Alex needed some air. He had just confessed his affair with Kylie to Debbie, and then followed it up by kissing Yvonne. He had to get out of the house.
Alex stood outside, allowing the cool night air to brush past his face. An overpowering sense of guilt crushed him. So much has gone wrong in such a short amount of time that his head was spinning.
"What are you doing out here?" asked someone behind him.
Alex closed his eyes and turned around, hoping that he didn't just hear Yvonne's voice. When he opened his eyes, he saw her standing there, eyes averted as he looked at her.
"What do you want?" he asked, exasperated.
Yvonne drew a deep breath, preparing herself for what she was about to say.
"I want to apologize," she said firmly. "We need a fresh start. All of us. But you and Debbie need it more."
"It's a bit soon to apologize," Alex said, crossing his arms over his chest. "And I thought we were acting like it never happened!"
"No buts, Yvonne," Alex said, his mind spinning. "We can't pretend like this never happened if we keep talking about it. Please, just let it go."
Alex didn't wait for her to say anything, he just stormed past her, clipping her on the shoulder. While he went, he muttered something under his breath about "needing peace and quiet."
Yvonne stumbled where she stood, but Alex didn't stop to help steady her. She stood there, staring numbly at her feet, until she heard the door close. All she had wanted to do was clear the air. Perhaps it was too soon, like Alex had said, but she needed to do something about the pain deep inside of her.
[SFX: camera clicking]
Yvonne jumped, and snapped her head in the direction of the noise.
"What was that?" Yvonne asked in the darkness. She looked all around her, but there was nothing, and no one, to be seen.
******
Miserable, Debbie curled up on her bed. It was one of the few rooms in the house which had not been destroyed. She hugged one of her pillows. It was stained with tears and mascara. Debbie was watching out the window. Yvonne had chased Alex outside, but he had stormed off the second Yvonne had started to berate him.
She's such a good friend, Debbie thought. She'll get through to him.
Debbie shifted on the bed, hugging the pillow closer to her. It was one of the few sources of comfort she had.
[SFX: knock at the door]
"Go away!" she shouted, grabbing a smaller pink pillow and tossing it toward the door. It landed with a dull thump and fell to the floor.
The door cracked open anyway, revealing a very confused Christopher. He looked through the crack, standing in the hallway, unsure of whether or not he should say anything.
"What do you want?" Debbie said, flopping back onto the bed. "Can't you see I'm miserable right now?"
Christopher stepped in, closing the door behind him. "I wanted to see if you were okay."
"I believe I already answered that," Debbie snapped, rolling onto her side so she was facing the window again. Her back was to Christopher.
"Yeah," he said with uncertainty. He scratched the back of his head, looking at Debbie. "I noticed you were upset. Are you upset about, you know, the tower going up in smoke?"
Debbie propped herself up on one elbow and turned to him. She looked at him with a flat expression.
"You didn't hear?" she said snidely. "While Yvonne and I were in the tower, Alex was busy getting busy with Riley's sister!" She screamed the last word, slamming her fists on the mattress either side of her. Her face flushed a deep red and she glared at a point in front of her.
Christopher didn't know what to say. He covered his gaping mouth with one hand and turned away, facing the bookshelf on the other side of Debbie's bedroom. It was filled with books and a few pictures of Debbie and Alex in various vacation spots. In one of them, Alex and Debbie were standing on a white sand beach, dressed in snorkeling gear. They were both tanned and smiling.
Figuring he should say something, Christopher turned back to Debbie. "Did he say why?"
Debbie answered the question by throwing a pillow at him.
Christopher barely caught it before it hit him.
"Okay, okay, geez," he said, dropping the pillow. "I'll stop talking about it!"
"That would be appreciated," Debbie sneered. She got to her knees and stretched, her long hair falling over her shoulders. Then, she folded her hands in her lap and said, "I'm sorry. I just thought that Alex loved me."
Christopher blinked. "Are you kidding? He does love-"
Before Christopher could finish that sentence, he was cut off by a scream. Debbie was gripping the window sill, staring panicked down at the garden. Christopher rushed to her side, dodging pillows as he clambered to see what was going on.
He looked through the window, but all he could see was darkness and forest.
"What is it?" he asked, breathless.
Debbie looked at him and pointed. "There! There! Do you see? The shadow!"
Christopher fixed his gaze where she pointed, and he could make out the faint outline of a shadow running through the trees. He turned to Debbie and said, "Wait here."
Then, he opened up the window and climbed out, grabbing the drain pipe and shimmying down it. He got about halfway down before letting go, dropping the last few feet. He landed upright, and ran in the direction of the shadow.
He ran as fast as he could. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest and his lungs began to burn.
I need to go to the gym, he thought. I am so out of shape.
The shadow was fast. He - Christopher assumed he was a he - sprint through the trees as fast as lightning. Christopher had to duck underneath branches and dodge around tree trunks as the shadow led him on the chase. Christopher almost crashed into low-hanging branches several times, but always managed to keep a steady pace with the shadow.
The back of Christopher's shirt got caught on a branch, yanking him back. For a tense moment, he watched as the shadow - who he could now see was a man dressed in black - sped away into the dark of the forest. Cursing, Christopher wrestled with his shirt.
When he finally managed to get free, he took off after the man in black, who he still thought of as a shadow. He slipped so quickly and quietly between the trees that he almost began to blend into the scenery.
"Get back here!" Christopher yelled. "What the hell were you doing?"
