Table of Contents

1. The Made-up Reality

2. The Revival of the Past

3. The Party

4. The Unknown

5. The Missing Link

6. The Secret Investigation

7. The Deeper Trench

8. Not a Fairy Tale

9. Smile Through the Gloom

10. The Uncomfortable Truth

11. The Forlorn Archives

12. The Shattered Cottagecore

13. The Crossroad

14. The Fourth Wall

15. The Unseen

16. The Party 2.0

17. Who's Lying?

18. The Unheard

19. The Boogeyman

20. The Reveal

21. The Past Wound

22. The Destroyed Magic Land

23. The Endgame

 

The Made-up Reality

 

"I just hope not all of them will show up today. It's been too tiring at Uni." Oriana yawns as she puts her backpack on the chair.

 

"I don't know, I have a hunch there'll be more than usual." Alvis grins.

He looks extremely handsome when he smiles, maybe because that's the only time when the usual gloomy air about him clears out a bit. Nobody else finds him gloomy but to Oriana, gloomy is the only word that can

describe him perfectly.

 

"Yeah, thanks for the reassurance!" Oriana groans.

"Come on, now! It's not gonna be that bad. You always manage to survive." winking at her, Alvis leaves the room to bring in the folders.

"Good afternoon, Miss." the most atrociously energy-sucking twins enter the classroom with huge grins glued to their faces that seem to give out the premonition: we are gonna make it a burning hell for you all!

"Afternoon! How're you guys doing today?" Oriana forces a smile. "Awesome" again, in unison.

 

Oriana inhales deeply to prepare herself for the two hours ahead when she spots a group of giggling brats entering the room. Yeah, so much for hoping to see less of them.

 

"Hey Alvis, what's up?" Leilani pumps her brows at Alvis who is hurriedly picking up a bunch of folders from the front table.

"Hey! getting by, I guess. How's it going for you?"

"Awesome! Started writing another novel yesterday."

"O yeah? That's cool, at least you don't have any assignment or exam to think about. Man, that anxiety is real pain in the ass."

"Yeah, agreed. But again, you can always choose to worry less." Leilani shrugs with a half smile.

"Easy for an optimist like you to say, I guess." Alvis grins, "Anyway, gotta get back there. Oriana must be devastated to see all her students in that room safe and sound." he chuckles.

"Yeah, sure. See you later."

 

"Do you not find it weird how you always show genuine interest in his life but he never cares much about yours?" Fabian asks in his usual

monotonous voice.

"You talking about Alvis?" "yes."

"Well, he's an overthinking anxious person. I don't mind that." "Interesting!"

"What's so interesting about this?" Leilani cocks her head.

"The way you let him unburden his worries and whining about how hard Dentistry is and still be okay if you cannot do the same with him." Fabian doesn't wait for her reply as he proceeds to start the class.

Now, this guy! he is the weird one out, and I'm afraid he would never understand that in this life. Leilani does an inner eye-roll before joining him.

 

"Want a coffee? I'm going to the Starbucks." Ilona flicks her hair while a hint of a smile hovers over her lips.

Nevan looks up from his phone, "No, thanks. I'm okay." "You sure?"

"Yeah!" giving a tight-lipped smile, he shifts his attention back to his phone.

"I have no idea what is his problem? Am I not clear enough about my interest in him or what?" Ilona lets out a frustrated huff.

 

Leilani keeps marking the test papers as the students are enjoying their breaktime with their constant screaming, laughing at so not funny jokes and running around like crazy.

"He clearly wants to ignore you. Maybe it's time you take a hint and move on." Fabian interjects.

"What? well, thanks for your unsolicited advice. I was not talking to you if you failed to notice that. I was talking to Leila." Ilona rolls her eyes.

"I know but I'm sure Leilani has no idea about situations when someone is ignored by someone else." he shrugs.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Leilani quirks her brow.

"Come on! I don't have whole day to explain who is ignoring whom at this tuition center." Fabian's expression is ever undisturbed.

"Then you must know me and Leila choose to ignore YOUR existence with every iota of our energy." Ilona stuffs her hands in her pockets and smirks.

"I'm pretty well-aware of that and that's why, I never initiate any conversation with you guys."

"Still you never stop to offer your priceless pieces of wisdom. How kind!"

"Enough, Ilona! Don't mind him, we all know he's a bit weird." Leilani lowers her voice.

"Like how does Oriana think this guy is cool? It's crazy!" Ilona dramatically puts her coffee cup on the table.

"She does?"

"Yeah!"

"Woah! I never thought she'd think any guy would be cool!"

"Why not? Is she lesbian?" Ilona's eyes sparkle at the hint of a potential gossip.

"Ah, come on! No, nothing like that. It's just, she never showed any explicit interest in any guy."

"So, that might mean she is..."

"Ilona, break's over. We need to sort the exercise papers for the next hour." Nevan's voice cuts her short.

"Um, yeah sure. I'm coming."

"Why does he look so handsome, like literally everyday?" Ilona whispers at Leilani before leaving.

Leilani smiles in reply.

 

Fifteen minutes before the home-time, Oriana hysterically runs to the front room letting out heavy breaths, "Guys! Where is the first-aid kit?"

"Woah! What happened? Everything alright?" Leilani looks worried. "Jason just slashed his arm with that stupid superhero ruler that hideous

twins brought in."

"Ugh! that twins! You should really talk to Mr. Landon about cancelling their admissions from here. They've successfully passed the level of being harmlessly annoying. I wouldn't be surprised if murder is the next word on the 6 year-old evils' it list."

Oriana breathes quickly, "Already talked, but you know how it is.

Albert Landon loves money more than other kids' safety. Anyway, Fabian, please pass me the first-aid kit."

"Here you go, Miss. Need any help?" Fabian sounds awfully civil and tuned-down when he talks to Oriana.

"No, thanks. I got it...I mean, we got it. Alvis is there."

 

Leilani shakes her head and mumbles indistinctly to herself. A series of screaming and consoling followed coming from the primary classroom as Alvis and Oriana must've tried to handle that arm slashing incident. Leilani silently comprehends her new ideas to incorporate into her novel. Should

she write about the painfully absurd love triangle that is going on here? She wonders what would Ilona's reaction be if she knew Nevan is not interested in her wooing rituals only because he has hots for someone else here. She

smiles at the thought of writing the reality in the shadow of made-up characters. Fabian quirks his brows at her, "Why do you smile to yourself?"

"Because, I don't need anyone else to make me smile, Mr. Know-it-all." She replies without being bothered, still the smile hanging from the corner of her lips.

The Revival of the Past

"Hey, Oriana! You alright? I saw you going back and forth a lot today.

Sorry, couldn't offer to help as the class was packed."

Nevan folds the sleeves of his shirt as both of them walk down the road towards the tube station. Leilani eyes them with a hard expression on her face. Oriana cannot quite read it when she waves at her. Leilani goes back to her usual smiley self and waves back. Nevan really is the most handsome one in the tuition center, without any doubt. Alvis looks good when he

smiles and Fabian has really pretty eyes and a good height but this guy, right here, has all of these and more. It's simply hard not to do a double take if anyone sees him even in the middle of a road.

"Ah, hey! Yeah, I'm alright. It's just you know, information-packed

classes followed by the evil twins. Nothing serious." Oriana smiles wryly. "Woah! Those notorious evil things. Why don't you just kick them out

of the class?"

"Did once, the scene Albert Landon created afterwards was not an ideal one that I risk to see again."

"That asshole." Nevan half-smiles.

"Why do you call him that? You're his favorite. I never saw him raise his voice at you."

"Ah come on! That's because you joined recently. He was just the same with me when I was a rookie here."

"Huh? When did you join?"

"When I was in college."

"Woah! that means....um..."

"I'm in third year now and that means I've been around for three and a half year." He smiles.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know."

"Of course, that's because we never really talked that much except for hey, you good?"

"Yeah, you're right." She chuckles, "anyway, what are you studying?" "Electrical Engineering."

"That's cool. Which Uni?" "Queen Marry."

"Nice one!"

"And you're an international student, doing her master's in Cognitive Science."

"Woah! Yeah, how do you know?"

"You know, you can be conversing less than necessary with someone but still be interested to know about them." a ghost of a smile quirks up his lower lip as he makes his way to the nearby bus station. "See you

tomorrow."

"Yeah, right! See you." Oriana pulls a confusing face while trying to smile a bit. she always knew Ilona and Nevan are a thing and never in million years, thought of stirring a guy like Nevan's interest in any way.

Well, she needs to focus on more important stuff of her life than wondering about some junior's interest. Just before stepping in the tube station, her

phone rings.

"Hello?"

"He's out, Ori."

"Who's out?" Wait...you're not talking about..."

"That's exactly what I am talking about. He's out of the jail and guess what..."

"I'm done guessing, Aurora. Just rip it off like a band-aid." "He's in London now, that's what I heard."

"Son of a bitch..." Oriana mutters as her head does a slow spin. "Ori, you there?"

"I cannot just leave everything now. I have a life here...a Master's to complete...job to look after."

"I know, and I was not trying to ask you to leave. Just be careful." "Will do. Who told you that?"

"You know the guys who have connections with that monster's family." "You sure we should trust them?"

"If trusting them can save your life. Then yes, I'd say we should trust them and you should be more careful. Please?"

"I will be careful, Aurora! No worries."

"And you know, sometimes calling me wouldn't really hurt you. I know, I know, you prefer texting but I miss your voice, sis!"

Oriana smiles, "I miss yours more and sure, I'll call you more often now."

"Atta girl! Take care, Ori!" "Take care! Bye!"

Leilani thinks through what Fabian told her about Alvis the other day as she sets her coffee cup beside the laptop. She knows very well Alvis doesn't have any interest in her but she hates her stupid heart for doing a back flip every time that guy comes within her line of sight. With Nevan, things are hell complicated but with Alvis, things seem so fresh and meant to be.

In the middle of her fantasy ride, she receives a text from Ilona reminding her of her birthday party tomorrow. Leilani inaudibly groans as she has no idea what gift to get for a girl like Ilona. She quickly thumbs a text to Oriana.

"Hey, coming to Ilona's party tomorrow?"

After a minute her reply shows, "Yeah, I guess though I don't really know her that much."

"No worries, she doesn't bite, lol."

"Lol, u coming, right?"

"Yeah...well, I was wondering what should I get her?" "Um...thought u would know better as she's closer to u than me." Leilani bites on her lower lip, "Ya, u r right. I'll see what I can get." "Haha, ok. See u tomorrow?"

"Yah, see u."

She starts to write her second chapter unconsciously describing the male lead exactly like Alvis, imagination defies the need to be realistic anyway...

The Party

Ilona wakes up really early today as she has to throw an insta-posts and social media gossip worthy party. She spends almost two hours to choose which outfit to wear as she made sure, NEVAN will be there. She needs to turn that grumpy face to smiley, sparkly, and flirtatious expressions whenever he sees her. She calls the bakery, restaurant and her makeup artist to make sure everything will happen as she plans. She quickly checks her guest list to see if anyone was missing and if anyone else should be there to be jealous of her party.

"Ilona! You up already?" her sister, Solar calls out from the corridor. "Duh! of course I'm up. It's my birthday today, Yay!" she squeaks.

"Yeah, well no, your birthday is the day after tomorrow but you're having the party today so that Nevan can attend."

"Yeah, whatever."

Solar chortles in reply, "Anyway, did you invite all of your colleagues?" "Yeah, well I didn't wanna invite that weirdo, Fabian and that goodie-

two-shoes, Oriana. But, Leilani insisted and also I thought nobody would

care about those two outcasts anyway." She flicks her bleached blonde hair to the other side of her shoulder.

"Let's not be too mean, come on!"

"Yeah, sure." She does a classic eye-roll at her sister. "I think Axel might not make it today."

"No, he will."

"What? How do you know?" Solar quirks her brow.

"Um...I mean, come on! Make him cancel other plans, it's MY party after all." Ilona clears her throat.

"Well, I can tell him but if he really has works to do, then you can ask for the gift on your real birthday, maybe?" Solar shrugs before leaving.

"Well, that was close." Ilona mutters to herself.

Oriana feels a bit uneasy as she steps in the house filled with laughter,

glass clinking, twinkling lights and music. Her eyes search for a known face like Leilani or Fabian, or maybe Alvis amidst the human ocean of a crowd in the living room.

"Hey, Oriana!" a voice calls out from behind.

She turns around to find an awfully handsome face smiling at her, Nevan.

"Oh hey, Nevan. How're you?"

"I'm alright, you good?" he needs to raise his voice a tad bit to convey his question over the loud music.

"Yeah, I guess." she shrugs. "Want a drink?"

"No, I don't drink, thanks." she gives him a tight-lipped smile, "Do you know if Leilani is here? And where is Ilona?"

"Um...they might be upstairs. I'm not sure about Leila..ni. Haven't seen her yet."

"O yeah? You haven't seen the birthday girl yet?"

"Nope! Will try not to as long as I can." He purses his lips. "Okay?" Oriana makes a confused face.

"It's nothing, just she seems a bit much sometimes, that's all." a smile crawls on his lips.

"Okay, sure. Do whatever feels right." she nervously grins, "Anyway, I'm going to meet the girls...upstairs you said?"

"Yeah!"

"Okay, thanks. See you around later." She makes her way through the crowd to the staircase.

Nevan lets out a sigh before joining the others in the living room.

"Hey Ilona, happy birthday to you." Oriana smiles at the glittering beauty before her who's wearing a turquoise sweetheart neck, backless dress with her blonde ringlets flowing like a Disney princess.

Ilona's blood-red tinted lips quirks upwards to give a smile as she takes the carefully and neatly wrapped box from Oriana,

"Thanks! I'm glad you made it."

"My pleasure! Did you happen to see Leilani by any chance?"

"Leila? Not really, I haven't. I remember seeing someone looking eerily like her though. But I'm pretty sure that's not Leila. You know, this one looked more gothic and kinda gave off the Wednesday Addams vibe."

"Wednesday...wait, so she has a twin? Or maybe a sister at least?" "Not that I know of...maybe some random doppelgänger. I can't wait to

show Leila her own doppelganger! Woah, that's gonna be sick." Ilona

smirks.

"So, you have a guest in YOUR party that you don't know?" Oriana cannot piece the puzzle together.

"Ah, girl! You kidding me? Of course, I don't know all of them. Look.." she waves at the living room, "You think I know literally ALL of them?"

She chuckles.

"So you don't..."

"No, and that's what parties are about...knowing new people." A similarly dressed-up Barbie comes along and tugs at Ilona's arm, "Girl,

they're literally waiting for, like, thousand years for you to do the shots."

"Uh, right! So, Oriana, enjoy yourself, yeah?" Ilona steps out of the view.

"Yeah, sure." Oriana nods knowing full-well how much she hates

parties like this. She wanders about a bit trying to take in the vibe, colors, and loud music constantly throbbing against her head. A series of

flashbacks hits her at once as she tries to blink off the neon lights dancing around her. Her breathing becomes rapid and labored, "You will love this, sweetheart. Just relax"... a monstrous voice keeps echoing in her ears making her head swim with all the unwanted memories. Her palm start to sweat as her eyes feel droopy. She swallows hard trying not to faint...not in a party like this...not again.

"Oriana...Oriana?" A distant voice catches her auditory sense, jerking her back to reality...still her head keeps throbbing with each passing feeling that has been paralyzing her since...

"Hey, Oriana?" Leilani shakes her by her shoulder. "Huh! Hey, I- Leilani? So you came after all?"

"Yeah, sorry I had to help my sister with her house chores a bit. What happened? You alright?" Leilani looks concerned.

"Yeah, well. Nothing. Maybe I need some fresh air." "Aha! Not a party-animal, I see?"

"Not at all." Oriana nervously chuckles.

"Yeah, sure! Come on, I can use some fresh air myself." Oriana looks at Leilani's face, it looks...scared? anxious? guilty? she cannot quite read it.

"Yeah, let's go. But you sure YOU'RE okay?" Oriana quirks her brow. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be ok? I might not a big anti party-animal like

you, but I get by." she winks playfully.

"If you say so."

"Hey, Leilani! Wanna grab a drink?" Alvis grins showing off a deep dimple on his cheek.

Oriana smiles at Leilani, "No worries, go grab a drink. I'll be fine breathing fresh air by myself."

"Sure?"

"One hundred percent."

Leilani follows Alvis as her heart does that usual, stupid, slow backflip.

The Unknown

Oriana steps out on the balcony as a gush of fresh air hits her face, cooling off the deafeningly silent torments that have been mercilessly battling in her mind. Inhaling sharply, she grips the cold railing. Every

single movement tonight is reminding her of that dreadful party. She cannot seem to let go of any of it...she's gripped with the horrific memories.

"O my God! You made it!" A lilty, squeaking voice catches her attention. She looks around but sees none.

"Yeah, of course I'd make it, it's your birthday! Does she know?" A low, gravelly voice replies.

"Who? You mean, Solar? I don't think so."

"Good! Let's hang out in the guest house for a bit."

The girl giggles in reply, "Aw, you dirty...dirty thing." "You like that, don't you?" The hushed voice asks.

Oriana can finally pinpoint the conversation, it is coming from the front yard. She spots Ilona in her unmistakably bright turquoise dress, the dimmed light couldn't hide her identity. But, who is with her? They seem to be really close, currently clinging on to each other.

"Ah, don't tell me you're gonna bail on us tonight because of that Nevan!" the guy demands.

"No, come on! Axel, you know I wouldn't bail on YOU for anything." "Then, what is it? Does Solar know about..."

"No! You kidding? Of course not. Nobody knows anything... Okay, you know what? You're right... let's go to the guest house." Ilona chuckles.

"That's my girl."

Oriana becomes even more confused than she inevitably was the first day she met Ilona at the tuition center. This girl sure wears many hats.

"Hi, did you see Ilona? I mean, sorry, I'm just asking it flat out, it's just you seem to coming from the balcony. Did you see her anywhere in the garden or front yard by any chance? Her cake will arrive later than the scheduled time and she needs to know it now before she starts a massive freak-out episode." a girl slightly resembling the facial features with Ilona stands before Oriana. She is wearing a plain black puff sleeve belted dress, with a much tuned-down makeup than Ilona on her face.

"Um, sorry! I didn't pay much attention to the garden or front yard. Are you related to her?"

"Yeah, unfortunately! I'm her sister, Solar. And you are?" She extends her hand with a warm smile, very unlike her sister's sleek smirks.

"Oh...oh!" Oriana thinks about the conversation she just overheard.

Should she tell Solar about the guy and her sister? Maybe she should just stay away from more troubles than what her life is already entangled in.

"I'm Oriana, her coworker."

"Oh, the new one? Heard you came from abroad? How are you coping with this country?" Her voice sounds assuring and amicable.

"Yeah, it's going fine, I guess." Oriana smiles. "Okay, I've got to find her. Talk to you later?" "Yeah, sure. It was nice to meet you."

