THE CRYSTAL HOUSE

¶Suspicions¶

Florian shrugged. "Some of them are speculating that someone was involved in her accident. Conspiracy theories and stuff like that."

He feigned surprise. "Really? Any suspects yet?"

"Kind of." Florian whispered and moved closer to his bed.

"So, get this. Marcello told me Mareike has been behaving strangely, huddled closely with Chiara all afternoon and evening whispering in low tones."

"Marcello told you that? Isn't he supposed to be supporting her, aren't they an item or something?"

Florian laughed and shook his head. "Dude, haven't you noticed? Marcello is just trying to mess with her, get some action and move on, you know. Anyway, he suspects both of them have something to do with the accident." Femi's roommate made air quotes at the word 'accident'.

Femi stroked his cheek in disbelief. Mareike causing that accident? Unbelievable. She seemed harmless,  maybe it was an accident. There were bad people in this house, but not that girl. Or maybe, it wasn't on purpose; someone else could be controlling the shots, just the way it was for him.

This nightmare had to end.

Priya

She approached the girl slowly, and tapped her.

"Hey, are you alright?" She asked quietly.

The girl turned her head sideways and shook her head, while the ex-AHOH beside Mareike narrowed her eyes at the question.

"She's fine." She paused and looked down. "She'll be fine."

Priya sat down beside Mareike, and put her arms around her. Maybe it would make her feel more safe and comforted, like how it worked for her when Eryk did it.

She tried again. "Look, I get what's happening. But, you aren't even sure it's your fault so you shouldn't feel too bad."

She paused and looked at Chiara, who sat at Mareike's other side. She gave her a nod, and squeezed her friend's hand, holding it tight.

"Then again maybe if you try talking about it, we can understand it better and help you through it. What do you think?"

Mareike wiped her eyes and rose her head from Chiara's shoulder. She sat up and looked into Priya's eyes, the sapphire orbs boring deep into her memory. Somewhere at the back of her mind, Priya suspected Lola's incident was caused by Mareike, accidentally of course.

"I am pretty sure I caused it. I mean, I wished her mask would fall off and she would start struggling. I... I did not know it would happen. Oh, I can see the judgement in your eyes now." Mareike cried and turned back to face Chiara, burying her face in the girl's shoulder again.

From the thunderous look on Chiara's face, she knew she had to defend herself quickly.

"No, I'm not judging you. I'm just surprised, I mean I wish I could do that. I would have made my dad all better or broken the marriage between my sister and her no-good husband. That's badass, you know."

Mareike looked at her. "Really? But it hurt her. That was a bad thing to do. Besides, everyone else seems suspicious."

Priya shrugged. "Well, I'm not. Everyone else can go hug a pole or run into a moving car. She clearly hurt you first, I mean, she stole your track suits and gave you her uncomfortable ones. That was mean of her too. Besides you were just ranting, it's not like you knew anything would happen."

After a few seconds of silence, the girl sat up and cleaned her face. Her eyes were red, and her cheeks were really pink and swollen. Priya guessed she had been crying since after they waved Lola goodbye, which was around four hours ago.