Chapter 30: Chapter 30

It took Avyanna a while but she was able to calm me down and stop me from screaming my life out. She even convinced me to lie to Emrys when he came out, that I’d seen a large rat and I was afraid of rats. He found it weird that I was outside at that time but he didn’t bother and went back in.

I knew it was better if I took Avyanna to my room because talking to her in darkness scared me. I didn’t want her to try to kill me and I wouldn’t be aware. It felt better if we were in a bright area so that if she made an effort and tried to kill me, I would at least be able to fight off a little until she succeeded.

That was the reason why Avyanna was seated on my bed and I was seated on a chair by the door far away from her, my hands still tightened around the baseball bat for protection. You know, just in case she tried anything.

“You said you want to talk?” I asked when it looked like she wasn’t going to say anything.

She still didn’t say a word and instead, brought out a paper-like thing from her pocket and threw it at me. Obviously, it didn’t come in my direction immediately and I had to crawl out of the chair to find it. I made sure my eyes were still on her in case she tried anything.

I picked it up and the moment I saw the picture that caused a storm in my heart. I stared at the picture in my hands with so much intensity that I could have burned a hole through it and frowned. In the photograph, I was smiling, but my memories of that day were far from happy.

“How did…?”

“She wanted me to give it to you. Honestly, I don’t know how she got it or what it means but she told me to give it to you and I knew she wanted it to hurt you. I decided that would be the last time I would ever take an order from her.”

I crumpled the picture in my right hand and closed my eyes to compose myself. “What are you really doing here?”

She sighed. “I’m sorry for everything. I swear that I didn’t want to hurt you but there was nothing I could do. She threatened me and…”

“Who is this she that is after me? What does she even want from me apart from my life?” “I don’t know who she is to be honest. She never gave me a name and never said anything

relevant to me other than giving me orders on who to take out and how to hurt you. I can tell

you, though, that she’s as clever as the devil and twice as pretty.”

I crossed my arms knowing that her description won’t be enough to help me out. “Do you at least know why she wants me dead?”

Avyanna chuckled. “The last thing she wants is you dead. She just wants you far away from Leon and I can tell that it’s not because she’s in love with him or something. She wants Leon and everyone around him dead but she can’t achieve that if you’re friends with him.”

“And she didn’t give you a name?”

“I wish she did because I would never have let her drag me on the way she did. I’m not one to be intimidated by people but she knew my weak spot.”

“What?”

Her smile looked a little painful. “Hiro.” “I’m confused.”

“She threatened that she would kill Hiro and God knows I would never forgive myself if anything happened to her.”

I sighed not knowing whether to believe her or not. “How do you want me to believe you now?”

“I’m being honest with you, Paris, and it’s because I can see that you are a good person and nothing like the rest. I have this bold front and no one sees how broken I really am except Hiro because she’s my cousin and the only person I have in this world.

“I lost everything by being born into the wrong family. Do you know how painful it is to lose your entire kind because someone was scared, you’d revolt and try to kill them? I lost my parents, my siblings, and my younger sister when the younger ones died without no explanation.

“They said I was only alive because I was special and I thought if that was being special, I’d like to be ordinary. Hiro and her family are all I have left in this world. Honestly, I don’t even relate with her family. She’s the only family I’ve ever known and when someone threatened her life, I was willing to do anything to keep it.”

By the time she was done, she was crying and I was already by her side to comfort her. I knew that something else was up with everything she had done but I didn’t think it was that deep. “I’m sorry. I wish I could have helped you.”

She wiped away her tears and sighed. “I’m sorry for everything especially being weak like this in front of you. I feel so embarrassed.”

“This? These tears? They are not a weakness. They show how strong you are and how strong you’ve been. And when you’re done, look back and know that you were strong enough to overcome what you once thought to be impossible.”

She laid her head on my shoulder and I suddenly felt a connection with her. I could feel her pain as though it were mine and that was enough to tell me that it was real. Too real, if I might add.

“I just wish I can be fine. Be okay. If not for myself, for Hiro because she’s even a worse mess than I am.”

