Even in the darkest moments, the beginnings of love can be found.
Jayna Chacon is stuck in a rut. Her job is interesting, but she doesn't have any friends or anything else she's particularly passionate about. That is until a group of strangers start...
When I received a notification of an incoming text, I didn't want to admit it, but I hoped it was Jayna. Instead, I frowned at what I saw: a text to Jayna, from someone outside of the group in Duskwood. Who was this Marcus?
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Scrolling back, I saw he'd been sending her messages for months now. She also had a lot of missed calls and voicemails from him, none of which she'd responded to. I searched for him online and found she had blocked him on Facebook six months ago. Hmm.
Well. That was her business. As long as this situation did not disrupt our investigation, why would I care?
I shook my head. I did not care. No. Of course not. Back to work.
New notification: they found a female body in Duskwood. I took a deep breath, trying to process. Hannah had been gone for three days. Why would a body only show up now? I dove into the internet, trying to see if I could find out any more information. Sadly, nothing yet. My hands were shaking slightly. No, this could not be Hannah. I must keep going. If I stopped now, then I would be that much farther behind when I found out that it wasn't her.
I had been ignoring a few notifications, so I toggled to that screen. The kidnapper had called Jayna? Damn, I missed it. Now I had to reassure Jayna that she was not in danger, so she didn't get scared away from the investigation.
I convinced her that it was a good sign. I believed it, but I also was worried. I did not want to be responsible for any more lives than I already was.
I chuckled when she said the kidnapper sounded like Darth Vader. Even when she was worried, she was still sarcastic. His call also indicated that Hannah was probably alive, because he would not bother to warn off Jayna if his victim was gone.
However, I decided to keep the information about the body to myself for now, as I wasnot yet ready to talk about it. Even with Jayna.
When I told her it was a good thing that the kidnapper called to threaten her, she responded, "Because I was called and not you?"
I was a bit shocked by her reaction. Did she really think I would put her in harm's way? That did not sit well with me; I thought we had built a better rapport than that. "Don't be silly." I snapped at her. But now I was questioning it more. I started to babble a bit about theories–that he'd come out of hiding because he was worried we were on to him, etc. Was I trying to convince her, or myself?
"I hope you are right," she said.
I really hoped so as well. While I would feel badly about anyone getting hurt because of me, I had begun to think that it would be exponentially more painful if that person was Jayna.
I reminded her again that she had to keep our work confidential and trust no one; she pushed back, indicating that she did not trust me, either. Her words stung a little, but I was feeling more optimistic. Jayna's ambiguousness about the phone call did not dampen my spirits.
I went back to work even more feverishly. We were making progress, and I had a good assistant. If we kept on this way, Hannah would soon be safe.
