Note: I don't usually do these, but it's been so long since I've last published something that I just felt the need to apologize for how long this took. I was both demotivated and too busy, but I will do my absolute damndest to make sure a gap this long doesn't happen again. That being said, on with the chapter.

Chapter 5 - The Sound of Rain

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Lightning struck in front of the mansion, and the deafening sound it left in its wake echoed throughout the room. Another sudden flash illuminated the sky as Laura looked past the rain-soaked window, and into the lake in front of the house. The wind was picking up, and kicked up waves as the flashes of lightning reflected off the shimmering water. A pitch-black car pulled in next to the pier opposite Laura's room, kicking up gravel as it did so. The driver got out first, slowly walked around the front of the car, and opened the other door. A man walked out of the car, but his face was obscured by the umbrella he immediately opened to shield him from the downpour. Judging by the sophisticated clothes he was wearing, Laura could immediately tell his reason for being here. One of the servants walked out into the pouring rain and invited the two men standing outside to come into the house. One of them looked up towards the window where she was standing, but she ignored him, and continued staring into the distance. The phone on the marble night stand behind her started ringing, and she let it go on for around half a minute before finally picking up.

"How come you're up this early?" the voice on the other side asked.

"What's with that question?" Laura said. "Why would you call if you didn't think I was awake?"

A brief pause followed, and the sound of thunder echoed through the garden yet again.

"So, how are things going over–"

"Imogen," Laura interrupted her. "What's going on over there?"

Silence took over the call again, and Laura never received a reply.

"I'm not hanging up until you tell me what's bothering–"

"They took him away!" a sudden burst of emotion came through the speaker.

"What?"

"They just barged in here in the middle of the night and took him away!"

"Who are you talking about?"

Imogen's reply was made unintelligible by a knock on the door of Laura's bedroom. One of her servants was waiting outside, and until now was patient in waiting for the call to end, but obviously grew tired of just standing around.

"Miss, everyone is waiting for–"

"Go away!" Laura interrupted him.

"I was instructed to tell you to come down and meet–"

"You're not very good at following orders, are you?"

"Your father's orders supersede yours, Miss."

"I'll supersede your life in a minute!" Laura shouted. "Just go away!"

Exasperated, the servant let out an almost inaudible sigh, but did give up in the end, and Laura heard him walk away, as each of his footsteps got more and more distant.

"Sorry, had someone to deal with," Laura said. "Carry on, I'm all ears."

"Sorry, I..." Imogen mumbled. "It sounds like you've got problems of your own to deal with, and I wouldn't want to bother you."

"If you were bothering me, I wouldn't have asked about it in the first place," Laura continued. "So keep talking, or I'll come over there and make you say it."

Imogen took a deep breath, muttered a barely audible goodbye, and hung up despite Laura's quasi-threat.

"You thought I was kidding about coming over there?" Laura threw her phone onto the bed in frustration, and rushed into her walk-in closet, picking out clothes effectively at random, not caring in the slightest about making herself look presentable. She tried running out of the room, but a tall, lanky, black-haired man was blocking her path.

"I trust you'll be joining us soon, Miss," he said.

"I don't have time for this," Laura barged past him and ran into the hallway.

"Where exactly do you think you're going?" he turned around and asked. "I might be your personal servant, but I'm still your father's representative in this house."

"And exactly what is that supposed to mean?"

"It is my duty to ensure that your father's wishes are complied with," he answered.

"Try and stop me, then," Laura said.

"I will not."

"I know you won't, because you can't," she continued. "Because words are all you have. You were hoping that you'd be able to prevent me from leaving just by invoking my father's authority, as if you've forgotten who I am. Keep wasting my time, and I'll do everything in my power to have you removed from your position as soon as possible."

"My apologies, Miss," the man, aware that everything she said was entirely true, begrudgingly bowed before her, but Laura left before he reached the end of the sentence.

"I care very little for your apologies," she stormed off. "You should be well aware of that by now."

"You know I am obligated to inform your father of this?"

"I'm well aware," Laura waved her hand, as if to dismiss his comment. She rushed down the mansion's labyrinthine hallways, the sound of her footsteps being muffled by the carpeted floors. She took the longer route towards the lakeside exit, skirting around the guest room in an attempt to avoid whoever was waiting for her there, but to no avail. She stumbled into a tall, blonde man, wearing what resembled a military uniform, who was being tailed by a member of staff.

"I can only apologize for her lateness," the latter said just before she noticed Laura rushing by them. It took her a few moments to process that the person they were looking for just ran past.

"Hold on, Miss!" she turned around, and Laura promptly ignored her. "Sir Everett is here to–"

"I know why he's here," Laura said. "And I don't have the time or the willpower to deal with that right now."

"Wait a second–"

"Let her be," the man said, already starting to walk in the opposite direction. "She clearly has bigger things on her mind right now."

"But you've come all this way…"

"My family has business in Groningen over the next few days," he explained. "That's only a couple hours away from here, so I'm in no rush."