Solar gives a full-on smile, "Likewise!"

Leilani grows restless after a while. She's been tolerating Raya, the tenth grader constantly flirting with Alvis and Alvis being pretty amicable about it.

"Alvis, you wanna talk about Dentistry a bit more? I mean, I'm kinda considering that as my career, and it might change later, I don't know." Raya giggles like a dumb manizer (if that's a word). "Sorry, I'm calling you by your name, hope it's alright."

"Yeah, it's fine!" Alvis flashes his dimples with a bright grin. "You're technically Nevan and Ilona's student and I don't even mind my students calling me by my first name. So, no big deal."

"Amazing! Okay, so why dentistry?"

"Money...I guess!" Alvis lets out a brief laughter.

Leilani starts seething inwardly after this point. She needs to leave these two before her mind explodes with suppressed anger and disgust.

"Oriana, you back from outside?" she asks as she finds Oriana lazily stare out the window.

"Huh? Oh, you almost startled me. Yeah." "You know that tenth grader, Raya?" "From Nevan and Ilona's class?"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah, what about her?"

"I might just kill her someday." Leilani's eyes look inanimate all of a sudden. Oriana gulps the lump in her throat before opening her mouth.

"Um, why? what happened, Leila? You've been looking tense since you got here."

"Nothing just, it irritates me when I can't get something I want so dearly."

Oriana bites her lower lip and thinks for a while, "Is it because she...let's just say seems interested in Alvis?"

"You knew?"

"Well, I take the class with him, and Raya's class is right beside ours.

So..."

"So?" Leilani's voice sounds shrill.

"Woah, calm down. So, I've caught them flirting a bit every now and then."

"Huh? Is that it? Nice." "You sure you're okay?"

"Yup, completely fine." Oriana doesn't understand Leilani's sudden change of demeanor. She never saw that before.

"I just met Solar a while back." Oriana wants to change the subject. "Really? Poor Solar!"

"Why would you say that?"

"I think her boyfriend is cheating on her by screwing her own catty sister."

"Why do you say so?" Oriana raises her brows. "Caught them giggling at the guest house."

"I thought you were with Alvis?" It's time for Oriana to be completely confused.

"Yeah, but when I couldn't stand those two pricks shamelessly flirting, I went out for a bit."

"Oh!"

"You don't seem too surprised." Leilani shifts her gaze to Oriana from the window.

"Yeah, that's because I saw them at the front yard before." "You did? Did you say that to Solar?"

"No, I didn't...I didn't know it was her boyfriend for sure. I doubted it from their conversation though."

"Hmm...people are all so weird, don't you think? I bet everyone has their own twisted and dark kind of stories behind their shadows."

"Yeah, I guess so." Oriana lowers her voice as her own haunting stories seem to silently whisper warnings into her ears.

"This party is fucked up." Leilani says plainly. "It is a bit weird, I agree."

"Wanna head back home?"

"Would love to but wouldn't it be mean not to show up for the cake cutting shenanigan?"

"Come one! Ilona wouldn't even notice."

"Then, let's go."

"Just a minute. I'll be right back."

It's almost 11 pm when Leilani steps in her apartment. Her body is slightly trembling as she clutches the side of her forehead. She keeps looking back at the door as she advances toward the staircase. Something does not feel right. She remembers leaving the party at around 9:30 with

Oriana. After that, her memory is blurry to nothing. She seems to forget the entire one and half hours since. Her eyes are bloodshot as she heavily

breathes in and out. Her phones rings in the darkness almost throwing her out of her own body. Shakily, she takes it out of her pocket. Nevan is

calling? Why? He never talks much with her now.

The Missing Link

"Now, if you think she's responsible for her own disappearance because she's an adult, I don't see anything wrong with that."Fabian doesn't seem to be bothered by the brief argument igniting around him.

"Wrong with what?" Ilona quirks her brows.

"Your thinking. Maybe it's for the first time I feel like it's okay somehow."

Ilona doesn't continue the conversation that she chooses to cut short with her signature eye roll.

"But this thing is crazy, really." Nevan scratches the back of his neck. "What's happening, guys?" Oriana looks as shocked as she could be. "Ah, miss, you're here. Do you know Raya the tenth grader?" Fabian

looks at her.

"Come on! This is no way to introduce a missing person." Alvis sounds edgy.

"Raya...a missing... What the hell?" Oriana's eyebrows are bunched together.

"She went missing, well probably! After my party last night." IIlona says flatly flipping her hair.

"What? How?"

Ilona tugs on a strand of her hair, "That's the problem with you, Oriana!

You don't listen...see, we're all..."

"We don't know that yet. We just know she didn't get back home after her night out." Fabian chooses to cut Ilona short, as usual.

"Well, that's worrying." Oriana feels a genuine bout of concern rushing through her as she remembers the bits and pieces of her own past.

"It is, isn't it? Her parents must be really worried and on top of that, her boyfriend isn't picking up the phone." Nevan stuffs his hands in his pockets.

"Boyfriend? I thought she was...um nothing." Oriana doesn't want to mess up the situation any further.

Leilani steps in the tuition center with eyes of a light-struck deer.

"Ah, Leila! Here you are. I last saw you kinda yelling at that Raya. Any idea where she might've gone after that?" Ilona crosses her arms on her chest.

"The tuition center is closed today, right?" Leilani's voice is unbelievably still given the shaken look that's slathered all over her face.

"Yes, but that's not what I ask..." Ilona bites on the nail of her pinky. "No... I mean, what's so important going on that Mr. Landon texted us to

come here?"

"Thing is, Leilani, a student from our tuition center went missing after the party where all of us were present." Alvis says sharply.

"Who...wait, Raya? Is that what you were talking about?" She turns to Ilona.

"Finally, someone actually cared to listen."

"Weren't you with her all night?...I mean, sorry, it came out wrong. I meant to say, weren't you with her throughout the party?" Leilani's eyes pierce through Alvis.

"What?...no, not the whole..."

"Dude, don't say you slept with her. That'd be too disgusting to stomach." Nevan scrunches up his nose.

"You fuckin kidding me right now? How could you even think about that?" Alvis almost screams at his coworker.

"See... Ilona said, Leilani is the last one she saw Raya with." Fabian's gaze is still on Leilani.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean...?" Leilani cries out.

Oriana remembers how Leilani told her to wait before they left the party. She recalled Leilani's angry face after coming back from the living room.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Oriana's voice shakes with unfamiliar anticipations.

"Say what? When?" Leilani looks legitimately shocked now. "The time when..."

"Ladies and gents, I'm beyond disappointed in all of you." Robert Landon marks his entrance with that partly annoying, partly boring and partly authoritatively booming voice. He looks more annoyed than usual as his bushy brows are bunched together over his tiny, fierce eyes.

Everyone knows a long lecture slash tongue lash is awaiting them as an uncomfortable silence falls onto the room.

"Did her boyfriend attend that lavish party we're talking here?" Landon throws a relatively comprehensible question at his employees after offering them a detailed account of jibber jabber aka the practical demonstrations of his unnecessarily authoritative anger issues.

"No, he wasn't there." Alvis replies.

"You, young man! What's your deal, huh?" Landon's eyes throw daggers at Alvis.

"Sorry?"

"I heard you were spending suspicious amount of time with that girl."

"Sir, I think there's some misunderstandings going on here...I didn't spend any suspicious..."

"Please! When I started this tuition center, what I had in mind was how to educate the youngsters, how to help them reach their full potentials and how to improve their aacademic results by making the learning easier for them... You know what was NOT in my mind?"

"No! Enlighten us." Fabian steadies his eyes at currently reddened face of Landon.

"That was supposed to be a rhetorical question before I say the rest of the sentence. Don't you understand the figurative expressions, Fabian?"

"Why, no I do understand that, Mr. Landon. But thing is, I never really cared much about what you are saying but still had to go with the flow with my verbal engagement. So, this one is no exception but this time..."

Oriana squeezes Fabian's hand, "Come on! Don't piss him off any more.

He's fuming already." she whispers.

"Unbelievable!" Landon covers his face with his hands for a dramatic effect and doesn't say anything for a couple of minutes to emphasize that effect.

"...I'll deal with your big mouth later, but coming back to where I was. I didn't want this tuition center, this brainchild of mine to turn into real life

bumble where teachers and students can swipe left and right to choose their match." He glares at Alvis. "This matter won't be easy to handle as her father is a big shot here. Does anyone here have the slightest idea about the anticipated doom that our reputation is awaiting to face because of this

event?"

He scanned all six faces, mostly looking down at the ground at this moment.

"I want you to confess aanything that you know of. Anything that you believe would be good for us so that we won't have to inform the police right away."

"So, the police haven't been informed yet?" Nevan incredulously looks at Landon.

"No! I convinced Raya's uncle not to rush to the police and I informed her father that Raya is safe and went on an excursion arranged by us. Yeah, I know, you're welcome. I could just throw one of you under the bus but I didn't."

"Wait a minute, Sir. First off all, we never arrange anything for students here at this tuition center let alone a full-on excursion. God forbid, that'd cost you fortunes...and secondly..."

"My point is, wouldn't it be helpful to inform the police already? Sir, it seems we can't help in this situation now that we have no idea what

might've happened to her and her boyfriend, what's his name...Fred is not even picking up his phone. Aren't you just shoving the girl towards more danger?" Oriana cuts Nevan off.

"What part of 'my business...my tuition center is gonna be ruined big

time if the truth is out' don't you understand? Huh? You want to jeopardize other students' lives because of one student? Besides, I'd believe to think

one of you knows something...something about what happened to her last night." Landon's eyes switch to throwing flames from the previously

daggers throwing mode.

"I think Leilani might know something..." Ilona utters in a lilty voice. "Really? Here, Ilona, there's a reason I always rely on you as an

employee." Landon's seething demeanor suddenly shifts.

Ilona flips her hair before replying, "Yes, Sir. I believe she was with Raya last time I saw that poor girl. She looked so happy until that

moment...tsk tsk."

Leilani looks at Ilona in shock, how is she blaming her for a potential murder case? She can never harm a fly let alone a human....

"Is it true, Leilani?" Landon cocks his head.

"What the...Ilona, you serious? What is wrong with you?"

"With me? Nothing, actually. I simply said what I saw and what I thought would be helpful fort his investigation."

"Investigation! Fucking joke." Nevan smirks.

Landon chooses to completely ignore that but makes a mental note to threat Nevan privately. He can't afford to fire him as it's hard to come across good teachers like this brat.

"Leilani! I asked you a question." His eyes go fierce once again. "Mr. Landon, are you really gonna believe this cheating bitch?"

Leilani's wild eyes shift from Landon to Ilona in an instant, "You are the

one who fucks her sister's boyfriend behind her back while trying to seduce the hottest guy at work." Leilani's voice trembles.

Ilona looks at her in disbelief. "You psycho! If you are too scared to admit what you did to Raya, then just keep quiet. Why the fuck are you making shits up about me?" She quickly steals a glance at Nevan who doesn't look her way, as usual.

"Ladies! Quit your cat fights now. I want answers." Landon raises his voice.

Oriana's eyes are fixated on Leilani's face which looks pretty shook right now. Something is definitely off about this girl. If she really didn't do anything, why can't she just say it?

Leilani sharply inhales. What should she answer to Mr. Landon's inquiry when she has no clue what happened last night. She helplessly looks at Nevan who silently stares her way. She needs to say something...

The Secret Investigation

Fabian exhales deeply as he sits on the bench under the big Willow tree facing the green around the shrieking, excited kids on the slides and swings. He has a peculiar nature that most people he meets would label as distant and robotic. He never cared for humans that much so far in his 21 years old life. He loves gaming and coding as much as he hates human interactions.

Tutoring here doesn't seem too bad for his choice. In fact, he finds it fascinating to come across the unique peculiarities that the kids never stop to showcase.

Speaking of caring about others, he has been facing this weird situation ever since Oriana joined the tuition center. He wouldn't say he feels attracted to her but something about her makes him want to know more of what's hidden behind those beautifully wise, brown eyes. He never bothers about his appearance in front of the guys, Leilani or Ilona. But when it

comes to Oriana, somehow he wants to look his best to her. He knows he shouldn't explore the unknown path that he never intended to tread so far but Oriana makes a difference, no matter how slight it is.

"Hey, Fabian? Yeah, I thought it's you. What brought you here?"

Oriana's ever cheerful voice snaps him out of his rumination. He feels his cheeks heat up a little. Even the gloomy Willow tree seems pleasant with her presence.

"Hey, Miss? Umm.. I live around...just wanted to get some fresh air." he stutters a bit, another thing he never does in front of others.

"Is it? I live right down that street." She nods towards the street just left to the park they are in.

"Oh! That's great." he licks his lips, very subtly, not at all in a

provocative way. He just needed to do something about the suddenly dried up lips, that's it.

"So, would you mind if I sit here?" Oriana smiles that shows her one crooked tooth. A knot slowly forms on the pit of Fabian's stomach as he nervously scoots over, "Yeah, sure. Why not!"

"Thanks!" Oriana feels an unusual warmth when she's around Fabian. She knows he's younger than her and way too robotic to feel anything for her. Yet, she finds him more interesting than even the heartthrob, Nevan.

"Is Mr. Landon planning to carry on a secret investigation without informing Police about Raya? It's ridiculous to just think about..." Oriana starts the conversation, as usual.

"Yeah, it's very Albert Landon-y thing to do. This guy loves money and reputation more than anything." Fabian smirks.

Oriana admires the beautiful hazel-green eyes sparkling with that little smirk before turning away her gaze from him, "Yeah, you're right."

"So, we were supposed to go to her best friend's place for a "friendly, not at all suspicious chat". He air quotes making Oriana smile.

"The beginning of the investigation! We're on the same team which needless to mention, I almost forgot about. The best friend...what's her name again?

"Alexina."

"Yeah, right! How are you so good with names?" Fabian grins in reply.

Oriana wants to ask why doesn't he ever call her by her name but asks another question instead, "Who is Leilani with?"

"Nobody, I suppose. He asked Ilona to accompany Alvis to the boyfriend's house. I'm not sure about Nevan either."

"This is crazy! But in a way, a tad bit interesting, I guess." "Yeah, like being detectives and solving crimes...not bad!"

Oriana smiles again, "Yeah, my only wish is that we find Raya totally safe, alive and unharmed." her eyes suddenly go distant.

Fabian looks at her face, feeling the sudden shift in her tone, "You alright, Miss?" he tries to reach for her hand but decides otherwise.

"Yeah! I'm alright." She tries to flash a small grin, "So, when are we starting tomorrow?"

"I don't mind. You can just text me whatever time is suitable for you." "Or maybe I can say it now..." Oriana teases.

Fabian chuckles nervously, "Yeah sure. You see, I'm the worst...at in person interactions." again, a bit of a stutter.

"Seems just fine to me." she smiles making him blush a little. "We can start around 12? What do you think?"

"Sounds good."

"Okay, see you then? And this is perfect, now that I know you live around, we can meet here first...you know, our rendezvous point?" She fixes her glass before getting up on her feet.

"Yeah, sounds good." Fabian inwardly winces at his limited word choices. Sounds good? Seriously?

"Cool! Bye for now." smiling, she turns around.

"Yeah, bye!" He keeps looking her way until she isn't visible in his line of sight anymore. She surely makes a difference.

"You think that Fred would know anything? I have this strong gut feeling that Leilani must've done something to Raya." Ilona stuffs her

perfectly manicured hands into her pockets.

Alvis looks irritated, "What's your problem? Can't you for once stop assuming?"

"Ah my word!" she dramatically touches her cheek, "When did I assume? Just laying out the truth as is."

He grunts, "Truth!"

"Then what do you think the truth is?" She bats her extended eyelashes.

After Nevan, she always preferred Alvis.

"Guess we'll figure that out after talking to Fred the boyfriend." he lets out an annoyed puff of air.

"Huh! That's it? I knew you would be no good in investigating."

"You have no clue how ridiculous this whole investigation thing is, do you?" He shoots her a fierce glance.

She shrugs in reply, "I don't think it's ridiculous. Mr. Landon is doing what is good for the institution."

"You mean his shit-ass tuition center?"

"Ah! This is probably the first time ever I'm seeing you acting so mean.

Where's that angst coming from?"

"Nothing, forget it. Truth is...it's always hard for people like you to get the real pictures."

"I think you actually do have hots for Raya, don't you?" Ilona narrows her eyes completely disregarding the insult.

"Aren't you the best investigator-slash-detective? You would be the one to know."

"Yeah, dodging off the question, I see. Speaking of me being an investigator, I'd say I'm more aligned with fashion and stuff, you know. This secret investigation thing is just exciting to me, that's all."

"Fashion? I'm not surprised."

Ilona bats her eyelashes again, "Well, you take notice of my fashion sense, I suppose?"

"No, I wanted to say something else but what the hell...yeah sure. That's that." Alvis moves a hand through his tousled hair gulping the words...dumb pretty girls can be good at fashion.

"I think, we're here. What's the guy's name again?"

"Fred. Yeah, that's his place and the light is on. Hopefully we can

squeeze some useful information out of him." Alvis unconsciously clenches his jaw. The idea of Raya's having a boyfriend is not sitting well with him.

The Deeper Trench

Oriana checks her watch as she waits for her investigation partner to arrive. It's been 10 minutes but to be fair, she's always early for every appointment or meet-up or date for that matter. So, she's not going to blame Fabian for being late. Speaking of dating, she winces at the thought that slowly creeps up to her mind. As a kid, her mom always warned her not to get involved with men as they, according to her, are the special bunch that God created to punish the women. Oriana wanted to disregard her mom's

opinions as she knew where did those come from. Her dad's being a rascal was the initiation of her mom's men hating rituals. But as she grew older, she didn't get much luck around that special bunch either. At the

culmination of that journey, she too, started to believe in her mom's opinion slash mantra. Men really were created to punish women and maybe....

"Good morning, Miss. You're early." Fabian's voice sounds perkier than usual as his eyes sparkle a bit. He's in a good mood, no doubt.

"Hey... Good morning! Yeah, I'm always early." Oriana nervously fixes her ponytail.

Fabian stares at her for a moment as his heart silently skips a beat.

"Um...we ready to start the day?" She smiles at his fixated eyes, being a bit self-conscious as his gaze lingers.

Fabian clears his throat and his Adam's apple bobs up and down, sending a quiet chill down Oriana's arms ever so slightly.

"Yeah, sure. I'm sorry I kept you waiting."

"Nah! It's alright, not your fault. It's entirely on me." she smiles.

"So, we need to take the central line as it seems." Fabian looks at his mobile screen, "she lives right beside the Holborn tube station."

"Ah! Fancy."

"Yeah, maybe. We'll figure that out." He smiles as he pushes his specs up the bridge of his nose. Oriana never knew such a nerdy move could warm her heart. She should keep her guards up. No point in falling for one of that cursed bunch ever again.

