《THE MILLER'S FAMILY》 CONFLICT CONFLICT ¡°You don¡¯t realize that something¡¯s wrong with your family?¡± Annie asked in her usual raspy voice. I stayed quiet. I knew she was trying to get at something, but I just couldn¡¯t see it. It felt as if there was a mystical force resisting me from understanding the problem. ¡°We love and look after each other. What more do you expect?¡± Annie paused for a moment. ¡°You haven¡¯t seen your siblings in months, even when two of them are supposed to be in our goddamn school. You say you haven¡¯t talked to your parents in god knows how long even when all of you stay at the same place. So, how exactly do you look after each other?¡± ¡°Look, my family is not perfect, alright. No family is. I know we don¡¯t meet often but that¡¯s because each is busy with their own.¡± I tried to convince. Annie fell silent again. In any other situation, I would¡¯ve found her dull gray eyes staring at me, almost as if they were trying to pierce through my soul, cute. Right now it feels annoying. ¡°Do you want to play some soccer with me?¡± I asked, trying to steer the conversation away. ¡°Don¡¯t dodge the topic again, Steve. Your famil-¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to do anything about it, okay? We don¡¯t meet often, we don¡¯t talk often, and I am fine with it. Jesus, it¡¯s my goddamn family and you don¡¯t have to tell me what I should be doing.¡± I snapped. ¡°I really don¡¯t think it¡¯s true, but what if I don¡¯t have a loving family? I have friends who have my back like a family.¡± ¡°Friends are not family.¡± Annie commented nonchalantly. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t know that.¡± I paused. My breath got weary. My gut urged to not utter a single thing more, but it was too late. ¡°You don¡¯t have any friends, Annie.¡± I froze. The surrounding wind suddenly grew strong, as if it was the inception of a hurricane. Annie¡¯s hair flayed as they danced to the wind. It was only after I had finished did I realize I was angry too. And I had committed a grave mistake while being so. I had said something unacceptable. Something I will despise myself for. However, a rational part of me knew I was right. My girlfriend, Annie, wasn¡¯t exactly normal. She was one of the shy people in the class who avoided socializing as much as they could. She also had trouble expressing herself, in both words and body language. But that was what most people saw her as. Her shallow fa?ade. I saw the other side of her. THE REAL HER. And yet¡­ ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I wasn¡¯t thinking-¡° But before I could finish, she stormed off. I stared at her silhouette as it slowly walked away from me across the barren football field and dissolved into the dusk. I felt defeated. Heartbroken. I lost control over my tongue only for a moment and now I ruined it all. ¡°Steve?¡± I heard a familiar voice say from behind. I turned around and mouthed a ¡®hi¡¯ to my teammate Aiden. ¡°You alright man?¡± No, I¡¯m not. ¡°Yeah¡­ Yeah. I¡¯m alright.¡± Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°I didn¡¯t want to, but I ended up listening in on you guys.¡± He took a moment, then continued, ¡°I just wanted to say¡­ I¡¯ve got your back if you need any help. I¡¯m always here for you, alright brother?¡± ¡°Thanks, man.¡± How could I take his help? I am supposed to be the one they lean on when needed. When did I become so¡­ pathetic? ¡°How about I call up the others and we play a match?¡± Aiden asked. ¡°No man, I¡¯m fine. I¡¯ll go home now.¡± I grabbed my football kit and walked towards the exit. *** ¡®How could he say such a thing?¡¯ I threw the front door open and stomped across the living room into my bedroom. Slamming the door behind me, I jumped onto the bed, not worried about my dirty shoes or the heavy bag. I doubted anyone realized, other than my father and maybe Steve, that I was not feeling composed right now. I wasn¡¯t showing it. Probably¡­ I took a quick look at myself in the mirror, checking on my expression. Apart from a few tensed eyebrow muscles that were barely visible to anyone at all, my face was as stoic as ever. I fell back into my bed, deeming trivial things like my expression useless brain energy consumption, and switched to the problem at hand. I¡¯d be lying if I said I didn¡¯t have to subside my anger caused by Steve¡¯s snide while trying to figure out why he was so oblivious to his problem. How could he not understand such a simple thing? He knew next to nothing about his family. He doesn¡¯t know how he is so rich when none of his family members work or where his elder brother has been for the past few months or why he hasn¡¯t seen his younger siblings at school in the past 2 years. I probably overstepped in poking around, but I really couldn¡¯t bear a family drifting apart like that. I hate to accept it, but I am jealous of his family. When your dad is your entire family, you do tend to miss the non-existent members. And when I try to help him with something I don¡¯t have he- That son of a bitch. I exhaled a deep breath. I needed to find out more about his family. It was sketchy how much little information they had available. Their family name wasn¡¯t registered in the district¡¯s legal documents. There was absolutely no information about their family on the ¡®find-out-ur-ancestors¡¯ website although there was a whole ass ¡®forest¡¯ about people with the same family name. Hell, none of the family members have a social media account! (Atleast, I couldn¡¯t find them.) After a few more moments of thinking, I arrived at a decision. I shall infiltrate their house to find out more. To hell with abiding by the law. After changing from my uniform into an oversized black hoodie and black jeans and tying my hair back into a tight ponytail, I wore the black shades that I acquired while rummaging through my dad¡¯s wardrobe. To add a touch of additional safety, I wore a black mask over my face, covering most of the easily identifiable features. I also stuffed extra pillows I found under a rug and made sure it looked like a fast was fast asleep inside it. Just in case. And then I waited until it was quite dark. At 15 minutes past 8, I left home. After a 15 minute bus ride and another 10 minutes of reading every house¡¯s name plate, I finally stumbled upon the one that said ¡®The Miller¡¯s family¡¯. You see, I knew Steve was rich. I had a general idea of how rich too. After all, not everyone could afford to throw a party at a five star hotel for the entire class when they win a soccer match. There were even times when he didn¡¯t realize not everyone could afford what he could. Once he asked me why I had never invited him to my birthday parties from before we started dating even when he did. It shocked him to realize I was neither had or interested in spending that kind of money. But all those incidents made a LOT more sense now. Damn. He is not just rich. Steve is ¡®rich¡¯ rich. The house- *cough* pardon my poor ass; the mansion- *cough cough* excuse me once again; The humongous mansion stood at the center of a vast circle of clearing, about half a kilometer from the entry gate. Apart from the house itself, there stood multiple sheds and smaller houses. Even those houses weren¡¯t anything like my humble dwelling, though standing beside the mansion made them look tiny. The other side of the land the Millers owned seemed to blur into the local forest, making their boundaries unclear. A few more moments passed while I tried to comprehend how to go about it. I never had a solid plan. All along I was just going to climb over the gate and somehow get into the house, involving some spy movie-level strategies if necessary, but now that I was at the actual house¡­ that didn¡¯t seem very plausible given how far the house was from the main entrance and how easy it is to be spotted. But honestly, I didn¡¯t have any other plans either. Although this was so not me, I stuck with the dumb plan. I placed my hand over the big metal gate, took a deep breath, and began climbing the gate. Thanks to it not being one of those plain doors with no support, this one was one with metal bent into designs and stuff. You know, like one of those from the horror films gates. (Honestly, I think I¡¯ll just start giving movie references from now on so that I don¡¯t have to explain stuff in detail.) When I was halfway through my ascent, I observed something strange. The surrounding air suddenly quivered, first slightly, gaining vigor with each passing second. It took me some more time before I realized it wasn¡¯t the air that was vibrating¡­ it was, for a lack of better terms, reality itself. It looked similar to the flickering air above a flame, but on a fundamental level, they both felt very different. I couldn¡¯t say what it was right away, but I knew this was something beyond me. Suddenly, an invisible force thrust me away from the gate at a blinding speed, making me crash into the opposite wall. Before my mind could register the pain from the fall, I blacked out. A NEW FRIEND A NEW FRIEND After spending the entirety of Sunday brainstorming ideas to make up for my screw up on Saturday and missing my weekend Soccer training, I entered the class on Monday with my bag full of dark chocolates and a limited edition copy of Annie¡¯s recent favorite novel. But, surprisingly, Annie did not arrive until the third period. And when she did, she looked upset and shaken. ¡°Where were you on saturday''s night?¡± Annie asked during the morning 15 minute break. I half expected her to give me the cold shoulder for a few days after what happened the day before. Although, I must add that, I preferred this to not being able to talk to her. ¡°Home?¡± I replied, a little taken aback by her question. ¡°What were you doing?¡± She immediately shot another question, curiosity seeping through her voice. ¡°Aaaa. Do you want me to be completely honest with you?¡±. I waited until I got a nod as a reply and then continued, ¡°I was wondering how I could apologize.¡± It was embarrassing to put into words and tell it to the very person, but she now at least knows that I am apologetic for what I did. I noticed her lips curve upwards at their ends only for a moment, and back to their normal the next. She stared at my face for a few seconds, considering her responses and finally said, ¡°I forgive you.¡± With that little statement all the guilt that suffocated until then vanished as if a curse was lifted. In the moment my body jumped at her and my lips tried to kiss hers, but she dodged out of the way. "I¡¯m gonna go meet my friends." *** The bell rang, and promptly the teacher left the class and soon the students followed suit. It was lunch and if it weren¡¯t for yesterday¡¯s incident, I¡¯d probably be on my way to the cafeteria alongside Steve. But now, I found it hard to approach him and he wanted to keep distance from me for the fear of making me uncomfortable. My boyfriend might¡¯ve planned on apologizing during lunch because I spotted chocolates in his bag, mostly meant to bribe me into a better mood. Now I had foiled his plans by throwing him into a non-deterministic state of if I was still mad at him or if we were back to normal. Nice. In the corner of my eye, I saw Steve trying to steel his resolve to talk to me. Noticing this, I grabbed my bag and speedily walked off into the girl¡¯s washroom. The washroom was about to get crowded, so I locked myself away in solitude in one of the stalls. Sitting on the closed seat, my thoughts yet again wandered to Saturday¡¯s night. There were so many questions. How the hell is Steve¡¯s family so loaded to afford such a lavish mansion and not be famous? I mean, Steve is famous at school, but that is for entirely different reasons. He¡¯s handsome, plays sports, and is friends with practically everyone. But his family? No one knew much about the Millers. My common sense says that they should be a lot more popular given how rich they are. Then there was that thing that knocked me out. What was it? An invisible force? Can I even call it ''The force'' without an attorney? I don¡¯t know the answers to those questions and many more. I ran my hand through my hair and felt the bump on the back of my head. For the tenth time today and probably the thousandth time since yesterday it was proven to not be a dream. The most worrying and frightening issue of all was that after I blacked out, I somehow woke up in my room yesterday morning. I was still in the same clothes and there was no evidence of breaking into my house. I subtly tried asking my dad if he had seen or heard something, but my interrogating skills weren¡¯t good enough to get any sort of answer. What I learned from him was that he came home late the day before and went straight to bed after he checked I was fast asleep. