With Riley on the loose, Alex's house was the only safe place. It was in the woods, in the middle of nowhere.
An urgent knock came at the door.
[SFX: knocking]
"Who's there?" Alex demanded, shocked at how paranoid he sounded.
"It's us," replied a timid female voice.
He peeked through the peephole and relaxed when he saw Yvonne and Louis standing there. Christopher stood behind them, looking back into the woods.
"Oh, it's you guys," he said, relieved. He unlocked the door and let them in.
"We weren't followed," Yvonne said reassuringly. "It would have been too confusing to have us use separate cars. The woods are a big place."
"This is supposed to be a safe place," Alex explained as he turned on the radio. "I just don't want it compromised."
"We understand," Louis said.
"There's a phone with good connection in the study," Alex explained. "Hopefully we won't need it."
They spent the next hour making sure that all was secure. They placed soundproofing around the windows, checked the entire house for bugs, and placed their cell phones in a safe under Alex's bed.
"What we're doing," Alex said sternly, "it could go to hell pretty quickly."
"Only if we don't do it right," Yvonne said. "We're going to be fine. You're a grand champion martial artist!"
Taking a seat at the round dining table, Alex picked up one of the notebooks and briefly scanned the list of competitor products. All of it was fine, and there was certainly a market for these things, but Alex knew that there was a niche out there that hadn't been tapped. They just had to find it.
"Our product has to be something that people need," Alex declared, staring down at the notebook. "People don't want pharmaceuticals, and that's the problem."
"People don't want to invest in their health," Louis corrected, tucking a pen behind his ear. "Hmm, maybe that should be our focus?"
"Health investment?" Christopher asked. "Like, we throw money at other companies instead of developing our own pharmaceuticals?"
As Christopher and Louis bickered about the branding focus, Alex became restless. Why was starting a business so difficult?
"Rome wasn't built in a day," he reminded himself. Great empires took time to build, and that included pharmaceutical empires. He cast his gaze over to Yvonne, who was reading one of her many business books.
Alex found himself grinning stupidly.
"I think we should take a break," he said, picking up an empty mug. "We're getting a little cabin-fevery."
"What can we do instead?" Louis asked. "It's not like there's a TV or a portable movie projector or anything fun. Alex wanted this place untraceable."
"For a reason!" Alex reminded him. "We can't risk anything leaking!"
[SFX: radio static, followed by clear signal]
"The woods are so peaceful," said Yvonne. "I love being surrounded by so much nature. It's incredible!"
"I love it here too," Alex said, grinning. He was sitting next to her on the sofa, playing with his short hair. "I've been meaning to get out here and away from the city, anyway. Business or no business."
Suddenly, the radio cut off, leaving a beat of silence.
"Ladies and gentlemen," said a voice, "we apologize for the interruption. There have been reports of another disappearance in the Baltimore area. Two men, aged in their mid-20s, disappeared last night. Both men were last seen in the park, arguing with each other, before presumably returning to their respective homes. At the moment, we regret to inform you that we cannot release their names until their families have been notified. These two disappearances mark 53 since the disappearances began-"
"Oh my god," Yvonne gasped.
"That's enough of that!" Chris said, leaping to his feet and grabbing the radio. "How do you turn this thing off?"
He upended the radio in his hands, trying to find an OFF button as the reporter detailed what was currently known about the disappearances. Eventually, the radio clicked off, and once again silence hung amongst the four friends.
Yvonne stared wide-eyed at the radio as Chris placed it back on the mantle.
"53 since the year began," she repeated. "That's so many!"
"Yeah, it's a lot," Louis said, staring at the coffee table. "But there's nothing we can do."
Yvonne's cheeks were fiery red from humiliation. She was unhappy, and that made him feel bad. He felt as if he should stand up for her. Just as he was about to say something, she spoke up for herself.
"There's something strange happening!" she said, her voice high and shrill. "I can't believe I have to say that! How do 53 people just disappear? Do they spontaneously combust?"
