And I, you

CHAPTER 3: IOWA FLYOVER

"Drop the act, you know who I am," I say to him, my voice shaking with anger, the black in my head marred by red. 

"Do I?" he asks me and I hear the smirk in his voice, this bastard. 

"Why did you follow me here?" I ask him, not taking in any of his bullshit, been there, done that. 

"You know something that you shouldn't," he says, coming closer to me but I don't step back. 

"Like what? The gun that was in your hands or the blood on them?" I say and he steps even closer, his face inches away from mine. 

"Don't act smart, it's not going to get you anywhere, Luna," he says, laying strong emphasis on my name and I gasp. 

"Look, if you're worried I am going to rat your sick ass out to the police, don't. I could have done that two years ago when I had the chance, but I didn't. Ratting you out won't bring my son back, now get the fuck out of my way." I say and shove him, he falters slightly but regains his balance. 

"Careful Luna, or do you wish to lose this hand the way you lost your eyes?" he says and drops my hand. 

I hear the office door shut with a slam which makes me flinch. I try to calm myself down by deep breathing, but it's not as easy as it would seem. Slowly, as several moments pass by, I get back to the present and get myself off the floor. I search for my phone and find it lying near my purse. I call Miles but it goes straight to voicemail. 

It's okay, everything is going to be okay. 

I chant this in my head repeatedly like a mantra, hoping it gets truer by the second. I lock my office door so that no one can enter and collapse onto the bean bag in my office.

What the fuck just happened?

                                                                                   ***

"So, you screamed at him?" Miles asks me, deadpanned. 

"Yes, not well you know scream, but more like verbal abuse," I say as if that's any better.

"Why, what-I am just unable to comprehend this alright? What the fuck happened?" he asks me with his eyes full of disbelief. 

"Trust me, I've been asking myself that for the past two hours, when I get to know, I'll tell you," I say to Miles with a groan. He pats me on my arm reassuringly and I muster a very weak smile for him. It's lunchtime at our office and so far, I have managed not to puke and go back home, with very little work done and I see this in a positive light, anything is better than running away. My appetite is lost as soon as we start talking about Ezra, not that the cafeteria food was very tasty, to begin with. The noise of the crowd around us blends away until it's just me and my very stupid problems. 

"You're not quitting now though, right? Because listen to me Luna, it's been TWO years of despair and gloominess and finally, oh god finally, you've let yourself out of your cage and started living the life you did and I am not going to let you go back because of whats-his-name-"

"I'm done being that person, Miles," I cut him off and say. 

"What person?"

"The 'quitter', I'm over it," I say with a sigh.

"Over what? Quitting?"

"This whole Ezra thing, it'll pass away"

Hopefully, I add to myself as a side note. 

"Okay, well if you say so. I'm going back to work now, so call me if you need me and take care, okay?"

"Yes, of course," I say and give him a smile, a real one this time. 

                                                                                    ***

I get back to my office at around 2:30 PM and start googling Ezra, hoping to get some information about the guy who very randomly threatened me in my office. My screen pings me a notification immediately with results which are oh wow, would you look at that, a lot. Too many in fact and all about the same person. The disturbing fact isn't that they're all about the same person, but that the person they're about isn't even a hotshot or some mini-celebrity. I check the coordinates and they're around our city, he must be living close by then. But something doesn't feel right, a very cold feeling takes over me every time I read more of the information on the websites. This is definitely not your average person, these news articles and compliments feel forced, planned somehow.

But who is he pretending to be?

Maybe it's all just in my head but my police officer's urge( well, forensics department I am aware, so technically not a police police officer or a detective but hey!) takes over me. I need to find more information on this man.

Why did he come up to me, two years later, threatening me to not open my mouth about something which happened two years ago? When he knows, that if I wanted to do that, I would have already?

Then why come to my office and pretend to get a job?

Why come now in fact, after all this time?

Another website distracts me from my chain of thoughts and I almost drop my laptop. The title is about a car crash, a car crash two years ago, on the same very night, but it's not mine. I've never come across this before. Curiosity takes over me and I open the link. 

Two cars collide on the highway, and a 37-year-old dies.

The collision occurred after a Prius travelling on the wrong side of the road hit an Audi.

A 37-year-old woman was killed on the Iowa flyover on Saturday night after two cars collided head-on. One person was seriously injured and was admitted to the Adair County Health System, Iowa. The accused driver managed to flee the spot after abandoning his vehicle.

The collision occurred after a Prius travelling on the wrong side of the road hit an Audi. 

The woman was left lifeless and severely injured on the road. Her corpse remains unidentified to date. 

Iowa flyover on a Saturday night?

That was definitely around the same timelines as my accident, possibly near mine too, but there was no one around.

Unless the voices I thought I imagined were real after all. But what was Ezra doing there with a gun and blood in his hands-

Oh no.

"You know something that you shouldn't," he had said to me.