Bound by Tension
35

"No,

thank you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

"You'll have to go through the file, you can still leave an hour later, you'll be able to eat."

"I already had lunch, thank you." I wore a smile.

"You'll go through the file then leave, the address is here." He placed a card on the file.

I took the file from him, and picked the card up, staring at the address of the company.

"My driver will drive you there. Do I have to accompany you to the car?"

"No, thank you. People are still talking about the news of us being together on the internet. I don't want further news about us flying around the internet, okay? We still have to replace a way to end the rumor."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever, it's not like I want the rumor to end. It's not such a lie."

I shook my head at him and walked away, scampering out of the office and to the elevator. I got out of the building through the backdoor.

"Miss Mark, right?" A random man asked.

"Yes."

"Okay, I'll be your driver."

"Thank you." I flashed him a smile.

He led me to a car and opened the door for me. After I got in, he shut the door.

Whoa, I had never expected to be driven in such an expensive-looking car in my entire life!

He turned around the area and got into the Driver's seat.

"Hang on, I have to go through this file first." I said after remembering that and dropped my bag beside me.

"No problem."

***

"I'm here to see Mr. John Hawthorn." I said to the receptionist.

"Who are you, please?" She flashed a smile at me.

"Imogen Mark, from HamIX International." I returned her smile.

"Hames Hendrix's girlfriend, I knew you looked familiar the moment you stepped in."

I glowered at her and her smile immediately left her lips.

"I'm sorry if I said anything wrong." She quickly apologized, picked the telephone and hit its keys. "Mr. Hawthorn, someone from HamIX International is here to see you..." silence. "Okay, sir." She dropped the phone. "Third floor, fifth door." She said.

"Thank you."

I left her sight and used the elevator to the third floor. I got out of it and located the fifth door, since it had '5' on it.

I gave the door a knock.

"Come in." A deep masculine voice said.

I opened the door and got in. The blonde I assumed was Mr. Hawthorn was on his chair with his head buried in his palms.

I didn't know why but there were red and white candles around, roses and balloons, with red and white curtains. There were woods that formed door frames with flowers around it, for some reasons I was unable to understand, as well as logs of wood with white and red designs on them. Other logs of wood were joined together with a woman's painting painted on them, which I had to admit looked beautiful but why logs of wood, in an office?

I noticed a sign that said, 'Will You Marry Me, Melissa?'. Now I knew the reason for this, but why in an office?

"Good evening," I greeted.

"Melissa?!" He jerked his head upwards with a smile but the smile slipped as his eyes met mine. "She's not coming back." He said disappointedly. "Who are you?" He frowned.

"I'm Imogen Mark, Hames Hendrix secretary, from HamIX International." I introduced myself, walking over to him while kicking balloons and roses from my way.

"I thought Mr. Hendrix was coming over. Why are you here in his stead?"

"He's very busy at the moment."

His glare intensified. "Please sit," he gruffed. Didn't he realize he was being so rude?

I sat on the chair opposite to his, with a huge mahogany table between us. "You're to sign these." I dropped the file on the table, taking the card from it.

He frowned at the file too then rose to his feet. "I'll be back, please do something, I don't know," He rose to his feet, his grey eyes were red with anger that scared me. "Okay, sir." I nodded.

I wondered if he was drunk, judging from how he staggered out of the office and slammed the door shut.

"Another weird person," I rose to my feet. My back ached as hell, I needed to stretch my entire body.

In the process of stretching my body, I noticed something green and red in the sky, through the thin space between a pair of red and white curtains. Was that fireworks? Gosh, I loved fireworks!

I scurried to the curtain and separated them to take in the view of the beautiful fireworks.

I couldn't read the words because they were in either Chinese or Japanese, but there were designs around the words that made them look even more beautiful.

"Wow," I grinned. I knew I could stare at them forever, they were one of my favorite things; fireworks.

Soon enough, I began smelling something weird. I scrunched my nose up and moved backwards.

A gasp escaped me as I noticed the end of the curtain on fire. "Fire!" I screamed. Oh God, there was a stupid candle beneath it and it must've caught fire when I separated it to view the fireworks. Oh no, oh no. "Fire!" I screamed again. Wasn't there a fire alarm in this company? What sort of stupid company was this?

The fire was spreading so fast and it connected to the second curtain. I was so confused and wasn't aware of what I was doing anymore, that made me pick a random red pillow with 'I Love You' on it, and began hitting the burning curtains with it to turn the fire off.

I only realized how stupid my decision was when the pillow also caught fire. I gasped again and threw the pillow across the room. In the process of doing that, my heel bent and made my ankle twist, causing me to fall. Instead of just falling on the floor, I fell on a tray with three candles on a stick on it, and they (the tray and three candles) dropped to the floor.

There was alcohol that was open and was pouring on the floor so the fire from the candle connected to it and it started an even wilder fire which was spreading fast.

I turned my head to the pillow I had thrown and gasped again after realizing it had landed on one of the sofas here, also causing another fire that was spreading crazily. "Oh God, no!" I cried. "Somebody, help!"

The fire from the trail of alcohol spread and stupidly made contact with the logs of woods, forming a greater fire.

"Help!" I continued screaming but to no avail.

Like the speed of light, the fire transferred around the room.

The curtain the fire had started from had burned completely and it fell. I was quick to remove my legs before it fell on them.

"Help!" I cried again. Could no one hear me? Why was there no fire alarm or alarm button?

I tried to rise to my feet but my sprained ankle didn't permit that.

I reached for a stand, probably the only thing that hadn't caught fire here, holding onto it to help me rise to my feet, ignoring my sprained ankle.

I began hearing screaming noises from around, people were screaming for help. Had the fire spread that much? I needed to get out of here.

I was blocked from walking any further when a large log of wood that was also on fire dropped in front of me. I squealed, jerking away from it but there was also fire behind me. Things were breaking from the fire and dropping on the floor to further increase the fire around.

The smoke from the fire was beginning to choke me, I couldn't breathe properly anymore. The heat from it was cooking me.

"Help," I said, coughing. I was in a trap of fire, nowhere to go.

The deafening sound of people screaming coming from outside warned me that there was extreme danger here. Heavy things continued dropping, mostly wooden. Sound like loud sparks was reoccurring being heard.

The smoke from the fire had suffocated me so much, life had gone out of me. This was beyond my control.

My ankle twisted again and I fell to the floor. This time, I couldn't return to my feet.

I was coughing so hard, sweat had formed on my entire body, my eyes were watering. I couldn't breathe.

The smoke suffocated me till the point of darkness overtaking my vision. Was this how I was going to die? I still heard screaming noises before my eyes gave up completely.