Blur
(Krista's POV)
I wiped my cheeks. I ran inside after what nii-san almost did to me. That feeling when you can't do anything to stop something. You're just the observer of your own experience. Useless. Just once. And that once lead me to this. I also can't blame Jurri. I've agreed in going so I also have my fair share of blame.
I still can't begin to comprehend how nii-san could do that to me, no less. I was just clubbing. Plus, Jurri's with me. Plus, I know he has sent someone to look after me. Which, unfortunately, is Ryouji Hest.
I turned on the other side, bringing the comforter up my chin.
I could probably never face Chehon again. He just saw me almost got slapped with my own brother. If he didn't stop him, I shudder to think otherwise. That was the first time nii used forced to me.
I heard someone outside my room.
"Krissy, open the door."
I should pretend to be asleep and ignore him but instead I got up and opened the door to find him bringing a tray of foods. I leave the door open and climb again on my bed.
"You should eat something." He said, setting the tray on the table beside my bed.
"Why did you come back?" I paused.
"I'm sorry." Came his soft reply, making me guilty since he's only looking out for me and he didn't really do anything wrong - I just want to blame someone badly.
I slapped his hands away when he tucks a strand of my hair, clearing my throat before speaking. "Get out."
He looked at me critically. I sighed.
"Get out and I'll eat."
He nods his head and gently closed the door.
"Stupid jerk." I muttered.
I still have to prepare whatever preparations needed for tomorrow and . . . uh, school day.
-
(Third person's pov)
The sound of the glass shattering echoed in the room. Chehon wiped the side of his mouth with his thumb. Blood dripped down, staining the ceramic tiles, he spat out and stood up - seeing the blood on his hands he winced. He'd dealt far worse than this one on missions.
"Stay out of this, Chehon." His aura changing, the happy-go-lucky Kai nowhere to be found.
"Too late to back out now, I'm already involved. Besides, aren't you the one who assigned me to watch over Krista?"
"Yet you failed to do so!"
"I didn't - I saved her from you." It sounded like a childish retort but when he saw Kai's reaction it was worth it.
Kai looked like he'd just been bitten by a snake. But regaining his composure, he stated seriously.
"ZION is on the move." Chi widens his eyes unbelievingly as Kai begrudgingly continued.
"They're after her again. There were members in that club. How do you think I should react?!"
"She's fine, Kai." Ryou said, walking down the stairs from Kris's room. He is irritated that Kai is over reacting to everything. "I was there. I won't let anything happen to her. I'll always be in the shadows ready to protect her." But as he said those, his eyes landed on Chi as if challenging him with his stare.
Chehon didn't know him nor heard anything of him but he suspected that he knows Krista very well. If his closeness to her was anything to go by.
Kai could only scoff at Ryou's statement. If anyone is over reacting it would be him, that guy didn't do anything but know Krista's whereabouts 24/7 since he asked him a favor.
"I'm heading out." He stared at Kai, before Kai give him an understanding nod. "Don't let Krissy see your mess."
Left bewildered of what has passed between those two, Chi walked to the kitchen to get the first aid kit leaving Kai to clean up the mess he first created.
-
A shadow walked inside the room making the captives squirm nervously in their seats. With only one bulb lighting the whole room, it increases the mysterious aura of the coming person. Still tugging the bindings at their back, even though they know it is useless. Their screams are muffled by the tape in their mouth as a dart embedded in each of their shoulders simultaneously, blood seeping in their torn shirts.
"L, we need to report this to boss now." A woman's voice echoed in the confined space, her figure mixing with the shadows.
"A little fun won't kill, V." Playing another dart on his hand, he raised it up, throw it and it grazed on the cheeks of the first captive, a thin streak of blood now visible.
"You missed." She stated bored.
"I never miss. I'm merely...leveling the play field." He said in a monotone voice, walking out of the room.
The woman followed. But before closing the door, something - someone fell down making the chair screeched loudly and the remaining two freezes in shock.
The side of her lips turned up as she closed the door. Leveling the play field be damned - the more captives, the more information they get.
Now, she'd have to make up something to cover that death. That man is making things hard as it is.
-
Ryou walked in the assault area immediately entering the room in front of where the captives are confined, a sound proof tinted glass between the rooms. A glass that only their side is clear yet the opposite one can't see them.
"What's the status?" He asked, keeping his eyes on the two people at the other side of the glass.
"We've only manage to track down two suspicious person in that club. Someone is still keeping track of the others that escaped. We had a hard time knowing who the members are since there are no indication that they are part of ZION - no tattoos, piercings, bandanas, rings ect. They look just like a normal person. And from what we've gathered they have no base and are just scattered."
Ryou almost rolled his eyes. Of course they’d have no indication of their membership. What’s the use of keeping the org a secret if they will put something that screams their name?
"Any casualties?"
The assault members looked at each other.
"Three were taken and we have no idea where their location is. The last signal of their tracking device was found near the sea. So our suspicion is that the captor knew and found a way to fake their track."