"You okay, Miss?" Fabian looks at her as they enter the tube station side by side. He checks his urge to reach for her hand, just to hold it casually.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you...never mind." She forces a small grin. "Why do I...?" he gives her a quizzical look.

"Why do you call me Miss all the time?" she regrets her stupid mouth taking over her logical, steady mind, obviously with the help of her

impulsive heart. Good job at keeping your guard up, Oriana, she silently tells herself off.

Fabian hesitates a moment before grinning, warming every single anxious nerve in Oriana's body.

"Well, that would be because...um...how do I put it..." "Maybe because I'm older?" she blurts out.

"No, you are not...I mean, yes you're but...no!"

"Okay, I understand. No worries, it's fine." She chortles, "I'm aware of my age, and that's well...6 years more than yours. It's just logical for you to call me miss. I was just pulling your leg."

"No, that's not..." his words trail off as the train arrives. He clenches his jaw seeing no seat is empty inside as they enter the cramped train, again

side by side just to get lost amidst the huge crowd. God job at stuttering

again, Champ! Now, there's no way you can explain the why to her...he grunts in frustration.

The crowd seems to intensify as the train runs through the subsequent stations, finally arriving at Holborn.

Oriana looks over her shoulder to see if Fabian got down but cannot see him.

"Hey, I'm over here if that's who you're looking for." his voice startles her from her right. "Ooh! You got me there." She snorts a laughter.

"Ah, sorry."

"Come on! It's alright." she casually reaches for his arm to lightly pat on it. No wonder a brief bout of electric shock makes its way to his spine.

Dang it, he likes this girl.

"So, any guess what we might get out of Alexina?" She starts the conversation, for the hundredth time since they got to know each other in an awkward encounter in the lobby of the tuition center, seven months back.

"No clue. I feel like she wouldn't know much about Raya's disappearance. This whole thing is so stupid, you know."

"Yeah, you mean the secret investigation? I have a feeling it's gonna cost Mr. Landon. Informing the police would be the best solution in a situation like this."

"Besides, Raya's dad is a big shot businessman which means he would have loads of enemies wandering about to take their revenge...given Raya is the only daughter apart from his current trophy wife who's always glued to him..."

"Wait, wait! So, Raya is the only child and her mom's dead?" "Yeah!"

"That's even more messed up. How are we supposed to know about everything she might be involved with apart from having this best friend and a questionable boyfriend?"

"Exactly my point."

Oriana bites on her lower lip, "Now that we're here. Let's see what we can get." She knocks on the door.

Five minutes later, Oriana and Fabian are sitting in an ample living room waiting for Ms. Alexina who is apparently getting her manicures done upstairs. At least, that's what the maid said.

"Hey! I must say I don't know you guys." A seemingly spoiled, confused and a bit feisty Alexina climbs down the stairs in an outfit too pink and too tight for Oriana's choice.

Fabian rolls his eyes as he shifts his gaze down to the ground. "Hey, Alxina, right? So sorry to bother you." Oriana offers her hand

trying to put on her most-friendly smile.

Alexina quirks up one brow at her to get a once over before shaking the outstretched

hand, "I think I saw you before. Do you work at that place? Like the tuition center where Raya goes to?"

"Yes, I'm Oriana." she genuinely smiles now, hopeful to get something important out of the pink princess.

"Huh! Yeah, so you're here for Raya? She hasn't been picking up

since...like 3 days!" she matter-of-factly shrugs her shoulders, "So typical Raya."

"Wait, what do you mean by so typical Raya?" Fabian intercedes.

"Um...you're good looking! Wow! You're like, really handsome... Like you know, nerdy sort of cute. How come I not remember your face?"

Alexina flirtatiously smirks.

Fabian clenches his jaw, never getting along with corny flirtations.

Oriana smiles at his reaction before turning to Alexina, "So? What do you mean by typical Raya?"

"Huh? O yeah, she just refuses to pick up her phone whenever she's with..."

"Well, I think I cannot give that away." Alexina purses her lips. "Why not? Come on, Alexina. You know we all are very concerned

about Raya at this moment. Any information you'll give us would be more

than appreciated." Oriana utters with a twinge of real concern.

"I don't think you guys should be very concerned about Raya. I mean I don't understand why her father doesn't get used to it! She does it every six to eight months whenever she meets that...guy."

"What guy?" Fabian asks.

"Dang it! You even SOUND sexy! Oriana, right? I'm seriously jealous of you right now for your boyfriend."

Oriana cuts Alexina short, "Please, don't try to dodge the question and no, he isn't my boyfriend."

Her voice sounds so plain and logical that Fabian chews on the inside of his cheek to hide the disappointment that arises on his face.

"Okay, so this guy, Alex... Ares... Axel. Yeah, Axel works for her father's company and they have this special sort of strictly sexual relationship going on."

Oriana's senses suddenly grow tenfold stronger, "Wait up! Did you say Axel?"

"Yeah! He works at this modelling sector... and.." Alexina's voice grow distant as Oriana tries to work out the meanings. Could this Axel be the

same Axel that Ilona's sister dating and Ilona secretly having an affair with? This is next level messed up.

"You okay, Miss?" Fabian touches a hand to Oriana's shoulder slightly. "Yeah...yeah! Alexina, do you know Solar?"

"You mean Axel's rich-ass wife?" "What?"

"What? You asked the question, not me." Alexina looks confused. "Did you say wife?"

"Uh-huh!"

"And you said rich-ass..."

"Yeah, she's rich af...inherited almost everything from her dead Oldman."

Oriana struggles to keep breathing as a tight knot slowly starts to form in her chest. She remains silent for a moment.

"You guys ready to go? I have a party coming up tonight. You can stay if you want." Alxina deliberately licks her lips as she shoots Fabian another flirtatious glance.

Fabian shakes his head in irritation, such a waste of time! "No, thanks. Miss, we ready to go?" he turns to the currently stunned Oriana. He doesn't want to ask her about anything now but he's pretty sure she's got a clue.

"Yeah, sure." Oriana pushes to her feet, "Thanks a lot, Alexina. You've been really helpful." She quickly shakes her hand before ducking out of the door to find the rain pouring down like crazy. Ugh! She knew she forgot something today... her umbrella.

Not a Fairy Tale

Leilani keeps staring at the smoke spiraling out of her mug on the front table in her living room. She wants to throw thousands and millions of

questions at the silent Nevan who's been sitting on the couch opposite to her for the last half an hour. She wants to get out of this mess that's her head.

Writing could help but nothing, not a single word is coming to her tumultuous canvas of a mind right now.

"So, you wanna talk about it?" Nevan finally decides to break the eerily loud silence.

"About what, exactly?" Leilani still refuses to look directly at him. "You know what, Leila."

"Don't call me that." Her jaw slowly tightens.

"My bad! Leilani, quit dodging off the huge-ass elephant in the room." He sounds irritated and edgy.

"Nevan, I don't remember a damn thing." she squeezes her eyes shut. A series of horrible flashbacks invade her mind at once...sirens...screams...hysterical sobbing...whispers....scared faces...red and blue lights flashing.....

"That's what I'm trying to talk about. Do you think you're having those..."

"Those what, Nevan? Those fucking what?" She shoots him a fiery glance.

"See, that's your problem. You don't wanna confront the truth..." He stuffs his hands in his pockets.

"Confront the truth? What do you know about confronting, Nevan? You think you know it all because you've known me since childhood? You're wrong! You still don't know about a hell lot of things. so please, cut me

some slack and don't feel bad for me or my life. Something you're amazing at doing." she snorts.

Nevan sharply exhales before responding, "Look Leilani, what happened between us back in college doesn't have to do anything with

what's happening now. And yes, I'm pretty sure I know you better than all the guys at work. You have no idea if you tell them about your dissociative disorder, how badly things can go. on top of it, that stupid Ilona saw you

with Raya that night. "

"So?"

"So?" Nevan lets out an annoyed laughter, "Mr. Albert Landon would do anything to burry this mess under one of our names. you might even get

arrested if things go too far."

"Do you think I've killed her?" Leilani's voice is quiet this time.

Nevan uncomfortably shifts to the other side of the couch as he moves his hands through his slightly, and no doubt, endearingly disheveled hair.

"You think that, don't you?" Her voice is still levelled and void of emotions.

"No. no, Leilani. I don't think you're capable of hurting a fly let alone a

human. I do know you have feelings for Alvis and his, well. his preference-

slash-interest in Raya might have riled you up. "

"Shouldn't it? Shouldn't it rile me up, Nevan?"

He doesn't dare to look directly at her, "Leilani, I told you before, it's not either your fault or Alvis's for that matter. You are just in different

places in terms of. interests!"

"Yeah, I see and you know what? You can be a good shrink. Ever considered that for a potentially successful career?" She smiles wryly.

"How long would you hold that against me, Leilani? And I have no clue what went so wrong..."

"You think I'm holding anything against you? How ridiculous." "Then why can't you just let that go and pay attention to the important

stuff that we have to deal with RIGHT now?"

"WE have to? Please, Nevan! If I had anything to do with Raya that night, I'll be happy to get arrested for it. There's no WE."

"I heard you saying 'I'm gonna kill you, bitch' to Raya before you left the living room." He gulps hard clenching his fists briefly before unclenching them.

"I did?"

He nods at the scared, confused and devastated face of his friend.

Suddenly, he feels a twinge of pain in his chest, the pain of letting this girl down 5 years back when all she had was him...when her whole reality was changed within a blink...when he could stay by her side to help her go through the mess that her life turned into.

Two tear drops find their way down her cheeks as Leilani slowly shakes her head, "Nevan, if I really killed Raya over a guy, I'm a monster."

Nevan gets up from the couch and reaches for her arm, "Hey, look at me. I would never believe you could ever do such a thing...don't doubt yourself. Let's talk with your psychiatrist, ok?"

She lazily looks him in the eyes, the same eyes that looked at her with the same kindness, pain and concern when her world was turned upside down. What went wrong?

Nevan inches forward to touch a hand to her face, "You didn't do anything." he manages a whisper.

"How can you be so sure? Remember what I did to my own father?" she starts to sob.

Nevan gulps the lump in his throat before wrapping his arms around her to pull her in a hug. He should never have left.

The raindrops start to pour in the usual London pace before turning into a huge hydrological avalanche. Leilani calmly whispers without moving out of the hug, "You better stay until the rain dies down."

"Yeah, I already decided to..." Nevan knows he should stay for a while. It was raining like crazy that day after all. Leilani doesn't seem to be in the position to handle the flashbacks of heartbreaks and emotional scars alone. He left her once, he'd be the worst friend to do that again.

"Ah shit! I forgot my umbrella." Oriana squints to look through the thick curtain of rain.

"Me too. We should stop falling for the weather forecast again and again." Fabian stuffs his hands in his pockets making Oriana smile.

"Yeah, that's right. Can we run to the tube station really quickly? Gosh!

I feel like a blind person...how can rain look this fierce and extreme!" "Welcome to London, in case nobody officially told you so."

Oriana lets out a brief chuckle, "Yeah thank you."

"That cafe looks closer than the station. We could wait there for a while.

Looks like others are taking shelter there...the owner looks so excited though."

"Of course, he would. Only heartbreaking thing would be if nobody buys anything."

Fabian laughs in reply, "So? Should we?"

"Seems like the only reasonable option, yeah."

Smile Through the Gloom

"My dear Lord! I'm COMPLETELY drenched...ughh... cannot believe I used to love rain." Oriana fumbles through her bag to get tissues to deal with the unwanted dripping situation at hand.

"Yeah, no wonder you weren't born here." Fabian takes off his specs and sets them on the front table.

"Right." she snorts.

After finishing a whole pack of tissue to dry her clothes and hair to a civilized level, she looks up at Fabian to catch him staring at her.

She awkwardly smiles at his fixed gaze without knowing how to react.

He shakes off his stare with audibly clearing his throat only to wince at himself inwardly. He's too dumb in this area to function as a normal creature.

"Guess we should order something." She gets up from the stool. "Yeah...sure! Hot or cold?"

"Um...it's raining, Fabian. In case you're wondering!"

"What is that supposed to mean?" he narrows his eyes, truly failing to understand her implication.

"That means a hot beverage would be more suitable, no?" she smiles...her crooked tooth flashing...his heart skipping two beats at once...him clearing his throat to hide the slight blushes on his cheek.

"Ah! Okay...then I'm the odd one out."

"You prefer cold drinks during rain?"

"I prefer them all the time, no matter rain or sun. Hot drinks don't sit well with me."

She smiles, "Alright! That's settled then...one hot, one cold." "You alright now?" he scratches the back of his neck.

"Me? Yeah, why?"

"It's just...you looked so out of it back there?" he gestures back with his thumb.

"Ah! That? We'll talk about it...it's sad and shocking if what I'm assuming is true."

Fabian lets her take her time while ordering and getting back to their stools.

"Well, how much do you know about Ilona?" Oriana starts.

"Ilona? I thought we were talking about Raya and Alexina. Am I missing something?" He shoves up his specs making her inwardly smile and shudder a bit.

"It's all connected if I'm not wrong. Just answer the question, how much do you know?"

"Okay, so I know for a fact that she's a spoiled and extremely annoying person. Don't count it as a gossip cause I'll be more than happy to say the

same thing to her face."

She gives a tight-lipped grin, "Okay, go on."

"She has endless needs to attract guys of all shapes, sizes, ethnicities and ages."

She nods with a subdued laughter. This guy surely hates Ilona. "She lives with her sister, Solar who's not her real sister..."

"Wait...wait! Not her real sister?" "Uh-huh! That's what I heard."

"Tell me more? How's she not a real sister? They have similarities...like their facial features kinda look alike."

"Ah! I never met her sister but heard it from a guy who's been obsessed with her for a while before getting kicked out of the tuition center."

"He used to work at the center? That obsessed guy?"

"Yeah! He was there for around 3/4 months before Ilona complained to Landon."

"This tuition center is honestly a wondrous place! Tinder or bumble would fail for sure..." she shakes her head with a smirk, "Anyway, What did she say? I mean, what was the premise of her complaint?"

"O my God! Mr. L, this freak is making my life a literal hell...like he's stalking me or something. He's literally so creepy that I might just quit this job."

Oriana cannot help suppressing the laugh this time making Fabian smile.

"You can do impressions impressively well." "Yeah, thanks for noticing."

She laughs again, "But anyway, let's morph back to the main point. So, Solar isn't her real sister...could they be foster siblings? Then, what's up with the similarities?"

"No clue. Like I said, I'm just conveying the information as I've received them from Mr. Stalker. Now that you're saying they look similar then they might be half-sisters."

"Okay, let's say they are half-sisters and Ilona had a different father who isn't so rich... On the other hand, Solar's father was extremely rich and when he died, he left his ginormous possessions..."

"Miss? Wait...do you think the rich-ass wife who inherited the fortune from her old man... is the sister of Ilona?"

"Love how little clue you needed to piece together the scattered bits." she smiles before continuing, "Yeah, if that's the case, then Axel married

Ilona's sister for her money while keeping up his Casanova moves. Raya is one of his strictly sexual partners, according to Alexina...which is quite

unfortunate given her age." she lets out a prolonged exhale.

Fabian silently nods without interrupting the flow of her thoughts with any verbal intrusion.

"Well, that means Axel might know something about Raya's disappearance."

"How are you so sure?"

"Because Axel was there at the party."

Fabian quirks her brows, "How do you know?" "I saw him...well, his silhouette to be precise." "Uh-huh...I need a bit more clue here."

"I saw him with Ilona. Seems like she might be one of his strictly sexual partners or maybe more..."

"O woah! Wait, is this what Leilani yelled about during that death trap of a discussion with Landon?"

"Yeah! She knows and she's the one who told me that he's Solar's boyfriend...well, there's this one problem with our theory. Leilani thinks Axel is Solar's boyfriend and so did I... But Alexina said that guy's name is Axel and he's married to that rich woman who...we don't know for sure is Solar or not. And we have no clue if Solar is actually rich or not as Ilona's party was quite lavish but not Kardashians level lavish, if you know what I mean...Gaaah!"

"It's alright. Leilani might not know the truth as I doubt she's learnt that information from Ilona, who can change it as she wants. Besides, Solar might not be interested in spending her money for her half-sister's stupid

parties."

"Yeah you're right...and maybe that's what we missed. I kinda noticed there was this tension going on between the sisters...maybe it was over money and guys...in this case, the disgusting Casanova, Axel. What do we do now?"

"We need to talk to Leilani. Or maybe you need to as you have that tell- me-everything aura about you. It's a compliment by the way." he nervously chews the inside of his cheek."

She grins, "Yeah, thanks! Looks like the hydrological avalanche is dying down. Shall we head out?"

"Yeah, we shall." He looks out at the street, as sunny as it could be. "Thanks for today. I mean, you're a good investigation-partner."

"Partner in crime sounds cooler...but sure, thanks." He smiles in reply sending a ripple down her spine, in a good way. "Likewise, miss."

"Hey, Fabian?"

"Yeah?"

"What about calling me Oriana only when we're investigating, you know. Outside the work."

His cheeks heat up a little as he looks down to the ground, "Sounds...doable."

She laughs, "Doable? Come one, I know I'm too old but..."

"No, that has nothing to do with your age, miss... I mean, Miss Oriana...

I mean, Oriana." he winces.

"Aah! Progress. I'll count that as doable." she winks before heading to the station.

He sighs in reply and smiles once again thinking how smiling has become almost a second habit for him today.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Oriana doesn't waste the chance to talk with Leilani as she casually passes by the classroom.

"Hey, Leilani! You doing alright?"

Leilani gives her that usual calm smile, that brightens her wise and somewhat sad looking crystal black eyes. "I'm alright, I guess. As long as Landon doesn't barge in to yell at me."

"Ah! Don't mind Landon. He's a psychopath, to say the least." Oriana tries to ease the conversation forward.

"Any plans after work today?"

"Sorry, Oriana. You're bad at this...you know, trying to casually fit something into a conversation." Leilani chuckles, "Don't worry, spit it out. What is it?"

"I'm so sorry, Leilani. Seriously, I am. Last thing I wanted was to upset you with the issue after what happened that day."

"It's okay." she looks at her hands momentarily before looking up at Oriana,"Wanna grab a drink maybe? After work? It'd be better for me as well to tell the things to someone who doesn't have the slightest clue."

Oriana stops herself to further ask any question although her mind is swarming with millions of them. She simply nods with a grin, "Sure.

Sounds just good to me."

"What sounds good? Hey, Leila.." Nevan steps in.

"Hey!" the girls say in unison. Oriana can feel a bit more than usual friendly vibe going on between the two in front of her.

"Hey!" Leilani drags out a breath as she shifts her attention to preparing materials for her students.

"Guess I'll see you later then?" Oriana doesn't find anything else to say. "Yes! That's a deal." Leilani grins.