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Since he could not give me a solid time for when he got back, he either saw the impromptu pillows-under-rug me or the blacked-out-by-an-invisible-force me. The scary part was that whoever brought me in knew where I lived and had a way to move in and out without a hitch. It was a shame that we did not equip my house with cameras. I noted to myself that I should convince my dad to install some in the future. As a safety check, I searched every inch of my body for any marks, but found none. Whoever it was, wasn¡¯t interested in my body. At least that¡¯s what my investigation gave away. Maybe I wasn''t their type? I don¡¯t know how to feel about that. My thoughts were interrupted when I heard a knock on the stall¡¯s door. I looked at my watch and realized it had been a solid ten minutes since I had locked myself in here. I got off the seat and wore my bag over my shoulders. Reaching the lock, I paused when I heard a familiar voice. ¡°Annabelle, are you in there?¡± ARGH, that bitch again. I remained quiet and simply stood there. The girl on the other side knocked repeatedly until I announced, ¡°Occupied!¡±. I heard a loud gasp on the other side, followed by multiple giggles. ¡°Oh, my gawd! I guessed right! I told you nobody else wears those ridiculous shoes like her.¡± said the same familiar voice. While the girl group on the other side of the stall continued giggling, I simulated multiple possibilities based on experiences and came forth with a solution for each situation. For most simulations, the solutions were common. The same method I used multiple times and gained quite a lot of experience in. The giggles quieted down. Another voice said, ¡°She doesn¡¯t respond when you call her Annabelle. Call her ¡®Hobo¡¯.¡± ¡°Hey, hobo! How are you doing? Heard Steve dumped you! Hahaha ha-¡° I lost patience and opened the door and came face to face with the speaker. Leila, the school¡¯s most popular girl, stared back at me with glee in her eyes. Beside her was the typical mean girl gang from every high school drama. Including Leila there were 5 members in the clique; 4 long time members and a new addition- Julie. Leila had the looks for being popular. The athletic physique from being the captain of track and field and the pretty face from her genes fared well with the boys. But no boy would dare date her because pretty much all know about this two faced bitch. She was a bully and most did not like it. From all the dramas I¡¯d watched and novels I¡¯d read, I thought guys were more accepting of bullying, but turns out my references were wrong. "Hey hobo, you were eating your lunch in there, weren''t you?" Said one of the ''not-even-side-character'' girls from the group. "You don''t have enough clout in the group for me to take you seriously. Maybe try makeup, that might help." I said with a poker face. Leila ignored my insult towards her lackey and stepped in front of me, "Heard Steve dumped you." News sure travels wrong and fast. Maybe someone saw us arguing yesterday? "At least he wasn''t cheating on me with a teacher." I said. Angered by my reply, Leila grabbed my hair and pulled my face close to hers and whispered, "I will kill you if you ever bring that up again." Unfazed by her threats I asked, "Yeah, I will definitely not talk about how your dad has an affair with our homeroom teacher." Leila let go of my hair and stepped back. Tears welled up in her eyes. This is the best part about school. Schools are basically walls containing tons of insensitive brats with wild imaginations that concoct painful rumors like it¡¯s their profession. ¡°Hold this bitch!¡± Leila ordered. Most of the members of the gang pounced on me. Two of the girls latched onto both my hands and forced them behind my back, making them immobile. Another girl held onto my waist tightly, leaving me unable to resist. Leila and Julie stood back and watched. Once Leila was convinced I couldn¡¯t move, she fished out a pair of scissors out of her stationary supplies and held it to my hair, grinning maniacally. ¡°So, how do you want your haircut, Annabelle Whore-witz? How about I cut it down to about 2 inches right on top of your head?¡± Leila held a good chunk of hair and positioned the scissors. Suddenly Julie stepped forward and swiped the scissors out of Leila¡¯s hands. Julie dragged her aside and whispered for a minute. Leila then grabbed a bottle filled with water. She stepped close to me, a menacing smile pasted on her face and emptied the bottle onto my shoes and simply left. *** I arrived at the cafeteria in my uncomfortably drenched socks and shoes half an hour after the incident. I had only a few minutes left before my next class so I immediately got some lunch, and chose to quickly finish it in one of the quiet corners. While I was in the queue for food, I looked around, searching for Steve, but I couldn¡¯t find him anywhere, so I let my guard down a little. After a few moments, a girl arrived at the same table and sat in front of me. ¡°Hi, I am Emma.¡± She introduced herself with a polite smile. ¡°Hi,¡± I said reflexively, unsure how to react to the sudden introduction. ¡°Emma.¡± she repeated, as if waiting for a reaction. After a few seconds, she tried again. ¡°Emma Miller.¡± Emma Miller? Steve¡¯s younger sister? ¡°¡­ Oh. Oh, hi. Nice- Nice to meet you.¡± I fumbled for words as I tried to gather my thoughts in order. The girl in front of me was a mystery. Until now, at least. From what Steve knew and said about his family, I recollected this girl was 2 years younger than Steve, in her 10th grade now. Although she was in the same school as Steve (and so was her twin brother), I had never seen her before. Surprisingly, neither had Steve. And he didn¡¯t seem to be bothered by that fact at all. Emma is a cute girl, sharing some traits with her elder brother- like the blonde hair and blue eyes. But unlike her well-built brother, Emma is frail. Straight bangs covered her broad scalp and the long hair tied back into a knot. "Steve isn''t eating with you?" She asked. "Um, no." I continued, "By the way, I am Annabelle. Annabelle Horwitz." "Anyways, I need a help from you." The girl said excitedly. Another person arrived at the table with their meal and sat beside the girl. It was a chubby boy, about Emma''s age, with ginger hair and brown eyes. Just as he sat down, he started stuffing his face with food. "He is Nathan." She said, mildly annoyed by her friend. "Hi." The chubby boy paid no attention to my greeting and continued to relish his meal. I looked back at Emma and asked, "You were saying something?" "Not now." The chubby boy continued to gobble food like a glutton until he was finished and Emma nibbled at her own meal, staring at her friend from time to time and occasionally engaging me in small talk. I reached out to my phone numerous times to call for Emma''s older brother, but hesitation got in the way. Soon our lunch break ended. The girl got up from her seat and pulled at her friend''s hair, "Let''s go, you idiot." The boy obliged. The girl then greeted me and walked away followed by her partner and just before they disappeared into the crowd, the girl said, "I''ll tell you about what happened on saturday¡¯s night the next time we meet!" WING WOMAN "I need to meet your sister." I said, looking at Steve dead in the eye. He froze and I''m pretty sure his mind went blank. "I said I need to meet your sister." I repeated, pulling him back to earth. "No, I heard you the first time. I just don''t get why?" he whispered back. "That''s none of your business." "I''m not helping then." He replied. I knew that it wouldn''t be easy, so I had come prepared. I paused for some time on purpose and fidgeted around pretending to be uncomfortable, then in a weak voice I said, "It''s a girl thing." His mind went blank yet again. He continued gawking at me trying to come up with a reply until, "Mr. Miller, mind paying attention?" the teacher called him out. He sat back in his seat and pretended like he was listening to the class. I did the same. Me trying to find Emma was like a cat trying to catch a laser point. Except for Steve and me, no one at school knew she even existed. No one knew about her in her class. Not even her homeroom teacher. Her friend, Idiot- like she called him, was just as mysterious as the former. The girl did say that she would tell me about what happened that night the next time we met, but I couldn''t stay waiting. I needed to know what happened. Quick. While I tried to play detective and find Emma a thought came across my mind. What if that girl wasn''t even Steven''s real sister. Yes, I did find them similar, but that was only after she mentioned that she was his sibling. What would be even worse is if I am just delusional and imagining stuff. The thought was so distasteful and terrible that I shoved it away immediately. I needed to believe that whatever happened was real. Soon the bell rang and students rushed to the cafeteria like usual. Unusually, Steve left with the rest of the class even when I asked him to wait for me. Well, considering how loud my voice can get, he wouldn''t have heard it, but he should''ve waited for me nonetheless. I even ran out of the class to chase after him but he disappeared. Just like his (supposedly) sister. School ended for the day without another conversation with Steve. He continued evading me with his family''s generational skill: disappear without a trace. With no Steve around, I had plenty of time to waste. I didn¡¯t want to go home right away just to spend hours alone with nothing to do at hand. So I decided to visit the nearby park. Okay, it wasn¡¯t a spur of the moment decision. I used to come here and spend time until sundown before I got into my current relationship. If you are thinking there was something special about this park, you are mistaken. This park isn¡¯t anything special. It isn¡¯t special to me either. It¡¯s just that parks in general are calm, warm and with people around that like to mind their own business. With exceptions, of course. In conclusion, spending time at a park was like eating cereal for breakfast for me. There¡¯s nothing special about it, it¡¯s just comfortable, but there is some innate speciality in the quitenes- ¡°Hi Annie!¡± A familiar figure sat beside me on the park bench. It took me a moment to recognize her without the uniform, but thanks to her features, it didn¡¯t take long. There was no mistaking it, Emma is Steve¡¯s sister. ¡°What happened that night?!¡± I demanded, without beating around the bush. ¡°I will. But I need you to help me out with something first.¡± She said, red seeping into her face. ¡°Only after you tell me.¡± I said commandingly. ¡°How about I give you a teaser of what happened, and after you help me I tell you the whole story? ¡± She negotiated. I could¡¯ve tried a little harder to make her tell the story right away, but I didn¡¯t want to risk her walking away cause she sensed a bad deal. ¡°Fine by me.¡± Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. She said, ¡°On the night you tried to sneak into my house and failed, I was watching you through the security cameras all along.¡± I nodded, waiting for her to continue, which she didn¡¯t. ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± ¡°Yeh, that¡¯s it.