Tulip's Destiny

XLI - Pick Up

Khalil was basically skipping as he made his way to the hospital. He was holding two large boxes of pizza. "She wouldn't even know I reheated these from last night!" Khalil thought to himself with a chuckle. He hopped in the elevator, whistling as he watched the numbers go up.

"Raine?" Khalil's voice echoed in the empty room. He looked around with confusion as he went  to the door to take a look at the room number. "I'm pretty sure this is the room Mr. Bruxen texted me."

"R-ra-'' Manuel panted, catching his breath. "Where's Raine?" Khalil turned to him. "Raine is... Raine is... she's missing." Manuel let out, raising her locket.

"What?!" Khalil shrieked.

"I got up this morning and she wasn't on her bed... and I looked for her everywhere. I looked for her everywhere and then I found this on the floor. And now I don't know what to do!" Manuel panicked, running his fingers through his hair.

"Okay. Let's not get too worked up. You need to calm down right now and tell me how this happened."

"You're right." Manuel nodded. "Mikhail had to go back to Holland so I watched her for the night. She was still there. Then when I woke up this morning... she isn't. I looked around and I only found this." He explained, holding out the locket.

"And when exactly did you wake up?" Khalil asked.

"About 20 minutes ago?" Manuel mumbled. "Take me to where you found the locket and then we'll go to the admin to report what had happened." Khalil swallowed, his stomach was already dropping to the thought of any worse case scenario.

They reported to the admin about a missing patient and they found out on the CCTV about everything... It was Gelo.

Manuel and Khalil decided to part ways, Khalil was going to go tell her family on the news and Manuel would go to the police station to update their files against Gelo.

Manuel was now sitting on a step just outside the station. When he saw Lara rushing towards him. "MANUEL!" Lara shouted, her voice was laced with anger and frustration. "What happened?! How could you let this happen to her?"

Manuel silently collapsed on her, wrapping his arms around her head. He could not stop tears falling down on her hair, he could try to blink them away but it would only make them stream down. After a couple moments of silence, Manuel finally released her from his hold.

"Manuel... what happened?" She asked softly.

"I lost her. If I hadn't been sleeping, if only I was there to protect her..." He mumbled, placing the locket on her palm.

"No, keep it. Give it to her when we see her again." Lara refused, placing it on his palm and closing it into a fist. "There's no time to point fingers, she could be anywhere. We need to move now."

"The police had tracked down the car he used and they're gonna try and follow it." Manuel said.

"How about Mikhail? Does he know? Where is he?" Lara asked, taking out her phone.

"Probably still on flight..."

"What?"

"That's why I was with her, he needed to go home and take an exam for his premed."

"So he doesn't know?"

"No. And he doesn't need to know." Manuel lowered her phone down. "We're gonna find Raine before he comes back. And if she was here... I know she wouldn't want to worry him too."