"Please stop." Mia pleaded to the crowd. Mia's face blanched as she noticed more people still recording the drama. There was no way to cover this up. Nora looked at the awkwardness in the lobby, and took in the disgusted looks that Mark was getting and felt a sense of satisfaction. Nora calmly put her phone in her purse and started to pull out her luggage. She turned back and shouted.
"It is too late Mia." Nora yelled at her. It did not stop her pursuit in the least. She would not be staying around to deal with her.
"Hey Gina? Call me a ride please? I will be waiting outside." Nora said as she straightened herself out. The shocked desk clerk nodded and picked up her phone. The hotel was high end for the area. However, the shouting about Mark being with a young teenage girl drew attention from the inebriated gentlemen in the adjacent restaurant bar. More people started to pour in through the adjoining door. Mia's lips were trembling under the gaze of the small crowd. She hid her face in her humiliation. When their father heard about this, he would be livid. Nora looked like she might cry, but Mia noticed a smirk. She could not do anything untoward, fight her or insult her as she was still being recorded. All she could do was act pathetic and apologetic.
"That's Mia Quill. The influencer? I wish I had caught all this on camera, but it looks like I can find it online from start to finish." Mia heard someone say from the crowd.
"We gotta clean this up Mark, last time I lost a sponsor. This time it will be worse." Mia said as her voice trembled. She had no idea that it would suddenly turn out like this. Exposed, with no chance just to spring it on Nora at a family dinner. Privately. She was stuck with Mark for as long as she was in the country now. If she moved on too quickly the optics would not be good. Mia watched her sister leaving the hotel lobby weighing her options.
"I am sorry Mark. I was scared." Mia said innocently.
"Right." Mark said doubtfully. A pint glass collided with his head as men jeered at him to get away from 'the little girl'.
'No one is here to hold your hand, commit to loving Mark for now, you can go to boarding school like her and dump him and come back later. Apologise and claim that you had a crush and it was not vindictive and clean up from there.' Mia thought as pulled herself together.
Mia started to chase Nora outside to plead with her to delete the video off of her account and call it an act. It would take forever to get over a scandal like this if she did not get a hold of the situation. Mark chased after her, having to get away as a pint glass collided with his shoulder painfully.
"Nora, wait." Mia shouted as she ran after her. Her heels clicked quickly against the tile on the lobby and down the series of steps. Father would probably be as angry with Nora. He could not dispose of Nora so easily, and it did not matter if she did not have Quill backing her. She had her mothers money and her maternal family's wealth. The family spent so much time avoiding the camera after finding out about her mother. It impacted Nora so much that she began to see a psychologist. If she could get Nora home quickly, there might be a chance if she is having a panic attack outside. Nora would faint when she was stressed. If she could get a hold of her phone she could delete the post or find some way to spin this.
"F****** hell." Nora said, wiping the tears pouring out of her eyes. She could hear her sister panicking inside and following behind her. She dragged her heavy luggage down the stairs and a wheel had popped off of the souvenirs she had brought with her for the family.
"Nora, please wait. I am sorry." Mia shouted behind her. She took off her high heels and lobbed them quickly at her sister. "Stop, you're going to ruin my life over this? Our lives? Think, Nora." Mia yelled as she spotted her sister struggling. Nora opened her purse and took out her OC spray as Mia approached her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa." Mia skid to a stop. "Just delete it." Mia pleaded. Mark quickly charged towards her, being over-encumbered by the mob.
"Give her the f****** phone, Nora." Mark growled. Mia grabbed at him and then noticing the opening his bullheaded behavior created, Mia reached for her sister again. Nora discharged the OC spray, which miraculously made it through airport security. "Ah, you B****! Ah, Ah, Ah. Water." Mark complained, blinded. Mia received a blast of the spray and was currently coughing. At this point the hotel had probably called the police.
"Do not even try to touch me." Nora coughed. She was still in the enclosed lobby. "Petty sociopathic princess. Damn it." Nora cursed as she had to push the automatic doors open on her own. The sky outside was flashing like it was storming heavily as Nora escaped to the bustling night street of London to wait for her cab. Nora pulled a bottle of water out of her purse and wipes. She cleaned her face and coughed again from the cold had developed. The stress of this was going to make it worse.
"I guess it is off to the new place. It is airing out but it is mine." Nora muttered to herself. She looked around, her brows knitting. It was oddly warm for a winter's day, the snow had melted from the streets and the blizzard she walked through had earlier turned to a quickly dissipating rain. With each flash, the clouds vaporized. She could see the town car arriving. A massive burst of energy hit the surface of the earth the moment she took her last step down the stairs. The surrounding scenery distorted, crumbled and dissipated into a bright white abyss in front of her as Nora had just caught her breath outside. Nora struggled to breathe as the area flooded with ozone. She caught her breath and gasped in a lungful of air. She initially thought that she had passed out from stress as her vision brightened. Nora heard her sister and Mark yelling.
"Nora, Stop. Please don't leave! It is unsafe." "Nora, wait! No! What. Oh my god no!" She heard Mia scream and the sound of a painful howl before a deafening static erupted around her and drowned their voices out. She felt the feeling of painful pin pricks on her skin. The feeling of inexplicable dread permeated in her core. She surmised in her despair that the workers of Fukushima must have felt during the meltdown. Nora whimpered at the sensation, holding her breath. She tried to cover her face to block the feeling but failed. She could not feel the ground with her feet.
'Just perfect, I am dead, when I am preparing to finally start living, just great.' Nora bitterly thought and felt as if she felt that this was the end of humanity.
"Huuuh, Huuuh." Nora gasped and rattled. Nora struggled for air after she emptied her lungs. It seemed as if time had stopped. The noise faded and Nora gasped for air desperately. Her throat made strained sounds as the air seemed to be pulled from her lungs. She started to see spots, her field of vision started to darken. Then suddenly there was a rush of cool air. Coughing as her lungs filled with air. The feeling of falling and pain as she hit the ground.