Carter's Beloved

You Had One Job, Carter. One.

Madison P.O.V:

“Are you sure this is right?” I yell skeptically. He scowls in frustration and looks back at me. His brown eyes look bloodshot, and there are purple bags under his eyes. The wind whips my face as I steady myself and try not to look down.

“Hell no! I’m just risking my life for an adventure with my boss.” He answers derisively. A car underneath us, overtakes a bus. I flinch as the bus driver presses the horn loudly.

“How is this allowed directly next to a hospital? Aren’t you supposed to be in peace at this hospital?” I shout at him. I never thought in a million years, I would be on a hospital’s rooftop with my assistant.

“Bit rich coming from you. Aren’t you supposed to be dying right now?” He says mockingly. I roll my eyes at the joke and glance down.

The roads underneath the 20- storey hospital look small from here. I can monitor everyone’s movement underneath me, especially the on duty security guard cat calling women crossing the street. I sniff in the cold weather and tilt my head, so the moonlight shines directly at my face.

“Such a romantic date. Am I the first girl you have stolen from a hospital?” I smile at him. He peers at me and turns away.

“I saved your life. You should be glad, not taunt me. We need to leave.” 

“Oh, and how will we do that, Mr. Do Good?” He glowers at me. This time I have really pissed him off. He whips back and grabs me ahead. My feet graze the ground as he pulls me ahead.  I grab his arm and suddenly he stops.

“Look down.” he said hoarsely. I push the hair out of my eyes and stare down at the compact cars below us.  A chill went down my spine and I glanced up. I forgot I feared heights.

My head pounded, I glanced underneath again, holding my breath.

“Look!” His pale hand points across the parking lot, where a black van has stopped. I roll my eyes.

“It’s just a black van. Unlike movies where only murderers or criminals have black vans, in proper life a healthy amount of people do.” I finish somewhat lamely. He throws me a loathing look, I scoff. Was it really worth hiring him? His temper tantrums seem to have increased since we were kids. 

“Look closely.” He puts emphasis on the last word and with no choice, I look down again. A black shadow steps out of the car, I squint my eyes to focus on his actions but we’re too high.

“Why do we need be on the roof to stalk people? We can do that on the ground floor.” I tell him scornfully. I grab the railing and glance towards the car again. The man is gone, but another one appears right after.

“Your wish has been granted.” he answers with a note of fear in his voice.  He grabs my hand again and leads me to the stairs. Resentfully, I follow him.

His pace quickens, and soon we’ve reached the ground floor. He exits first, looks around and motions me to follow him. Confused and exhausted, I have no choice but to follow him. No one glances in my direction; I changed out of the hospital gown; I look like a normal visitor.

The entrance is empty,  except for a few security guards, yet he insists on standing in front of me the entire time. Fed up, I look around for the sign of any person and in the corner of my eye I see a dark shadow move.

I stand there quite still, while Carter calls for someone, I move my head in the pretense to look at the small flowers on the sidewalk. Daring to lift my gaze a few centimetres, I notice the familiar clothing and glance back.

“Why isn’t he picking up?” He says exasperated. 

“Carter.” He looks at me and I step closer to him.

“Looks like you were right. We need to leave.” He frowns and opens his mouth to speak, but I shake my head and tilt to the direction where the dark stranger stands. His eyes become round and he quickly looks back shaken.

“Did you bring your car?” I ask him hurriedly and glance towards the shadow’s direction again. It moves suddenly, hiding into the shadows.

“We can take the subway.” He mumbles quietly. Anger surges through me, I grab his hand and twist it with a smile on my face. Unsuspecting people pass us as a happy couple as Carter silently writhes in pain.

“Why did you come here if I could take the subway on my own?” I hiss angrily into his ear. He pulls his hand out of mine and rubs it in pain. The sudden noise of the waling of the ambulance catches me by surprise. 

I throw one last spiteful glance at Carter and walk across the parking lot and on to the pavement.  He pursues me and I peek towards the trees near the end of the lane and see it following us. Quickly, I tell myself and search the passing cars for a cab. 

Soon,  a bright yellow car stops in front of us, and I quickly climb in. 

“Will you wait for me?” He shrikes irritably and I hurriedly pull him into the cab. Falling face first onto the seat, I close the door and see the shadow approach us, stepping onto the pavement.

“Drive anywhere please!” I tell the cab driver about exasperatedly and he obliges. As we drive away, I see a faint glimpse of a smile on his face.