chapter 19 | the phonecall

"I did it my way" -unknown



My heart rate speeds up the longer I hold the phone in my hand.

Blake spent the whole night on the phone preparing everything. Now there are around 7 other agents in his apartment, rushing around making last minute preparations. I'm sitting in the middle of the living room holding a phone connected to a laptop, nobody bothered to explain how everything works. Monique is in a zoom call on the TV and Blake is in front of me.

The plan is simple, if you can call it that, I just call that phone number and everything will be recorded and tracked. I'm basically just their little puppet.

Bad for them because I hate being someone's puppet and they'll feel on their skin what exactly I'm capable of.

I look at Monique. I've grown to hate that bitch with a passion. I know why she sent all these extra agents. She thinks I won't cooperate and Blake won't be able to stop me on his own. Which is true. But it still pisses me off. She made me memorize lines for today's phone call and after she realized I'm putting no effort in she just said she'll send me a notification with what I have to say next. I wanted to rip her throat out.

Last night I overheard a phone call between her and Blake. Everything I understood was 'tracking', 'at least' and '60 seconds'. I put the pieces together.

Suddenly the phone starts dialing. My heart falls to my stomach.

I look around panicked "What the fu-"

Before I get to finish the sentence I hear my mum's voice:

"Hello?"

My heart stops.

I bring the phone to my ear slowly. My hands are shaking. I didn't realize how much hearing my mother's voice affected me. I was suddenly back in my room in Berlin, with my family, away from all this craziness.

"Hello?" she asks again. This time more impatiently.

"Mum" I managed to croak out.

There's silence on the other end.

I have 52 more seconds. There's a small timer on the TV screen in Monique's meeting and I can keep track of the seconds with that. I am going to end this phone call in under 1 minute even if it's the last thing I do.

"Hi mum it's me" I need to hurry. I don't think of the consequences. What Monique would do to me. Did they honestly think I would let them track my parents? Spies or not everybody has the right to privacy and this fucking agency messed up my life enough. I'm not letting them touch my parents.

48 seconds.

"Aria honey, where are you, are you okay what's..."

"Mum I'm fine don't worry I-" A notification from Monique pops up.

I clench my jaw, flip her off and ask my mum my questions:

"Where's Annabeth? Because I know she got..."

I feel something cold being pressed to the back of my head.

Oh shit.

Oh shit.

My eyes go wide.

Blake is instantly on his feet, he's fuming, but before he takes a step two men grab his arms and drag him back and another one puts a gun to his head as well, somehow a fourth one comes and puts a gag over his mouth. The one holding the gun puts a finger to his lips, looks at Blake then at me and smirks.

Blake starts trashing and and he manages to break free from one guy but then a fifth one comes, from where the fuck are all these people coming? and basically stabs him in the back of his neck with a small syringe, next thing I know Blake is on the floor, unconscious.

Shit.

The whole thing took less than 15 seconds. Time in which my mum said something but I couldn't really pay attention.

35 seconds.

I feel a nudge in the back of my head and the message from Monique appears again.

I swallow and slowly read it, interrupting mum who was saying something along the lines of '-don't worry hunny, everything is under control'

"Where are the codes?" The question comes out pretty shaky and I feel more pressure coming from the gun behind me. I have tears in my eyes. I take a deep breath and ask again.

"Where are the codes?" This time the question is more clear.

"Shit" I hear my mum whisper softly and shuffling in the background. "Aria honey, where are you?" This time the question has a different tone to it, like it's something rhetorical, like my parents already know where I am and just want to appear clueless or piss off the MI6, which isn't a good idea since they have a gun to my head.

25 more seconds.

Are they going to kill me if I end the phone call? This is something I haven't considered before.

No Aria they can't kill you, they need you for information, just breath.

My inner voice tries to calm me down. And I want to believe her, but with a gun pressed to the back of my head the possibility that I'll live after I do something to piss off the one holding the gun is pretty small.

Nonetheless I take a deep breath again and focus on the new notification that just came from Monique. I'm honestly afraid to look at her directly so I just read the 10 words twice before spitting them out. Each one was an effort.

"Emilia, where are the codes or your daughter will..." I can't finish the sentence. It's like I'm speaking from a third person's point of view. The last word is just stuck in my throat.

15 seconds.

"Oh for god's sake, Emilia, give us the codes or you'll get her back in pieces. " I hear Monique saying, but I'm somewhere far away, I'm not in my body anymore, my vision is fuzzy and I thought I was passing out but it's just the tears streaming down my face. Monique somehow speaks directly to my mum, like she's the one holding the phone. This stupid technology.

"Monique" My mum practically spits her name out.

Wait? How does my mum...

"Aria listen to me," she continued ignoring Monique's threat "Alles wird gut sein, mein schatz, wir kommen für dich, atme ein, atme aus, wir lieben dich und..."

(Everything is going to be okay, my treasure, we are coming for you, breath in, breath out, we love you and...)

I look at the clock again.

Less than 6 seconds.

I closed my eyes, coming to terms that this is one of my last breaths in this world and pressed the red button to end the phone call, while pulling the cable out of the phone and pushing the computer off the table with one hand. I threw the phone towards the TV with the other one. Apparently I surprised even the man behind me because he only starts moving and securing my hands behind my back after the satisfying crack of the phone hitting the TV.

I feel a familiar sharp pain in the back of my neck and everything goes black.



A/N: Yeah, here's another chapter. Honestly I think this one turned pretty okay-ish. I mean I liked the idea with the timer, I tried acting it out with a real timer on my phone to see if the dialogue actually goes with the seconds passing and everything:)))) I had a lot of fun.

But honestly now: ideas, opinions? How did you find this chapter?

And do you have any ideas or scenes you want to see in the future? I have the outline of the book done but it's nothing permanent and I can always add small scenes.

Personally, I can't wait to write more Aria and Blake scenes. I LOVE writing their chemistry and their banter. But unfortunately the book needs a plot and not just two extremely hot characters having an extremely hot dialogue with each other and trying to jump each other's bones.

Love y'all again and hope you have a fantastic day.