Melt me

Chapter 33

Kenji

I set the glass back onto the table. Nazeera shifts so she's sitting crossed legged and facing me. Her gaze is on mine and I hold onto her hands. 
"Do you feel better?"

She nods. Sighs. I lean forward, cupping her beautiful face. Honey eyes that are usually as bright as gold, are now eclipsed by sorrow and torment. Another jagged crack in her lucidity. But this one manages to also reach my heart, tearing it into several pieces.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Nazeera bites on the inside of her cheek. She shakes her head.
"It was- I'm okay now."

She hops off the bed and clears her throat.
"I think I should further study those pictures."

I'm not surprised. I give Nazeera a look and walk to her. Place my hands on her shoulders then shake her like she shook me.
"Ignoring shit is not going to make it go away."

A smile escapes her. She holds her hand up, signaling for me to stop and shrugs.
"It's worth a try."

"No nope, it's not."

Nazeera stares at the ground. She works her jaw, searching for the right words.
"I have to be doing something." She says quietly, like she doesn't want to touch the flurry of thoughts surrounding that. Nazeera faces me once more with a more stoic expression.

"We're close, Kenji. So close and I can't waste any more time."

"I know, I know but you being so stressed out isn't helping anybody."

Nazeera stays impassive. Her guard slips ever so slightly as her gaze travels over me. A flicker of feeling passes that tells me there's no changing her mind. She wordlessly pushes past me and I really have no choice but to follow.

As we stroll through the hallway, I draw an arm around Nazeera and she leans into me. She's not going to listen to me, she won't relax; not if she has to constantly look over her shoulder.
So we make our way down to the meeting room.

On the opposite end of the screen sits two huge boards with all of our facts so far. The photos, both Nazeera's and Stephan's notes, reports. All this information, this trail of disasters and yet, we're still clueless.

Billions of puzzle pieces have been thrown at our faces and we have to build the picture without seeing the image beforehand.

Nazeera lays out all the pictures of the weird machine thingy and surveys them fastidiously. I keep a watchful eye on her. It's a habit at this point.

"One of these..." she begins before handing me a photo.
"This, this one. It seemed really familiar. Does it speak to you?"

I inspect every detail. The cylinder tank in the center has a sliding door. The outside is covered in fins in a way that makes it look like spikes. It kind of reminds me of a time machine but I'm pretty sure it's not that.

"It doesn't look right." I tell her after a moment, furrowing my brows.
Nazeera tilts her head and I try explaining.

"It looks like- incomplete. Or part of something. Like here look," I point to the fins that are attached.
"These fins have no tubes or anything connected. They can't transfer heat or air like they should. It's like a giant cylinder with spikes."

Nazeera nods,
"I understand what you're saying. There's a part missing."

"Or maybe more."

"We can't know though until Haider gets back to us with the details." She says and I hum in agreement.

My fiancé goes back to the board and takes the coroner report to reread. I check the time to see that it's almost evening. Shit that went by fast.

I grab all the photos to stick back on the board in the order they were in. This machine thingy is so bamboozling. I genuinely want to know what they would do with a large piece of metal besides making a cool robot. Society really lacks a fun imagination.