Until The Very End

CHAPTER 20: “What Is Wrong With Hailey Amber?”

            The next day they had in Los Angeles was not as great as the time when they visit LA’s State University. Their visit to Matt’s old company did still went through, but it was a total nothing. They were distracted by the chaotic thoughts they were having after getting into their hotel room. Rodolfo being angry with himself and thinking about how he should confess to Matt. Matt was worried about Hailey. He tried to call her that evening, but no one picked up. She did not even answer any of his text messages and social media chats.

            Los Angeles was undoubtedly not a good place to visit when a situation like Matt and Rodolfo had, occur. Everything changes their mood due to the thoughts and feelings they were having. Nothing was exciting after the university visit. In spite of that, Martin and Terrence had a glorious, magnificent time in Los Angeles.

            Even the flight back to New York was the same as when they came to see the old company. Although Matt and Rodolfo had a conversation inside the jet, it does not have the same energy it used to have. They kept their problems to their own. None of the two tried to express or started a discussion regarding it.

            In Me Guarda, and everything, was like before. Nothing had changed. When they got back at the In Me Guarda, they immediately talked with Hailey about their ongoing trip to Miami Beach. Yet again, Hailey responded that the same professor had given them so many tasks. The two were wondering why none of their professors had assigned any. As gentlemen, they offered her to help so the trip would not be moved to another day or week. Matt and Rodolfo wanted and were looking forward to Hailey coming on their next trips.

            But Hailey rejected the offered help with the same excuse she had given them before. She kept on saying that they all have taken different courses. And that means the three of them were learning different lessons in different classes. Hailey said that none of Matt or Rodolfo would understand the tasks. Without other choices, they left her alone and finish the tasks. Matt was getting more dubious, but at least he was seeing Rodolfo every day. That brightened his mood up. When another phone call with Hailey came, Matt asked Hailey why she had not answered any of his call and messages last time. She explained that she was having a hard time completing the works and was really focusing. She even sent Matt a video of her with her messy hair and face, complaining how tired she was to complete any of the papers that were lying on her bed. It seemed a legitimate video, so Matt believed her.

            Matt and Rodolfo became happy again for the following two weeks inside of Matt’s mansion – the In Me Guarda. Rodolfo set aside his feelings, and, finally, Matt convinced himself that Hailey was alright. They had decided to take no trips outside New York City without Hailey. They even made a policy and sent a picture of them to Hailey while holding huge cardboard with four words written, “No Hailey, No Trips.”

            That picture of Matt and Rodolfo warmed Hailey’s heart. Matt showed Rodolfo every room in the In Me Guarda, except for the underground where the highest security of the mansion was. They read books in the library, and even Matt shared his favourite books. There was plenty of them. They watched football in the club room, had a great time playing at the pool table and the darts, swam at the modernly designed pool, throw a barbecue party with only two of them, visited and showed Rodolfo the glass-filled home office, had a warm exercise and did a lot of workout in the gym, and did a lot of fun inside. They even brought all of the sports cars out of the garage and tested them by driving around the In Me Guarda’s driveway. Rodolfo had a lot of fun with the cars. It was his first time driving a different sports car in a day. They spent the two weeks inside of In Me Guarda.

            November was going really fast. A few weeks more, and snow will begin to fall, covering New York in it. NY’s State University was constructing very fast. It was already halfway done.

            While scrolling around social media, sitting on the living room couch, Hailey called Matt over the phone. Matt immediately answered;

            “Hi.”

            “Hello, Matt,” Hailey greeted, voice words were unhappy.

            “You’re not going to apologize again, are you?” Matt asked. He knew Hailey was going to say her apologizes followed by her another same excuse whenever he heard a downhearted answer from her.

            “Look. The tasks were too much now. The professor added again just now. I’m sorry,” replied Hailey. “How about next weekend?”

            Matt was getting dubious again with the excuse. Everything came back. She has been saying it every time, but why he and Rodolfo had no tasks like this. But, beyond that, he remained his face calm and happy. He began formulating a plan in his head while he said, “It’s okay. I’ll tell Rodolfo.”

            Before Hailey could respond, Rodolfo was running downstairs, calling for Matt. His face was full of joy and excitement.

            “Matt! Where are you? Matt, come and see here!”

            “Wait, he is in your house?” asked Hailey after hearing Rodolfo’s voice.

            “Yeah. Well, he visited here more often. My parent’s seemed to be loving him as my brother,” he answered after a few drops of seconds. Matt was shivering in fear and was running out of words. Then he shouted to Rodolfo, who was looking for him, “In the living room, near the foyer!”

