HAPPY NEVER AFTER

Chapter 4

The Beauty

Chapter 4

Cindy Rollings chose the closest café and ate her breakfast even after seeing the horrible death of Belle Brimmingham. Mrs. Brimmingham knew her daughter’s misfortune, might have cried so hard since she was their only daughter and Mr. Brimmingham was still in a business conference abroad but the news is on its way there and surely he will breakdown too.

“This is so sad, I wonder what she went through before and after her death”, she shrugged herself off, sipping her newly brewed coffee.

Her stomach started to feel like shit again, she diverted her attention to something else and enjoyed the remaining of her doughnut. She paid her bill and started to the door when her phone rang.

“Oh no”, she muttered as she lifted and pressed the phone to her ear.

“Where are you? Did McKinley tell you that we need you here?” the voice shouted irritatingly.

“Yeah, I just took my breakfast; I’ll be there in couple of minutes”,

She then turned her phone off and drove all the way to their office. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s office had been situated at 11000 Wilshire Boulevard Suite, L.A., California. A ten-storey building with all those tinted glass windows and its big logo upfront with its motto: Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity.

“So, here I am again, huh..” she sighed.

She arrived there at exactly 9:30 in the morning, the sun still hiding its radiance and clouds started to form clusters. The rain is coming. She entered the building and was greeted pleasantly by the desk clerk named Rachel. She waved at her and greeted back while still carrying the documents given to her earlier. As she looked outside, rain started to fall. She walked hastily and pressed the button of the elevator, the door opened; she stepped inside and quickly punched the 8th floor button. As the elevator door is closing, she felt her head spinning. Her breathing is becoming unstable. Her heart is racing and she might lose her consciousness. It was not the right decision; she should have taken the stairs instead of the closed space elevator. She had been diagnosed Claustrophobic since she was ten. It happened when one of her classmates accidentally locked her for two days inside a small cabinet at the school pantry when they were playing hide and seek. She was reported missing and still not found until one of the cook decided to use the stocked ingredients kept in the cabinet where she was left alone.  The cook shouted for help seeing a little girl cuddling herself, eyes wide open and muttering the words “open” over and over again. The shock and dread made her so afraid of closed spaces. She was seeing a psychiatrist for 8 years and started to feel comfortable again with those things but now had been different.

She was now gasping for air but she tried to calm herself thinking of everything that her psychiatrist taught her. She closed her eyes and thought of soil, grass, wind and sunshine. She envisioned she was running and feeling the cool breeze of the morning when suddenly the elevator made a sound and the door opened. She slowly opened her eyes, feeling the trickling of sweat down her cheeks and her body so cold, she shivered.

She walked slowly still feeling the lightheadedness when she noticed someone’s following her. She prepared herself but to her surprise, the person seemed to know what she was thinking. She faced the person only to realize it was her former partner who decided to study psychology at South Carolina for 4 years then left his work and of course left her alone without notice while investigating a murder case that made her famous. She could not mask her surprise and anger at him at the same time seeing his handsome face, chestnut hair, broad shoulders, masculine body and those big biceps that made her face hot and body warm. She was also her former lover and those times were really good, being with him and making love with him.  Realizing that she was staring at him too much, she turned her back on him.