"You sure you wanna talk about that with her? I know, before you start...she's an amazing person and..."

"Yeah, that's why you have a little crush on her." Leilani smirks with a wink.

"What... No! Well, okay a bit maybe and I'm sure it's over already but definitely not anything like Fabian."

"What about that cyborg?"

"You don't know? Ya, of course, it's not like he does anything explicitly to give out the clue to the public. He's got this huge crush on Oriana..."

"Woah! Never thought he was capable of feeling anything but...now that I'm thinking it, they'd look cute together." she shrugs with a smile.

"Anyway, back to the main question."

"Yes, Nevan! Thanks for your concern. Really, I appreciate it more than anything. But I really think I need to open up to someone apart from you and my therapist about it. Besides, Landon is already deep into that stupid group investigation scheme. So, sharing it with Oriana might be helpful for them to piece together the puzzles."

Nevan presses his lips into a thin line. "And Nevan?"

"Yes?"

"Please, don't show concern because you feel bad for me...I know you never liked me, so just being friends would do just enough." She offers her brightest smile to his off-guard face before ducking out of the room.

He shakes his head thinking, she got it all wrong.

"I swear to God I'd punch those snobby teeth of that satan's apprentice if that wasn't against the policy." Oriana huffs as she steps out of the work

alongside Leilani.

"Which one is that again?" Leilani laughs. "Rodrigo."

"Ugh! Yeah, we hear him screaming at the top of his lungs all the time.

What's his deal anyway?"

"As I said, Satan's apprentice."

Leilani laughs again, "You want a coffee?" "Not a fan of caffeine but sure."

"I'm a huge fan, even if I don't wanna be...my body stops working automatically without the daily supply."

"Gotcha. You're one of them."

"Yeah." Leilani tugs at her ponytail mindlessly.

"Ah, Oriana! How long have you been here? Never asked you that question."

"Yeah, it's been 8 months." "Great! Where were you before?"

Oriana stiffens a bit, "New Jersey."

"That's nice. So, you're originally from the States?" "Yes and no." Oriana smiles wryly.

"Um...okay, seems like after sharing my secret, you'd feel a bit more comfortable in sharing your personal details with me." Leilani grins playfully.

"Yeah, I was actually planning to share my past with you as well. It's not like, you know, to lure you into unraveling your truth or something. It's been there with me for so long and sometimes, it becomes haunting...and I literally lose it in the middle of the night.

Leilani purses her lips before giving Oriana a side hug, "Seems like all of us have crazy little stories that sometimes keep us awake at

night...sometimes force us into writing about another universe where the reality we live doesn't exist."

Oriana only nods at that.

After settling down at the cafe, Oriana decides to start the conversation when Leilani blurts out, "So, should we start?"

They both laugh at once, a bit awkwardly although feeling definitely more at ease than before.

"I think yeah. You sure you wanna talk about it?" "Never was surer...is it a real word?"

"Yeah, whatever you can successfully use to convey what you mean, has to be a real word." Oriana smirks.

Leilani lets out a small chortle before starting, "Okay, so you need to know that I have a condition...a mental condition."

A slow, cold shiver ever so quietly runs down Oriana's spine as she

remains silent and nonjudgmental. She doesn't want Leilani to have done anything to Raya. She likes this girl...she has a good heart. It's just so apparent but Oriana cannot help remembering the look on Leilani's face from the evening of the party. She looked like she could do anything to

satiate her anger.

"You're not thinking I had something to do with Raya, are you?" Leilani already sounds nervous.

"Ah come on now, no! Trust me, Leila. You can feel comfortable sharing whatever you want with me. No judgement would be intended from this side, I promise."

"Thanks, it means a lot. So, back to the mental condition. You heard about dissociative identity disorder?"

"Is it similar to Multiple personality disorder?"

"More or less, yeah. But I don't completely change, you see. It's like, for MPD patients, they have multiple identities or personalities that take over at different times. But for me, I tend to skip a certain time in my memory...like I cannot remember what I did during that time after the episode." she bites her lower lip and lets out a shaky exhale.

Oriana reaches over to touch a hand to Leilani's shoulder, "It's okay.

Take your time...it's fine."

Leilani's lips shake a bit as she tries to fight back the tears that already began to sting her eyes.

"Did you have any trauma as a kid? Where did that condition stem from?" Oriana keeps her voice as gentle and levelled as possible. It's an

incredibly sensitive issue and the last thing she wants is to come out rude around it.

"Yeah, I saw my father molesting and killing innocent girls, before my own eyes." Leilani's eyes have a distant look in them as her voice sounds hushed and scared.

Oriana stops the audible gasp that wanted to set free as the first reaction.

Her head does a slow spin as her eyes keep fixated on Leilani.

The Forlorn Archives

Leilani starts to talk after a while, "I'm sorry, I still cannot process it well."

"I can understand, Leila. It's not your fault and don't say anything more if it hurts you that much. I can..."

"No, it's okay. I need to get through the experiences verbally with

someone reliable. I think about them every single damn night, completely ruining my sleep cycle."

"I'm so sorry."

Leilani smiles in reply, "I can do it...and thanks for being so kind and nonjudgmental so far."

"Of course." she reaches out to squeeze Leilani's hand, colder than usual maybe due to the nerves.

"So, that was like 13 years back..." "Sorry, how old are you now?"

"23...and I'm talking about the time when I was 10. Okay, now that I think about it, it'd be more straightforward to say when I was 10 to begin with." She laughs.

Oriana smiles, "No worries." She always appreciates Leilani's ever so positive attitude toward everything around her. She never saw her sad or distressed until that stupid party.

"Okay, where was I...right, I was 10 and I loved playing with dolls.

Mainly, I used to make stories about their lives and imagined them living the stories. So boring no?"

"No! Wow! This actually says how creative you've been since you're a little kid. That's actually impressive."

"Well, you're too kind. Anyway, moving on...so, that was a night when my sister went to bed as she had this date thing with her then teenage boyfriend the next day. She obviously needed a beauty sleep before a huge ceremony like that."

Oriana only smiles to let her go on.

"You can see, I'm beating around the bush a lot..." She chuckles nervously, "Oh, one important thing that I forgot to mention. We were at Lillehammer in Norway back then."

"You're from Norway?"

"I was born there but my father..." she noticeably stiffens at the mention of her father. "...was from Germany and my mother was half-Croatian half- Moldovan."

"Woah! Very multicultural. Really cool! Okay. So, you guys were in Norway for your father's work?"

"Yeah, for his business."

"Okay, and your sister was also born there? Ah sorry...I'm interrupting you."

"No, it's okay. It's actually better to ease into the hideous event rather than getting right to the point. No, she was born in Germany. She's 5 years older than me. I have no other sibling..." she lets out a small sigh, "So I was doing the same usual stuff with the dolls. I was making story about one of them going missing and others doing an investigation for her... Ironic, isn't it? It's more like what Landon is doing for Raya's disappearance."

"Uh-huh."

"It's crazy how I specifically remember the story from that night. I was very immersed in the investigation process when I caught my dad going out of the house in the middle of the night. I was obviously more curious than

any other kid my age, but I'm pretty sure any kid that age would go to the

window to actually see what their beloved father was doing out in the dark." Her voice sounds bitter, drenched in hatred and disgust.

Oriana sits still, trying to breathe as calmly as possible as she has no idea what would Leilani's description hold for the next scene.

"So I craned out of the window to see what's happening when I saw him inching towards the shed. Stupid me!" she smirks, "I thought he was working on our backyard as he couldn't get any chance to do that during the daylight cause his very important business was taking up all his precious

time..." she bites her lower lip to keep it from trembling, "I could've just let that go...let my stupid mind believe that backyard bullshit. But instead, I went out to help that monster to deal with the damn backyard and the stupid broken fences. I saw him disappear into the shed and I waited outside."

"I kept waiting and waiting and thinking how happy he'd be if he found me ready to help. After I don't know how long, I saw the door open a little. Seemed like someone was too scared to open it fully which was obviously so weird..." she stops to drink water.

"You alright?" Oriana sounds concerned as she looks at Leilani's pale face.

"Yeah, just letting it out bit by bit...it's too fucked up to blurt out, trust me." she tries to smile.

"I'm still saying it, you don't have to if you don't want to." "I want to...no worries."

"Alright! Take a deep breath, no pressure at all."

Leilani nods as she deeply exhales, "Then I saw her...that poor little girl."

Oriana shifts on her stool, struggling to maintain the eye contact. "She was hardly 11 or 12...she was shivering so violently and her

dress...her dress was so ripped off and smeared with blood." She squeezes

her eyes shut.

"O my God!" Oriana whispers through her tightened throat.

"She looked so scared, Oriana. She looked like she'd been experiencing hell...felt like she'd witnessed something beyond the darkness of this

world..." her eyes are fixed outside the cafe, with that distant look in them.

"She looked at me wide-eyed and tried to say something. She opened her mouth when...when that ugly devil of my father came out of the shed whisper-yelling obscenities at her. I couldn't believe my eyes...I was literally frozen right there, being absolutely unable to move or even think... All I could do was wondering what the fuck is reality? Am I in a disgusting nightmare? What am I doing here? What is this guy?"

"W-what did he do to her...?"

"He killed her in front of me...he knifed that poor girl in front of my fucking eyes." Leilani goes silent for a moment after that.

"O my God! O my God...O my God!" Oriana reaches over to hug her, "I'm so so sorry, Leila. I'm so sorry... I'm sorry." she cannot help tears rolling down her cheeks.

"He still didn't see me there...he raped her limp, dead body...in front of me." the words come out very coldly.

Oriana freezes, unable to utter anything or think about anything to say.

Her head starts spinning like crazy as she tries to hold on to Leilani.

"I didn't talk for a whole month after that. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat, I even couldn't think straight. All I saw, eyes open or closed was the scene

from that cursed night on repeat...on a never ending loop... Over and over and over again."

Oriana wants to say something...anything to comfort her but loses her words. Her tongue seems to be tied tightly to her teeth, she can't move it.

"Later, police said they found 8 more bodies inside a hidden chamber behind the shed...all of them were 10-13 year old kids."

And an eerily invasive silence falls onto the cafe.

The Shattered Cottagecore

Oriana starts talking after a long silence.

"Let's go out Leila, we should take a walk outside." "Feeling stuffy already, huh?" Leilani smiles wryly.

"No, yes. No! I think you can use some fresh air now more than me." "Yeah, you're right although I haven't said half of the story yet." she

sighs.

"I can guess the half of it, Leila. And I would never blame you for that." "How? What do you guess?"

"I'm sorry if it's preposterous of me to assume anything regarding such a sensitive issue. It's just, I assume since then you've developed that disorder and later on, hurt your father in some way."

"Ah! You're good, Oriana. Do you write novels or something?" Leilani chuckles.

"I'm really sorry... I think I completely went overboard in making this stupid assumption. Really, so sorry..."

"No, no! Come on...it's alright. I was just surprised at how almost correctly you guessed the subsequent events." Leilani wraps her arm around Oriana's shoulders.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah! The only thing you miscalculated was I didn't hurt him...I killed him." she says slowly.

Oriana thought it'd be impossible for her to be shocked any further after hearing the hideous tale from Norway back in the cafe. She shudders at

Leilani's words more than ever.

"But I promise, Oriana! I would never do that in my right mind. I still cannot remember any bit of it...but people saw what happened." Leilani's voice trails off, hot tears flood down her face.

Oriana puts her arm around her shoulders to comfort her, although she has no idea how to really comfort a person who's been through every level of hell in her 23 years long life, literally and metaphorically.

"I didn't see him after that incident in Norway for a long time until I was in college..."

"Where were you?"

"In Berlin. I was living in Berlin with my sister but we still visited Norway once a year."

"Oh! So when did he get out of prison?"

"After 7 years...he was out mainly to get his treatment." "So, he wasn't actually released from the prison?"

"Yes and no...I don't know. The laws and regulations are complicated and I still don't understand them."

"Ohkay." Oriana licks her lips trying to keep her head steady enough to process the words. "What was the treatment for?"

"He's got leukemia, terminal stage."

"Oh..." Oriana gulps the automatic "I'm sorry" down as she is never sorry for a perverted pedophiliac monster.

"So he was almost dying... I went to visit him in the hospital, hopefully one last time. I remember just sitting there replying to his stupid questions every now and then... until, I went blank. I lost track of time and place and

for God's sake, I completely forgot what happened over the next hour." She lets out an exasperated sigh.

"Was anyone there with you?"

"Yeah, my bestfriend and the only guy I loved...yeah, he's still the only guy I love." Leilani's lips quirks up to a small smile.

"Alvis?" Oriana blurts out.

"What?" Leilani laughs nervously, "No, of course not Alvis. I just met him after coming here...to the UK. Not before that and besides, I have a

considerable amount of crush on him doesn't mean I LOVE him." "Ah sorry! I didn't mean to say that out loud."

"No worries, happens. So, after that, when I came to my senses, I already did it...I killed that ugly murderer. I strangled him with my own hand, Oriana. I became a killer myself..." Leilani's hands tremble as she stares at them, still hurt and a bit terrified of what she could do.

"It wasn't your fault, Leilani. Please, don't beat yourself up for that."

"Maybe it's not that straightforward, girl! I cannot seem to shake off that feeling of guilt, sadness, anger and helplessness that day in front of the

hospital." she wipes her tears. "I'm so sorry, honey."

"And then, a lot of ambulance sirens, a lot of interrogations, long time at rehab...losing my best friend in the process..."

Oriana stops herself from asking about the best friend but she knows better. She should let Leilani just breathe at this moment. She's been through impossibles.

"Do you hate me now, Oriana?"

"I'd be insane to do that...never even think about it." she squeezes her hand. "But... I don't know, your story just reminded me of a poem I've read

at one of my lowest points in life." "O yeah? You like poems?"

"I love poems...it was on my favorite online journal... The poet's pen name was The Wandering Nomad and I still remember the whole poem... Somehow I can relate to the words so much."

"You still remember it? You must've loved it then." "Yeah, every single word... by heart...

In my little cottagecore

I dreamed to be a princess. Running across the rocky shore

I hoped to wipe out all the distress.

The wild flowers danced ever so daintily the stories never stopped to flow.

I relied on you, jumping up so happily I never wanted any unexpected blow!

In my little fairytale

you became the monster.

You shattered my magical castle

you made my enchanted garden sinister.

The glamorous festivity ended

in my little magic-land!..." Oriana's eyes become moistened.

"Now, the sun doesn't rise anymore

in my little cottagecore!" Leilani finishes the poem. "You...you know this?" Oriana looks surprised.

"Yeah, word by word."

"Wait, are you... The Wandering Nomad?" "Yeah, yours truly." she smiles.

"O my God! No wonder your stories reminded me of your poem..." "Yeah, I wrote it when I was 14."

And when I was 18...yeah exactly at that time, Oriana thinks to herself and sighs. "Wow! The world really is small and so round."

Leilani laughs, "It is, isn't it? We two have more common things than we thought we'd have, right? It's crazy."

"Yeah, seems like if we were in a Netflix series, they'd turn us into lesbians so that we could end up together." Oriana chortles.

Leilani laughs in reply, "So true, that's what they always do...and speaking of which, it's your turn now."

"For what?"

"To share your story?"

"You know what? We'll do that next week. Let's lighten up the mood a little. Wanna go to karaoke?"

"Sure, sounds good to me. Oriana, I'm so grateful to you for being so sweet and kind all the way...you never judged me for a second."

"Shut it, now. Why would I judge you?" Oriana gives her an eye roll. I'd never judge you for something that's not your fault, Leila. You can find a friend in me."

"I already did." she hugs her. "So karaoke, is it?" "Yup!" Oriana grins.

The Crossroad

"So you telling me it might be Leilani and we should not tell Landon anything about it?" Fabian quirks his brows at Oriana.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying." "But why?"

"I've told you the gist of her traumatizing experiences and her condition and her father's murder, haven't I?"

"Uh-huh! You did but..."

"No, please. I don't want her to be punished for someone like Raya.

Okay, I know, I'm sounding pretty unreasonable but you tell me now, honestly, would you want her to be punished?"

"Objectively thinking? Yeah, if that's her fault she needs to be punished... but if I were to empathize with her situation, then probably no... But my point is, we still don't know exactly what might've happened that night. Don't you think it'd be too easy if Leilani just killed her and that's

that?"

"Too easy? Yeah, sometimes some cases are pretty easy and simple. Plus, given her incredibly traumatizing past and a history in mur...well, unintentionally killing her dad, I think it's quite plausible. I've seen a very distant and sort of coldblooded look in her eyes that evening."

"Okay, we can take that as a possibility but, hear me out...it can be much more than just this. You see, I'm having a hunch that Axel guy and Ilona might have something to do with it. Don't ask me why, I'm just having this thought...repeatedly."

"Alright, so what do we do now?"

"It'd be better if we could reach Axel, somehow. Well, do you know anything about Alvis? I mean, is he doing anything dragging around his pain in the ass crime partner?"

Oriana laughs in reply, "Yeah, well, no. He said he was busy dealing with his family stuff and Ilona deliberately avoided meeting up and investigating after the first day. At least, that's what he said."

"Nevan thinks Alvis is an asshole for falling for an underage kid." Fabian scoffs, "and he thinks he actually slept with her that night."

"Woah! That's a pretty wild accusation...and about that underage thing, I think Raya made a lot of choices being underage that would be questionable. Alvis flirting with her isn't one of them. On that note, flirting with underage girls is still counted as disgusting in my dictionary."

Fabian laughs, "Yeah, tell me about it." he stops as they reach Oriana's place.

"Alright, see you at work tomorrow?"

"No, I'm not coming to work this week. Have exams to prepare for..." he shrugs with a slight smile hovering over his lips.

Oriana doesn't want to show her disappointment when her shoulders automatically slouch a bit. She quickly gives a grin, "Ah! That means we'll have to postpone our Sherlock adventure for this week. Yeah, sure, your

exams are more important. I'll have to get started with my assignments as well."

"Right!" he clears his throat, "Um...so I guess, that's it...um, I have to head to my place."

"Yeah, I think." She smiles.

"You live alone? Sorry, that came out weirdly and in a very weird time." he winces.

"No!" she chortles, "It's fine, yeah I live alone. Well, there's this roommate but she spends most of her time outside. So, just me..."

"Ah, okay. Be careful and if you need anything, you know I live just down there and I'm just a text away." he stuffs his hands in his pocket.

"Sure, that's very kind of you." "Um...so see you after a week?" "That's how it seems, no?"

"Well, if something important or urgent comes up, we can always meet...you know, we're practically neighbors."

She smiles in reply, "I like the sound of it, yeah sure. Why not!"

After getting home, Oriana lets out a deep breath as she goes over the events from today inside her mind. She feels exhausted, hurt for Leilani's sake and absolutely drained out of her energy. She decides to actually get started on her assignment which is due only in 3 days from today. She was never a laid back type as a student back in college. She always prioritized her academics more than anything. But things changed, priorities changed and above all, she doesn't want to prove anything to anyone anymore.