"If you say so, Sir."

Leaving the two of them behind, Laura walked out into the pouring rain. After carefully descending the slippery stairs, she set foot on the gravel driveway. Slowly but surely, her walking turned to running, and the driveway turned to an empty road. The rain just kept getting stronger. Her clothes were clinging to her as much as she was clinging onto the idea that she could do anything to help Imogen. Her feet were soaked, and she couldn't feel her legs anymore. After a very long ten minutes, she ran out of breath, stopped running. The mansion that she was so desperately running away from seemed so far away, and was concealed behind the wall of raindrops that surrounded her.

"Her house isn't too far away now," she mumbled, pausing for breath in between every word. "Only an hour or so left now."

She took a deep breath, and carried on walking, despite how every muscle in her body seemed to be revolting against the idea.

"Yeah, the last time we drove there, it took about an hour."

She thought about the fact that her father was soon going to be informed about how she ran away on her own, which could only turn out badly for everyone involved. Without worrying about the details, she carried on. The drops of rain were hitting the railing separating the road and the lake, and the metallic sounds produced as a result were perfectly synchronized with her heavy breathing, as she started running again. The scenery was passing her by, the lake on one side and the forest on another, with no end in sight. She was no longer even aware that she was running, and pressed on through sheer willpower, though not even that could last forever.

"Not long to go now," she remained conscious until just after her knees gave up on. In a brief second, she felt her whole body relax. Every muscle in her body gave up simultaneously, and she could do nothing but succumb to gravity. She was powerless. She looked down towards the road, and braced for the fall, but her vision went black moments before her body hit the asphalt.

The first thing she heard was the sound of raindrops bouncing against glass. After opening her eyes, Laura was blinded by the brightness of the lightbulb above her. Once her eyes accustomed to the sudden change of lighting, she found herself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling, completely unaware of her surroundings. She tried to look around, but her head immediately collapsed back onto the pillow. Before she closed her eyes again, she managed to catch a glimpse of Alex sitting next to the bed.

"Where am I?"

"First of all, are you alright?" Alex asked.

"I don't…" Laura said, getting distracted by her pulsating migraine. "…know."

"Do you need me to get you anything?"

"I'll be alright," she said. "So, what happened with Aidan?"

"That doesn't matter right now."

"It does matter," Laura yawned. "It matters a lot."

Before Alex even got a chance to reply, Laura had fallen asleep again, much to his relief. He left a bottle of water on the bedside table, and walked out of the room, leaving her alone, surrounded by the sound of rain.

"How could I possibly tell her that he tried to kill her?" he thought, slowly making his way down the stairs. "Not to mention what I did afterwards. It would probably be best if she never found out about what happened back there, but I don't think it'll be possible to skirt around that issue forever."

"Is she alright?" a voice came from the living room.

"Bit bruised up, but she's fine," Alex replied, walking into the kitchen. "Or at least she says she is."

He opened an overhead cupboard, and spent a bit too long choosing which glasses to take, despite the fact that most of them were the exact same. After deciding it's not worth his time, he picked out two at random. As the glassware was arranged a bit too close for comfort, he knocked over a third one, and it slowly started rolling towards the edge of the cupboard. Instead of trying to catch it, Alex decided to try and close the cupboard to prevent it escaping, but the glass made a run for it just as he tried to do so. At this point, Alex had already resigned himself to a future in which he'll have one less thing to drink out of, and let it fall on the marble countertop, shattering into two larger pieces, as well as scattering multiple smaller shards of green glass across the counter.

"Is everything alright in there?" the voice in the living room asked.

"Yeah, everything's alright," Alex said, all but ignoring the shattered glass around him. "I just dropped something."

He opened the tap and filled two glasses, those that were still intact, with water. He headed for the living room, and narrowly avoided stepping on a shard of glass in the process. He kicked it under the kitchen counter, figuring that it's probably not going to cause any problems there.

"I'll clean this mess up later," he thought, and walked over to the living room. "I've got a bigger mess to deal with."

He placed the taller glass in front of the man who helped him rescue Laura, whose identity still eluded him, then threw himself onto the sofa opposite him, nearly spilling water all over himself in the process.

"I brought you some water," Alex said, unsure of why he felt the need to point out the obvious.

"I see," the man was equally confused about how to reply to that.

"So, who even are you?" Alex cut straight to the chase, too tired to even attempt coming up with a different conversation starter. "Actually, let's take it from the top. Why are you here?"

"It all has to do with the incident involving Nell Wynne, who I'm sure–" the man continued talking, but the latter half of his sentence turned into a blur in Alex's head, as he attempted to process the fact that he just heard Nell's name. His brain suddenly woke up, and he started paying attention after the man finished his sentence, and stared at Alex in confusion, unsure of where to take the conversation from here.

"Sorry, I kind of… blacked out there," Alex said. "What were you saying?"

