The New Era

Her Message

She hurried to the door of the building, an a wave of emotion swept her. She xould feel the excessive voices in her head, pleading for her to turn back. But her feet were locked on the floor, and so what was there to turn back to?

She hesitantly pushed open the door, and peered around the room, side to side.

"Serena?" a voice asked.

She turned to see one of her old colleagues, Penni. "Oh, uh. Hi."

"What are you doing here?" she asked, pretty shocked.

"Just checking the place out," Serena told her calmly. She took a breath, and tried her best not to hurl insults at her. She was so used to being negative, this was going to be hard for her.

"Oh," was all Penni managed to say. She gave a satisfies nod, and turned around.

"Wait," Serena quickly said. "Do you know where I can find Noor?"

"I- Okay." She told Serena to follow her, and quickly disappeared through one of the corners. Serena was fast, and she kept at it. Penni got to the elevator, and soon Serena stumbled in.

This was it.

Penni pointed to one of the doors. "She should be there," she told her.

Serena forgot to say thanks, and she opened the door hurriedly.

Inside was Noor, hurrying around a messy room full of papers and whatnot. She was looking busier than usual, and her eyes were baggy. It was obvious she handn't slept.

"Hi," Serena said weakly.

Noor turned, and was shocked to see Serena in the flesh. "Oh hi," she managed to say. She stopped her movements, asked her how she was doing.

"Okay, I guess," Serena said truthfully. She tried to repulse herself from fidgeting more than she was doing right now. "You haven't found the journal?"

"No," said Noor. She burst into tears, just right there. "I can't find it anywhere! I wrote so much things in it, and it's just.. gone! And I still have so much work to do, so I keep forgetting about it. But I don't want to!!" She quickly dried her tears, and mustered a sorry.

"Oh," was all Serena managed to say. It was going to be hard to say the truth. She held the strap of her purse tight, and looked down.

"I should've said wayy before. But. I'm sorry about firing you, Serena," Noor said to her. She felt that was why there was so much silence between the two. In her honest opinion, she would have rather had to hear Serena's angry voice rather than no voice at all.

"It's nothing," she muttered.

"Well, I just thought it needed to be said," Noor said. She quickly dried her tears, and worked her way into organizing the papers. She looked up to Serena, "Hey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said quietly, her voice became dry. Was this the nervousness in her? "Look, I have something to show you," she said quickly, grasping her zipper from her purse.

Noor looked to her, saying nothing.

Serena didn't like this silence, but she continued. She opened her purse, and quickly grabbed the journal from its depths. She, with both of her hands, held the journal tight and put it infront of her, closing her eyes. "I had the journal! I'm soo s.. s.. sor.. sorry about it!!" Her sorry sounded so forced, but it was the best she could do. She was literally choking on it.

Noor didn't look surprised, but smiled.

"Y.. you're not mad?" Serena said, lowering the journal in her hands. Her eyes locked with Noor for a moment, as all they could hear was each other's breathing.