Those days are long gone.

What if I talk to Solar! It'd be easier to extract information about that cheating bastard from her rather than her stupidly annoying sister. She

thinks to herself as she steps in the shower. She'll think about it after the much needed hydro therapy.

"You doing ok? Haven't heard from u in a while." Oriana finds Aurora's text first thing after unlocking her phone.

She's been too busy thinking about some other people's problem these days to let her own take over.

"Ya, m ok. Just busy working and studying. Everything fine over there?"

"Yeah! We miss u...apart from that it's alright."

Oriana smiles at the text. She also misses her cousins so much but life...it has different plans for her.

"Did anything happen? U know, about that psycho?"

This text wipes off her smile in an instant. She steadies her head before replying, "Nah! No worries at all. Nothing happened and nothing will."

"We hope so."

She keeps the last one on read before thumbing a text to Fabian.

"Hey, u there?"

After about 20 seconds, his reply pops up, "already missing me?"

Oriana automatically smiles which immediately turns into a chuckle.

Since when Fabian the sexy cyborg has a way of flirting!

"Haha! So funny... I was just wondering if u had Solar's number." "Ouch! Okay, well no. How would i have it? I never even saw her in

person."

"Dang it. Okay, just consider it missing u then." she grins. "Flattered! But wait, i guess u can get it from Alexina."

"Huh? But i don't have her number either." "I have that, no worries."

"U have Alexina's number?" she scorns at her screen.

"Ya, well, she gave it to me the other day before we went out of her house."

"Uh-huh! Someone has a potential date."

Fabian smiles at the implied jealousy, "Maybe! But does someone need the number?"

"Ya, sure. For a totally different purpose but ok." He smiles again before sending her the contact.

"Goodnight, Oriana. It's been a long day for u. Get some sleep." She smiles wryly, "Ya sure. Goodnight Fabian."

He hesitates before heart-reacting her text. One of these days, he needs to ask her out...officially.

Oriana sends Alexina the barbie a quick text asking for Solar's number when the text pops up on her screen.

Her fingers stop midway to tapping on it when she sees the words "I've missed u". Her heart starts beating faster and faster by the minute. Her

palms begin to sweat and obviously, her classic headspins start doing their job. After 5 minutes of a mini panic attack, she finally decides to open it. "Hey, Oriana. I really hope u still remember me and we can pick up

right where we left off... I've missed u."

And her world goes upside down.

The Fourth Wall

"Why did you come here at this hour, again?" Leilani sighs at Nevan's ever so handsome demeanor in front of her door.

"Because I wanted to?" Nevan shrugs with a smile.

Leilani rolls her eyes in reply, "You're not my bestie for life anymore." "Ah, bestie for LIFE you said? Huh, once something is established for a

lifetime, it cannot actually end, can it?" he doesn't let that smug smile slip

as he casually step in her apartment and closes the door with his foot, all the way steading his stare on her face.

"Seriously now! Did Nevan the heartthrob have a brain injury or something?"

"Leila, you got it all wrong."

"Yeah, definitely a head injury. Let me call the ER..." "I'm serious." He crosses his arms over his chest.

"You see Nevan, I'm such a major fuckup to begin with...and on top of that you witnessed the whole thing when I strangled the hell out of my monster father. I would never blame you for leaving me..."

"Leila, hear me out..."

"No, Nevan. Seriously, if you feel bad for me now, it's totally fine. I understand, you never saw me as anything more than a friend and trust me, you've been more than just a good friend to me. You didn't leave me right after that horrible incident..."

"Leila..."

"No, no you don't owe me any explanation. I completely..."

Nevan steps forward, "Leila, enough! Let me say my part." he snaps.

Leilani stops with an inaudible gasp. "Thank you. Now, listen to me."

"I'm listening." her eyes are fixed on his pissed off face. She's never seen him this riled up before.

"You remember when you were admitted...into..." "Rehab?"

"Yeah, I told you I'd visit you everyday?"

"You weren't even there. What are you talking about?" "Leila, I was literally there when you refused to talk to me." "No, that didn't happen."

"That did happen..."

"No, Nevan. What're you even talking about? You cannot say just anything only because I have this crazy issue to back up your claim."

Nevan falls silent for a moment, "I'd never lie only to embarrass you, Leila. You know that more than I do."

Leilani stares at him and lets out a sharp exhale, "I'm sorry, Nevan. I didn't mean to hurt you but I cannot remember seeing you there that day... I just can't."

"What do you remember about that day?"

"Wait, wait...I never really remembered anything from the time I was admitted to the rehab. All I remember is a day, when I was painting by the

lake with a bunch of people I never saw in my life. And then, the next seven months followed in a boringly same routine...but I don't remember the first day. I always thought I was there all alone and my mind just chose not to hold onto those awful memories..."

"I was there, Leila. Your sister... Glinda was there."

"Glinda? Really?" Leilani's voice starts to trail off.

"Yeah, you didn't want to talk to either of us... Glinda left after a while but I stayed there till night. Thought you'd change your mind once...well, you did and you came to talk to me." His eyes sparkle a little as his lips give a wry smile, "but you said, you never wanted to see my face ever again. I asked you why but you never gave any answer...and then, after 5 years, I

saw you in Landon's office joining as a new teacher."

Leilani sits on the armrest unable to keep standing. Her symptoms have been more frequent and out of control than she thought... She'd've rather died than shoving Nevan away like that if she was in her right mind. She doesn't remember a thing about that day and she's beating herself up for not being good enough for Nevan...and blaming Nevan for leaving her like that.

"Glin...did she want to see me after that?"

"Yeah, but you know...she had the accident before she could go meet you again."

Leilani starts sobbing, "You see, I killed my father, I shunned my best friend and I didn't even say a proper goodbye to my sister before she died. I'm a fucking monster. Nevan, you're really better off without me."

Nevan scoots to her side, "Leila, back then I thought it was your choice but now I know, you were not even yourself when you...anyway, it's not your fault. None of whatever happened is your fault and no, I'm not better off without you."

"That means I've had the episodes more frequently than I thought which means... Nev, which means I might be Raya's killer." panic oozes out through her sobs.

He slightly grabs her arms and looks straight into her eyes, "I saw you getting really angry with that girl that evening but I didn't...well, I didn't see the still look that was there back in the hospital or...at the rehab. Leila, I

know it's so easy to feel guilty and whatnot if you have such a traumatic past, but trust me, I feel like there's more to what happened to Raya."

"How can you be so sure?" she restlessly moves her fingers through her almost messy hair. Nevan always liked it about her, she doesn't care much about what she looks like. And it's enough to set his heartbeat in an irregular rhythm.

"Okay, so let's consider the fact here, if...I'm saying IF you did something to Raya, won't you think someone might've seen it? Cause on those two occasions, I saw you skipping through time, you seemed pretty

quiet and distant but you never did anything proactive. What I mean to say is, if you killed her, there's no chance you'd do that with a coldblooded and organized plan so that nobody catches you. Anyone would notice what was happening and given the fact that you completely go blank over those moments, you wouldn't understand how to save yourself from the mess."

"There are a lot of weakly defined hypotheses in your grand hypothesis, Nev. I'm not so sure if my episodes, I mean that other personality or whatever..." Leilani winces, "...has changed over the years. What if that killer Leilani knows how to save her ass after killing someone?"

"You're over thinking it, Leila." Nevan cannot let go of that possibility either but he needs to keep a level head now.

"I really hope you're right."

Nevan smiles in reply, "Of course, I'm right."

Dang it! How can a person grow more and more handsome by the day, Leilani unconsciously grins at him.

"I'm sorry Alvis turned out to be a pedophiliac jerk."

Leilani lets out a laughter, "It's fine. His life, his choice." "Do you really like him?"

"I thought I did but...maybe not so much. At least not too much to kill someone over it." she scoffs.

"Ah come on! Forget that part for now but no seriously, do you?" "Why do you care?" her lips give off a ghost of a smile.

"Nah, just wondering."

"You see, I really thought I did. I used to have stupid butterflies whenever I saw him. His smile...that smile could recharge my happiness battery in no time..."

"Well, that's not that special, if you ask me." Nevan mutters.

Leilani chortles, "That's because I believe you're a heterosexual...and you don't see what the girls or gay dudes would.." she smiles after seeing his exasperated expression.

"So...everyone kinda thought I truly liked him but maybe it was just a crush..."

"It was?"

"Uh-huh."

"Cool..."

"What's so cool about it?"

"Huh? Nothing." Nevan scratches the back of his neck. "Okay."

"How's your novel coming along?"

Leilani's eyebrows shoot up at his question, "How do you know about my novel?"

"Let's just say, I overheard your giddy conversations with Alvis." "Huh? You eavesdropped?"

"I wouldn't call it that."

"Oh, sure. Yeah, it's going alright I suppose! Well, tell me what happened to your crush on Oriana?" she gives a smug grin.

"Wh-what! Ah, that! Well, to be honest, it was a crush at first but mostly I'd want to make you jealous."

"Wait a minute! Make ME jealous? Of what?"

"That, I'm interested in someone else...okay forget it. That was a stupid thing to think about."

Leilani laughs, "I have a confession as well." "Don't tell me you gave your heart to Landon!"

She smacks his arm lightly making him smile, "Come on!" "Ok, what is it?"

"I thought I was writing my protagonist after Alvis...but it turned out it was you on my mind throughout the character building process. So, the main character is unfortunately not as attractive as I wanted him to be."

He smiles brightly, "I'll take that as the biggest compliment ever." "Your choice." she smirks, "It's getting late, you should go home."

"Why? Are you scared of me making some move on you at this hour?" he flirtatiously bites on his lip.

"No, seriously! You gotta go." Leilani cannot help flustering a bit. "Alright, see you at work...and I think we need to dig deeper into Raya's

life."

"But Landon wouldn't let me do anything with the investigation." "Who's telling him?" smiling, he pulls her in a hug.

"It feels good to get my best friend back...and I'm so sorry I pushed you away that day." she whispers.

"Shh...not your fault."

The Unseen

Raya wakes up in a blur for the 5th time after coming here. She cannot feel or see anything clearly as she drags her droopy eyelids open to the dimly lit room. Her head feels like a 100 tons heavy stone has been sitting on it. She shakily exhales as her throat feels completely dry. She needs water...she needs to drink something.

She tries to get up from the bed but feels too weak to even move an arm.

Frustration and confusion fog her mind as she tries to call out to

someone...anyone to help her out of this incomprehensible misery.

"H-Hello? Help...please!" her voice trails off as expected.

"The princess woke up again! Huh! So, what does she want now?" "Water...please, I need...drink... I..."

"Water? You cannot sell yourself short, you beautiful bimbo! Let's get something that would suit you more than just bland water.

As the neck of a bottle touches her lips, Raya opens her mouth instantly just to wince and groan. The sharp alcoholic taste burns down her dry throat and an evil laughter follows.

Raya chokes on the drink as she tries to swallow it.

"Atta girl! The perfect bourbon for the perfect Raya." A hand grips her hair as her head jerks back sending a surge of stinging pain across her backbone. She gasps as hot tears tickle down her cheeks.

"Tsk tsk! Don't cry, princess. You know I hate to see you cry..." She doesn stop sobbing. Her whole body shivers with pain.

Well, if the princess doesn't wanna end her sobbing circus now. I have only one solution for you...here, back to sleep. Bye, bye princess."

She feels a sharp needle against her arm before dozing off.

Oriana wakes up with a startle and a crazily pounding heart. She's never been able to sleep peacefully since she was 18 but the waking hour panic

attacks have ceased to bother her on a considerable level until today. She

struggles to breathe feverishly looking for her inhaler on the nightstand. Her pounding heart has perfectly synced with the throbbing brain that might just come out of the skull anytime. Tears of frustration and the nagging fear that came alive after yesterday's text start to blur her vision little by little. The room starts to spin like a spinning wheel which seems to decide the next stop in her fate.

A distant noise catches her ears as it keeps echoing...like a beeping of a broken machine but with a different synchronization. She squints her eyes to let her brain think...or function properly to at least make her recognize

the damn sound. beee....p... bee...eepp....beee...eee...ep...

She must be losing her mind, she frustratingly shakes her head. Either that sound needs to stop or she has to go back to sleep which is...well, quite ridiculous given her insanely cluttered mental space.

"Oriana? Oriana?" the beeping slowly morphs into something audible yet distant.

She looks at her door. "Oriana?"

Huh! Somebody is calling her? Is it what seemed like a weird beeping noise?

"Oriana? You there?"

Phew! She can finally recognize Bright's voice. Her roommate, Bright, who hasn't been introduced yet.

"Y-yeah! I'm here." her voice sounds weirdly croaked.

Bright opens her door and peeks inside, "You awake? I've been calling you for a while...thought you weren't in your room."

"O yeah? Haven't heard you...maybe I was deep in sleep or something." "You sure you're okay? You're looking really...like really pale and

clammy." Bright quirks up her brow as she sits on the edge of the bed.

She looks genuinely concerned. Her pale blue eyes are intently looking at Oriana, trying to understand what's happening. She can be out of the

house 5 days of a week but when she cares, she's genuine.

"I don't know. Just feeling a bit out of place and...sick..." she tightly holds on to her inhaler in a shaky hand like it's the elixir of life.

"I think you should call in sick today. I'm gonna stay home and I'm gonna be your guardian for the day...at least." Bright winks.

Oriana laughs in reply, "Sounds just about right."

"Great!" Bright gets up to suddenly turn around, "Dang it! I almost forgot why I came here to begin with. There's this very cute nerdy dude in the living room."

"Wait...in OUR living room? How did he get in?" "I let him in...duh!"

"So you let in a guy and completely forgot about it?" Oriana sniggers. "Yeah! Now the joke is on me, huh!" Bright rolls her eyes. "You

should've seen your face...scared the hell out of me."

Oriana smiles, "Yeah, sure."

"So, he was asking about you and damn! Girl, he seems to be into you...like he really cares about you."

"How did you figure THAT out?"

"It was all over his face. And that nerdy specs shoving thing he does...super cute!"

"Ah Fabian? What's he doing here!"

"Fabian? Yeah, kinda goes with his nerdy look. Who's he anyway?

Never knew the good girl Oriana can have guys hidden in her stash." Bright smirks.

"Come on! He's just a coworker and..."

"No coworker of mine came to this apartment just because..."

"You mean they didn't come in the morning...because it was time for them to leave!" Oriana grins smugly.

"You know what I mean!" Bright laughs with another eye roll. "Now, get up and see what does Mr. Cute cyborg want."

"Wow! Another very creative and context appropriate nickname..." Oriana simpers.

"I'm a genius, I know. So, should I give him coffee or tea or alcohol?

Nuh, it's a bit too early for alcohol..."

"Just give him a glass of juice from the fridge. He doesn't like hot drinks."

"Ouuuuh! Just a coworker! Sure." Bright gives the brightest smile before getting out of the room. Oriana cannot help grinning before wondering, what could bring Fabian to her place in the early morning!

"Hey! Morning!" Oriana walks in the living room and finds Bright having an incredibly engaging conversation with Fabian. Fabian looks more casual than usual. His hair is a bit disheveled than how it looks on the day

to day basis. Oriana's lips quirk up in a smile without her knowing...this guy is adorable!

"Hey, Oriana! You okay? Bright was saying you were calling in sick today! You never called in sick...is everything alright?"

Fabian even sounds different...let's not forget about the elephant in the room...he called her Oriana without stuttering!

Bright gives Oriana a wink with a smirk before pushing to her feet, "I'm gonna give you guys space to talk... I'll be cooking lunch today! You're

welcome to stay, Fabian."

Oriana chimes in quickly, "No, he has exams coming up..."

"Yeah, plus we'll have to be somewhere else now. Maybe next time?" Fabian smiles at Bright. Wow! Oriana didn't know he could smile at all until 6 months into her job and Bright gets to see it on the first day? A

twinge of school-girl jealousy burns under her skin before quickly dissolving. She shakes her head at her childish reaction.

"Wait? We? What do you mean?"

"We need to talk to Axel today. I know where he is gonna be." "Axel? Where?"

"At Alexina's party."

"Wait...wait! Alexina's party? How many parties does she host in a week?" Oriana frowns.

"I don't know...maybe everyday?"

"Who is Alexina?" Bright looks confused.

"Someone you don't know about." Oriana replies quickly before turning to Fabian, "So? We're going to the party?"

"Uh-huh! Seems to look like it." he shrugs.

"In this outfit?" Bright interjects before quickly blurting out, "Sorry, what I meant was you guys would look too casual...don't you think?"

Fabian laughs, "No, I get it... I was gonna let Oriana know about the party before going to get changed but she didn't pick up her phone or reply to my text. So, had to come down here."

"Ow! Sorry, I passed out completely...didn't even hear the phone." Trains of thoughts wander around Oriana's mind.

"It's alright! You in?"

"Yeah, sure. Meet me at the park after half an hour?"

"Sounds good. You didn't answer my question though. You alright?" Fabian narrows his gaze.

"O yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit tired plus I needed to work on the assignment late into the night. Nothing big."

"Cool! One more thing, you didn't ask me how did I know about Alexina's party?"

"I already know the answer. She invited you...come on! She's got this huge crush on you... It's no news." Oriana smirks.

"No, not really. Alvis called me last night and mentioned the party." "Alvis? How does he know?"

"Apparently, he knows Alexina more than us."

"Does he have a thing for all underage girls?" Oriana sounds disgusted. Fabian sneers in reply, "I'm not so sure."

"Okay, see you after 30?" "Yeah, see you."

Bright's mouth gapes, "What's actually going on here?" "Help me get ready and I'll fill you in."

"Wooah! Get ready as in to impress Mr. Cute cyborg or...?" "Nope! To get words out of a potential murderer."

"Woah! Sure." Bright looks clearly taken aback but follows Oriana to her room anyway. She needs to hear the mysterious tale.

The Party 2.0

Fabian puffs out a breath as he finishes doing the buttons of his shirt. He needs to start studying as soon as possible. The exams are always his least

favorite part of the deal.

"Yo, what are you doing?" his younger sister, Marlene chimes in with her ever so cheerful voice.

"Getting ready."

"For what? You're looking better than usual, I'll give you that." she sits on his chair crossing her feet at the ankles while scrutinizing her robot of a brother with hawk eyes.

"Something important."

"I wonder sometimes, you know...if mum and dad found you in a rundown vintage computer store as they were getting rid of their old robots and machinery." her voice flat with a matter-of-fact tone.

Fabian smirks without turning to her.

"Did you...bro! Did you just smirk? When did you learn it?" "Quit goofing around Marl, or I'll tell mum about your detention

yesterday."

She rolls her eyes, "Yeah, sure! Their robotic son never got a detention doesn't mean the human daughter can't get it. We are just humans, Fabian." she singsongs relaxing on the chair.

