Black Equation - The Deceived Ones

Number Fifteen

"If you're not going to believe me, you shouldn't have asked."

Faye lowered her hands and locked them together, as if in prayer, her nails digging against her white knuckles. Her lower lip trembled.

"I'm not asleep." She nodded, her eyes scanning their surroundings. "Too real to be a dream."

Krad felt eased; finally, she believed him.

"Then... I'm dead, right?"

This earned her a deep frown from him. She gasped as if he confirmed her suspicions.

"This must mean I'm dead? Oh god, oh god, oh gooood!" She panicked, turning and twisting in her seat, oblivious to the fact she's restrained by the seatbelt and that her door was locked. "I'm so stupid. Gah! Oh god, did I die from alcohol poisoning? I knew I drank too much of that white liquid! Geez, how stupid can I be?"

Krad could only blink. He wasn't sure how to react, yet he answered her honestly. "No, you're not stupid. You are silly."

He knew the difference between the two; he had read the American thesaurus various times when he was bored. Most of the time, he was bored. Surely, that must mean something.

"I'm silly?" She was aghast. Krad only blinked as he responded, not sure whether the question was rhetorical or meant for him to answer.

"Yes, you are."

"How can dying be silly?"

"You are not dead."

"Yeah," she agreed easily, confusing him, "of course, I can't be dead. You are not dead either, just in coma. That must mean I'm in between?"

"Excuse me?" Did she just say he's in coma? What was he, an apparition in front of her? Krad changed his opinion. This girl is not silly; she's crazy.

He voiced out his conclusion. "You are certifiably insane. I suggest you visit the hospital –"

"But, I just woke up from a dream, and then, how can you –? I mean, in a dream...?" She wasn't making any sense, Krad thought sadly. She was so much better left asleep. The modern sleeping beauty. If only she could just remain asleep...

"Even if you're dead, I don't think you've been bad enough to land in hell with a devil such as me –"

But she didn't seem to hear him; she interrupted him again. "You are right."

Krad raised his head which he didn't realize he lowered. Again, he met her earnest green eyes. "I must be crazy. I'm having delusions. You are not who I thought you are. Oh god, what the heck is wrong with me? I must have snapped while I was..."

A nagging feeling sniffed out any rising annoyance or irritation in him. For some reasons, her words – as much as they didn't make any sense – seemed to ring a bell inside him. You are not who I thought you are. Who I thought you are...

Flashes of images accompanied his realization. The way he ached to approach her in the party, the manner she touched him when she woke up, her scars and the men pursuing her, the reason why he felt an odd attachment to her, and why of all places on earth, they – a cold-blooded criminal and a missing celebrity, both hiding in the shadows – happened to be both present in an unlikely and ludicrous event... Krad didn't believe in coincidences. There was and will always be an explanation.

Before he realized it, he raised the question crucial to him and his future, the question he always asked but no one answered.

"Who am I?"

Faye froze, her hands in mid-air, as she held his steady gaze. Krad noticed that her eyes looked like windows, clear as glass; he could almost read every emotion and thought passing through her mind. She's had an ageless innocence that left her vulnerable, open for the world to see.