When Eli woke up, his pet owl was nudging his head, hooting softly. He groggily raised his head, a wave of pain immediately washing over him. He looked up at the time, realizing it was almost time for the building to lockdown. Hurriedly, he packed up his laptop and left the office.
The hallways were empty as Eli walked out, even the receptionists were no longer at the desk. He gave the door a light push and he felt his heartrate increase when the door didn't move a single inch. He gave it a firmer shove.
Still no movement.
He tried to call someone, or search for anyone that was still nearby the building. He scanned the area outside, but there was nobody in sight. He sank to the ground, holding his head. This day had definitely not gone well for him. Feeling tired, he decided he may as well sort out the files in his office and perhaps some other files for his colleagues for the night. Hopefully Aesop would allow him a break from work the next morning.
The silence of the halls was eerie. He'd never experienced this silence for a long time ever since he ran out into the back of the school, having had enough of the bullying. That had been where his owl found him, and by his side was where it stayed up until this day. He sat down at his desk once again and pulled out the photos of the crime scene from the armoury.
||*Twenty minutes later...*||
Eli was taking the photos up to the computer room to get closer scans. Just as he passed by the armoury floor, he heard faint footsteps. Quickly, he put the documents in his coat pocket and pressed his back flat against the wall. He prayed that they wouldn't pass through this area. He strained his ears, hoping to be able to get some valuable information.
"Aight I hope there isn't anyone hiding in that corner again."
"I know right...Pain in the ass. We could've lost our life."
"Did boss give you the password for the door?"
Eli shifted a little closer to the side, silently pulling out his phone and hitting record.
"Yea, he gave us the password. He said the executives were planting the two twins and their loyal dogs inside during a meeting for safety precautions."
"Bah, of course they would."
Executives...Meeting...
Eli continued listening in. While they were outside, he heard more footsteps, people joining in. Knowing that staying here was definitely a bad idea, he hid his phone in a corner and left the floor. He trusted the guards and his sub-ordinates to handle this situation. The executive carefully made his way down to the surveillance camera office, in hopes that they hadn't been disabled yet.
The door looked undisturbed, but something didn't feel right about it. He reached up to the switch of his goggles which he always had. Squinting through the lens, he saw the fingerprints and some other scratch marks that were a slight shade lighter than the lock. Perhaps they had attempted to cut it straight off. He sighed and turned it off.
I guess these goggles do more than hide my identity for me...
He reached in his pocket and gripped the handle of his gun. Taking a deep breath, he unlocked the door with swift movements and barged in. He was more than surprised when he saw one of the secretaries, Mr Freddy Riley, sitting in a corner, blindfolded, gagged and bound by the wrists and ankles. There was a loud crash above them as whoever had decided to make an escape crashed around in the vents overhead. Eli made to follow after them, but the vent systems were complicated in the building. One wrong turn and he would be stuck inside for hours, and he wasn't about to risk that.
Freddy let out a small whimper. Eli hurriedly put his gun down and started working on the knots at the man's wrists. As soon as he was freed he started blabbering and tearing at his hair. It took a while for Eli to successfully calm and quiet him down before more people were to show up.
"I suggest we go to my office to talk, Mr Riley."
"Wh-what?! What I-if we m-m-meet them on the w-way?!"
"Trust me, Mr Riley. We'd have a better chance at survival meeting them on the way than get cornered here."
The two carefully made their way out of the room and, with Freddy in a better state of mind now, dashed to Eli's office. Once they were safely inside, he bolted the door shut and heaved a sigh of relief. As Freddy sat in one of his chairs, Eli made the two of them some coffee before sitting down before the secretary.
"So...Care to tell me what exactly happened?"
Freddy took a sip of the coffee, visibly grimacing a little as the bitter taste hit his taste buds.
"Well, I had heard of the recent case in the armoury, and while you executives rushed around trying to catch the culprit on the spot, we secretaries decided we wanted to help."
He paused to huff and take another sip of coffee before looking at Eli with the most unpleasant look.
"But since you all thought that you could handle this our idea was shoved aside and replaced with more paperwork that you deemed were more suitable for us to handle."
"Our most sincere apologies-"
"Ah ah ah. I didn't come here to listen to you blabber."
Eli sighed patiently as he leaned back in his chair. At least the man wasn't hurt in the process.
"Anyway, before I was rudely interrupted. I had volunteered to stay back at the office after everyone had left. Of course, I hadn't expected anyone else to be in this building with me except for the twins and their sub-ordinates.
I waited until about two hours later, around the same time the previous event had happened, then I went down to the cameras. I didn't see anyone there, so I thought they'd become bold enough to infiltrate the building without the need to disable the cameras. However, I had been too careless as to have left the door unlocked when I entered.
Two brutes came in, one held me to the ground while the other took away my keys to the door. He then gagged and blindfolded me to keep me from screaming and took this huge knot of ropes from his pocket and bound me there. Then he disabled the cameras while his other companions were probably making their way in. The other stood by the door and when he was done they both left and, following his orders, locked me in with my own keys!"
The man stopped to catch his breath, glasses slightly crooked having been shaking his fists in rage the whole time. Eli's hand stopped waltzing over his paper as he noted down everything. He let his wrist rest a little as he read through everything, making sure he hadn't left out a single bit of information. Freddy got up and excused himself, saying he was tired and wanted to go home.
"I can escort you out. I don't have anything t-"
"I can walk myself out just fine," he snapped at the executive.
Huffing again, he strutted out and down the hallway he went. Despite being concerned, Eli made no move to follow after him just hoping he would make it out just fine. He checked the time once again. Almost four hours had passed since he discovered he was locked in. There was still another four hours to go before even the earliest co-worker set foot in the building. The reports still had to be done, so he set on those first. It's pointless trying to set up a conclusion with just Freddy's experience.
The hours drifted by slowly as Eli tried to focus on his reports. Being the executive in charge of researches wasn't easy when cases often happened and reports were constantly pending. It didn't help that halfway through he remembered he'd left his phone in that corner. He prayed that it was still recording and that the battery could hang in there for a few more hours.
Time never seemed to pass by this slow.
