Lost and Found - HIATUS

21

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Serkan was deeply concentrated into his work when he smelled something was burning. But what could it be? A short circuit in the power box? He didn't have time to think of more options when the whole building shook with an explosion. He didn't know where it came from or what caused it, but he realized the main entrance was blocked by a piece of concrete from a collapsed wall. And there was the burnt smell and an orange flick of light that was probably fire coming from somewhere that looked like the room of the copy machines. He reached to his phone and called the firefighters, then sent Engin a message. It was getting hard to breathe inside with all the smoke, but he didn't seem to find a way out. He ran to the balcony and could finally inhale pure air. He'd have to either stay there, hoping the fire wouldn't catch him or jump from the balcony. It wasn't too high, he decided to try his luck. When he was outside, he went to the front to take a look. Hell, that was a little bit of damage. And he didn't even see inside. As the workaholic that he was, he only prayed the fire didn't get to the files room or the damage would be stratospherical for the company.

Eda decided to ignore that message from the lunatic woman, for her own sanity, and decided to go to sleep. Before she could fully lay under her sheets, she receives a message from Engin. She murmurs "ne" repeatedly as she instantly jumps from her bed and gets the first piece of clothes in her way to wear. Her mind was a mess, she couldn't finish a thought right, desperate that the worst had happened but making herself rely on positive and calmer thoughts to not go crazy before getting there. Although she couldn't think straight, one thing was clear to her: she wouldn't let her grandmother stay terrifying her life like that. It was really time to stop ignoring and start facing it. And the first step would be talk to Serkan. Again. But first, she needed to see if he was okay.

Serkan was standing in front of the building of ArtLife talking to a cop, who was writing something down on his notepad. There were firefighters going in and out of the building, and she heard someone saying the fire was contained. As she gets closer to Serkan, she hears the cop saying there wasn't any apparent cause for this fire and that they'd need to run an inner inspection and investigate better to find out what caused this blast. He perceives her on the corner of his sight when the cop dismisses him and walks out, he simply observes her. He sees her eyes were terrified, as she comes closer and caresses his grimy face. "Are you okay?", she asks as she tries to clean his face and his white social shirt, that was now more of a grey. "Evet, don't worry. There's not one scratch", he says and gives her a shy smile. "Good, so you still remember me, kind of," she jokes, but her laugh is dry. She's serious again, and they're just staring at each other. She lowers her tone, when she says: "Serkan, it was my grandmother." He frowns. He murmurs a "ne?", in disbelief of what he's heard. Why was that woman so invested in trying to kill him? He refused to believe that, there had to be another cause for this and the police would find out. "I told you to let this go," she says as she shows him the message she received a few minutes ago. "Eda...", he motions to talk but she interrupts him again. "Serkan, we need to talk. Seriously", she grabs his hand and pulls him out of the midst of the chaos, pushing one or two cops and a bunch of firemen out of her way. Engin appears on their side and looks at them with an interrogation face, but before he could finish exclaiming "where are you going?" Eda interrupts him telling him to take care of everything cause Serkan would come with her. She doesn't leave room for any more questions as she pushes Serkan to where her red truck was parked. "Hayir," he says, grabbing her arm, "We'll go on my car." He directs her to his BMW, like the old days. As he glances at her on the passenger seat, a bunch of quick flicks mixed with old memories flood his mind. All of them with her on the passenger seat of his car. But once again, they had no context. Just more images to mess up his brain. He brushes it all off and starts the car.

They get inside his apartment and Eda hears him sigh. She throws her bag on the couch and abruptly turns to face him. "Serkan," he walks to his kitchen, her voice in the background, "do you believe me now?" He pours himself a glass of bourbon, there was no way he'd stay completely sober for this argument that was about to start. "Believe what, Eda? A silly text?" he says, sarcastic. "Serkan, act your age for once! You know you're smarter than this!", she raises her tone, walking until she's on the other side of the kitchen counter, staring at him. Why is he so chill? Didn't he almost get blown in a goddamn explosion? "Eda, first of all there is absolutely no way that madwoman of your grandmother would know what I'm doing. And second, I'm not even close to what I want to find, why would she be so threatened? Doesn't she wanna know what really happened in her son's accident?", he throws all the questions at once, then drinks all the alcohol of his glass in one sip. "Bak, I don't know. But she is behind all of this, please stop. She's trying to take you from me, like she's done with my parents. And now she has even more reasons to do so, you digging out our past!", she whines and turns her back to him. She wouldn't cry, but the tears were already giving signs in the corner of her eyes. He walks out of the kitchen and stops by her side, then sits down on one of the stools. He grabs her arm, making her turn to face him, and he sees a shy tear rolling down her cheek. "I'll be okay, she can't take me down easily, you know that," he smiles as he wipes the tear off her cheek, caressing her face a little more than he wished he did. "Serkan, if you remembered what I know, you would understand. She made Efe plot an accident on one of our projects, to pin the blame on you!", she exclaims and hits her palm on the counter. Then she starts walking around the room, back and forth. Something about what she just said triggered Serkan. He frowned, trying to push something on his memory. And that Efe guy, who was that, again? A flash popped on his mind, a dark-haired and bearded man that appeared on one of the flashes from the day he came back to work. Was that him? He recalls he felt the hostilization on his look. "Wait, tell me about this..." Serkan gets up, tripping a little thanks to the alcohol on his system that was starting to be effective. With the bottle of bourbon on his hand, he sits on the couch, and Eda sits on the armchair beside. "Tamam," she sighes, recalling that fatidical day.