“It’s okay to not be okay. Some days are just harder than others.” “Life is super hard,” she said with a soft smile.

“What did you mean when you said that Hiro was a mess too?”

She lifted her head and I could see an unreadable expression flash in her eyes. I had a hunch I knew what she was going to say but I wanted to believe otherwise. “I’m not meant to tell you this.”

“But…?”

“But Hiro was also a part of her plan to destroy you. She used me as a leverage to get her to do anything just the same way she did to me. She played both of us and when we found out, Hiro suggested we let you know everything even if there is a possibility, she might kill us if she finds out.”

“I want to feel sympathy because I understand how hard it must have been for Hiro but it’s even harder to think that she was my friend. I feel so betrayed.”

The light in her eyes dimmed and I knew she was talking from experience when she said, “It’s okay. Don’t be surprised. Betrayal never comes from a stranger.”

“But she was my friend,” I said, making emphasis on the word ‘friend’ so she would understand how I felt.

“It never comes from an enemy either,” Avyanna replied with a really deep frown. “I know you feel bad and all but you should talk to Hiro first. This was the last thing she wanted. Your meeting was even planned and she was going to hurt you without caring until she found out what a wonderful person you are.

“I don’t think you’re aware but you save yourself by being such a great person to people and just being so loving. I feel like if there were more people like you, this world might actually be better.”

I smiled a little despite the sadness I felt. “I’m not really mad at her. I mean, I would have done the same thing if I were her. I just feel disappointed?”

“I guess it’s normal to feel that way. She really cares about you though.” “Thank you for this. It is a nice thing for you to do.”

“You’re even nicer for listening,” she said with the smallest smile ever. “I just want you to know that whoever she is, she won’t stop trying to get to you. You need to find her and put an end to her madness. I feel so worried about Leon but I believe I’m the last person he would want to talk to.”

“I get it but there’s going to be a happy ending to this, right?” “Not likely, no.”

“Why do you say so?”

“I’ve talked with her or she’s mostly talked in my head and I can tell that she’s one person who will stop at nothing until she’s gotten what she wants. What she wants is Leon dead and if getting that means killing you or anyone else, she won’t stop. This is going to end in disaster.”

“That’s very optimistic of you,” I said with a slight roll of my eyes and she chuckled. “So, I’m going to assume that you do not like Leon.”

“I used to but it wasn’t anything serious and I wasn’t proud that we were supposed to get married because I was already dating a girl back home. This whole thing was just part of her plan.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, you and Leon look good together in my opinion. Odd but good.” I laughed. “We’re not dating.”

“Not yet,” she said with a wink. “You know, there’s an unspoken rule where if this many people are trying to kill you, then you should be dead already.”

“Yeah, well, they all suck at killing,” I said with a chuckle that she joined in. “It’s just not fair that staying alive is a lot harder for me than some people.”

“Well, the world wasn’t created equal,” she said with a laidback shrug.

I shook my head. “Of course, it was, until somebody decided they were better and messed up the whole order of equality.”

“That’s a weird way to look at it but I guess it makes sense to an extent.” “It does.”

She smiled at stood up. “Now, that my work here is done, I have to leave. It was nice talking to you and I’ll try to visit whenever I can.”

“That will be nice,” I said, standing up too. “Oh, and Paris?”

“Yeah?”

“You need to get Amara to check you up. She gave me that spell to say and I have no idea what it does but I have a really bad feeling about it.”

I shrugged. “It’s actually not bad. It hasn’t been disturbing me of recent.”

She walked to the window and looked at me with a sigh. “You’re human so I guess it’s understandable why you don’t understand.”

She didn’t say anything else or wait for me to voice out my questions and the next thing I knew, she was jumping out the window. I ran immediately to see if she had fallen to her death or something but I didn’t see her. The only thing I saw was a bird-like creature flying away.

I looked in the direction that I’d thrown the now crumples photograph. Whoever it was clearly had something against Leon and knew me way more than I thought. It had to be someone from my past. I was sure of that. The only problem was that I had no idea who it could be.