Ghosts Don't Die Twice

02|| Intermittent Chaos

Chapter 02|| Intermittent Chaos

"Listen to me carefully JJ, Do not go home!"
Sophia's voice was panicky but authoritative, almost like she was giving instructions of life and death, she was.

JJ on the other end could not comprehend, but all he knew was that his wife was in trouble, in life threatening trouble.

"What's going on?" He asks again, already sprung to his feet yet resisting every urge to dash to his car and actually get back to his home to save his wife from whatever it was.

"My company isn't as it seems, it's all front for something bigger, I cracked it JJ, I cracked it"
A sense of accomplishment in her voice.
"I can't let them have my research."
Sophie whispers again.

JJ was even more confused than he was when he first received the call, what did she crack, what research. Sophia wasn't supposed to talk about work with him or anyone. She was in direct violation of her non-disclosure, but JJ only wanted to hear if she was safe, that would be the only explanation he'd understand.

"B-but, Are you ok?"
JJ must've asked this question over a thousand times in the last couple of weeks and for the first time he wanted the answer he'd heard again and again however rhetorical it might seem. 

"Not for long!"
She says instead, and his heart drops.
"I need you to come pick me up, park below just aisle 91, I'd meet you there, they can't know. They can't know JJ."
Her voice cuts off and JJ is left stunned, his skin tingling with anxiety.
"Sophia, Hello? Sophia..."

"Everything okay?"
Joe was towering just behind JJ, he'd been listening with keen interest. In his hand the publication JJ had forgotten in his office.

"I don't know, it's LP Co. I'd message you on the way."
JJ replies hurriedly, grabbing anything he deemed essential and then his car keys as he dashes out of the office, leaving Joe puzzled.

JJ steps on the accelerator and guns the engine, his Mitsubishi roaring as he slid out of the parking lot and out into the highway.

Just below Aisle 91, his head rang repeatedly. He raced through traffic, swerving through slow lanes as the other drivers cursed and yelled.
What if she isn't there?
What if ? What if?

JJ pulls up underneath the bridge on aisle 91, not particularly a place you'd call a safe rendezvous but he could understand why Sophia had picked here specifically. It was just quarter of a mile from LP Co. The noise from passing vehicles on the bridge, muffled any sounds underneath, and the shadows cast by the huge pillars made a good hiding spot. Perhaps he was overthinking it.

He pushes the gear into park, doing his best to hide his black Mitsubishi, the color blends in with the environment and without a good squint you were sure to miss it.

He scans his environment through the rear mirror, keeping the engine rolling. Some passerby's frolicking aimlessly, but none of them hovering around long enough to stir up JJ's suspicions.

He spots a silhouette a few feet from his car, briskly walking along one of the pillars, hands were propping something against their chest.
JJ gets out of his car,
"Sophie? What's that?"

"What?"
She stops dead, still not coming into the light.

JJ squints, and can make out sheets of papers,
"Those, the papers."

Sophia sighs but doesn't reply straightaway, she walks even faster past him, and dumps all of it into the back seat.
"My research."
She says and hugs JJ tightly.
"We've got to go. I'd explain everything on the way..."