Week 413 – Cyber Team Prequel 4

Time passed without Josiah even realising it.

It had been six years now since his team were killed, since he came to work for Prey. Despite the years that had passed it still felt like yesterday. Still hurt like it was yesterday.

The more he cut himself off from the people around him the easier it became to do. The endless calls and texts that went unanswered and unread from his brothers and parents got easier to ignore. The distance between him and his colleagues seemed to grow with each passing day.

There was only one thing keeping him tethered to the world in any sort of emotional sense, was one he would never admit out loud. Didn’t admit even to himself except in his weakest moments when nightmares came for him in the rare moments he slept deep enough to dream. When he relived the worst moments of his life there was one face that flittered through his mind.

Fingers flying over the keyboard, Josiah did what he always did and immersed himself in his work. It gave him a purpose, made it feel as though he were honouring his fallen teammates, gave him something to focus on when the darkness threatened to drag him down and smother him.

When the phone beside him rang, he blinked, realising the room had grown dark and everyone else had gone for the day.

It was Chelsea’s name on the screen. His pretty kryptonite had no idea that she affected him, but no matter how short and curt he was with her she continued to shine warmth and light onto him.

Normally he wouldn’t answer, they were colleagues not friends, and they didn’t converse unless it was necessary for a case they were gathering intel on for Prey.

But something urged him to pick up his cell phone, so he snatched it up and accepted the call.

“Yeah?”

“Josiah, somethings wrong,” Chelsea’s worried voice immediately came down the line and with it a barrage of images hit his mind. All the things that could have happened to Chelsea in the couple of hours since she’d left work.

“What?” he demanded, ready to do whatever it took to fix the problem, slay whatever demons need destroying.

“Its Ava. She never came home. It’s late, she wouldn’t just not call if she could, and she’s not answering our calls. Teresa and I are worried, something has happened to her, I know it has.”