Amelia had never expected the hospital to feel very lonely at night time. She looked down at her right immobile right hand which was placed in a cast. 'hopefully it'll heal before the new school session' she thought. The image of her father and mother's worried face as she appeared at the front door with a police officer and a busted wrist appeared in her head. They didn't hesitate to send her to the hospital. The one think she was thankful for, was not explaining herself to them. The police officer had briefed them on whole situation. She remembered how shocked and wide eyed they both looked. The police officer omitted her claims about the culprit being a monster. That quite understandable. Saying things like seeing a monster was very absurd. Amelia was more interested in that woman who got the accurate description of the creature. 'I wish I could ask her more questions' she thought. Amelia sighed as she looked out the window of her hospital room. The moonlight illuminated the area, casting a shadow of a tree on the glass window. The shadow moved slowly, almost like it was dancing. Her eyes were fixed intently on the mysterious shadow, but her mind was somewhere else. No matter how much she wanted to forget, the memory of that night lingered in her memory like a parasitic pest, feeding on her sleep. Whenever she closed her eyes to sleep, the events played in her head as nightmares. Amelia let out a small sigh and closed her eyes, hoping that when she falls asleep, there would be no nightmares.
"Woah.." Oliver said as he stepped into the office.
His eyes were on Maria who had her head rested on her messy desk which had Paper work sprawled across the it. Her straight jet black hair was now in a messy bun. Maria let out a groan as she lifted up her head.
"I didn't think you would stay here overnight." Oliver said reaching for the curtains.
He spread them apart, letting light into the dim office. Maria squinted his eyes, trying to adjust them to the light.
"I had to take down some notes. It took longer than I expected." Maria said, rubbing her eyes.
" coffee?"
"Definitely."
Oliver gave her a small smile and left the office.
"Ms Winston?" Maria said as she stood at the doorway.
Amelia looked up at her. Maria noticed how her eyes lit up. It was subtle but noticeable if you looked hard enough.
"You're the officer from the other day."
Maria nodded.
"can I have a seat?"
"Um, sure" Amelia said as she pointed a hand towards an empty stool.
Maria took a seat, putting her right leg on top of her left leg.
"How are you feeling?"
Amelia looked down at her hands which were clasped tightly.
"Aside from the pain in my wrist, I feel okay."
"That's great." Maria replied.
"I'd like to get some information about what happened that night. You can tell me anything, no matter how meager it is… okay?"
Amelia nodded in agreement.
"Alright, can you give me a run down of what really happened that night?"
"okay."
Amelia proceeded to give Maria a detailed description of even thing that happened that day. Maria listened attentively, taking down notes once in a while.
"The monster seems to be scared of the sunlight, because it ran away immediately the sun came out." Amelia said.
Maria looked at her notes, flipping the pages slowly. She paused and looked up at Amelia.
"You said there were a total of six people including yourself?"
"Yes?" Amelia said Tilting her head.
"But the number of bodies we found were 4, including yourself 5."
"That weird…." Amelia said staring at the ceiling.
"Emily, Jerry, Leroy, Katy, me….."
she paused.
"Nancy." Amelia muttered under her breath.
She made a sharp turn in Maria direction.
"Nancy!"
Maria gave her a confused look.
"Nancy came with us! She was with us! But she was nowhere to be found when the monster appeared!"
Maria noticed that she was getting worked up.
"Calm down, take a deep breath….."
Amelia took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She repeated the action a few more times before Maria spoke.
"Can you describe how this Nancy looks like?"
"S-She had blonde hair and she wears like really thick glasses…."
Maria scribbled something on her note.
"And you have no idea on where she went that night?"
Amelia shook her head.
"Alright that's fine." Maria said, closing her jotter.
"Do you have anything else you would like to tell me?" "Um, you said you've seen the monster before….do you have any idea what that thing could be?"
Maria sighed and place her hand on top of Amelia's.
"I also wish I knew what exactly that creature is and how it even exists but I'm just as clueless as you are." Maria stood and headed towards the door.
"And also, I'll advice you forget about the creature. Don't tell anyone else about it."
Amelia nodded.
"Well then, thank you for your time Miss Winston." Maria said before leaving her hospital room.
"Anything from the DNA analysts?" Maria asked. Oliver shook his head.
"Not a single word from them."
Maria leaned back on the chair, rubbing her aching temples. The people from the DNA analysts section were always slow in delivering results. It always made Maria wonder what type of people worked there. She had actually met one of them once during her visit to the art museum. Maria was examining a sculpture of a what looked like a gargoyle when he stood close to her. They both stood there, encompassed with a silence which made her feel very awkward. Maria wasn't the type to start up a conversation with a stranger but felt the urge to. She proceeded to ask him what he thought about the sculpture. The man just stood there, staring at the sculpture. To Maria, it felt like he was ignoring her existence. Her cheeks went hot red when the embarrassment hit her. Since that day, she never started a conversation with strangers. "thinking about it now, the guy may have been deaf." She said, thinking out loud.
"Hm?" Oliver said as he looked up from his desk.
"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking out loud."
Oliver chuckled.
"No smoke break today?"
Oliver sighed
"my girlfriend doesn't like it, so I plan on quitting." "Oh….."
