"AAAAAAAAAARGH !!!"
Once again I wake up with a loud scream and jolt. It is another Scorpion dream. My sight is still blur as the headache hasn't subsided yet.
"Scott ! Thank God you're .."
"Where's Jen ?!" I cut Andy's words once I remember the last moment before I fell unconscious.
"What... ?!"
"Jen !! She was taken away ! Where is she ?!"
"What are you talking about ?!?!" Andy asks me in confused.
I turn my head to him in instant. "You mean, Jen is fine ?" I ask him with so much of relieve.
Andy frowns. "Who is Jen ?" He asks me back.
"Jen. Jennifer !! My wife !!" I yell at him.
"Your wife ?? Did your head being hit or something, man ? Since when you have a wife ?!" Andy replies me in double worry.
I stare at him deep. Then suddenly I grab his collar and pull him close to me, "This is a prank, right ? Tell me, you just pranked me !!" I urge.
"Hey !! What... ?!?! No !! I'm serious !!" Andy denies me while struggling to release himself from me.
Without halting a second later, I jump out from the bed, ignoring some pain on my back, and walk out of the hospital.
"Hey !! where are you going ?!?! Scott !! Scott!!"
I deafen my ears from Andy's call. Some paramedics try to halt me, but I easily dodge their grabs. I start to run toward the front door of the hospital. Since I don't know which hospital it is, I decide to just use a taxi that's queueing in front of the lobby.
"Bell Air apartment, please. Downtown," I tell the driver before I manage to sit my butt on the back seat. I ignore Andy who runs after me. "Go!!" I tell the driver again.
Once arriving at Jennifer's apartment, I pay the taxi and walk toward the lobby of apartment. I totally ignore Andy who runs after me while calling my name. I walk into the lobby, and about to just go straight to the elevator when Mike, the reception halts me.
"Excuse me, Sir.." Mike calls me with his usual politeness, "Where are you going ?"
"My apartment, of course," I answer him.
"Your.. ?? Pardon me, Sir.. But... who are you ??" Mike asks me.
I glare at him in disbelief. "Mike, come on.. it's me!"
"How... how can you know my name ?" Mike starts to get suspicious.
"Mike !! Come on, man.. I'm Scott Bennet. I've been living here for three months!"
Mike's face doesn't change. His expression is in between confuse and suspicious.
I exhale heavily to thicken my patient. "I am Jennifer McCourtney's husband. We were married a month ago ? I live in 1904!"
Still, nothing is changed from Mike's face. Having no more patient, I decide to just walk pass him and when to the stairs, ignoring Mike's shout, "Hey, Sir !! You can not!!"
I change my speed into fighter jet mode and runs up the stairs, leaving both Mike and Andy behind. Once I arrive in front of the our apartment, I notice the eye recognition lock system that supposed to be there is gone. It is changed into the regular numbers passcode lock. Why Jen changed the lock ? Is she throwing me out ? But why ?? My mind is full of unanswered questions, but I try to ignore them. First thing first, I have to find Jennifer. Since I obviously doesn't know the passcode, I knock the door instead.
"Jen... Jen !!!" I call her name while keep knocking on the door. The door is only opened after more than couple of minutes. A woman, carrying a baby, is one who opens it. But she is not Jennifer.
"Yes ?" She asks in confused.
"Who.. who are you ?" I ask with more confusion.
"Who am I ?? Who are you ??" She ask back, this time with sharper tone. She turns her body to the left, to hide her baby away from me. Her look is very suspicious toward me.
"I'm Scott Bennet. I live in this apartment with my wife Jennifer McCourtney," I explain my self to this woman. A 'ding' sign of elevator arrival is heard.
"That can't be. Me and my husband have been living here for couple of years !" The woman says with a more thick suspicious.
"But... but..."
"Mike !!!" The woman shouts in relieve to see Mike walks approach us in worry. Behind him there is Andy.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Roland. I tried to halt him but I fail," Mike says in regret.
"I really live here !!" I nag in so much confusion.
"You are not, Scott," Andy says. His voice sounds like a father tries to calm his tantrum child.
"I am !! Jennifer was three months pregnant, and I decided to move here and build a family with her. Then a month ago we were married!!"
"Sir, There is no one named Jennifer in this building," Mike says to me. "Believe me, I have worked here for more than ten years."
"I know you are. I know you have three children and a grand daughter. I know that your wife just passed away," I say to Mike.
"How.. how could you know ?" Mike asks in surprised until he steps a back.
"I told you, I live here! Jennifer and I went to your wife's funeral ceremony. That's why I knew about your family," I tell him.