Angry tears trickled down her cheeks and she wiped them away, glaring at the two boys.
"I can't believe you're so senseless," she accused them.
Seizing his chance, Alex stood up and got between them.
"I think we should get back to work," he said quickly. "This is stressful, yes, but I think we should focus on what we came here to do."
Louis and Chris groaned at the thought of having to pick up their books again, but they did it anyway.
Relieved, Alex sighed and smiled down at Yvonne, but she only looked at him with disappointment.
Yvonne could not believe what she was hearing. Baltimore had once been one of the safest places a person could live. Now, people were being plucked off the street like grapes off a vine. Something very wrong was going on, and she was frustrated.
"How can you be so unempathetic?" Yvonne asked. Her voice strained from holding back tears.
"It sucks," Louis said, "When it first started happening, I cared. A lot. It was scary, it is scary, you're not wrong there. But after a certain point, I dunno, it just feels like there's no point in worrying so much."
"Yeah," Chris agreed. "Bad things happen. I'm sure all the disappeared people were good folks, with good lives, but we don't know them.."
Christopher and Louis returned to the dining table and cracked open the books again, leaving Yvonne and Alex standing in the living room. Yvonne looked at the radio. It had been silent for a long time, but she hoped that it would crackle back to life with good news. She wanted to hear that all 53 abductees had been found safe and well, and were returning home.
But that would never happen.
She turned to Alex.
"You were pretty quiet," she said softly.
"I know," he said sheepishly. "I'm sorry. I don't know what to think."
"It's a confusing mess," she said.
"Like just about everything else that's happened," he said, leaning against a wall. He looked up at the ceiling. "Do you think we're doing the right thing?" He asked suddenly.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Starting the business," he said. "Pharmaceuticals. Competing with Riley."
Yvonne took a careful step back. "Alex? Are you okay?"
"I don't know," he said. "I wish I could answer that, but everything is getting a bit, well, everything. You know that Justin and Lincoln tried to kill me, right?"
Yvonne started, then nodded.
That was Alex? She thought, startled.
"Okay," he continued. "I want to move forward with my life, and try to have some kind of normality in it. Baltimore was the place I was hoping to do all of the normal stuff. I wanted to settle down. With someone special. Who I could trust."
The way he cast his gaze toward her made Yvonne feel lightheaded.
"I see," she said.
"I think that one might be Debbie."
Yvonne's heart plummeted. She barely heard Alex as he spoke.
Her head swam. Of course, Alex had a girlfriend. It wouldn't be that easy. He wasn't looking at Yvonne because he liked her, he was looking at Yvonne because he was talking to her. Sometimes, it was that heartbreakingly simple.
Alex wasn't on the cards for her. His heart belonged to someone else, and she berated herself for forgetting that. Debbie had been his rock in the early days of their relationship.
Yvonne scolded herself for thinking she could just walk in and take another woman's man.
She forced herself to speak.
"I think we all want that," she said. "Normal."
Alex nodded sadly. "Do you think I'm an idiot?" he asked.
Yvonne paused, closed her eyes, and said, "I think you're one of the smartest men I've ever met."
Alex looked away for a moment, then turned back to her. "What if I took the phones out? Just yours and mine?"
Yvonne paused and moved closer to him so she could speak in a low voice. She got so close to Alex that she could smell the expensive musk he wore. It was tantalizing, and she had to stop herself from reaching out and placing her hand on his chest.
"What were you thinking?" she asked.
"I might be getting a little paranoid," he said. "I don't know if our location can be traced just through a cell phone. It's possible, but we didn't tell anybody where we were going. Why would they trace us?"
"Maybe we put them on airplane mode?" she suggested. "Just so we have them?"
Alex nodded. "That's a good idea."
