Anonymous Part 1

Chapter 1- Frenemies

With the shields drawn, the room went back to its dim white light which sufficiently lightened the room. Kent rested his head back on his seat and closed his eyes. 

A strange dark hollowness engulfed Kent’s thoughts and unknowingly his mind drifted to the accident again. He remembered he was returning from the site outside the city and had decided to drive into the town alone. He remembered the exact moment when he got careless cause of a phone call and a huge cargo loaded truck drove right in front of his car and how he froze watching it coming towards his direction. He couldn’t push the brakes. His mind had completely stopped responding to him. He just waited and the truck was blaring its horn at him and just after a matter of seconds they both crashed.

Reminiscing the moments when his car flipped and all his up and down co-orodinates were mixed. He didn’t know what was happening until finally his car settled upside down a meter away from that truck.  In the present minutes Kent was involuntarily clutching the cushion of his seat when the memory was coming to him slowly.

Again going 24 hours back from now, he remembered breathing heavily when his car finally settled. His body was bent in an awkward angle and he felt a warm liquid on his face. He had slowly unbuckled his belt and tried to open his car door. But it was jammed. His eyes searched around for anyone. His heart was hammering with panic rising in it. He tried breaking the window pane of his side with his elbow. After around 10 blows , when he was about to give up, the glass shattered. He then crawled out of the window. When finally he was successful at coming out of his car, he laid flat on the road in bright afternoon. His eyes were going heavy as his lungs were struggling to get a gasp of fresh air. His mind wasn’t helping him much. A part of it knew that he should run away from his car, in case it blasts. But he couldn’t move his body. It seemed completely paralyzed. He was afraid if he has actually broken something . But he couldn’t even move to check that. He doesn’t remember much after that. He knew someone calling out for him and then calling 911 before Kent fell into an abyss.

Kent’s eyes flashed open when there was a ring in his intercom. He felt a bit disoriented. He looked around and understood his mind had returned to the present seconds. Breathing heavily, Kent loosened his grip on the cushion. He felt a trail of sweat running from his forehead. His hand automatically went to the injury on his forehead and the dressing over it as he remembered blood running down from there yesterday.

Again the intercom buzzed, waking him a bit more. He cleared his throat before replying, “ Yes Candice?”

“ Sir, Ms. Stacey is here.” Kent looked at his watch. It was time for that meeting. Had he zoned out for a full 20 minutes? He shouldn’t be doing this. This is why he wanted to come to the office in the first place, right? To block his mind in all these papers so that it won’t go back there.He pressed another button on the side of his desk and the door unlocked.

Stacy entered and immediately confirmed what she has been doubting. Her boss was not doing so good. He was only playing the I-am-fine card on everyone. But reality was totally opposite. She saw him taking a gulp of water as she waited patiently.

“ Sir, everyone is waiting for you in the Board Room.” She noticed his slightly pale face and then her eyes went to the dressing that showed some fresh blood on it. Before she could stop herself , the words came out of her mouth.

“ Sir, you really should’ve taken some rest today rather than come here. You are still recovering from your injuries.”

And as the habit goes, Kent ignored her and stood up and walked past her keeping his bussiness face on. “ Let’s go Ms. Waltz.” 

Kent had been sitting on his chair for the past 10 minutes. His eyes scooped around the room looking at every face. They were all clueless about the reason behind the meeting. Every now and then one of them would look at Kent fearing for him to blast out any second. Kent Stevens had been kept to wait for someone.