steps to nothing

After the call a doctor approached Myra with papers in hand. "Your boyfriend is alright just tell him to take it easy and not to do such active practices, he can go home," he finished and walked out to deal with another patient before she could tell him they weren't dating. Going back to the room, Myra told Luka the news that he can go."I would love to sleep in an apartment but can you get me some clothes first and maybe yourself as well," he said pointing to the table with his wallet. Myra agreed leaving the room as Luka prepared to hit the shower.

In the boutique,Myra finished getting the clothes and was leaving when she met with Neil. "Yeah no, my apartment is nearby, hit the showers and I'll deliver these to our guy hades," he said as he handed her the keys and took the clothes for Luka. After a shower, Myra changed into the new clothes, preparing to leave when the insistent buzzing of her phone drew her attention. Thinking it was Luka about to complain about her disappearance she ignored it, coming later to regret it. Leaving the apartment she finally checked her phone just to receive a shock with the missed call from an unknown number. "Hello," she asked as the other line finally relieved to contacted her. " Ms Cairo, I'm sorry to say your mother fell down the stairs and was rushed to the hospital with a severe concussion," the other end sided as she asked for details and her current condition before hurriedly leaving.

Neil found it hard to stay in the suffocating atmosphere where not even a word was mattered ever since his arrival. He watched the distanced Luka pack, observing the injuries on his leg. As they left the room the met with the receptionist who kept them occupied with the discharge sheets. "Deal with this, my head's fuzzy," Luka said with a smile, giving him his card and walking out. The mere commotion caused when a middle aged woman was rushed to the emergency room forced Luka to lie about his identity being Myra's boyfriend and go with the flow recognizing her mom's severe condition. "Sir you can't head in, wait out.." but it was to late since he entered the room. Machines were beeping as the medics started CPR on the woman. "The BP is dropping! Get ready," the doctor said as the charged the machine transmitted an electrical shock to her body. At that time Myra arrived in the room witnessing the heart rendering action as her mother struggled to hold on to life. Luka seeing this instantly embraced her hiding her from the scene ahead. When the heart rate returned to steady the medics quickly rushed her mother out of the room to the prepped OR. "I shouldn't have left, right,I should've stayed with her and maybe she wouldn't have fell," Myra said tears trickling down her face.Luka finding it difficult to respond held her tighter, thinking of words he would have wanted to hear when he was in a similar situation during Escarbo's last words. "Hey, she'll be fine, I'll wait with you until she's out, it wasn't your fault, no one could predict it" he said to her, his eyes still processing what he witnessed at the moment.

From a distance Neil watched the unavailing event. His teeth gritted and fist clenched he thought of what he could do to be in such a situation, embracing, reassuring Myra instead of the lucky arrogant man in front of him. At a point, Myra let go addressing the fact he had work and that she was fine staying alone requesting him to leave rather than wait. "Idiot, I have a phone, I'll do the major things online either way and your trembling that's not assuring to an old friend,is it know?" he said waving his phone in front of her face with a smile as he guided her to the waiting room. Neil seeing the situation before him, left after dropping the sheets. His smile warm but held a sorrow within it, a sense of wanting.

The two were in air slicing silence as Myra waited for the news anxiously losing her consciousness as she fell deeper in her thoughts and regrets not noticing the sudden touch of Luka who drew her attention as he placed her head on his lap excusing it to him wanting her to be in the best condition to see her mother. She complied to him not having the strength to argue and seeing a slight blush as he gazed away. Luka opened his chat to find several chats from Conner.

"Kid, isn't it weird that all this happened when you arrived?"

" Stop ignoring me, I know your discharged."

"Hey, answer me and have respect for your senior."

"Alright kid, somethings odd with the overview of the scene, can you at least decode the message,"

Conner ended the text with a drone image of the overview of the after math of the explosion. Luka had instantly recognized that the message was in some old form of Morse code and latin words. Decoding it, he sent the final message to Conner .

"Your right old man, LETS PLAY A GAME BY BUTCHER A GOOD OLD FRIEND DETECTIVE, have a criminal by that name?butcher your records,"

Conner responded with a negative. Suddenly, he got a message from a random number.

'Like my trouble' the messanger said.

'Quite petty, for butcher,'luka responded.

'Playing cool guy now, maybe slaughtering the girl would meet your expectations or your girl and not the mother,' he replied.

Luka grew stressed as he looked round understanding he was also the cause of this.

' You want answers????'Luka added.

'Smart, but I'm in for the game so will you play?'he asked.

Accepting the challenged he placed the condition that for each game he wins the plots of the man would be revealed.