After an awkward silence, she spoke slowly, as if talking to a toddler.
“There’s no such thing as ghosts, Mr. Rockne.”
He slapped the desk and the golden nameplate that read ‘Special Agent Martinez’ jumped a centimetre in the air. Trinity steadied her coffee cup to stop it from spilling.
“Here we go again,” Rockne muttered, though whether he was talking to himself or her Trinity couldn’t tell. He began pacing quickly up and down the office.
“Just perfect, another person who thinks I’m crazy…they all think I’m crazy…”
He stopped mid-stride and faced her, resting his hands on the desk, his blue eyes staring into her green ones.
“OK, Special Agent Martinez.” He sighed, “Let’s forget how haunted this city is and pretend I’m not a raving lunatic.”
She nodded slowly, pressing her willowy hand gently against the red security button under her desk. She continued to stare straight back at Rockne.
“Regardless of that, there is a threat.”
He took a red whiteboard marker from the penholder beside her nameplate and turned to the map marked Athens, OH hanging on the wall. He uncapped the marker and used it as a pointer.
“Desmond is planning his attack here.”
He circled the Hanning Cemetery in the northwest of the city.
“There are civilians in this area everyday.”
Once again, she stayed silent, staring at the map.
Rockne slammed the desk again in frustration, and a drop leapt out of the coffee cup and landed on Trinity’s hand. She winced as the boiling water scalded the skin.
“You still think I’m crazy!” he shouted, ”You want proof? Proof that there’s something else going on in this city?”
He stabbed at the map with the marker, marking each of the five cemeteries with a dot. Breathing heavily, he drew lines, linking the dots together. As he began to draw one final line, the door of the office burst open and two uniformed security guards entered. One grabbed Rockne’s arms and held them behind his back, forcing him down on the desk.
“Should we eject him, Agent Martinez?”
She nodded, her eyes wide as Rockne tried to look up at her.
The guards began to drag him from the room. He fought, shouting.
“The map, Trinity! Read the map!”
Trinity froze as the door slammed shut. He didn't, couldn't, know her name. Barely anyone did.
She picked up her nameplate. The words 'Special Agent Martinez' shone up at her in golden cursive letters. No Trinity. So how did he know?
She crossed to the window and looked down to see Michael Rockne stagger out of the lobby and fall to the ground. He picked himself up off the worn concrete, wiping dirt off of his black jacket and trousers. He looked up at the window and once again Trinity felt her green eyes connect with his blue ones.
Read the map, Trinity, he mouthed.
Then he turned and walked towards the car park.
She looked away, her eyes turning slowly towards the map on the wall. The five red lines joined and criss-crossed to form a five-pointed star. She felt fear rising in her throat. Simms, Zion, Hanning, Higgins and Cuckler.
The five cemeteries of Athens connected to form a pentacle.
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Tell me what you think and whether I should bother extending this into a full story. I wrote this a while ago and I've come up with a new version with the same characters so I'll try to get that one up ASAP as well to figure out which one is better.
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