2.

Raindrops hit the pavement with heavy force, a mixture of blood and water is dripping down on the concrete with every step Daniel is taking. He is scared beyond anything, he is shivering vigorously, and the knife he had in his hand slipped from his grip and fell inside the sewer by the pavement. He has never harmed someone this bad, he never killed someone. He slowly comes to a halt and falls down on his knees and lets out a loud scream. He covers his face and recalls everything that took place moments ago.

The doctors as usual took him in and started his shock therapy, they asked him over and over again about Isabelle and his reply to them was no different from the previous days. But this time there was someone new present among the doctors, someone whom he has never seen before. The man was in his late fifty’s, tall and well built, had scars on his face and looked like a hitch man right out of the movies. The man was observing Daniel very closely, not even for once did he look away from him. It was as if he was here to study him, Daniel found it very odd but knew nothing that was happening to him was right anyways.

The doctors stopped the therapy earlier today, Daniel was a bit relieved as he couldn’t recover from previous wounds and his body was drained off all his energy. As soon as Daniel set foot off the bed, the man walked to him with a metal rod and started hitting him, the first hit landed on his right arm which had him fly across the room and collapse on the floor. The second hit landed on his back and then on his abdomen. The men kept on hitting him and started telling him that he knows no one named Isabelle; he asked Daniel to repeat everything he was saying but Daniel was adamant and didn’t even think of repeating what he wanted him to say.

Rebecca, the nurse who always had a soft spot for Daniel couldn’t take how brutally the man was beating him. The once bright white tiles, is now stained with Daniel’s blood. In between all the chaos she locked eyes with Daniel, the vulnerability she saw in them made her run towards him and pull the man off him. Some other doctors and nurses come in defense and helped Daniel off the floor and quickly helped him out of the room. But the man wasn’t done yet; he followed them and started yelling at the doctors to let Daniel go so that he could handle him. When the doctors didn’t, the man took out a pistol and started walking towards them.

Rebecca panicked and didn’t know what to do so she instantly let go of Daniel and pulled out one of the scissors she had in her pocket and lunged towards the man and looked back at Daniel and mouthed ‘run’ to him. But it was as if his legs froze in the spot, the man was caught off guard and instead of trying to stop Rebecca he fired at her. The bullet hit her right in the head, blood splattered everywhere and some of the droplets hit Daniel on his face. For a second everything stopped and Daniel watched as her body collapsed on the floor and laid there without any motion. The man looked shocked too and was soon tackled by two of the security guards, right then Daniel pulled himself out of the trance and grabbed a surgical knife out of the pocket of one of the doctor’s and stabbed the man right in his neck hard. Blood spilled out of the man’s neck like an open tap, Daniel pulled out the knife out of his neck and pushed past the doctor’s that were trying to tackle him. He didn’t stop or looked back for once all he did was run towards the backdoor as fast as he could.

In all the chaos they all lost track of Daniel and couldn’t find a trace of where he was off to in the darkness. He kept on running and running, it was completely dark around him, he could barely see anything but he knew he had to run away in order to find Isabelle. He couldn’t let Rebecca’s sacrifice to go to waste like this, her lifeless face kept on flashing in front of his eyes, and he knew her face was going to haunt her for the rest of his life. A thunder grumbled in the sky pulling him out of his thoughts, his legs couldn’t take it anymore, raindrops started to fall on him that was it for him, his tears started falling from his eyes nonstop. His legs started shaking vigorously and he fell on his knees and now he is here in this unknown street of the city and he has no clue where to go from here next.

“Zen, can I come in?” Isabelle slowly peeks her head in Zen’s study still waiting for him to acknowledge her.

Zen looks up at her from his laptop screen and smiles at her while closing the laptop screen and gestures her to get inside. She slowly gets in while fidgeting with her fingers not knowing how to ask him whatever is going on in her mind. “I was just about to call to come to me I was missing you so much.” He slowly stands up from his chair and walks to her and picks her and starts walking to the lounge that is kept in the corner of the study along with the long shelves of books. “Zen I needed to ask you something.” She tries to shimmy down from his hold but he did not want to let her go. “About what baby? And why do you look do tensed?” He asks her while slowly laying her down on the velvety, soft cushion and slowly gets on top of her.

“Zen please I need to talk.” She moves her face away as he was coming down to kiss her. He looks at her perplexed and slowly sits up straight letting out a breathy sigh. “Tell me what’s bother you so much?” He asks while rubbing his temples with his fingers. She slowly sits up and looks down at her lap as she fears what she is going to ask him might not go so well. “Did you find Daniel?” She finally breaks the silence; Zen snaps his head to her and stares at her rather annoyed.

“Why do you always keep asking about him? How do I know where his mother sent him? I tried to find him and I don’t see the reason behind you being so eager to find him. I’m really tired of this Isabelle, enough of your nonsense.” He stands up and stomps towards his work table and sits back down on his chair and starts tying on his laptop really harshly. Isabelle keeps staring at him not knowing what to say to him, this has happened once before where Zen got furious just because she had asked him about the update on Daniel. A part of her gets it why he might be acting this way but wanting to know if Daniel is alive or not is not a crime. She just doesn’t understand his over the top reactions. Without saying anything more she slowly gets off the couch and exits the study with teary eyes.