Felicity Stark

Chapter 7: Where is She?

Oliver's POV:

Last night was horrible.

I can't believe I let myself get into such a big fight with Felicity over something so stupid, enough to make her not come to the arrow cave. I guess I thought that she still would, but she didn't.

Diggle and Sara are both mad at me for chasing her away, and I'm mad at myself, and sad, for that matter. If I'm being honest with myself, I don't know why I cared that much. I think a lot of what I said was driven by stress at the time I said it, and I didn't mean any of it, in fact, I don't give a shit whether or not Felicity has a brother and did or did not tell me, I would just want to meet him.

She did point out a big flaw of mine: I keep secrets, but I get mad when those around me keep secrets from me. I think it had something to do with trust and how I am very skeptical of people, but if it means getting Felicity back and learning new things about her when she is ready to tell me, I am willing to do my best to get better at it. I love her, all of her, and I plan on making it up to her today.

I picked her favorite flowers (lilies) from the front yard at the mansion and I know that she loves coffee, so I brought her some from her favorite cafe as well. I know it isn't much, but it is a start. If she lets me, I was hoping to sit down and talk for a little bit, apologize properly and learn more about her and her family who I obviously don't ask about often enough.

I am simply glad that it is Friday, and that we got the meeting out of the way yesterday so that it doesn't really matter if I go into work today or not.

I arrive at her doorstep early, hoping to spend as much time as possible with her. I straighten the flowers and make sure not to spill the coffee as I knock on the door, knowing that she will probably be up by now, but if she isn't, I'll check on her just to make sure she is safe.

She doesn't answer the door at first, so I knock again. "Felicity?" I ask, hoping she isn't just ignoring me. "Felicity, sweetheart? Are you up?" I call again, starting to get slightly worried even though I know there is a small possibility of her still being asleep. "Felicity?" I ask one more time.

Finally, I switch to holding the coffee and flowers in the same hand and  dig out the key she gave me to her house. I insert the key into the lock and turn, hearing the door click and the alarm go off.

Weird, I think. If the alarm went off, then she isn't home... Why isn't she home?

Then I see it. Her house.

No couch.

No pictures.

No holes.

No stains.

No dents, scratches, or markings of any kind.

They are all gone.

She is gone.

I fall to my knees in the doorway, the alarm still ringing its constant tone, bound to call diggle any second. Instead of the police, she had it call me and diggle. Her safety line.

It's the little things.

Her green couch that used to have a small divot where her favorite spot to sit was.

The fire place once adorned with pictures, collectibles, and crafts, always having wood ready to burn in the center, now barren and cold as if it had never been lit before.

The hardwood floors that used to hold the memories of house parties and fun game nights in scratches and holes, now smoothed to perfection.

The walls. Once a perfect shade of sage, now an off hunter's green. When did she have time to paint?