"Long story short, it was Aidan who defeated Nell that night, although I'm unsure of why it happened," he repeated. "Since then, I've been keeping an eye on him."

"Is that how you found Laura and me?"

"Yeah. I knew Aidan visited you that night, and I wanted to check why, but neither one of you have been particularly helpful," he continued. "Though, in hindsight, you probably couldn't have been a huge help anyways, because even I have no idea what he has against the two of you."

"The fact that we were trying to investigate Nell's disappearance, probably," Alex said.

"That might be part of it, but there's probably something else that neither of us are aware of."

"I mean, Laura dueled him," Alex said. "She might know something we don't."

"You can ask her once she gets up, but I have to leave soon," the man got up. "I've got someplace to be."

Alex noticed both of them left their water untouched, making him wonder why he even bothered going through the charade in the kitchen in the first place.

"A few more questions, though," Alex said. "How much do you know about Aidan?"

"Too much, if I'm being honest."

"And how much of it are you willing to share?"

"As much as I'd like you two to be more clued in as to what's going on, I'm afraid that telling you anything would drastically worsen my position. I'm sorry I'm being so vague, but I really can't tell you much more."

"Any particular reason why?"

"Even that would be giving you too much information," the man said. "But trust me, it won't be too long now until I can share everything I know with you. It's just that the time's not right yet."

"So, I'll be seeing you again, I presume?"

"I don't know exactly when, but I can promise that you will," he replied. "For now, I'll try to keep an eye on Aidan as best I can, but I recommend that you be wary of him."

"Don't worry, you don't need to tell me twice," Alex got up to escort his guest to the front door. "One more thing I'm interested in, though."

"Yeah?"

"What's your name?" Alex asked as he opened the door. The man seemed surprised that this question hadn't come up earlier.

"Fionn," he answered. "Fionn Taylor."

"I'll see you around, then."

Fionn nodded in response. Alex waited until he left his front yard, then closed the door, and retreated back into the living room. The countertop filled with broken glass had already escaped Alex's mind. He threw himself at the couch opposite the TV, and fell asleep in the exact same position in which he woke up a few hours ago.

"Come on in."

A visibly exhausted man walked into his boss' cylindrical office, trying to keep himself composed. Despite the fact she was facing away from him, as she usually does, he could tell she wasn't in the best of moods.

"If I may ask why you've summoned me here, Miss–"

"Mr. Taylor, I'm sure you are aware of the incident that happened a few hours ago involving Aidan Everett, who is, mind you, supposed to be under your jurisdiction."

"I am deeply sorry," he bowed. "But you see, Mr. Everett hasn't come into work in the last two days. I tried contacting–"

"Just an apology would have been enough," she interrupted him. "I have no need for your excuses. However, as much as you should be aware of what your subordinates are doing, it would be unfair to place the entirety of the blame on you."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Regardless, there will be certain consequences, of which you'll be duly informed when the time comes," she continued. "Luckily for us, when I contacted him earlier, he said that he wouldn't be pressing charges, though he also didn't want to explain how the incident happened. I will administer a check-up tomorrow to see if he has any lasting nerve damage, but that's unlikely. Now, unless you have something to add, you are allowed to–"

"Actually, there's a request I need to make."

"I assume it's to do with Everett."

The man nodded.

"Look, I know he's a liability, but..." she paused for a short time, trying to think of what she was even able to do. "Alright, I'll see what I can do, but you have to understand that it's going to be difficult to get rid of him because of his connections. The best I can do for now is to suspend him for a few days on the grounds of unauthorised access. In the meantime, we can launch an investigation into the incident, and if we can somehow prove that what happened was a consequence of his actions, I'd probably have enough of an argument to terminate his contract."

"Shall I launch an investigation immediately, then?"

"No offense, Mr. Taylor, but I'd like for the investigation to be conducted by a neutral party."

"Understood."

"One more thing before you can leave," she continued. "All the data collected yesterday within a two-mile radius of where the incident took place is nowhere to be found. Almost eight hours' worth of information is gone. Would you happen to know anything about this?"

"No, ma'am," he replied. "In fact, this is the first I've heard of the disappearance."

"Now, I'm aware data blackouts happen on occasion, but I find this one to be too convenient to overlook."

"I presume the investigation regarding the blackout will also be handled by someone else?"

"Correct," she said. "Nothing personal, but I cannot trust you with this when you're as suspect as anyone else in this situation. Probably even more so, seeing as your level of clearance allows you to easily manipulate or delete this data if you so wish."

"True as that may be, any authorized access to the data bank leaves a trace, so–"

"You and I both know that you're an able enough programmer to erase any evidence that you may have left behind," she cut him off. "So, please refrain from trying to cast suspicion away from yourself, because if you've done anything with that, it's accomplished the exact opposite."

"Understood."

"Regardless, apart from some minor suspicions, I have no real reason to keep you in the dark about the progress of the investigation, so you'll be hearing about that in due time. And I sincerely hope your name doesn't come up at any point," she wrapped up. "You're dismissed."