Make Your Move Katherine

Miss Katherine Turner?

“Gather my men for me, I will choose tonight.”

Kat blinked and focused on the voices. That was Oscar Julian’s voice. She fought the clouds that threatened to drown her mind again and opened her eyes. She was once again on the bed of the hospital room- why couldn’t this be a bad dream?

“But- she-” the voice was masculine but unknown to her and she tried to give the voice an appearance in her mind. It was something she always did. She pictured him as lean and tall and with a voice that deep she felt his jawline would be strong, sharp even.

“She does not need to choose now, does she? I am King,” she heard Oscar say.

“You can’t say that till-”

“Leave Eric!”

And she saw the man bow through her blurred vision and the door was shut behind him. Oscar came towards her and pulled open one of her eyelids, rudely.

“So, you’re awake?”

“Ugh- don’t do that-” she hits his hand away and closed her eyes and tried to reopen them again. He had changed his clothing she noted for he now wore an olive color tee and she didn’t have the strength to look at his pants.

“It’s rude to eavesdrop on a conversation-”

“Oh, shut up. You paid someone to act?” she asked for he still seemed very suspicious to her. 'King? The bowing? Oh please.'

Oscar’s reply was interrupted by the same doctor from before, walking in and showing her his teeth- well that all she noticed for his face was still blurred. She knew it was him for some reason.

“My cell phone,” she mumbled.

Flashing a light into her eyes after some mumbling was heard, the doctor said, “Rest, just sleep it off- the medication was a bit too much…”

Kat didn’t hear any more of his words.

She was in so much trouble. Her parents- her stepmother and her father were in a financial situation and were about to file for bankruptcy, that’s why Kat took up the dirty work at her office. They offered to pay more. She took it upon herself to help them.

Kat had a lawyer looking into a way to break the trust fund that her mother had set up for her. But it was air-tight so far. At the age of twenty-five, which was a little over three years away, she would receive one-tenth of a million dollars- which is exactly half of what her father needed.

Would she give it to her father? Yes- every cent for he was a good parent to her. Her mother however? She disappeared and never returned just before Kat’s sixteenth birthday party. When her father filed for divorce, she was not even mad with him and was instead happy that he had found love again.

It was strange. Why did her mother vanish without a trace but took measures to ensure that Kat would be under no financial strain? Her college was paid for and she graduated at twenty-two with her bachelor’s degree in journalism. Then she was hired by the same company she used to be an intern at.

Woodland Media Corp.

“Are you okay now?” Kat heard someone whisper. “I’m sorry.”

She opened her eyes wide, blinking at the sudden light that attacked her irises. She covered her entire face with her hands not even flinching when the IV’s needle stuck into her flesh.

“Oh, thank God. I’ll just get the doctor,” she heard the familiar male voice say.

Washroom.

She pulled the IV out and had just finished using the washroom, vacating it when the doctor came in with a young man wearing scrubs. She had seen the extent of her injuries, seen the six stitches and vowed to not drink again- not that she even had a drinking problem.

“Ah, Miss Katherine, you’re up,” the doctor smiled at her and looked to the floor, where a trail of blood from her IV, led to the washroom from her bed. Both the males’ eyes widened and looked back at her.

“I’ll get-” the man wearing scrubs disappeared. Ah, so he was the nurse whose voice she was hearing.

“How long have I been here?” she shot out at him.

“That’s not important. You need rest-”

“How long?” she raised her voice. Kat who had just sat down on the small bed, flew up, glaring at the older man. Why were doctors so difficult? This isn’t some tv drama where she had some unknown disease and they were friends and he was hesitating to tell her the dreadful fate that awaited her.

“Uh- three days.”

“What? Where is my cell phone?” she had made a quick search earlier and saw nothing that belonged to her- not even the clothing she wore on the night she fell. Kat needed her clothes not this- hospital gown. She had spent her twenty-second birthday in this God-awful place- her father!

“You did not come with anything Miss- uh your fiancé said he would be here-”

“My what?” Kat interrupted him, giving him an irritated look. She knew he was lying. He made it so obvious when he looked at the floor and not her. He did a terrible job if he thought he could fool her by making her think her fall give her temporary amnesia.

Kat felt her head fulling up with the black clouds again and she grabbed the bed frame at the foot of the bed that usually held the food so it was higher, to steady herself staying there with her eyes closed hitting away from the doctor’s hand when he tried to steady her. Kat knew he would take her to the bed and try to convince her she needed more rest.