The shadow did not answer. Instead, he put his head down, and kept running. Christopher did the same thing, and soon found himself just inches away from him. Christopher could no longer think of him as a shadow from this point, he could see the hair on the back of his neck. Christopher reached out a hand, ready to grab the back of the guy's neck.
And then, the guy picked up speed, and Christopher did the same. He sped up, pumping his arms and legs as hard as he could, in an effort to catch up. He got a little closer, and saw that the shadow took the form of a man wearing all black.
Just as Christopher was about to catch up, his foot caught on a root that jutted out from the soil. He screamed as he hit the solid, packed earth. The scream was cut short as he smacked his head against a rock. The world went black.
******
Mark skidded to a halt, turning around to look at the guy who was tailing him. He was lying face down on the earth, right ankle twisted at an odd angle, arms spread out either side.
He breathed a sigh of relief. At least he could get to the rendezvous point without having to deal with the problem of an unwanted guest.
He turned to leave, but his conscience tugged at him. Mark looked back at the guy, and wondered if he should at least prop him up against a tree trunk.
He could have a concussion, he thought. He could die!
Mark shifted his weight and danced on his feet for a few minutes, before he decided to just leave the poor guy. Along the way, his conscience tugged at him, urging him to go back and help him.
Mark shook it off. The camera was in the front pocket of his black coat. The boss needed the information that was on the camera, and Mark would deliver.
Mark made it to the rendezvous point in good time, and waited. Above, the sky had lightened a little, but it wasn't quite twilight yet. He heard soft footsteps behind him, and turned to face the person who created them.
"Hello Mark," said the boss. He kept to the treeline, looking like a tall shadow against the trees. "I hope you have some good news for me."
Mark nodded. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the camera.
"As we discussed," he said, presenting the camera. "One camera full of evidence. Everything from the last few days is on there."
The boss took the camera and looked at it, turning it in his hands.
"He just kissed the other girl," Mark continued, putting his hands in his pockets and looking at the camera with pride. "Not the one who's his girlfriend. What's her name? Yvonne? Anyway, you have pretty much everything you need to take him down there. Even a spicy video of him and Kylie."
The boss stopped turning the camera in his hands and looked up at Mark.
"A video, you say?" the boss asked. He had a deep, aged voice.
"Plenty of videos," Mark said, leaning in. "A couple of sound clips, too."
The boss tucked the camera away. "Well done, Mark," he said, pulling out a handkerchief. "You've certainly proven to be a useful asset this last month."
Mark grinned. "Nothing I love more than taking down unethical businessmen."
"Indeed," said the boss. "Before we part ways, I must ask one more question."
"Shoot," Mark said.
"Were you followed?"
The question caught Mark by surprise. He pursed his lips, unsure whether he should be honest. The guy was probably still lying face down in the direction where Mark had left him. On the other hand, he could have woken up. If that was the case, he might have continued to follow Mark, or he could have just gone back to the house.
"Kind of," Mark admitted, looking away from the boss.
Even though the boss was hidden by the shade of the trees, Mark could feel the icy stare he was giving.
"What do you mean, 'kind of'?" the boss asked. "You aren't 'kind of' followed. You 'kind of' forget about toast in a toaster. Be specific, boy!"
Mark shrank back. "There was a guy."
"More specific."
Mark swallowed, feeling tense. "A guy, back at the house. I heard somebody scream. I thought it was a Yvonne girl getting attacked or something, and the guy jumped out of the freaking window and climbed down the drain pipe! Can you believe that?"
The boss paced around in his dark little space a few times, considering what Mark had said.
"I suppose I can," he mused. "The fact that you were followed tells me something else. You were seen."
Mark felt a heavy weight fall in his belly. Being seen was not something you wanted in the espionage profession. He thought back, trying to think if anybody else had seen him.
"We can use this to our advantage," the boss continued. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Tell me, how far did this guy
"Not all the way!" Mark said defensively. To emphasize the point, he waved a hand as if erasing all memory of the guy.
The boss stared at him, shoulders hunched.
"And he came from the house, you said?" asked the boss.
"That's right," Mark confirmed.
"How tall was he? What did he look like?" The boss took a step closer, becoming slightly more visible in the darkness. He was tall and had graying hair. There was a regal air to him, so much that Mark felt the need to look away.
Mark tried to think. "Roughly my height," he said. "Dark-ish hair. He was wearing track pants and a t- shirt, like she was getting ready to go to bed. Also slippers. That's probably why he tripped up so easily."
The boss spat on the ground.
"Probably not Alex," the boss said. "Probably one of the other two men."
"Other two men?" Mark asked, creasing his forehead. Until recently, he had thought that only Alex, Yvonne, and the girlfriend, Debbie, were staying at the house in the forest. He hadn't been expecting a random guy to just jump out of a window and start chasing him.
"Put it together, you idiot!" the boss shouted, voice echoing through the forest. A flock of birds flew away, their wings beating against the wind. The boss lowered his voice, and tried to speak calmly. "If he came from the house, he was probably one of Alex's friends!"
Mark stared at the boss, unsure of what to think. "What does that mean?" he asked.
"It means we can use him!" the boss said.
"What?" Mark said, startled.
"We can get vital information from him," the boss said, returning to his usual, dignified manner of speaking. "Our enemy's friend can also be our friend. Go back, find him, and bring him to me! There's no telling what kind of secrets we can pry from him! Do this, and I will add a bonus to your pay for this."
The boss produced the camera. Its lenses glimmered in the moonlight. Mark looked at it, his guilty conscience tugging him back to the poor guy. Then, he turned around, and ran back into the forest, looking for the man who had been chasing him.