THE DRAGON DESCENDANT

Charlotte's Cryptic Circle

Chapter 6 – Charlotte’s cryptic circle

Not long afterwards, it was lunch period. As it was required of him as Charlotte’s designated bodyguard, when Michael spotted her with a bunch of her friends, he took a vantage point a few tables behind them, from where he could perfectly observe. He had ordered a milkshake and three bananas for lunch, and sitting by the table alone, he looked like a forlorn hermit. However, that fact did not seem to bother him, he was here for a job, and he was headset on doing it to precision.

Watching Charlotte and her friends intently from afar, thirty minutes easily passed. During this while, he had practically memorized Charlotte’s features, her eyes lighting up when she smiled or laughed, her lips pulling to a frown. As much as he hated to admit it, Charlotte was enchantingly beautiful by multiple standards. Whenever he felt his stare prolong, he would switch sight and assess her friends instead.

From his almost unblinking eyes, anyone would have mistaken Michael for a staunch admirer, one that had no chance being with Charlotte and could only marvel from afar. Michael had also noticed that Charlotte Jenkins was not short of aficionados, every student seemed to gawk for a minute too long whenever they passed by.

His serene seclusion was interrupted when two ladies he recognized from history class made way to his position. Michael was planning to ignore them, and he did so until irksomely, they decided to sit right in front of him, consequentially blocking his view.

The one with braided brown hair, a slightly plump face with calm hazel eyes noticed Michael’s riled face and smiled, apparently amused.

“Hey” she started “Interrupting something?”

Michael first tilted his head to the side before turning his gaze back to the braided lady in front of him. Words got lost in his mouth as he faintly smiled back.

“ Hi…” he awkwardly greeted

“ You are not from around here, are you?” she followed up with another question

“ Not really” Michael replied, his eyes searching for Charlotte again, an action that seemed inelegant judging from the fact that he had to slightly sit up to observe his boss.

The lady frowned then turned her head to follow Michael’s gaze. At the same time, three more guys approached Charlotte’s table. Michael instantly became alert but then relaxed when Charlotte stood to kiss one of the guys – a handsome blonde-haired guy dressed like a movie star.

“ You’ve never seen the lady before, right?”

“ Hey” a finger was snapped in Michael’s face bringing back his attention to the table

“ I’m sorry, you asked me a question? Michael smiled

“ You poor thing” the other lady chimed, her expression amused” you are one of Charlotte’s aficionados”

She had glasses on and an elaborately coiffed blond hair. Her appearance gave Michael the impression that she was some sort of an IT geek if not an aspiring lawyer.

“ She’s never in the market man, you better set your sights somewhere else,” the braided one joined

“ No, I- I’m not really he fan,” Michael responded

“ Yeah, we can see that” she chuckled “ Where are you from anyway?”

“ An island somewhere in the Southern Pole”

Both girls were visibly astonished as they studied Michael in a new light. Clearly, they had never seen a person from the overtly remote Southern Pole, an area with a human to wildlife ration of 1 to 99. The Southern pole was widely known as uninhabitable due to its harsh climatic conditions.

“ I knew you were not from around here”

“ Can I ask you a question?” Michael asked randomly

“ Who’s that guy?” he pointed at the young handsome blonde guy sitting beside Charlotte in the most intimate way.

“Jamie Leed, son to Jason Leed”

“ Oh” Michael sighed, albeit ignorantly

“Jason Leed, one of the billionaires in the country, head of Leed Paramilitary…” the braided lady continued, not quite expecting Michael’s oblivious response

“ Wow!” the latter’s eyes slightly widened. He knew the Leed Paramilitary Organization by reputation. In addition to producing fearsome military warlords, they were widely known to have annexed a whole alien country just to prove a point that they were the strongest private military on planet earth.

“Sitting next to Charlotte is Danner Frey; she is the daughter to the mayor.”

“The University was built by her family decades ago,” the other lady added

“ The rest are sons and daughters of really important people in the country”

“ I’m Mel by the way” the lady with braided hair extended her hand, one that Michael shook gently

“ I’m Macey,” the lady with glasses said, a faint smile playing on her lips, “ her twin sister”

“ You don’t look like…”

“We are non-identical” Mel chuckled

Michael noticed Charlotte’s group preparing to leave, he stood up accordingly.

“ You are leaving already?” Macey’s tone was laced with palpable glum

“ It was nice meeting you” Michael smiled then paced away in a hurry

It was easy to spot Charlotte’s white SUV in the parking lot. However, when he got to it, a man dressed decently was just getting out through the rear door. The man noticed Michael’s presence but chose to ignore him, probably taking him for a normal student at the university. He proceeded to get back into the front seat, rummaging for a few seconds before re-emerging. He frowned when he made out Michael’s lingering company.

“What are you doing in Charlotte’s car?” Michael asked

“ None of your business, f**k off” the man threatened, slightly pulling up his coat to reveal a glock’s handle.

“ I’m not going to ask you again” Michael said calmly, only glancing at the man’s weapon for a split second

Scoffing, the man shut the door then nervously darted his eyes around. Contented that no one was watching, he made small steps towards Michael while pulling out his weapon. However, before he even got the chance to aim it, it was snatched from his hand in a split second. With eyes widened ghastly at the wrong end of the gun’s barrel, the man stumbled a step backwards. Undoubtedly, he was shocked at the surprising turn of events. He prepared to flee but Michael’s hand was fast, it was already constricting his neck and pressing him towards Charlotte’s car in a split second.

“ Start talking” Michael articulated coldly

“Y-you are not…going to...to shoot me on campus” the man struggled to say

“ Yes” Michael murmured whilst pocketing the gun.

The man was just beginning to smile but then it froze a second later. Gradually, his face was turning to a sick shade of purple, his eyes getting watery and red consecutively. Using his arms, he tried to pry off Michael’s steel right but he was not strong enough. His attempts were akin to swatting a stone with two feathers. He gave up after a short while.

“ You have approximately a minute before your lungs run out of oxygen. Then another minute before the air circulation in your brain is completely cut off. That makes it two minutes before you become a past tense”

Meanwhile, the man was gasping and flailing, making no attempt at talking. He clearly had opted to just die instead of speaking of his reasons. His movements were progressively getting weaker, and his joints limp. Michael knew that the man would die soon when he noticed his eyes slowly shutting.

Then suddenly, there was an unexpected sound of intermingled voices and footsteps from outside the parking lot.