Collapsing into the chair with my head in my hands, I stared at the glass bottle under my eyes.
'Even though it'd feel great to just drink it away, I want you to face it. I know you're better than that silly thing.' Anneliese's voice rang in my mind as our last conversation played back, along with the memory that felt like the only thing he could recall.
'What are you? A counselor now?'
Making a face in response, Anneliese slipped into her PTV after sending me her number through her Neural interface.
Since she didn't have a home and, I felt, it was too risky to leave her somewhere unprotected. So, I registered her wavelength ID with Vanessa so she could stay at my home.
I lifted my head to stare at the pin board in front of me. Something I had been using to keep my attention away from the bottle below me.
But I was stuck.
'Who would kill Larkin without giving me a direct message?'
'If they did have a vendetta against me, why didn't they leave Vera a message to deliver for me?'
'Did they think I could figure it out?'
'But it all seemed to be too accidental to be a planned murder.'
'None of it would've happened if Larkin hadn't appeared there.'
'Would they have killed just a random cadet? But that wouldn't have bothered me the same way. Maybe killing Larkin was accidental and Vera was just crazy enough to be a bitch about it?'
I looked at the picture of Vera and another one of Revanche, they were stills from their interrogation videos, where they were formally charged and processed by the law.
Vera had gotten off with light charges, since she 'didn't intend to do it.'. Something not even a shred of my being believed.
'I guess I can confront her using the public jury. That'll be my only option.'
As I was staring at the images hovering in air visible only through my AR glasses, the door to my office opened.
'Oh, is Gracewell here?'
I nearly groaned but froze once I saw who it was.
'What-'
"What are you doing here?" Anneliese asked with a strict frown on her face.
I broke out of my trance and suddenly stood up as I asked in a confused hurry, "Are you alright? What's going on? Did someone do something or try to harm you?"
Anneliese glared at me a little more, but then just sighed deeply.
She looked back up at me and her frown had vanished, instead replaced by a sense of worry in her eyes as they fell on the bottle in between my hands.
"No! No!" I said, waving my hands along with the bottle. "I didn't touch this! I mean, I didn't touch the liquid inside it! This is just here for motivation!"
Anneliese shook her head and looked into my eyes, I could tell she was pissed. Gracewell did this too, but I couldn't understand why.
"You…*sigh* what do I do with you?"
"What happened? Tell me I might be of help?" I asked, seeing that it was something else and not a threat to her life that she was here to talk about.
"A week." She said in a flat tone, her expression reminiscent of a person tired of the world and all its troubles.
"A week?" I asked back. What does a week have anything to do with what she was talking about, was something going to happen in a week?
Watching her sigh again, I saw her continue, "You fool! You didn't go home for a week! And you didn't even pick up any calls!"
"Ah."
'Has it been that long already.'
Anneliese rushed in and grabbed my collar, but then she stepped back and pinched her nose.
"You didn't drink, but you smell as bad as one! Did you not even take a shower! How come the room's so clean!?"
"....well Gracewell did that, I think."
Anneliese's eyes stared into mine stoically.
"What? She was handling the office when I was supposed to be suspended! So she cleaned it the-"
Without allowing me to finish my sentence, Anneliese grabbed a hold of my collar again and pulled me from behind my desk, dragging me with her while I leaned over a little since she was shorter than me.
"What are you doing!? Someone might arrest you if they see you like this! Assaulting an officer!" I spoke with worry, I didn't know what Gracewell would do if she saw us in a situation like this.
'I don't care. I'd like to see what they can do while you're with me." Anneliese responded with the same confidence I'd instilled into her earlier at the casino.
'How did she get here? And who let her into my office in the first place?'
"Have a great day! Dave!" I heard a voice wish me well as I left, a voice I knew too well. Novie's the receptionist's voice.
'Tiresome.' I thought as I let myself continue to get dragged by the collar towards the exit by Anneliese.
Getting out of the building, I spotted a PTV waiting for us outside, its back door open.
'Was this what she came here in?'
Anneliese pushed me into the PTV first, completely ignoring my hate for PTV's along with my question about where my AeroStrider was.
'I hadn't seen it after it was confiscated. No doubt rotting somewhere in the evidence lockers.'
"Back to where we came from." Anneliese explained the driver by leaning into the front window.
Sitting beside me, I saw Anneliese look ahead with clear anger on her face as the driver began to drive.
"Are you alright?" Anneliese ignored me.
"Are you alright?!" I asked, this time waving my hands in front of Anneliese's eyes, but she still ignored me completely.
"Are you-" I asked again but squished her cheeks, which caused Anneliese to push my hands away and look at me in anger.
"What do you think? You left me alone for a week in a place I knew nothing about! I thought you were going to take responsibility!? The first day I studied for the tests thinking I'd surprise you when you'd be back since I thought you were busy because of the case, but by the fifth day? I was so angry that I think I wanted to toss you out from the landing doc-"
*THUNK*
All I heard was that sound, and before I knew it, sirens blared all around the PTV along with the ones that surrounded this once as the roof on our head collapsed with the PTV sinking and losing altitude.
