The line connected and I heard Adams' breathing on the other end.
"Miss Brooks, need I remind you, again, that I'm not in charge of your check-ins. It's this man named Jovan Hues. I'm almost certain you have met him. Goodbye." I gripped the phone tightly as if it would block him from hanging up on the call.
"No, wait, wait, wait!" I got up from the bed and tip-toed across the room, closing the bedroom door so my voice wouldn't be audible to Nix, Kaleb or Dhurv.
He sighed, "I'm not raising your monthly paychecks. Goodbye." Gosh! He was so infuriating! Not everyone was about pay checks and check-ins!
"Stop." I whispered. "I called you because..." I hesitated.
"Because what? No Amir, we're going to need a larger team than that." He must be at a meeting right now. Why would he answer the phone though? Generally all the agents, especially the head agent were supposed to keep distractions away.
"Sir, is the phone on speaker mode?" I asked.
He went silent.
A few seconds later he spoke, "No... why?"
"Okay look, I could be paranoid but I just have a bad feeling."
Again he went silent. Then I heard him excusing himself and a chair scratching against the floor. It sounded like he was leaving the briefing room.
I waited for a few minutes. Maybe he had left?
"Agent Adams?" No answer. "H-hello?"
"I'm back. What type of bad feeling?"
I took a deep breath in, trying not to completely freak out. " Okay, so um, Nix mentioned something the other day that's been on the back of my mind. Are there other reptilians out there who could be looking for us?"
That actually wasn't what I wanted to ask him but I did have the gift of verbal diarrhea.
Again he went silent for a few seconds. "What? This is what you called me for? I was in the middle of a meeting and you broke me away from it to ask your silly questions." I was going to cry. Why did he have to treat me like an idiot? He's the one who put us on a plane to Florida with a mad woman as out caretaker. I had every right to ask 'silly' questions and receive answers.
"I saw a woman watching me through my bedroom window. She stood in the cemetery and watched me with a pair of binoculars." My voice began growing irritated. "Just ten minutes ago, I'm positive I saw her right outside the kitchen window. She may not be a reptilian but then explain to me who she is. It's not normal to have people peeping into your house, especially with binoculars!" My voice had risen as I had been talking. Gosh. I couldn't do this anymore, I was constantly filled with anxiety, every single minute of the day! I felt confined. First my home was taken away from me, my friends and now even my fake friends I couldn't meet. I had to spend everyday stuck at home with the old hag who also couldn't bother to spare me. It was all too much.
"Describe this woman."
I kept my tone down and tried picturing the woman's description, "I didn't see her face really but she had curly, light brown hair. Actually it could've been a guy too now that I think about it. They were wearing baggy jeans and a light hoodie and a cap. Her-him, whatever, their faces were hidden." He didn't say anything but I could hear him sigh on the other end.
"And how tall do you think they were? And what about their build."
"Like I said, they were wearing baggy clothes so it was hard to tell and I only saw them for a few seconds. As for the height, probably around average." Why was he so interested in the description? Who cares? But then it clicked. "Is there someone you know? Someone who might be following Nix and I?"
"Yes-" My heart dropped. "I'm coming Amir, yes, yes just give me a second. And to answer your question Ms Brooks, I don't know." I didn't know whether to let go of my breath or continue panicking. "I don't see why out of a population of around four hundred thousand people, anyone would go after you two, especially since you don't even appear wealthy-no one would be following you to steal money from you."
"So then what are you suggesting?"
"I'm going to handle it, you don't need to know."
I was like an active volcano and now I was going to erupt, expelling the fiery lava out of me. "Are you kidding me! Why do you never let me know what's going on?! It's my life in danger! W-what am I supposed to do? Just sit here and hope and pray that no one kills me and Nix? You're just... pathetic." The hot and angry tears rolled down. "I h-hate you. If it wasn't for you, I never- absolutely never would've been in this situation." I pressed the red button on the phone and chucked it across the room. The phone shattered and along with it, so did I.
***
I was back in the kitchen, rummaging through the open fridge door and grabbed a jug of water which I poured in one the mason jars.
"Oh hey, you're back Alley." Regardless of living in an absolute nightmare, I almost laughed at the nickname. As much as I hated it, it had also become something I found comfort in.
I turned around and saw Kaleb and Nix playing Speed. Both kept flipping cards over in their hands and slamming it on the table. Kaleb had pushed back the dining table chair which had collapsed on the floor and leaned over the table, appearing heavily invested in the game while Nix was trying to take slow breaths and work her way through.
I waved at Dhruv and sat next to him.
"I'm going to win again." Kaleb announced, no doubt trying to distract her and it worked.
"Stop! Stop! N-no you're not!"
"I'm sorry Nicky but Kaleb is a champion at this." Dhruv defended his friend. I snorted.
