Rollercoaster

hostage

One month later
January 15th, 2020

F I N O L A

"Thank you so much for letting me sit in with you today!" I smiled after taking a sip of my latte.

I've always wanted to see what it was like inside of a 9-1-1 call center. I've seen it countless of times in movies and tv shows, but I wanted to be part of the real deal.

"It's no problem really, you're just gonna be bored as hell all day." She laughed, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye.

"I doubt that, I hope we get a call about a cat up in a tree," I joked.

Since meeting Maddie, we've become the best of friends. At times it feels like Buck get jealous of her, but I couldn't care less. I haven't had a best friend since high school, and it's better than I remembered. I guess I just didn't have true best friends.

"Those are a lot more common than you'd think." She laughed.

We finally made it through LA traffic and parked in the parking garage down the street from her building. We made our way over, and stepped inside.

"Hey Jake," Maddie smiled and waved to the man behind the front desk. "This is Finola!"

"Hey Maddie! I see you brought a friend," He smiled, looking up from his phone, sliding the sign in sheet and a pen toward us. "It's nice to meet ya!"

"Oh, we're having officers sitting in today?" She questioned "Josh didn't tell me about that."

Jake looked nervous, like really nervous.

"Oh it was a last minute thing, they finalized everything yesterday." He smiled, taking back the pen and paper from me.

"Oh okay, see ya later." Maddie said

We made our way to the elevator, and started up to the third floor. I caught myself just staring at the ground, but was brought back to reality when the elevator dinged and the door opened.

"Here we are," she said, waving her hand to get me to look around the room. This is definitely not what I had imagined it looking like. "Oh this is Josh!"

She led me to a man sitting at a desk, scrolling through his phone waiting for his cue to go sit at the phones. "Josh, this is Finola! Bucks girlfriend."

"Oh my gosh, hi!" He pulled me into a hug, "Maddie will not shut up about you, I'm starting to think she's trying to replace me!"

"You don't seem like the type of person who could ever be replaced." I stated, noticing his charismatic attitude.

"I guess you're right," he laughed "oh yeah, we're having some officers sit in with us today."

"Yeah, Jake just told us about that." Maddie said, as I was getting a call from Buck.

"I gotta take this really fast," Maddie nodded in response, while linking her arm into mine and leading me to her desk.

"Hey babe, I just got to the call center with Maddie. What do you need?" I asked him, really glad to be hearing his voice.

"I just wanted to call to say I love you," he said, I could hear the lie straight through the phone "also, I spilled juice all over the carpet, how do I get it out?"

"Buck I swear to god, it better not be grape juice." I said in a jokingly mad tone, "my carpet is white."

"I'm sorry," I sighed "I knocked Braxtons glass over and now he's crying."

Jesus, men really do suck.

"There's clea-" I stopped mid sentence when I saw a man with a gun standing right next to Maddie and Josh. That man was a man who was supposed to be six feet under. Ryan.

"Babe?" I didn't answer, I couldn't answer.

"I would end that call very carefully, Finny." He smiled devilishly.

I was at loss for words. How am I supposed to react to the man who abused me for years until his death, standing right in front of me.

"Bye, Evan." I ended the call this way in hopes that he would notice that something was wrong.

I dropped my phone in disbelief, not believing that this man was standing right in front of me.

"What the fuck."

B U C K

"Bye, Evan." And then the line was dead.

That's weird. Finn never calls me Evan, and she didn't even tell me where the cleaner was. What the hell am I supposed to do now.

I went to the laundry room to search for whatever cleaner she may have been talking about, not being able to get the way she said that out of my head. Something has to be wrong.

I decide to call up the most reasonable man I know, Chimney.

"Hey Buck," He answered almost immediately "what's up?"

"This is going to sound crazy, but hear me out," I tried to think of a good way to word this. "I think Finn is in trouble."

"Why do you think that?" He asked.

"Well I called her because I needed help cleaning a stain, and then she stopped mid-sentence and just said 'bye, Evan' like what the hell." He tried to interrupt me but I stopped him. "She always says I love you, and I mean always."

"Maybe she needed to hang up really quick." He suggested. "I think you're definitely over thinking this."

"I'm gonna call her back and see if she answers." I said, hanging up before he could answer.

I called her back, no answer. I called her again, no answer. I even tried calling Maddie and Josh, and they went straight to voicemail too. Something is definitely not right.

I made the most irrational decision I have ever made, and decided to call 9-1-1.

"We're sorry for the inconvenience, our lines are busy and we can't pick up your call. Please try again." I looked at my phone in confusion. No way. It's 7:30 AM, literally the slowest hours of the day for dispatch.

I called again and got the same message. I called Chimney back, even more anxious this time.

"Chim, no one is answering their phone calls, not even 9-1-1." The line was silent for a second.

"Something is definitely up if 9-1-1 is busy at this hour." He said, with worry in his voice. "Take Braxton to Hen's house, they're home with the new baby right now."

I obliged and drive Brax to Hen's house and dropped him off, telling Hen that it was an emergency.

I met Chimney and his house, and he climbed into the passenger seat of my Jeep.

"We have to call Athena."

Ahhhh sorry for the late update, I've been stressing about finals week.

I hope everyone is doing well! Remember to drink lots of water and stay home unless it's an absolute emergency!

Stay safe, love yourselves, and be nice to others 💛

E