¡± She replied. Reading disappointment on my face she quickly said, ¡°I¡¯ll show you the footage if you help me.¡± After 5 minutes of back-and-forth between me (trying to make her tell right away) and her (trying to get me to help her) I decided to give up and go along with her. Man, this girl is more vehement than I am. All the boldness she showed so far crumbled and her face flushed in red. She started mildly fidgeting, ¡°I want you to help me set up a date with Nathan.¡± she said, sheepishly. ¡°Who?¡± ¡°Nathan. The guy I introduced you to yesterday in the cafeteria.¡± Oh, his name is Nathan. Wait, she liked that fat kid whom she berates? Damn. I¡¯m trying not to be fat-phobic, but damn. Kid¡¯s got better luck than most average looking guys from my class. ¡°Just ask him out.¡± I suggested. After a moment of silence, I realized the problem and continued, ¡°I know, it¡¯s hard to get the courage, but he will never know unless you tell him how you feel. You might fear him turning you down, but-¡± ¡°Oooooo. Why should I be the one asking? As a man he should be the one asking me out and taking me on dates. He does absolutely nothing- that worthless boy. He doesn¡¯t even pick up when I phone him. He says, ¡®Oh- I was busy cracking a website, didn¡¯t notice your call¡¯. I would¡¯ve sent him 30 messages by then asking why he wasn¡¯t picking up the call, cause I¡¯m concerned, obviously. But even that is a problem for him. He acts as if I am suffocating him or something. Why can¡¯t he just be normal and just ask me out? Why should I be doing everything? Why does he not even phone me on his own?...¡± Oh. I realized that my realization was wrong. This girl¡­ I bestow upon her the title ¡®Tsundere¡¯. But looking at how fast she is able to climb the ¡®psychotic¡¯ scale, she might even upgrade to ¡®Yandere¡¯. Poor kid. I probably should convince Emma that privacy and private space are a thing, being the older and mature one, but I wanted to get done with it as soon as possible. ¡°When do you want to go on the date?¡± I asked, when she paused to take a breath from all the complaining she had done. ¡°Today!¡± She declared. ¡°Where is this Nathan kid right now?¡± We headed to the library and Emma showed me where Nathan was. She stood back and watched from a distance while I conversed with him. ¡°Hello Nathan.¡± I greeted the bespectacled chubby kid who was so engrossed in his laptop that he jumped out when I called his name. ¡°Do I know you, miss?¡± He asked politely. ¡°We met yesterday in the Cafeteria remember?¡± I said. He bobbed his round head to the side and rested his chin on his palm, trying to remember. Suddenly he threw open his eyes, saying, ¡°I remember you! You are Emma¡¯s friend. You are Lana, right?¡± ¡°Annabelle.¡± I corrected his mistake. ¡°Close enough. So what brings you here?¡± He asked cheerfully. ¡°I booked two tickets for a movie this evening. I planned on going with Emma¡¯s brother, but I don¡¯t think he will show up. So I was thinking you and Emma could go instead.¡± I pulled out the tickets that Emma handed me in the park. ¡°Oh. Don¡¯t worry about that, I can go to the cinema''s website and get you a refund.¡± He replied. He immediately opened up the website and pulled up some kind of green colored interface and began typing furiously. Emma, who had been listening in on our conversation on a call panickedly said through the earphone, ¡°Make him stop! Tell him you don¡¯t want a refund!¡± ¡°No. No. I don¡¯t want a refund.¡± Nathan paused in his tracks and innocently asked, ¡°Then?¡± ¡°I want you to watch the movie along with Emma.¡± I bluntly stated. ¡°Hmmm¡­¡± He then looked me dead in the eye and asked, ¡°How about you and I go instead?¡± *** It took a lot more effort than I had expected for Nathan to take Emma on that movie date. Taking into account how cute Emma is, regardless of her personality, anyone would accept a movie date with her in a heartbeat. But not Nathan, apparently. He kept dodging my request for him to take her out. Instead, he asked me if I wanted to go with him, which angered Emma so much that she dropped her cover and came stomping towards us. She then ordered Nathan to come along for the movie in the most disdainful manner humanly possible. Then without a word Emma left alongside Nathan, without fulfilling her end of the deal. I tried talking to Emma before they left, but her glare was so fierce, I decided otherwise. Later, I sent a couple of messages and phoned her numerous times, but to no avail. The girl wouldn¡¯t reply. Two days passed without a word from her or her brother. In all honesty, Steve wasn¡¯t actively trying to avoid me, unlike his sister. It is Friday evening. I layed in my bed, feeling slightly groggy after I had finished reading ¡°I¡¯m so hot, I¡¯m the sun¡±. I had gotten back from school early today because Steve was busy with his Soccer practice today as well. He hasn¡¯t talked much to me since our fight about a week ago on the soccer field, but I think it is more to do with his upcoming tournament than him still being sulky. While I lazed on my bed, my dad put his efforts into cleaning the house. He was so into it that the vacuum cleaner hadn¡¯t been turned off for a few hours now. Amongst the chaotic thunderous noise of the antique vacuum cleaner and an equally chaotic room, I lay in disbelief, as more and more questions churned into existence in my mind. Two days prior, when Emma wanted to ask me for help, how did she know that I was there in that park? Was it a coincidence? I think not. And what about the fact that Nathan casually said he would go to a website and simply do something about the refund? I mean, he might¡¯ve been referring to some sort of cancellation of the tickets and getting a refund, but my intuition said otherwise. Hm¡­ the very existence of the Millers family was a mystery and so was everything associated with it. Wait, if that¡¯s true, since I am also associated with the Millers, am I mysterious and weird as well? What if I am, and I don¡¯t even realize it? The doorbell rang and my dad finally turned the vacuum cleaner off and got the door. ¡°Annie, your friend is here for you!¡± He yelled from the living room. Steve? I rushed to the door and found Emma standing there, with a warm smile on her face. ¡°Hi Annie.¡± She greeted me. ¡°Today¡¯s my birthday. There¡¯s a little dinner party at my place tonight, so I came to invite you. My brother will come pick you up.¡± Without waiting for a reply, she left. DINNER DINNER It took a lot more effort than I had expected for Nathan to take Emma on that movie date. Taking into account how cute Emma is, regardless of her personality, anyone would accept a movie date with her in a heartbeat. But not Nathan, apparently. He kept dodging my request for him to take her out. Instead, he asked me if I wanted to go with him, which angered Emma so much that she dropped her cover and came stomping towards us. She then ordered Nathan to come along for the movie in the most disdainful manner humanly possible. Then without a word Emma left alongside Nathan, without fulfilling her end of the deal. I tried talking to Emma before they left, but her glare was so fierce, I decided otherwise. Later, I sent a couple of messages and phoned her numerous times, but to no avail. The girl wouldn¡¯t reply. Two days passed without a word from her or her brother. In all honesty, Steve wasn¡¯t actively trying to avoid me, unlike his sister. It is Friday evening. I layed in my bed, feeling slightly groggy after I had finished reading ¡°I¡¯m so hot, I¡¯m the sun¡±. I had gotten back from school early today because Steve was busy with his Soccer practice today as well. He hasn¡¯t talked much to me since our fight about a week ago on the soccer field, but I think it is more to do with his upcoming tournament than him still being sulky. While I lazed on my bed, my dad put his efforts into cleaning the house. He was so into it that the vacuum cleaner hadn¡¯t been turned off for a few hours now. Amongst the chaotic thunderous noise of the antique vacuum cleaner and an equally chaotic room, I lay in disbelief, as more and more questions churned into existence in my mind. Two days prior, when Emma wanted to ask me for help, how did she know that I was there in that park? Was it a coincidence? I think not. And what about the fact that Nathan casually said he would go to a website and simply do something about the refund? I mean, he might¡¯ve been referring to some sort of cancellation of the tickets and getting a refund, but my intuition said otherwise. Hm¡­ the very existence of the Millers family was a mystery and so was everything associated with it. Wait, if that¡¯s true, since I am also associated with the Millers, am I mysterious and weird as well? What if I am, and I don¡¯t even realize it? The doorbell rang and my dad finally turned the vacuum cleaner off and got the door. ¡°Annie, your friend is here for you!¡± He yelled from the living room. Steve? I rushed to the door and found Emma standing there, with a warm smile on her face. ¡°Hi Annie.¡± She greeted me. ¡°Today¡¯s my birthday. There¡¯s a little dinner party at my place tonight, so I came to invite you. My brother will come pick you up.¡± Without waiting for a reply, she left. *** I fidgeted nervously, waiting for Steve to pick me up. As per our plan, he was to be at my home by 6 pm, but because of other unforeseen complications, I changed it to 7. The complication, a.k.a my dad, was suddenly overprotective of me because I was going to my boyfriend¡¯s house. He spent about 30 minutes drilling the fact that if Steve tried something funny, he would skin my boyfriend alive. I turned to my dad, who flinched and looked away when our eyes met. Then he started staring at the vehicles on the road as if he was trying to avoid an uncomfortable situation¡­ He wasn¡¯t very successful at that. The air was already heavy with tension. And my dad¡¯s upcoming meeting with Steve didn¡¯t help ease it. My dad took an audibly loud breath and then said, ¡°Annie¡­ um, don¡¯t you think maybe you should get yourself a jacket? It looks like it¡¯s going to be a cold night.¡± ¡°Nope, I¡¯m fine this way,¡± I replied with a shrug. To be honest, taking a jacket with me would be a rational decision, considering I wore a sleeveless black top and light blue jeans. If the night indeed got cold, it would be an annoyance. But I didn¡¯t want to spoil my appearance either. Not that this was anything incredible, it looked decent and wearing a jacket would just make it bland. ¡°You¡¯ll catch a cold.¡± He said, making a point. ¡°I know. But I have nothing that matches.¡± ¡°The blue jacket would look good.¡± ¡°First off, that¡¯s not a jacket, it¡¯s a sweatshirt. And second, no, it won¡¯t go along with this dress. It¡¯s an oversized sweatshirt.¡± ¡°You¡¯d look really cute in that, though!¡± He tried. ¡°Dad, I don¡¯t want to look like I¡¯m drowning in that sweatshirt . Drop that, won¡¯t you?¡± I annoyed-ly responded. He quieted down for some time. ¡°You never told me what Steve is like.¡± I paused, trying to process the sudden question. After sorting my thoughts, I answered. ¡°He is nice. Kind. Handsome. And rich.¡± ¡°He¡¯s rich?¡± He repeated, with obvious distaste in his voice. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Very,¡± I said with confidence. Dad took a long look at me and sighed. Rubbing his temples, he continued, ¡°Whatever. I¡¯ll still screw him over if he makes you even slightly uncomfortable.¡± It wasn¡¯t until much later that I remembered that this wasn¡¯t a date with Steve, instead it was Emma¡¯s birthday party. Soon, a car stopped in front of our house. Steve stepped out, wearing an elegant black suit, paired with black shoes. His silky blond hair combed backward, unlike his usual ¡®Too-lazy-to-comb-let-the-hair-go-brrrr¡¯. The clean-shaved face, missing the prior peachy strands of facial hair that I was used to, looked cuter than ever. The boy walked towards us and greeted my dad first with a polite but confident handshake and threw a glance my way. He put his heart into this. Even the smell of his perfume emitted an aura of dignity. His attire showed just how serious he was about impressing my dad. Hmm, looks like the gods have planned on making me lose my v-card today. Sorry dad, it probably will be me who is going to try something funny. My dad took Steve¡¯s hand, gripping it firmly, making his assertion of dominance painfully obvious. ¡°I have heard a great many things about you, Steve.