"No!" Nix cried and furiously threw the several cards she had left in her hands on the table and bunched her hair up in fists. As soon as she was going to tug it off, Dhruv pulled her hands away from her scalp and away from her head.
"Trust me, it's not worth pulling your own hair over him, he's just too good."
"Mhm." I muttered softly and went back to drinking my cold water.
I looked up and met Kaleb's offended gaze. He had his arms crossed over and he was glaring at me with intensity.
"What?" I asked and felt my lips quiver a bit, attempting to hide a smile.
"You think that you're better than me?" Now when did I say that. But to be frank, I probably was.
"Mhm." Was all I said again. "Technically I never said that."
"Your tone did suggest that though." Dhruv intervened. "Maybe she is better than you? Only one way to know." He rubbed his hands together in excitement.
Kaleb scrutinized me and began shuffling the cards. He did the riffle and ended it with a bridge. For some reason, I was never able to accomplish that.
When he was thoroughly finished with the cards, he didn't even glance up but gestured to me to come towards the table.
I took a swig of my water and set the jar down on the counter and walked towards him with a smirk on my face.
Kaleb laid the cards down. 2 cards in the middle, 2 on the top and bottom of the middle pair, and two each side of them. Half a stack was in my hand and the other in his. We both picked up five cards each and would replenish them each time we discarded one onto the arrangement.
"Ready to join Nix and Dhruv on the loser board?" He was just trying to distract me like he did with Nix but this game was a piece of cake for me. I had spent hours and hours playing this with everyone and the truth was. I was the best.
Dhruv started counting down. We both pushed our chairs away from behind us and leaned towards the table. He stared down at me from across the table and I fixed him with my fiecest look.
Oh you're going down Kaleb Lancaster.
"Go!" Shouted Dhruv.
We both flipped the middle cards from the arrangement on the table and started slamming our cards down on the table. Nix and Kaleb's game must've seemed intense to others. You add two pros together and it's like a game of tug of war. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth both of us went. From placing our cards down to refilling the pile in our hands.
"Good Ghandi, you both need to calm down before someone ends up karate chopping that table." Dhruv whimpered.
I noticed that Kaleb had one card left in his hand and I had one left too. Both of us made eye contact, our final cards didn't match the ones on the table, but there was a last pair of cards left to flip. Whoever did it first would win.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead. Everything seemed to be in slow motion. My heart was beating slowly. Thud. Thud. Thud.
We both reached for the last pair of cards, each grabbing one and we both flipped them. There was an Ace and I had a King and I threw the King on top of it and Kaleb threw his card down as well on the other card.
"IT'S A TIE! I REPEAT IT'S A TIE!" Darcy screamed. If it wasn't for me being completely exhausted, I would've been like, 'Darcy?! When did you get here?!' But I just fell on the chair and tried catching my breath. Back at Secretum, the only person who was better at Speed than me, who was also the one who had taught me, was Adams. But I hadn't played with him since Alexandra's death. A lot of things died that day.
"SHE TIED WITH HIM? SHE ACTUALLY TIED!" Sana jumped on her feet.
Kaleb glowered at them. He was also sitting on the chair he had shoved away earlier, drinking a can of soda. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand in annoyance. "It's no big deal, next time I'll win. I always win, how could I not?" He reassured himself.
Out of nowhere, I burst out into laughter, even wheezing a bit. I clapped my hands together like I would when something hilarious would happen or a funny joke I would hear and continued giggling uncontrollably.
Nix, Kaleb, Dhurv, Sana and Darcy- all of them went silent and watched me go through an attack of laughter.
"I-I c-can't." I tried taking slow breaths, slowly inhaling and exhaling but a few giggles came out of me which turned into a whole laughing fit again.
I laughed so hard that I started shaking and was going to break out into sobs but I just had to hold it together- I couldn't lose it in front of them, they'd probably end up calling the authorities out of fear.
"Ah, oof, I'm alright now!" I chuckled a little but most of my fit had come to an end.
I spotted Dhruv looking a bit dazed, "You um okay there Ally? Planning on auditioning to be the next Wicked Witch of the West?" I smiled as I stared at a random kitchen cabinet.
"I don't know? Should I?" I asked him. He nodded his head.
"First that phenomenal drama performance at school-" I giggled again but covered my mouth with my hand to stop myself, "-and now this, whatever it was." He swirled his hand around at me. "I can already picture you with an Oscar in your hand." Everyone else chuckled, even Kaleb had seemed to have recovered.
Kaleb got up and walked towards me then shook my hand.
"Good game Ally. I have never felt this stressed out in my life before." I beamed.
"Well don't worry, we'll have a rematch soon, then we'll see who succeeds." He shrugged and pointed two fingers at his eyes then me, "I'll be watching you." And sat back down.
Though them coming over had me almost forgotten about my troubles, his last sentence reminded me of the woman from earlier. I'll be watching you. No need to bother Lancaster, someone already is.
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25/10/2021