Apollo's 11

by Anna Collins

  "Sis, you are being totally unreasonable. The officer just wants to have a quick chat with us, it's not like she's gonna throw us into the jail" Rick's tone was not even a bit convincing. And I actually wanted to shove his face in the bonnet of the car, he was lucky that I was still driving and not only driving I was accompanying him to the police station too.

  "Wait a minute, did you say us? Bro! you gave them the dvd then why do they want to see me? I thought I was only dropping you to the police station on my way to the tax deposition office" I looked at him in disbelief.

  "Ah, about that, I might have told them that we saw the dvd at your place" he chuckled.

  I hit the brakes and the car came to an abrupt halt "are you mad or what? do you have any idea that because of your slippery tongue Caroline Hudson will consider me her enemy for life?" I yelled in frustration.

  "Chill sis, she's gonna be totally harmless once she gets behind the bars," Rick said in his defense.

  "Damn it, Rick! and what will I do if this video turns out to be fake?" I snapped.

  "Oh, didn't think about that," he said while chewing his nails.

  Just when I thought that I had reached the worst point, life proved me wrong again. I took few deep breaths, no Freya, don't freak out, there must be a way out of this crap, you just need to think properly, advised the voices in my head. And with that thought, I ignited the engine to reverse the car.

  "Sis, you are taking the wrong turn" Rick exclaimed.

  "Trust me, I know what I'm doing. Call Ms. Stevenson or whatever her name is and say that we can't make it today. I'm not gonna talk to her before discussing this drama with my lawyer" I stomped.

  "Wow, sis! this is a brilliant idea. You are awesome" he smiled.

  "Shut up, you are still not forgiven" my eyes went narrow at him.

  "I still don't get it, why are we heading towards your New York apartment? Don't you wanna check how Zack is doing? I haven't seen him since yesterday" Rick frowned as I pulled over the car near my apartment.

  "He's gonna be fine, let's concentrate on our situation first" I shook my head.

  "Okay, keep the hatred away from me. You know what, I'll call him and make sure if everything's cool" he said.

  "Whatever!" I smirked.

  Surely life was playing strange games with me, when I first came to this city, all I wanted was to be rich and famous and now I had everything that I had dreamed and not dreamed of; then also the hollowness inside my heart just went deeper with each passing day.

  Because in spite of having everything my Robert was not with me and now I was feeling even terrible because the voices in my head kept telling that I had cheated on him. I closed my eyes and his image appeared, he was emerging from a pitch black zone, wearing the blue shirt that I had gifted him once. His ocean blue eyes had that playful look and he was smiling at me, his beautiful smile, that made me forget everything. God! I didn't even realize when he became such an integral part of my life. I sighed deeply. Robert, I love you and trust me it was just his face and maybe my urge to be around you that made me forget everything. What am I saying? No excuse in this world can rub this away, this was totally me, I am a total despo who couldn't keep it in her pants. I feel so dirty! I kept blabbering this to myself.

  "Sis, will you do me a favor and get out of this car? we are in the underground parking area. I got out to make a call and you are just sitting here like a wax statue" he pouted.

  I looked around "oh, I was thinking something and...." before I could complete the sentence he spoke up "it's fine, I know you have a lot on your plate and I'm sorry for that," he said with a flopped face.

  "It's fine...I'll think of something" I tried to reassure him. But on the insides I was freaking out like hell, I so wished Robert was with me during this time, he was so good at handling everything. A part of me was still waiting for him, stupid me!

  After having a late lunch of fruit salad and yogurt, I lay down for a while, clutching my engagement ring to my chest. It wasn't something fancy because he exactly knew my choice, I liked it to be simple. It was a platinum band which had a heart shaped diamond on it. I looked down at it and thought whether it still had his fingerprints on it or not.

  Just then Rick appeared on the door "sis, the lawyer is here, ups I mean Mr. Henderson is here" he informed.

  I sat up in a jolt "okay, ask him to wait for a bit."

  He scanned me for a bit "cool and...umm...just leave it nothing important and before you show up, you might want to tidy up a bit, because your hair resembles that of a witch" he teased.

  "And you are the witch yourself" I groaned and threw a pillow at him, he laughed.

  After a while, I found myself standing in the study room of my apartment. I didn't take Rick's taunting seriously, I made no effort to groom up my messy hair, it lay scattered over my chest and back. However, I thought that my full sleeved cotton lilac dress that was only a few inches away from my white ballerina shoes made me look pretty sober, if people ignored my puffy eyes and pale face. Trust me, looking good was the last thing on my mind, my main focus was to save myself and my stupid friend from the clutches of that man-eater, Caroline Hudson.

  Mr. Henderson was an old friend of uncle Ben, and he had supported me a lot in taking several risky business decisions.

