"I screwed everything up, didn't I?"
When Bennett was about to leave the overly decorated office, he heard a faint voice from Rand.
When he turned around, he could see the pale face of the black-haired man. He was sitting on an ergonomic chair that was made according to his physical characteristics at every angle. In front of him was a thick stack of documents. Copies of past samples and selected manuscripts for Rand to "get familiar with the style", of course, Bennett knew that those things were actually useless, and the real work was with him. He had a very good salary to keep Rand Sivers in the comfort of his office, not thinking about anything, not worrying about anything. But it's clear that Rand himself isn't the type to enjoy this.
Bennett hesitated for a moment.
In theory, he could easily shrug at this point and tell Rand there's nothing wrong with it in a gracious manner (he's confident he'll convince Rand, he's always good at convincing others). However, I don't know why, at this moment, he didn't want to fool Rand in the same way as before.
"Well, actually... it's kind of bad."
Before Bennett realized it, he heard himself say this directly to Rand. Rand's face became even paler than before, and he now looked like a real white marble statue.
Bennett walked towards Rand involuntarily, leaning against his desk and staring at him.
"But it's going to be alright, the 'first time' is bad for everyone."
He comforted, thinking that it was not good in his heart because of his slightly vulgar joke.
He should have made some better impressions on Rand Sivers, he thought.
However, Rand didn't seem to notice that. He lowered his eyes and seemed to be thinking about something. After a while, he suddenly raised his head and looked straight at Bennett.
"It's my first day at work, and it sucks," he said, then stood up and grabbed his bag, "but I think I might have made it a little bit worse... sorry, Bennett, I I have something to do today and I need to take time off."
After he finished speaking, he pushed open the door of the office in front of the stunned Bennett, and ran towards the outside while everyone was shocked.
"Mr. Rand Sivers, you—"
He vaguely heard someone shouting at him behind him, but he didn't realize it.
In the elevator he tore off the tie around his neck to make his breathing easier, then he took out his phone and called Caroline for the first time ever.
Today, after Vincent's call was hung up, he tried to contact Caroline, but he found that he couldn't reach her either, which made Rand so restless that he destroyed the one who was actually at home Secretly prepared for a long inauguration day. Rand should have felt very depressed, but at this time he found that he didn't care about all of this, and his whole mind seemed to have flown to Washington, far away, to Vincent.
Oh, that's kind of ironic.
Even Rand himself was a little shocked. He always felt that he had something about Vincent... How would I describe it? Some kind of unnatural resistance. It was so difficult for him to accept Vincent's desire to control, and he couldn't understand what was going on in his head. As long as he came into contact with Vincent, Rand would feel a pressure that seemed to be about to suffocate.
But, when something really isn't right with Vincent...
Rand suddenly realized that he cared more about that person than he thought.
Even without any memory, that person was always his brother—the only relative he left in this world.
"Drip-drip-drip-"
The busy tone from the microphone made Rand feel an indescribable anxiety.
"Damn, Caroline... answer the phone..."
He didn't even pay attention to the strange glances that people around him gave him, and whispered anxiously on the other end of the phone.
Well, if no one really pays attention to him, he'll just buy a plane ticket and fly to Washington—Rand made the decision in the midst of a stomach-churning agitation.
The elevator door opened in front of him.
At the same time, a woman's hoarse voice finally appeared on the phone that seemed to never be able to get through.
"Hi, Rand."
Caroline's "pleasant" greeting came.
"Caroline!"
Rand let out a long sigh of relief as he walked towards the exit of the building among a group of urban white-collar workers in the same suits.
He was completely immersed in the conversation, and naturally he didn't notice a courier who passed him by. He almost bumped into the man, but in the end he didn't even have time to say "sorry" and just walked away in a hurry.
The person he bumped into remained silent. It was a man with his head bowed, wrapped in blue and orange overalls, and holding a huge cardboard box in his hands. He looked ordinary, but his temples under the brim of his hat were Totally wet from sweat.
His eyes were fixed on the cardboard box in his hand, and he didn't even bother to look up at Rand who bumped into his shoulder.
He was breathing faster than anyone else, and only he knew that his palms were sweating while holding the cardboard box.
On the top of the carton is written the recipient of this shipment.
Rand Sivers, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of America's Express
Below the print is a string of scribbled handwriting - be sure to sign for it in person.
The courier walking towards the elevator and the phone in their hands hurried to Rand outside the building. On this busy weekday morning, they staggered for a moment, and then quickly rushed in two completely different directions. go.
…
Well, let's turn our attention back to Rand Sivers.
He has always been a good-natured middle-aged man, but at this moment, facing Caroline, who used to have a good relationship with him, he is anxious and... so rude.
He even stood directly on the roadside steps, arguing loudly with the person on the other end of the phone.
"...I'm worried, Caroline, Vincent never called me at that time and hung up, and his phone didn't even turn on after that. What happened?"
"Calm down, Rand, I've told you countless times, what do you want me to say to understand, we just had a fight, and he dialed the wrong number in his anger... Now his health is not very optimistic. - Just like before. I can't get him to talk to you because he's still in the ICU…”
Caroline's voice was very hoarse, and for some reason, her voice was so weak that Rand sometimes couldn't even hear what she was saying.