¡± ¡°That¡¯s nice to hear. Thank you.¡± He said politely, albeit sounding a tad bit nervous. Before my father could say anything further, I interrupted, ¡°Um, dad, we need to be going. See you later.¡± My dad¡¯s face immediately drooped into a melancholic expression. God, he is such a drama queen. I grabbed Steve by his hand and walked to the car. Dad followed us to the car and before we drove off, he simply finished with, ¡°Keep my daughter safe. And I want her to be back by 10.¡± On our arrival at the Millers residence the gates opened automatically when the car got closer. I shuddered slightly, remembering the past incident, but this time we passed without a problem. The car stopped in the driveway and Steve insisted on opening the car door for me. He was trying to show his ¡®chivalry¡¯, apparently. The driveway curved and opened onto the doorstep of a majestic house, so big it took up the totality of my field of vision. Following the driveway further, it led away from the house, where a pretty enormous building stood, which I assumed to be the garage. There were multiple other buildings on the other side of the garage, but before I could bother myself with trying to deduce their utility, Steve ushered me into his house. The entrance itself was as big as my house, after which I decided to not pay much attention to the place, for I too was prone to envy. I followed Steve in a daze, parallelly reminding myself of all the questions I needed to ask Emma. After we arrived, Steve introduced me to his family sitting at the huge dining table. And weirdly, there was absolutely no one else, other than their family. Wasn¡¯t this supposed to be a birthday party or something? After some wishes to Emma and a cake cutting ceremony (that¡¯s what the royalty call it, apparently), we went on to have dinner. It was the most extravagant and delicious meal I have ever had in my entire life. Period. The dinner dragged on for a while. Even after the dinner was over we sat at the table and talked about various things. Well, they talked. It felt less like a birthday party and more like a family reunion. The way they talked to each other made my doubts even more concrete. The family consisted of six people, but only five of them were at the table for dinner. The father of the family is a big man, who showed his love for beer as he chugged mug after mug of it, filling his round belly until he reeked of it. Occasionally he cracked an authentic dad joke and then gave the rest a huge smile with a puffed chest and expectant eyes waiting for someone to laugh, like a dog waiting for its owner to pet it. Sadly, no one would. After several such failed attempts and multiple mugs of beer, the dad laid his bald head on the table and instantly started snoring. The mother of the family was quite the opposite. From her meek voice to her slight gestures and the way she did absolutely everything screamed lady-like. Apparently she cooked the luxurious meal herself, which came as a surprise. Given the huge mansion I expected them to have butlers and maids, like the royalty. My disappointment aside, the mother was a great cook. And she looked amazing too! She literally ticked all the boxes for proper wifey material. Hot, mature and kind woman that probably looks 10 years younger than her actual age. An amazing cook. A caring mom. What is stopping guys from not lining up for her? Being married? Don¡¯t make me laugh. The younger sister, Emma, sat beside me and was the most talkative during the dinner. Most of it was taunting her twin brother for being useless and trying her best to know how far down me and Steve were in our relationship. One interesting thing was when her dad asked her about how her school went, she somehow steered that conversation into the parents telling Steve and I to practice safe sex. That girl was as manipulative as one could get. Her twin brother, Eric, was¡­ the exact opposite of Emma. Eric was a quiet, nonchalant boy that pretended to be listening to the conversation, when in fact he wasn''t. Even his appearance said that he wasn''t all that interested to be present at the table. He showed up in sweatpants and a faded green tee with orange smudges all over it. Eric was so uninterested that when he was dragged into the conversation by Emma, he mostly killed the topic after a dry and concise answer, trying his damn hardest to not utter a single extra syllable than necessary. Hm¡­ this kid''s personality is a little too reminiscent of yours truly. Is he my real soulmate? Ugh, why is my mind like this? There was a momentary discussion about the absent elder brother, Adam, but just like I was unaware of why he didn''t show up, their family was too. They didn''t even know when the last time they saw him was. Eventually, that topic ended when the father said that he would make a call later. Throughout the dinner, I saw Steve staring at me from the corner of my eye, but he would turn away when our eyes met. Eventually the dinner ended and Emma pulled me into her room, telling everyone else that she needed to talk to me about something. Locking the door behind us, she sat me down on a chair in her dimly lit room. Emma then turned on her computer and proceeded to show me the surveillance footage of that day without saying a word. The video started with me beginning to climb the gate. And then, just like I had remembered, an invisible force pushed me away. In the peripheral view I saw Emma tense up. After I was knocked out¡­ a similarly invisible force lifted me off the ground? Then it continued to carry me out of frame. ¡°Why did you check the surveillance footage?¡± I broke the silence that settled upon the room since the video ended. ¡°I thought I heard something, so I decided to check the footage¡­ And then I found this.¡± Emma replied gloomily. Both of us fell silent again. ¡°Annie, it¡¯s 9:30.¡± I heard Steve¡¯s muffled voice through the door. Steve drove me back home after I bid my farewell to the family and a really awkward handshake with Eric about which he was skeptically insistent. ¡°You are not mad at me anymore, right?¡± Steve asked on the way home. ¡°Well, I am.¡± I replied. Steve¡¯s face became unpleasant suddenly. ¡°You told me nothing about this dinner thing earlier today.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t know about it until 5.30 either. Emma insisted that I needed to pick you up, and when I asked why, then she told me about the dinner plan and how everyone else was coming too. ¡± After a few minutes Steve spoke again, ¡°My family isn¡¯t as weird as you pictured it to be, right?¡± I nodded my head in agreement. ¡°See, I told you. You were worried about nothing.¡± We reached home by 9.40 and my boyfriend left after some small talk with my father, which was basically my father making sure I had no complaints with Steve and threatening Steve in advance for further dates. After my boyfriend left, my dad sat me down and told me he needed to talk. He turned on his laptop and presented me with a newspaper article on a website dated from 19 years ago. The article read:
Shocking Murder Shakes Mellston Town: Alleged Culprit Surrenders, Links to Infamous ''Gain Gang'' Leader
By Carl Pearsi, Mellston Gazette Staff Writer | August 9, 1992 Mellston Town ¡ª In a startling turn of events, a gruesome murder unfolded in a quiet alley of Mellston Town yesterday, leaving the community both baffled and relieved. William Miller, 26, walked into the local police station and surrendered himself, confessing to a murder. The police suspect the murdered individual to be the notorious leader of the ''Gain Gang,'' Dominic "The Gainsman" Rossi. The incident occurred in District Whisperbruk, where the Gain Gang had held the region under its sinister grip for the past six years. Authorities have yet to release the specific cause of death but confirmed that the victim had suffered fatal injuries. Law enforcement officials are currently interrogating Mr. Miller to determine the motives behind his actions. While the Gain Gang had been responsible for a series of heinous crimes, ranging from racketeering to extortion, the specifics of what led Mr. Miller to allegedly kill the unidentified individual are unknown. Authorities are actively investigating the matter and have yet to confirm the accuracy of Miller''s confession. Meanwhile, the district remains on edge, awaiting further updates from the police regarding the true motives behind the murder that has shaken Mellston Town to its core. The ''Gain Gang,'' which controlled the Whisperbruk district through fear and intimidation, had managed to evade capture by local law enforcement for years. The Sheriff said, ¡°If the unidentified individual happens to be Dominic Rossi, either the gang''s reign of terror might finally be over, or the district might have to face the repercussions from the remnants of the gang.¡±
DEVELOPMENTS DEVELOPMENTS ¡°I need to visit the washroom.¡± I said. Steve gently uncurled his hand that was around me and comically waved his hand. As I walked away from him, I could tell that he was missing me already. After the day before yesterday¡¯s birthday party at Steve¡¯s house, which I should rather be calling a reunion, Steve magically forgot about the awkwardness we priorly had. Which was a good thing, considering we didn¡¯t have to go through the cumbersome reconciliation phase. But the issue was the recent developments that I learnt about his family. I sensed that we would go back to the state we were in two days ago if I brought up the article about his dad. Which meant I couldn¡¯t directly ask him. Unfortunately, there were no further articles to follow up on the case either. No other articles were ever written about that case. I searched through the town¡¯s digital library looking up the newspapers in that month and there wasn¡¯t another mention of William Miller. The next best thing was asking people if they remembered about that incident. My father knew nothing about it as he had only come to this town 14 years ago as a refugee who fled due to a civil war. I wanted to ask my neighbors, but social anxieties are a thing, you know. The situation was just as frightening as suspicious. If somehow William or some other figure were able to control the newspapers from publishing articles about the case from the shadows, how much of an influence must they have had? It was a murder case of a person who was suspected of being the leader of an infamous gang, and yet the public went shush. I read about the ¡®Gain gang¡¯ and it turns out they were a group of individuals that proclaimed themselves to be vigilantes, but they were just plain evil. They started out as robbers that would rob only from the rich, akin to a certain famous fictitious character, but soon they began doing things that movie villains would, from drugs to human trafficking. If there was anything illegal to do, they would do it. The identity of most members of the ¡®Gain gang¡¯ were learnt after Steve¡¯s dad¡¯s murder, but four of the member¡¯s identities are unknown to this day. Surprisingly, that includes the leader of the ¡®Gain Gang¡¯. From the contents of the articles about the ¡®Gain Gang¡¯ members, I feel like it is safe to assume that the person whom William Miller allegedly killed wasn¡¯t Dominic Rossi. Or maybe not. They just never confirmed that it was the leader who was killed. Hmm. Interesting. What if William Miller is the leader and framed it as if he isn¡¯t? Does that mean Steve¡¯s dad is a really bad person? Or was? To be honest that kind of explains why the Millers are so loaded, but I couldn''t jump to conclusions just yet. I brushed through my curly brown hair and adjusted it a bit. It changed absolutely nothing about my look, but I felt better after doing it. Guess it¡¯s a girl thing? I don¡¯t know. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. I heard my phone ring, so I picked it up. ¡°Hello, Annie!¡± Emma greeted me through the phone. ¡°Hey.¡± I said, devoid of the excitement that she ever radiated. ¡°Annie, I need your help!¡± Should I tell her about the article? What if the kids don¡¯t know about it? What if their parents didn¡¯t tell them for a reason? Wouldn¡¯t it psychologically affect them to learn that their parent is a murderer? ¡°I want you help me make Nathan take-¡± ¡°Where are you right now?¡± I interrupted. ¡°Uh- Home. Why?¡± Emma replied. ¡°When was the last time you came to school?¡± ¡°The first day I met you.¡± ¡°And before that?¡± ¡°Uh-¡± She paused. ¡°Why?¡± So my intuition was indeed right. Emma had almost never come to school before, no wonder why Steve or her classmates never saw her. She only recently came to find me, possibly because of the surveillance footage. ¡°Do your parents know that you don¡¯t attend school?¡± I asked. After a long silence Emma replied, ¡°No.¡± ¡°And what about attendance?¡± Our school was extremely strict when it came to attendance. At the end of every month the teacher would visit the student¡¯s house to talk to their parents if the student has an attendance less than 60%. For someone like Emma, who never attended school, hiding the fact from her parents would be a huge problem. Emma confessed, ¡°Nathan wrote a code that hacked into the school¡¯s website that updates our attendance at the end of each day.¡± ¡°Huh? Nahan did what?¡± my incredulous tone tore through my calm facade. It logically made sense for a code like that to work, but my common sense remained in denial that a kid two years younger than me would be able to do it. Tech prodigies at his age weren¡¯t entirely unheard of, but someone of that caliber would be more popular than Nathan, don¡¯t you think? ¡°Nathan is an incredibly good hacker. He is a genius!¡± ¡°He sure is.¡± After several more minutes of talking, I decided to pretend that Nathan is a kid with excellent talent in hacking, without much proof. ¡°Then, can he hack a bank?¡± I asked satirically. ¡°...Maybe? Even if he can do it, it doesn¡¯t mean he will. He doesn¡¯t like doing bad things.¡± Emma replied, skepticism evident in her voice. Having noticed that my pathetically bad satire didn¡¯t work, I changed the topic. ¡°Alright. Here¡¯s a question for you. Have you ever seen your dad or your mom go to work?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°How are you so rich then?¡± I asked. ¡°We aren¡¯t ri-¡± I interrupted, ¡°You are rich. Regardless of whether you believe you are rich or not, I can swear that you are. My question is, how are you so rich even when both your parents don¡¯t work.¡± Emma must¡¯ve taken at least a little offense by the way I framed my thoughts, but it didn¡¯t matter. ¡°Generational wealth?¡± She replied, unsure of its validity. Hm, I had thought about this already. But if it were indeed generational wealth, wouldn¡¯t they be famous for being rich. Or infamous. The point is, their family should be more well known. But they weren¡¯t. The only member of the Millers family that is famous is my boyfriend, Steve Miller, whose fame is thanks to him being the school¡¯s sports captain and being irresistibly hot. ¡°You doubt that possibility yourself, don¡¯t you? And do you expect me to take your word for that?¡± ¡°What do you want to do then?¡± Emma asked annoyedly. ¡°There is a much easier solution to this than hacking a bank. Just ask your father about it.¡± I pointed out the most obvious answer. ¡°He won¡¯t tell me. I haven¡¯t asked him recently, but when I did ask my parents a few years ago, they dismissed the question.¡± It made sense. If the father¡¯s wealth was associated with ¡®The Gain Gang¡¯ like I mildly suspected, the couple wouldn¡¯t want their kids to know about it. But this also meant that Emma¡¯s mother knows about how her husband was once involved in a messy situation. ¡°So hacking the bank it is.¡± Emma said, with sudden tenacity to quench her curiosity. ¡°Wait-¡± Before I could say anything, she cut the call. Just like before, she didn¡¯t pick my calls afterwards. Hm¡­ were they actually going to hack a goddamn bank? If movies can be taken as a reference, wouldn¡¯t they get in trouble for doing it if they get caught? Wouldn¡¯t I be responsible for making them do something so reckless, being the older one? I brushed through my hair again and left the restroom. ¡°Took you quite a while.¡± Steve commented. *** After school, Emma phoned me again. ¡°He gets 10,000 Aurumstarions each month from a charity named ¡®Harmony Foundation¡¯. The charitable trust is located in Willbruk district.¡± I sensed sadness in her voice as she stated the details. After she was done summarizing her findings, she closed the call before I could reply with anything. FIELD REPORT FIELD REPORT ¡°Here¡¯s your application for joining the Newspaper club. This is just for the sake of formality. You can consider yourself to be a part of this club already. ¡± The bespectacled girl said. ¡°Thank you.¡± I continued, ¡°Is there any chance that I can already conduct research for an article?¡± ¡°Surely. But you can only submit your article after your application is signed by the head of the club.¡± The girl took out a card from one of the drawers in the library, where we were currently, and presented it to me. ¡°This card will work for your identification as a member of the Newspaper club. Just make sure to not interview psychopaths or visit mental asylums for a field report.¡± I thanked the girl and left. The reason I joined the Newspaper club out of the blue was for this very card. It is a free entry pass into most of the institutions. It would allow me to go to the Harmony Foundation charitable trust office, walk around the place and learn about their connection with William Miller. Even if they wanted to keep their connections with an extremely dangerous gang a secret, no one could possibly suspect a cute girl with a Newspaper club¡¯s ID, looking around the place to uncover it, right? All I have to do for this to work is take a pen and book with me and note down the replies for the questions I ask. I just need to pretend like I am interested in writing an article about the charity and no one will know a thing. And that is precisely what I decided to do today. Although Steve insisted on going on a date as it had been a long time since the last one, I canceled it and got on the local subway and made my way to Sedarust, Willbruk district. Although it was in a neighboring district, our two towns were so close, it only took me a 45 minute journey to arrive at the gates of the Harmony Foundation. After which I presented the receptionist with my school ID and the Newspaper club ID and my audience with the charity¡¯s founder was arranged immediately. The founder was a middle aged man, possibly in his 50s. His frail figure dressed in all white carried a remarkable aura to it, one of calmness and peace. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. We both sat in one of the empty rooms of the foundation and began our conversation. ¡°What is your name, young lady?¡± The old man asked. ¡°I am Annabelle, sir.¡± I replied diligently . ¡°Nice to meet you Annabelle. I am Henry Mitchell.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you too, sir.¡± I continued. ¡°Sir, I have read through many of your interviews that were published in well reputed newspapers and articles about your generosity towards the poor and unfortunate. But not in any of those interviews have you talked about what led you to start the ¡®Harmony Foundation¡¯. Can we talk about it?¡± His face began to take a sour expression. He seemed to contemplate things for a while, and then began to speak, ¡°I was a victim of poverty, slavery and physical abuse for several years. There were times when I had nothing to eat. There were times when I had no badges to cover my wounds with. But those seemed like petty things. What made me stay up at night was that there was no one I could trust. There was no one I could ask for help. After I was liberated from those hard times, I began to think, ¡®when I needed help, there was no one. But now, I could be the one to help such people.¡¯¡± Henry continued to narrate about how he was inspired by several philosophers and their ways of making the world a better place. This wasn¡¯t the answer I was looking for though. What I needed was his past. I needed him to tell me everything, so that I could learn his connection with William Miller and the Gain Gang. Then again, Henry didn¡¯t know about my objectives so it made sense for him to give me an altruistic speech. ¡°Interesting. You did mention that in the past you were a victim of slavery and poverty. How is it that you managed to establish such a wealthy charity?¡± Henry¡¯s face visibly contoured and the distaste I sensed his voice meant that I was getting closer to the answers I needed. ¡°The foundation has been around for more than a decade now. We learnt to manage our monetary resources to both help the unfortunate and grow it to thrive as a charity. You also need to realize that although I am the founder of this foundation, I am not the only one who has contributed to this institution.¡± Nice dodge, I must say. ¡°What is your message to wealthy families?¡± I asked. ¡°Share what you have. God has given you enough to feed yourself and others. Remind yourself that when you say family, it isn¡¯t just the people who live under one roof, it is all the population of the world.¡± ¡°Do you know of any people that have been inspired by the good deeds carried out by this foundation and reached out to contribute?¡± ¡°Yes! Several such people have! I pray to the lord that we have more people like them.¡± Finding an opportunity, I decided to cease it and steer the conversation. ¡°I have a friend who is quite wealthy herself and wants to help others. Unfortunately, she is quite skeptical about the ways in which the foundation spends the donated money. Because there have been multiple cases where the contributors themselves have accused the Harmony Foundation of misusing the funds they provided, like transferring the money to people who do not have the necessity of money. What do you have to say to people like them?¡± ¡°This is a recurring question most of the contributors ask. The problem is, in this day and age, with all the corruption spreading around it has become hard for people to trust one another. We could show a breakdown of all the things we do with their donation, but then we would be missing the bigger picture. It is with trust that one needs to contribute. If they have doubts about the charity itself, they shouldn¡¯t be contributing at all.¡± Hm, not the answer I expected. And a useless one too. ¡°Thank you for your time and effort, sir.¡±. I got off my seat and began walking out of the room, when suddenly I turned around and said, ¡°By any chance, do you know William Miller?¡± ¡°No.¡± SAVIOUR SAVIOUR I got off the train at Mellston station and decided to walk home instead of waiting for the bus. It was hardly a 15 minute walk through a street devoid of people, so if anything it was a good- I felt a hand wrap around my neck and while another tightly closed my mouth. Suddenly a car pulled up beside me and I was forced into it. Before I realized it, my hands and legs were tied up, my mouth gagged and blindfolded. I heard at least the voice of two people in the car, one in the front driving and one beside me. ¡°Tell him we got her.¡± The man in the front said. ¡°M¡¯kay¡± The man beside me said. He continued speaking, ¡°Got her. On our way to the warehouse.