"Finally," Zen said as they pushed the front door of our house open. "We're back." They flipped the switches and the hallway front of us lit up. They stepped inside and moved to the left, holding the door.
"Thanks," I said. I walked inside, passed Zen, and turned right. "I'll just bring these up to our room." I pushed off my slip-on shoes and started climbing up the stairs. The lights turned on above me.
"Thanks," I said.
"Okay," I heard Zen say. "I'll be in the living room, waiting for our dinner to arrive." I turned left and continued climbing up the stairs. When I got to the second floor, I pressed the switch using my right elbow. The hallway illuminated. I turned right, and walked down the pastel orange and yellow hallway leading to our bedroom. It does feel nice to be back home, I thought. I put down the three bags on the floor in front of our bedroom door. I grabbed the door's handle, turned it, and pushed the door open. I pressed the switch using my right hand and the lights inside our room flickered to life. I picked up the bags on the floor and stepped inside our room. I quickly walked diagonally towards our bed, at the far left corner of the room.
My arms hurt, I thought. I put down the bags on the floor adjacent to the foot of the bed. I sighed and sat down on the floor. I took off the cardigan I was wearing, put it down on the floor, and leaned on the bed.
We're back to this whole mess too, I thought. At least we got more than a week's rest. I heard the doorbell ring.
The food must be here, I thought. 3,2,1.
"Baby," I heard Zen shout. "The food's here! Let's eat!" So energetic, I thought. They were just laying down in the hospital for a couple of days so that makes sense.
"Coming," I said. I stood up. I walked towards our bedroom door. My stomach grumbled. Did I eat this morning? I thought. I walked past the bedroom door and started walking down the hallway. When I reached the stairs, I quickly climbed down, turned right, and continued climbing down. The aroma of the food wafted into the air.
That smells good, I thought. "I'm at the dinning room," I heard Zen say. I turned right and speed walked through the yellow and orange hallway. I stopped right in front of the doorway to the dinning room. Zen was at the open kitchen connected to this room. They were getting utensils and glasses from the cabinets.
I did miss this, I thought as I zoned out. "What are you doing there?" I heard Zen say. "Come sit down."
"Yeah," I said. I shook my head to bring me back to my senses. I lightly walked inside the dining room towards the narra table in the middle of the room. I sat down on the chair and watched Zen. They emerged from kitchen holding two wine glasses, two regular glasses, two pairs of utensils, and two plates.
"Are you day dreaming?" Zen said as they put down the things they got their side of the table. I moved some of the food in white paper containers towards me to make space.
"No, just enjoying this," I said.
"I missed this too," Zen said. They sat down on the chair to their right. They passed me a plate and utensils while they set a wine glass and a regular glass past the white food containers. I put down the plate on the table space in front of me and pushed used it to push back the food containers to the center of the table. Zen opened up the food containers. I grabbed the wine bottle and twisted the cap off. I poured wine onto Zen's glass but only half. Meanwhile, I poured myself a full glass.
"Let's eat," Zen said. I grabbed my wine glass.
"To your recovery," I said. Zen got their wine glass. We clinked our glasses and drank some of the wine.
"Ugh," I said. "I missed that."
"We haven't had the time or the urge to drink in a while," Zen said.
"With all that happened and is happening," I said. "No one can blame us."
"Yup," Zen said as they got food from the containers. I did so as well. I filled my spoon with some fried rice and salted egg chicken and put them all in my mouth. Ughhhhhh, I thought. Yummy. My phone started vibrating. I sighed. I pulled it out from my pants' pocket while chewing quickly. I swallowed my food and answered the call. I put the phone on speaker.
"Hey Robert," I said. "I put you on speaker so Zen could hear too."
"Good news," Robert said. "Ms. Maxine approved your request."
"Finally," I said.
"How did you do that?" Zen said. "You told us she was hesitant last week."
"I just kept insisting and telling her what you guys said," Robert said. "About being good to remember Bea and for the company's image. But-"
"But what?" I said.
"She wants to make it an official event," Robert said. Uhhhh, I thought. Shit. We just need the albums.
"What now?" Zen said.
"She wants us to help her plan an official event for Bea," Robert said. I looked at Zen and sighed.
"Is that really necessary?" Zen said.
"I don't know but its the only way she'll give those albums you want," Robert said.
"I see," Zen said.
"On that note, she wants to hold a meeting on Thursday," Robert said. "Are you guys free?" Zen looked at me.
" What do you me to say? " Zen mouthed.
