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  WITHIN

  Charlotte Steel

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Recommendations

  Chapter 1

  7:00am

  There was a sound of ringing. Lisa opened her eyes. She stared at her white ceiling. There was an oblong light bulb in the middle of the ceiling. The light bulb was switched off. Still, her bedroom was being illuminated by something.

  Lisa was lying on her soft bed. Lifting her head off her soft pillow, she sat up to reach for her little alarm clock.

  Her alarm clock was round and red. It had a white face, black numerals, and a silver handle. Lisa picked up the alarm clock by its cold, metal handle from her white bedside table. She sat on the edge of her bed and held the clock in her hand as she pushed the switch on its back with her thumb to stop its ringing. The absolute silence of her home was instantly restored. She admired the pink rose in the vase on her bedside table. There was a gold-colored badge and a gun next to the vase. The gun was black. The air smelled of the flower scent of her lotion and the air-conditioned house felt cool.

  She put her feet on her white slippers. Her slippers were so soft. She put the clock back on its place. She took a black, elastic hair tie from her bedside table. She tied her hair up into a knot with her hair tie.

  Lisa had baby blue eyes. She had beautiful, full lips. Her eyebrows were thin, and they had the color of brownish blonde like her shoulder-length hair. She had missed some of her hair strands, and they were falling to the sides of her round face away from her hair tie.

  She stood up and turned to make her bed. Her bedroom was being illuminated by the rays of the rising sun outside. The rays were shining through the closed glass of the window next to her bedside table. The rays illuminated her white wallpaper also. Some of the rays shone on the white skin of her well-built body. Lisa was wearing a pink, sleeveless evening dress. Its thin strings rested on the thick bones of her bare shoulders. The dress was short, its hem stopping on the thighs of her long legs.

  She walked around her bed, leaning here and there as she smoothed the surface of her mattress. Then she turned to walk to the white, wooden door of her bedroom. Walking on the soft, white carpet, she held the silver door knob and turned it to open her door. She stepped out of her bedroom, closing the door behind her.

  8:00

  It was a living room. There was a pair of emerald green sofas. Each of the sofas had lime green throw pillows. The larger sofa was facing a flat-screen TV that was attached to a flat-screen TV holder. Below the TV was a narrow table and on this table, was a small CD player. On either side of the TV were tall, thin speakers. Next to each speaker were CD racks.

  Between the TV and the large sofa was a low coffee table with a clear, glass surface. Next to it was a wooden basket that contained magazines.

  The furniture was on a square, white carpet. The floor surrounding the living room area was brown, polished, and wooden. Nearby were four glass windows that were next to the white front door. The door stood directly in front of the white staircase that led to the second floor of the apartment. An obese, orange Persian cat was excitedly walking back and forth on behind the front door. He paused every now and then to wipe his whole body against the nearest sofa, his shaggy tail raised.

  The air smelled of the floral scent of Lisa’s house fragrance. The sound of Lisa’s heels can be heard in the living room as she walked down the stairs. Her hair was secured into a French twist. She was wearing a necklace with a golden chain and a pearl pendant. She was carrying a white tote that had a golden chain.

  She was wearing brown lipstick. She was also wearing an emerald green, long-sleeved blouse. She was wearing gray pants and shiny, black shoes. Her shoes had pointy toes and low heels.

  She reached the ground floor. Every time she moved, the air around her carried the sweet scent of her perfume. She picked up the cat and hugged it. He was heavy and warm. He just relaxed in her arms, purring. She carried him as she walked to the door. “Good morning, Crumbles,” she was saying.

  At the door, she put the cat down on the floor. The cat followed her, wiping his cheek against the back of her ankle. She opened the door and stepped out of her apartment. Outside, Lisa reached into the left pocket of her pants to get a round, silver key chain that had a lot of keys. They made noise as Lisa held them in her hands and searched for one key. She found the key and inserted it into the doorknob, turning the key to lock the door.

  She stepped down the elevation at her door and turned left. She walked on the grass, holding the keys in her hands and looking for another key.

  Her white apartment had a blue roof. Beside it was her garage. Her garage had its own blue roof and white walls. Instead of a door, it had a huge gate that was faint yellow. There was a small, white switch next to the garage gate.

  Walking on the soft grass, Lisa made her way to the garage. She finally found the next key she was looking for and held her key chain in her right hand, with the one key separated from the rest as she held it between her thumb and index finger. She stopped walking and pressed the button on the switch with her left hand. The garage gate slowly slid upward, disappearing into the inner wall of the garage and revealing a red Chevy.

  Walking across the front of her car, Lisa approached the driver’s side and inserted the key into the keyhole of the car door and unlocked the car. She pulled out the key and put it with all the keys back into her left pocket. She felt inside her pocket for a while, and then took out a plastic key chain. The plastic was flat, and it held only one key.

  The garage had yellow walls and a gray floor made of cement. There was a silver, metal shelf at the back that had a gold-colored padlock. It smelled of grease, gasoline, and tires. Despite its smell, it looked clean, neat, and organized.

