The quiet before the storm

PART ONE~ SPYING ON HIM

~GRAY

*Present…*

Pain, I had been used to it my entire life. It had always been a part of me, embedded into my soul. I wasn't surprised by my current situation. I always figured it would end this way but I wouldn't deny that I hadn't wanted it to. The pain in my chest and the emptiness I felt were valid proof of that.

I felt the car I was in come to a stop. I opened my eyes and the police station was the sight that greeted me. An officer opened the door and forcefully pulled me out of the car. We entered the old building, my hands handcuffed and wearing nothing but the red dress I'd worn to the event.

People turned to look at me, probably wondering what had made me end up in this situation. I bowed my head, not wanting their eyes to find mine as I was taken into the interrogation chamber.

The officer pushed me to sit on one of the chairs on the other side of the table before exiting the room. I raised my head and looked at the glass window, knowing that eyes were watching my every movement.

As I sat in the silent room, my body sweaty and my appearance rumpled, I couldn't help but wonder why I had gotten myself into a situation like this. Was what I had done even worth it now?

It had all seemed worth it and a very good idea back then, but now all I could feel was regret and sadness—yes, sadness for what I had lost due to my own foolishness.

The door to the room burst open, interrupting my thoughts. A man wearing a hat that covered most of his face, and an expensive-looking coat with some pair of trousers walked into the room. He had a suitcase in his left hand, which he quickly placed on the table before taking his seat in front of me. I didn't recognize him at first because of his unruly appearance and the dark circles beneath his eyes, but when he faced me, I realized I knew the face so well. My mouth hung open in shock, I'd never seen the famous and posh Maverick Gatlin look so dishevelled before.

He opened the suitcase and took out a piece of paper, a folder and a pen. He skimmed through the folder and glanced briefly at me.

"Has anyone cross-examined you?" he asked, I shook my head at him, not having the willpower to open my mouth and speak, "I'm going to get you out of here". He looked determined—well, he always looked like that, but this felt different. The look in his eyes told me that he cared. It assured me that I wasn't alone.

He focused on the folder, and I sat there in a daze, memories flooding my head. Tears threatened to come out, and I desperately tried to blink them away. I didn't want to cry, not here.

My thoughts drifted to two years ago when it all began…

^Past; two years ago…^

My alarm clock beeped loudly beside me as I tried effortlessly to shut the damn thing down. Growing tired of the noise, I took a bat beside my bed, my eyes still closed and smashed it on the digital device, finally giving me some peace of mind. I stretched my legs and continued with my sleep until a knock sounded on my door, disturbing it again.

I ignored it, but the person was so persistent and kept knocking, irritating the hell out of me. I finally stood up from the bed with a groan but accidentally stepped on the broken pieces of the clock I had smashed earlier, hurting my feet in the process. A groan escaped from my lips as I checked the throbbing area under my feet. One of the pieces had pierced my skin, leaving a small trail of blood on the floor. I picked a piece of tissue from the box on top of my drawer and cleaned it off before gently tiptoeing to the door. I prayed that the person on the other end had something important to say because if not, then I was sure to harm them mentally with insults or give them a very good beating.

I opened the door, nearly making the person on the other end fall if not for my sharp reflexes which held the person in place.

"What the hell do you…. Oh." I paused, realizing it was Niko. He brushed past me and entered my flat going straight to my closet which looked like it had been run down by a car and started rummaging through my clothes.

"Hey, what the fuck are you doing," I yelled at him, I moved towards him and tried to stop him before he messed up my stuff.

"I'm taking out clothes for you to wear. We have to go to the headquarters right now. There's an emergency." He spoke, continuing with whatever he was doing.

"What emergency?" I asked.

"You'll know when we reach there. Here, wear these." He threw a pair of worn-out jeans and one of many black shirts at me.

I hadn't even worn my shoes properly when he pushed me out of the door and locked it. He placed the key in my pocket, and we descended the stairs and made it out of the building. I lived in a shady flat complex located in a very shitty community called Oaks Avenue.

The place was filled with thugs and kids who barely went to school, including myself and most of my friends. Niko and Molly were the only exceptions because their parents were well off. I didn't see the importance of going to school because I didn't have the brain and the funds to go to college.

We crossed the road and took the route that passed through the only place I loved in Oaks Avenue, which was the park. It was the friendliest place in the community because it was surprisingly clean—probably because people rarely went there. I'd developed the habit of sitting there in the evenings and gazing up at the stars. The silence and the twinkling of the stars managed to calm me down and do such great wonders to my mind.

We passed through the empty park and entered the woods… There was no route or path here since no one came here except for me and my friends. I spotted our tree house in the distance and rushed to it, Niko following behind me.

"You two are late. What were you guys doing?" Molly questioned before lowering the ladder for us to climb up. Remy was already there, seated in his usual spot.

"What took you guys so long, man?" Remy asked Niko, clearly annoyed about how late we were.

"It was all Gray's fault. She was still asleep when I got there."

I clapped my hands, getting their attention, and said, "Enough with the chit-chat. What's going on? Why did you guys destroy my precious sleep?"

"We have a problem with the park, Gray." Molly answered, "What problem?", I asked her

"The park is being sold."

"What do you mean by the park being sold? How can the park get sold? It's a natural environment for everybody in this community. Who the hell would sell it?", I paced up and down in exasperation.

"The mayor, of course." Niko deadpanned.

"It's true, Gray. I overheard my mom talking about it. We're all aware that she's best friends with the Mayor." Molly added.

How could that greedy, two-faced man sell the park? Was that even legal? There was no way I was going to allow that to happen.

"We have to stop that sale from coming on at all costs," I announced. They all nodded, agreeing with me.

"Aye, aye Captain!" Niko shouted, already excited about our next mission.

This wasn't the first challenge the Nature defenders (that's what we liked to call ourselves) had encountered, and this surely was not going to be the last. Industrialization was spreading, and so was the extinguishing and destruction of nature reserves. If no one did anything about this now in some years to come, they'd be scarce trees and not enough oxygen for everyone in the world.

"Molly, can you gather information about who's buying the park?", she smiled at me and picked up her tablet from an old table we'd placed at the corner, "Well I already have. I did my homework today."

"Good, who is it?" She walked up to me and positioned the device in front of me, so I could read what was on the screen. There was a screenshot of a newspaper with the title, 'Billionaire buys the most expensive building in New York, The One World Trade Center' and in the first line of the passage that followed was the name of the billionaire, Cade Donovan, which had been boldly written.

"I haven't seen or heard of the building before, but if it made it to the news during that time then it was a huge deal, and he isn't someone to play with", Remy remarked, and I couldn't help but agree with him. Rich people like him were dangerous and often secretly engaged in illegal acts, but that didn't mean I'd allow him to buy the park. He could buy anything he wanted in this world and I wouldn't care, but not my park, "I don't care if he owns the whole world, what I do care about is that park, and I'm not going to allow him to destroy it and replace it in artificial grass or whatever they used for those things…"

"I strongly agree with you," Remy assured me. I smiled at him and gave him a fist bump before continuing with what I was saying, "We have to stop him by all means. Are you guys in or not?"

"Of course we are", both Niko and Molly shouted, while Remy professed that it was what he lived for.

"Okay, ladies and gentlemen, let the war between nature lovers and anti-environmental people begin!"