A Night With My Boss

**Alex**

I woke up from a traumatic sleep, I had a nightmare about last night murder but this time it was Petra that was murdered not Emily. I brushed my teeth and started preparing for work that’s when it occurred to me that I haven’t seen Liam since I woke up this morning, I left the guest room to search for him and I saw him in the kitchen eating cereal straight from the box, his face had grown a stubble overnight and he was looking worse for wear almost as if he hadn’t have any sleep at all.

“Good morning pal slept well?” I asked, trying to be cheerful.

“No I didn’t….. I kept seeing her…… Emily… Her dead body….. How could Skyler do such a thing?” Tears rolled down his cheeks as he lamented.

“Don’t worry old boy the girl will be avenged” I said patting his back, I checked my watch and saw that I was getting late.

“I need to get to work, I’m going to see Petra at the hospital before I go. Are you not going to work?”.

“No….. I’m not going” Liam fetched a bottle of wine and poured himself a glass full.

“I know I’m not supposed to ask but why?”.

“isn’t it obvious? I’m grieving… i can’t do anything productive in this state” Liam gulped his glass down and poured himself another cupful. I saw that my friend wasn’t going to leave the house today so I left him alone to drown his sorrow with the bottle.

“Well I’m off, if you need me just call okay? I’ll be stopping by the station to see if there’s any update about Skyler” I grabbed my briefcase preparing to take my leave.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“Send my regards to Petra” Liam said in between hiccups….. he was drunk already. I got in my car and started the 10 minutes drive to the hospital, the announcer on air rapped out the daily news and one headline caught my attention.

“…. Murder in the Montero’s home as a young girl was brutally….. The whereabouts of the killer is unknown… some sources say it’s Mr Montero’s ex lover…..” I turned off the radio cause the news was already getting on my nerves with their giveaway of excess information now everybody would have eyes on me and Petra. When I arrived at the hospital I avoided the stares from the doctors and nurses till I got into Petra’s room.

“Good morning baby, how are you feeling?” I asked with a huge smile on his face but Petra wasn’t in the mood to be cherry.

“I’m not feeling any better until I know what is going on Alex! You’ve been hiding a secret from me and I’m sure it’s because of that secret Emily got killed and Eva went missing” Petra vented her mind out, I’ve never seen her this angry before.

“Babe calm down, I only did that to protect you and as for Eva if you want to see her so bad I can bring her in right now” Her face brightened up as I mentioned her sister’s name but it was quickly replaced by a look of doubt… aggressive doubt.

“Liar!! you’re just trying to change the topic”

I opened the door and let Eva in, she was discharged yesterday before Petra was admitted to the hospital. The two sisters hugged each other in tears, talking so fast their words started stumbling on each other.

“Where have you been-“.

“How are you doing?”.

When they have finally finished their moment I signaled to Eva to start telling Petra the truth all the way from the hidden cameras to the attempted murder down to last night.

“Emily’s death was a bloody one, Skyler is such a brutal enemy that will stop at nothing till she devours what she wants” Eva said with fear in her voice it seems she had grown afraid of Skyler since their last encounter. Petra stayed quiet for a few minutes unmoving as she digested all of this in, I snapped my fingers to bring her back to reality.

“Oh no Alex what are we going to do?” Petra started panicking, the look on her face showed frantic despair.

“The police have been searching all night for Skyler but to no avail, she will be caught eventually but right now the best thing is to lay low for now and let them do their job” I tried to reassure Petra that everything was going to be okay but she wasn’t believing it.

“I want to get out of here…. NOW!!!” Petra was overwhelmed with hypertension, her breathing became uneven, she became frantic and uneased. The nurse had heard her shout so she entered the room with a sedative loaded syringe.

“Don’t knock me out…. No….. No….. Alex, please stop her!…. She might be working for Skyler or even worse Skyler might come for me when I’m asleep!!” Petra said as she fought with the nurse not allowing herself to be sedated, Petra broke the syringe and the nurse went to fetch another one in annoyance. The doctor entered and whispered some few words in my ear then exited.

“The doctor said you still need some rest and right now we are bothering you so please let them do their job” I pleaded, Petra can be so adamant at times and right now was one of those ‘times’.

“No!!” She crossed her arms in defiance, I looked to Eva for help and she understood.

“Petra it’s okay, me and Alex will never let any harm come to you so please just let them do their job…. besides it’s not yet visiting hours” Eva patted Petra’s arm to calm her nerves down and it seemed to be working cause now she had obviously relaxed herself at Eva’s reassuring words.

“Fine….. Only because you said so Eva… I don’t trust Alex to be here if anything happens, please stay near me Eva” Petra was begging Eva to protect her instead of me? Now that’s weird.

“I’ll be two clicks away if you need anything just yell”.

“Dearest, we are working tooth and nail to take down Skyler so don’t be afraid, okay?” I tried to do some reassurance too but Petra wasn’t buying it.

“Oh please don’t give me that crap, you weren’t there when I needed you yesterday Alex… What if I was the one stabbed? Do you think you’d be back in time to save me?” Now the nurse entered again with another syringe but this time the nurse wasn’t smiling at all, we said our goodbyes as she fell into a sedated sleep.

“You said you’d be near at hand but where?” I was quite puzzled by Eva’s previous statement.

“I’ll be living in a motel two blocks from here, it’s too dangerous to go back to either your house or Skyler’s” She had a point.

“Okay but can I at least pay your booking fees? It’s the least I can do” I just wanted to help in some way.

“Thanks but Preston already got it covered, he’s the one who paid for the motel room. Hey don’t look so glum Alex there are other things you need to do aside protecting Petra, in fact you have the most exciting part of the adventure which is working with the police to get Skyler down…. I kinda envy you because I wish to stick a knife through that bitch!!” A nurse walking past jumped back in surprise thinking she was the one Eva was calling a bitch, this made me laugh.

“It’s nice to see you laugh again Alex, you’ve been gloomy for too long” Eva gave me which was contagious cause I was now smiling back at her.

“Thanks Eva you’ve done so much for me and your sister, I’ll be back after work. Bye for now” I gave her a hug and some cash to buy food for Petra.

As I drove to my office I couldn’t help the feeling of uselessness that came over me. Last night if Emily hadn’t encountered Skyler first Petra would’ve been dead by now and I wouldn’t have made it back in time to save her. Even taking Skyler down is going to be done by another hand and what would I be doing then? Nothing, I wanted to do something but what can I do? Nothing. As I got out of my car Petra’s words ringed in my thoughts.

“Oh please don’t give me that crap, you weren’t there when I needed you yesterday Alex… What if I was the one stabbed? Do you think you’d be back in time to save me?”.