Serene

9

I turn around and meet an eerily smile complimenting hard dark brown eyes.

"Well, you have three minutes left." He gruffs.

I look at Mrs. Villa and her frantic eyes tell me she's not a part of this.

I whisper for her to run and she does. The man tries to go after her but when he seems me heading towards the window, he follows me instead.

"What do you want?" I ask, a bit nervous. I hope Gabby got Mrs. Villa and made it out.

I face this man and see that I'm no match for him. He's about six feet tall and has big rippling muscles and the typical gym guy body. Broad shoulders and strong arms.

I'm five foot four and way slimmer than he is. Also, I don't really know how to fight. Gabby hasn't taught me anything yet.

"Come back with me." His gruff voice says. He crosses his arms and studies me.

I tilt my head and study him as well.

"Go back where, exactly?"

"Home."

I almost stagger and fall. Home?

"What do you mean?"

He seems to notice my sudden lack of knowledge and he smirks.

"You'll have to see."

I take deep breaths. Am I willing to go after this guy and find out what he means?

I see movement at the door from my peripheral view and I pray it's Gabby.

"Well?"

His arms are uncrosses and he's grabbed both my arms with a strong grip.

Suddenly, he falls to the floor. Gabby used one shot and barely laid a finger on him before he fell.

"You really need to teach me some moves, girl." I say, running after her and out to the backyard.

She smiles. "Use the weak spots of the body. You won't need to fight much."

Okay. That helped a lot.

Mrs. Villa is still shaking by the time I reach her on the bench on the other side of the backyard.

"What do you know about this, Mrs. Villa?" I ask, crossing my arms.

She shakes her head. "Nothing."

"Who was he?" Gabby asks, leaning forward so Mrs. Villa can meet her eyes.

"I-I only caught a little of his name. Greg? Led? Ned?" She stutters.

Gabby looks at me and sighs. "Where was he from? How did he contact you? What did he say to you?"

Mrs. Villa takes a deep breath. "He said he works with my husband. In a- hospital? But I only know my husband is an employee of Dax Corp. He barged into the house a few minutes after you left and thought maybe you'd come back for more information."

She pauses and looks up at Gabby. Gabby raises her eyebrows and prods her to go on.

"He didn't tell me anything helpful. I asked him where my husband was. He said they had a meeting in Contra, Streak because there's an important announcement and some agenda to be discussed. Now my husband rarely goes off to business meetings. He usually stays in his office." Mrs. Villa says, quite sure of herself. Poor woman. She doesn't know much about her husband at all. But then maybe it's better she doesn't know about all this. And maybe he doesn't tell her because of that, her safety. Or, maybe she does know but she's still stubborn enough to lie to her rescuers.

"Gabby. We should go. He could wake up." I say, laying a hand on Gabby's arm. She stands straighter and walks out, and I know she's thinking about all this information.

Mrs. Villa comes with us, and we drop her off at a hotel nearby.

"Girls, I-I'm sorry." She stutters. She looks directly at me. "Serene, honey, I-"

I hold her hands in my own and nod. "Mrs. Villa, I understand."

She shakes her head. "No, I'm afraid you don't."

Gabby and I share a confused look before following Mrs. Villa into the elevator.

"Serene, my husband's been mentioning your name for quite a while now. He said you were an important person that can help with their product. That with you gone, the company might go bad and make a terrible enemy. I don't know what it means, but he needs to find you so that their company won't get into that bad business. You were meant to stay with them and help them for a month, then they'd take you home. But it turns out you left, and now you're part of the agenda to a very rich company. That's something."

Wait. What? Why am I so important?

"Also, my husband mentioned the name Wolf." Mrs. Villa whispers as the elevator dings and we step out. "I don't know what that means though."

I look at Gabby and her eyes widen. She stares at me with new realization.

"Gabby? What's wrong?" I ask.

She snaps back to the present and grabs my wrist. "We need to go." She whispers.

Mrs. Villa nods and thanks us. "I'll be here."

We head back down and out of the hotel, fast walking to the bus stop. We get on and hurry off the stop for Carlos' house.

We rush to the treehouse, with me still now understanding the rush.

"Gabby!" I call out.

She urges me to hurry and when Carlos throws out the ladder, we climb up.

Gabby rushes to the laptop and starts typing.

"What's going on? What happened?" Odeo asks, walking down the stairs. He locks eyes with me, a concerned look passing his face.

I shrug my shoulders, glancing at Gabby.

"Mrs. Villa said she didn't she have any good things to tell us but there was quite a lot she told us and I think Gabby has more clues." I explain, watching Carlos study thee information on the screen as Gabby points and explains.

"What else happened?" Odeo asks, still looking at me.

"We arrived at the house and found a letter attached to a jar." I gasp.

The jar! I look at Gabby who raises it and I breathe a sigh of relief. "Anyway, it was written that in five minutes Mrs. Villa would die if I didn't rescue her. So we did just that. We also met a big guy who could either be Greg, Ned, or something else."

Odeo raises an eyebrow. "You guys went through a lot."

I nod and sit across from Gabby while Odeo sits across from Carlos.

Gabby turns the computer around to face us and I study the girl looking back at me.

In one picture, she has short black hair and hazel brown eyes. In another, the natural one I presume, she has blond hair, brown eyes, and a simple smile. Her eyes are calculating and by her posture, you'd know she's confident and knows much.

"Who's this?" I ask.

Silence greets me and I look up to see Odeo frozen looking at the screen, mouth agape, and Carlos and Gabby share a look.

"She's known as the Wolf. Also, she's the mystery girl we're looking for."