            Rodolfo hurriedly ran. He arrived in front of Matt, panting, and said without even taking a few airs, “I was in the room, bored, and came to scroll up and down on the social media. Then, one of my friends shared an interesting link, and when I clicked on it, guess what? This article appeared.”

            He showed the screen of his phone, then went on without a pause.

            “It was a news article about the university posted at the Daily Today News website and was written by Mia Briggs. By just reading the headline of this article, we can see that Mr Cauffman was interviewed and announced the resume date of classes.”

            Matt was making his eyes bigger, pointing to the phone to tell that he was talking to someone. It also told Rodolfo to watched his words. Matt does not want any word involving his private life be slipped out of Rodolfo’s mouth, especially now that Hailey could hear anything from the phone.

            “Wait, who are you talking to?” questioned Rodolfo.

            “Hailey,” answered Matt. “Okay, so, when was the resume of the class?”

            “I don’t know. I haven’t read the full article yet. I wanted it to read with you. And now that Hailey was on the phone, this is gonna be so great!” exclaimed Rodolfo, facing again his phone.

            “Let’s hear it now,” ordered Matt, who cannot wait any longer.

                                The Daily Today:

                                “Mr Cauffman talks about the NY’s State University’s Fire during the                                         interview with Roger Rickman. Resumption of classes, When?”

                                      Article by Mia Briggs. Written on 16th of November, 07:23 p.m.

“ – MR CAUFFMAN, the current president of the United States’ famous twin brother universities, the NY’s State University and LA’s State University, finally talks about the NY’s State University Fire while being interviewed last night at the New York’s one and only late show titled The Late Show of Roger Rickman With Who?.”

“   After approximately eighteen firehouses in New York joined forces last October 14 of this year to stop the heavy fire around the university’s infrastructures and the result of the investigations from the local police departments, NY’s State University Fire becomes the largest fire over the past decade. It follows the single immense Brooklyn Deadly Fire ever recorded in New York history, which happened last September 23rd of 1987. The New York government…”

            “Skip it, and move to the part where it says about the reopening of the classes,” Hailey barged in over the phone. Voice changed swiftly to a stirring one.

            “I agree. Hold on,” replied Rodolfo. He briskly moved his eyes and fingers on the phone, scanning the whole article.

“   Devasted by the recent happenings on the university, Mr Cauffman – ”

            “Blah, blah, blah. That’s not it,” Rodolfo muttered to himself after reading short phrases from the article, probably pressured by the fact that Matt and Hailey were waiting for him. A few moments later, he exclaimed, “Ha! There it is!”

“   ‘On this point, I am happy to tell you that the reconstruction of the university is in its halfway done after a month of facing its tragic fate. With this, the resumption of classes is highly expected to be around the second week of January, considering the holiday break. Of course, future announcements await. I, alongside the board of trustees, have already conducted a meeting regarding this matter.’ Mr Cauffman stated as Roger, the host of the show, seemed to be very...”

            Rodolfo did not finish reading the rest of the article. “January it is.”

            “I guess we’ll be seeing each other next year,” Hailey replied.

            “Wait, how about the trip?” asked Rodolfo, being regretful about their plans.

            “Sorry, Rodolfo,” apologized Hailey. “I already told Matt my reasons.”

            Rodolfo’s phone rang out of the notice. He was not surprised by the caller. It was his father. Ever since Rodolfo stepped his foot on his friend’s place, he has been calling his father every night to ask how was his little sister and he shared some good things he had with Matt to his family.

            Without hesitation, Rodolfo answered. He walked to the kitchen for a glass of water, leaving Matt and Hailey. Matt watched his friend go and heard the exciting tone of his friend. “Hi, dad!”

            “Rodolfo is talking with his father,” Matt informed Hailey who called Rodolfo.

            “I haven’t heard your parent’s in your house. Where are they?” asked Hailey.

            Matt suddenly remembered his real parents. There was a ball of tear in his eyes while he became silent for a moment. Then, he simply answered Hailey’s question, “At work, as always.”

            “I see.”

            “Are you sure you can do this alone? The tasks? By the sound of your voice, it looks like you can’t handle any of it before the deadline,” Matt was extremely worried. The plan he had formed in his head was done.

            “Yes,” she said, trying to fit her voice as normal. “Come on, Matt. You knew me, I – aahhh!”

            “Oh! Son of a – ”

            An unanticipated moment occurred.

