Distance Away (III)

09:25 P.M. 

San Miguel's Hospital. 

June 21st, the year 2018. Thursday. 

Marcus was so confused by the tone he heard from Matthew. 

"I am with Katrina, Abbey, and Zoey. We need to find Mina, Marcus. We will search through Clara Avenue. Send some police officers for the backup," Matthew hanged up the line after. 

... 

Marcus looked over at Carmela. 

"Who was Mina chasing?" Carmela asked anxiously as Marcus started her car again. Marcus gripped the steering wheel and turned the car around hastily. 

He didn't answer Carmela first and worried that Mina might be in danger now. Carmela leaned back in her seat while the car was speeding up as Marcus dialed a number on his cell phone. It rang, an officer answered back, and he called out a command through it.

"Officers, send a patrol car towards the narrow street of Clara Avenue. Find someone named Dominador Gomez," Marcus ordered on the phone. Someone agreed on the other end of the line. Marcus stepped on the accelerator. They could reach Clara Avenue in no time. 

Abbey, Katrina, and Zoey didn't know what to do with Matthew and Mina. Abbey called Carmela and tried to reach her after a while. 

"Abbey is calling me," Carmela muttered through Marcus in their car and answered it rapidly. 

"Abbey, did you find Mina?" 

"Carmela, Matthew also ran over there. We didn't know how we could find them," Abbey muttered while looking at the two. Zoey and Katrina sighed in exasperation. Zoey and Katrina both nudged Abbey to cross the highway fast. 

"Marcus sent a patrol car, don't worry," Carmela cried out. Her hands were shaking. She realized that another mystified person was following them without them realizing. It must be the one who killed Margo, checking on if she was dead in the hospital or not. 

Carmela hung up as the car halted right on the midway on the edge of the street. They were lucky that they were on the side because it might crash a car into them in no time if they halted. 

"What happened, Marcus?" Carmela asked and looked over outside. 

"I don't know, I can't start it again," Marcus tried to switch in the key again on the socket but it wasn't starting. They both looked through the gasoline visual meter. It was half full.

Marcus smashed the steering wheel as Carmela swallowed and climbed out of her car. Marcus also did the same. They both checked inside the hood of the car. Carmela sighed and saw a lot of steam coming out of the car. They both wagged their hands over their faces as they exhaled exasperatedly. 

"We can't be in Clara Avenue with this situation," Carmela mumbled. The cars roared through the highway and the honks were getting louder. The people on the street were looking at them for a second and backed again. Marcus put his hands over his waist and called a number on his cell phone again. 

"You should check out Mina first. I will call someone to fix this," Carmela said, getting her cell phone out. She called the tow company to fix her car. 

At that same time, Zoey, Abbey, and Katrina crossed the highway without even realizing. They panted on the walking street on the other side. The three of them looked at each other. They talked with their gazes, and went through the narrow street.

"You should go, Marcus. Something might happen to Mina and the rest of our friends," Carmela said. She grabbed a hold of his arms and Marcus nodded. He signed over a taxi cab after a moment. 

Carmela sighed and waited for the maintenance on the right side of her car. She exhaled as Marcus climbed into the taxi car and bit his lips inside. 

'I have a bad feeling we are being watched now,' Marcus said in his thoughts.

… 

Mina stared right through her eyes. He had a bad feeling that she was scrutinizing every person in the hospital. 

A moment later, he jumped as he heard the blare of the sirens. Mina looked over there and was about to glance back at the red-haired woman, but she vanished. He creased his forehead and gasped as he darted his eyes everywhere. 

He saw no signs of her. He searched, but no clues of footprints lead to her. 

She must have hid somewhere, and she escaped like a ninja. The police car stopped in front of him and someone climbed out of the car. 

Mina shielded his eyes from the headlights of the car and saw a police officer coming out of it. 

  He's confused about why an officer was asking about his name.

"Is your name Dominador Gomez?" the officer asked hastily and Mina take turns observing their eyes. He furrowed his eyebrows. Why were they asking for his name? 

"If you were curious, Lieutenant Marcus Dela Rosa asked to find you." The other one, who was much shorter than the one who asked him, spoke up. Mina creased his forehead. 

"Lieutenant Marcus asked to find me?" Mina asked, pertaining to himself. 

"Yes, sir. He commanded the patrol on Clara Avenue. He ordered to find someone named Dominador Gomez," the other one added. Mina squinted his eyes at the moment. He was going to answer back, but he saw someone running over the street on the backside of the car. 

He narrowed his eyes for a minute and was surprised to see Matthew holding his knees from exhaustion. 

"Matthew!" Mina yelled over the street and ran over. He halted in front of him as Matthew looked up and inhaled an enormous amount of air.

Mina gasped and asked, "Why were you running?" 

Matthew stood upright first, wore off the fly of his jacket, and responded, "I should be the one asking you that. You ran over here without notice."

Mina thought about it, and was going to respond, but he heard a yell coming from the street again. He recognized the voice from Zoey and the two women behind her. The three of them panted. 

"Why did you go here, Mina?! We're so worried about you!" Zoey yelled and scratched her scalp with both of her hands. Mina observed how Abbey closed her eyes and Katrina scoffed on her backside. Mina grimaced and thought about the red-haired girl he had seen earlier. 

"There was someone I saw, a red-haired girl," Mina began. A taxi car halted on the curb. The police officers saluted the one who came down. It was the head of detectives, Lieutenant Dela Rosa. 

He shut the door angrily and sighed as he saw Mina. 

"I'm sorry if I made you guys worry," Mina apologized, bowing his head down. Marcus said something to the officers and said a generous thank you. The two police officers climbed in their car again and they made a U-turn to the end of Clara Avenue.

The wind whistled across the surface as they heard the loud noise coming from the Queen's Bar on their front. They asked why Mina had gone too far. 

"Why did you go here? It's too dark around here except for the lights of the Queen's Bar," Abbey asked him. 

Katrina looked over the lights on the Queen's Bar as she remembered what happened a week ago. She felt the heavy tears from coming out of her eyes when Margo's death crossed into her mind again. 

"As I was saying, I saw someone observing the hospital in the bushes outside. I thought the person was observing us for a very long time," Mina confessed. It made Marcus glimpse at him. Mina looked at each and one of them. 

"I chased the person, not knowing that it was a red-haired girl wearing a black hoodie," Mina sighed. He scratched his neck after. Marcus got puzzled by what he was conveying. 

"What did you just say? You saw a person wearing a black hoodie?" Matthew asked it first, before Marcus could say anything. Katrina also widened her eyes. She remembered someone wearing the same outfit on the day after she had a scandal with Carmela. 

She tilted her head to one side as she recalled it. That someone was watching her house from afar, or her. Fear crept out on her spine, sending down that chilling sensation she never imagined. 

She looked up at Mina as he said something about a red-haired girl. 

"Yes. And I saw it was a red-haired girl wearing an oversized one," Mina concluded. It made Marcus and Matthew steal glances at each other.

"Her hair was short, so I didn't realize that a girl wore that outfit. I thought it was a guy," Mina murmured. It left the six of them hanging on their thoughts as the loud noise turned into a mellow rock one inside the bar.