Yvonne joined Alex as he went to retrieve the phones. He placed his finger on the fingerprint scanner and opened the safe with a soft 'click.' Then, he pulled out her phone, in its pink case, and his phone, which had a sleek black case. Yvonne smiled at the simplicity of his phone.
Then, he got a glimmer in his eyes.
"What are you thinking?" she asked.
"I'm wondering," he said slowly, "if I can block the location-sharing features. All phones have them. Hang on. I did it!" he declared. He tossed Yvonne's phone to her. "Open it up, I'll do it for you as well!"
She did as he asked, and couldn't help but feel warm and fuzzy seeing him so excited.
Alex was more relaxed, more at ease. The sparkle came back to his eyes, and the color returned to his cheeks. His hair was messy from the long hours they had spent researching and ideating. He ran a hand through it and looked down at the safe.
"I guess I should close that," he said.
"Don't you want to get the other phones out?" she asked, picking up her phone and tucking it into her left jeans pocket. "Let Louis and Chris know you can block location signals?"
Alex thought for a moment, then shook his head.
"No," he said. "I don't want too many people up in my room again. Like I said, I don't know who I can trust anymore."
"Nothing feels safe," she said, scared. She hoped that he would tell her she was wrong, tell her how out of line she was being. Instead, he gave a single forlorn nod of his head, and closed the safe. He scanned his fingerprint again, and the safe clicked shut.
"I think everything is finally catching up with me," he said. "Everything that I thought I'd resolved and moved on from, it's been at the back of my mind. You know? Like a nagging feeling. Like a branch that's caught on the wind and just keeps getting tugged at. Something is trying very hard to hold me back, and I can feel it in my body as well as my mind. When I got here, I drank so much coffee I'm pretty sure my blood type is pure caffeine."
He chuckled at his own joke, and Yvonne laughed to make him feel better.
"I was scared to sleep until you guys got here," he admitted. "Didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night with a knife pressed to my neck. Or a gun to my head. Or in a dungeon. Or in a jail cell. Or in a pit surrounded by starving wolves. Or…"
He trailed off, eyes glazing over. Yvonne placed a ginger hand on his left shoulder.
"Alex?" she said softly. "Please go easy on yourself. You're so strong and brave. It hurts to see you getting so worked up."
Alex nodded absently, and Yvonne got up, and went downstairs, leaving him to his own devices.
Downstairs, she found Louis and Chris packing up and getting ready for bed.
Yvonne swiftly turned away from them and snuck toward the front door.
Yvonne needed air, she needed to breathe.
She especially wanted Alex to notice that she had left. Most of all, she just wanted him. Why did she have to be such an idiot over a guy? Let alone, a guy who had a girlfriend.
It surprised her how quickly Alex's house had become a safe haven, and how she had taken to Alex. She liked being close to him. Part of her wished that Chris and Louis hadn't come, but it was a four-way partnership. They were supposed to be a team. But she wanted it to just be her and Alex so badly.
Hot tears cooled on her face as she stood on the front porch. In the city, you couldn't see very many stars. Out here, there were considerably more. No more than a handful here and there, but she could make out a couple of constellations. More than she could have seen in a long time.
Behind her, the house loomed like a silent giant waiting to swallow her up.
"I have to get away from here," she told herself.
She forced herself to start walking. She walked straight ahead, counting her steps as she went. The woods gave way to a forest. She looked back. The house, its lights shining like beacons in the night stared back at her from far away.
As long as she could keep the house in her path, she would be fine.
Darkness closed around her as she continued into the forest, periodically checking to make sure that the house was still the beacon of safety she had come to know.
She walked into the dead of the forest and stopped, standing still among the trees. Something about being among the trees in darkness spoke to her. She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath of fresh forest air.
[SFX: Crickets chirping]
Everything was quiet. She could just breathe, and be in nature. No start-up to worry about. No Riley trying to kill her. For the first time in what felt like forever, she could allow herself to feel safe.
Pain broke out across her face, and she couldn't tell up from down. Then, her vision went fuzzy.