The Roman Project: The Wronged

Chapter 4

Ms. Duong walked down the stairs, the boards creaking under her footsteps. She stepped onto the dirt floor, she looked left and right, her frown adding to her already wrinkled face.

Jeen ducked her head down in a split second as Ms. Duong whipped around, looking at the wooden staircase.

She felt sweat beginning to bead on her forehead, and resisted the urge to wipe it away as she held her breath.

Ms. Duong took another long look around the room, mumbled something under her breath and climbed back up the stairs.

Jeen looked up as the old lady walked up, squinting when dust fell into her eyes. She let out the breath she'd been holding following the sound of the basement door being slammed. She crawled through the thick and sticky cobwebs, Bosma behind her, until she was out in the open.

She stood up and a small cellar spinner began to crawl down her face. She held back the instinct to scream as she began to dust and shake out everything that clung to her face and hair. Once she got the webs out of her face she looked around, light poured into the basement from upstairs, casting a cold line of light in Jeen's path.

"Let's get outta here." Bosma said.

Jeen took a shaky breath, trying to calm her nerves, and jogged up the stairs, minding the spots that creaked, and stopped behind Bosma as she pushed the door open a crack. She peered out and looked both ways before she crept out, everything a blur as they ran for the front door.

Once they was far from the orphanage, she walked over to a bench on the sidewalk and began to make a call.

"Who're you calling?" Bosma asked, sitting down.

"Enforcement."
Bosma nodded. "Okay."

"Connect, Enforcement." Jeen said into her connector.

"Please wait a moment please."

A second passed before a robotic voice answered.

"How may Enforcement assist you today?"

"I would like to report a woman for..." Jeen took a moment to think of the right words to describe Ms. Duong's actions. She looked at Bosma, who nodded for her to continue. " - Owning Illegal weapons and suspicious criminal activity?"

There were three beeps before the rot that answered Enforcement calls spoke again.

"I'm sorry we can't assist you in your location. Please inform me if Enforcement can assist you in any other way."

Jeen stared at her connector for a minute.

"Excuse me?" Jeen sputtered. "What do you mean you can't help me? I'm reporting a crime!"

"Please inform me if Enforcement can assist you in any other way."

"I said I would like to report someone for criminal activity!" She said, louder now. She shared a confused look with Bosma.

"Please inform me if Enforcement can assist you in any other way."

Jeen stared at the connector, completely baffled.

She repeated herself again, and again heard the same response. She about to do it again, but Bosma told her there was no point.

Jeen pressed end call before she started to throw insults at the brainless rot.

"This happened to me earlier! Is there some kind of glitch in the system? Enforcement is never unavailable. Something's wrong here." Jeen said, disturbed.

She glared down at her connector.

"Maybe I need a new one."

She was going to continue, but Bosma wasn't listening.