Quote of the day: it is okay not to be okay, everyone has a different meaning of the word okay.

   Chloe stood up from the freaking chair, she wasn't at peace and the chair was no longer comforting her. She started pacing about and began to wonder where Ashley could possibly be. Her heart didn't want to believe it but her brain was telling her that that crazy man has already gotten a way to her.

   Chloe had been in her office when she got a call from Nora saying Ashley was missing. Her heart hadn't been stable ever since, now she was at Greg's house pacing around his sitting room. Her imagination had ran wilder than it ever did. The most frustrating aspect was that Ashley's phone was ringing but she wasn't answering, and it was so unlike Ashley. Now to top it all off, Greg wasn't picking his call also, and for that Davis had gone to check him up at the office.

     "She is no where near the store you said?" Chloe asked, staring at Nora who was seated on a couch. Nora was white with fear. Chloe wanted to comfort her but at this moment, she herself wasn't comforted.

      "No, we searched," Nora answered quietly.

       "And why the heck had she been so hellbent on leaving that she had to subject herself to taking someone else's clothes?" Chloe was at this point furious at Ashley and herself. It seemed as though Ashley was purposefully walking into danger.

    The door opened and in walked Davis still with a frustrated look, that would only mean he hadn't found anything helpful. He walked up to them and sat closely beside Nora, who in turn looked at him with hope.

      "He isn't at his office," Davis said, frustration was written all over his face. "His driver said he had dismissed him and left hurriedly. This is one reason I always ask this stupid guy to let me know of his whereabouts."

       "How about his phone?" Chloe asked expectantly, hoping that there would be something to at least grasp on.

       "He is still not picking his damn phone!" He yelled. For the first time ever since she had known him, Davis actually yelled. Surprise! "Nora have you tried calling him, he never ignores your call." He looked at Nora.

       "I have, and he is also not picking up."

      "I'm trying to tell myself that maybe Greg and Ashley were actually on a rendezvous together," Chloe knew the word rendezvous sounded a little archaic but, she loved all things archaic.

      "And I'm also trying to soothe myself by believing that they eloped," Davis said with a chuckle. "But we both know that isn't what happened."

      "Yeah," Chloe said totally frustrated herself.

    The door opened again to welcome the blonde bodyguard, Gage with a laptop in hand. He walked with a gait that was clearly unusual, but nothing about those two guys had been usual.

      "Anything?" Davis asked.

    "We have been able to track down Miss Ashley's phone," he said taking a seat opposite Davis, "her phone says that she is at St. Mathews church..."

      "But..." Chloe interrupted. She could always sense the but coming in, in a sentence. And she was really impatient.

      "But..." Gage said giving her a weird look, and then he turned towards Davis and Nora again. "The church is empty from the looks of it. There is no one in the main church and the nuns are all in the convent. We have made an effort to question them, and none of them had seen Miss Ashley."

        "Then where could she be?" Nora asked in a very scared voice. Chloe saw Davis encircling his arms around her, definitely to calm her.

        "At the church," Gage said.

     "The same church you said is empty," Chloe countered.
 
       "That is what makes me believe the more that she is there. The nuns claim to haven't seen her, and her phone says she is there. There are only two logical explanation for this; it is either she forgot her phone at the church, or she is still there. And whatever the nuns are saying counters with what we have. Or maybe, her phone got lost and the person who found it happens to be at the church...I don't think that is also very logical since the church is as I  said empty and the nuns don't leave their convent."

          "So she is still at the church?" Davis asked.

      "Yes, I believe so. Cade is standing watch close to the church now, so he can alert us if anything seems unusual." Gage said opening his laptop.

        "Why don't we let the police know. I know you all are dying to play 'James Bond,' but can we leave that to the cinemas." Chloe said looking at every single person seated. She still hasn't seated and didn't plan to.

         "And who the heck do you think Cade and Gage are?" Davis asked.

      "Bodyguards," Nora said voicing out her thoughts.

       "Seated here is Detective Seville, Gage Seville." Davis said pointedly. Chloe found herself staring at the blonde guy in shock, but it wasn't her fault that she didn't know. Greg had introduced them as bodyguards and they didn't complain. Oh it must have been to make them feel at ease, and Greg probably knows Ashley would be stubborn about it. 

       "Can you track down Greg's phone, I don't want to admit it, but it seems like he is also missing." Davis said cracking his knuckles. Chloe found herself hating the sound he was making so much.

    The detective got busy on his laptop and after several long minutes he finally looked up with a shocked look. "Mr Marshall's phone also says that he is at St. Mathews church."

        "What!" Chloe said.

      "I say those two are on a rendezvous, but we can't believe that since the church is empty and two people are supposed to be there." Davis said.

         "Yes but..." Gage got cut off when a call came in to his phone. He picked up and his already white face went whiter. The detective typed something on his laptop furiously and looked up at them with shock on his face. "Someone else just entered the church, and it is very unusual."

  The detective turned his laptop towards Davis and Nora, Chloe went closer to get a look. She was a bit taken aback by what she saw. "Mr Marshall, Greg's father!"

        "There must be a party going on there," Davis said with a dry chuckle. "The only problem is Greg would never invite his father for anything, so what is Mr Marshall doing there?"

       "There is only one way to find out, and that is going there." Chloe said staring at the two men in the room.

      "Yes, but you and Nora will be staying here," Davis said getting up, he signalled to Gage who also stood up.

      "Why should I stay here, if anything is happening I should be with Ashley. And if it is her father as I have presumed, she would need me for moral support." Chloe said with a matter of fact tone, glaring at Davis.