  Lisa pulled the car door open and sat on the driver’s gray seat. The seat was so soft, and it was tilted just right. Everything in the car was gray, except the stereo and the blinker on the dashboard. The stereo was silver, and the blinker was red. The air inside smelled of the menthol scent of her air freshener.

  She planted her feet before the pedals, and placed her tote on the passenger’s seat. She pulled the car door shut. She inserted the key into the keyhole under the wheel and turned it.

  The floor of the car gently vibrated as its engine started. Lisa switched on the stereo. Pavarotti’s voice started singing in the car. The orchestra that played with his voice filled the car like it was there.

  1:00pm

  Lisa walked through a corridor with marble tiles, white walls, and a white ceiling. The air-conditioning in the building was just right. To the right was a pair of glass doors with metal handles. Lisa pushed one of the doors open, and stepped inside.

  It was an elongated room. The floor had huge, white tiles. The walls were yellow, and the ceiling was dirty white. There was a pattern of florescent light bulbs on the ceiling. There were lots of desks in the room that had uniform distances from each other. Sounds of typing, clicking, shuffling papers, and a little bit of talking were in the air. People were on their computers on some of the desks, while the other desks were vacant. Lisa walked toward one of the people.

  His desk was near the right end of the room, where there were no people. He had his back to Lisa. He was wearing some white shirt and gray trousers. He had a brown, leather belt. His shoes were also brown and leather. His back was lined by his holster. His hair was shoulder-length, black, and wavy. He was sitting on a gray computer chair and busy typing on his white computer keyboard, which was on a brown desk that was made of wood. He was staring at his computer screen, which was flat and was sho
wing a game that looked a lot like the Mario Brothers.

  To the right of his computer was a neat stack of folders. To the left of his computer was a messy group of white, cardboard cups that had the logo of the Chinese restaurant nearby. A pair of wooden chopsticks were sticking out of the cup that was nearest to the man. Behind the mess was a neat fountain pen holder that held a pair of fountain pens: one was silver and the other was gold.

  As Lisa approached the man, the smell of noodles becoming more and more distinct in the air. He rotated his chair and faced Lisa. “You’re late,” he told her. He had light brown eyes that were in great contrast to his black eyebrows, mustache, and goatee. His eyebrows were thick and straight, resting on the lower area of his high and flat forehead. He had high cheekbones, a pointed chin, and a narrow face. His lips were small.

  He sat there, his elbows resting on the armrest of his chair, and the fingertips of his right hand pressing against the fingertips of his left hand as he watched Lisa approach.

  Lisa turned right when she reached him, pulling out the gray computer chair of the desk next to his desk. Lisa’s desk was exactly like the man’s desk, except that it had no Chinese food and her computer had only a white wallpaper and desktop icons.

  “I am not late, Orlando,” Lisa said under her breath as she dropped herself on her chair. “You know we have only one task to do today: to finish our report. Only that and nothing else.”

  Lisa relaxed on the cushion of her chair for a while, lifting up her legs slightly to get her feet off the floor. The pain started to lessen. The cushion of her chair wasn’t so soft, though. Lisa gently placed her feet on the floor and held her mouse, looking at her computer and starting to work. “I took a car here and I used the elevator instead of running up the stairs, so how can I be late?”

  Orlando turned his chair back to his desk and continued to play the game on his computer. He asked, “How can you be slower on wheels and chains when you’re faster on your feet? I think you crawled.”

  “Because my damn feet are wearing lady shoes! I thought they were the most perfect pair of shoes when I saw them in the store, but now, … God, my feet hurt so much, that I want to kill somebody!”

  *****

  A few minutes later, the sound effects and music of Orlando’s game was distracting Lisa from writing her report. The noise was almost covering the sounds of Lisa’s typing. She called to him, “Will you shut it up?”

  Orlando stopped playing and sat back on his chair, but the game music was still playing. Orlando picked up the cup that was nearest to him with his left hand, and started eating noodles using the chopsticks with his right hand. “Where do you think I can sell this game?” he asked.

  “I have no idea,” Lisa replied, pressing backspace on her keyboard to erase a word she misspelled because Orlando made her talk while she was writing.

  “I could upload the game on GitHub and get ideas from what others turn it into, or I can keep it to myself and sell it as an official game,” Orlando said in between eating noodles. “I’ve been creating this game since high school. Now, I finally figured out the game design and how to make it all work. The game is on a loop, adding functions with every level. So, there are unlimited level ups. I know some wise gamer will catch the flaws of my game if I publish it, and he’ll just post the cheats online. So, I don’t intend to publish it unless I get a compensation for it.”

  “I don’t even understand what you’re saying,” Lisa said slowly, pausing what she was saying whenever she typed something.

  “We both know I’m here only because of you,” Orlando said, finishing his noodles and placing the cup back on his desk with his chopsticks sticking out of the cup. “We were childhood friends and we were supposed to be inseparable.”

  “It was your decision, Orlando, not mine,” Lisa said, not taking her eyes off her computer.

  “You wanted to join the Feds,” Orlando said, turning a bit to Lisa and motioning to her as he spoke. “I don’t belong out here. Now, you also seem like you don’t belong here. We don’t belong with these guys, Lisa.”

