The Fledge Effect Read Online Free Page B

on her desk. She
coughed, making him jump. He dropped to the
ground. “Oh, I was just, um. I don’t know.
Please don’t fire me.”
“I don’t have time to replace you. You’re
fine.”
Really? He couldn’t believe how much
easier going she is being. Nevertheless, he didn’t
question it. He just enjoyed not feeling like he
had to preform aerobics on eggshells.
“Did you check my paperwork?” She
knew he had not, but decided to ask either way.
“No.”
His honesty struck her as suspicious. In
a field where everyone lies, it threw her off. She
nodded. “Okay. I’m sure you weren’t thinking
this was fun.”
“No, not really.”
“Well, I have some rules: Don’t ask me
questions about where I go, or what I do. And
don’t look in my drawers,” she said eyeing her
half open top drawer.
He chuckled nervously, as he rested his
elbow on her desk. He tried to be discreet when
he shut it, but she wasn’t blind to that fact. She
was well aware of how nosey people can be.
“Anymore rules?” he said, giving her
chair back. She rested her buttocks in the warm
seat.
She tapped her fingers together. “Yes.
Don’t get too involved in this job.”
He didn’t know exactly what she meant.
This job required involvement, but he figured
she was talking about personal relationships between coworkers. “No worries there,” he said as
he chuckled.
“Good.”

Chapter 3
Marcel rubbed his head to ease the pain.
    Lifting his torso, he searched the room
for Calista. Wincing, as his head throbbed, he
rustled the scattered papers and searched for
his phone.
    After finding it, he chuckled sarcastically. “I’m going to find you. Just like when
you were a sneaky teenager.”
    The tracker, he installed on her phone
when she was a teenager, gave him directions to
where she was headed. “Dammit.”
    He pounded his fist against the steel
legs of his desk. Pulling himself up from the
mess, he wobbled towards the glass medicine
cabinet above the sink. He retrieved a bottle of
sedative, and a syringe.
    His fingers fumbled, holding it upside
down, as he attempted to insert the needle. The
glass shattered inside the metal sink.
    He yelled. “Fuck,” he said, and then he
reached for another bottle. “One last chance.”
Marcel filled the tube with the sedative,
holding his grip stronger than before. He
dropped the empty vial in the sink, and it broke
alongside its similar counterpart. He placed a
cap over the tip, and slipped the syringe inside
his lab coat pocket.
He left the institution, bracing the brisk
October air. As he trekked down the road, the
essence of putrid blood filled the air. His phone
ensured the direction he was headed down.
A misshapen black lump sit in the middle of the pavement. He narrowed his eyes, as
he approached it with hesitation. The caution in
his steps began to tremble when he realized
what he was staring at.
Three bodies with each of their faces
frozen in complex and bloody states. Marcel
brought his shivering hand to his lips. The air
worsened the shaking his body involuntarily
succumbed to. “Oh God!”
“Ahhh!”
The wail of a man caught the attention
of his ear. He followed the sound to an open
window three stories high on an apartment
complex. The man screamed again, this time initiating Marcel’s instincts to bolt up the concrete
steps. He shoved the door open, and followed
the steps towards the third floor.
There was a cluster of doors along the
walls, leading down to a window. He ran up to
it, popping it open. He checked both sides,
searching for the open window.
Both were closed.
He spun on his heels and faced the opposite end of the hall. With his heart galloping
like a racehorse, he heard a woman’s laughter
coming from the last door on the left. Calista ,
he thought.
Marcel forcefully opened the door,
causing a loud bang against the adjoining wall.
In a daze, Nick heard a man holler the last part
of what he could hear through the pounding of
his heart. “… You can’t