Maria didn't feel comfortable whenever Oliver uttered anything about his girlfriend. It she were to describe the feeling, it felt like a thousand sharp needles were penetration her heart through her chest. It was a very painful and uncomfortable feeling and she hated feeling it. 'why did I even fall for this man?' she thought. The question was of great interest to her. She looked at Oliver, examining his features. He had a perfect chiseled face. With a face like that he could bag a modelling job with ease. This made her wonder why he choose this job.
"say….., why did you choose this job?"
Maria couldn't contain her curiosity. Oliver looked at her with one eyebrow titled up. Maria thought his expression was almost comical.
"Why this question all of the sudden, am I getting interviewed?" Oliver said.
Maria giggled.
"No reason in particular, I just want to satisfy my curiosity."
Oliver dropped his pen and leaned back on his chair. "Well…." He said, trailing off.
From his expression, Maria could tell that he was thinking hard about what to say. She put her head in her hands and waited patiently for him to speak.
"Promise you won't laugh?"
Maria nodded.
"Don't worry, it can't be that bad."
Oliver ran his hand through his hair.
"I used to watch a lot of detective cartoons as a kid. That was when I made up my mind that I would become one when I'm much older."
Maria let out a hearty laugh.
"You said you wouldn't laugh....." Oliver said, his cheeks turning slightly pink.
"I know, but I couldn't help myself." Maria said as she wiped a drop of tears forming at the corner of her eye. "But I find it admirable that you stuck to your dream. Most people give up after second year of high school." Oliver perked his head up.
"What was your childhood dream job?"
Maria put a finger on her chin, like she was trying to remember something.
"If I recall correctly, I wanted to be an actress."
Oliver folded his arms.
"And why did you abandon that dream?"
"Well... I'm not pretty enough or charismatic enough to be an actress."
Oliver looked at her, slightly confused. It seemed like that was the only expression he knew how to make nowadays.
"Why would you say that? You're actually very pretty." The blood in Maria head seemed like it was getting an increase in temperature. This was the first time Oliver had actually acknowledged her looks. She felt like a high school girl who had just been complimented by her crush. Her stomach rumbled loudly, causing her to come back to earth.
"when was the last time you ate?" Oliver asked. "yesterday..."
Oliver sighed.
"Come on, I know a restaurant nearby, let's get something to eat."
"that sounds good to me." Maria said
"Sooo, are you going to tell me how it went?"
Kenna poked her chicken with her fork and looked up at her friend, Daisy. They had met in college during a frat party. Kenna was feeling nauseous from all the drinking and headed outside to get some fresh air. Daisy stood there, a smoke in between her fingers. Kenna could already taste the acidic liquid from her stomach. She hurled over as the yellowish liquid poured out from her mouth. It stopped for a while, then her stomach contracted, releasing more of the liquid. The cycle continued for a minutes. By the fifth time, Kenna was already feeling heavily fatigued. Her body felt like that of an inflated balloon. As she tried to stand to her feet, she felt flat on her back. Her eyes lids grew heavy and she gave into the weariness. Kenna vividly recalled how shocked she was when she woke up in Daisy's messy apartment. Daisy had taken her home when she blacked out. It didn't take a lot of time for them to become friends after that. Daisy took a sip of her iced tea, waiting patiently for her friend's reply.
"It went better than I expected." Kenna said as she kept poking her food.
After a few bites of her meal, she lost interest in it. She reminded herself to never go to a restaurant recommended by daisy.
"That means he enjoyed it?" daisy said, her eyes gleaming with curiosity.
Amelia pondered on it for a while. She wasn't really paying attention to Oliver with all the pleasure she was receiving. She enjoyed it, but she wasn't sure if he did. Immediately she had an orgasm, he had washed up and gone straight to bed. Kenna dropped her fork and crossed her hands over her chest. She was actually starting to worry now.
"Hey…" daisy said, giving her a light tap on her arm. Kenna looked at daisy to see her eyes fixed on something beyond her.
"isn't that your boyfriend With another girl?"
Kenna made a quick turn to the direction daisy was pointing to. To her disbelief, Oliver stood at the register with a girl she had never seen before. The emotion that began to flare up within her was one that she had never felt before. Of course it was jealousy. Her first instincts was to March up to them and give Oliver an earful of questions.
"What are you going to do?" daisy asked.
Kenna tapped her feet repeatedly on the ground in frustration. Why don't you go over there and meet them. Oliver might be cheating on you for all you know. A voice spoke to her. She knew the voice was just a pigment of her imagination but she couldn't help but indulge it. Standing up abruptly, she walked briskly, making her way to were they stood. She had ignored daisy, who was objecting to what she was about to do. Oliver and Maria turned towards Kenna who was now standing in front of them. "Kenna…..What are you doing here?" Oliver said, a surprised expression plastered on his face.
"Who is she?" Kenna blurted out almost immediately. "Oh, I'm Maria, his coworker." Maria said as she extended our her hand for a shake.
"I don't remember asking you." Kenna said coldly. "We'll talk about this at home." Kenna made a beeline for her seat. She picked up her purse and made her way to out of the restaurant in a haste will daisy followed behind her barely keeping up. Oliver sighed as he scratched his chin.
"I'm really sorry about that."
Maria gave him a small smile.
"It's fine. More importantly I'm hungry, let's quickly order some food."
Oliver nodded.