Trapped

Chapter 1

Chapter One:

The before.

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“the sin both of

men and of angels,

was rendered possible

by the fact that

god gave us free will.”

― c.s. lewis

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“You should wear your seatbelt.” Maxwell instantly spoke as soon as Chandria started the engine.

Her little sister chortled, “I am the best driver in the world, sis.” She had claimed, beaming at Maxwell and drove away from the parking lot. There were a lot of patches of snow on the road, some pavements were even wet. Chandria took note to drive more safely as the day was nearing dusk.

Maxwell hugged her body tighter, obviously her jacket was not enough to warm her as the weather’s condition had greatly brought enough winds and ices. She turned off the aircon, seemingly unable to bear the cold weather. 

“I hate snow.” She muttered, shuddering in the cold.

Chandria laughed, as she was feeling the opposite. She was always fond of the snow ever since she was young and had always created a snow angel almost everyday whenever it was winter in Michigan.

“Oh, get used to it.” She teased knowingly that Maxwell had never gotten used to it. “Do you still need to drop by somewhere or should I just go straight to your house?” Chandria asked, lowering the volume of the radio but not fully turning it off. Just enough volume to produce a background noise for them.

Maxwell ogled over her phone, checking her schedules and lists to make sure that she did not miss anything important.

She shook her head sideways, “I should be set off to home. You can take the shortest route as possible, I am eager to nuzzle on my bed with the heater turned on. Brrr!” She announced to her sister in which they both laughed at her words.

“That sounds really nice.” Chandria commented, “And a hot brewed coffee too.” She had imagined herself cozying up on her own sofa and drinking a hot coffee to keep her warm while reading a book. The very thought of that had produced a small on her face, eager to go home also.

“Blegh!” Maxwell babbled, evidently disgusted by the mention of coffee. Something that had never sat well with her taste buds. “I’d rather drink a hot chocolate than one of your bitter waters.”

“Hot chocolate is too sweet, sis! Coffee is just perfect.” Chandria pressed, wanting to tease her sister more.

“You do you, Chandy.” She intonated, albeit annoyed, she had snickered.

While Chandria was busy driving and there was a moment of silence that had engulfed the car despite the radio’s music resonating; the fatigue began to consume their bodies, earning a yawn from Chandria.

Maxwell glanced at her little sister, she contemplated asking her about something but Chandria was quick to notice her sister by her peripheral vision.

“Spill it.” Chandria demanded, quickly peering over Maxwell for eye contact, quickly focusing on the road.

“What do you think about granddad choosing you as an heir of Luciano Corporation?” Maxwell’s voice was mellow as she had questioned her sister.

There was a long pause from Chandria, she was taking her time as she thought of an answer, but the question had caught her off guard. It did not occur to her about that thought. Despite that thought circulating inside the company, Chandria had never quite taken too much time thinking about such a thing.

As she was content with what she has now.

Sure it was not bad to aim for a higher position in the corporation but Chandria is young, and she knows that she still has a long way to go to be skilled for that title.

“What’s with the sudden question?” She inquired in a high pitch tone, something that would imply that she’s feeling nervous. “That is still out of the book.”

Maxwell frowned even though she knew that Chandria could not see her expressions right now. “You did not answer my question.”

“Sis, granddad is not currently looking for an heir. If he is, of course he will pass it to mom.” Chandria explained, not wanting to answer the question.

“You know mom is not interested in this field, she’d rather bake than talk about the company.” Maxwell informed her.

Chandria laughed, remembering her mom’s reaction whenever they would talk about the field she specializes in. Of course, their mom would be foreign to the system that the firm is handling and it would only cause her stress if she was the one to handle such a corporation.

“Then it would be you.” Chandria quickly injected. “You are older than me and much skilled than me. Why ask me that question?”

“You know that granddad favors you more, right?” Maxwell replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

The two had always been honest with each other. Something that had made their bond stronger. Whenever there were things bothering them, it was easy for them to tell it to one another. As they had been willing to give advice and share their perspective pertaining to some issues in life or work matters.

Chandria was not having any more of the conversation as it was starting to make her feel uncomfortable. However, Maxwell still wants to talk about it, pressing in for more words from Chandria’s mouth.

