Fated Retribution

21 [Target Alpha]

16th September, Tuesday, 8:18 am, 2028

I adjusted the black baseball hat which was sitting on top of my head as I ducked my face down to merge into the early morning Ash Town crowd, going about their business. Pulling on the sleeves of my leather jacket, I walked towards a phone booth at the edge of the street. Looking around, I made sure no one was paying attention to my attendance in the booth.

I stepped into the small space and picked up the receiver of the red telephone placed on top of the stand in the booth. I dialled in the number and waited for the ringing on the other side to turn into a voice.

Her voice.

"Hello?" I closed my eyes as a shaky breath pleaded to escape my mouth but I held it in as Amelia's voice rang out through the receiver in question once again. I could almost hear her frown in confusion as I heard the beep of the disconnected call instead of her soft tone.

Blank calls. That's what our interactions had been reduced to instead of endless talks, soft kisses and warm snuggles. I held on to the handle of the door as I swallowed the lump in my throat, in the hope to be reunited with her as soon as possible.

It had been 2 whole days since we had talked now, and I felt like a dead goddamn tree, hollow and lifeless, waiting to be cut down from the roots or burnt down to ash. I twisted the handle of the booth and let myself out of it, making my way back to Sharon's house.

I pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose and then shoved my hands into the pockets of my cargos. The voices around me turned into a static buzzing in my ears as my head kept flashing memories of the past and possibilities of the future in my mind. My eyes darted around the horde of people, paranoia having become my second nature in the past few days.

God, the past few days had been a fucking wreck.

There were several moments in the morning I had feared a slip-up or maybe a follow up question to a detail I obviously missed in my story-telling but thankfully, all of my friends seemed to buy the story and go on with it, which in all honesty was the truth.

Just not the whole of it.

I entered the house through the garage, making my way down into the basement where my step-sister had set up a makeshift accommodation for me to live in temporarily.

Two mattresses lay on either side of a table in the middle of the garage, my stuff on one and the other lay empty for me to sleep, which I hadn't done since the day of the attack. I threw my glasses and hat off as I dug out a pack of cigarettes from the huge pile of belongings, lighting it up and inhaling the smoke.

"Yes sir, no, I do know where she is." I heard Ivory's voice getting louder as it was accompanied by a pair of footsteps, making me throw the cigarette on the floor and squash it under my foot as I dusted some ash off my hand.

Ivory came into view as she ascended down the stairs, in a rugged state, sandy-hair a mess and dark bags under her bright hazel eyes. "You gave us time till the 18th, there's still two days left, I assure you she will be in your custody till then." There was a pause, a muffled grumble coming from the other side of the phone, "Yes, sir thank you. Good day to you too."

Ivory took a breath as I placed a hand on her shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze. "What's up?" I asked.

"Richard is back from LA early and he's been eating my head off to hand you over today itself." She said in exasperation.

"Don't you still have, like, 48 hours?" I said, glancing at the digital clock on the wall. Aurelia and Ivory had told me about the little lie Ivory had spontaneously come up with and we had to prove who the real culprit was at that time.