After the party, everyone went on their own ways. As the bar wasn't too far from her mother's house, Echo decided to go to her and at least say goodbye. Her mother had just finished her shift, according to her watch. Echo knew she would be tired, but wanted to at least say bye to her before leaving. Walking down the road, it was mostly quiet; her mother lived in one of those neighbourhoods which were mostly asleep during the night. Echo had often found the darkness soothing and therapeutic, there was just something about a midnight walk which gave her a buzz. It felt exhilarating.
When she arrived outside her mom's house, the door was open- not all the way open, but open. Opening the door wider, everything appeared to be normal. Nothing was out of place. It was quite silent, and all Echo could hear was the soft sound of deep breathing. Turning around the corner, Echo saw her mom sleeping on the couch. She appeared thoroughly exhausted from her work that day- she had worked overtime, as usual. Smiling, Echo went upstairs and collected her mother's blanket and pillows and covered her; she was too heavy for Echo to attempt to carry. She also appeared to be fast asleep, and Echo didn't wish to disturb her. Writing a note, Echo could only include the bare minimum in the note. It was quite a vague note, and went along these lines:
'Hi mom,
Came over last night to say goodbye to you as I'm going away tomorrow on a trip. I'm not sure how long I'll be gone, but it was quite a sudden decision of mine. I wanted to properly say goodbye to you, but thought you needed the sleep more. I'll call you up as often as I can.
Lots of Love,
Echo'
Her name seemed quite fitting in this very moment. When she would leave, all that would be left in her mom's life of her would be the distant echoes of memories; not all of them positive, but all of them imbued with a mother's love for her child. Echo felt tears forming in her eyes, and for once, let them flow down unmonitored. Her breaking point had reached. Echo had mentally sworn to herself not to let herself shed any more tears; she had already shed enough tears for a few lifetimes. When her father was killed, she was in shock. It was only the other day that they were playing in the park together. Wasn't it two days before that her father had bought her a cupcake. Did she ever fully inform him about how much she loved him, needed him, adored him, worshipped him, respected him? The night he had left, she had had a tantrum- about the new tamagotchi that all her friends were getting. How come she didn't have it. Little did she know that in a few hours that tamagotchi toy was going to be no concern of hers at all.
A beep shook her out of her reverie. Just a random car with an overexcited driver beeping it's head off. Kissing her mother on her forehead, Echo swiftly exited her mom's house, after one final glance at her mother. Deciding to not order an Uber, Echo began her fifty minute walk to her flat. In retrospect, it was a stupid decision; she had two criminals, who she helped capture and knew on first name basis, most probably after her; one of whom was a leader of a large cartel, and the other who was a mercenary. However, this isn't one of those stories where the protagonist makes no mistakes. In this story, our characters are human. So Echo committed one of the most foolish mistakes in her life. She was out walking in a low repute area of Los Angeles at 2:18 in the morning, with her phone dead, nothing in her clutch handbag, except some mint chewing gum- which she didn't even like, and was probably out of date. Walking along the pavement, Echo let her guard down. It was her last night in LA for she didn't know how long. She was quite light headed. Until she got grabbed a pulled into an alleyway. Suddenly, she kicked herself out of this reverie and struggled against her assailant. She felt a prick in her skin and was out like a light.
When Echo first started gathering her consciousness, she was in no hurry to open her eyes. At the moment, it felt as if she was on a comfortable bed- not a rock hard floor as her anxiety had expected. The air smelled fresh as well. Judging herself to be in no immediate danger, Echo slowly opened her eyes. Looking around, she noticed she was in a plain room, nothing expensive. There was the bed she was sat on, a radiator near a window. An air conditioning unit by the door. The room was a beige cream colour. Getting up from the bed, Echo felt a bit dizzy and took a moment to steady herself. When she reached the window, she peered outside. She seemed to be on the outskirts of a city. She wasn't sure which city exactly, but it didn't seem like she had been out for too many hours. Just then, Echo noticed the CCTV camera. Whoever was holding her here obviously knew she was awake. Just for effect, Echo waved at the camera. No response. Instead of sitting back on the bed, Echo tried the door. Unfortunately, as she had predicted, it was locked. She knocked on the door and received no answer. Sitting back on the bed, she once more surveyed the room. Wood floor, square room, white lights that were not overpowering. However much time passed, Echo was unaware- her watch had been taken. After an immeasurable amount of time passed, the door opened. It admitted a woman, she had ginger hair, average features- perhaps too big of a mouth for her visage, wearing a suit. Not unlike the one the guy, who she had dubbed the name James, was wearing.
Sitting down on the bed, without asking her, the woman immediately displayed her identification card. Leanne Samuels, Witness protection, and a bunch of other information.
"Hi there, as you can clearly see, my name is Leanne Samuels and I'll be the presiding agent over your case," the lady said, quite pompously to Echo. She took a breath and continued, "as you are well aware, you have two dangerous criminals who are nearly one hundred percent after you. They both have many resources at their finger tips,".
Echo couldn't continue biting her lip anymore so she interrupted Leanne, "Sorry to interrupt you, however, I've already been contacted by a guy- his name was Bob, can't recollect his last name- did he even give his last name..." Echo began to wonder off at the end of her sentence. Leanne was blatantly shocked.
Leanne was silent for a moment or two, which Echo thanked the good L-rd for, as her voice had been getting on her nerves. Unfortunately, she regained her ability to speak, and only delivered even more dismal news, "We don't have any man called Bob in this department, can you describe him to me?". After a brief description, Leanne paled even more. It turned out he was the main contact of one Julia Smithson. Echo nearly kicked herself, she knew it was suspicious he hadn't displayed his identity card. It now seemed like there was even more at stake. Leanne started texting on her phone rapidly. After a few minutes of this, Leanne put her phone away.
It turned out that she contacted her boss, and they had decided to change in the last minute where she would be going. It was going to be kept between the three of them and not be recorded anywhere in the system. It was too risky. The email was from them, however they had decided against meeting her in such a public place, and unfortunately, due to a computer glitch, the email had been sent to the wrong client, which had lead to quite a mess.
It was revealed in that room, that she would be going to Manchester, England. She would be getting a new identity- of course. Leanne left the room an returned with a document with all the information she would need to know. Her new name would be Freya Michelle Wilson. She had graduated university with a degree in psychology. She would be the school counsellor, for all those who needed help, teach PSHE, and would also teach psychology A-level. She would start teaching in September, until then she would be joining the school as one of the school counsellors. Technically, Echo was licensed to do that, but she had specialised in criminology psychology. She hoped she was able to actually pass in her role. Freya had moved to England from America as she desired a new scenery. The school itself seemed alright- it was a public secondary school, so that meant she would have children from all sorts of backgrounds. Leanne told Freya, as she would now be called, that she would be in this facility for the next month, during that month she would memorise her information and learn to be accustomed to her new identity.