"What do you want, now?"

"Nothing, just enjoying the view where my brother is trying to act like one of us." she winks.

Fabian opens his mouth for a comeback when his phone dings with a text.

"Hey, u coming? Waiting under the Willow...I'm kinda dying in these heels that Bright made me wear. Let's get this over with."

A smile gradually find its way to his lips.

Marlene narrows her eyes, "Bro? Whose text made you smile like the brother with proper human attributes that I've been wishing to have my whole life?"

Fabian chooses to ignore her while thumbing a quick reply to Oriana.

"Bro? Fabian? Yooo!!" Marlene deliberately makes her voice shrill to catch his attention.

"What?" he looks up.

"Are you...shit! You're..." her face looks like she just witnessed a murder.

"What?" now Fabian sounds a bit concerned. "You're bl-... You're..."

"I'm what?"

"You're blushing! My God! I never thought I'd witness this rare

occurrence in my life. I'm so proud of you!" She fakes a crying gesture.

Fabian rolls his eyes in frustration, "Seriously?"

"O yeah! Who's the super girl? Or guy? Or whatever?" "Nobody! Now, I've somewhere to go."

"Come on! Fabian! You know I'm your only sister...you gotta tell me." "Nothing important. And if it was, I wouldn't tell."

"I'll figure that out and you know it." she scoffs. "We'll see."

Oriana sharply exhales as she sees Fabian coming towards the park.

Yeah, someone can look that cute in a plain black shirt and black jeans. She never knew that.

"Hey! Woah!" he smiles, "Loook at you!"

"Yeah, right! My biggest fault ever was to ask Bright out of everyone to help me get ready."

"Not really! You'll make some...well, all the heads turn today. No doubt about that." he clears his throat as his eyes are settled on her. An intense look that he never knew he was capable of giving. Oriana blushes crimson and there's no way to hide that.

"Alright, so shall we go?"

"Yeah, we shall." he hesitates for a moment before reaching for her hand.

Her heart thumps a bit more aggressively as they interlace their fingers. Wow! She thought...just wow! Never did she think Fabian the younger than her cyborg, (lets not forget, who is extremely cute) would make her heart do crazy somersaults or skip beats altogether. The world is indeed a strange

place to live in.

"You wanna stick together or go solo in search of the Casanova?" Fabian unlaced his fingers from Oriana's as they step in the bustling party.

"I was thinking about going home." she looks nervous, "This big, lavish parties were never my thing."

He smiles reassuringly and takes her hand in his, "Okay, we're sticking together."

"Is it Ilona?"

"Um...I can't tell." he squints.

"I think it is her. I mean, how come a person be present in every party that calls for lavish extravaganza!"

"If that person loves unnecessary extravaganza!" He shrugs.

"Right! Here..." she tugs on his hand, "That's Axel if I'm not wrong." "Alexina is all over him...nice!"

"Huh! Somebody is jealous!" Oriana singsongs. "Not me!"

"I didn't say it was you!"

"I can tell if something is implied!" "You can? Really?"

"Yeah! Like when you were gawking at me in front of the park, I could tell you were thinking how handsome I looked." he smirked, savouring the moment.

Oriana goes crimson, again! Damn it!

"Sure! I'm not the one who gives overwhelmingly strange glances like serial killers."

He laughs at her reply, "How many serial killers have you met to connect this attribute to them?"

"How many times did YOU notice me gawking at other guys? Trust me, there are fair shares of them."

He simply laughs in reply without saying a word.

She looks at Axel directly as he's standing only 2 feet from them now. "What the actual heck? Well, he's incredibly good-looking. I'll give him

that."

"You think?" the edge of Fabian's voice makes her smile. "Not my type but really good-looking!"

"Yeah, it's a plus for his Casanova personality to take over."

"No doubt. Yeah, that's Ilona. I told you that's her annnnd now she's coming this way."

"O my God! Oriana? I almost didn't recognize you with those layers of makeup." Ilona's lilty voice sends a ripple of anger across Fabian's skin.

Oriana smiles in reply, "I know right? I always wondered how you flawlessly handle that much makeup. Turns out, it's not that hard after all."

Ilona's face cannot hide the offense that Oriana's words perfectly threw at her. Fabian smiles inwardly.

"So? Mr. Cyborg! What are YOU doing here?" "Trying to imitate humans maybe!" He says casually.

Ilona's brows shoot up. She was not ready for the comeback... "Anyway! Alexina is a friend, I suppose?" Oriana looks for any

connection Ilona must have with Raya.

"No, I came here with Ax...with one of my friends that you don't know of course." she nervously chuckles, "It's like, I've loads of friends here.... and obviously, I don't know Alexina that much I mean, how would I, right? She's like, way younger than me and besides, she's like Raya's best friend who I have no idea about." Ilona keeps mumbling.

Oriana quirks her brow, "I just asked you a question, Ilona. Relax!"

"Yeah, and I just answered...I need a drink." she hurriedly ducks out of the way.

"I came here with Axel!" they say in unison.

"Time to find a way to talk to Mr. Valentine." Oriana huffs.

Fabian smirks, "You wanna go say hi? Trust me, he wouldn't resist to talk."

"Planning to use me as a bait, Mister?" she gives him a sideways glance. "No! Just wanted an easy way in. I can assure you, I'll fail to catch his

attention in any way."

"Unless he's a bi maybe!"

"Even if that's the case, I doubt I'd be his type."

"You'd definitely be!" smiling smugly, Oriana walks past him. He flusters a bit at her words.

"Time to say hi to a potential murderer and a total pervert!" "You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, easy peasy!" inside, she feels a huge pressure and endless nerves that started working hard to form a bottomless pit in her stomach.

"I can do this!" she murmurs as Axel comes into her line of sight.

"Hey!" Oriana tries to smile but damn it, she's never been flirty and she has zero idea how to be one.

Fabian keeps an eye on her while nervously tapping his feet.

"Yo! You came?" Alvis motions his drink to him as a form of toast. "Yeah!"

"Where's your girl?"

"My girl? Come on! You know we're just friends." Alvis grins, "Yeah, sure."

"Speaking of girls, what about Raya? Heard anything about her?" Fabian stuffs his hands in his pockets.

"Nope!" Alvis's face falls, "No fricking idea how did she just vanish into thin air."

"What actually happened that night? I mean, between you two." Fabian steadies his gaze on Alvis.

"What do you mean?"

"Like, when did you see her last? And who was with her?"

Alvis looks a bit startled at the question, "I don't know. We drank for sure, flirted a little. And that's that, I had to go back home to help my dad."

"Your dad?"

"Yeah, with stuff." he shrugs.

Fabian nods, entirely unconvinced of what he just heard. Everyone is keeping a secret... Alvis must know more than he's letting out. But what the hell is that!

Who's Lying?

"Hey, Alvis! Everything going okay? How's life?"

"Uncle Zach?" Alvis looks pleasantly surprised. "What brought you here? It's been a while."

"Yeah! You know, it's mainly Mr. Beckett's fundraising event...so, here we are!" A middle-aged man grins at Alvis and Fabian.

"It's so nice to see you, uncle. Really." Alvis sounds like a kid who just won a tons of candies. He hugs his uncle before quickly saying, "Ah! Sorry, Fabian, it's my uncle Zach. Uncle, he's Fabian, my friend slash coworker." he winks at Fabian.

Fabian shakes the outstretched hand trying to grin a bit. The guy in front of him looks so friendly and bubbly that even Fabian didn't have much

issue not to feel an amiable vibe about him.

"I'll leave you two at it, then? Give me a call when you're free, Alvi!" "I definitely will."

"So who's this Mr. Beckett? Alexina's dad, I suppose?" Fabian's mind is cramped with questions.

"Yeah, foster dad." Alvis taps on his phone screen. "Foster?"

"Yeah, that's what I heard." "You seem to know a lot!"

"Duh! My uncle literally works for that guy. How hard would that be to know the basics!"

"Yeah, right! So, you and your uncle are pretty close, I guess?" Fabian

shoves his specs up his nose. Oriana would've found this the sole reason for her to smile.

"Yeah, you could say that. Since when you are so curious about others?" Alvis scoffs.

"I've always been..."

"Dude! You barely talked before... Oriana is doing wonders, I guess." he smirks with a playful wink.

Fabian shrugs off the sarcasm.

"Yeah, well...we've always been very close until he had to stop coming to our house because of his fight with my dad. You know, brotherly stuff..."

"Ah! Yeah, unfortunate things." Fabian keeps a discreet eye on Oriana. "Totally... Wanna grab a drink?"

"Nonalcoholic you mean?"

Alvis smiles, "Yeah, sure man. Nonalcoholic for you."

Fabian looks over his shoulder to see Oriana smiling engagingly at the Casanova. He grimaces a bit at the scene but assures himself of the fact that Oriana can get words out of the asshole without his help as she gives him a slight nod when their eyes meet.

He puffs out a breath before walking toward the bar with Alvis, whom he's planning to interrogate in a friendly conversational tone...hopefully.

"Alexina seems like such a burst of energy." Oriana plasters a fake smile to her face, "So friendly and full of life."

"Yes, she is. Anyway, tell me more about yourself." Axel looks less

curious about Alexina but Oriana doesn't let that topic slide. This could be

her only chance to lead their conversation to Raya. "Yeah...do you come here often?"

"Sorry?"

"Ah! I mean, do you come to Alexina's often? Like, I know she's big on parties..." she grins.

"Not really! Today I just had to be here as you know, it's mainly her dad's fundraising event. So, I had to come here on behalf of Mr. Elton's company." he uneasily clears his throat.

"Mr. Elton? Is he Raya's dad?"

He nods without giving off any apparent expression.

Oriana does a victorious dance in her head as she didn't think the cue would be this easy to reach.

"Um... Speaking of which, it completely breaks my heart just to think about that girl, Raya. I mean, she's so young and pretty and no doubt, full of possibilities for the future..." she flinches inwardly at her own made-up

words and oh so fake sympathy in her tone.

Suddenly, Axel's face shifts. His eyes wander about the huge hall in an extremely uncomfortable motion. He sharply exhales before opening his mouth, "I heard you guys are trying to pull off some Sherlock Holmes stunt at the tuition center!" his tone is void of emotions.

Oriana feels a bit intimidated by his shift of tone, "Uh-huh. Mr. Landon thinks it'd be better if we can figure that out before informing the Police, which, he's considering to do...by the way." she gulps, nervous and anxious.

"Doesn't sound like a proper plan to me but well, who am I to judge!

Landon and Elton have always been good friends. I'm sure Landon knows

what he's doing." his voice starts to come back to the territory of not so scary and cold.

Oriana lets out the breath that she's been holding, "Yeah, right."

"So, you're mainly here to investigate? And do you think egging me on would be a good way to do that?" he smirks making his extremely

handsome face somewhat dark and clearly, sarcastic.

"Not necessarily. I was just trying to know if there's someone who could give me anything important about Raya to begin with. Nothing personal."

she grins heartily.

The smirk still hangs about his lips, "Huh? Pretty confident and determined. Just how I like women..."

Oriana fights off the urge to smash in his beautiful face with one smooth movement of her fist.

Instead she smiles again, "Good to know. So, you must know something about her as you work for her dad."

"I don't see how... I work for her DAD... not for her."

"Isn't her dad worried about her? Given the wealth and status he possesses, he wouldn't leave any stone unturned to find his daughter...it's been around two weeks!"

"Hm... Understandable where you're coming from but have you actually met someone with that much money?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean to say, wealthy fathers don't really give two fucks about their spoiled princess of daughters...well, not when they're jam-packed with meetings, business deals, fashion shows an whatnot. I think, the fatherly

sentiment kinda dies down with money. The no stone unturned stuff that you said? That's true for middle class fathers only."

His words cut through Oriana like sharp daggers. Her throat tightens at the mention of fatherly sentiment and money. She's never had any of those in her life... What she had was a lower middle class status AND an unforgivingly jerk of a father.

She nods slowly, without giving off any hint of the effects that his words have had on her.

"Have you considered "interrogating" others? You know, actually related to Raya?" he air quotes.

"What do you mean?" she quits sounding polite. She's got enough of this mysogynist asshole.

He smiles in reply sending a surge of anger across her skin, "I meant,

people who might be closer to Raya than someone who works for her dad." the sarcasm in his voice is apparent. She inhales deeply calming herself down. She needs a calm mind to deal with the jerk standing in front of her, anger wouldn't do.

"Can you maybe suggest some names that'd be "relevant" for my investigation?" she air quotes with a stern expression on her face.

He licks his lips as he stuffs his stupid hands in the pockets of his crazy expensive pants. "Do you know Ilona? Of course, you do. She works at that tuition center after all."

"Uh-huh? What about her?"

"Ilona and her elder sister might be very good friends with Raya.

Especially her sister."

"You mean your wife?" she looks him directly in the eyes and gives a satisfied smirk when his expression takes on a nervous hue.

"Wow! You did your homework, didn't you?"

"Uh-huh! I've always been a prepare first kinda student." she says flatly. "Ya sure. My wife, you might wanna talk to her." He smirks before

turning to a girl with his ever so flirtatious smile, much younger than

Oriana. Maybe one of Alexina's friends.

"Good luck with your endeavor! Remember, sometimes the people you least suspect can turn out to be the bad guys." he winks over his shoulder

before placing his hand on the small of the girl's back...back to being a mysogynist, self-absorbed Casanova.

Oriana opens her mouth to say something before getting cut off by

someone familiar that she catches on her peripheral vision. The blood from her face starts to drain as the guy slyly grins at her from the corner of the hall. Her breathing starts to take on the anxious rhythm as the vision leaves her paralyzed...fixed on her position.

What the fuck is her rapist doing at this godforsaken party!

The Unheard

Raya wakes with a jolt as someone slams the door hard enough to

revive the corpses in the graveyard within 10 miles distance. She feels a surge of anger as her useless body keeps lying on the bed like a lump. Hot tears stream down her face, for the thousandth time in the last two weeks.

"Ah, honey! Don't cry...you know how hard it is for me to see a pretty

face like you weep." A mechanical voice booms in front of her. This person or the monster that torments her everyday always uses this stupid voice muffler and now hearing this automatically makes her skin crawl.

She doesn't turn her head to the stupid voice, at least she won't give them the satisfaction of seeing her being awfully miserable and crying like a fricking toddler.

"No worries, baby! Just talked to daddy. He knows you're perfectly fine and just having so much fun doing one of your spoiled brat hangouts with your stupid friends."

Raya's head shoots towards the mechanical voice, "..what?" her lips tremble as she tries to form some sort of comprehensible sounds.

"Daddy!! Just talked to him...I mean, YOU just talked to him and you don't even know it. Isn't it amazing? Gaah! I love technology." An ugly slash monstrous laughter follows.

This is so messed up. Raya's tears are streaming down with twice the velocity now as she tries to make sense of the whole situation. These sickos have been keeping contact with her father imitating her own voice with their stupid technology...while she's suffering...dying inside bit by bit.

"Why?"

"Why what, sweetheart?"

"Why..." her throat tightens with the threat of more tears. God! How

come her tears haven't run out already after crying religiously everyday for the past God knows how many days!

"Why are you...not telling him?"

"That we have you? And where's the fun in that?" "Fun?"

"Ah! You dumb brat, you don't understand anything, do you?" a sudden tug on her hair yanks Raya's head back which makes her mouth let out a weak scream.

"Now, don't pressure daddy too much when he's busy doing big things for his bigass company and signing the rich people deals. Let him

concentrate on his plan and let's just play a little bit more here. Can't we do that? You can't deny this game is already so much fun."

Raya tries to spit in reply but a hard slap practically throws her across

the bed making her head slam against the headboard. She lets out a sob and still feels pure rage, no more feeling sorry for herself.

"In the meantime, let us enjoy the stupid amount of supply from daddy. God! What would you spend all this money on!" another ugly laughter fills the room.

"Wha-at do you...want from him?" Raya's voice is almost inaudible.

"Maybe nothing. Maybe we've got our best gift already. That might just be you that we've wanted all along, baby girl!"

She remains silent, despite the burning need to shout at the top of her

lungs that she feels inside. An eerily invasive silence hangs in the air before the door is slammed again, with deafening certainty...certainty about her doom. An audible gurgling sob gets free from her throat. She cannot even

hope for her dad to inform the police anymore. He has no idea what's going on here.

Leilani takes a once over in the mirror with a smile hovering over her lips. It's been a while she dressed up to go out to have fun. She almost forgot how chic and gorgeous she looks if she puts a bit effort in her appearance. She's been seeing a psychiatrist again and to be honest, she's feeling much lighter and less guilty about whatever happened to Raya. She has to believe in herself first to make others believe that she's not an evil person. Seriously, she never was a bad person...it was all on her monster dad. She flinches at the thought of that guy before shaking her head, trying to clear out all the negativities from there. She feels grateful when she sees Solar's name on her phone as it rings.

"Hey! You're here already?"

"No! Was just checking if you actually dressed up for the wedding or you slouched and put on your favorite outfit... you know, T-shirt and sweat pants." Solar teases from the other side of the phone.

Leilani chuckles, "Nuh! Don't worry. I'm not gonna embarrass you in front of your posh friend circle."

"Yeah! You're one of them now, missy. Get used to it." Solar grins. "So? How long would I have to hang around in this...let's just say

beautiful but oh so uncomfortable outfit?"

"I'll take 15, tops. And then, you know going there, dancing, drinking, hobnobbing and then coming back... So, make it 8 hours at least."

Leilani groans, "Tell me you're kidding." "I never kid, Leila." Solar chuckles. "Alright, see you from my grave."

"Quit being dramatic. Will see you soon, girlie!" "See ya, bye."

Solar surely is a sweetheart. When she heard about the drama going on around Raya's disappearance blaming Leilani, she stepped in. Unlike her rotten sister, she has a pure heart with real kindness. Leilani feels so good hanging out with her. It's like there's no judgment, no jealousy and definitely no suspicion.

Thinking of which, Leilani remembers Oriana. She's been meaning to call her when she didn't show up at work today and no doubt, completely forgot. So she starts to dial the number when Nevan calls rising a bit of heat on both her cheeks. This guy can still do that after so many years only by calling her. She must be deep in there.

"Hey!" she tries to keep her voice casual and void of excitement. "Hey, you alright, Leila?"

"Yeah, I'm great. How are you today?"

"Not bad myself, actually. Just finished your draft."

She winces, "You mean the unfinished, unpolished, having so many loopholes and needing loads of corrections draft of my novel?"

Nevan lets out a small laugh, "Firstly stop patronizing yourself and secondly, you wanna kiss me? I never knew."

"Wait, what? How does patronizing one's writing mean she wants to kiss the first person who reads the draft?"

Nevan lets a full-on laughter to get free in reply, "Nope, dummy! In your novel Athena wants to kiss Achilles every time she sees him. What's with the names though? The rejuvenation of Greek Gods and Goddesses?"

