The Incident

Chapter 16

   About three hours later, she has finally reached Prague. Unfortunately, she was much less excited about that visit.

A general feeling of anxiety was in possession of her. She couldn't control it. Unlike last time, she spent the whole train trip in her seat, praying that Pavel is okay.

Last time around, she was too excited to even sit, she was too happy, due to the possibility of meeting Hans, her brother. This time, it was a different story.

At first, she walked around aimlessly, she was too distracted to even think straight. She obviously still didn't get over that moment, when she hear that explosion-like sound. Her heart almost stopped beating back then. It is a moment that she will, undoubtedly, never forget.

She then stopped, and decided to stop wasting time, pull herself together, and go to Pavel's house. She wanted to see herself what has happened to him.

“Maybe he is in need of help.” She thought, as she opened up her handbag, to check the knife that she had already taken with her from Emiliana's flat.
She isn't intending to use it, unless she had to defend herself, against anyone who tries to attack her, especially, the hoarse-voiced man.

Francesca was good with directions, so she easily remembered the way to Pavel's house. A taxi stopped in front of her, she hopped in, after informing him of the address.

On the way to Pavel's house, she never stopped trying to contact Charles, Pavel, and Emiliana respectively. Neither of the three's phones were on. Which, eventually, guided her to leave them a voice message.

She initiated the message to Charles, “Charles, I have been trying to reach you. I am terribly in need of you, I am in Prague right now, but don't get me wrong...”  Suddenly, the phone's battery has drained, as she was about to continue her message. This means that, he will never receive that voice message.

How can things go wrong that much? How can she be so unfortunate? Nothing goes the way she had planned them to be, which was depressive and frustrating for her.

The poor girl's mind must have been too distracted with everything that has been happening, that she forgot to check out her phone's battery status. It was such a minor issue, compared to other catastrophic events that has been happening. So, we can't really blame Francesca for missing this little detail.

“Oh dear God!! Can anything go correctly?!! I am tired of all of this.”  She thought.

Now, she has nothing to do but to follow her initial plan, which is to go to Pavel's house.

The taxi driver said that they are just three minutes away from reaching their destination. Francesca's anxiety increased dramatically as they got closer to Pavel's house.

She is completely alone, in a city, away from her home, with no one around her, and no way to call for help, if she needed to.

“We are here.” The taxi driver's words interrupted her train of thoughts. She looked up, to indeed see, Pavel Stepanek's house. She thanked the driver, and paid his fare, before getting off the vehicle.

Her heartbeats were fast and strong. She locked both of her hands together, in an attempt to eliminate its trembling. Her breath went faster. She was too aghast to even walk in a straight line.

Slowly, she moved towards the targeted house. She passed the garden, and finally reached the main door. Neither of her shoving or knocking has resulted in successfully opening the door.

Another option was to break in through the room's window, she didn't want to do so, though. It would create a scene, she thought. It was definitely an option, but she wanted to save it for last, because it was the least intelligent.