Ryou could only nod and straightened up, authority clear in his voice.
"Get someone to interrogate them, keep the tracking team on the move, ask someone from the stealth to help in tracking - any small details like the plate num, color or brand of the vehicle used etc is useful. Hack the cctv's in those places surely we'll know something from it." Even how small they'd be.
'First, inside KION. Now... something's up.'
Kai asked his help earlier. At first to watch over Krista, but now it seems like he is going back again to the place he fought hard to leave.
-
(Chehon's POV)
I am sitting in a place that is full of light - like it is lighted with a thousand of bulb but the place doesn't look like a room, it's more on an unending white all around me. Footsteps walked towards where I am, yet I couldn't figure out who this person is. His face is blurred. A shadow is a much fitted description of him.
He raised his arms showing me a book. The irony is that everything of him is blurry aside from the book he is showing. I remember now. This book is the one the nun in the orphanage always read to us. She always stresses the fact that all of our stories are one. How everything - how little they may be - is related.
The five people you meet in heaven
I don’t know what am I suppose to do with this thing. People kept arriving, patting my back, bidding goodbyes that made me more confused. Am I leaving the orphanage? Or is this even an orphanage?
The scene changes abruptly. It looks like a field, a hill side. People - shadows - around open and close their mouth as if they are talking yet I couldn't hear anything but a static sound of a machine like when someone dies.
My breathing became hard. The space is so open yet I feel like being confined in a closet with double locks. And all I could heard is a voice so familiar yet so unknown.
"Good Luck, son."
My eyes opened wide only to find myself in my room. Heaving a deep breath, I sat up looked around and spot the book - the same one in my, with lack of better word, dream. I can't exactly remember how I found it in my study table. I knew I left it at the secret compartment back at KION when Krista and I went there.
I got the book and stuck it inside my bag before taking a bath and eating. I still have to fetch Krista. Her class starts 7:30 while mine's 8.
The ride to the school was silent. I couldn't blame her after what Kai almost did. Parking my car, I turned to her to - idk, speak only to find her already outside the car and walking away.
Catching up, I let the silence linger. She would come to terms when she'd feel like it. And I doubt that it'll be later, she'd want to know what riled her brother up. The usual calm, controlled exterior of KION's new boss can't be shattered by just a mere reason of her going to a bar. Krista isn't that dense.
After an hour and half of discussion and activities, I bring out the book and start trying different methods to get the answer.
35, 5, 125-3, 14, 126, 124-6, 111, 90, 14, 150, 111, 111, 88, 5, 20-3, 90, 14, 9, 76, 111, 172, 90
Assigning a number to a specific letter - 35 as A, 5 as G, ect - doesn't match up because of the dashes like 125-3, 124-6 and 20-3. And there's about 9.54289566616822E16 or 95 the value higher than trillion (quadrillion) chances or possibilities - not counting the 3 character with dashes. So that one's out of the choices.
JCB doesn't apply in numbers. So another no.
I look back at the book. At first I thought that the book was only used to trigger something from me. But I think shallowly, widening the possibility I changed my thoughts. The connection of the book and the paper.
With that in mind, I started scanning the pages.
-
(Krista's POV)
It has been three days since that night at the club and also three days of Jurri's none stop apologizing - it wasn't her fault really. Chehon also kept his task of being my chaperon, a more noble term for driver or guard, making the other students suspicious of our relationship. Especially that Dre or as what Chi introduced him.
The Hest family came to our home Monday evening and I was thankful that Ryou was not around and slightly disappointed that also his sister Nika wasn't there, only Aunt and Uncle.
"Message me if you'll go to KION later, I'll go with you." Chehon reminded me.
"Mm." Nodding. I still can't get my mind of that afternoon. When I asked him to meet me in the seaside port and gave him my home made chocolate cake.
"You okay?" He started slowly. And if I won't get out of this now, he'd tease me 'bout it nonstop. He insisted that I'd ride with him home but I declined. Who'd drive my car if I'll go with him? So we settled that with him driving behind me so close that I’m tempted to stop abruptly just to test his speed reaction.
"Uhuh, yeah. Bye." I hurriedly walked towards my next subject.
That cake was sort of a thank you gift so he better not assume anything else.
After a while of walking, uneasiness creeps in. My skin prickled with awareness. The feeling you got when someone is watching you in the shadows. A-Uni isn't fully a place of kionians - there are normal people studying in here and maybe also some of them. I guess that's already expected. They're making their first move after all.
"Hey, watch it!"
The ruckus in the hallway got my attention. A tall lean guy towered over the shaking student lumped on the floor.
"Come on, Li. He's not worth the bother." Said the girl, whose skirt rode few inches than the normal uniform, tugging the guy in his sleeves.
The guy merely scoffed, slinging his arm in the girl's shoulder, before walking away, it looks like they're an item.
Rooted in my feet, I can't help but follow their figure. It has been awhile since I felt this. Like a déjà vu.
Sweat drip down my back when the guy turned and gave me a look that screams 'you're next'.