Mystery howl

"Oh my God! What is wrong with you Russell?" Diane screamed at the top of her voice as she reached for Theo. I stared at them as she held his arm and pulled him up. "Are you ok? Does it hurt?"

I couldn't stand how Diane continued to question him after witnessing what just happened. "What the hell are you doing Theo?" I grabbed his shirt ready to punch him again. "Is this what you're doing now? She's a freaking minor!" I pushed him back and watched him struggle to maintain balance.

"You always live up to my expectations Russy," he smirked and held his chin. "Your punches have gotten stronger, have you been working out?"

I looked behind him and saw her staring in my direction. I had never been more disappointed in him. "Do you ever get satisfied? How can you even look yourself in the mirror?" I asked getting more pissed than ever.

"I don't know Russy, I just walk in front of a mirror and then open my eyes. Doesn't seem too difficult, I could teach you if you want," he shrugged.

"You better—” I was about to show him how much I hated his sense of humor.

"Enough! Damn it, are you guys kids?" She yelled. Her brows came together in a frown as she looked at me. "Russell, what the hell? This is not what we came here for, why would you do that?"

"He's obviously still carrying girls around and I have no problem with that, but a minor? Come on man."

"Oh, you mean my cousin? Yeah, I'm taking extreme care of her," he turned around as he yelled. "Bella, you ok in there?"

"Yeah, just try not to yell so much." she replied as she took a bottle of water and walked away. I was too stunned to speak so I just stared at him. Was I wrong about him?

"I think you guys should get going, it's getting late. Thank you for coming Diane, I really missed you," he held her by the waist and kissed her cheek.

"Theo wait. Just listen to me for a minute I..." She stopped as he shut the door. I stood out the front door with an angry Diane and no package designer.

Of course, I knew I was doomed at work when he shut the door, but Diane's mean face made the word 'doom' feel like paradise.

#~#

It was almost 7 pm and Diane and I were going back to the office. I sat on the passenger seat and thought back to what happened. I remembered how his so-called 'cousin' looked when I saw her, then it hit me.

"Stop the car! We have to go back," I looked at Diane's confused face. "Stop the car, Diane."

"Why the hell would I do that? So you can go fight with him again?" She asked as she focused on driving. I never really expected her to agree immediately anyways.

"Listen to me, something doesn't feel right. I'm not saying this because of what happened in the past but just think about it, if I'm right and she really isn't Theo's cousin, would you be able to live with the fact that we could have stopped something bad from happening?" I asked her seriously. She thought about it for a couple of seconds and made a U-turn.

"You better prepare yourself for what I'll do once I prove that you're wrong."

A few minutes later, Theo's house was in plain sight. I kept thinking about what was happening, then I saw him. "Pedro? Why is he leaving?" Pedro was on a motorbike, getting ready to leave. We got closer to the gates and I came out of the car. "Is something wrong?" I asked politely.

"No sir, I'm just following instructions," he continued. Instructions? I looked behind him and saw that there was no one else guarding the gates.

"Are there other workers inside?" He answered by telling me how Theo told every worker to leave for the night since he had an event to attend, but I wasn't convinced. "Okay, just do us a favour and open the gates. There's something else we have to discuss with him."

He looked at me suspiciously for a while then decided to oblige. I took the wheels this time and drove in. "That's strange, why are the lights out?" She removed her seat belt and leaned forward. "Did he leave the house already?"

"Don't tell me you believe what Pedro said," I looked at Diane as I parked the vehicle. She seemed to be having a conflict of interest. "Let's just go in and see what's happening."

We knocked on the door but there was no answer. Come on Russell, do you think he would open the door in a situation like this? After hearing my inner voice, I slowly lost my patience and after a couple of tries, broke the front door.

"Can you chill? Why'd you do that?" I wasn't in the mood to listen to her whine so I hurried in to search for Theo. Deep down I hoped I was wrong, I hoped he was asleep somewhere else, or out trying to figure out why there was no power.

I spent the next few minutes searching for him but to no avail. "Try calling him," I said while I looked down with my hands on my hips. I raised my head as I heard his phone ring.

"Oh my God. Do you think they were attacked?" She began to panic. "What should we do? What if they were attacked, or what if they got hurt and he was too scared to take his phone along? Should we go to the nearest hospital? What if they were kidnapped and his security were all in on it? Was that why he let us in so we wouldn't suspect his involvement? He could be somewhere right now praying we find him. What do we do? Should we should call the cops and..."

Diane had always been hyper during situations like this so I wasn't worried about that. On the other hand, what got my attention was the howling I heard. "Did you hear that?" I interrupted. As far as I was concerned, there were no animals in the compound. So unless Theo just got one, or something was extremely wrong.

Somebody's getting hurt tonight.