Spy School: We Meet Again

Chapter 18: Going back home

Ben's POV

I'm in my car now, driving home, with an empty feeling in my heart. It has been a few hours since the whole incident, with losing Erica and I'm still processing what happened.

After I calmed down, the agents called backup. All of us were interrogated. They asked me a lot of questions, most of them involving something to do with my disappearance or they wanted to know, how I knew, where Erica was.

Cyrus showed up too. He wanted to kill me on the spot, but Catherine stepped in the way. I'm thankful for her and am surprised, that she is holding on so strong, considering that her daughter has just died.

In the end, the CIA let me go, soon after I told them everything I knew. They had no use of me anymore. So here I was, parking my car, outside of my apartment. It was dark outside now and the drive home was quiet and slow. All I wanted to do right now, was to sit on my couch and get drunk.

I'm glad that the elevator is fixed because I don't have the energy, to walk up the stairs, to the sixth floor.

Erica meant so much to me, she always has and she always will, so right now, I can't believe that she is gone because of my mistakes.

As soon as I walked into my apartment, I couldn't stop the tears coming from my eyes. I was trying to be strong for Catherine and trying not to show too much emotion, but now I have reached my limit. I fell on the floor on my knees.

"It's all my fault. If I would have done something, If I would have not been such a coward and done something then just run away, she would still be alive."

It's hard to even explain how I feel now. It's like I have been hit by a truck, or more like crushed by a mountain.

Slowly, I got up and walked to the kitchen. I just want to get drunk, I don't want to feel anything.

"Ben, listen. I hope that after all of this will be over, you will still remember everything that we went true together and maybe go somewhere only we know."

One of her last sentences keeps coming up in my mind. What did she mean by that? Why suddenly did Erica think, that was an important thing for me to know if she knew, that we had a limited time to talk with each other.

I got a beer bottle from the fridge and opened it. For a while, I just stood there, in my kitchen looking straight ahead, still not quite understanding, what happened just a few hours ago.

My gaze shifted to the window, that I have had closed for a few weeks now. The one that had the view, to the Washington monument. For some reason, my legs started moving on their own and soon enough, I was by the window looking at the curtains.

I moved the curtains to the side and looked at the view in front of me. It's interesting, how the monument now, is something that represents mine and Erica's friendship. Somehow it has always been close to us when we were together and now it brings me memories of us together.

"Somewhere only we know."

I thought about what she said and now, I have an urge to go to the tunnel that led to the monument. It was strange because there was nothing there for me to see, but still, I wanted to go and look. I wanted to see if it still looks the same as I remember it, so I put the beer bottle down on the table and grabbed a hoodie.

Walking out of the apparent I had a strange feeling. Maybe Erica wanted me to go to the monument, maybe she had a plan. No, my mind is just making things up. It's trying to be hopeful.

It was a clear night outside, so maybe this walk will be good for me. I slowly walked in the direction of the statue that would get me in the tunnel. My mind kept racing. There were so many things on my mind, a lot of them were questions and guilt.

After a few minutes, I was by the statue and my hand hovered above the ring, that I had to turn, to reveal the keypad. What am I waiting for? Just turn it! So I did and the keypad flipped open. I was happy that I had level 16 math skills because I still remember the code number with ease.

Maybe I shouldn't go in there. Maybe I will feel worse afterwards.

But no, I want to go, so I entered the code and like I remember, the statue rotated ninety degrees and revealed a hidden staircase beneath it.

I went down the stairs, but then I heard some shuffling coming from the tunnel below, so I stopped.

Erica, Cyrus and I were the only ones that knew of this place, well at least what I know of. Who could be here?

I slowly continued to walk downstairs, trying not to make any noise and took a quick glance down the tunnel. What I saw, was unexpected.

Yeah... sorry again for the cliffhangers... But I think you can already kind of understand what will happen next.

I can tell you that the next two chapters are probably my favorite ones. At least for now.

I am actually experiencing burn out and am stuck in one place in the story, so I am not writing the next chapters as fast as I want to. But I guess that's not surprising. Anyway... see you tomorrow. :P