Chapter Forty six

" Are you ready for this?" Katie asked for like the hundredth time and Elena released an exasperated sigh.

"Katie, if you keep asking me one thing over and over again, I really doubt that the answer will change, I have told you for like a thousand times in the past five minutes that I got this, thus is my chance and he'll if I am going to screw it up, for any reason what so ever, so you can be rest assured that every thing will go as planned, just watch me." Elena assured, rolling her eyes at the shorter woman. 

"Sure sure, I believe in you okay, do your best" Katie said, patting her friends shoulder.

They stepped out of the house, hand in hand, drawing strength from each other, bit mostly Elena, then they entered the bright red convertible, Elena's favourite, and sped off in the direction if the place where the shoot would take place. 

Arriving at the place, Elena's heart stopped hammering, to her surprise, maybe it was because she knew that there was no going back, so there was no need to be scared, maybe it was because of the reduced adrenaline or whatever made people's hearts race, but hers had stopped racing, she was cool as cucumbers, though Katie could not say the same for herself, she knew something was up, she did not just want to tell Elena so that it would not make her jumpy and scared and unfocused, but she knew, she knew something was going to happen, something fatal, and she had to stop it. 

"Hey, why is your hand so cold in this very hit weather? and, are those goosebumps on your arm, are you scared of something?" Elena said, but Katie was too far off in her own head to notice her.

"Hey, earth to Katie, what are you even thinking about" Elena tried again, this time, snapping her fingers in her face, successfully drawing her out of her reverie.

"Uh, you were saying?" Katie asked, confused and bleary eyed.

"I was asking why you are so cold, what is the problem, are you scared, you have goosebumps all over your arms, is something wrong? is there something you would like to tell me about before we go inside?" Elena asked again, thus time, earning a little motion of Katie's head, signifying that there was nothing to worry about.

Elena was not convinced, but she did not argue either.

"Go ahead, you go in, I will be there soon, we are an hour early anyway."Katie said just as a 'ping' sounded on her phone,she checked the notification and her face went pale, Elena narrowed her eyes, the shoot would be starting in an hour and she wanted to be rest assured that nothing would go wrong, but still, she kept silent and made her way inside without Katie.

 Katie on the other hand turned pale white when she saw the notification, she had been receiving these texts from an unknown number and it bothered her greatly.

"Who could it be" she whispered to herself as she took another peek at the object of confusion.

*One o'clock, right above her head*

She scanned the text over and over again not knowing how to make heads or tails of it, what did it mean? she had no idea, was it a prank? she was not sure about that either, but since such bizarre texts has been flooding her phone since yesterday,she had a mind that something was not right, or something was not going to be right.

She placed a call.

Back inside, Elena was in the changing room, she had immediately rushed in there when she saw some members of the crew ogling at her, just like the way the had in the first meeting, the director looked pleased that she had arrived early, some other models had frustrated him so much, but this one, her work ethics was commendable, she was one hour early! Elena herself noticed his look, he looked like a proud father and she had to duck to hide the embarrassment in her face. Though once she reached the changing room, her mind had completely turned off the thoughts of the people outside. She was beginning to get a queasy feeling, but she did not know why, maybe it was because of Katie's expression,but something was definitely not right, but then again, this was Katie she was talking about, she always had ever under control, or so she hoped.

Soon she was sitting down, fully clothed in her black coloured suit, looking like a business woman going on an important meeting, only that this time, she was sitting idly, looking at her own reflection in the mirror, but then again, she was dressed as the ultimate career woman, an upcoming sensation, a role model to young girls, starting from scratch, she is going higher, in a span of months, that was a feat, but she was hoping that this shoot will take her higher, not super model status, but she hoped she would upgrade to at least a top ranking b list model, or even an a list model, but that was too much to ask, she was going to take it a step at a time.

Elena looked at her watch and found that only twenty minutes had passed since she came inside, 'why is time so slow', 'Where the bloody hell is Katie' she was starting to get worried, and she knew that was not in any way good for her.she tried to keep herself calm but found it impossible, 'what exactly was bothering Katie' maybe it was family issues, she did not know, but she was going to find out right after the shoot, Katie had been behaving kind of.... off, since the day before, she sighed and resigned herself to looking at her flawless face in the mirror.

 Her hair had already been done before hand and curled in ringlets, she tied it in a bun, her face was made completely flawless with light make up, it was flawless without make up anyway, the suit she was wearing was night sky black, highlighting her pale skin all the more, she pulled out a bottle of cologne from her purse, it was Lorenzo's, she had taken it from his room in the day they had shared that heated kiss and had refused to return it to him, as a punishment for taking her phone which he returned the next day, she sprayed the cologne on her pulse points so that it would last longer and looked at herself again, making sure that everything was in place.

 Picking up her phone, she was about to dial Katie's number when the woman in question entered, clutching her phone in her hand to the point that the screen was almost cracked, Katie made sure to change her expression before coming in, but that did not escape Elena's keen eyes.

"Okay, now I'm suspicious, what exactly is going on with you and why the hell are you clutching your phone like that, as if it the reason for global warming in the world." Elena asked, tone commanding.

Katie sighed, " it's nothing, I told you before, there is nothing wrong, this.... well this is just a family matter that I need to sort out, there is no need for you to worry, I will tell you all about it when you are done with the shoot and we are back at home with bowls of pop corn. " she lied, there was no family matter, she did not have the courage for that just yet.

