Officially Orphaned [Chronos]

These were the times when Raun wished he had pursued his research in teleportation. He was several miles away from the Forbes estate when he heard his phone ring. When he saw it was Tina who was calling him, he sighed heavily and rolled his eyes before picking it up. “How many times do I have to tell them I’m not interested?!” he would mutter in a tired tone. He thought it was Gregory Forbes trying to recruit him to do his shady research, again. Shocked, is an understatement, when he processed what Tina’s sombre voice informed. “Gregor-What?! How?” he asked, flabbergasted. Apparently, it was a heart attack; but for some reason, Raun had a really hard time believing that.

Raun arrived at Milan about a month ago, when he received a mail from Jeff, saying there is an opportunity at Forbes Enterprises in the engineering wing. At first, he was very excited about it because he was tired of bartending and throwing darts. However, when he met Gregory Forbes, who debriefed him on his job description, he declined the offer.

To put it bluntly, Raun was not a fan of Gregory. He disliked how ruthless he was in his business and questioned the ethics of the researches he conducted. He was very open about this to both Gregory and Jeff. While the former couldn’t understand his unwillingness to join, the latter did. Nevertheless, there was a part of him that respected the man. Gregory sailed the rough seas of business and brought back Forbes Enterprises to its former glory with nothing but determination and hard work. In addition, he was the only family his best friend had. His death was a colossal disaster.

Driving into the city as fast as he could, Raun couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the timing of Gregory’s death. Of course, he had been receiving mails and calls from Tina and Gregory, asking him to join as the Chief Scientist of their lab since the day of his arrival; but they have been oddly persistent lately. Furthermore, the last time Greg contacted Raun, he hinted about a special project that would change the world completely. The man always had such big ambitions; so, Raun didn’t think much of it. But now…

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the cars behind him honk incessantly. He had stopped at a signal and hasn’t moved even after it changed to green. Shaking his head, he put his foot on the pedal and veered away.

No matter how hard he tried to shake away the feeling that this was not a natural death, he couldn’t. Greg had many enemies, who had even more reasons to want him dead. Furthermore, he instinctively felt that this was somehow linked to the project Greg referred to when he spoke last time. This is really odd because Raun never felt anything instinctively like this. He was more the deducing type. Blaming the shock for his befuddlement, he drove the rest of the way with blaring music to drown out his thoughts.

By the time Raun reached the Forbes estate, it was almost noon and the clouds have cleared up. He parked in an empty spot and jogged into the mansion. An unfamiliar butler took his coat. “Who are you? I haven’t seen you before,” Raun inquired in a rather rude and suspicious tone. “I was appointed only yesterday, Sir. The old butler passed away a week ago,” the butler responded without meeting his eyes. Raun nodded thoughtfully, finding it odd that the butler had not told him his name and that he did not meet his eyes. “A new butler arrives and the master is dead the next day. Not a good start for your career, is it?” he would say and walk in without waiting for a response.

Looking around, he didn’t find Jeff anywhere. The hallway is crowded with men in black suits and all of them looked at him weirdly because he was wearing a casual T-shirt and a jean. He didn’t have the time to change; heck, he didn’t have the time to buy flowers on his way. Finding Tina amidst a group of suit-wearing gentlemen, he sighed and made his way through the crowd. The polite gentlemen and ladies around him were taken aback by his impolite intrusion. Raun didn’t even look like he acknowledged their presence. “Where’s Jeff?” he breathed. “Upstairs. With the rest,” she replied. Without uttering another word, he ran up the stairs and towards Jeff’s room.

Raun knocked the door twice and entered; he never waited for Jeff’s response. Seeing Raun come in, Jeff looked up at him with an empty expression. Empty to the spectators, but not Raun. No words were needed. He knew exactly how his friend felt and he was angry that he couldn’t do anything to revert what had happened.