"I just want the names of my characters to be unique." she mumbles.

"I like it...Anyway, back to what we're talking about... So as a matter of fact, your first reader is too smart not to connect the dots and realize, oh!

Athena is Leilani and Achilles is a slightly cooler version of me. Yay!"

Leilani blushes crimson, "You're going ahead of yourself, mister!" "Am I though?" his voice sounds gravelly sending goosebumps across

her arms.

"Uh-huh."

"I'm not judging if you really wanna kiss me. You know that, don't you?" he sounds flirtatious making her stomach sink.

"Well, there's nothing to judge, I guess." "Exactly! That's what I said."

She feels the heat rising on her cheeks further when she decides to change the topic, "So you're upto something this evening?"

"Ow! You wanna do it now? Sure, I can come over." he chortles. "Come on!" she groans making him laugh again.

"I'm kidding, dummy. Nothing in particular. What about you?" "Going out with Solar."

"Ah nice! Is she anything like her sister? I hope not."

"Far from it, really. I never understand how in the world they are even related!"

"That's good. Still, be careful."

"Will be. So, talk to you later? She's calling."

"Sure, bye! I wanna know what happens between the Greek divinities.

So keep me posted?"

She laughs, "I'll send the other half of the draft when I'm finished." "That'll be awesome. Alright, go have some fun."

"I will."

The Boogeyman

Oriana forgets to think for a second. She struggles to keep herself steady as the entire hall seems to spin like a ferris wheel and morph into lethal, fiery pits of hell. She commands her lungs to keep breathing but clearly the commands are ignored with full force. Tears threaten to set free from her blurry eyes. No, no, no! It doesn't have to end like this...she needs to get away. She can get away. She must get away from that monster, lurking around the corner of the party, as if throwing poisonous darts at her way from his perverted, and horrendously murderous eyes.

"Yes, I can do this...I can blend in and I can just duck the hell out of this crowd." she murmurs through her panting spree.

"So, you planning to ask her out anytime soon?" Alvis scoots forward to take another glass.

"Yeah, maybe."

"She's elder than you though? Like 6/7 years older..."

Fabian stops himself from saying, yeah sure at least she's not underage. "Doesn't matter to me." he shrugs instead.

The vibration from his phone snaps his attention from Alvis to his pocket.

Oriana is calling. Something must be up.

"Gotta go somewhere, see you around?" he gets to his feet almost knocking off the stool.

"Woah! Dude, you alright? What happened? Who's calling?" Alvis looks concerned.

"It's nothing, just home emergency." "Is it Oriana?"

"Talk to you later, mate." Fabian speeds out of the bar as fast as his feet allow him.

Alvis keeps sitting there, puzzled.

"Hey, you okay? Anything wrong?"

He hears her panting from the other side. Panic starts to rise to his throat as he tries to keep talking, "Oriana? Where are you?"

"I need you to... O God! He's almost here. Which way should I head to now.. God!" she whispers.

"Who? Who's here?" he feels his heartbeat going crazy. "Him...that...that guy! Where are you?" She manages to sound a tad bit

louder than a whisper.

"I'm at the hall. Where are you and that guy you're talking about?" he feverishly looks around to find a sea of different people but no sign of Oriana.

"Maybe near the gate...not sure. I can't go to my place, not with him tailing along...can you...can you give me your address? I can't think of anything now..."

"Yeah, yeah sure. I'm sending the address right away. And I'm coming to you as soon as I can... Damn it!" he mutters as the crowded hallway doesn't seem to be a good enough place to walk at a decent pace let alone running.

"Thanks...Fabian. I'm sorry to freak you out."

"No worries...I've sent the address. Beeline to the tube station now.

Don't look back and don't panic... I'll be there."

"Thanks." she hangs up making his heart sink to his stomach. God!

Whoever this guy is...whatever he did to Oriana...let him lose the sight of her.

Oriana keeps running like a race-horse after the initial panic episode wears off. She wants to sneak a peek behind every now and then to make sure the psychotic rapist isn't following her but Fabian's words ring in her ears. No, she shouldn't look back...just ahead. She can do it.

Fabian stumbles at the gate as the smiling face of Alvis's uncle Zach comes to his line of sight.

"Hey Fabian, correct? You alright there, young man?"

"Uh hi, yeah I'm okay. Just have to rush somewhere important. Will see you later?" he tries to give a grin.

"Yeah, sure. Hopefully nothing is wrong? I can give you a lift if you want."

"No, thank you so much. It's just around the corner." he doesn't wait for another reply.

Oriana doesn't sit inside the train. Her eyes dance across the people around her... sitting or standing, minding their own business, entirely

oblivious to what's happening inside her. She looks for that particular face which after all these years, could rise as much intense of a fear as she felt that night. Her fingers restlessly drum on her arm as she hugs herself and waits for the stop to come.

After what seemed to be a considerably normal and non-threatening journey, Oriana speeds up her pace toward Fabian's place. She still doesn't

want to take the risk of going to her apartment alone, especially after receiving the text from Bright about her failing to be at home for tonight...work calls!

Her head entertains a whirlwind of anxious thoughts until she reaches

Fabian's front door. She feels a bit awkward and uncomfortable to knock all of a sudden. After all, she's never been to any coworker's place before and would normally consider it weird...although the current situation is anything but normal and definitely unlike any other situations she faced except for that one night... She shakes her head before catching her phone vibrating in her purse.

"Hey, Fabian!"

"You alright?" she hears him panting hard, "I've been calling you for over half an hour Oriana. God! At this rate you'd give me a heart attack in no time." he sounds exasperated and scared.

She chews the inside of her cheek, "I'm sorry, really. I don't know what happened in the past hour... I was so out of it."

"It's alright. Where are you now? The damn train was delayed so I'll be there maybe after 20 minutes. I've told mum about you already. You're there yet?"

"Yeah, I'm in front of your house." "And? What are you waiting for?"

"Um... I'm just feeling a bit uncomfortable..."

"Oriana! Just press that damn doorbell. No need to feel uncomfortable now!"

"Yeah, right. Thanks by the way." "I'll see you in twenty."

Oriana squeezes her eyes shut before summoning the energy to press the bell. Almost immediately the door creaks open and a very curious face

peeks through the slit.

"You must be Oriana!" the curious eyes are scanning her intently. "Yes, hi..." Oriana gives a nervous grin.

After doing another round of intensive scanning, the girl finally opens the door wide and steps aside, "Hey, come in."

"Thanks."

"You're really pretty by the way. I'm Marlene, Fabian's sister." she holds out a hand and flashes a friendly smile, revealing bits of resemblance with her brother.

Oriana shakes the hand, "Aw thank you. Nice to meet you, Marlene." her voice is still a bit shaky.

"You look tired. Did something bad happen? I asked Fabio but all he said was keep your mouth zipped and get her in as soon as she gets there. I think I broke both the commands." she shrugs making Oriana smile.

"It's fine. I won't tell him." she whispers.

Marlene smiles in reply, "Come on in. Mum made you a glass of cold lemonade. She believes if you're sick or tired or witnessed a murder or met a ghost...cold lemonade is the way to go." she winks.

Oriana follows her with a smile plastered to her face but inside, she feels the fear starts to set in. He knows...he knows a lot about her

already...maybe he keeps an eye on her...her job, her house...and he knew she'd be at that party. It's not something to take lightly. She considers texting Aurora but quickly decides otherwise. No need to drag her in when all she can do right now is worrying shitless about Oriana.

"Hi! Ariana?..."

"Mum! She's Oriana! It's a different name...and look at her, she clearly looks like an Oriana... Not Ariana." Marlene chimes in.

Fabian's mum smiles at her, "Sorry, dear... I tend to mispronounce

unique names... You have a lovely name by the way." she paces forward to pull Oriana into a hug.

"Thank you...really. I just had to drop by..."

"It's okay! Come on, no need to explain anything now. Sit down and relax...you look really worn out. Here, drink the lemonade."

Marlene whisper-yells, "I told you, it's her one potion cure all. Oriana grins and takes the glass from Fabian's mum. She still feels scared but a sudden surge of gratitude fills her mind.

The Reveal

Leilani enjoys the attention and compliments from the chic ladies around her as she makes her way through the very flashy wedding party. She feels happy and obviously very blessed to come here but something doesn't feel right. She feels like a fish out of water even though Solar is trying her best to include her in the group.

"You okay, Leila? You seem a bit off..." Solar gives her a quizzical look. "Me? I'm alright, really. Don't worry about me."

"You sure? We can hang out at my place if you want! We were planning to do that anyway. Now, if you want, we can leave the party earlier than

planned."

Leilani shakes her head, "No...never! Seriously, Solar! Trust me, I'll be alright." she smiles and thinks to herself, she can ask her a bit about Axel

the cheating bastard. Maybe something will come out that might be helpful in that whole investigation thing. And she'll definitely give Oriana a call after getting home.

"Okay, let me know when you feel like leaving." Solar squeezes her hand.

"I will...now, I think I missed the story how you and Axel met!" Leilani tries to sound playful although the mention of Axel's name sends a surge of disgust to her core. She can't shake of the scene from that party... Ilona being all over Axel at that guest house! How could they do this to Solar!

Solar smiles coyly, flustering a bit. Leilani cannot help grimacing at the ignorance that this woman is entertaining about her asshole of a husband.

She is feeling worse for her now.

"So, it was almost like a magical fairytale, you know." Solar's eyes brighten.

Leilani keeps a fake grin glued to her face. "I was working at my dad's that time..."

"Your dad's? Does he own a company? Sorry, I'm just curious to know everything about a story...you know, writers thing!" Leilani smiles.

"Of course, no worries. I love it when people actually listen to the

stories and want to know every bit of them instead of just nodding." she beams, "Yeah, well he used to...he was a multimillionaire...not that I'm bragging or anything..." she grins nervously which turns into a somewhat mournful expression.

it?"

"Ah, I'm sorry, really. I didn't know he passed."

"It's alright." her face falls for a moment, "Things happen...it's life, isn't

Leilani nods with her lips pursed in a tight line. She remembers her own

dad and how he died...a slow chill runs down her spine.

"Okay, so Axel was my dad's assistant...you know, he wasn't appointed long before I joined. We used to see each other just for a minute or two

while passing by dad's office or sometimes in the elevator full of other people. So obviously, we didn't get much of a chance to actually talk. It wasn't anything special and besides, I never thought he would notice me at all." she smiles again.

Leilani shrugs, "Why not? You're gorgeous, come on!"

"Thanks for the self esteem boost but did you see him? Literally like a Greek god out of the context."

Leilani nods to go with the flow. She spends a good chunk of her willpower to stop herself from saying, yeah a totally horny cheater like Zeus.

"So, that was a Christmas party when he talked to me for the first time.

Well, he used to smile at me before...sometimes stared straight into my eyes...but I never thought he could like me, you know."

Leilani instantly understands the weak point that fuckboy is playing with here. Solar has serious self esteem issues and he's capitalizing on that to sleep around with anyone he wants to.

"Then we talked like for two hours straight. It was so magical, you

know. We talked and talked and talked and that didn't feel dragging at all. Normally, I can't make friends like Ilona or any other extroverted people... but you see, with Axel, it was different. I could be totally myself with him. He listened to my boring blabberings for hours without judgement. And the best part..." she blushes again, "He kissed me at the end of the party. It was so intense but so tender...felt like, I finally met the one for me. You know that feeling? When everything else seems insignificant and you just want more and more from that one person? One kiss can send you from standing there to practically flying across the sky, totally lightweight like a feather? That's exactly what I felt that night."

Yeah sure! Solar reads a lot of corny romantic novels, no doubt. But Leilani immediately thinks about Nevan and a smile crawls onto her lips without her trying consciously. Thank God, that smile came at the right moment or else she'd gag hearing the Casanova's womanizing tale. That bastard! Who knows how many women are blushing and sharing their meet-cute with this asshole with their friends right now!

"Aw! You're right. That IS magical." she manages to utter the words without wincing.

Solar smiles, "I know! I'm so happy with him. He always takes such a good care of me and though he has to be out and about a lot for his job, he never forgets the important days of my life. He always makes sure to drop by at my birthday, our anniversary, our first date...he really is one of his

kind."

Leilani nods this time, sure, he is one of his kind. No argument there. "What about you? Any lucky guy we need to know about?" Solar

winks.

It's Leilani's turn to blush now, "Well, there's nothing going on between us but yeah, I guess I like him."

"Aw! Tell me everything." Solar squeaks like a stereotypical girl figure.

Leilani wonders for a moment where to start! She needs to leave a lot of the parts untold as the history is neither so pretty nor any kind of magical for her.

Axel flashes a bright smile as he enters the room. He finds her combing her hair in front of the dressing table, turning her back to him. He admires her existence as he tiptoes toward her. He's literally over the moon today...never in his life he could think he'd hit two jackpots on the same day. It truly feels surreal.

She turns around with a flirtatious smile hovering over her lips, "Look who's here! So, what kind of a pleasant surprise occurred for my Knight to show up at this unexpected hour!" she twirls her curls around her finger.

He smirks, "You'll never believe if I tell you now, sweetheart! We've hit the jackpots! I'm talking plural here." he lessens the distance between them

to hold her arm and swishes her to her feet in an overly dramatic gesture.

She widens her eyes, "Wait! Wait, Axel! Do not raise my hopes up! I'm a desperate gal here!"

"I'm not raising anyone's hope up, princess! I've got both the papers today! Both. Of. Them." He pulls her closer.

An audible yelp sets free from her mouth as she wraps her arms around his neck, "You are not kidding!!! How did that happen? O my God, baby! We did it! We m..."

He stops her mid-sentence with a passionate kiss. "Yes, we made the fricking fool out of both of them!" he whispers.

"I love you so much! I really do!" her eyes well up with emotional tears.

He cups her face, "And I Love you more, darling! More than anything in this world... well money doesn't count here, doesn it?" He smirks.

"So? Who won? I mean, which paper did you get earlier?"

"Of course the one from my loyal and extremely foolish wife's safe!

That stupid Ilona gave that away in exchange of one petty sex! It's always that easy with her. I could easily get it from Solar though. Just didn't want to involve her that early. You know, she's like that loyal dog who would die if I tell her to."

She quirks her brows and pouts, "I know, you're doing it for us but still, hearing about you sleeping with others makes me sad!"

He laughs, "Come on, honey! You know, you are THE love of my life! We just need to make teeny tiny sacrifices to get what we want!" he tucks a strand of her curls behind her ears making her smile again.

"And what do we do with that bitch now that we didn't even have to threaten the idiot dad with his daughter's life?"

Axel thinks for a while, "Well, we'll just play with her a bit longer as we can spend her monthly supplies from her daddy! It's a win-win either way!"

She chuckles, "You're so smart! And then what do we do?" "We'll kill her!"

She squeaks, "Yay! It's always my favorite part."

"There's a reason I love you that much!" he kisses her again. "But honey, seriously, we're not killing her. I was just kidding." His eyes become hard and authoritative.

She opens her mouth, "But you..."

"Shh! Nobody talks after me, remember? My words are the last ones." His hard expression turns into a sly smile, "So, honey! Any plan on who we can throw under the bus to save our asses if anything happens to Raya? I'm warning again baby, we're not killing her!"

"Did you forget about that dad killing psycho?" she smirks. "Who? Leilani?"

"Yeah! I have the whole thing planned out, baby! But now, we celebrate first!"

Alexina lets out a victorious laughter as she sashays to the kitchen for a champagne bottle.

The Past Wound

Oriana restlessly shifts on the couch as it starts raining outside. Fabian's mum has already informed her of the irrefutable arrangement that she's staying here tonight. No argument needed! Marlene looked so excited to set her brother with Oriana in a movie scene where they might get romantic and kiss under the full moon. Well, except for the fact that it's raining and

the moon is hardly visible. She's been trying to say all the right things, and some exaggerated compliments about Fabian to Oriana since she's got here to set the scene for them.

Oriana couldn't help liking her. Fabian should be home any minute now as it's been almost 20 minutes since he told Oriana he'd take 20 to get here.

Oriana quietly shudders at the thought of the monster...the monster who changed everything for her. What the hell is he doing here now! How long does she have left until the old terror invades her life and swallows it whole!

"Hey!" Fabian's voice floats in from behind.

Oriana looks over her shoulder and smiles, "I'm alive!"

Fabian gives a wry smile before taking the seat beside her. He sits in silence for a moment, before gently holding her hand, "What happened in your life, Oriana?" his voice is levelled, his eyes are looking out the

window.

Oriana lets out a sharp exhale but doesn't talk right away. She needs to sort out the whole story inside her head though there's nothing to sort

out...the truth is blatantly straight forward and she's been trying not to admit it herself all these years.

Fabian doesn't nag her with further questions but chooses not to say anything to change the topic that's suspended in the air either.

"I was raped." Her voice sounds blank.

Fabian purses his lips into a thin line as the words slowly and painfully sink in. He doesn't show any expression immediately which is pretty expected given his being somewhat of a cyborg.

"Was it him at the party?"

"Yes!" Oriana's voice trembles now.

Fabian looks at her directly, "Wanna talk about it?" Her eyes are filled with tears, "I'm not sure."

He sits for a few more moments in silence, not knowing what to do or say.

Oriana feels unsettled and queasy as the thought of Fabian potentially wanting to hug her as a sign of sympathy and comfort. She doesn't know if she's capable of sitting through any intimacy without flipping out. All she can think about right at this moment is how pathetically that animal ruined her existence, soiled her body and soul. It's no wonder she's never been able to get intimate with anyone since then. But thankfully, Fabian doesn't attempt to close the gap between them.

"You want some time alone?" He looks her in the eyes.

She feels a bit of a pain tugging at her heart for keeping him at arm's length as she nods. She really wants him in her life but now? She isn't so sure about what she actually wants.

"Sure! If you need anything, or maybe need to talk about...anything! I'm just a text away." he smiles slowly warming her heart.

"I will! Marlene is so sweet by the way." she tries to grin casually.

He shrugs, "I would want to disagree but that debate is up for another time. Good night, Oriana."

"Good night, Fabian. I'm so thankful for what you did today."

"Don't even mention it. It's nothing." He gives a tight-lipped grin before leaving the room.

Oriana feels like a deflated balloon, emotionally and mentally and

somehow physically as well. She cannot make sense of her reality anymore. She knows she likes Fabian and he likes her back. But he's much younger and though age shouldn't be a matter, everything matters to her now. She isn't sure if she's even ready to let any guy get close to her in any way. Her body shivers as the memories from the fateful night come crawling back.

She didn't know that the cursed party would be the last time she'd enjoy anything for real. She didn't know the huge mournful Willow tree on the way to the club would let her weep and shiver under it after she was betrayed, violated through and through. She had no clue what was awaiting her when her supposedly close friends dragged her into the dimly lit hell hole. That monster was already lurking around the room before...before she was drugged but wait... Oriana sits straight as a jolt of flashback hits her hard sending electric shock across her entire body.

