Find a Hiding Place

Another, slightly more forceful, knock sounded from the door but Abigael couldn't bring herself to open the door, she couldn't tear her eyes away from the helpless and pained expression on the man's face. She bit her lip and made the choice.

'Quick, hide in the shower.' she whispered, reaching forward to help him off the ground before she could think about what she was doing. But he was too heavy for her to move by herself comfortably and she ended up half helping him crawl half dragging him through the bathroom doorway and into the shower.

The man had suffered through the entire process of his battered and pained body being dragged over the cold tiles and dumped heavily onto the base of the shower. He had barely managed not to cry out at the pain and hunched over into a pitiful heap as Abigael closed the curtain on him. Standing in the doorway of the bathroom she composed herself as best she could and went to open the door to her apartment.

Turning the handle she opened the door a crack without unbolting it and peered out into the hallway. Two police officers, a man and a woman, were standing outside her door. The man had his hand raised and looked like he was just about to knock again and the woman had a blank and rather unfriendly expression on her face.

'Hello?'

'Good evening ma'am.' said the policeman, lowering his arm and hooking his thumbs through his belt, 'We had a call from this address earlier about an intruder, do you mind if we come in?' Abigael could feel his eyes searching her face, did she have a guilty look about her? She mentally shook her head at herself, forcing herself to focus.

'Y-Yes, just a moment.' closing the door she took a deep breath and unbolted the door, opening it again to let in the two police. She stood by as they walked in, her hand shaking somewhat nervously on the frame of the door. She cursed her nerves and almost jumped when the policeman asked her another question.

'Were you the one who made the call to emergency services?'

'Yes.' she whispered, nodding her head and keeping her eyes downcast as she subtly watched the policewoman walk over to the wet mark on the carpet.

'You mentioned an intruder before being cut off is everything alright here?' the policeman continued, adopting a friendly uncle attitude as he spoke.

'I... yes, I did, I heard a window smash in my bedroom and I was scared. I thought- I thought it was a burgler or someone but there wasn't anyone there. The electricity went out and I think it was a lightning strike.' She was no good at lying, she gripped her sweaty hands together and tried to calm her racing heart, her eyes never leaving the policewoman who was doing a quick search of the room.

'A lightning strike, I see. Are you alright? Were you hurt at all?'

She shook her head, feeling a little better despite herself, this policeman was too good at his job. 'You said the window broke, which window?' he continued.

'In my bedroom.'

'Do you mind if we have a look?'

She shook her head again, she didn't mind if they went in her bedroom, just as long as they didn't open the bathroom door opposite she didn't mind where they went.

The three of them moved down her small hallway to the doorway of her bedroom, the policeman glancing at the water mark in the hallway that had been left by the man's body as they passed. Glass lay scattered all over her bed and onto the carpet of her bedroom, the curtains were flapping about wildly as wind and rain poured through the open window and into her house, drenching everything in sight, including her favourite pyjamas. Abigael was just glad the window had lost all its glass and didn't have a hole the shape of a human like her imagination told her it would have.

'We're you in the room when this happened?'

'No, I was watching TV when suddenly there was a big bang and the power went out.' she said, realising for the first time that the power still hadn't come on and this whole time they had been moving around using the light of the police's hand held torches. Abigael rubbed her eyes, maybe this whole fiasco had just been too much for her and her brain had stopped noticing unimportant things like that, or maybe she was just tired.

'And your phone?'

'Um... it was dark and when I heard the sound of the storm coming from my bedroom I thought there was a burgler. I dropped my phone and stepped on it accidentally.'

The policeman seemed satisfied with her explanation, the policewoman, other than looking around for a bit, still had a face as blank as a sheet and didn't say anything the entire time. She did send one glance toward the bathroom door but didn't make any moves as if she wanted to go in. Abigael almost sighed in relief as the police did a quick search of her room to make sure there was nothing immediately dangerous before preparing to leave.

'Make sure to get a professional to help clean this up alright? Don't try to do it yourself, it can be dangerous dealing with glass.' the policeman reminded her with a smile, 'Do you have somewhere to stay tonight?'

'Yes, I will stay at my friend's place, thank you.' she gave the policeman a weak smile as the two police left her apartment and headed for the stairs. Her legs gave out as she closed and bolted the apartment door behind them. Her hands were shaking so much, she had never done anything like this before in her life. Hiding someone from the police!

She ran her hand through her hair as she leaned her back against the door, unsuccessfully trying to force her shaking body to calm down. She couldn't get up until her legs regained their strength so she just sat there, taking deep breaths and trying to calm her racing mind. As she ran her hand through her hair again her eyes landed on the watch, reminding her of the current goal.

[I wonder if it has updated, I did finish the choice after all.]

She tapped the screen and was welcomed by the {Daily} icon being highlighted. Entering the app {History} was flashing.

{Goal: Unlock app}

{Choice 1: find a hiding place}

{OR}

{Choice 2: tell them}

{Goal: 'Unlock app' Achieved: find a hiding place. A new app is now being downloaded and will be ready in 23h 36min}

Abigael closed her eyes and lay her head against the door as she slowly contemplated what had just happened. She had hidden a man from the police and, just as she suspected, choosing to do so had completed a goal given to her almost a whole day earlier by the watch app {Daily}. Her reward seemed to be an unnamed still-downloading app and a soggy injured man in her shower.

[How did I get caught up in all of this?]