The sky was cloudy, the winter was slowly creeping in, and this could be the last rain of winter, it was 5:00 in the evening in new york, she just came back from the under ground training, her body was drenched in sweat, her face looked tired, lost in her own word, She picked up the glass resting on the table infront of her and chugged the entire thing in one breath, a testament to how brutal her training had been. It had been four or five days since they last spoke.
Sara did not looked at Irlyn neither did Irlyn dared to talk to her, but she was noticing sara completely, sara has changed these days, she does not talk much now, and she shifted all her focus on training, after training she often found locked behind her room's closed door, or in outside in the lawn in midnight, staring at the sky, lost in thoughts, like she is finding something, something that's never lost. If it had been lost, it would have been found by now, no, it was not lost, it was gone, completely gone, and once something is gone, it never returns, not in her world, and sara new this bitter truth so clearly.
she put the glass down in the table, when unconditionally she glanced over Irlyn, Irlyn, was already staring at her, feeling her gaze, sara smiled, not a fake one, it felt genuine, Irlyn immediately looked away, not letting her guard down, sara turned and walked up to the stairs. only when she heared the soft click of the door closing
"Ha!..." she let out a soft, sight.
"at least she is not angry anymore"
After half an hour she came out from the shower, rubbing her hairs softly with a towel when she saw Max and Hazel sitting infront of her, on her bed, seeing them a big smile appeared on sara's face, she always get so much happy when she see her siblings,
"oh, what are my prince and princess doing here?"
she asked softly, sitting Infront of them on the chair,
"sister where are you these days, we don't even get the chance to talk to you"
hazel complained so cutely ot made sara grinned again,
"my little cute doll, its not like that, its just..iam a bit busy these days"
she hung the towel around her neck,
"so tell me, how is your studies going on?"
she asked a usual question, but looking at their faces and michivous grin, she somehow understood her sibling have caused another trouble,
"okay, now tell me what is it that your stomach is hurting to tell me"
a gentle smile appeared on her face,.
"That's my sister!" Max shouted in excitement, "you know we went to hazel's favorite park some days ago" max whispered,
"What?!",
The word left her mouth before she could stop it, her eyes widening in disbelief.
"But how did i not know about it, when did you guys went there?, with who?, how?, why nobody talked about it"
"shhh.", "keep you voice down sister, nobody knows about it here" Hazel whispered,
that's when sara realized the whole situation properly, her eyes widend in the middle of laugher and shock "dont' tell me you guys___" she didn't even finished her sentence when looking at their grinning faces she already got her answer,
hazel stood up and wrapped her arms around sara's neck from behind,
"we sneaked out from college" she laughed".
"pftt..hahahaha" she burst out laughing,
"really, but how, how did you two managed all of this"
she asked, wiping her tears from laughing so hard.
"This is the reall thrill sister" max sit up straight,
then, he told the whole story from their panning to the outcome, sara listened all of it with an amusement, hanging on every word, the three of them enjoyed and laughed so much on it,
"that means you guys slipped right under grandma's nose undetected, that's crazy guys how did you get those ideas in this head if yours"
sara was surely enjoying all of this, she said while laughing, its been a long time since the three of them talked like this, even the setting sun witnessed their genuine laugher from the window, watching her siblings happy and fooling around, she did not see the teenage figure, she saw two kids laughing infront of her, without a care of the world.
"Is that what we call happiness?, watching our loved ones happy before our eyes"
the soon this thought came to her mind, an unknown fear born in her heart a sudden chill goes down in her spine, like she knew something is gonna happen.
_________________________________________________________
It was 8 pm in Austin, zero just came out from meeting her mother, he glanced at his watch knowing the time he turned towards the main door when his phone rang, he took out the phone from his pocket, the screen was shining and the name appeared on the screen "Noah", he instantly picked up the call, he raised the phone to his ear.
"where are you?"
"Iam ready, infront of my home"
"wait there, i am coming"
"okay."
after a brief talk he cut the call and put his phone back into his pocket and moved forward, unlocking his car he slid inside, without any second thought, put the key in the ignition, the engine roared in the silence of night as he put his car on the asphalt.