The thrusters had begun to work audibly harder as I hugged Anneliese closer and buried her head under my arms to keep her safe while also trying to protect myself.
I looked ahead and found the driver had passed out after the roof dented into his head.
'Fuck!'
The emergency sensor worked to activate the hamster ball all around the PTV with emergency thrusters activating to keep the car afloat while the automated system took control to let the PTV land at a nearby landing deck.
Through the shattered glass in the front, I watched with great difficulty other cars in the area being grounded too, but I couldn't make out if they were damaged or not.
Well, that was until, I heard a loud metallic *THUD* once again as the PTV in front of me sank to the ground until I heard a loud *booming* explosion not long after.
"What's happening Dave!?" Anneliese asked in a worried voice, but I didn't respond. I just tightened my grip on her a little to calm her down.
'Now wasn't the time to answer questions.'
"Dave! What do we do!?" Anneliese asked again so I tried to think of something.
Looking out the windows around the PTV, I couldn't make out if there was any more danger, so I chose the safest option I could think of.
"Pray." I told her.
I left Anneliese on her seat, jumped to the front and pulled the unconscious driver's hands and placed it on the yoke, hoping the sensors still recognized his hand print.
Perhaps God was feeling particularly generous today, or her just wanted to torture me even more, but I was thankful to him either way when the lights on the yoke lit up once again after recognizing the driver's hand print.
Using his hands, I forced the PTV to tilt faster into the closest landing deck as I hoped to crash roughly into the floor in only a few seconds instead of the minute it would've normally taken.
The unconscious man bumped his head a couple more times into the already pancaked roof, but I was sure he'd live. At least he would if he had managed to survive the first one. I hoped so.
Anneliese was thrown around as the PTV crashed into billboards around, but she held on using the handles around her and my shirt while I was just ducking and had wedged my legs to protect any of my vitals from being damaged.
I heard several crashes but didn't mind as long as I didn't hear any biological things get crushed under our fall.
Although I did my best to stay conscious under all the wild shaking and Anneliese screaming, I couldn't after my head bumped into the seat to the driver's right that had been crushed from the collapsed roof.
The last thing I remembered was hearing Anneliese scream out my name as I fell out.
"DAAAAAAVVEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!"
'Fell out?'
My body jerked back to consciousness as I found myself hanging, barely, by holding onto Anneliese's hands who herself was trying best to hold onto the handles on her side that hadn't snapped yet.
I looked down and saw that the distance between me and the ground was approaching rapidly, and immediately knew I'd be a pancake too if I didn't avoid it, somehow.
'Climb?'
'No. I won't make it.'
'Then..'
I looked at Anneliese who made eye contact with me and I just nodded at her as I spoke, "Don't worry."
Before she could respond, I freed myself from her hand and fell from the PTV as it glazed over my head into the landing roof that was below while I dropped onto the building that was getting larger, and it was getting larger quick.
I ducked my head behind my arms as I pushed out my hard boots in front of them while hoping for the best as I fell.
'This is why I hate PTV's. Too many people to take care of during a crash.'
I could feel the crunch in my bones as my legs smashed into the window of the glass building in front.
'It's open! I hope who ever does it is thanked by God!'
The window tilted under the pressure exerted by my boots as it swung open and allowed my legs to pass through as I slipped past just as the lower half swiveled back up behind me.
Landing feet first into a desk, I first heard the loud crash I produced and then felt it on my body.
My arms smashed against several wooden panels while my legs opened the way by smashing through them.
My head remained protected behind my arms, but I couldn't say the same for my mental state because of the screams that sounded all around me attempting to drive me insane.
'What's wrong with people! Haven't they seen a person crash into their windows ever!?'
I soon stopped rolling but kept my head tucked and stayed still for a few moments as all the voices quitened, until I heard a loud crash above myself, presumably on top of the landing deck if nothing had gone wrong.
With a mental sigh, I stood up and felt the absolute hellish pain that came from placing weight on what were probably fractured legs, but I stayed silent.
'I've had enough screams for today.' I decided.
I scanned the area that I recognized to be an office and walked, or rather limped my way to the elevator.
On my way, I watched the all the shocked gazes of people around the floor, but I felt no need to converse with them for now, there was something more important I had to do first.
I stepped into the elevator, but then a thought struck my head as I looked at the panel in front of me.
'Shit! I don't know.'
Reluctantly, I looked at the still stunned audience and tried to speak using a commanding tone, "Where's the landing deck?"
The silent spell that had been cast over the area broke as the screams broke out again while someone in the panic shouted out '99' that I guessed was the number I needed.
I pressed the button labeled '99' on the panel and also pushed the button for the door to close as I watched people try to come at me.
'Ha! I would've recorded this scene if I had my AR glasses on.'
'Wait, where did my AR glasses go?'
My thoughts were stopped as a sharp pain emitted from right above my eyebrows, my vision turned red as I watched what looked like blood drops fall down from my brows over my vision.
'What the hell.'