GHOST SQUAD

CHAPTER 24-WISH

 Alice's heart started to beat fast. She knew what was coming, and was sure she would give in. 

Lorine continued, "I beg you to please leave my son!" She cried. "We have lost him once, and we will die if something happens to him now!" She desperately reached for Alice's hand. "Please my dear, if you love him, then you must leave!"

Alice fought the urge to laugh. At least she had learnt to expect the worse. Her eyes were filling with tears. She could not hold up any longer. 

Alice dug her nails into her palm to stop her tears, then asked, "Can I please meet Knave for the last time?"

Knave opened his bedroom door, before Alice could even knock. "I saw you leave the lawn!" He said. 

Something was different about him, and it was not just the way he looked. His smile almost looked sad. His eyes looked moist. Had he been crying?

Knave moved aside so she could step in. Alice did not know what she had been expecting Knave's room to be like, but it was not so simple. The walls were a perfect white. Everything in his room was white, including the curtains. There was also a shelf, which held different types of board games. His bed was neatly made. His cupboard door was slightly open, and Alice could see neat piles of clothes stacked. She also caught a glimpse of a few jackets hanging.

'So this was what he usually wears when he is not in a tux!' Alice thought. Unfortunately, she would never be able to see him wear any other clothes. She tried to take comfort in the fact that at least she saw him in his pyjamas.

Knave lived a life of a prince, and yet his actions made him so different from the arrogant attitude one would expect from a boy who had it all. Knave knew how to value relations, and he lived up to them. 

Alice's heart skipped a beat. Realizing all of this made her fall in love with him even more. If that was possible. She knew that she was so deeply attached to him, that separating herself from him now, would be similar to trying to wrench her heart out.

'You can tell him the truth!' Said a voice in her head. Alice almost wanted to follow it. If she told Knave everything his mother had asked her to do, he would leave with her, abandoning everything behind. There was no way he would let Alice fight Cora all by herself. However, wouldn't this be the exact type of selfish act Cora would do?

"Alice?" Knave called out. He must've said something while she was lost in thought. He had an eyebrow raised, and was looking at her expectantly.

"Yeah?" She answered.

He broke into a smile, gently tapping on her head. "I asked, what did my mother say to you?"

'Now is your chance!' Said the voice in her head.

Alice settled on the half-truth. "Your mother just wanted to know all that had happened!" She said.

"That's it?" Asked Knave.

Alice closed her eyes. She couldn't lie while looking into those blue eyes. "Yes!"

"So why do you seem tensed?" He asked.

Alice swallowed hard. He knew her so well. "I am just worried about Cora!" She admitted. Again, not a full lie. Knave nodded, as if relieved. "And you?" She asked. "What is bothering you?"

Knave smiled. He grabbed her hand. "Aria loves me!"

Alice blinked. "Love as in love love, or love as in like, in love?"

'Damn it!' Alice thought with annoyance. All she was saying was love.

Knave guided her towards his bed, making her sit. "I have no idea what you mean, but she is in love with me like how a woman usually loves a man, who she intends to marry and with who she wants to have children with!" He stopped, looking panicked. "Please tell me you understood, because I don't think I can get more specific than this!"