Ink (On Hold)

Chapter 3

After two hours of trying to fall asleep, I became intensely frustrated and made an angry grunt as I chucked my pillow across the room. Thinking I may have possibly woken Jamal up, I stuck my head out into the hall only to see Jamal's light was still off. My hands and feet were restless so I paced back and forth in my room. I needed to occupy myself with something, anything. With nothing coming to mind I groaned in frustration once more and hurled my self onto my bed with my face flat down in the sheets.

After beginning to suffocate, I moved my head to the right towards my closet. The door was ajar, revealing tiny bit of a plastic orange bucket. Thank god, i thought as i slipped off the bed and crawled on my hands and knees towards it. I popped the lid off and smiled like the Cheshire cat when I saw its contents. How could I have forgotten about it? Inside were paints of all colors you could think of.

Even though a paintbrush hadn't found its place in my hands for a couple months, it seemed like a good time as ever to start up again and I already had an idea of what I was going to paint. I hauled the bucket over to the wall my bed was opposite of. Considering my room was horrifically bland, just a tiny colorful painting in the corner would be a wonderful improvement. But, my idea went far beyond just a corner, I was going to make it the entire wall. 

I put my headphones and and blasted music into my ears and along with it, my hand began painting. I often stopped just to bust out some dance moves that I imagined me doing pretty well but in reality I probably just looked like someone have a seizure.

Morning light began pouring into my room. At that point I decided to take a break. I glanced at the clock. 5:30 am. I set my brush down in the cup of water i had and went into the kitchen to make breakfast. I didn't know exactly what time we had to leave but I was sure Jamal would wake up and let me know. I continued to listen to music as I made bacon, cheese omelets, and toast. Just enough for the both of us.

Turning off my music, I tiptoed into Jamal's room, setting his breakfast plate onto his night stand. I quickly snuck out, positive that he'd wake up from the sweet savory smell of the bacon and headed back into my room, no music this time, and went on simultaneously painting and eating.

I had finished off the last piece of toast when Jamal came in.

"We're leaving in 10 minutes," he said abruptly with annoyance dripping from his voice then shut my door again. Jamal and his morning rudeness. I just sighed and set my paints down again. I was done with only one tenth of the wall but then again I was putting mass detail into it so I knew from the beginning that this would take a long while. I changed out of my comfy as hell Stewie Griffin pajama pants and shirt and traded them for  black jeans and a dark blue knitted sweater. Sliding on black combat boots and black winter coat, Jamal and I left the apartment.

It was only an eight minute drive to the Gray Area and the only words that were said were "Thanks for breakfast." Which I responded with a mumbled "You're welcome." Reminder that this was normal for Jamal in the morning. He usually awakens at 10 and right now it was 6:30. He was bound to be cranky.

We parked in front of a brick, two story building on 67th street. From the outside, it looked like a nice, brick townhouse but inside, it was anything but. We entered through the front door and were immediately greeted by Lilith, one of a few friends of mine.

Lilith was the colorful one of my small friend group. Half of her head was shaved and the other half was long and dyed crimson red. She was the only person I knew that could really work purple lipstick and along with that she had matching purple jewelry and dress that reached just above her knees.    

"You guys are just on time. Come on." She grabbed my wrist and led me down the hall entering the second door on the left. Jamal followed close behind. Normally this room was an empty conference room and some people came in to eat their lunch or chat during breaks but today, it was completely packed. We pushed through the mass of people and eventually made it to a corner where Perry and Chris were leaning, actually more like shoved, against the wall.

"Jesus Christ is the whole city packed in here?" I asked.

"Certainly feels that way," Perry said, adjusting the rectangular glasses on his face.

"Don't you wear contacts Perry?"

"Lost the left one yesterday." Before I could continue with the small talk, a man stood on top of the conference table in the middle of the room.

"Hey!" he yelled with a deep, booming voice that silenced the room immediately. He had everyone's undivided attention.

"My name is Kyle Chase. I know its early and everyone is tired and cranky. Trust me, I feel the same way. But, we have a new assignment. We've brought down some big people before and we will do it again. But this one will be a huge challenge. Our new assignment is Nathan Blackwell." An uncomfortable feel swept over the room. To know that we had to bring down a man whose products filled pretty much every single person's home in the United States as well as the U.K. was a lot to take in. Who knew what would happen to the world if we brought him down.   

"Just recently we have discovered some new information. A picture was taken of Blackwell's number one assistant speaking with a Nightfall gang member. One day afterwards, a woman by the name of Alissa Grant committed suicide. She threw herself out of the Blackwell Tower window 15 stories high. We need to dig up everything we can on Nathan Blackwell and his corporation. Dissect every inch of it. This was no suicide and speaking with Nightfall's gang members raises huge red flags. Something is up and we need to expose the truth as quick as possible, alright?" Everyone remained frozen, taking in all the information.

"Well? Get to it! Now!" Kyle Chase yelled and everyone began shoving their way through the door. My group and I were the last to start leaving but we were quickly stopped.

"Skylar Vessra, Jamal Patel, and Lilith Paltrow, if I'm not mistaken," we heard Kyle Chase say. "You three are staying right here." The three of us had frozen. Perry and Chris hesitated for a second before leaving us and gave us worried looks as they closed the door behind them. It felt nice to not be suffocating any longer in a packed room and have my own space bubble but unfortunately we weren't out of the woods yet.

"Have a seat," Mr. Chase said. We did as we were told. The man that stood before us, now that I had a good look at him, was pretty good-looking. He wore a white button up shirt and black pants. His hair was a dark brown and there was few gray hairs. Dark blue eyes stared at each of us but they soon landed and stayed on me. "You're Skylar."

"Yes, sir," I affirmed.

"From what I know about you, you are going to be the golden key into bringing Nathan Blackwell down." I looked over at Lilith with confusion who mirrored my emotion and then looked back at Mr. Chase.

"I'm sorry, I don't really understand how I would go about doing that. I haven't even been here very long to take on something like this."

"Two years is long enough but I'm talking about the fact that you can get information by just a brush of skin on skin contact. Isn't that right?" I widened my eyes at him, my mouth went dry, and my body went cold. How would he know? I suddenly turned to towards Lilith and Jamal with accusing eyes. Lilith still had an expression of confusion. She hadn't told. I turned to Jamal and saw an apologetic look sweep over his face. I narrowed my eyes and he sunk in his seat a little. 

"I could be full of shit you know," I told Mr. Chase.

"And it would be absolutely ridiculous that you would just make a lie as absurd as that. But, if you actually have been lying about that then admit it now."

"She's not lying," Jamal said abruptly. I twisted my head to look at him again. What the fuck!! I screamed in my head. But, at the same time, did I really not want him to tell? If I could help the elite group to bring down one of the richest and most powerful companies in the world and do it with just a touch, why not? I would do it if it was for the good of the people.

"I was asking Skylar," Mr. Chase said. Jamal looked down at the table but not without darting his eyes at me. He knew I was pissed but maybe he had an explanation.

"I am not lying Mr. Chase," I claimed after a long sigh. He nodded.

"Well, then lets get started on the details shall we?"