He wanted to reach japan as soon as possible, since parker told him that sam is missing and about his last meeting to jacob, he was upset from that time, even though parker's men was looking into it deeply.
In 10 minutes he was infront of noah's house, noah was already waiting outside scrolling over his phone when he saw zero's car stopping right before him, he smiled, putting his bag in the trunk he came to sit on the back seat,
"Not there, come infront" zero said with a quite tone "or i will feel like i am your driver,"
noah's lips curved into a slow half smile, he closed the back door and came to the front passenger seat, opening the door he sat inside quietly, thier next spot was the Airport.
There was complete silence in the car, after some time spoke breaking the weight of silence,
"So..you are not into men at all, right?"
"hmm."
"Then you must have hated this kind of work so much."
"So very much" noah said fidgeting with his fingers, "Iam not homophobic, but the fact the i have to do something i don't want to, if my mother knew about it, she will get so much disappointed in me"
"I know, you don't need to explain this to me."
zero said, his tone was quiet, flat.
And once again, there was complete silence in the car.
"hey.."
after some minutes zero got his attention once again
"but why?"
noah looked at him like saying "why for what?", understanding his gaze he continued,
"I mean, iam no better than those monstrous customers of yours"
there was something in his tone even he couldn't understand, the cool breeze coming in from the car's window touching and playing with noah's hairs, he looked at the window staring outside, The cool breeze brought a sense of pure peace into his very soul, he paused for a brief moment before giving his reply,
"if you were really a monster for me, i wouldn't be sitting here in your car trusting you with myself."
zero looked at him, suddenly, spontaneously, noah continued, in a soft calm tone,
"You came to me only two to three times, and i can say this by just looking into your eyes, that everytime when you were on me, i was not the one in your eyes, you were not looking at me, there was someone else in your eyes, you never touched me in the reality zero, Your hands were on me, but your eyes were searching for someone else."
he said the last words by looking at him, smiling, Zero's grip tightened on the steering wheel, his knuckles turned white, he was looking in front of the road but his mind was aready somewhere else entirely, he didn't say anymore words, he was silent this time, completely silent, noah said:
"Thankyou zero, for helping me out this much"
"its fine."
zero couldn't bring himself to say much, right then their car stopped in front of the Airport.
______________________________________
Today was the last day of sam's training, he was already tired, he came out of the shower, drying his damp hairs from a towel, shirtless, when he looked infront of him,
"Here comes trouble",
Nao' onizuka was sitting there, on the sofa playing with his golden knife.
"What are you doing in my room?" his tone was cold
"oh, i am playing baseball" he said in a completely calm tone
"right, which team is about to win then?" sam played along,
"Team sam."
"what the hell!.."
it slipped from sam's mouth, knowing very well he is in trouble now, the knife Nao onizuka was playing with, suddenly stabbed hard in the table infront of him
"thhat"
sam stepped back, he stood up, stepping forward, his expression was unreadable,
"shit, what the hell this mother fucker want now"
"stop cursing me in you head sam."
sam looked away still steeping back,
"i..iam not cursing you."
"Liar!..."
Nao onizuka said, his tone, low, flat, stepping forward,
"why are you keep stepping back" raising his eyebrow he asked,
"well, you were keep stepping forward so offcaurse i was stepping back, instinctively"
sam scrahted his head, confused,
"Its not like, i will eat you alive sam" sitting on the bed, smiling, he said,
surprisingly he was in a good mood today, sam never understood this hot and cold guy sitting in front of him, watching him sitting like he owns the bed, sam asked again,
"What are you doing here?"
"you looked lost today, during the training, is something wrong?"
To be honest, sam wouldn't be this shocked if he got struck by lightning than he is now,
"This psycho actually cares about humanly things?"
wearing his shirt and throwing his towel on the night stand, he replied, with a flat look,
"nothing."
rejecting the idea of teasing him, he replied with just one word, offcaurse it was his own business. why would he involve this man in this out of the blue.
