Adrenaline

⌊Chapter 25⌉

It was two days until the celebration at Black Tower. While Adelmir was often crossed by without a thought, people came to the city for the party. Black Tower was a huge, rich venue and the advertisements for the parties were always enthralling in a sense so that people would show up. The storm blew such strong winds that nobody was out even at the time of night where everyone was going to late-night bars to get rid of their woes for the night, disregarding work the next morning.

An alarm from Jane’s phone managed to wake Anthony up even though he was a deep sleeper. It was still raining, but slight sunshine flowed through the cracks in the curtain over their two-story window. At first, he didn’t think anything of it before he remembered one thing.

That day, Jane had an early morning interview where she would be out of the house before Anthony. He narrowed his eyes and sat upright to see Jane wasn’t there. He turned off the alarm on her phone and opened the bedroom door. She wasn’t down the hall. Except for their room and the connected master bathroom and Faye and Luca’s rooms, Jane never went into any upstairs rooms, which weren’t very numerous other than the ones mentioned. No lights were on in any room so he made his way downstairs.

“Angel?” he spoke up, searching downstairs for his wife. He looked outside but she was nowhere to be found. His nerves rose and he quickly went back upstairs to check on Faye and Luca. He slowly opened their door to make sure they were okay, and they were sitting on their beds talking in such a way that Anthony couldn’t tell what they were trying to talk about. They looked and saw Anthony and ran to the door in excitement.

“Dad, dad, dad, I had a nightmare but I was brave and I went back to sleep!” Faye exclaimed.

“That’s great,” Anthony smiled, though his worries were still through the roof. He took Faye and Luca downstairs, giving both some blueberry yogurt that they loved. While they were eating, he returned upstairs and got dressed in a casual sense because he didn’t have work that day. He went back downstairs after that and got his phone, throwing on a jacket that looked like an Olympics jacket that Jane got for him a few years back. It was still one of his favourite items of clothing. He went to the dining room table, waiting for Faye and Luca to finish eating. He turned on his phone and a message from about 4 AM popped up on his screen. His face went pale seeing the name of the texter.

Blake.

“Dad, where’s mom?” Faye asked, sitting back in her chair criss-crossed, tracing shapes on the table with her finger.

“I- don’t know,” Anthony stammered. No, he didn’t want them to worry. “Well, I do know, but it’s just stuff you don’t know about yet.”

“Is it a surprise?”

“No, it’s just a meeting thing you’re not familiar with.”

“Oh,” Faye frowned at the lack of excitement waiting for a surprise. She got out of her chair and ran to the living room, occupying herself with a colouring book and crayons. Anthony unlocked his phone and opened the text message. Before he even read it, he knew something was wrong, and it felt like his insides twisted up so he could hardly breathe.

‘If you want to see your wife again, come to Black Tower in room 0-32.’

It was a short, simple sentence, but it sent Anthony into a spiral of panic. His eyes darted before landing on Faye and Luca who finished their yogurt - well, as much as they were willing to eat. “Come on,” Anthony beckoned them out of their chairs. “I have a work situation so I’m going to drop you two off at Ms. Atkinson’s house, okay? I need you guys ready in 10 minutes. Do you want help, Luca?”

Faye jumped out of her chair and ran upstairs excitedly. Ms. Atkinson was a family friend and often the one to watch Faye and Luca when Anthony or Jane couldn’t. Anthony texted her to let her know that they would be coming over if she was available to watch them. Luca made it to the ground and shook his head.