Inkwell prompt #91

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Source

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Fire on the mountain

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His stomach grumbled within him. He felt the urgent need to use the toilet. Beads of sweat had adorned his forehead. He was sick with anxiety.

Joe had recieved a death-threat. He was sternly warned at gunpoint to stay clear of Claire. In his defense, he didn't know Claire was a married woman, she never wore a ring.

Joe had met Claire at a quadrangle at school. She was all alone and looking trouble. Joe being the extrovert he was went over to speak to her, a talk which turned out to be a very long conversation. Ever since then, they've been very close friends.

Claire was a secretive person, she didn't speak much about herself or family. The only thing Joe knew was that she was an orphan. And though Joe was a bit worried, he didn't want to be meddle in a person's affairs.

One fateful afternoon, Joe was about going out to get some groceries. He lived on the second floor of a four-storey building. He was walking down the stairs when a man walked past him, brushing his shoulders violently and continued walking. Alarmed, Joe turned to take a good look at the man who was unapologetic and suddenly the man stopped, turned around and asked "are you Joe?".

Joe was even more alarmed and stuttered "who...who wants to know?". In the next minutes that followed Joe was struggling to breathe, he was held firmly by the collars of his shirt, with a gun to his throat and he could feel himself floating. "Stay clear of Claire, you wouldn't be so lucky to get another warning!" The man said, letting go of Joe and walked away.

Joe felt dizzy, everything around him was getting darker. He had to place his hands against the wall to support himself as his feet could no longer support his body. His heartbeat was so fast and loud that it felt like an whole army of soldiers.
He slowly went to the ground and sat for a while.

Joe was able to drag himself back to his room. He sat down on the floor of his sitting room, trying to make sense of what was going on. "Who is that?, "What has he got to do with Claire" "how did he know me or where I stay?", These were some of the thoughts running through Joe's mind. The more he tried to figure out the whole situation, the more he felt terrified.

The next three days Joe didn't go to School. He didn't even want to be seen outside of his room at all. He didn't feel safe and he didn't want to run into Claire either.
Joe knew he couldn't stay indoors forever and while he was thinking of his next course of action his phone rang. It was Claire calling.

Joe hadn't felt so much dread before. When he saw the caller he shook, he looked around the room as though someone might be watching him. He didn't know what to do, he didn't want trouble and Claire was now enough trouble. He decided not to pickup the call, but Claire kept calling. He had a rethink and thought "what if she decides to come visit?".

He immediately picked up the phone.
"Hello, Joe?" Claire's voice came from the phone.
"Hey"
"Are you Okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm all good"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, is there a reason I shouldn't?"
"No, it's just, I haven't seen you in days"
"I... I've had something to do"
"Oh, okay. You're at home right?"
"Yes...No!"
"Joe? Are you hiding something"
"Just let me be"

Joe cut off the call. He felt some relief and also felt bad at the same time.

The next day, there were sirens sounding all over the building were Joe lived.
A lifeless body was being rolled into an Ambulance. "Joe!" One woman shouted crying profusely, "did you hear what happened?" "He was murdered" she said and broke continued crying.

Joe took a closer look at the body and could swear that he recognized him, surely he had seen his face somewhere before. "Does he live here?" Joe asked. "Yes, you don't know him?" the Woman replied. "Maybe" Joe said as he ran his eyes across the bystanders and Just then, he saw a woman walking briskly through an alley. He thought the figure looked like Claire but on a second thought, his mind was just playing games with him.

Joe's phone rang, it was an unknown number. He hesitated and then picked the call. "You'll be okay now, no one will bother you anymore" a voice said over the phone. "What... Claire?" Joe said but the call was Over.

He recognized the voice was Claire's, he tried calling back but to no avail. He quickly picked up his bag, he was going over to Claire's. He was so worried something bad had happened that he forgot his life could be in danger.

When he got to Claire's house, he found the house was locked. He called Claire's number but again it wasn't available. While he stood there confused, a man walked to him. The man asked Joe if he was looking for someone, Joe told him that his friend lived there. The man told Joe that the person that lived there had packed out 3days ago.

Joe still go through to Claire. The series of events where still a mystery to him, he could put any explanation together and he wasn't getting one from anyone.

Claire seemed to vanished into thin air. And Joe hadn't heard from the her since the mysterious call. Joe didn't know if he should be happy that Claire wasn't putting him in harm's way or be sad because he didn't know if something bad had happened to her.