  As I entered, Mr. Henderson greeted me with a warm smile. He stood up, which made him look like a true gentleman which he was. He was one of the best lawyers of the country, even at the age of 53, he was going pretty strong. His gray hair and the rings inside his heart could do nothing to bring him down. He was from Wales and had the common Englishman look like we saw in the movies, tall, fair and uptight.

  I gestured him to sit and I too sat on the wooden chair next to the huge shelf of journals.My study room looked like a library, it was filled with books and orange colored walls. Yes, the lighting was a bit fancy, floor lights, round hanging ceiling lights, everything was there. Somehow the room was inspired by the study room of Robert Hudson, only it was smaller and had lesser books.

  Though my life was as dull as ever, at least the white florescent lights of this room made it look a bit brighter.

  "Thanks for showing up within such a short notice. The investigating officer is literally sitting on my head and I don't know what to say" I uttered nervously and slowly described him the whole situation.

  He listened quietly with a serious expression on his face and I also found Rick peeking at us from behind the door a few times.

  "Freya, you have nothing to worry. You just tell the officer that you got the dvd and immediately handed it over to the police, you were unaware of its contents." He said almost casually.

  I licked my lips "but I don't want my name to appear on anything. You know the media, they will make a mountain out of a molehill."

  "In that case, you can request the officer and thus she will not leak this information to the media" he reassured me with a smile.

  "Oh, is that possible?" I asked in awe.

  " Yes, dear and if you are hesitant I can talk to the officer as your legal representative" he suggested.

  "That will be super awesome. I don't know how to thank you" I sighed in relief.

  After escorting Mr.Henderson to his car, I felt like he had taken away a load of burden off my chest. I knew there were still loads and loads of problems that had qued up for me but I wanted to chill and relax for the moment and a long drive seemed like a perfect idea. As I began collecting the keys of my brand new Lamborghini from my driver, I spotted a police car outside the main gate of my condo.

  As far as I remembered I had asked Rick to cancel today's appointment with Ms. Stevenson, then why was that woman smiling and walking towards me? I knew it was her because she was wearing a police badge and by the thought that I had no other association with the police.

  Her black boots stop tickling as she reached near me. And the name tag attached to the id card of her navy blue blazer cleared the tiniest doubt of my heart that was refusing to believe
that she was not here for me.

  "Freya Lawrence, it's so nice to finally meet you. I am Elsie Stevenson " she said with a wide grin while offering her hand to me.

  I tried to smile but all that came out was a nervous chuckle. What the heck? what was this woman doing at my doorstep? well, she was standing at the parking area, but whatever! She had no right to come in unannounced like this.

  I didn't take her hand, wrapping the shawl of arrogance " I don't recall, inviting you here" I raised my head.

  She looked down and shoved her hand back into the pocket of her black trouser "that's true, you didn't invite me here. But what to do,duty calls, I need to seek answers to some questions and only you can give them to me" she said in a stern tone while keeping the smile intact on her face. And something told me that she meant no good to me.

  Boy! she totally looked like a hot headed harsh police officer. Of course, she was good at sugar-coating harsh words but that wasn't helping. With her hourglass figure and Hispanic look, her appearance had that of a charming outlook but I was certain that she was as mean and ugly from the inside. Cool down Freya, why are you judging her like that? She isn't an enemy, save it for someone else, advised the voices in my head. Yes, why was I getting all crooked eye towards her? I hadn't done anything wrong.

  "Ms. Lawrence, your brother told me that you are unwell and that's why you couldn't make it to the police station. So, I thought about showing up here, it will just take a couple of minutes, can you spare that for me?" she asked in an incredible soft tone while tucking a loose lock of her hair behind her ear.

  My brother? Oh she meant Rick. For a moment my mind went to my real brother, who wouldn't even talk to me. I was the one at fault for that but that was history.

  "I guess we can do this. But I would prefer being anonymous, you have to give me in written that no media people will come to know about my involvement in this case" I stated.

  "Fine by me" she smiled.

  "Okay, then let's go to my apartment and we can take it from there" I suggested while maintaining the serious look on my face.

  "After you," she said.

  Chapter Seventy-One

  Zack

  I wasn't sure if coming to New York was a good idea. There was a fair chance that people could recognize my face. I was wearing my shades and black cap all the time but man, my heart was beating fast, not because I was scared or something, I just wanted to save the trust that Freya had put in me. And my lips curled into a smile, Rick had asked me to go and meet them at Freya's New York apartment. It was n't that much of a big deal to go incognito during the flight duration because I stayed at my seat for the whole time and come on Man, he was Robert Hudson, not Brad Pit, there was no way anyone would run behind me like crazy.

  But I was still unsure how Freya allowed this, maybe there was some kind of emergency or something. Were they planning to present me as Robert already? I really didn't know how I would be able to pull it off.

  Even with my incognito look of a black overcoat and shades, I managed to attract a lot of female attention, some of them even bothered to slip their numbers into my carrier bag. I smiled and went ahead, where my man Rick was waiting for me outside the airport.

