Love’n’Lust

The first thing Belle did after she woke up was fo check her phone. She wanted to know if Ben had called while she was asleep but there weren’t any missed call(s) on her phone.

Taking her phone with her to the bathroom like last night(just Incase he called)she showered and got ready for work.

She stood in front of her new place and smiled when she could easily see the Crisp-tv media house’s building from there, that was how close it was. She smiled at herself again, satisfied with her decision to stay at her place, now she could walk leisurely to her workplace.

On her way there, her phone rang and she answered immediately thinking it was Ben but it was just Brie checking up on her. A mini bus suddenly pulled up by the roadside while she was on the phone with Brie.

She didn’t give her attention to it, thinking they had some other reason for stopping their vehicle there but someone took her phone from her hands forcefully, throwing it to the floor.

She turned to react but a masculine hand covered her mouth before she could say anything and while she struggled to release herself of the man holding her, someone else injected her with a syringe.

It took less than a minute for the soporific tranquilizer to take effect on her. She felt her eyelids become heavy and heavier till she couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore.

“She’s out.” The man holding her said to his other fellow and they put her in the bus and it drove away.

“Belle?” Brie called from the other side of the phone after she stopped hearing her sister’s voice but no response came.

******

EVENING

“I have called her phone severally times since this morning but she hasn’t received any of the calls, I even called the office where she works at and I was told that she never came to work today, please can you assign someone, anyone to do something about it, nothing can happen to her.” Brie pleaded with an officer behind a counter at the police station but he gave the same reply he gave her an hour ago.Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.

“I’m sorry Miss but we cannot file an official missing report till the person has been missing for twenty four hours.”

“What do you mean by that?! Do you know all that could happen within this twenty four hours you just mentioned, please at least just…..”

“Miss, I am still going to tell you what I have said before. A missing report cannot be filed unles…”

“Can you stop saying that to me! What do you people even do around here if you can’t help me find my sister?!”

“Heyy Brie, you’ve gotta calm down.” It was Cherry.

“Calm down? Really?! Belle is fucking missing and you want me to calm down? What if something happens to her? O my god, what if…..” The worst thoughts were coming to Brie’s head.

“Let’s go to the Crisp-tv media house, we could ask for her there then return here afterwards, okay?” Cherry was trying her best to help out; she had never been in such a situation and so didn’t know what to do.

“I already called her boss, she says Belle never came to the office today.” Brie said with a sniff.

“Well….” Cherry was afraid she was running out of places to search for Belle till it hit her.”What about the new place she moved to, the one Ben got her.” Cherry mentioned, she expected Brie to dry her teary eyes and be happy about the idea she just brought up to search for Belle but Brie gave her a sharp look to her surprise.

“We don’t know where that is!” Brie snapped at her friend.”She didn’t say where exactly the house is. I was afraid of this, I was trying to get some information out of her but no, you didn’t think that was necessary.’She moving into a house Ben Larkson got her, there nothing to worry about. You need to relax a bit on this, let her live her best life’, isn’t that what you said?” Brie quoted some of Cherry’s exact words.

Cherry went quiet for a while, feeling guilty now that Brie pointed out that she had a fault in why they didn’t know Belle’s whereabouts.

“She did mention it was close to her workplace right?” Cherry remembered something else that Belle said that night.

“Yeahhhh.” Brie’s eyes lightened with a little hope.”Yeahhh, she said that.”

“So let’s go to her workplace? I mean we could walk around to check for the houses there and….”

“There are no many houses there, let’s do that. We could knock on the doors to ask if anyone saw her and maybe check around to find something….. at least till the police is ready to help out.” Brie calculated things to do.

Cherry was glad she remembered when Belle said the house was near her workplace, at least she could shake off a little of the guilt she felt by searching around there with Brie.

*****

They had boarded a cab to the Crisp-tv media house. When they got there, they parted ways and went in opposite directions from the media house, both having pictures of Belle to show when they asked anyone for her.

Brie was on her path, stopping whoever she met to ask for her cousin sister. She was doing this when she saw a young boy of about seven years old holding a phone and a purse. She planned to just ask if he had seen Belle because she was asking whoever she met; old or young but when she got closer to him, she saw that he had Belle’s phone.

“Heyy, where did you get that?” She came up to him, startling him and making him drop the phone.

“I just saw it on the floor right now, I promise I didn’t have it since.” He said in defense for why he had a lady’s purse with him. He gave the purse to her, picking up the phone which he had dropped and giving it to her also.”Please don’t tell my mum?” He pleaded.

“Where did you see this?” She asked about the purse only at first.”And this too?” She held up the phone to his face.”Where did you see them both?”

“There?” He pointed to a distance not so far from where they both stood.”Please don’t say anything to my mum? I’m very sorry, I won’t pick up something that’s not mine next time, I promise.”

“You just saw it there? Did you see who dropped it?” She wanted to know if he had by any chance seen her sister.

“No. They were just laying on the floor.” He answered another of her questions, hoping she wouldn’t mention any of this to his mother.”Are you going to report me to my mum?”

“What? I don’t even know your mum…. just go, go home.” She told him and he ran off happily; he wasn’t going to get into trouble.