            While Hailey was talking, Matt heard from the phone that someone slammed a door, making Hailey shrieked, followed by a humming voice that turned also to a scream and was about to say a curse. Then, there was a bumping crash of metal sound and, after that, the sound of plenty of bottles falling from a high place was heard. It was a continuous falling sound until a loud metal banged on the floor.

            After everything, Matt heard a man spoke with a voice of partial anger, “What were you doing here?!”

            “Hailey! What was it? Is everything okay?” panickinly asked Matt.

            Hailey did not answer. Instead, Matt caught her whimpering and, believing what he was hearing, running fast. At the last time, the same man shouted.

            “HEY! COME BACK HERE!”

            “Hailey! Can you hear me? What is happening there? Hailey! Hailey!”

            Matt could not raise his voice. He does not want Rodolfo to hear him shouting, especially since Rodolfo was currently talking to his father. They might think that Matt and Hailey were arguing on the phone. Matt heard nothing from Hailey, but a sound of the wind, the series of the low and feeble sounds of fear that Hailey makes, and the quick, slapping constant sound of slippers on the floor.

            He rushed out of the living room with dread and fear, ran outside of the mansion to the long driveway, finally screaming Hailey’s name, “HAILEY!”

            Yet Hailey did not respond. She kept on running. A minute later, Matt heard another door slammed, and the loud footsteps on the floor were echoing.

            “HAILEY! ANSWER ME! COME ON! WHAT IS HAPPENING THERE!”

            Matt kept on yelling while almost crushing his phone with his hands. His face turned red, and was really in a total panic. Afterwards, he decided to listen on the phone if the man from before was following her. But there was none. It was only the echoing slippers and Hailey’s whine that he could hear. Ten minutes later, he heard the last bang of another door and Hailey’s wail began to grow bigger and bigger. For the first time, after a few seconds, Matt heard Hailey screamed to the top of her lungs. It was a voice of extreme pain, fear and confusion.

            “AAAAAAAHHHHHH! MMOOOMMMM! NOOOO, PLEASEE! I CAN’T – ”

            Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

            The phone call instantaneously ended.

            “NOOOOO!” Matt bellowed in front of his phone due to the sudden end of their call.

            Staring blankly at anything, thoughts left in a single flick, heart was beating fast, hands were uncontrollably waving, deep, continuous breaths, Matt stood in the middle of the driveway. A minute or two after, his mind began composing plans. Then, he remembered Rodolfo having a conversation with his father. He calmed himself, in case Mr Petterson wished to talk to him.

            When he felt okay, he returned to the mansion, arranging himself. Right after he opened the pivot door, he saw Rodolfo at the foyer, standing and facing his phone with his cute, bright smile. He was full of exhilaration, unlike Matt, who was full of panic.

            “Hey! I have something to tell you,” Rodolfo approached Matt happily.

            Matt looked at him for a short time and went directly to the living room, saying, “Go on. I’ve got something to tell you too.”

            “My family is back here in New York this morning! There were home already! I can finally see my sister after a month!” exclaimed Rodolfo, having a lot of joy. “By the way, where were you? My father wanted to talk with you.”

            For a split second, Matt became silent. It surprised him. Then his mind spoke, “I can’t ruin Rodolfo’s day by telling him about Hailey. I won’t involve him with any of my plans now and let him celebrate his family arrival here. After all, I know he’s been missing his family much. Sorry, Rod, but this has to be a secret for now. You can’t join me.”

            “Perfect!” he said in total amazement, going out of the living room. “I can drive you there now. Let’s go.”

            “Wait, you aren’t going?” asked Rodolfo. His mood suddenly changed.

            “Sorry, Rod,” replied Matt silently, thinking of a valid reason to tell. He faced Rodolfo, eyeing him, and lied. “Didn’t I told you that the parent company will be holding its second meeting with all of the board of directors this year? I have to attend the meeting. It’s important. Besides, there’s always tomorrow, right?”

            “Okay, I understand,” Rodolfo’s smile came again. At that time, Matt walked again. “Matt, wait. What are you gonna tell me?”

            “Huh?”

            “You said you have something to say too. What was it?”

            “Oh, right. I saw a snake,” Matt lied again. He hated this.

            “And?”

            “And I chase it. That is why I ended up outside. Come on, Rod. It does not matter now. What’s good is that your family is back. Go. Prepare your things. Make it quick!”

            “Okay.”

            Matt could not wait to drive Rodolfo to the Petterson’s place – to his home. Hailey was more important to him now. Again, he changed his plan while he was in his closet room, changing his clothes. Random things ran in his mind, creating stories of what happened to Hailey next after the phone call ended.

            Before he took the stairs down, he shouted, “Rodolfo, hurry!”