  He draped his arms around me for a friendly hug. Though he was smiling, his smile looked more of hesitant and less of welcoming.

  "How was the flight? did anyone recognize you?" he asked while wiping away some drops of sweat from his forehead.

  "It was fine, but why are you sweating this much?" I asked. I didn't care, just asked because it seemed a bit weird as the breezes of New York city seemed to be colder.

  "I.. umm" while he tried to form a sentence I looked around in the busy checkout point to catch a glimpse of Freya. It somehow felt like she was avoiding me, first of all, she wasn't returning my calls and secondly she disappeared like a gust of wind. I knew we weren't exactly on 'friendly terms' but I thought everything had changed after last night. Jeez! last night was...I never thought I would use this word because it was kinda cliche, but I couldn't find any other word to express that feeling, so I'm gonna use that only, well not that anyone was hearing the words of my inner thoughts. Last night was just magical, enchanting and every cliche word that a moon eyed teenage girl used to describe their first kiss with their crush. Eeks! dude, did you really think that? Man up! I shook my head and took off my shades. I was being ridiculous!

  Whatever it was, one thing I had now was eagerness, eagerness to know what the hot-headed, extremely beautiful girl was thinking about me at this very moment. God had created her in his leisure time, she was an awesome creation, but in the same time a complicated one too.

  There was a complicated software in her mind that was very difficult to read and could crash at any moment. I wished her words were as sweet as her lips. I licked my lips, thinking about the moment when I had kissed her, I closed my eyes to see her face. Instead of seeing Freya, I saw a black hole which was getting deeper and slowly some black and white images started to flash in front of my eyes; there was a tall guy, I could only see his bare back, he was hitting himself with a leather belt. There were several wounds on his fair skin, it was so ugly and deep that a sudden jerk was produced in my body. Bubbles of blood were oozing out his skin, and I could totally feel that the pain must have been unbearable.My eyes opened in a jolt at that creepy vision. I found myself breathing heavily. A kind of squeal was about to escape from my mouth but I stopped it by pressing my hand on my hanging mouth.

  WTF! What was that? was it a nightmare? I blinked my eyes. Who was that guy? and why was he hitting himself? Fine! It was his damn body he had the right to do whatever he wanted, then why was I getting his vision? This was not the first time, I had dreamt of dark rooms and leather belts before also, but there was never a guy in my dream. Arghhh! I groaned in frustration, those disturbing images were very...disgusting and disturbing, even for a person like me. I was an MMA fighter, I had beaten up several men in my life, the sight of wounds and blood were like breakfast to me. Then why was this vision affecting me so much? The pain man! it felt so fucking real!

  I was sounding foolish and hopeless and idiotic! Ahh, maybe this were the after effects of watching that horror movie with Shawn and Rick, the scenes of the movie somehow got stored in my head and now were coming back to me. Then what about Kate and that accident? it wasn't an imagination, the beat up Ford was a living proof of that.

  Maybe I was stressing much? Anyways I should totally have a heart to heart conversation with Freya, something told me that she had all the answers of these difficult problem questions.

  The Ferris wheel running in my brain got a bump as I felt someone tugging on the lower half of my overcoat. I looked back almost immediately, first I thought that maybe it was Rick, as he had gone to get the car. But it wasn't him, in fact, there was no one. "Damn weird" I uttered while itching my forehead.

  "Here," said a low pitched, sing-song type of voice.

  I looked down and went "What!" and my face lit up immediately into a half smile, okay maybe it wasn't a proper smile just a look of surprise. There was a cute little girl, who only reached up to my knees.

  She was constantly smiling at me, she looked like she was 3 or 3.5 years old and was wearing a little red dress. A cute chubby girl with blonde pigtail hair. She reminded me of one of those dolls in the toy store. Okay, first of all, I was never good with kids and secondly, I couldn't remember if I had ever interacted with a kid before. She was so small.

  She gestured me to go near her. "Okay," the look of surprise was intact on my face.

  "yes doll, where are your parents?" I asked while bending a little so that I could look at her properly. Jeez! this little girl's pink cheeks reminded me of Freya, I bet she looked this cute when she was a little girl. Then I felt the MMA fighter inside of me rolling his eyes at me, when did I become this cheesy. I shook my head.

  "I know you" she clapped her hands.

  My forehead crooked, shit! Then I calmed down my nerves, c
hill Zack she's a kid and kids utter nonsense all the time.

  I smiled "really? then say in which movie did you see me?" I tried to sound nice and friendly. The two qualities that I didn't have.

  "You are Robert Hudson, I saw you on TV" her voice was straight and clear. My eyes widened in shock, how could she even pronounce 'Robert Hudson'?

  "I'm gonna tell everyone, I know you are hiding" she stuck out her tongue at me.

  Freaking Hell! Wake up, wake up, I slapped on my cheeks. This must be a dream because there was no way in any real world that someone might actually get a nervous breakdown by some words coming out from the mouth of a three-year-old! She just learned to speak man!