¡± I struggled all along to untie myself, but to no avail. My kidnapper even took away my handbag which had my phone. I saw no way out of this. For the first time in a long time, I had no plan. Like they say, an idle mind is a devil¡¯s workshop. Only if I had not mentioned William Miller, I probably would¡¯ve been home by now. No. All of this was a bad plan. I shouldn¡¯t have interfered in Steve¡¯s family to begin with. Maybe it was learning about all the illegal acts that the Gain Gang performed or just my over-thinking mind in general, I was already picturing how gruesome my death could be. No, death wasn¡¯t so bad an option when you realize there were much worse things that could happen to you if you are alive. Like being sold to someone who treats your body like a toy and you like a slave. Or being put in a fighting pit against a chimpanzee. Or being filmed f- Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. The car came to a sudden halt. The driver panickedly yelled, ¡°What the hell do you think you are doing?¡± Following which was utter chaos. First I heard glass shatter. Next the car doors opened and then there were grunts and some yellings. Soon everything went silent. Then I felt my hands being untied. I immediately pulled out the gag and my blindfold to see a man, maybe only a few years older than me. His blue eyes showed concern and his handsome face had a fierce look to it. He offered me a hand and pulled me out of the car. He then gathered my belongings that fell in the car from my open handbag while I caught my breath and looked out for predators. He handed me my bag and left after he walked me till the nearest bus station. The whole while, he didn¡¯t utter a single word. I took out my phone to make a call. But once I took it out, I was unsure of whom to call first. Should I call Steve? No, he is still a kid who wouldn¡¯t know how to deal with an emotionally shaken me. I should probably call dad, but¡­ I dialed Emma. ¡°Emma, you need to be careful! They are dangerous peo-¡± ¡°NOT NOW~!¡± Emma yelled. I heard an ear deafening explosion on the other side of the phone and the call ended. Shit. Did they get to Emma already? How though? Did they somehow trace back to Nathan and then learn about Emma? I started to sprint through crowded streets towards Millers residency. I wasn¡¯t sure if she was there right now, but that was the only place I knew that she could be at. In only a few minutes I arrived at the Millers bungalow, gasping for breath. The front gate opened by itself when I got close to it, so I rushed inside and yelled, ¡°Emma! Where are you?!¡± I saw a blood trail that led me to Emma¡¯s room, where I found a broken wall that opened to the massive forest adjacent, a pile of metal scrap beside the wall that looked awfully close to a humanoid structure and beside that were Emma alongside a grievously wounded Nathan in a pool of blood of his own blood. Emma noticed me and strugglingly said, ¡°We need to get him to the hospital¡±. My body froze. So did my mind. I couldn¡¯t think. The day had been unforgiving already, but now, it felt like I broke under the stress. My muscles gave out, my hand let go of my bag and I fell to the floor. ¡°I am sorry. All this is my fault.¡± It was indeed my fault. I risked their lives to learn about something so trivial. If Nathan doesn¡¯t make it, his blood would be on my hands. In the corner of my eye I noticed the glint of a metal ball that rolled out of the bag. Emma noticed it as well, and her eyes suddenly sparked with hope. She grabbed the ball, and did something with it, which transformed it into a¡­ liquid. Then Emma poured it over Nathan and the liquid slowly but surely healed his wound. A hologram popped to a side that contained some kind of statistics, which slowly moved towards 100%. Emma turned towards me, her bloodshot eyes set on me. ¡°Who are you?¡± TRUST ISSUES TRUST ISSUES ¡°Who are you?¡± Her anger resonated through my very soul. I kept silent. What was I to answer when I didn¡¯t understand the question itself. Who am I? I am her brother¡¯s girlfriend, an acquaintance to her and a wing woman who helped her go on a date. I was someone whom she herself invited to her birthday party. But she knew all of that and there was no more to say about our relationship. Honestly, I would¡¯ve preferred some answers for a change. What was that metal orb like thing? How did it end up in my bag? How is that liquid in the metal orb healing Nathan? ¡°Activate RED.¡± Emma whispered under her breath. A gauntlet thrice the size of a normal hand tore through a portrait hung on the wall and stuck to Emma¡¯s hand. Before I could notice, two tentacles launched from the wall behind me and tied me up, leaving me immobile. Emma punched the wall behind me and effortlessly broke it, threateningly. ¡°Now tell me, who are you? Whom do you work for?¡± I raised an eyebrow but remained quiet. ¡°This is the first time that Nathan has ever been noticed for hacking into something. And it was you who asked us to do it. What¡¯s furthermore suspicious is you readily bought the fact that he is a hacker, you didn¡¯t even question much. So, tell me, who are you, really?¡± ¡°Hold on. Hold on. I asked you to hack the bank? I told you to ask your dad directly! You were a scaredy little cat who couldn¡¯t ask their parents about their job and decided to hack a bank!¡± ¡°Oh! So you are blaming me now? I wouldn¡¯t have bothered about this if you hadn¡¯t brought up the whole thing which was entirely unnecessary and unrelated to an outsider like you, and made me so curious about it!¡± ¡°Can you bitches just shut the fuck up?!¡± Nathan yelled at the top of his lungs. ¡°Firstly, this has nothing to do with hacking the bank. Secondly, just shut the fuck up Emma. Your voice is drilling through my brain!¡± Both of us quieted down after Nathan¡¯s temper. I was relieved to find out that whoever attacked Nathan wasn¡¯t related to the Harmony Foundation. It was only a coincidence that my kidnapping and this incident happened on the same day. But on the other hand, why was a teenager hacking into things that would get him killed? The tentacles let go of me and Emma put the gauntlet on the ground. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± Emma apologized. ¡°Let¡¯s talk outside.¡± *** ¡°Brace yourself, this is going to sound ridiculous.¡± Emma said, making a serious face. I nodded. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°Me and Nathan are part of a super secret scientific society.¡± Yeah, indeed it was ridiculous. But what can I say, after seeing a ball that can magically heal a dying person, a gauntlet that can break walls and tentacles that I have only seen in animated pornography, this sounded like the most sane thing I¡¯d seen or heard. Emma walked me down a spiral of steps that were secretly hidden beneath the carpet of her bedroom¡¯s corridor. The steps ended in a massive basement that was filled to the brim with props from science-fiction movies. ¡°These are some things I built so far.¡± She said proudly. The room had 10 foot long mechas, futuristic guns, weird looking vehicles and lots of gauntlets, shields and swords. ¡°So Nathan is a genius hacker and you are a genius engineer?¡± I asked. ¡°A mechanical engineer that also specializes in neural links!¡± The pride on her face exploded through the roof. I moved around and looked at the stuff, when Emma asked, ¡°Hey, where did you find that Medix healball?¡± ¡°The what?¡± ¡°You know, the ball that fell out of your bag.¡± ¡°I am not sure.¡± I replied. ¡°Actually, I have something to tell you too.¡± I told her everything, beginning from the newspaper article about her father to the stranger who saved me from being kidnapped. ¡°I think somehow that sphere ended up in my bag when he picked my stuff from the car?¡± ¡°This is too valuable to be lying in a car like that.¡± She commented, completely unbothered by the fact that I was kidnapped only half an hour ago. ¡°Hey, can I ask you something?¡± I continued after her affirmation, ¡°Why did you trust me with your secret?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no point in hiding it when the cat¡¯s out of the bag, right? Not to mention, you would probably try to trespass into our house again if you didn¡¯t get some answers.¡± She continued, ¡°Hope you don¡¯t get mad, but I need to confess something. I have been tracking your locations and listening in on your conversations through your phone.¡± What? ¡°Come on, I had no other choice! Wouldn¡¯t you want to find out about some freak that tried to break into your house and has some mystical thing that carries her around?¡± Fair enough. I asked, ¡°Were you being honest when you said you only saw the surveillance footage because you heard some sound?¡± ¡°No, actually. The surveillance cameras have built in AI that can detect if someone tries to break in. I got a notification, so I checked it.¡± Well, I wouldn¡¯t have believed it if she said this the first time. But in hindsight, how did I believe that she heard the sound of me being thrown against a wall from within her bedroom that is around half a kilometer away from the gate? After some more conversation and checking up on Nathan to make sure he is doing fine, I decided to go back home. Even as I walked through the most crowded streets of Mellston, I felt overly-conscious of my surroundings. The incident from this morning had left a deep trauma in my mind. As I approached my house, I regretted not asking for Emma to walk me home. Considering Nathan¡¯s state, I couldn''t be selfish, so maybe she should''ve sent a killer robot with me for my protection. Once I reached home, all I wanted to do was lock all the doors and sleep tight until my dad came back from the ¡®weekend-sale¡¯ grocery shopping. Unfortunately, there was already someone at the door, waiting for me. ¡°Hello, Annabelle.¡± William Miller greeted me. ¡°Hope it¡¯s a good time to talk.¡± I handed William the cup of tea I just prepared and took a seat a few steps away from him. While I was preparing tea, I messaged Emma about her dad being here. I sent her that message in the sense of requesting protection from him, but she took it as if I was informing that he wasn¡¯t at their house. I wouldn¡¯t expect my father to harm a girl either, but my dad wasn¡¯t arrested for murder. William took a sip of his tea. He commented with gratitude, ¡°This is some of the best tea I have ever had.¡± ¡°Can you please tell me why you are here?¡± I asked. ¡°I heard you are asking around about me. I apologize for the incident that happened this morning as a result of your own doings. It was excessive, I admit. I only want to know this- why are you interested in learning about my past?¡± My heart raced, so did my mind. I spoke as my thoughts formed, being as surprised by what I said as Mr. Miller. ¡°Learning that your boyfriend¡¯s father is a murder doesn¡¯t do any good to the relationship. Ever since the day I read that article, I feel afraid to be around a murderer¡¯s son. I¡¯m sure Steve wouldn¡¯t do what you did, but that doesn¡¯t mean I can blindly trust someone who comes from a family such as yours.¡± Wow, that was very offensive. William Miller warmly smiled and chuckled mildly. ¡°I understand. As a father, I wouldn¡¯t want my daughter dating a dangerous person either. So I can see where you are coming from.¡± The irony. Nathan might not be dangerous himself, but he has life-taking danger surrounding him. He took a deep breath and continued, ¡°I do not know how you were able to connect me to the people at Harmony Foundation, I am not interested either. But all I want to tell you is that you shouldn¡¯t dig into this further. I won''t deny that me and some others have done heinous things to people. But they were bad people. They deserved all that happened to them, and possibly more.¡± William picked up the cup of tea again and gulped down the remaining tea all in one go. ¡°As for your relationship with my son, I can assure you that he has absolutely nothing to do with whatever happened in my past. I have made sure to not let any of my children learn about it, for I feared the possibility of them hating me. If you are still concerned about your safety even after this, you are free to do whatever you please about your relationship. Just make it as painless for Steve as possible. I can¡¯t see him suffer.