He was way past fishy- in fact, his behavior was an entire bloody fish market.

“I need to leave.”

“Uh- no. You can’t, your injuries-” the doctor stammered

“Says who? I am an adult! Bring me my release form, let me sign it!” she shouted just as the male nurse returned with a female cleaner with a mop and pail.

Kat turned to look at the nurse who was wringing his hands nervously and she said, “I need to leave this place. I need my papers to be brought to me. Or do I need to go down for it?”

The dull disinfectant smell reached her nose just as the woman pressed the mop hair out with the press-down handle of the pail. She made quick work of the bloodied floor not even looking at them and exited just as the doctor told the nurse, “She has no clothing and her fiancé would be here shortly.”

“Should I make a report about you?” she threatened him with.

“He would be here. I’ll tell him to get you some clothing,” the doctor returned, smiling tightly and looking to the male nurse added, “He would sign the forms.”

The already nervous-looking nurse looked at her and nodded to the doctor’s words turning to leave but halted when she decided to re-introduce herself, “Do you know who I am? Let me tell you- I am a reporter at Woodland Media- so best believe I will do a cover story on this.”

The smile left the older man’s face as he grew a lighter shade of pale.

Later that day

Back in the safety of her apartment Kat struggled out of the clothing the male nurse had brought her and vowed to return them to him and went into her shower. Purple scrubs. Forget a bath, although that is exactly what she needed. The joy she felt at the sight of her toothbrush, for she so needed to clean her mouth. The pain her body underwent had her panting as she struggled but she was successful in cleansing herself and thirty minutes later she picked up her phone to call her boss.

The landline was dead.

Not fazed, she went for her cell phone. After a quick search of the apartment later Kat realized her cell wasn’t there. Frowning she figured she should eat and take another look for her head was pounding. Maybe her brain was weak from lack of strength.

She wondered what Dominique was doing now. Dom and Simon were her besties since college but their paths had changed when Dom studied law and Simon pursued writing in university after a professor requited him since he had been a freshman.

Just what had that quack done to her? He was definitely working for Oscar. But why would Oscar want to keep her there? To make her seem crazy? But why?

A sandwich later, just like the ones Dani used to make, Kat searched her place again. She opened a Pepsi and decided to have a chat with the seemingly incompetent receptionist downstairs. Limping out, she pressed the elevator button and waited, her mind in a whirl.

Just then the elevator doors opened and Kat stepped back as five sturdy-looking men, in dark shades, white shirts, black ties and black suits got out.

“Miss Katherine Turner?” one asked and Kat detected an almost unnoticeable accent. The sell-out was the way he pronounced her first name- like her mother; ‘Ka-tah-rine’. The locals here pronounced her name as ‘Ka- trin’, minus the ‘th’ sound that the English-speaking world used and only few correctly as Ka’th’erine.

This meant the men had to be from her mother’s motherland… What would- her mother! Did it have something to do with her? ‘Did the embassy actually do stuff like this? Is her mother dead or alive…deported? Her eyes widened…’a criminal?’

Kat eyed the men and stepped back, for she did not get a nice feeling about being cornered by five men in black suits- no matter how capable and good-looking they all were.

“Uh- yes?”

One man, the leader it seemed to her, opened his suit and pulled out a white envelope and handed it to her. “Ma’am we have orders that you cannot leave your apartment. Please-” and he ushered with his hand, “Let us accompany you back inside.”

Kat stared wide-eyed at him and took a step back wanting to cry out when the pain shot up her leg but kept a straight face replied, “Why would I do such a foolish thing?”

“Ma’am, please don’t be difficult. We know it sounds strange but please- open the letter,” the man took off his dark shades, folded, then placed the object inside his jacket before clasping his hands in front of his body. The others stood behind him, silently.

“Did Oscar send you?” she quivered out.

The men exchanged glances and the one who did the speaking nodded. The little hope she had that it might have been about her mother's whereabouts diminished. 'Where are you mother?'

'First the quack now this? Just how far was Oscar taking this?'

Did he think things worked like this in her country? Maybe back in his country, things were like this but not here! “As an Armedian, I have rights,” her quick mouth blurted out, she felt they should know that her government had rules-

“It’s from your President ma’am.”