            “I’m right there,” Rodolfo shouted back from the inside of his room.

            “I’ll be waiting in the garage!”

            “Okay!”

            Matt went downstairs and to the garage. He ordered his assistant to open the garage doors and lights. And he took a key from smart, round couch table technology. Rodolfo came with all of his bags around his arms. Matt helped him carry them to the car they were about to use.

            “We’re using a sports car?”

            “To get there fast, Rod. I know how you missed them.” Matt excused.

            They settled themselves in the sports car and immediately drove out of In Me Guarda. Matt was driving fast. That made Rodolfo thought of something else – that something was wrong. But he was more excited about seeing his family.

            “Oh, oh, right! Just drop me at a gift shop. I’ll buy a welcoming gift for my sister. She loves surprise gifts,” said Rodolfo in the mid of their way to his place.

            “Okay,” Matt responded briefly.

            Not a long time had passed they arrived in front of the gift shop.

            “I’ll be waiting here, alright. I’ll buy her a gift tomorrow,” Matt said as Rodolfo got out of the car.

            Rodolfo did not reply. Matt was stunned when Rodolfo took his bags with him. Although he already knew where the situation was going, he did still ask.

            “What are you doing?”

            His friend smiled and answered, “I think I’ll be taking a lot of time choosing what’s the best gift for my sister. You seemed to be hurrying up and running late with your meeting. I’ll take the taxi on my way home instead.”

            “Are you sure?”

            The people around them began capturing the car.

            “Yeah. Look! Everyone’s gonna see you. See you tomorrow!” his friend pleasantly said, waving his hand in the air.

            “Sorry, Rod,” he stared Rodolfo in the eyes, and he immediately hit the road, driving fast. His voice when he talked was different.

            Matt speeds up the car to get back to his mansion fast. Everything he heard, from the first bang of the door to Hailey screaming, played over in his mind. He panicked once more, thinking whether Hailey was in danger or not. Without ten minutes had passed, he was back.

            He parked his sports car at the driveway of the mansion, rushing to go inside. Though he was panicking, everything was secured. The mansion, from the front gate to any doorway going inside of the mansion, was secured. In his home office, where every wall, the tables and chairs were made of glass, Matt set his laptop on the table and sat.

            His first plan was to report to the police that Hailey was in physical abuse or in danger. But he was not sure if either of the two was happening to Hailey. All Matt knew was that Hailey was not in a good condition. By just saying to the police that his friend screamed on the phone without having a solid reason why was a weak statement to tell. So he put everything in his hands and came to another much wiser plan.

            The second plan was to locate Hailey’s phone online. Once Matt knew where Hailey was, he can easily drive himself to check on her. Tracking someone else’s was easy for him already. He studied everything about modern technologies before. On his laptop, he began to browse and prepared everything he needed to locate Hailey’s phone. The last thing he did to completely prepared the tracking process was he called Hailey. The purpose of this was to know if the target’s phone was on or off. If Hailey’s phone has a continuous ringback tone, it means her phone was switched on. But, after one ring on Hailey’s phone, it went to voicemail. When everything was ready, he started tracing Hailey’s phone. It was a little difficult for him because the phone was switched off.

            An hour later, Matt had Hailey’s phone’s location. Since the phone he traced was turned off, the location he has on his laptop was the last location when Hailey’s phone was switched on. The phone’s last location was in the hospital. That means when Matt and Hailey were having a conversation on the phone, Hailey was in the hospital. It was not really far from everything. The hospital was within New York City. There was only one thing that Matt hoped. He wished that Hailey was still in that hospital. If Hailey moved to another place with her phone turned off, Matt cannot be able to trace her.

            He was not still sure what was Hailey doing in a hospital. Again, fictitious events and happenings began to create in his head. And that panic him more because his mind-created stories have negative results. He stood up to go to the hospital and then paused, thinking. “It isn’t safe to go there without having a background check of the hospital.”

            It was all because of overthinking about Hailey. One minute he thought that Hailey was kidn*pped and was brought to an abandoned hospital, and another minute he would think of something more dangerous about Hailey. He sat back and researched about the hospital – whether it was abandoned or not. After few clicks, he found out that it still existed. Meaning it was currently used by many doctors and patients. He was relieved from that. Then, once more, he heard Hailey’s last words on the phone. And he focused on that one word that seemed to be important to Hailey. …MMOOOMMMM!...

            “Was Hailey’s mom currently admitted to the hospital?” he asked himself. He was confused and thinking at the same time. “If she was, then who was the man that shouted?”

