Amelia was scared to her bones that James had been shot, and he was probably dying.“911, please my man was just shot. Please come over right now. We’re at the lone street after St. Thompson’s street. Please hurry up! Someone’s dying.” Amelia spoke quickly, crying like a baby.“Please be calm, ma’am. We’re on our way.” The woman assured her, and Amelia hung up the call.She was about to go out of the car to check on James, but before she could unbuckle her seat belt, she heard a knock on the car window.With fear, she slowly looked towards the window and to her dreaded thought, it was one of the men in black suit. He was smiling menacingly at her, then he signaled to her to wind down.Amelia was too scared to wind down as she didn’t know what he would do to her, but James was still out there, and she was worried about him.Recalling that she had reached out to 911, she felt a bit assured that they would come for them soon, and before these goons would do anything to them, they would ha

Charles stared at the message for a long time, before it faded away. System upgrade processing? What if something unpleasant happened, due to the system upgrade?Systems he knew, always had to shut down after an upgrade, so they could reboot. What if he fell out of consciousness, and it happened at the wrong time?That would be a disaster. He swallowed, and decided to do whatever he had to do, and be done with it all, before anything like his fears happened. Charles took in the size of the warehouse once more. He could not help feeling unprepared, as he knew the tech bugs had failed. Could the people he was about to meet be the ones behind it? For what reason would they want to threaten him with James?Charles wanted to take a step closer to the warehouse, but found himself hesitating— of course, he knew he was going to have to enter it eventually, but his brain needed to analyze and guess what could probably be waiting for him in there.It was the only way to feel better about the

The next day, Charles was having breakfast when the doorbell rang, and Martha went to answer it. Vera came in looking worried and shocked. “Good morning…” she said hastily, before jumping to the main reason she had come as early as that. “Why didn't you pick your calls? I've been so worried. How did it go? Is James fine?” She asked, rapidly, and Charles sighed. “Well…”“Also, the date for the competition is out. It's in a week's time.” She informed him, before she forgot about it.“In a week's time?” Charles asked, and she nodded. “What about James? Is he here? Is he fine?” She asked, looking towards the stairs. “Actually. He's fine, but at the same time, he's not.” Charles replied, getting to his feet. “Okay, that sounds scary. What do you mean by that?” She asked, looking at him warily. “He's fine, meaning he's alive, but he's not fine because he's injured badly, and there's a big issue we have at hand.” Charles explained, and she inhaled deeply. “Where's he?” She asked, and

On his way home, Charles dropped by a store, and bought fresh fruits to give to James. His face seemed to be getting brighter, but most of the time, he was always asleep. It was probably due to the painkillers he had to use. When he got home, he met James sitting up, and talking to Amelia. He was smiling. That made Charles feel slightly better. "Hey." He said, dragging a chair to sit next to him. James smiled at the sudden informality, which Charles used to speak with him."Hi." He replied, playing along and Charles chuckled. "How's it been going?" He asked Amelia, and she smiled."He's been doing fine. I think he's getting better. At least, his arm doesn't bleed anymore." She replied, and Charles gave a sigh of relief. "Here. I got you some fruits." He said, taking out the fruits he had bought.He picked a knife and a tray off James bedside table, went to the bathroom, rinsed it, and returned to James' bedside. "These fruits look great." James said, with his eyes on a large ho

Charles stared at the message with a sigh, and recalled James, who was still in his bed. His arm was healing beautifully, but of course, he had to be careful. They didn't know how sensitive Longman's bomb was.Charles sighed, leaning back in his chair, and closed his eyes. "Is there anything troubling you?" Vera asked, finally looking up from her laptop."Just everything." Charles replied, with his eyes still closed. "I wish we could sue him." She said, with Longman in mind. "James who loves to go around, and do lots of things, is forced to stay in bed, where there are lesser risks of anything unfortunate happening. I can only imagine how hard it will be for him, and how boring, too. Everyone else goes to work, but he's stuck there." Vera lamented, staring into blank space. "I know, right. I'd have loved for him to walk around, but I'm scared of the bomb in his arm. What if he accidentally falls? Hits his arm on something? Those are absurd thoughts, but what can I say? They're bor