°°° Intervention °°° • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • -Carl’s Automotive Repairs and Accessories- Wednesday was oddly silent. There was barely half of the standard daily customer expectation today. Sean, however, was able to maximize this gift and spent it with Malone and a few others at the mechanical department, familiarizing himself with the concepts he needed to know. Although he did personal research and even had some experiments with his mom’s car, he knew he didn’t know enough. Luckily for him, a couple cars, including a Mustang, were brought to the shop, and he got to study their engines. At exactly four in the evening, the auto shop was already locked up, and they were on their way already. Two minutes later, Carlos’ Mustang drove past them. He hadn’t been at the shop since twelve. After his lunch date with Sarah, he informed them that he was going to drive over to August’s dad’s shop. Sean had told him, and he immediately decided to help without taking to
°°° The Search °°° •Kingsley Street, Northwest Philadelphia • -Colonel William’s Residence- Sitting at the dining table, Colonel William flipped through a magazine as the housekeeper served breakfast. In a minute, she was done, and he put down his magazine. As expected, Kelly had served a feast for the eyes and a certain delight for the palate. "Two soft scrambled eggs, dotted with cheddar cheese; three juicy sausage patties, flecked with red pepper; two Belgian waffles, drizzled with Vermont-fresh maple syrup; oven-fried red potatoes, laced with bacon and green onion; and ice-cold Florida orange juice." He sighed and began to enjoy what Ma’am Kelly had served him. "Kelly, won’t Karen be joining us for breakfast?" He asked Kelly, who was seated on the left side of the dining table. He had so warmly welcomed her into his home that she felt like family. As a matter of fact, she didn’t even need to work as she had two kids to take care of her bills, and after working for th
°°° Tranquility °°° • Louisville, Kentucky • -Whites Residence- The house looked a lot more spacious than usual. The Whites had moved all they were going to take to Canada, and the rest had been left behind to be sold out. Jason sat on the kitchen island, contemplating what to tell his friends. He’d tried to reply to Sean the previous night, but he didn’t know what he was going to say. He shook his head and looked at the clock. They were going to be late, and his parents were yet to leave their rooms. "Mom! Dad! We are going to miss our flight! Jason raised his voice, but his tone carried a hint of nonchalance. Missing the flight was only postponing the inevitable, so there really wasn’t much to be joyful about about missing the flight. Andrew walked into the kitchen and hopped onto the island, sitting beside his brother. "You alright?" Jason asked his gloomy-looking younger brother. For the past few days, that was Andrew’s nature, and although Jason didn’t like i
°°° Blood Flow °°° • 66th Avenue • -Walker Residence- Sarah, Carlos, and Kate had just returned from checking out the area where Sean was supposedly dropped off. Kate could not think of anyone Sean could have known that she also knew in that environment, making her recall and once again tilt towards believing Boris’s claims about her son having bad friends. Afterwards, they’d gone to the taxi company that owned the taxicab that Carlos had taken a picture of. After waiting for hours and being redirected almost every time, they were finally told that the office couldn’t help them as they had no cameras in their vehicles to be able to confirm, but they promised to ask the cab driver if he remembered who he carried at that time. Of course, people with eidetic memory were almost impossible to come across, so it was not really going to make a difference. The company promised to call them once they get feedback from the cab driver. All three of them—Kate, Sarah, an
°°° Double Tragedy °°° After a while of arguing, Karen agreed that walking back to Sean’s was okay. His most convincing point was that the walk would help him let go of certain pains and grudges he still held against Sarah, Carlos, and his mother. It was already fifty minutes past three o'clock when they left the Curtis Hall Arboretum. With an approximate one-hour walking time, Karen reluctantly agreed. At least everything would be fine, and she’d be back home sipping from a cup of chocolate. She hadn’t imagined that she would be spending the first day of the new month this way. As they talked, they didn’t realize that both time and distance had passed. Noticing some familiar "landmarks," Sean sighed, knowing he was about to get back home any moment now. "Hey… "You know, you still haven’t told me about the Jason situation," he reminded Karen. Although she was tired and felt like speaking would be much more draining, Karen understood that Sean hadn’t yet let go completely
°°° Another Chance at Life °°° • Crest Care Hospital • It had been four nights since the incident, and although the doctor said Kate was getting better, she was still in the ICU. Sean had refused to leave the hospital, and he himself ended up getting sick within that time. Karen spent most of her time with him in the hospital and had Kelly prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner for Sean every day of those four days. Sometimes, Carlos would suddenly vanish. His whereabouts are unknown. Sarah resigned due to the scene she had witnessed that night. Although the doctor claimed that Kate wasn’t the first to suffer from such an illness, hours and hours of research concerning brain damage didn’t reveal anything related to that. How does a person’s brain melt away like wax, but the person survive? It made no sense. Although she believed in God and miracles, she couldn’t bring herself to accept them. In the middle of the fourth night, at about midnight, there was a little commotion in t
°°° The Unraveling °°° • Somewhere in Central City, Philadelphia • On Tuesday, the thirtieth of July, the public was made aware of the shootout that had occurred between the Philadelphia police and an arms-dealing organization, popularly known as the White Cross, that the police had been investigating. A couple members of the organization had been gunned down, but a few others managed to escape. Amongst them was the man in charge of the transaction happening that night, the head of the Green Wing, Boris Romanoff. The bald fellow had been shot and was unconscious for an entire week and five days. He had immediately sent some of the people under him to check on Kate. Being a major part of his cover, he couldn’t afford to lose her. He knew from the start that she wasn’t always in love with him. He knew that she was initially using him to get over her divorce and then her husband’s death, but after joining the White-Cross, he knew that a well-known family life would not
°°° The Unraveling II °°° • Kingsley Street, Northwest Philadelphia • -Colonel William’s Residence- It was nine at night, but the atmosphere of the house was quite lively. Kelly sat in an armchair with a hot cup of chocolate in her hands, watching her employer with a motherly smile as he played with his granddaughter. The retired Colonel had a game pad in his hands. He had been playing against Karen and was surprisingly in the lead. He had been using the character Raiden against her since they began, and though she had changed characters after character, she never managed to hit a three-game winning streak. "You know, you two should be in bed," Kelly chuckled as Karen’s Raiden lost to the Colonel’s. "Humph… "Oldie's been cheating," Karen harrumphed and folded her hands. "Stop the hating beasties," the Colonel chuckled. "Just admit it, I’m the best player you’ve ever met," he said with a smirk. "Hah!! "Not even by a long shot," Karen laughed. "Let me guess… Sean wo