Walls

12

Abbie watched the man she was supposedly engaged to. He looked like he had no clue about that either. His gaze was glued to the TV screen, absorbing the news with bulging eyes. His chest rose and fell rapidly.

At least, the fact that she was engaged to him explained how she got in a car with him. But why was a man with a gun trying to kill them? She still had no idea.

While Elias was still watching the news, Abbie jumped into action. She turned to the laptop, bringing up a new tab in the search engine and typing her name into the bar. For a restless second, a colorful circle spun around as the page refreshed, and then it spewed out a long list of search results.

Below a bunch of links to her social media accounts was a website for Acute Inc. She clicked on the link, biting on her lips as she waited for the website to load. After an agonizing long second of waiting, a fancy animation of a brain popped up on the screen.

Over her shoulder, she sensed the warmth of Elias' body looming closer to hers. With a splash of blue, a futuristic website sprang into the screen with the words ' Acute Inc' sitting on the forefront.

Sure enough, the 'About' page explained that it was a multi-million dollar research corporation owned by the 'young and eccentric Elias Castaldo'. Millions of dollars were apparently funneled into research that implanted tiny 'brain-chips' into the human brain that can enhance human performance in all aspects of life.

Abbie turned to Elias, "You own this?"

Elias looked just as shell-shocked as Abbie was, "No - I mean, apparently yes. But I don't remember. Acute was my father's business, and it was a pharmaceutical company for as long as I can remember."

"Don't tell me all this happened within five years."

Elias gave her a blank look, "Well, to be honest, Abbie, I am not entirely sure about that either."

Abbie swallowed. Elias was hovering a lot closer to her - she could see the ring of amber around his pupils, the thick long lashes framing his eyes, the bushy strands of his eyebrows fanning out at the inner corner, and the tiny dot of a birthmark above his right eyebrow.

A tiny cut ran across the top of his forehead closer to his hairline, which Abbie guessed was way old to be from the wreck that morning. He blinked, and Abbie's heart skipped a beat. His eyes dropped to her lips, and she was sure that her heart skipped a lot more beats because she could not feel it beat at all.

This man could not have ended up being her fiance. She was sure that the whole thing was staged. Maybe it was all a joke. Maybe she was dreaming. Maybe she was dead.

Abbie sucked her bottom lip in between her teeth, and Elias' eyes snapped back to hers. The tiny motion set her heart in motion - beating faster than ever. She had to get out of it before she passed out.

"Erm... so what do you think we should do?" Abbie cleared her throat.

Elias stretched back to his full height, raising a finger to scratch a spot behind his ear. "I don't know, maybe we should drive to the police and mention the crazy person trying to kill us?"

Abbie gulped again. She had forgotten about the gunman for a second

"Maybe we should call Suresh and get the full story? Perhaps he could explain why someone would want us dead," Abbie turned back to her laptop.

The frown between Elias' eyebrows told her that he did not remember Suresh. She explained to him about the phone call, leaving out the part about the Jonah guy being her ex-boyfriend - it felt odd mentioning it to her supposed fiance.