"Intensive care unit? Caroline, in the last sentence you said you had a fight with Vincent, so he doesn't even have the strength to talk to me now? This is confusing!"
Rand couldn't care less, he raised his voice to Caroline.
He was terrified of Caroline's incoherent explanation, a strong sense of unease as if something was burning in his hair, forcing him to be restless and confused.
He began to worry about what Caroline was hiding... For example, something very bad happened to Vincent, and in order to keep him from worrying, he asked Caroline to block the news.
The thought was indeed absurd, but Rand couldn't stop himself from thinking about it. After all, something really wasn't quite right.
"… "
Sure enough, after Rand pointed out the contradiction in her words, Caroline was suddenly silent.
"I, I'm going to buy the nearest flight to Washington, I feel like I need to see Vincent and if he's all right I'll be back..."
Rand said into the phone, raised his hand, waited for a taxi and got in.
However, it was at this time that Caroline suddenly spoke to Rand in an unusually strange tone.
"But, what can you do when you come? As a waste who knows nothing, a trouble that always needs Vincent to help you wipe his butt, even if Vincent really encounters some trouble, how can you help him? Woolen cloth?"
…
Rand didn't even react at first.
God, what was Caroline talking about... Rand understood every word she said but he found himself completely unable to understand what she meant.
waste
trouble
Would such a word really come out of Caroline's mouth
Rand even thought it was some kind of unfriendly joke or something, that the person talking on the phone was so different from the Caroline he knew.
Her voice was indifferent and full of resentment, and the strong negative emotions could be transformed into poisonous gas that overflowed from the microphone over a long distance and reached Rand's ears.
It's not Caroline... although it has Caroline's voice.
"Hold, sorry, Caroline, I don't understand—"
"Enough, Rand, I'm tired." Caroline let out a weird laugh, "I really can't take it anymore, I can't take it all, of course you can, Rand Sivers , anyway, even if you come here, it's just to cause trouble to Vincent, you can't help him at all, why are you unwilling to admit it."
"Caroline? You—"
“Drip… Drip… Drip…”
Before Rand could speak, there was only the monotonous electronic busy tone on the phone.
Caroline just hung up the phone.
It feels like someone has thrown a bucket of cold water on you all of a sudden.
Rand thought.
He was sitting in the car with his phone in his hand, unable to digest what happened before. Caroline's change was so sudden, he really didn't know how to understand what she just said.
"Hey, I said, man, what the hell are you doing here? Where the hell are you going?"
The taxi driver glared at the pale Rand in disgust. He reached out and snapped his fingers, speaking to him with quivering fat lips.
His voice made Rand seem to have suddenly woken up from a nightmare. He raised his head a little dazedly and stared at the dark face of the driver.
"I, I'll go..."
Where should he go
Rand found that his mind suddenly went blank. His original plan was to go directly to the airport, but—
"Rand Sivers, anyway, even if you come here, it's just to cause trouble to Vincent"
Caroline's words echoed in his mind like a ghost, echoing again and again.
He rubbed his temples vigorously, then stroked his face to cheer himself up.
"I am going to the airport-"
…
"Boom—"
A huge roar drowned out his words.
The harsh light, the heat, and the debris that smashed on the roof like hailstones made the whole world tremble in an instant.
Rand's head slammed into the seat in front, as if he had been punched, his head instantly became chaotic. It seemed like a second had passed... It was like a decade had passed, and the loud noise left a humming echo in his ears, along with the screams and howls of some people who seemed to be coming from very far away cry. When Rand finally got his head up and struggled to do it, there was a lot of blood dripping from his head.
The glass of the car on his right was smashed by something, and the cracks like a spider web turned the originally clear and transparent glass white. Rand pushed open the door with difficulty, then staggered out.
He saw many people.
Lots and lots of people, covered in dust and blood on their heads and arms, from splashes of sand, broken glass or other building debris. They supported each other and looked behind Rand there in horror.
Rand also turned his head, and his eyes widened for a moment.
The first floor of the iconic sapphire blue fiberglass-covered building of The American Express was now engulfed in flames, and that floor was where Rand had consumed the morning and had a nightmarish entry.
That's the floor where his office is located.
And in the small apartment that belonged to Rand on Pine Street.
Holding his knees in the bathtub, a certain monster staring at the video angrily, suddenly twitched the tentacles on its head.
"Whoa-"
With the loud sound of water, it suddenly jumped out of the bathtub, and then smashed the glass door of the balcony with a bang.
"Ha-ha-"
Its claws rested on the railing and stuck its head in a certain direction.
"Rand, Rand."
it shouted.
And in the direction of its gaze, an ominous black plume of smoke was billowing toward the sky.
Munster's nose twitched slightly, and although it had been diluted by the air and wind to a very meager level, it still smelled that bad smell.
The smell of burning things.
"Rand..."
An anxious voice suddenly rolled out of its throat.
After a very brief hesitation (Rand had strictly prohibited it from appearing on the balcony during the day, after all, he did not want it exposed to the crowd at all), Munster stuck to the outside of the apartment wall with unimaginable agility, Slide out.