Melaine carried Rohan inside the house after latching the door and helped him to his bedroom. He suddenly removed her arm around his shoulder offending the blonde woman but he shrugged her off and walked towards closet to get his night shirt and slacks to sleep in.
"Where were you?"
Rohan tried to ignore demanding Melaine behind him and pulled off his shirt folding it down on the chair and reminded himself to return to his friend tomorrow in the morning.
"Rohan?" Melaine questioned again, edginess stinging her voice and she placed her hand on his back which made him flinch against the cold touch of her hand that sent an unpleasurable shiver to his spine and groin.
"Hmm?"
He tried to ignore the fact that she was right behind him, dangerously closer that he could feel warmth radiating her body and tugged down his charcoal Tee-shirt over his chest. He felt Melaine's hand closed around his upper arm in bruising manner, surprisingly strong grip for her and he heard her repeating herself again.
"Where were you, Rohan?"
Rohan turned to look straight into her brown eyes that seemed to hold him down in his place. Her eyes had always be cold and distant, and at that moment she held a menacing gaze in them. Rohan remembered the events of morning and suddenly his blood boiled with anger at the thought of Melaine lying to him.
"What did you ask?" He towered above her dropping his slacks on the floor.
"What is wrong with you?" Melaine eyed him in confusion baffled with his change of attitude towards the girl.
"What is wrong with me?" He asked frustrated at Melaine.
"I am asking you where had you been?"
"And care to explain why I need to answer you?" He crossed his arms over his chest glaring at the pale girl.
"What is wrong with you, Rohan?", Melaine shouted at him. "I had been worried sick because I couldn't get in contact with you."
"As if, you were." Rohan snickered moving towards his bed before Melaine stopped him by elbow and turned him around.
"Just what it was with your tone?"
"Where were you?" Rohan decided to ask and question her antics.
"I told you I had got an appointment with your doctor."
"Which doctor?"
"Rohan, I had to see Dr. Gerhard to change your medication. You told me yourself you're having allergic reaction to them because you can't hold them down in your system."
"You're lying!" Rohan barked at Melaine at the top of his lungs as tears stung corner of his eyes. Melaine took a step back, taken aback by his sudden burst.
"What has gotten into you?"
"Tell me, Melaine where you had been this entire afternoon?" He threatened her clenching his fists in anger which didn't escape Melaine's periphery.
"I told you I was at the hospital." The girl answered again reaching out for him but he pulled back.
"You're lying to me!"
"Why the fuck I would lie to you?"
"I called Gerhard on my way back to home. He told me there was no appointment. You didn't meet him today."
Rohan wasn't half fool not to check if she had been speaking truth or not given the fact when he himself saw her stepping off his door.
"What are you...He must have forgotten."
"Shut up!"
"Rohan..."
"Just shup up!" He finally lost his control and grabbed her by shoulders.
"What kind of mind game are you playing with me?"
"Rohan, let go off me! It's hurting." Melaine struggled against his resilient grip that could have tore of her limbs off her shoulder sockets.
"NO! Tell me why did you lie to me when you were at home?" He shook her violently making Melaine gasp in horror.
"I didn't lie!"
"Don't you fucking lie. I saw you with my own eyes leaving the house." He shouted with a haze of bloodlust in his ferocious eyes.
"Rohan, you are not yourself." Melaine shoved him back freeing herself and put a safe distance between herself and Rohan. He stared at her wide eyed then started laughing at the ironic situation.
"I am not myself?" He was beyond amused at the play of irony. "You mean that I'm losing my mind because of the medicines you give me?"
"Wha..." Colour drained her face in an instant and Rohan glowered at her seeing red in his eyes.
"I saw you leaving the house, Melaine. Where exactly were you going?"
"I-I wasn't at home." She answered.
"You are going to lie to me?" Melaine gasped in horror when Rohan forcefully grabbed her chin.
"Who were you planning to meet?"
"Rohan, stop!"
"No! answer me!"
"I said stop!" She slapped Rohan and slumped down on the bed holding her head between her hand.
"I lied. I fucking lied to you, okay!" She sobbed fisting her hair and tugged at the roots in frustration. "But it was for your own sake."
"Why?" His stinging cheek seemed to calm down the shock of anger for a while.
"Because I did not want you to get hurt!"
"Who would want to hurt me? Sam? Annie or... You?" The last word came out as a spit as if he had spat on her face to humiliate her.
"Why in the hell I would do that? " She shouted looking up at him with tear stained face.
"Why don't you ask yourself what are you giving me in the name of medication?"
"Do you think I'm poisoning you?" Melaine jumped up on her feet standing toe to toe with Rohan.
"Have you gone mad?" She jabbed him square in his chest.
"Yes. I'm gone mad after your constant lying to me. You're the one who is playing mind tricks with me and yet you're asking me if I have gone mad? The fucking hell, I have gone mad." Rohan snorted.
"I am not playing you. How could you say it for me?" She shouted in his face which further curt his mood.
"You're the one who needs psychologist for your aggression and paranoia, and you're saying I'm poisoning you?
"Then why don't you tell me who did you go to meet?"
"I-I..." Melaine stuttered tearing her gaze away from Rohan's scowling face.
"I can't answer you that but I did it to protect you from him."
"Who is that him?"
"Ethan."
"Great." Rohan gave claps in mock laughter, "And what does that psycho want from me?"
"He doesn't want anything from you, Rohan. If anyone he wants is no one but me."
"Why is that?"
"He wanted to see me, Rohan. He had been circling around the house like a madman."
