Miss Artist Can Suffer

Sharon

When she woke up, she found herself in her room. She jerked up awake. Had Gerald found her, sketching him? That would be quite mortifying, she thought. But then, thankfully she remembered that some time in dawn, she dragged her sorry ass in her sorry room. Saddened, she flopped back down on her bed.

Keira decided not to think about last day's events. She wasn't running away or anything, she consoled herself. She just needed to let her mind be tension free for a while. She went in bathroom and freshened herself up.

She decided to vacuum clean the house today. She had almost learned its procedure. She only needed a final confirmation on the buttons. She thought of asking Gerald, although her mind was screaming not to contact with him anyhow. But she knew better. She can't hide forever. She looked at the clock at her bedside table. 8.45 am. Gerald should be awake. She went to Gerald's room to ask him. His door was unlocked, as usual. She knocked once and then peaked in, "Gerald?"

Gerald was sitting on the edge of bed, his head hung down. He didn't respond to her.

She went to him and hesitating, she tapped his shoulder, "Gerald?"

Gerald suddenly looked up, his eyes confused and afraid. She had never seen him as such.

"Gerald what happened?" she sat down beside him.

"Sharon's office co-worker called." His voice was wavered.

"What? What did they say?"

"They hadn't heard from Sharon and Peter Walker too. The last they heard was the project they had gone for had some internal problems. They had to cancel the project and they were about to leave New Rissolli two days after."

"So?"

"So Keira," he looked in her eyes, "they should've been back almost five days ago. Where the hell are they?"

The fear and confusion in Gerald's eyes reflected in Keira's eyes too. But she realised that one of them must be strong. And however ironic it might seem, this time Keira was the one who had to support Gerald.

"Don't worry Gerald, hasn't she called us a day before yesterday? Besides, Peter is with her. He won't let anything happen to our Sharon", she put her hand on his shoulder, gently patting it.

Gerald wanted to scream at her. How could she remain so calm? He was freaking out inside, thinking about Sharon. She sounded like she needed help when she called that day. He had no idea where his little sister was, in what conditions, even if she's dead or alive. How could he be told to remain calm? He turned his head to snap at her.

But seeing her eyes, which were equally panicked and afraid, as were his; he controlled his tongue. He realised that Keira was scared too. She was just putting a brave face. He took her face in his hand, caressing her cheek.

"I'll see what I can do." He softly said.

She closed her eyes and let out a relaxing breath against his hand and then said quite enthusiastically, "You know why I actually came here? I wanted to ask you something."

Gerald raised his eyebrows. She took a deep breath, "So, the second button from the left on vacuum cleaner is start and third last button is stop, right? And the middle one is increase or decrease."

Gerald chuckled softly and nodded. Keira put on a wide grin and exclaimed, "Great! I'll try right now." She hopped off his bed.

"Be careful", Gerald warned to her retreating figure. He couldn't understand how she could talk to him so casually after yesterday. He would've never get himself together this quick. He felt proud of her. He went out then, to make breakfast for both of them.