            Still thinking concerning Hailey’s undefined situation, Matt stood up, leaving everything on the glass table, and walked out of the home office with his phone and the sports car’s key fob in his hand. He first went to the kitchen to have a glass of water. He felt dehydrated after all these moments that were happening. After he set his phone and the key fob on the counter, getting a glass, his phone made a notification sound. He took a glass of water first before checking on it.

            It was a private message from an unknown name, Alex Benn, from one of his social media accounts. He did not reply to it after reading the “Hi!” greetings without tapping on the notification. He has an important thing to do. He marched in the direction of the pivot door when there was again a three notification sound from his phone. Irritated, he finally opened the message. The message suddenly became interesting to him.

                        “Hi!”

                        “I am Alex Benn, one of Hailey’s gay best friends and classmates. You would not probably                             know or recognize me for sure, but we knew you and your friend, Rodolfo. She used to talk                             much about you two to us.”

                        “We are insanely worried about our friend. The last conversation we had happened last                             week. And in every conversation, her voice was like in deep pain or whatever. Ever since                             that day, she’s not picking up the phone. She’s not like this before. Well, is she’s not                             making fun of us. Normally, her voice was high-pitch, energetic and always in an exciting                             tone. We are trying to figure it out, but we couldn’t. We went to her house, but no one’s                             home. Believe it or not, their home seemed abandoned and uncleaned for ages.  The                             neighbours said that it has been like that for a month already.”

                        “I and my friends of her wanted to apologize to you for this unwanted message as Hailey                             mentioned before that you hated having a conversation with a complete stranger. But it is                             only you that we hope for now. We couldn’t find your friend’s account name. Do you                             happen to meet Hailey in person for the past weeks? And if you don’t like this way of                             conversation, I wanted to take this moment, in case you read this message, to ask you                             how  can we reach you out in a way that you want?”

            Matt read again the whole message several times before he realized that Hailey’s friends were also looking for her. He was stunned. Then, he went inside his home office and back to his laptop. There, he typed his first message and sent it to Alex.

                                                                        “What? She told me that she’s busy doing paper works and case                                                                         studies that your professor gave. She did even sent tons of                                                                         photos and videos of her to us. What is happening?”

            There was a quick response from Alex.

                        “What paper works and case studies? Classes were suspended, remember? None of the                                    professors gave us like that during this suspension.”

            Matt was thunderstruck. Hailey lied to him and Rodolfo. He was a fool to believe that Hailey has lots of tasks to do. A brief moment later, he replied to the message.

                                                                        “Did you try to call her this day?”

                        “Sir, we did everything.”

                        “We sent her loads of DM’s, text messages, voicemails, dropped her phone call, face chat,                             voice call on every social media she has, we sent emails to her and none of those things                             we did works. We did tag her to every post we posted, convincing her to talk to us, and she                             would just comment something like ‘I am okay. I am everywhere.’ At first, we thought that                             it was another joke she made for us, but now it was going serious.”

                                                                        “Have you tried reporting this to the police?”

                        “Well, no. We’re scared. But we decided now to go there.”

                                                                        “Scared of what?”

                        “Of Hailey.”

            Recalling that he has already an unsure location of Hailey’s phone, Matt decided something and replied.

                                                                          “No. Don’t go to any police stations. I think where she is now.”

                        “Can we come with you?”

                                                                            “Look, there’s a reason why Hailey doesn’t want to answer to                                                                                   her friends. She called me herself earlier, and we talked. I won’t                                                                             be saying anything more about the phone call we had.”

                        “Why? We’re also worried about her.”

                                                                            “Promise, I’ll give you news when I found her.”

                                                                            “Did she ever told or mentioned something about her mom?”

                        “She lives with Mrs Claire. That's her mom.”

                        “That’s all we know about her mom.”

                                                                             “Okay. I’ll be going. Stay calm, and I’m sure Hailey is safe.”

                        “We’re hoping on you, sir.”

            It was funny how Matt told Hailey’s friends to calm down when he cannot even calm himself properly. He closed the laptop after reading the last chat reply from Alex, took again his phone and key fob, and went outside of the mansion. He used the same sports car that he uses to drive Rodolfo to the gift shop. Rodolfo and his family were completely out of his mind.

            While speeding up to go to the hospital, he remembered his childhood trauma with it. It weakened him. Every time he saw a hospital, the terrible events that happened to him when he was a kid freshened. He thought of it all the way there, and another thought came back. It was, of course, none other than Hailey. He convinced himself to set aside the trauma like he did when he first met Rodolfo. Then, a question formulated in him. “What is wrong with Hailey Amber?”