¡± William got off the couch. Before he left, he remarked, ¡°I was being honest when I said that was the best tea I have ever had. Hope you can make me some more of it some other day.¡± HELP HELP The alarm rang on my bedside. I reached out to it and turned it off. Usually I would¡¯ve groggily searched for the phone and not have found it until I was fully awake and conscious, but today I wasn¡¯t asleep for the alarm to wake me up. Trauma is a dreadful thing, isn¡¯t it? It was for only five minutes or so that I was tied up for, and yet, why is it that I fear every innocent thing that''s around me? Why is it that I have the urge to puke at the sight of the color red, and my mind pictures a blood drenched floor? Why is it that I hear Emma crying during an utterly silent and still night? Why is it that I see a pale boy begging for my help in my dreams? I slowly got off the bed and walked into the kitchen. I heard my dad hum the song that was playing on his phone, while he broke an egg on the pan. He then threw the egg shells to a side and began moving his butt along with the beat of the music. ¡°Don¡¯t ya think I¡¯m hot? Don¡¯t ya think I¡¯m hot, oh lady!¡± He sang. ¡°tararara tararara~¡± He then skillfully tossed the omelet into the air and caught it on a plate and set it on the tiny dining table, in a smooth practiced motion. He noticed me coming and greeted me joyfully. ¡°GOOD MORNING ANN!¡± He then continued enjoying his weirdly tasteful music. I sat on the couch and turned the television on, which greeted me to a news channel that was covering the incident of an explosion in a house located at the outskirts of the city. Ugh, I can¡¯t handle this negativity. About another hour later, me and my dad sat at the dining table, both ready to go to school and job after we were done eating our breakfast. I slowly nibbled on the food, listening to my dad¡¯s playlist on the speaker. ¡°By the way, how did your interview go?¡± My dad asked me. ¡°It went well.¡± I replied. ¡°NICE!¡± He exclaimed. ¡°Can¡¯t wait to read the article.¡± A few moments elapsed, while he continued to bob his head from side to side and occasionally sang the lyrics of the song wrongly. Then he continued, ¡°Oh, yeah, Ann. Yesterday when I went shopping a kid told me that I look like I am twenty-five. And then her father agreed and began telling me that I look much younger than-¡± This man¡¯s excitement is enough to make me forget all about yesterday. *** Steve joined his desk with mine. He took out his textbook and placed it at the center of the now joined desks. The history teacher paid little attention to our arrangement and continued his lecture about the after effects of the Epoch wars and how they led to the Avandor-Jarkhal war. From the corner of my eye I noticed Steve sincerely listening to the class, although I doubt how much of it he would retain after an hour. You see, Steve is stupid when it comes to academics. He might excel in everything else, but his grades are consistently F grades. Well, the fact that he doesn¡¯t attend most classes and instead runs off to football practice explains partly why. On the other hand, there¡¯s me. My worst score ever to the best of my knowledge was an A grade. I don¡¯t have much going on in my life so grades have become a means for measuring my achievement. That said, I am no teacher¡¯s pet. I used to attend school regularly only because I had nothing to do at home and now I do because I get to meet Steve. I reached out to Steve¡¯s hand from under the desk and held onto it gently. A mild blush formed on his face moments after my move. As time went on his attention shifted from the lecture to- ¡°Excuse me, sir. Annabelle is being called to the principal¡¯s office.¡± A familiar voice announced. Steve stared wide-eyed at his little sister standing at the entrance to the class. The teacher looked at me and ushered me to go with the girl. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± Steve whispered, his face expressing how concerned he was. I left the room and followed behind the girl. After walking only 3 steps I learnt that this girl clearly didn¡¯t know where the principal¡¯s office was. ¡°You want to talk about something?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes!¡± Her eyes brightened. She grabbed me by the hand and jogged me to a secluded balcony on the third floor of the school. She closed the glass doors behind us. I followed her to the end of the balcony which oversaw the nearby mountains and rested my hands on the railing, enjoying the momentary serenity of the silence. I used to frequently visit all the six such secluded places in the entire campus, this being one of them when I wanted to burn down the city. ¡°I need your help, Annie.¡± Emma commanded politely. Help? From me? How could I help someone who owns and builds mechas? Does she want me to go undercover like the last time? No way in hell am I ever doing something similar ever again. I waited for her to continue, but when she didn¡¯t seem to say anything, I asked, ¡°what is it?¡± I saw her fidget in her place for a second and suddenly she said, ¡°I want you to help me make friends.¡± Wut? She called me out from a class with thirty students to ask me this? A silence arose due to the suddenness and out-of-the-blue nature of her request. Maybe it was indeed unreasonable of me to not have a reply, given how being kidnapped and having seen someone on the brink of death- impaled through their chest lying in a pool of their own blood- are minor petty inconveniences when compared to what she was asking. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Emma explained further, ¡°I went to class this morning for the first time. People started talking to me, asking to be friends with them and all, but I didn¡¯t know how to reply. I just stayed quiet, so maybe they thought I was cocky-¡± ¡°What makes you think I could help you with making friends?¡± I interrupted. ¡°Well¡­ you made me your friend in no time. And you have a boyfriend, so you must know how to talk to people.¡± Wait, Emma and I are friends? Since when? Not to mention, she thought I took the lead in forming a bond between us? Showing up out of nowhere, talking to me like we knew each other, asking me to visit her house even though we were practically strangers, almost killing me because she thought I attacked her friend, and sharing her secrets that I didn¡¯t even ask for. What part of this made her think I was the one initiating? And the boyfriend part? Girl, just so you know, this personal space intrusion must be in your genes. I had never once initiated a conversation with her brother before we started dating. He was the one who chose to sit beside me in class. He chose to talk to me even when I ignored him. Carried me in his arms to the school medic when I got injured during sports, even though I could walk fine (I injured my hand, but couldn¡¯t say no to being treated like a princess). I¡¯m not mad that he did all that, no sir, I''m just pointing out how I wouldn''t be dating him now if his type wasn''t weird girls. Looking at Emma¡¯s expectant eyes, I felt the urge to respond to her request. So I said some bullshit I remembered reading online when I searched for something similar. ¡°Always smile. Always make eye contact. Ask for favors. Reply to whatever they say. ¡± Emma probably took a mental note of all the things I said. Poor little creature asking the sinner for salvation. ¡°How do I reply to them though? Whenever someone asks me a question, I freeze.¡± How am I supposed to know? People don¡¯t even make the effort of talking to me. ¡°Talk to them like you talk to Nathan.¡± I replied. And suddenly I remembered all the questions I needed answering. ¡°By the way, how is Nathan now?¡± ¡°He¡¯s fine. But he is really pissed. Whoever attacked him, it¡¯s only a matter of time before their life is screwed.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not related to hacking the bank, is it?¡± I questioned, ready to jump off the balcony if she pulled out another weapon. ¡°Nope. Apparently Nathan was working on another request that he had got on the dark web for some cash. That went... wrong." She said. I intently looked at her, waiting for her to explain, which came after a minute of silence, "He had to intercept a signal transmission and decode it. He captured the message and made a copy of it. We don¡¯t know what happened after that. Nathan suspects that the sender of the encrypted message somehow learnt about Nathan¡¯s interception. Not only that but also his precise location. Just after minutes of his message capture ten thugs arrived at his doorstep and began to beat him up, asking for who sent the request. Then Nathan somehow used the emergency call device that I had given him once. Honestly, I never thought that he would have to use it, but I¡¯m glad I did make the device for him. Then I swooped in and saved his ass.¡± Just who did this kid mess with? ¡°Where is he now?¡± ¡°In my basement.¡± Emma replied. ¡°He¡¯s locked himself inside. He won¡¯t let me in to check on him and shouts that he needs alone time. That¡¯s MY research space goddammit!¡± She ranted. It did make sense that he wasn¡¯t back home. He could get into trouble anytime considering how the attacker knows his location. But I expected him to be admitted to a hospital or something. Then again, it probably isn¡¯t safe there either. ¡°Anyways, tell me how to make friends!¡± Emma demanded. ¡°Let¡¯s talk about it after school.¡± I said. I immediately absconded after the successfully buying myself time to read more online websites for making friends. *** School ended and I dropped off Steve at the football field for his daily practice. Then I made a call to Emma asking her where she was. She told me that she forgot about our talk and went home already. Just when I felt relieved that I don¡¯t have to defend the high expectations that my junior held for me, she insisted that I go to her house immediately. There were far too many questions I needed answering so I followed along. One would ask, why even after the incident that scarred me enough to make me stay awake at nights am I trying to stick my nose deeper into this dangerous science-y world of robots, hackers and villains when I could just dust my hands off and part my way with it. Pandora probably thought the same way before she opened the box. But it¡¯s because she let vile things into our world that we have interesting stories to tell, lives to live and pain to experience. Without those, life is just plain boring. One could argue against this point of view, so here¡¯s another reason for my choice. I was curious. I wanted to see how deep this went. I needed to know more about this whole fiction-like world that I was oblivious to only a day ago. A world that is somehow lurking in the shadows of reality. And curiosity is a very powerful feeling. If it weren¡¯t for curiosity I wouldn¡¯t try to trespass into Steve¡¯s house that night. Or begin to investigate his dad. Or do this now. Curiosity has led me to some wild things over the past. For now, I shall board its waves and move forward. I got onto the public transit and read a few more articles on how to make friends on my way. Just like the other day, I got through the huge front gate of the Miller¡¯s house (mansion) without a hitch. Emma greeted me at the porch and led me through the house, devoid of its residents, to the end of the corridor where her room is. There she pulled the vinyl floor board aside to reveal a metal door. She threw it open with considerable effort and walked down a flight of stairs. After going at least five floors deep into the ground we were stopped by a locked metal door from entering the basement. Emma knocked on the metal door. ¡°Leave me alone Emma.¡± Nathan groaned from the other side. ¡°Nathan, Annie is here and this is not the way to treat a guest.