Crazy Town

Oliver's Research

A day off. I never thought Mr Andrews would give me a day off, but here I am. It's midday and I'm curled up on my sofa binge watching a TV program, I haven't done this in a long time. Mr Andrews never gave a reason for his day off, he just told me yesterday that Allison and I were not required to come into work today as he had 'matters to take care of at home'. We weren't going to question him though. 

I had called my parents earlier this morning to catch up with them, it was great not being woken up by an alarm. I'm definitely going to make the most of today, after all, I don't know if I will ever have another day off again. 

My phone begins to ring making me roll my eyes and pause my TV show, just as it was getting to the good bit. 'Hello?' I answered, not bothering to look at the caller ID.

'It's me, Oliver' a deep voice says over the phone. 

'Oh, hello' my eyebrows furrow in confusion, why is he calling me? Has a new murder happened that I didn't hear about? 

'I'm coming to pick you up, I have something I need to show you' he tells me. 

'Okay, when will you get here?' I ask, getting up from the sofa. 

'I'm outside' he states. I pull the phone away from my ear to stare at it for a couple of seconds, he's already here. I walk to my front door and pull it open, sure enough he's standing at the top of my driveway, his phone pressed to his ear as we make eye contact. 

'Um... come inside' I tell him over the phone. I hang up as he begins walking towards my door, I step aside to let him in. He walks slowly, his head turning at all angles to look around my home, almost like a cat discovering a new territory. 'I'm going upstairs to get ready, make yourself at home and if you need anything the kitchen is just at the end of the hall' I close the front door and run upstairs.

I quickly pull on a pair of jeans and a t shirt, my style is quite monochrome and simple. I secure a gold necklace and tie my hair up into a loose ponytail before pushing my feet into some sneakers. I jog back downstairs to find him looking through the drawers of my kitchen, 'Are you thirsty? hungry?' I ask.

He jumps a little, startled at my presence, almost as if he's not in the kitchen of my house. 'No' he shakes his head, 'I just like to look around, let's go' 

I lock my front door and follow him down the road, 'Where did you park?' 

'I don't drive' he states as we continue walking down the sidewalk. 

'Oh, usually when people say they're coming to pick you up, it usually indicates they're driving' I tell him, he just shrugs a shoulder. What a strange guy. 

It took twenty minutes before we reached his house, he pulled the key out of his pocket and I followed him inside. 'Come on' he states, and I follow him through the hallway and to a small door. The door is plain white and has a lock and several bolts with a padlock on each one, he unlocks each bolt before pushing the small door open, the door reaches my hip and is under the staircase.

'Go inside' he tells me.

I turn to look at him with my eyebrows raised, 'You are joking right? Did you bring me here to torture me?' 

Oliver stares back at me for a couple of seconds before letting out a long sigh, almost as if I'm wasting his precious time. He gets down on all fours and reaches his hand into the room, a click is heard before a light switches on, I crouch down and peer over his shoulder, there is a staircase. 

He crawls forward before sitting on the staircase, he starts going down in a sitting position, almost like a baby that can't walk. I roll my eyes before crawling in after him, there's not enough room to stand up so I follow his method down the stairs, 'You expected me to come in here before you switched the light on, I would have fallen down these stairs' I state, he doesn't reply but I can just feel him rolling his eyes. 

Finally, we reach the bottom of the staircase and now there's room to stand up, 'this is my basement, it used to have a normal door but I don't want anyone to come down here that's why I now use this method as an entrance' he explains to me, I nod slowly and watch as he brings a hand forward and flicks on another light switch. The basement is illuminated and my jaw drops as I look around. 

It looks like how movies portray FBI headquarters to look like. The wall is lined with noticeboards that have various pictures and pieces of paper pinned to it, there's thick red marker scribbled over several papers and red string connecting different pictures together. I don't think there's a single inch of the basement wall that's not covered by a noticeboard, they're literally floor to ceiling. 

The corner of the basement has a very large corner desk with three computer screens sat atop, a keyboard and a mouse, a pair of headphones hang on one of the computer screens. I follow him over to the desk as he sits down on the office chair and turns on the computers. The desk is littered with more bits of paper, beside the desk are three large filing cabinets, the wall opposite to the desk has a large TV nailed to it, that's probably the only bit of wall without a notice board.

'This is where I have all of my research on every single person who lives or used to live in East Hollow, each individual has their own document in those filing cabinets' he explains as he types in the password to his computer. 

'Do I have a folder?' I ask, walking over to him by his desk, he nods. 

I walk around and stare at the different noticeboards, looking at the different pictures of people pinned to it, I don't recognise any of them. 'If you're looking for anyone who you may know then it's on the other side of this room' he tells me, without looking away from his keyboard. I walk over to where he said, and indeed I start to see some familiar faces. 

'Allison Johnson - 28 years old - secretary of James Andrews - lives at flat 7 East Blocks - born and raised in East Hollow'. The picture of Allison is one that was clearly taken from a restaurant window, she is sat with a glass of wine in front of her and a plate with half a pizza left as she smiles at whoever she is with, who is not in the photo, it would actually be a very pretty picture of her if it wasn't slightly creepy that it was taken in secret. A red string connects her to a picture of a male: 'Logan Fisher - 26 years old - gang leader - lives at 339 Pan Road - born and raised in East Hollow', a small piece of paper is whole punched and attached to the string that connects them 'Friends with benefits'. 

I bite my lip in amusement, Allison would not be happy to read that, she has a crush on Logan and despite knowing that he sleeps with other women, has high hopes of becoming his girlfriend. 

I go back to Allison's picture, it's hard to follow the strings as each picture has over twenty strings attached to every person they have some sort of relationship with; parents, siblings, friends, boyfriends/girlfriends, work colleagues. I follow a string that brings me to my own picture, the paper connected to the string says 'work friends'. The picture of myself was taken from the day I had moved to this town, standing in front of my door, Oliver must have taken it when I first saw him. 

'Eleanor Bradley - 24 years old - PA of James Andrews - lives at 22 East Avenue - moved to East Hollow'. I glance over my shoulder at Oliver who is still typing furiously at his keyboard, 'You have got to start being less creepy' I tell him, he ignores me and I go back to the board in front of me. 

I don't have a lot of strings on my picture, I follow one to Mr Andrews 'Boss' reads the paper on the string. 'James Andrews - 26 years old - Billionaire CEO - lives in the only mansion in East Hollow - born and raised in East Hollow'. 

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Hey guys! This is kind of a filler chapter, but will also give you insight on the characters and Oliver. Let me know what you guys think of Oliver and if you think he's creepy or not? 

PLEASE NOTE! ALL ADDRESSES ARE MADE UP AND HAVE NO RELATION TO ANY REAL ADDRESSES.