She saw a boy before going into the room where the monster raped her over and over again. But the fact that her body was brutally destroyed is currently obscured by the long-hidden face that's trying to surface through the bleak fragments from the past.

She knows the face...the boy...that smirk on his face...he was helping...helping that monster to tackle her. The smirk...where did she see that smirk before? Or maybe after? Did she see the same face after the

incident? Back in the US? Here? Where?

She starts to restlessly pace across the room. Her heartbeat is skyrocketing by the minute. Her head starts to throb as she tries to figure out the thin connection between her dark past and the confusing present that she's been trying to make peace with.

Her head snaps toward the direction of the window as soon as the crackling sound comes through the crazy staccato rhythm of the rain.

That smirk... Her limbs go instantly frozen as she looks at the smirk at

the window...no, now inside the room, approaching her. She needs to run, or at least try to move but she's as frozen as a glacier.

"Remember anything, Oriana? It's been a while, or has it?"

She gulps the lump in her throat and completely fails to answer to the sarcastic question.

"I honestly wouldn't say, it's been a while given the fact that we've been practically seeing each other everyday." he's dangerously close now.

"W-why?"

"Why... What?" he laughs which turns into that evil smirk in a minute. "You figured out who the boy was that night yet?"

Oriana looks at the guy before her in disbelief. How has she missed the smirk? How has her brain almost erased that single face from her memories until now? She's actually been seeing him everyday. How could she not

see? How has she been so blind!

"You really didn't think your past wound has been healed and now you can live happily ever after with that young cyborg, did you?" his face

becomes harder as he grips her face with contempt, "So you're into younger ones, I see! Why was it so problematic for my uncle to be interested in young hoes back then? Why was it so important for your little pure

conscience to report him, huh? You little piece of crap?"

Oriana forgets to blink, "What do you want?" her own voice sounds so distant in her ears.

"That's not important. I'm here to finish the work that my uncle started.

O wait! No, I know what is it...I'm here to take revenge. You, little Miss perfect doesn't drserve to live after destroying my uncle's life."

"I destroyed his life? How...?" For some weird reason, Oriana still feels the energy and courage to talk back.

"He is dead, you bitch!"

"Is he? Who...then..who...did I see tonight?" She murmurs as her face goes pale.

"That was his twin brother, Zach. You killed my uncle and you expect me to let you go? To be free and happy and all that crap? Never!"

"How...how did you know I would be here?" Oriana sounds eerily calm and confident. She doesn't wanna give this murderous asshole the satisfaction to see her shudder.

"Let's give the readers the chance to figure that out, shall we?" Alvis's eyes throw flames at her as she feels a sharp pain at the back of her head.

She plunges her nails on his face that has the evil smirk plastered on, before blacking out.

The Destroyed Magic Land

Leilani checks the time and gasps, "Shoot! It's really late...I better head home, Solar!"

Solar rolls her eyes in reply, "It's Saturday night. What's the rush?" "I've never been outside my apartment after 12. It's crazy!"

"Let it go for once, girl! You know, spice it up a little." she winks making Leilani think what part of spicing up is actually working in Solar's life.

Obsessing over that cheating bastard wouldn't exactly feel like spicing things up, would it? She immediately shakes her head silently chiding herself not to be too judgemental. It's Solar's life after all and she doesn't have to be the judgy one.

"I really think I need some sleep. We can hangout another day, can't we?"

"Sleep? Yeah, sure. You can sleep in the guest room and before you start presenting all your counter arguments on why you shouldn't stay here tonight, let me just stop you right here. It's fine to stay at your friend's for

one night." Solar smiles.

Leilani tries to make sense of her words. Staying here? At Axel's house?

It doesn't feel right. It kinda feels crazy.

As if reading her mind, Solar blurts out, "Axel isn't here and he's probably staying out tonight. You know, job and stuff!" she still sounds so pathetically ignorant of her husband's mischief that Leilani has to bite her tongue not to say anything.

"But still..."

"Please? It's gonna be really fun! I really thought we became good friends!" she pouts.

Leilani thinks for a while before responding, "Well, what the hell...

Sure! It's been a while I've had a proper sleepover!" she chuckles.

Solar squeaks, "Amazing! Let me show you to the room. Come on!"

Everything seemed to go in a very easygoing and fun way. They talked about their lives, the potential dating spots that Leilani should consider for her and Nevan's first date, the weird ideas for her novel and whatnot. She felt so giddy and happy to be able to spend some time without having any panic attack, or without pretending to be the happiest and most optimistic person in the world to hide her constant anxiety from others.

Everything seemed to be just perfect until after the dinner when she

goes to the guest room, Leilani starts to feel weird...uneasy even. She can't put her finger on what's bothering her so much but she instantly feels like she's made a mistake agreeing to stay here for the night. Solar's sweet talks sound very hollow and uncanny in her head as she goes through the events since the evening.

Doesn't it seem to be too good to be true? Is Solar planning to expose her secret by being sweet to her? Is she and her evil sister, Ilona are behind the perfectly curated show? Is she in danger?

She paces back and forth before deciding to go out the room and preferably slip out of the house, if luck favours her. She knows she is just being paranoid which isn't something new given her colourful life. But still, she feels like something is majorly fucked up.

She opens the door and cranes her neck to check the living room when she hears voices...distant, inaudible voices. She squeezes her eyes shut to clear out her mind. Sometimes, she hears stuff that aren't there...auditory hallucination in fancy language.

She tries to still her thoughts and looks towards the living room when

she catches the voices again, clearer yet still inaudible. Her stomach does a slow backflip as she debates between going to the living room and staying here and shutting the door and sleeping like a normal person. But she can't do the latter as she's not a normal person. No need to sugarcoat...her life has messed her up and now she can't just pretend to sleep while people are talking in the living room. Especially, when Solar told her there's nobody

else in the house except for the two of them and the servants.

Could it be that the servants are just having their daily episodes of talking trash about the masters? Maybe it's actually just the servants chatting nonsense with each other. Gaaah! She can't push away the thought of something potentially being really wrong in this house. More often than not, her guts don't lie. So, she finally decides to step outside the room. She only hopes to God that she doesn't have another episode coming amidst this craziness. She tells herself, trying to be as reassuring as possible that she'll deal with whatever is awaiting her in the living room.

She can hear her own heartbeat as she inches forward, attempting to be as discreet as possible. She knows how ridiculous this whole thing might seem to an outsider, a normally functioning outsider. Well, it's too late for her to back off now as she can almost makes out the words floating from

the room. She wants to step closer when suddenly she stops dead in her tracks. Her body startles as she hears her name... Swallowing hard, she tries

to concentrate when she hears Solar's voice. Why is Solar talking about her with anyone! She doesn't understand.

"You sure she doesn't suspect you?" A pretentiously authoritative male voice asks.

Solar chimes in, "Not at all! She might be a bit of a psycho but she's too predictable and totally harmless!" Leilani bites her lip to keep the fighting scream trapped inside. How could that bitch backstab her like that!

Without thinking it twice, she silences her phone and presses the record button. If she's framed for anything, she wants to see the end of it. She can't help thanking the paranoid part of herself for thinking it through in this condition.

"We're taking a big risk here, Solar! If you screw it up again, trust me I'll have to kill you this time or worse, file for a divorce." Leilani doesn't

take long to recognize Axel's coldblooded voice. Her throat goes dry as her phone becomes slippery in her clammy hands.

"No, please no! Axel, you know I cannot live without you...it's impossible! You know it, honey! This time, I'll prove myself. I promise I did everything right. She doesn't have any reason to doubt me." Solar

sounds scared and entirely disgusting to Leilani. "You better be right!" Axel snaps.

Leilani shudders at the master-slave relationship between Axel and Solar. It's seriously screwed up. She thought Solar didn't know shit about her husband's pile of effed up crap but turns out, she still worships him after knowing that he's an absolute dickhead. How is it even possible!

"I think Solar is right, Axel. Leilani is indeed the most credible option for us to frame as Raya's killer. I've seen her being paranoid and acting psychotically on more than one occasion." the words cut through Leilani like a dagger. She can't believe her ears...and she definitely can't decide which fact is the most disturbing in this sentence. These monsters killed Raya, they want Leilani to take the blow as she's had an extremely

traumatizing childhood which nominates her to be the easiest victim in any situation and the other male voice belongs to Landon. Her head spins as her vision becomes blurry with every passing moment. Of course, that explains his indifference to inform the police in the first place.

"But I still think it was such an amateur move to kill Raya." Landon sounds disappointed.

"I know! I shouldn't have trusted that whore!" Axel spits.

"Is it taken care of?" Landon sounds more fiendish than ever. Leilani struggles to stand still but she can't let the beasts frame her...she can't let them go scott free after murdering someone.

"You mean Alexina? I never liked her!" Solar sounds childishly annoying.

"Shut up! It doesn't matter if you like anyone. Stay out of my business, will you?" Axel snaps again. "Yeah, I took care of her."

What did he mean by that? Leilani's throat goes even dryer. At this point, she's not sure if she has any saliva left in her mouth at all.

"Very good! Now, we need to give Leilani this night to settle in. In the morning, I'd expect everyone to do exactly what we decided on. I am warning you again, Axel. I don't want any more unnecessary blood and cover-up! Two is enough for this case."

O my God! They killed Alexina! They killed the two of them and now they're planning to get her killed or worse...rotten in the prison for the rest of her life. She needs to think fast...she needs to get the hell out of here and think fast! As she turns around to go to her room, she hears footsteps nearing her. Shit! She needs to move fast before thinking fast or else she'd be royally screwed.

The Endgame

Leilani manages to get to the guest room just in time to dodge off the murderous bandit. She can't believe what her life has become over the last few hours. She can't believe she let Solar the backstabbing bitch totally mislead her like that. When she can feel her breathing pick up a normal pace, she sends the recording to Nevan with a voice note where she tries to sound comprehensible and cohesive but obviously fails to do so.

 

She thinks about killing Solar as the rage inside her starts to bubble up with an insatiable hunger. She needs to think straight, she needs to act logically now although killing that stupid dummy would feel so good at this moment. She breathes through her anger when Nevan texts her that she

needs to get out of this house as soon as possible while he'll go to the police with the recording.

 

In the midst of all the turmoil, she feels grateful for him to be in her

life...she feels hopeful and somehow strong enough to fool the bitch. She thinks about Oriana as she gets out of the room. She'll need to call her as soon as she's out of this shithole. She's got a lot of things to catch up on.

 

Solar's complete lack of any knowledge on self-defense made it so much easier for Leilani to knock her unconscious before dressing up as Solar the rich fashionista to fool her dumb servants and finally to slip out of the house. Thank God the murderous duo wasn't around or else, she'd be the one going beneath the soil real soon.

 

Marlene opens the door to her brother's room when she sees the light is

on.

"What the hell is going on?" She demands.

Fabian doesn't understand her question and quirks his brow with

annoyance plastered all over his face, "What the hell are YOU doing here in the middle of the night?"

"Seriously? I thought you'd be there with her. Dude!" she points to

Oriana's room. It could be such a romantic night with cuddling, kissing and God knows what... only if you weren't a totally robotic prude." she rolls her eyes.

"You really want me to listen to your crap now? Get the hell lost before I kick you out!"

 

"Woah! Why are you so mad? What's up?" Marlene's brows bunch together as she scrutinises Fabian.

"Nothing! Seriously, Marl! I'm exhausted."

"Did anything happen? Did you guys fight? OMG! Did she throw a vase at you and broke it? Was it the sound that I heard, then?"

Fabian can't help smiling at the nonsense that his sister is relentlessly spewing out.

"Nothing like that happened, come on!"

He narrows his eyes, "Wait! What sound?"

"What do you mean what sound? There was this breaking sound coming from that room or your room. You didn't hear it?"

"No! I was listening to..."

"Yeah your heavy metal that magically drowns out all the noise! I have no clue how you enjoy this weird music so much!" she feigns a surprised expression.

 

"So you did hear something, didn't you?" Fabian practically jumps up from his bed.

Marlene dramatically holds her hands up, "Woah! Woah! I didn't do anything to your girlfriend, I swear!"

"No time for that!" He hurries down the hall. Marlene follows him with genuine shock this time.

"What is it? Why are you freaking out, dude?"

Fabian chooses to ignore everything as he turns the doorknob.

 

"Seriously, Fabian! What IS going on? I'm not a child and you can't

ignore me forever. O my GOD! WHAT THE FUCK!" Marlene screams at the top of her lungs as her eyes scan the room before her, petrified.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER, FABIAN?" she keeps screaming as if she forgot how to talk normally.

Fabian's face goes full-blown pale as his hazel green eyes are locked in front of him from behind the glasses. He forgets to breathe.

"IS SHE... FUCK! FUCK! IS SHE DEAD?" Marlene's scream mingles with crying now.

 

Oriana....

Pool of blood... Blood everywhere....

Blood splattered on the walls...

The carpet is soaked in crimson liquid... Her limp body....

Her hair disheveled across the floor... Her empty eyes...

Marlene screaming.... Death....

"I have no idea." Fabian manages to let out the words that almost get stuck in his throat on their way out. He cannot unstuck his eyes from the gory pool of blood around the very inanimate Oriana's head. He can clearly see her lifeless eyes looking forward, at nothing in particular, but he can't admit she's gone. He can't understand what's happening...all he knows is, he might be in the middle of an extremely horrendous nightmare and he more than anything, wants to snap out of it.

 

"Is it real?" his voice sounds confused.

"I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T WANT IT TO BE TRUE! OMG! SHE

PROBABLY IS ALREADY DEAD!" Marlene doesn't lose even a little bit of intensity from her voice. She's intensely shook, no doubt about that.

Suddenly, Fabian looks through the nightmare and realizes he needs to get his little sister out of this mess.

 

"Come on, you need to get out of the room." He grabs Marlene's arm. "BUT WHAT THE FUCK, FABIAN! WHO KILLED HER?" She's

sobbing uncontrollably.

"I don't know, Marl. I don't know." as he drags Marlene across the hall, silent tears start to roll down his cheeks.

Blood everywhere...

Oriana isn't breathing... More blood....

He can't think straight as his brain throbs in his ears.

 

The guy from the party might've been back...he might've followed her all the way down here. How could he leave her like that! He feels the guilt bubbling towards his throat as hot tears keep rolling down his face. His

mother is asking him something but he doesn't seem to hear anything clearly...

So much blood....

Lifeless eyes....

Inanimate face...

Someone killed Oriana...she's gone... Oriana is dead. Gone forever!

 

For the next 24 hours, his house became a crime scene. A detective Rylie came to question everyone and everything just to find out later that

the killer turned himself in on his own. Fabian didn't want to know who the killer was partly because he didn't care anymore and partly because he was suspecting someone to be the killer all the way. He didn't know if he could take the surprises anymore.

 

Now standing in front of Oriana's coffin at her funeral, he knows his suspicion was right. Alvis is the murderer. It's not his gut feeling or anything. Marlene couldn't stop cursing Alvis since she knew about it so there wasn't exactly any way out of knowing the name.

 

"Hey, how're you holding up?" Nevan shoves his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, okay I guess. Did they catch them?"

Nevan puffs out a sharp breath, "They caught Solar but Landon and Axel escaped the country and vanished into thin air the police found

nothing! Literally Nada! Man, it's so frustrating! Weird part is Solar didn't

know shit about their grand plan. she was just a victim of Stockholm

syndrome maybe! It's fucking crazy!"

 

"Everything is crazy, isn't it?" Fabian shrugs.

"Yup, apparently! They found Raya's body though. Her dad came in and. well, the investigation is ongoing. They closed the tuition center,

which...is not so surprising!" "Yeah!"

 

Nevan silently stands beside him.

"Did you ever doubt Alvis?" Fabian's eyes are locked to the casket before them.

"To be a fucking murderer? Never, mate! Never! The world is upside down...that's all I can say!" Nevan looks at Fabian with hurt in his eyes, "I'm really sorry for what happened."

"Yeah me too. The funny thing is we never really made it." a tear finds

its way down his left cheek and he abruptly wipes it away. "And still it feels devastating!"

Nevan pats his arm and decides to go with standing in silence rather than looking for appropriate things to say.

 

Two crows fly over their heads filling the silence with their aggressive caws, as if to underline the emptiness of their existence, the ridiculous

meaninglessness of hopes and dreams. The wind rustles through the willow trees, that seem to be quietly mourning with everyone here. Leilani fights off a sob that gets stuck in her chest as she looks at the drooping leaves of

the Willow trees. She remembers the Willow tree at the back of the tuition center. They never regarded that as sad but often joked about burying Landon under it. She remembers the one from her childhood, just outside the window of her room. She used to love the tree. Never did the droopy

leaves seem to be mournful to her until that day. She wrote that poem sitting under that very Willow tree.

 

She lets out a heart-wrenching sob when she recalls Oriana's eyes lighting up when she was reciting her poem with so much passion and appreciation... She sighs as she thinks to herself, it all started with some

lovey dovey teen-like crushes and who could've thought the ending would be set at the graveyard!

 

She catches Ilona with the corner of her eyes and immediately every

single limb of her body is set on fire. She storms off towards the fake crying bimbo.

"What do you think you're doing here?" She doesn't even try to sound any less irritated than she actually is.

"What do you mean? I'm mourning the loss of Oriana just like everyone else here." her voice annoys Leilani even more.

"I really wish you were dead instead of her."

"You mean you wish to kill me? You murderer!" Ilona's voice is dripped with poison.

And then everything goes blank.

No sound

no movement no light

no wind

no crow's cawing no weeping

no sobbing

Everything goes completely still... Silence...

Quiet...

No sign of existence...

 

Slowly...very slowly... The leaves rustle...

The wind whistles... The people gasp.... Metal clanks...

Lights appear.... Sounds float in...

Voices...inaudible voices...muffled voices make their way to her ears...

 

"Leilani? Leilani? Leilani, what the hell? Leilani, don't! No, Leilani!

Don't. "

 

All the senses come back to her like a flash of lightning. She sees Nevan, Fabian, Marlene and some other people that she doesn't recognize circling around her. Nevan's hands are gripping her shoulders to hold her back. back from what?

"Why did you do it?" Nevan's voice trails off. Frustration, anger, betrayal, hopelessness and sadness are smeared all over his face.

 

What did she do!. What is he talking about? Turning around from him,

her confusion evaporates, which is immediately replaced by regret and numbness. In front of her lies the limp body of Ilona, the strangle marks

on her neck are as fresh as ever...as if they are mocking her silently the

eyes that are unusually fixated on her face are lifeless. She just committed

another murder and this time, there's no escape from the consequences!

Impressum

Texte: Radia Al Rashid
Korrektorat: Radia Al Rashid
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 27.08.2023

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To my friends and my sister who are unconditionally ready to be my fans!