“Mark?”Mark knew that voice.Too well.He could never mistake it.He took a deep breath, knowing but yet not knowing what was about to go down.He turned to face her, dipping his hands into his pockets.“Hey”“Hey?”, Fiona asked back like she hadn't heard. Even if she had, she didn't want to believe it. “We haven't talked properly for days and you say hey?”Mark breathed in.“What's going on?”“What’s going on? You don't pick your calls, when you do, you say you can't talk and you didn't even tell me you'll be here.”“I've been… I've been pretty occupied”“Occupied?”, Fiona asked, almost lost for words. “Mark, what's going on?”She attempted coming closer to him and Mark couldn't restrain himself from moving backward. Fiona was so taken aback by his reaction, it showed fully in her facial expression, her hurt and confusion.“Look Fiona…”, Mark started and then stopped, seeing Starling who wasn't so far away. He was talking with one of the shareholders from Voxx. He turned to gesture
“Smile”, he whispered as soon as they came to stand before them. Fiona smiled, her expression choosing to stay plain.“Alistair, meet my daughter, Fiona Starling”“Fiona, this is our acting president, soon to be president, Alistair Bane, son of Voxx Bane”Fiona took the handshake he extended.“Nice to meet you Fiona”, Alistair said, with the briefest smile she'd ever seen. His striking manly features couldn't be denied. The boy was fine.Not that Fiona cared.“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Alistair”, Fiona said, taking her hand back. So he was Voxx' son? Where had he been all this while?Not that she cared.“Quite a vibrant, young man, Fiona. He's currently on a long term contract with the government in his successful Voxx Innovations Project. It's the bigger contract that any company has ever bagged with the government and it's fast making global impact”“That's absolutely outstanding”“Thank you. It's nothing really”, Alistair said, seemingly more interested in the content of his
Dark.It was pitch black.She could feel the ropes around her hands. She struggled, a physical embodiment of panic. It was hopeless but the anxiety eluded, controlling her like a domineering parasite. She was tied to what she felt was a board and the more she struggled with what she thought were ropes, the more she cut herself. Her eyes were wet with tears and her chest heaved till it was heavy and tired. Still she couldn't even see.It was damn pitch black.Like he's @#₦&@#₦ heart.What had she married?!If someone had told her that this was how far her greed would take her, she would have chosen otherwise.The silence in the room began to be burdened by sounds of footsteps. Daphne thought she was hallucinating but the sounds began to get closer and louder and a sudden feeling of doom rested on her. Her panic heightened. She breathed loudly and fast, as a matter of fact too fast for the capacity to which her respiratory organs were known to. It was like she knew who was coming witho
The knife slit her throat and continued to move down her naked body. He was cutting her in a perfect two and even the belt too. Her flesh parted like the red sea, her skin cutting open so easily. They'd had to drug her of course so that her outer layer weared at such a phenomenal speed, it left her bare Mammalian layer. Her blood gushed out like the first trial on a fountain and as Starling cut open her body till her vgs, her blood stained his immaculate white gloves.He stopped at her posterior - the frontal - and withdraw the blade from her body.“Handle the rest of the body parts.”“Yes Boss”, they responded simultaneously.They'd differentiate her body parts, preserve the organs for harvest and distribute the rest… across the world.“I want reports before the end of the day”They took the bloody off his hands, letting it fall straight into the bin. One of the them lit a match and placed into the portable incinerator bin. Starling saw the gloves catch the blue-yellow flame before h
Texting Ethan.Meanwhile, her parents turned coincidentally to her. They gave a shared gaze like they’d both gotten the answer to the question.“What?”, Elara asked, finally noticing them weirdly looking at her. She glanced from father to mother.“You, my darling, are the solution to your father's costly carelessness”Elara raised a brow“And that is how?”, she asked, looking at both of them in an apprehensive yet annoyed expression.“You have to go back to Alistair”Elara laughed at her mother's statement. “Tell me you're joking”, she said, going back to her phone.“It's not a comedy stand honey, so no”, her mother replied, getting to her feet.Elara humphed. “Dreams”Her mother snatched the phone out of her hands.“Heyy!”“Now listen up here carefully. You are not a child, Elara. So quick acting like one. You have to grow up and act maturely. And one of the ways to do that is to do as I say. Do you understand?”“I am not going back to Alistair, ok? Can I have my phone please?”“It's
He'd been at the table as usual. His freshly blended smoothie by his side as usual.A small bowl of his favourite chin-chin snacks as usual.As usual.How things had changed so fast that day, she had not thought to ever be able to recover from.They'd probably emailed the clip to him.And being the proper, arranged Dougles he was, dud most definitely not miss the file.He'd tried to access it’s content directly and his last resort had been to burn it on a disk.It was Dougles. Of course, he always had a burn disk in the CD section of his old yet beloved laptop.It had loaded. She'd seen it herself - the loading bar- when she'd come near to arrange her new favourite sets of vase.It had loaded and Dougles had saved into his files.And then he'd played it.She had been headed for the kitchen when she stopped but her heart had stopped long before her.There was no distinction to that moan. It was hers. And that voice……was Charlie's.It had been a twenty five minutes video but Dougles ha
“Mum. Mummm!!!” , Ethan called as soon as he stepped foot in the house. The whole house was silent. An unusual, uncanny silence.“Mum?”, He called again, heading up the stairs.He knocked on his mother's room door.“Dad?”Ethan placed a hand on the door. The door swung slowly as it opened. His father was in the room, doing what seemed like packing.“Good day Father”, he greeted immediately.“Ethan”, Starling responded, in a slow way.“How are you doing, son?”“I’m great, Dad. Umm… I was looking for Mum”Starling took more than a moment to reply.“Come in”Ethan walked in and the swing hinge door swung closed. There was something that didn't seem quite right about his father's demeanour. He'd seen right. His father was parking. And his mother's stuff were the ones in the box. At least if there was one thing he recognized in that box, it was the uniquely shaped perfume she'd gotten from her trip in Saudi Arabia - the Aladdin lamp. He knew it so well because he'd often stolen a few spra
These days, the clouds greyed on burial days. It was a weather change even the broadcasters couldn't predict. Rumors had it that the government was secretly seeding the clouds.But seemingly nobody ever noticed on time. Somehow, some way, it remained a rumour because they kept the people distracted.Unlike Dougle’s, the burial proceedings of Daphne Starling were short and rounded up. The priest didn't say the usual long speech, the sermon they often gave about the deceased. He skipped the longer prayers too, only offering or rather saying the shorter ones that entailed the response of the audience.Her father hadn't invited a lot of people either. Very few relatives were there and of course - though still few - some of the shareholders from Voxx. Alistair couldn't attend as a result of an urgent meeting he had with one of our partners but he most definitely had sent a large bouquet of flowers in honor and his condolence message. But perhaps there was no time for that too as it didn't