"Sam, answer me while i am asking nicely"
he glared at him, his tone cold and flat, as he stood up and take out his knife from the table.
"I told you its nothing, you are just overthinking" sam replied, trying to end this conversation,
he runs a hand in his hairs, as he was about to sit on his bed, his arm pulled from behind with an excessive force, twisting his hand behind his back as a knife pressed on his neck, from behind,
"you really don't understand the normal language."
Nao said, his tone was cold, his grip was so tight, sam tried to break free, but Nao' twisted his arm more, a look of predator in his eyes as he pinned his sharp tip of knife with a little more force on sam's neck, a thin line of blood trails from his neck to his collarbone.
"sii!..." he gasped, as the force on the knife increased,
"What the hell is wrong with this psycho basterd if only i could punch him right on his face."
"Nao, you psycho bastard" gripping Nao's arm trying to break free
"oh, you sound like you just came to know that, but come to think of it, i think you can't bear the respect this psycho gave you" his grip tightened,
"ack!..., f..fine ..i..i will..tell you..." he said, trying to breath,
Nao threw him onto bed, he fell on his face, turned "oww" he stroked his hand in pain, while Nao turned putting his kinf back to into pocket, he take out a first aid kit from the drawer, stepping towards him again, he took out a cotton bud from the kit, inticepting it, he started wiping the blood on sam's neck gently,
"now tell me"
his tone was soft now, there was no sign of anger on his face
looking at his face, if there would be someone passing by they must've misunderstood this hot and cold man for some gentleman, "tch, bastard"
"There are signal jammers placed here, plus i can not talk to anyone, because they took my phone from me, i told my friend that i will be back in 2 days but its been 6 days now, they will be worried about me, but i know, it is against the obsidian rules to go out just like that, that's why i have to wait for tomorrow ."
He listened to him carefully, every word, he was quiet, wiping out the blood he took out a bandadge and put it on sam's neck gently, his movments was so delicate, he didnt say a word,
"Was he even listening to me?"
Nao stood up after putting bandage and throew the cottan bud into the dustbin by the door, finally he turned, his expression were unreadable
"hmm, so you wanna go out"
"what?!,
"is this how he decoded my words"
sam looked at him, in a slight shock, Nao approached towards him and hold his arm pulling it,
"let's go",
sam didn't understand at first but followed his lead, "What's wrong with him?"
"wait, where are we going?",
"Don't ask so many questions."
Nao moved towards the elevator, sam was quiet following his lead, not asking many question, trying not to get on the nerves of a person who kill people just for fun, come to think of it, sam noticed, all this time Nao was holding sam's hand, sam tried to pull away gently but Nao's grip only got tighter, sam didn't had the guts to pull away against Nao's will so he stayed as it is, as they reached to the first floor,
"Nao let go his arm,
"go wait for me outside"
sam walked outside, nodding, quietly, after waiting for 10 minutes in the cold, he turned back when heared the sound of engine, there, Infront of him was Nao, he handed a phone towards sam
"Here, take it" ,
Sam took his phone, surprised, with the mix of happiness, but the battery was dead, putting his phone in his pocket he tried to pick the helmet when Nao picked it and put it on sam's head himself,
"Hey!, I am not a kid" annoyed he said,
"Oh, really, I thought you are"
pouring fuel on fire he said, Sam glared at him, sitting behind him,
"Hold tight or you will fall" Nao said, shoving down his helmet lid, Sam holded his jacket lightly
"I am not a kid I told you before" he said, totally irritated
Nao was enjoying this,
"Fine don't say I didn't warn you" he grinned micheviously under his helmet
He started his sports bike and raced it...with a powerful pull of speed, Sam jerked away but to stop himself, he grabbed Nao's weist tightly,
"Hey!..., Nao!, you basterd, you did it on purpose, right"
Sam glared on his shoulder, gritting his teeth
"Who knows, now grip tightly, where do you wanna go first"
"Umm, let's go my home I wanna charge my phone"
"Okay" he started his bike and put it on asphalt in full speed in the middle of the chilly night.
TO BE CONTINUED...