       "I know you want to be a female 'James Bond,' but you should stay with Nora," Davis said air quoting the James Bond, with a voice suggesting he was talking to a two year old. Chloe hated that he was using her own words against her.

    "Well I'm going," Nora said standing up.

     "No you're not," Davis said, although he was beginning to piss her off, but she had to agree on this with him.

      "My brother and father are there, this may actually be the only chance I get at seeing my father," Nora said with a pleading voice. Chloe's heart went out to the girl then, she must be having it hard.

        "Okay, you can both come, but if I tell you to go back, you go!" Davis said pointing a finger at Chloe's face, she wondered why though. She was going to argue with him, but Nora pinched her, Chloe flinched  a little and kept mute.
  
      "Okay," Nora said.

     "You," Davis said still pointing at her.

     "Okay!"

     "Alright let's get a move on, Gage."

_______________________________

    Greg was beginning to get a little more than frustrated sitting there, all his little efforts at trying to figure a way out had proved abortive, and they had also being stupid. Ashley wasn't making things any easier, she hadn't said a word to him except I'm sorry. He was getting highly irritated. She wouldn't even spare him a glance, stingy much.

       The door opened again and the priest of doom and insanity walked in wheeling a cart, and in the cart was his father. Bravo, this guy shouldn't be underestimated. He stopped wheeling and dragged his father over the priest body, he took in a breath of relieve. He had thought he would be heartless enough to wheel the cart over the body, but turns out he still had a tiny little bit of humanity left in him.

   The psycho laid his father by Ashley's side, he wondered why, he soon got busy tying his father's hands and leg, Greg noticed that the chain he was using in tying him up had a lock, once he had locked it in place he dipped the keys into his pocket. All this he watched with a curious stare in his eyes. The psycho stood up with a fulfilled look.

       "Now all we have to do is wait for our last guest to Wake up," he said smiling broadly. It was confirmed this man was a nut job. "I should probably go prepare the tea before he wakes up." He hurriedly left the room with the cart. Greg wondered and hoped at that moment that the psycho hadn't brought him in the same fashion he brought his father.

    Greg almost laughed, if it had been a different scenario and he was watching this from a screen he would have laughed, but he couldn't, not when he was one of the cast in the great play.

     He sat there staring at Ashley, he wanted to really figure out this lady, but she was proving to be stubborn. About an hour later his father began to steer awake. And the psycho was still no where to be found. He looked at his father dressed in a grey flannel shirt and black pants trousers, he could have easily passed for a thirty something year old guy if not for his slightly gray hair that betrayed him.

     "Miss Wells," his father said immediately he woke up. "What are you doing here? What is going on?"

   And just then the door opened again, the psycho walked in with a tray in hand. This guy must be serious, there were actually four cups on the tray, there was steam coming out from the top, so clearly something hot was in those cups. Damn, a tea party was really taking place. It also seemed that he had timed himself, he always came him when his captives woke up.

     The psycho stepped further into the room, and dropped the tray of tea on the body of the dead priest, the sicko. He stood in front of his father, who was in turn looking at Ashley's father with recognition, now where did this two know themselves from?

    The two of them had a lot of difference, they could be the same age he couldn't tell, but the psycho looked younger than his father, there was no bit of gray in his dirty blond hair. He saw his father's face fill up with anger.

       "Oh Alfred Marshall, we meet again," the psycho said, folding his arms across his chest with a sly smile, what a fox. "Yes, it is I, the man whose wife and kid you stole. It is I, Hunt Wells."

    Wait a minute, Hunt Wells as in the Hunt Wells. The one his mother told him about, but the Hunt Wells she described wasn't a sick psycho. What the hell does he mean by stealing his wife and kids? Greg saw that his father's face was filled with nothing but hatred. Greg looked at Ashley and saw that she was looking at him, her face was filled with pain and guilt.

    Now he understood everything, Ashley Wells was the daughter of Hunt Wells. He could see why Ashley always had that guilty expression. She must feel guilty because her father was the reason his family had been the way it was. Greg looked at her intently feeling nothing but sorrow for her, she looked away from him with eyes down cast.

       "You have nothing to say, do you? I see that my daughter didn't tell you anything, did she?" The psycho who is now confirmed to be Hunt Wells said.

      "Your daughter?" His father asked with a hard tone staring at Ashley beside him who still had her head down.

     "Ohh yes my daughter, she can't tell you cause she is a lot like her mother, she is a conniving bitch. That was why I was more than happy to have her dead, I only need Cassandra anyway." He turned to face Ashley now, he bent down raising her chin up, "let me tell you now, your mother didn't die at childbirth like I told you...I killed her, yes I did. I poisoned her slowly, I never wanted her you see." He looked at his ugly fingers with a coy smile. "I was going to kill you also, but she pleaded with me to keep you alive, and been the merciful man that I was, I decided to grant a dying woman wish."

      By the time he was done with everything he said Ashley was looking at him with full blown hatred, Greg never thought the day would come when he would see her with such a look. She wasn't the only one who felt such hatred, he also hated the man who was supposed to be a father but ended up been a psychopath. Greg didn't understand this man, his mother said he had understood and moved on, so he had lied, the bastard.

  His father looked at the man like he would kill him, and he knew his father would if he hadn't been tied, and at that moment he wouldn't mind. Hunt Wells turned to face him with a smile, he picked up a cup of tea and raised it to his lips.

      "Cheers," he said tipping the cup.

   Chapter forty two.
Mary Aden.