“Where did he go? Ezekiel! Where did that little snake go?” I hissed, seeing the bloody mess that was left behind in the basement. My twin shrugged and went back to eating his sandwich. “Useless.”
Looking at the footsteps that had been left behind, the person, or people, who had stolen Maverick were wearing Doc Martens and Air Force 1’s. Size five female and size seven male. That didn’t help much.
Walking up the iron steps that desperately needed help, I remembered the files I had hacked into from the Zomji database. Using the height of each person, I could figure out what shoe size they had.
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After scanning over each file for 30 minutes each, I came to the conclusion that Austin van Husen and Giselle Silva had come to my hostage’s rescue. From the condition we’d left him in, he’d be out like a light for a few hours and then high as a kite. We drugged him, yes. Purposely.
“Ezekiel! Come here! We need to formulate a plan!” My brother wouldn’t be up in my office for a good 5 minutes, so best to warn him beforehand.
“Coming,” He wasn’t coming.
Setting up a whiteboard and notes on my laptop while I waited for him was the best way to use my time. My twin and I were the complete opposites of each other. We shared a few things in common like appearance (not gender), strong jaws and auburn hair, athleticism and intelligence. Shocking, Ezekiel was actually smart when he needed to be.
“Here I am, in all my sexy glory.” He announced, flexing his arms.
“No need to impress me. Maybe try that trick on Nova.” I snorted and he flushed pink and shut up. I patted the seat next to me and he took it happily.
“We need to lure him in, maybe trick him, scare him into doing what we want, or giving us the information we require without him knowing it.”
“Dating apps.”
“What do you mean by ‘dating apps’?”
“I mean you go and catfish him, pretend to be someone else. Nova is good at makeup, right? She can just like, contour or whatever you girls do. Change your nose shape and crap.” Ezekiel suggested. It was actually a good idea.
“Well he might not be single.”
“He is.”
“...How-How do you know that?”
“Professional catfish, right here.” He flexed his muscles again and I sighed.
“Do you do this all day?”
“Positive.”
“God, my brothers a weirdo!” I pinched the bridge of my nose, disgusted. “Let’s do it.”
“Oh goody.” Ezekiel smiled and got my phone from his pocket.
“WHY-” His fingers flew to my lips and I shut up as he downloaded the app for me. After waiting for what felt like an eternity, it was done and my phone was shoved back into my hands, bright colours flashing in front of my face.
“What. The. Hell.” I was stunned into oblivion like a Victorian child being shown the electronics of our years. It was all so tacky and just fugly.
“Make a profile and I’ll take pictures for it.” My brother explained like I was an idiot. I think I was at this point
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“Done.” My twin announced and I almost squealed with joy. After 3 whole hours of picture taking and name making, I was done.
“What do I do now?” I was genuinely curious about what to do from now on, for some weird reason.
“Match with him? You’re under a fake name so he won’t know it’s you unless you tell him. I wouldn’t recommend doing that until he trusts you fully. Plus, considering the violent torture approach didn’t work, this still might not work.” Since when was Ezekiel a dating expert? I nodded slightly and began swiping left on most people. Most were men in their early 30's, fish in hand. I was allergic to fish. No going near fish hands.
His name popped up on my 6th left flick. He was rather picturesque in the gallery of photos his profile gave. I swiped right and that was that for the evening.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
My phone buzzed the slightest and I found one of those fish men tried to match with me. I dismissed it and felt my phone buzz once again. This time, the man I’d selected had chosen me and a malicious grin spread across my face.
“WHAT DO I TEXT HIM?” I asked my brother from my office. I heard him walk up the stairs then felt his presence next to me, yanking my phone from my hands.
“Don’t. DO NOT. Give him one of those pick-up lines you use on Nova.” My tone was full of threats despite not speaking them aloud.
“Done!” Ezekiel exclaimed, handing my phone over to me and I scanned over the text he sent.
Ner14h09: Hey cutie, wanna go out with me? Xoxo
I stared at the text and sighed. It was better than ‘did your father steal the stars and put them in your eyes?’ or ‘if you were a fruit, you’d be a fine apple’.
“Gee, Ez, you really outdid yourself this time.” I mumbled sarcastically, his snickers pissing me off. My phone vibrated and I saw a reply from Maverick.
MKxx: I’m free any day of the week, hbu?
Ner14h09: How does Friday sound?
MKxx: Perfect. What time and where?
Ner14h09: Biscotti Cafe at 3pm?
MKxx: Sounds good, see you then.
Ezekiel smirked over my shoulder and down at my phone, seemingly proud of himself for doing absolutely nothing.
“Is that all I had to do?” I asked without looking him in the eye, still glued to my phone.
“Now let’s go find something for you to wear.” Ezekiel spoke, tone flat as he left my office and headed towards my room.
“Can’t I just wear what I usually wear?”
“All black? No way. He’ll get suspicious.”
“Fine. I have a style you know.”
“Which is all black. You haven’t worn anything colourful since you were twenty.”
“It was only 5 years ago, I’ll be fine.”
“Do you know the trends?”
“No.”
“You will not be fine.”
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I saw my new outfit in the mirror of a changing room, baggy jeans and a black graphic t-shirt. Ezekiel had said earlier, “Oh, you have enough black boots at home and plenty of belts that will match.” I had let out a sigh of relief so we could get out of the mall and I could go back home and just relax for once.
“Neriah!” I was brought back to the present and the changing room when Ezzy called out my name.
“What?” Was my response as I changed back into my normal clothes.
“You done gawking at yourself in there? We need to go buy some accessories for you!”
“I thought we were going home?”
“Fine.”
“YES!” I let out a squeal of delight and went up to the register to pay for my stuff.
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