"And you didn't care to even tell me about it? Do you even consider me your boyfriend?"
"You weren't even in the right state of mind to tell you about him."
"Why? What has happened to me that you can't tell me anything serious?"
"Rohan you were ..."
"Am I a cancer patient? Brain tumor? ..."
"...under stress and I..."
"...that you couldn't fucking care about telling me."
"...didn't want to disturb you."
"The only thing disturbing here is you."
"Why don't you trust me?"
"Have you ever heard yourself, Melaine? You sound like culprit most of the time."
"What did I...why are you doing this to me?"
"Why are you doing this to me?"
"I can't stay here anymore if you aren't going to trust me." Melaine snivelled and wiped her tearstained cheeks before storming out of the bedroom and leaving his house.
"Damn it!"
Rohan cursed slamming his fist into the wall and bruised his knuckles.
Melaine ran to her house and slammed the door with a loud bang.
"Fuck!"
She cursed stalking inside the kitchen and opened the tap to of sink. She splashed cold water on her flushed face which was burning red as her entire body shook with anger.
"You didn't do good to me, Rohan."
She seethed splashing her face and angled her head to drink water from the tap. She gulped down the water and pulled back panting to wipe her chin.
"You're making it too easy for me to do you." She scoffed at herself and tightened her grip on the brim of sink till her fingers turned white. She banged her fist on the edge of the sink and stormed out of the kitchen hissing in anger. It had become more complicated than it ever had been. What had started with a simple meeting became the sinister game between two. And there's no one to be blamed except Rohan who had ruined her happiness again.
'It's all her fault'
She stopped passing the door to basement and a sudden fit of madness took over her clouded mind as she approached the door. Years had passed yet in a moment like these, the haunted memory from Melaine's past would return to ache her heart in pain and rage. The emotions she couldn't differentiae and it's because of Melaine's inability to tell them apart from each other which had resulted in the incident. Her breath shortened and her hand hovered above knob, before she opened the door and stared into the darkness.
The boy stood in the middle of the room with his back to her and Melaine descended down the steps to face the boy. She carefully circled around him holding her breath as she inched near and noticed a girl in blue frock lying dead at his feet. The girl was bathed in a pool of blood; a hole in her chest from where blood had been gushing out. The boy stood emotionless with both hands coated red, face smeared with red stains and feet soaked in her blood. He dropped to his knees and started sobbing at the sight before his eyes. He took the girl in his arms burying his face into her neck and clung onto her dearly, rocking her gently as if he had been lulling her to sleep.
'I'm sorry'
The boy whispered into her blonde hair and started humming the tune to the girl which Melaine remembered with a guilt. He pulled back and kissed her cheek staining it red with his lips. He raised to his feet and closed his arms around her sister's chest from behind and dragged her across the dirty floor. He heard the descending footfall towards the basement and he pulled them both in a corner of the room. He pulled the dead girl in his lap and wrapped his arms around her possessively and looked up at Melaine with a grin.
"Melaine"
She jerked out of the thoughts when Darren put his hand on her shoulder.
"Why are you standing in the darkness?"
He questioned and Melaine looked around noticing the blackness of the basement except for the light coming from the open door. She felt her wet cheeks realizing she must have been crying.
"Nothing"
"You have a habit of scratching your old wounds. Come, I'll take you to your room to rest."
She nodded and let Darren guide her outside the basement upstairs to her bedroom. She laid down on right edge of bed arms limp at her sides and Darren lay on the left side of the bed.
"What were you doing alone in the basement?"
"Nothing had changed that night and nothing has changed after all these years."
"Things had been set in motion after that night. Reality has changed for the people connected to you if it weren't for you."
"Rohan hasn't... I'm still trapped in the agony of that night."
"He is a tough game for you." Darren chuckled and craned his head to see Melaine staring at the ceiling paralyzed.
"He wasn't supposed to be a game. It had never meant to be like this."
"You are playing with fire and you are likeable to burn yourself again."
"If it's not for candle that gives flame, moth would never burn."
"There's no candle today but you're still attracted to the flame that had been put off."
"It was supposed to be easy. Why did he have to make it difficult for me again. He ruined it for me."
"If anybody had ruined it for you, it's you. You're too obsessed with him to let him go."
"If I had been obsessed with him, I would have killed you otherwise for sleeping with him."
"You're the person who gets obsessed."
"I do not."
"You can't lie to yourself. Obsession is extreme height of loving someone. Don't you agree?"
"I don't know. I-I could not....I cannot share."
"You could never share. If you could have learned to cope with your unhealthy obsession, things would have been much better."
"You couldn't have let us to be better. You destroyed our childhood."
"I'm not talking about myself. You knew exactly whom I am speaking of."
"It's pathetic."
"Who? You or Rohan?"
"Both. Even after all these years, Rohan just...can't love me."
"Who does he love is not you and it's the truth that pains you that he will never be able to love you."
"He shouldn't love Laine."
"You were too possessive to share what you loved with anybody."
" I'm still possessive of what I had loved and I'll never share it." She spared Darren a sideway glance before picking her phone from the table and shot up from the bed.
"I need to make a phone call." He himself got up from the bed and walked to close his arms around Melaine. She shuddered in his embrace as he put his mouth near to her ear.
"You can play little girl to everyone but remember you can't fool me." He kissed Melaine's head and let her go patting her hair. Melaine nodded curtly and left the room. She needed to be careful around Darren who was quick fox himself. No matter who he presented himself to be, he had been the one who ruined Alan's life and his sister.
'I'm sorry'
He remembered