"But, I don't know you, Sir. Forgive me, I really don't. I remember every name of the residents here, even their frequent guests. I don't forget a name.." Mike is getting more confused as I am.
I know he is telling the truth. He remembered my name already when I paid a second visit here.
"And there is no Jennifer McCourtney lives here, Sir. Not even a Jennifer lives here," Mike continues.
"That can't be.." I murmur in disbelief.
"Let's just go home first, okay," Andy invites me while rounds his arm on my shoulder. "We're really sorry for the discomfort we made," He says to the woman and Mike, "My friend here.. he just got an accident. So maybe ..."
"Her office!" I suddenly hisses as I remember about the D.A office where Jennifer uses to work. I refuse to believe I am hallucinating. I know my brain too well for that.
Without saying any word, I leave the apartment and runs to the D.A office, once again in fighter jet mode.
I run like a mad man to the D.A office. It is a government office. There are so many people working under her, right ? And it won't be easy to replace a position in a government office.
I only turn my brain into normal mode again when I arrive in front of the D.A. chief room, Jennifer's office room. My heart sinks to see a man is sitting in that room, busy reading a document.
"Excuse me, Sir. Can I help you ?" A man calls me from behind.
I turn my head to the caller. "Matt !!" I exclaim in joy. Matt Winshield is Jen's assistant of D.A.
Matt frowns. "Do I know you ?" He asks me in confused.
Once again, my heart sinks, this time deeper. "No. No.." I decide not to make a scene at D.A office, since the risk is could be being held in jail.
"I... I just read you name in some news," I continue. "When you were shot because of an assassin tried to kill your boss, Ms. McCourtney."
Matt frowns deeper. "I never had a shot," he says. "And my boss is Mr. Anderson," he adds.
"Are you sure ?" I ask his confirmation.
"Of course," he says in stern tone. "And may I ask what are you doing inside our office, Sir ? How can our securities let you in ?"
I don't have mood to answer him. I just turn my head to fighter jet mode again, then leave the office. When I am in front of the building, I see Andy just comes out of a taxi.
----------
"You should rest first," Andy suggest me while leading me to enter my apartment. My old apartment, one that I left after I killed Radwansky. Andy convince me that it's never happened. I have never killed a man named Radwansky that wanted to kill Jennifer because of inheritance issue. I have never met Jennifer, nevertheless helped her.
"Maybe it's just your dream," Andy says after I lay my self on my bed. I don't say any word. Is it just a dream ? It doesn't feel like a dream.
"How could I get an accident ?" I ask Andy.
"You just arrived from SF, went here by a taxi. The the taxi got hit by a truck," Andy says. He then takes his phone and making few moves on it before giving it to me. "It's even went in a news," he adds.
I read the news in his phone. It's about an accident happened two days ago. A taxi being hit by a truck. The driver couldn't make it, but the passenger, my name is mentioned, still alive.
"Do you want me to stay ?" Andy asks me after receiving his phone back.
"No... No... I'll be alright," I say to him weakly. Andy just nods and tells me to get a rest before leaving me in my apartment alone.
I of course don't get a rest. I surf the internet to know about Radwansky. There was a man named Ivan Radwansky, but he was dead in a car accident. In so much trouble, I finally able to reach his former fiancee, Rachel Waddleson . Rachel, with her childish voice, confirms me about Radwansky's death. She also tells me that she never heard about Jennifer McCourtney. I then go downstair to meet my front door guard, Joe. Jennifer has been lived here more than a couple of months. So, Joe should definitely at least recognizes her figure, if not knew her. But Joe says he has never saw a woman in Jennifer's figure, red hair and green eyes lived in the apartment.
I enter my apartment lifelessly. After trying hard to collect the evidence that Jennifer even ever exist, but having the opposite facts instead, my brain decided that it's just a dream.
"It's just a dream," I murmur to my self while laying my self on the couch. I feel my heart just reach the deepest bottom of my soul, realizing that all memories I have about Jennifer are just dream.
My hearts hurts so bad. Why is it hurt so bad when it's all just a dream ?
I sigh. I reach a couch pillow and hold it on my chest while my mind wandering about the beautiful dream I had. Al though only a dream, my mind doesn't want to let it go. I vividly still remember everything about her. Her laughter, her movement, her soft yet chewy lips, her scent.
I inhale deeply. I still vaguely can smell a mixture of sandalwood and flower from the pillow in my embrace. Wait.. My brain collects its logic. The scent should be non-existing.
I sniff my nose onto the pillow again. The smell is really there. I sniff my nose on the rest of my couch's surface. Jennifer slept on this couch for several nights. If it is just a dream, I should not be able to smell any of her scent. But the scent is there !! Jennifer's scent is all over the couch's surface !!