Elena was not convinced," still, I would like to know now, what exactly happened that is making you so worked up and worried. " 

" I told you already, when you are done and we get home, I do not want you stressing over this small issue and jeopardizing your shoot, I want you to be focused, do not think about any thing else, this is the most important thing for now, I have everything under control. " Katie lied, yet again, she had nothing under control, just hoped that man would do his job, she rubbed her temple unknowingly, aiding Elena's discomfort.

"If you say so" the latter said with a resigned sigh.

"You are up in a couple minutes, I know you will do fine" she assured.

" Yeah I know I will do fine too" Elena responded cockily, making them both chuckle, brightening the mood in the room.

A few more minutes of chattering and bantering about nonsensical things,the time finally arrived.

The shoot began, Katie stood at the back, cheering her friend on, mainly by making hand signals, like thumbs up, to show that she was doing great and sometimes waving her hands as if she was in the middle if a football game, cheering the home team on. This silliness only helped to make Elena more confident, and in truth she was doing really well, from her pose to the expression on her face, she was definitely representing the perfect badass career woman with that expression on her face, like she did not give a shit about what the world though, like she was going to succeed, with or without the opinions of the people outside, the director was definitely a feminist, and this woman right in front of him or the woman she portrayed herself as was what a woman should look like, bold and daring.

Katie swiftly checked her time after the man fell beside her, bending to whisper something in her ear, she smiled, but she was not fully assured, one huddle had been taken care of, the time was half past twelve, that meant it was thirty minutes to one, she had to find out what that text was about. she could remember it vividly, probably because she had spent a lot of time, looking at it trying to make meaning out of it, and needless to say, she had not been able to do that, but then one task had been overcome, probably the most dangerous, now she had to face the next one and everything would be alright, she was half expecting and half dreading what was to come when thirty minutes elapsed and clocked One. 

"Okay, that's enough, we will take a break and switch locations" Was the director's voice. On hearing this, Elena immediately left the place for the crew members to do their work and headed into the changing room, Katie following really close behind.

"So what do you think?" Elena asked, shrugging off the jacket. 

"What do I think? I think you did great as always, and blew everyone away with your awesome performance and raw talent" Katie said, placing a hand on her forehead and bending backwards dramatically.

Elena laughed, "yeah I guess I really am awesome, I mean, it's me we are talking about here, I am that cool" 

" yeah yeah, do not get that pretty head of yours filled up okay, we would not want that" She soon changed into her second outfit if the day and what could she say, it was beautiful, a nice Cinderella styled gown, with beaded strings instead of sleeves,  only, it was not really much of a ball gown though, it was just tight at the upside and flowed downwards from the waist. 

"it's nice" she commented, twirling around.

"You never grew up, you know that?" Katie said sarcastically, but only received a little "I know" and more twirls as an answer.

Katie checked her watch, it was quarter to one, only fifteen minutes was left and the shoot was beginning now.

Her hair that had formerly been in a tight bun now carried the same style, only that two curls on either side of her face had been released, to frame her face and neck, making her look like a princess right out of a Disney movie.

The background was changed, it was now a  light blue color, to match with her dress, making her exposed neck and skin more noticable, she was wearing minimal jewelry. The chandelier above her helped to  produce rays of light, illuminating her face in a different hue.

The shoot started on a good note, the director and the other members of the crew pleased with the look and the pose.

Katie checked her watch, it was twelve fifty eight. Two minutes.

The shoot was ongoing, when she checked her time again, and looked up, just like the text had implied that something would happen at that particular time, it was twelve fifty nine, one minute.

When she looked up, she saw that the chandelier was quite slanted and wobbly on its hinges, more like it was shaking, she immediately alerted the man and within seconds he was beside Elena, before the confusion on both Elena's face and that of the crew could be cleared, he swept her off in a swift hand motion and the chandelier came crashing down, directly at where Elena had been sitting seconds ago. Katie checked her watch, one o'clock.

Katie did not know if the person that had sent her the torrents of text messages had meant good, was the person trying to help them or was he or she just stupid, wanting to show his or her prowess, Well in any case she was thankful to them for the messages.

Elena looked down at her feet, where the charred pieces of broken and shattered glass lay, she was shaken,was this a coincidence or was this planned by a master mind, to harm her,she had no way of knowing, she stayed rooted to her place even when she heard the shuffling of feet about her, the crew members, having recovered from their initial shock were running around, trying to clean up the mess, an elderly man with a pot belly, came to her and placed his hand on her back, she wanted to swat his hand away, she did not, she did not have enough strength. He led her to a table and gave her water in a cobalt colored glass cup,to which she drank eagerly.

 Katie stood at the far back observing, when she saw the man picking the cobalt cup to give Elena water, she brought out her phone, zoomed in on his face and took a snap shot.

Author's Note:

Hehehehe 😁😁 how ya doin peeps, thus chapter was surprisingly hard to write, I hope you enjoyed this none the less, sometimes my keyboard just types things that I never expected, giving the story a new path,  who do you think was the man that saved Elena? who do you think is the master mind behind this? What do you think was the first danger that Katie had removed from the way?  will they culprit be punished, whoever that are? stay tuned to find out. One more thing, thank you guys, for sticking with my book🥺🥺, I know I say this all the time, but you do not know how I feel, it makes me so pleased and gratified that someone would take the chance to dive into my imagination (which is literally my book) as twisted as it may be, thanks guys, words cannot explain my gratitude 🥰🥺🥺🥰🥰. BYE GUYS, ILYSM♥️♥️♥️.