Saturday's Short Story - NAIA pt. 5

Hello friends, Dillfinger is back with part 5 of NAIA! Make sure that you have read parts 1-4 before reading today's post! I hope you all enjoy this part of the story!

When she finally made it to her office, she stood outside the door. Scared to open it. When she finally did, she was appalled by what she found. Standing in her office, going through confidential files, was Mary. Mary whipped around, a shocked expression on her face. Natalie gasped.

“Mary…what are you doing?” she asked, confused. Mary stumbled over her words.

“I..um…was just organizing everything,” she lied. Natalie knew she was lying.

“Okay, give me the files,” ordered Natalie. Mary reluctantly handed her the files. Natalie read them; they were the files on the mutant. She knew what Mary had done. She was filled with rage, her blood boiled. She threw the files to the ground and charged Mary.

“How dare you! I trusted you…you were my friend!” she yelled, shoving Mary against the wall, “Why would you that? Do you know how much trouble you have caused everyone!” she screamed.

“Woah woah woah, what’s going on?” demanded someone from behind Natalie. Natalie turned around to see Justin standing in the doorway.

“This joke of a good friend released the beast! She is behind everything!” she cried, “It’s all her fault! It’s her fault that Martin is dead, and the other officer is dead, and Michael is injured! It’s all her fault!” Justin looked at Mary, who showed no remorse.

“Fine, it’s all true,” she confirmed, “I let the beast out.” Justin stared blankly at the two girls; confused as to what was happening.

“Mary…why would you do that?” he asked,

“I hate this company and anyone who has anything to do with it,” she explained, “I would do anything to take it down. I figured I would start with releasing the newest mutant.” Justin detained Mary and called for one of his partners to come and bring her to the station. After she had been removed from the premises, Natalie turned to Justin.

“Why were you coming to my office in the first place?” she asked.

“I had stopped by your house to see how you were doing, when no one answered I figured you had come here,” he explained. “You know you should take the next few days off, get some rest,”

“I can’t do that. I need to keep busy. Since Michael is out of commission for the next little while, I will have to take over for him. I am going to transfer the job of re-creating the mutant to a different team. I can’t work on that project anymore,” reasoned Natalie. Justin sighed.

“Natalie, you are an interesting person. I have to go out on patrol, make sure to take it easy,” he ordered.

“No promises,” she called as he left. She sat down in her desk chair, she felt dizzy and confused. She laid her head on her desk. She must have fallen asleep because her mind fell into a dream.

There she was, standing on the roof of the building. The only soul in sight was the mutant. It stared her down, watching her every move. There was a strong gust of wind, Natalie stood stone cold as the mutant bounded towards her. Right before it attacked her everything went black and she appeared in the stairwell, Justin comforting her as she cried, banging on the wall. Suddenly, she was on main street. She heard the gunshots and felt the mutant weighing down on her.

“No! Please, help me!” she screamed, jumping up from her sleep. She was confused. She couldn’t figure out where she was. She tried to tell herself that she was in her office, where she had fallen asleep, but the room was spinning. Her head throbbed; she couldn’t breathe. She fell to the floor, knocking over her chair. She didn’t know how long she had been there. She woke up staring at the ceiling, her body paralyzed in fear. She tried to stand up, but she couldn’t make herself move. That’s when she heard it. She heard the roar of the mutant and sound of its paws running towards her. She blacked out again. She was awoken by someone shaking her. Her immediate thought was that it was the mutant. She jumped up, her body no longer under paralysis. One of her coworkers stood beside her. He started to say something, but Natalie dashed out of the room. She ran through the halls and out the lobby door. She had no clue where she was going, but she kept running. She ran down main street until she reached where the beast had been killed. She stood where the beast had knocked her down in the middle of the road. All of the cars stopped, angry drivers honked on their horns. Natalie couldn’t move. She heard the sirens of a police car drawing near but she didn’t care. Her face was as white as the snow around her, her whole body was shaking. Her vision was coming in and out of focus. The cold air bit her skin, she did not have her coat as she had taken in off before being attacked by the mutant and had not gotten it back. She was snapped back into reality when Justin and his partner got out of the police car. Natalie was confused and disoriented. She couldn’t tell if Justin was leading her to the police car or holding her back from running out onto the roof to face the mutant. She didn’t know where she was. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the mutant running towards her.

“Help me!” she yelled, “Please, it’s coming! It’s coming!” she felt herself burning up, she could hear Justin and his partner trying to calm her down, it wasn’t working. Her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest. She tried to compose herself, but it wasn’t working. She could hear Justin talking quietly, but the sound of the mutant roaring and the gun shots dominated her mind. She couldn’t tell if she was in the police car or in the ambulance with Michael. She squeezed her eyes shut; she covered her ears. She didn’t open her eyes until she felt the car stop. She looked around, her heart still racing. She was in the town square, Martin’s body laid in front of her. She knelt down, tears streaming down her face.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, “I’m so sorry” suddenly, Martin’s body was gone. She was standing alone in the middle of the square; Martin was alive and sitting in the squad car. It happened so quickly, the mutant ran up to her and attacked her. She screamed. That was when she woke up. She was not in the town square, or on the roof of the building, or standing in the middle of main street, or even in the police car with Justin and his partner. She was on the floor of her office, in the arms of Justin.

“It’s okay Natalie, it’s okay,” he consoled, “It’s not real. It’s all a dream,” his voice was calm and quiet. Natalie gasped for air, slowly coming to. She was confused and frightened. She wanted to close her eyes again, but she knew if she did the mutant would be there.

“The mutant haunts me whenever I close my eyes,” explained Natalie. She stared directly into his eyes. She was terrified and had no idea what to do. She took a few deep breaths.

“Natalie, you are okay. The mutant is dead, you are safe,” whispered Justin. Natalie stayed in Justin’s arms until she was able to fully comprehend the fact that she was safe. Justin helped her up before tipping up the chair that she had knocked over. Natalie looked around the room, noticing her coat laying on the floor by the door. She took the water bottle she kept on her desk and drank from it.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, screwing the lid back on her bottle.

“I was bringing your coat back, sorry for barging in” he apologized, “When I knocked on the door, I could hear you crying. I figured you wouldn’t mind if I just came in. I saw you laying on the floor, in some sort of a dream state,” he explained. She thanked him before sitting down in her chair,

“Sorry for keeping you here, I’m okay now. I have a ton of work to get done, but maybe we can talk later,” she sorted through some papers on her desk. She wished everything could just go back to normal.

“Natalie, no. You can’t try to hide the fact that you are not doing okay,” argued Justin, clearly frustrated. “You can’t just hide away in your office, working away your problems,” Natalie rolled her eyes. She was fine. Tired, but fine. She turned on her computer and typed in the password, hoping it still had some battery left in it. She breathed a sigh of relief when it had been charged. She typed out an email to her team explaining how she would no longer be working on the project with the mutant.

“Justin,” sighed Natalie, “I am fine, you can go,” without a word, Justin left the room.

That is part 5 of the NAIA story! Stay tuned for next week where we will get the finale of the story.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to let me know.

Never stop writing!

-Dillfinger