Gosh… Where am I? What's going on? I'm lying on my stomach, in something dry, dusty… In sand, I guess correctly. I try to force myself up, but I can't. My head's spinning and it feels like it's gonna fall into pieces. Nausea is my new best friend. I look around and see my house. Suddenly, it all comes to me. I went outside to kick the circuit breaker back on. "Nick!" I scream pretty aloud as I realize he stayed in the house. Regardless of how bad I feel, I stand up harshly and run towards the building. However, my body has different plans. I trip over my own feet. Hitting the ground hard, tears crawl into my eyes. "Nicky!" I shout again, panic attacking my mind. I want to get home so desperately, but I don't feel my limbs properly. They're totally numb, the nerves in them seem to be disconnected from the rest of my body. The remaining distance between me and the house I cover by crawling. At the door, I pull myself up, and I finally stand up. I have to be leaning against the wall to regain some of my lost balance. The whole world wobbles, and I feel woozy, but my mind is occupied with only one thing- finding out where Nick is.
I fight with the door handle for a moment, and then it, at last, yields. "Nick! Where are you?!" I cry, the door flying open before me. "Nicky!" I yell. I'm staggering through my apartment, eyes so full of tears that I can't see properly, panic taking control of my system. He's not here. I make it to the living room. I need my cell. I fumble about in the mess on the table, and I eventually find what I want.
"911, what's your emergency?" says the professional voice on the other side.
"He's not here! He's gone!"
…
"Her name is Alicia Kent, she's 25 years old, and she lives here by herself. She called it in," Brass said, looking around him.
"So what was Nick doing here on his day off?" Grissom asked, staring at the old barn to his right-hand side.
"I haven't spoken to her yet. She's in the hands of medics over there now. She'd been chloroformed, and she's pretty shaken, too,"
"Miss Kent?" Grissom asked a few minutes later when the medics discharged her.
"Yeah, tha-that's me, yes," she replied shakily.
"Miss Kent, we have a few questions for you," Brass put in.
"Go ahead and ask," she forced a smile on her face. "And you can call me Alicia," she added quietly.
"Alright, Alicia. Now, what exactly was CSI Stokes doing here?" Brass queried sternly.
"He was visiting me,"
"Visiting you?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow. "The two of you were involved together?"
"Oh, no no, no… He is an old friend of mine," Alicia clarified.
"Define an 'old friend'," Grissom slipped in.
"He'd helped me to change my entire life a couple years ago… Thanks to him I started all over and could afford all this," she explained, gesturing towards the barns. "He'd then stop by from time to time, you know, once in a few months, roughly,"
"And today? Was it any different?" Brass asked.
"No, he-he called me a few days ago, saying he's free on Saturday, and asked if he could come,"
"Okay. Now tell us what happened from the minute you woke up this morning. And don't leave out any detail,"
"Alright," Alicia nodded, "I got up, took a shower, had breakfast, fed my cats and went to the barn to take care of the other animals. Nothing suspicious happened. At half-past seven I got back home. I was then cleaning until 8 o'clock. That's when Nick arrived. We talked, laughed and so on. Then, I went to prepare the coffee. That was approximately 8:30. I thought the kettle was broken when it stopped working, but the refrigerator didn't work either. So I figured out that the power was off. I checked the fuses, but it was the circuit breaker. So I went outside to kick it on. It was almost fixed when…" she couldn't hold herself together anymore, and broke out crying. Feeling awkward in front of the two cops, she wiped her tears off and took a deep breath before continuing.
"Someone grabbed me from behind and pressed a handkerchief soaked in chloroform, maybe, to my mouth. I couldn't scream. Not that I'd try, though. I was truly scared. The next thing I remember I'm lying in the dust, having a headache…"
"And what did you do then?" Grissom asked.
"I crawled back to the house. I tried to look for Nick, but when I didn't find him, I called you guys," she responded.
At that moment, a police officer joined them.
"It's all clear here, gentlemen," he stated. "He's not here," he added.
They both thanked the officer and turned back to Alicia.
"My team would like to process it here," Grissom said, looking around.
"What would you say we continue in this conversation downtown, Alicia?" Brass said, smiling.
A/N Thank you for reading! Please review if you have time ;) I'm sorry this chapter's a bit shorter, but I didn't quite know what else to add xd