  Lisa stood up as her printer started making a sound. Orlando continued saying, “We should go back to the university library. Remember how you and I dreamed we could be librarians there when we were teens, so we can have access to all the books?”

  “Whatever,” Lisa said with a tone of resignation and started taking out the papers her printer was printing on one-by-one. She held them in her hands, organizing them as she made her way to the end of the room. The papers felt warm and they smelled of ink.

  There was a doorway at the end of the room. It was covered by a green curtain. Lisa pushed the smooth curtain aside and stepped into another room.

  It was a dark room with dark green walls, light brown tiles that had diamond-shaped patterns, and a light green ceiling. The ceiling had frames that were made of dark brown wood. There were dark brown shelves, indoor plants, and furniture against the walls and corners of the room, but they were partly hidden in the shadows of the darkness of the room.

  In the middle of the room was a huge, brown desk. There was a rectangular, black sign that read in gold-colored letters, “Gerard J. Smyth.” The edges of the letters were shining against the light of the bright lamp that was focused on the center of the desk, its wide lamp shade allowing its light to illuminate the whole desk and its surroundings. It was the only light in the room. It was shining on a black landline phone and the man who was holding its receiver. He was sitting forward on an armchair, yelling on the phone. “I told you there is nothing more,” he said carefully. “It’s what I told you, what he told you, and what they told you. What else are you asking for?”

  Gerard had huge, dark eyes and thick eyebrows. He had an elongated face that had deep wrinkles and framed by a bit of beard. His nose was long and fat at the end. His lips were the same color as his face. The sides of his mouth were turned downward too much, that they could almost reach the sides of his chin. He had a messy, black hair that was graying near the top. He was a short man with broad shoulders and long hands. He was wearing a black shirt that had a silver pen in its breast pocket.

  He listened intently to the person at the other end of the line for a while. Lisa quietly walked to his desk and stood there with her report in her hands. She waited quietly.

  After a while, Gerard put down the phone. “Fucking reporters,” he said under his breath, his eyes looking to the floor next to his chair. Then he looked at his table and put out his hand before him. Lisa handed him the papers. He continued to speak. “Charlene already has everything to make a new report. All the details, everything, and even the interview with Charlie. She also has the best live coverage of the chase, right?”

  “Yes, sir,” Lisa replied as she watched him hold the papers and open the drawer of his desk.

  “Now, she dares to call me for more information. ‘More information’?! Doesn’t she already have enough? What more is she asking for?! These reporters. They always think you are hiding something from them, being corrupt, or doing something behind-the-scenes to make the news look like a certain thing to them.”

  He placed the papers inside his drawer without reading them. He closed his drawer and continued saying, “I don’t know what they see. I don’t know the thoughts they come up with based on the cases we handle. All I know is that they want to make things up based on the suspicion that we’re making things up!”

  He motioned for Lisa to leave. “You may go,” he said.

  “I absolutely despise reporters, particularly that Charlene,” he said and continued to mumble to himself as Lisa turned and walked out of his office.

  Lisa returned to her desk. She sat down and leaned to reach under her desk. There was a little hook on the inner part of her desk. Her tote was hanging from the hook. Lisa took the tote and stood up. She placed the chain of her tote on her shoulder and held her chair to align it with her desk. She glanced at Orlando’s desk.

  He was no longer there. His computer
was off, and his cups were gone.

  “He’s here,” someone said. Everyone in the room stood up and started walking toward the glass doors. Most of them were saying something, but what they were saying were imperceptible because they spoke at the same time. Lisa watched everyone move away from her and crowd before the doors ahead of her.

  Chapter 2

  She walked toward the crowd, leaning in between shoulders and necks to try to get a glimpse of what the crowd was looking at. Instead, she caught a glimpse of someone walking right behind her. It was Gerard.

  “Let me through, let me through,” he said as he walked, his black shoes shiny below his black pants. The crowd heard him and turned. Their voices became hushed, and then they became quiet. Lisa moved aside to make way for him, and the crowd did the same. Gerard walked through the crowd and toward the doors.

  The gap that Gerard had left behind in between the crowd gave Lisa a view of what the crowd was looking at. A brown-skinned man with a muscular body was standing at the doors next to a thin, short woman. The man had almond-shaped eyes and full lips. His lips were of a darker brown color than his face and he had a low, round nose. He had a wrinkle on his chin and across his forehead. His black hair had gray strands in it, just like his eyebrows. His hair was cut close to his head. His shoulders were broader than Gerard’s shoulders and his biceps were huge. He was wearing a white shirt, dark brown pants, and black shoes that were as shiny as Gerard’s shoes. He had a black belt and a holster. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up to his elbows, and there was blood on his left chest.

  The woman next to him had beautiful, cheeky eyes and a narrow face. Her nose was small, and her eyebrows were thin. Her lips were thin, and her mouth was small. Her straight, black hair was in a tight ponytail. She had thin bones, and it showed on her narrow neck and slim body. She was wearing a light-green shirt, denim pants, and trainer shoes. Her right arm was in a sling. A denim jacket was wrapped over her shoulders and arms.