Cassandra places her expensive binoculars back on her lap as she sends him a text.
[Fuck nothing on my side] Zayn, who feels the vibration of his text looks at his phone. It felt irritating to have something else in his vision which blocked the partial view of his sight.
[Don’t worry Cass be cool] He texts her back.
Cassandra gazes into her wristwatch and finds the time to be 23 minutes far from his death time. She felt pressured and incredibly sick to the stomach. The guilt of not being able to detect a clue and the feeling of failure was making her heart pound like a drum.
But she had to do this by hook or crook.
There was a small foil coated fast food which was lifted in the air by a person in the audience, far to the north. The sunlight subtly reflects on something shiny on the football ground.
Cassandra notices something sharply blinding on her eye. She furrows her eyebrows and lifts her binoculars back up. She tries to trace the little shiny object that was projecting out from the football ground.
All thanks to that person in the audience who lifts his fast food cover to cheer, Cassandra gasps as she sees the object on the football field.
“Shit.” Stuffing the binoculars into Nick’s lap, she runs back into the stadium corridors.
“Zayn!” She runs towards Zayn, having got his location as he texts her.
“There’s… there’s a fucking sprinkler between the field. I don’t feel good about it. It’s tall and sharp and-”
“Okay, I got it!” Saying, Cassandra and Zayn rush down to the control room. He supposes that the control room manager would take it down.
But as they run towards it, it was already 18 minutes closer to Alex’s tragic death.
Cassandra could feel her heart pounding out of her chest. She felt crying her heart out at the moment would help. And she does, to release the feeling in her heart through tears.
“Mister! Anyone in there!? There’s an emergency!” Zayn bangs on the door alongside Cassandra.
“Please open the door, sir! It’s an emergency!” Zayn notices her cracked voice as he pats her back gently.
“Shush… Shush… I’m happy that you’re allowed to cry.” He says to her, banging on the door again.
“Sir! It’s an emergency!” Says Zayn.
It’s already been five or so minutes since they’ve come to the control room. Zayn found it weird that the people inside weren’t responding to their calls.
“Something’s wrong here.” He felt pressured seeing the time count on its own without waiting for no one.
“Please open the door!” Cassandra yells for the last time when he says,
“I’ll go look for help, alright? Stay here.” Says Zayn as he sprints away, looking for help or the staff to unlock the door.
Meanwhile on the field, it was the time for a court change after Alex’s team made the leading 2 points.
The break period was utilized to form a plan to win effectively.
Or by cheating.
The red team’s coach calls up Douglas, a dark skinned player and the kid of a rich man.
“Douglas, I want you to do something for the team.”
“Anything, sir.” Douglas smirks. After all, the team has been winning continuously through the years with foul practices. And today’s foul practice was, “I want you to hurt the captain of their team.” The coach says to the panting guy.
“But sir-”
“I’m aware that he is a Johnson. We’ll create some drama too, in that case. But before that, I want you to kick him in the stomach. Find a chance and do it, alright?”
“But sir, I’ll be given a yellow card by the referee-”
“Micheal will take your position, in that case. Do this for your team, Douglas. We can’t let Alex Johnson be the star for tonight as well.”
Unaware of the threats that was about to unfold for Alex, the match resumes at 12:30.
As the whistle was blown, the loud cheering of the audience was heard to Cassandra who was trying to break down the door.
On the other hand, Zayn has been running through the circular connections and three floors of corridors to find no one for the past ten minutes.
“Fuck!” He texts the girl.
[2 fucking minutes!!] He texts her.
But Cassandra was busy breaking a hole in the door. She wanted to get inside by hook or crook. The possibility of someone tripping and falling against the sprinkler in the middle of the football ground was eating her up.
Her mind unwillingly begins to show her images of what could happen on the worst case scenario with the sprinkler and a player.
One minute left…
Cassandra broke into the dark room.
There was someone lying on the floor, cold and out of the seat.
She gasps, screaming in horror.
[Zayn!! Smme is ded!! Dead!!!] She texts the male.
Feeling the vibrations in his hand yet again, Zayn opens her text to read and gasp as well.
The man on the chair, in the control room has been dead for a few moments.
Cassandra was terrified to be in the same room as a dead person. She was shivering from head to toe as her vitals were going weak.
She was sweating profusely, and trying her best to read the control panel on her own.
And before she knew, her head started spinning and her eyes drooped with heaviness.
“Shit…” she mumbles, falling on the floor to catch some breath. She was conscious, but incredibly weakened by her own nerves.
Zayn was running across the whole stadium with only thought in his head.
To give a shocking announcement.
He was informed of a perfect distraction to pause the match, and hence the death of someone so close to him.
He runs all the way to the third floor, to reach a certain studio.
He’s found the clue.
And it wasn’t merely a sprinkler.
30 seconds left…
20 seconds left…
He was still running.
10 seconds left…
It was as if time was pausing for him but it was such a mirage in his brain.
As he breaks through the door, the people on the chairs swivel around as Zayn screams,
“STOP THE MATCH!!”