Only chaos remains

Chapter 14

Matt and I stared at each other, his face was only a few centimeters from mine. I could tell, from the look in his eyes, how worried he was. His green eyes were wide and glimmered because of the few tears that started to form. But there was something else, hope. He was waiting for me to answer, to tell him that I would help him, but I was so confused.

I had hoped for two years to hear this! And now that it was finally happening, I couldn't answer. My brain wasn't able to think straight or understand what was going on. Seconds passed and I remained still, almost without breathing. Matt slowly straightened up, shaking his head. His hands let go off my shoulders and the young man turned back with a deep sigh. I watched him walk to his place but didn't try to stop him.

The wind blew, making my dress twirl a bit, shaking me from my slumber. My eyes widened and a single name was now filling every corner of my brain: Jake. Suddenly I felt like my mind was finally aware of what Matt told me. My legs moved by themselves and I started walking like an automaton. A few seconds later, I stood in front of the door leading to the basement.

I put my hand on the knob and pushed open the door. It was a dark room without windows, only lit with several monitors standing across the room. I walked slowly avoiding stepping on wires that laid down on the floor, and I approached the desk where Matt was sitting.

The young man had his head in his hands, eyes closed and seemed defeated. He didn't hear me coming so I softly cleared my throat to show him my presence. He jumped, opened his eyes and turned his head toward me. "MC?" Matt looked at me, surprised I'd changed my mind.

A deep sigh escaped my mouth. So many questions were running through my brain, the flow of my thoughts became so overwhelming that I started to speak without taking my breath, "How do you know Jake? How do you know me? Why would you help him? I can't even know this isn't a trap! Why haven't you told me you wanted my help earlier? Why...?"

"MC, MC!" The man was rubbing his eyes with an exhausting look on his face, "Calm down please." He pointed a chair at me, "Please, sit down. Do you want something to drink?" without letting me answer Matt was already handing me a can of energy drink. He opened his and sat back on his chair while taking a few sip of the drink.

I slowly took the chair Matt showed me and approached it to the desk. I sat and put the can of energy drink on the desk without opening it. "Matt... I need to know, I'm totally lost now," I muttered.

"I know," he opened his eyes again, looking right at me. "Jake and I have known each other since we're kids. We were neighbors back then and went to the same school, studied the same thing. At some point, he became distant with me. He told me it was because of his job, that he has a lot of things to do." Matt stopped speaking, I could see his eyes started to be filled by tears. With a heavy breath he continued,"One day in the middle of the night he came to my home. He was totally panicking and crying. I was surprised because you know... he's a very calm and quiet man. Anyway... He told me his friend and coworker, Pete, had been killed because they discovered something about the company they worked for. Apparently he had every evidence against his company and those involved with it on a hidden server. I tried to find a solution to help him but there were already so many warrants against him... The next morning the FBI was at my door, Jake had barely the time to escape before they broke into my apartment. Before he left he asked me not to look for him or help him, that it was too dangerous. I tried, though. But he had vanished in the air. I never heard from him again until two years ago. I receive an encrypted email from him, leading me to this server. The next day his arrest was all over the news."

Matt stopped speaking again and took another sip of his energy drink. I never took my eyes off him while he talked. I learned a lot but I still had so many questions, "But... how do you know me? And why do you need my help?"