. “You have a problem, Jess? Cause I can give him a call to come back here if you need him.” He took his phone out but I waved ‘no’ using both of my hands.
“No, no, no, no.” I need to collect myself. This is not the right time for me to lose my mind too. My life’s at risk. “I’m sorry. I’m just having a bad day.”
“Oh, yeah. I know that.” He nods. He threw his cigarette on the ground and stepped on it.
“I’ll call him but, uh…” my hands are trembling and I feel so hot. The rain stopped but the sky is still filled with dark clouds. I gave him a note. “Can you give this to him? I’m in a rush. I need to go somewhere for work.”
He puts the paper inside his jacket pocket. “Of course. You take care, Jess.”
I climbed inside the car again. I’ve been trying to reach Jax but it said that he’s out of coverage. Where is he working now? In the mountains, the woods?
I turn left and entered South. South looks so depressing, people are actually staring at my car. There are kids on the road too, just sitting on the corner. I roll the window down.
“Hey, kids. You guys hungry?” They nod. I reached for my eco bag that is full of snacks. “There you go.”
“Thank you, Ate.” I can see that they are tired. From their looks, I guess that they’ve been cleaning the road since morning.
“No worries. Get off the road, eh?” Then I drive away.
I’ve thought about parking my car somewhere that is not obvious. I know I’m overthinking with all this but I can’t just stay at home and wait for my death, eh?
“Alex?”
“Jess! Where are you? You overslept, didn’t you?” I can hear his fingers tapping the keyboard. A loud munch beside him reached my ears.
“Who’s that with you?” I ask.
“Perry the platypus, who else? We are actually inside your office, waiting for you. Is that okay?” Sh*t. The key and the check.
“Yeah, of course. But I’m leaving the city for today.”
From the noise they just made, I can tell that Perry stole the phone. “Ngi, why? You okay? Who you running away from, huh?”
“No, no. I’m visiting a friend.”
“Aw, of course. Take the day off for yourself. We’ll tell boss.” He said that they needed to go. Boss called them for a meeting. I can feel that Alex is about to write another good topic, at least there’s something good that came out of all this.
Fifteen minutes down til I reach Mira’s house, I see a car following me. I turn randomly but it’s still there.
“What the f*ck?”
“No, no, no, no. Why is this happening?” I said to myself in frustration.
There is a big tree on the main road I’m supposed to take to reach Mira’s house. There’s no way for me to go around this big tree.
I look at the mirror, the car’s not following me anymore. Good, because this is a good spot for me to get murdered.
I took my phone out to search for an alternate route for me to take. I’m
My heart jumped out when I look at the mirror and saw the car again. “What the heck?” Now, I’m totally scared. How did it got here? Taking the same route as me for almost half an hour now? Vanishing then showing up again when I decided to take an alternate road?
“Pick up, pick up, pick up, pick up.” My other hand is controlling the steering wheel while the other is trying to call Jax. He’s still out of coverage.
The feeling of regret for deciding to run to Mira is getting into my head now. There are lot of things getting into my head and I’m sure that I’m about to lose my mind.
I stopped the car on a random opening and run for my life. How did she tracked me down this fast? I’m glad that I left the apartment not late. If only I didn’t overslept, I’ll be somewhere safe now.
I stumbled on a rock and fell down, my umbrella slips out of my hand and the wind took it away.
I can’t even see which way I should take to Mira’s house. The suspicious car who’s been following me, I can see its light. I crawl over and hid behind a tree.
When is all this gonna be over? Is this the guy Denise sent out to kill me? I look around.
“I don’t want to die in here.”
Not now, not here.
I hid until the car disappeared.
“I just want all of this to be over.” I whispered.
A realization hits. I will continue to be scared for myself if I don’t end this. She will always have something over me if I let her inside my mind, and she will always have me if I have something unresolved from her. That means, I have to end this. I have to go through more pain and more challenges so I can live the life I’ve always wanted.
After a five minuted walk, I finally reached her house.
“Jess?” Oh my god, you look so terrible. Come in, come in.” She pulled me inside and sat me in the sofa. She quickly grabbed a towel and wrapped it around me.
I’m just staring, shivering. I don’t know what just happened. Maybe the car is really following me but decided not to make it obvious anymore because I ran. Maybe someone will come inside to kill the both if us.
“Jess!” She snaps her fingers. “What happened to you?”
“D-denise—“ I don’t even know how to explain this to her, but I know that she will get it. “She knows.”
Her shoulders deflated. “What exactly does she know?”
“That I know, and that we’re talking.”
She let out a deep breath. “I supposed you ran here to hide?” I nod because that’s exactly what I’m doing here. If there’s someone who can protect me, it’s her.
“Well, this is not the place for you.”
“What?” My eyebrows furrowed. “You’re pushing me away? Come on! She’s probably going to kill me too just like what she did with Ocean!”
“Why can’t I stay here?” I crossed my hands across my chest, not bothered my the cold anymore.
“You can, but you can’t.” She sniffs. Is she serious with her selfish mode right now? “You need to run somewhere far.” She emphasizes.
I scoff. “You’re being really selfish right now.”
“Nu-uh, I’m not. Well, I’m sure she’s going to try and kill me, but—“ she stands up and pulled something from the back of the bookshelf. She handed me a box.
“A freaking gun?”
“Protect your self, okay? Before she kills me, you are her priority right now. Believe me when I say that we are not safe together. It will only make things worse.” She reached for my hand and I feel her genuine intention She’s really concerned with my safety and hers.
“How is us staying together, complicates everything?” I need a reason, so I can decide if running away is the best or the worst.
“We will just be giving her more reasons to validate her anger. Trust me, if she validates herself, there’s no way to change that.”
“So, I’m on my own now?” My tears fell. Feels like I’ve lost everything.
She grips my hand. “No, no, of course not. Just lay low for now and you come back here. We will continue planning, okay?”
I nod. What else can I do? She’s right. If I stay here, I’ll just get the both of us killed.
“Oh, come here.” She pulled me for a hug then she rubs my back.
“You keep that gun, and you get away from here. Do not come back so soon.” Her eyes flares with concern.
My heart jumped when I hear cars on the driveway. She put her hands around my shoulders then leads me to the window. “See? We’re safe. It’s the guards.”
She pointed the car with 2 men waiting outside. “They will drive you to the station tonight. Keep you safe until your bus arrives.”
“Do I really need to go?”
“Hey, it’s going to be okay. I got your back and I promise that. You just do what I say and we will be okay.”
She lets me sleep for 2 hours, then woke me up and said that it’s time to go. I climbed inside the car and saw that she packed me necessities enough for my run away.
“We’re ready to go, ma’am.” One of the guards said.
I roll down the window and wave my good bye to Mira, who’s looking at me from the window while waving her good bye.
She’s mouthing good luck to me, so I did the same to her.
The station is closed now, but luckily, there’s a bus about to go. They let me in because the bus has many spaces left for the last trip.
I expand my hand to the outside of the window to give the guard a note. “Give this to Mira.” Then the bus moves. I waved good bye to the guards and they mouthed me good luck.
“Excuse me?” I called for the conductor. “Where is the bus going?”
He handed me a ticket. “West, ma’am.”