“Come on, kiddo.” Maxwell cooed, tugging Chandria’s arm gently. “Tell me your thoughts about it.” She pushed, not minding Chandria’s discomforts.

Without much of a choice, Chandria exhaled and then began to speak. She knows that Maxwell is not going to drop it, so she might as well just answer her question and be done with it.

“Hmm, if granddad chooses me to become an heir of Luciano Corporation… of course it would be an honor. Despite loving my current work, I still think about managing my own business.” She implied, honestly. “Moreover, I think that Luciano Corporation would be a perfect company for me to eventually inherit. Since, my skills and my passion are aligned with the field of the industry. If I get to be the heir, I’ll do my best to better the company.” She added enthusiastically.

Chandria quickly took a glance at her older sister who was just listening intently to her words, a soft smirk latched to her lips, so she continued as she focused back on the icy road.

“But I think that I am not that skilled enough to manage such business. There are still a lot of aspects that I lack and there are tons of skills that I still need to learn. Plus, I am not mature enough for such affairs.” Chandria confessed, her worries and weakness showing just by what she had said.

Maxwell can easily tell if her sister is bothered or not. Even though she was the one who had opened up the topic, hearing this side of her sister somewhat had caused her to be amused and disheartened. She knew that Chandria had lots of potential. Which is why, most of the board of directors and employees have compared the both of them. Both are excellent in their own field. They have a lot to offer for the company to flourish more.

Maxwell had her own sets of self-doubts every once in a while, but between the two of them; Chandria was the one who was always getting carried away by her emotions.

“Hey,” Maxwell muttered softly, as she had suddenly got concerned for her younger sister’s well being. “You are mature enough to handle such things. You even made it to the final project proposal, which not everyone can do. Halfway the presentations, the panels decided to halt the meetings. Earlier, everyone was so invested and interested while you were presenting. You’d be an amazing Chief Executive Officer someday.”

The words had comforted Chandria as Maxwell had soothed her sister. She had reached a hand over to Chandria’s hands, holding it delicately. An affection that Maxwell had always offered to her little sister ever since they were young and it had always calmed Chandria.

Just when Chandria was to offer a small smile to her older sister’s direction, Maxwell’s eyes caught a glimpse of a fast moving truck from the east side onto their direction, just before it had plowed straight into the driver side with such immense impact.

It all had happened too fast, in just a quick blink of an eye; but in that very moment the Quinn sisters have seemed to experience every millisecond of it. Heightening their senses as soon as the truck collided on Chandria’s car and it had swerved from the impact of the collision.

It dented off the doors, the chassis flipped and bounced across the icy road and had ripped the engine apart as if it had always been that fragile. It tossed wheels and metal scraped onto the road. There were tiny flames lap at the wet road as it had ignited bits of the gas tank. Both were aware of the noises the car was emitting as they had been flown, far away that they had both struggled. The grinding, clacking, exploding, and scraping of hard metal on the wet pavement. Then it went quiet, except for the music that resonated from the car’s radio. Miraculously, the radio was somehow still attached to a battery and then the music was the only thing that they could hear.

Chandria blinked, and noticed that she had been thrown out of the car from the impact of the collision and was now laying on a cold icy wet pavement, prompted on her stomach. She had raised her head slowly, as she had felt her veins aching from the very slight action, she looked around and saw her car just meters away from her body.

She tried moving her hands to support herself, but she could not feel her left arm and when she was about to stand up using her feet; only she noticed the fracture on her right leg. A bone was sticking out of the flesh, red blood gushing from the injury. Chandria had released a loud gasp then screamed in agony at the sight that she had seen.

Despite the pain she was feeling and blood dripping from her forehead, she tried her best to crawl towards her car.

To look for her sister and to help her despite her own situation.

The car had flipped upside down and Chandria could see her sister’s unconscious body, still strapped on the seatbelt. Now, she had remembered how her older sister reminded her to put her seatbelt on earlier.

If only she had listened to her.

Just a few crawls and Chandria could not make her body move anymore as the excruciating pain had consumed her body.

Then everything went black.