¡± Emma said. I was quite surprised at how well she managed to say something only a mother character from a soap opera would say. Nathan unlocked the door promptly. He wore a white shirt that fit him tightly, revealing the multiple layers of fat over his bone. I recognised the shirt as one of Steve¡¯s. His skin gained back it¡¯s natural healthy color. His chest had no bandages. For the most part it looked like he had never been injured. Nathan walked to one of the work stations and plopped on the chair beside it. On the table was a laptop that had green text scrolling in and out of view. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Emma asked, the mild amount of prior politeness now gone and replaced by annoyance. ¡°I can neither crack the encryption nor trace the person who sent the request.¡± Nathan said sulkily. ¡°Why did you decide to even take up such a risky request to begin with?¡± I butted in and asked. ¡°I didn¡¯t know it was going to be risky, that¡¯s why. The request said that it was a test for a bigger mission that had something to do with stopping a terrorist attack.¡± After his statement was met with my incredulous look, Nathan himself felt the need to explain his reasoning better. ¡°I have taken up several such missions before. If you do not know, I was the one who stopped the Kaipurr mall explosions. And the Gorlov river poisoning. And the Finch-¡± The request raised enough red flags for any sane person to safely ignore it. All the incidents that Nathan referred to were real terrorist attacks that were nipped in the planning stage and weren¡¯t successfully executed. I knew almost nothing about them, except the fact that all the incidents were planned by the same terrorist organization and a year ago the entire organization was wiped out in a covert mission. ¡°The request was from an anonymous person whose identity I couldn¡¯t track, which is a very usual thing on the dark web. The person told me that he was part of a resistance team that was trying to stop an upcoming terrorist attack in Gorlov and they needed a hacker for the job. But they needed to test me before they selected me, and I agreed. The person told me what I had to do. Basically I had to intercept an E2E encryption secured transaction. I did an MITM attack and retrieved a copy of the original message. There weren¡¯t any problems so far. But I fucked up in the next step. I assumed that the encryption on the message would be a simple one as well considering-¡± ¡°English, please.¡± I requested. Nathan sighed. He buried his face in his hands and mouthed words I couldn''t figure out. After a moment he sat straight in his chair again. ¡°Imagine this. You build a tunnel from your house to your boyfriend¡¯s. So to talk to him you shout into the tunnel and he listens to you on the other end. The tunnel is a connection between you and him. And the tunnel is a secured connection, because others can¡¯t listen in. Now, what I do is make a small hole in the tunnel and listen. That¡¯s called a Man in the Middle or MITM for short.¡± ¡°Why would it be called secure if you got into the tunnel so easily?¡± I asked. ¡°It¡¯s not that the tunnel isn¡¯t secure, Nathan is just too good at what he does.¡± Emma explained. Right. ¡°Yes. Anyways. Let¡¯s say you were talking to your boyfriend in a different language, a language only the two of you know. So now, I have listened to what you were saying, but I still can¡¯t understand it unless I learn the language. I need to learn the language and translate it back into english, that¡¯s decryption.¡± Nathan paused, evaluating my expression to learn how much I had understood of what he said. Satisfied by my nonchalant expression he continued, ¡°Back to what I was saying, I tried decrypting the message, assuming that it was a simple encryption, considering how easy the earlier interception stage was. But I had gravely underestimated the mission. I have never seen an encryption like it before. Not only was it robust, but when I tried to analyze the encryption algorithm it took over my pc and shut me out of it even when I was running a VM. I think it also sent a signal to the sender or the receiver about the fact that the security has been compromised along with my coordinates. Minutes later, those bastards showed up and you know the rest.¡± Emma grabbed two chairs that were lying around and arranged them near the workstation. She sat on one of them and signaled me to do the same. ¡°But I still don¡¯t get it. How did the Medix healball end up in your bag?¡± Emma questioned. ¡°There is just no way it would be lying in a random kidnap vehicle. It¡¯s a prototype that even we have no access to.¡± Prototype? Man, they need to do a lot more explaining for me to wrap my head around conversations like these. ¡°You don¡¯t get it, do you?¡± Nathan asked. I nodded my head in affirmation. ¡°Medix ball is an angel-project, as in it''s- ¡± Emma began speaking, only to be interrupted by Nathan. ¡°I think it''s better to not tell her. She knows way too much already,". Before Emma could say anything more, he continued, "It could be a threat to her life, Emma." A silence ensued. Nathan refused to let Emma speak more and fear replacced my curiosity after what Nathan said. Suddenly my phone rang, the ringtone reverbating through the cave like basement. I picked it up, "Hello, cupcake. I came home early today and guess what? A LOT of my clothes are missing. I literally don''t have any clothes to wear right now. Wait no, I need clarify that I do have my uniform on, before you get any horny thoughts. Anyways, what to go shopping tomorrow after school?" "Yeah, sure." INFORMATION DUMP INFORMATION DUMP So the story of the secret society goes something like this. During The Epoch wars that began at the end of the last century and lasted for over 37 years, which fractured the all the kingdoms in the continent of Equinasia and some more overseas into smaller democratic or communist nations and plunged the entire continent into an economic crisis, gave room for innovation in the field of weaponry that would turn the tide of the war and give power to reunite all the fractured lands together again. And there were numerous such revolutionary technologies, but no nation or kingdom ultimately won the war. The cutting edge technology however claimed innumerable lives and after The Epoch wars ended they somehow made their way into the hands of wrong people who terrorized society and carried out criminal activities. So governments banned all tech that it deemed was harmful. But scientists had a problem with this. There were far stricter rules now than before, making it extremely hard for them to research or build anything. So to end the problem some guy from Jarkhal (a nearby nation) formed a global association named The Helix Syndicate, that promoted working on projects that were now deemed illegal by the law; helped pool the money and necessary resources needed to carry out the project and created a tight knit community for such scientists and researchers. But to prevent people from building anything that is actually harmful to mankind, all the details about those projects were to be made public in the community, such that the leaders of the community can stop the members from building anything dangerous. In short, it is a secret scientific society that builds tech that are borderline mankind eradicating tools but somehow also safe. Emma and Nathan were invited to this society at a very young age. Infact, Nathan is apparently the youngest kid to have joined ever, at the age of 8. Emma joined later at the age of 12. There she met Nathan and made friends with him. Back to the Medix healball, apparently it was a very high budgeted project that was being made by some of the most influential people in The Helix Syndicate and the one of the only projects that has not been made public in the community. The Medix healball does exactly what its name suggests, it heals people by operating on them using ¡®artificial intelligence¡¯ and ¡®nanotechnology¡¯, whatever those terms mean. The reason for not making the project details public yet has something to do with how the coding on the healball could be manipulated to possibly kill people or something. Anyways, it¡¯s supposed to be a prototype whose location of build is unknown even to some of the leaders of the syndicate. We then continued to talk about how it ended up with me. I described the kidnap incident again, which only brought up bigger questions. The question of how they would¡¯ve acquired it could not be answered by anyone. I wanted to suggest that maybe they stole it, given they were connected to Emma¡¯s father and his history with crime, but decided not to incite that girl when I was in her court. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Changing the topic, I asked Emma, ¡°So how come you are coming to school all of a sudden?¡± ¡°They got to Nathan¡¯s house. They¡¯d know which school he goes to. So if they find that there are two kids from the same class who don¡¯t go to school, but somehow have attendance, and one of them is their target, don¡¯t you think they would be interested in me?¡± ¡°Which is a good thing. We can get to them faster!¡± Nathan argued. ¡°We have no idea who you messed with. I don¡¯t want to put my family at risk.¡± Emma said. Oh, yeah, that reminds me, ¡°What about your parents?¡± I questioned Nathan. ¡°I¡¯m an orphan.¡± He clarified. ¡°The only thing I had to call my own was my pc and my house. This bitch blew up both of them.¡± He looked at Emma with hostility. ¡°Did you just call me a bi-¡± I zoned out for a minute while they continued to berate each other. Apparently Emma flew over to Nathan¡¯s house (that is located in the outskirts of the city) in her mecha to save him. After she picked him up, she launched a small swarm of missiles to act as a distraction for the enemy, so that they didn''t see which way Emma was headed. But Emma miscalculated the impact and the house blew up entirely. After all that I had heard, these kids proved to be a lot more intelligent than a group of adults. They put thought into all their decisions and have the ability to think in near-death situations. Like the part where Emma said that she could get her family involved into this mess from what happened to Nathan was something I don¡¯t think I could¡¯ve thought about. Especially the attendance part- Hold up. There is someone else who doesn¡¯t show up to school. ¡°What about your twin, Emma?¡± Emma dropped her argument with Nathan and spoke ¡°What about him?¡± ¡°He doesn¡¯t show up to school either.¡± I clarified. ¡°He doesn¡¯t?¡± ¡°Have you ever seen him at school?¡± ¡°See him? I barely go to school. I¡¯m not the one you should be asking.¡± ¡°I have never seen him at school. Neither has your brother. I mean Steve. And from what I have heard, your twin¡¯s classmates don¡¯t even know he exists.¡± Emma was taken aback by what I said. ¡°Snooping around about your boyfriend¡¯s siblings. You are a scary person, you know that?¡± All three of us sat silently for a few minutes. Emma then broke the stillness in the dimly lit basement. ¡°Nathan, can you hack into the school servers and check up on his attendance?¡± ¡°I¡¯d love to.¡± Nathan replied, his eyes burning with passion. He quickly borrowed one of the many computers that Emma had in her basement. Minutes later, Nathan was already inside the server, checking on Eric¡¯s (Emma¡¯s twin brother) attendance. ¡°Interesting.¡± Nathan muttered. ¡°He has attendance till next year.¡± Nathan quickly typed something and a different kind of page popped up. ¡°Very interesting. I¡¯m checking the log records, and it seems like the principal is the one giving him the attendance.¡± My phone rang. It was the everyday call from Steve when we would talk until one of us (usually I) felt tired. I picked it up to hear his voice on the other side. ¡°Hey cutie!¡± ¡°Yo.¡± I greeted my boyfriend. ¡°Most of my clothes have gone missing for whatever reason. Want to go shopping this weekend?¡± Steve asked. ¡°Sure.¡±