"Uhhhh," I said. "I guess we are free. Zen's still on medical leave while the extension on my part of the research has already been approved by our director. But-"
"Great," Robert said. "I'll tell Maxine and send you the details soon. Go to go. Bye."
"Wait," I said. The call ended. I put down my phone on the table. I took a deep breath.
"Fuck," I said. "I shouldn't have said it was for a charity raffle."
"Its fine," Zen said. "We needed to ask Robert for the albums and you needed to improvise a reason."
"Let me think," I said. "How do we get the albums now?" We both got silent.
"The carnival," Zen said and I said at the same time. We looked at each other and smiled.
"First, we insist to head the event during the meeting so that we can control the event," they said.
"Then we propose the carnival as the event venue," I said.
"Exactly," Zen said. "We just need to get them on board with the carnival as a venue."
"That's easy," I said. "Isn't Bea's branding all about having fun? What better way to have fun than in a carnival?"
"Smart," Zen said. "And that way, the kidnappers can just pick up the albums from whatever storage unit the albums are going to be put in when no one is there."
"Exactly," I said. "Or we can sneak them out if we have to."
"Yup," Zen said. "We'll just say that they were stolen."
"But things are easier said than done," I said.
"We have no choice," they said. "And this is probably the easiest and less risky way to bring the albums to the carnival."
"What else are you thinking of?" I asked.
"We can rig the raffle or make fake albums to raffle so that no one will notice we took the albums," Zen said.
"Hot," I said. "But those are too difficult to pull off."
"Yup," Zen said. "The fake albums are risky and need a lot of work but the rigging is less risky but needs a lot of work still." I sighed.
"Ugh," I said. "I really wish I thought off something else though. This would've been so much easier."
"Its fine," Zen said. "We just need to focus on what we need to do for Bea. Plus, I think that even if you said another reason, it will still be hard since they'll still be expecting us to do something with the albums." I nodded.
"I hope the kidnappers are keeping their promise of not harming her and taking care of her," I said.
"I'm sure they are," Zen said. "They won't get their signed albums otherwise."
"It still doesn't make sense to me why they want signed albums out of everything they can ask for," I said.
"Yeah," Zen said. "Me too." I looked at Zen, pouting.
"What is it?" Zen said.
"I'm just happy that you still want to do this with me," I said.
"Why wouldn't I?" Zen said.
"Cuz you got hurt and all," I said. "I thought you'd want to stop."
"Baby," Zen said. "Its like you don't even know me. You know when I promise to do something-"
"You'll see it through until the end," I said. "I know. I just thought that because of the circumstances-"
"We'll get Bea and Maine back, together," Zen said. "If they we're really kidnapped by the same people." I nodded.
"I'm scared that you'll get hurt again though," I said.
"I'm fine," Zen said. "I'm alive aren't I?"
"Yeah," I said.
"Plus," Zen said. "We know what were up against now."
"How do we even fight a ghost?" I asked.
"I don't know," Zen said. "But we can figure it out, together." I nodded.
"Shall we get back to eating?" Zen said.
"Yes, babe," I said while chuckling a bit. My phone started ringing. Seriously? I thought. I picked up my phone from the table.
Rammie? I thought. "Who is it?" Zen asked.
"Rammie," I said. Zen looked at me with a contorted face.
"Rammie is calling you?" Zen said. I accepted the call. I put it on speaker.
"Hey Rammie-," I said.
"Dos, Zen listen, I don't have much time," Rammie said.
"What?" I said.
"Someone's chasing me," Rammie said. "I don't know why but they're not stopping. I'm running out of energy."
"Hide," I said. "We'll come get you. Where are you?"
"The company-" Rammie said. We heard a thud. I looked at Zen.
"Rammie!" I said. The company? I thought.
"Get off me," we heard Rammie say from the distance. "Get off me!"
"Gotcha," we heard a voice say. The call ended. Zen and I looked at each other.
"That voice," I said. "I know that voice."
"Yeah," Zen said. "I just don't know who."
"A man," I said.
"No," Zen said. "Its a woman with a voice changer."
"Really?" I said. "My bad."
"Yeah," Zen said. "I can hear the distortion in the voice."
"So you can hear the real voice?" I asked.
"A bit," Zen said. "I encounter this a lot at work."
"Right," I said. "Is it Valentina?"
"Maybe," Zen said. "What did Rammie say? The company? Bea's company?"
"I'm not sure," I said. "But we should be on alert during the meeting, just in case."
"Yup," Zen said. "Guess we really need to talk to Valentina then."
"I don't want to," I said. I slumped in my chair.
"We have no choice," Zen said.