Nickel drove his car as fast as he could to reach Serenity Condominium and see the sick Zoey. He felt a little relief after Alfie confirmed that he had talked to her this morning. He was also worried about Zoey because since she couldn't send him a message or something makes her condition worse than what he thought.
Also, knowing that she stayed in her room for a day without any assistance makes his worries skyrocket.
Nickel paved his way to their floor and was kept knocking on her door but no one is answering except Happy who was barking on the other side of the door.
He opened the door and got welcome by the dog that hasn't eaten since this morning. Everything inside Zoey's unit seems normal except Happy's platter. Usually, Zoey had prepared Happy's meal for a day but now Happy's platter was empty as the unit he was in.
"Zoey? Are you here?"
"Babe? I'm going in."
Nickel entered her room but no one is inside. "Probably, she went back home." Nickel thought that Zoey already informed her parents and then they picked her up to take care of her. He then pulls out his phone and dialed the Alcantara's phone line.
"Hello, this is Alcantara Residents. How may I help you?" Manang picked up the phone and greeted him with her usual opening line.
"Good evening, Manang. May I ask if Zoey is fine now?"
"Zoey? Uhm! I don't know? I haven't seen her yet. Did something happened to her?" wondering with Manang's reply, Nickel asked her if she was in there. When Manang answered him with a stern 'no', he then remembered the flash drive and all the suspicions that he had before he left.
"Is everything, okay? Did something bad happen to Zoey?" Nickel traced Manang's worries through her voice so to lessen the possible aftermath of the situation, Nickel decided to keep first with himself before telling it to the others.
"Everything is fine Manang, I just landed from my convention my thoughts were still scattered, hahaha! I forgot the Zoey was still in the office. HAHAHAHA!"
After the call, Nickel checked Zoey's house for anything that will help him figure out where was she.
His heart was about to explode when he cannot found anything, Nickel then called another person to dig more.
"Alfie, sorry but are you sure that you've talked to Zoey this morning?" Alfie that time was packing his thing to go home and was taken aback by his question.
"Yes, I did. She told me she's sick. What's the matter?"
At least if someone knew about the situation, that someone could help him find Zoey, right? "I'm here in her unit and she wasn't here. I even called her home and she's also not there. When was the last time you seen here?"
Alfie's hand got cold in an instant after hearing that Zoey was nowhere to be found. "Last night, I dropped her off last night."
"Did you went somewhere else after that?" Nickel starts to interrogate.
"I don't know, but I think no. She even offered to cook me dinner but I decline. She said that she has to clean her house before you arrive."
"Did she say something before you left?"
"No." Nickel was about to say something again when "No! Wait! Yeah! She did. She said that she sensed that someone seems watching her or following her every day. That's why she asked me to be her driver for two days. She said that she was afraid to be alone now that her driver was not around."
Nickel breathed a shit to Alfie. The man, on the other line, wanted to ask more but he remembered one car the kept on seeing anywhere they go.
"Nickel I saw one car yesterday. I don't know if we should check that out but I always see that car everything I'm with Zoey. Do we need to worry about the car?" he asked.
"Of course, dumbass. We have to worry about everything related to Zoey." Nickel was already mad with him for beating around the bushes.
Alfie came to his senses after Nickel called him dumbass.
"MKC990. That's the plate number, bastard." Nickel didn't mind being called bastard but Alfie felt good after he uttered that word to him. Seems like the two found their unique endearment with each other.