Chapter 78: Chapter 78

The bottle was spun, it landed on Brian. He looked around alarmed, the game seemed to be Maya-themed and he barely knew her though he thought to himself on second thoughts, he had known her enough to ask a question about her.

"Truth or Dare?"

"Do we even have any other option rather than the truth?" Melissa's dry cackle even as she moistened her lips made Xavier shiver.

He hated whenever his sister was on edge. He recognizes that pathetic shrill in her voice he absolutely loathed but more than it, he hated the bastard who has put it there, had made them sit on the fucking floor, and had to remind themselves once again why this needed to be a win or a win situation.

None of them could afford to lose Maya, mourn her. He could see Jasmine's intention with her little game. Truth or Dare? He scoffed, it wasn't pure. But damn, he didn't need pure. Nobody could afford pure else they paid a price. Maya was currently facing the price that came with being too untainted, innocent, pure.

A crack of light amid thick, overwhelming darkness.

"What was the first thing you had noticed about Maya the first day you met her?"

Melissa's lips trembled as she sniffed, "Her eyes." She chuckled a bit, "I didn't notice what shoes she was wearing, if her gown was a designer or bought from some thrift store. I didn't give a fuck." Melissa's brown eyes shone brightly with reminiscence of the first day her path had crossed with Maya, "I just wanted to know who the fuck was the girl, bold enough to wear her heart on her sleeve and let her eyes be a mirror? I did want to get to know her more for an ulterior motive but it had nothing to do with my brother. I was intrigued."

Xavier looked away even as the bottle was spun again. It landed on Jessica.

"One of the biggest lies you ever told Maya?"

"That I'm always going to be there for her." Jasmine's expression was grim and dark. Jessica sobbed.

"She is probably in some shitty place right now, probably cold, hungry to death and feels pain all over her body, but more than that her loneliness claws into my soul," she looked away, "The fact that I'm not next to her saying obscene stories while riling our psychotic kidnapper so he gives me my own fair share of his belt lash, depresses me."

Xavier placed a hand on her shoulder. She flinched, then relaxed seconds after.

"Not your fault Jasmine. You can't protect her from life. I couldn't. I had bodyguards, the resources, tools! But here I'm sitting helplessly like you playing a game of fucking truth or dare, with a bottle that hates my guts way too much to glide towards me!" His voice remained calm regardless of the raging war in his eyes that suggested his anger, his suffering, his fear, his frustration but more than anything the determination to get Maya alive.

At that moment as he watched Jasmine exhale, her breath harsh he knew he would do just about anything and he wasn't surprised he had a team behind him willing to do just that much for Maya.

She was that great.

The bottle was spun wordlessly. It landed on Melissa, she shrugged, past Caring about who the bottle landed on and their response.

"Two words to describe Maya."

"Resilient, Loving."

Everybody nodded in agreement. Defiant and not a pushover but so tender she could kill with Kindness.

"What was your first impression of Maya?" The bottle had landed on Jasmine for the sixth time.

Everyone's gaze was fixated on Jessica as they all tried to get to know more about Maya, know the woman they were about risking their lives for tomorrow regardless of how little they know.

"I was a fresher. I wore this long prim skirt and a hat. Most of the girls Sneered as I walked past them. She was also a new girl too, mop of black hair buried in her book. We had bumped into each other but no we didn't fall in love in that way," everyone released a short snorty Chuckle. It was an effort she appreciated so she continued.

"I had been on the defense immediately I saw her obscene outfit. Jeans that molded her curves so daringly. She had not mind the spite in my eyes when she had heard the taunt directed at me at that moment. I could still see the flash of anger in her eyes for a total stranger," she rolled her eyes, a smile on her face, "The little thing was ready to breathe out fire, and then she didn't even know I was her roommate. The next day she had stolen one of my long skirts and had tagged along behind me in all my classes which surprisingly were hers."

Xavier shook his head, "I suspect she has a knack for wanting to get into trouble. She looks for any means to do that."

Jessica chuckled, "That is believable. She would forget her inner demons, dump her reservations, just to battle canons for a stranger, will travel a mile for a foreigner, and somehow get embroiled in trouble for a bad child. She always saw the good in everyone and hence became a martyr. Her only flaw was believing she was some sort of savior," Jessica's lips shook. She couldn't stop talking, nobody wanted her to anyway, "You know she couldn't blatantly take Charity as she calls it. She had worked two jobs while in college just to get a laptop and had dumped it on the feet of a high school student without a second thought so he could do his project with ease." Jessica covered her face with her hand, her voice a bit muffled but audible.

"I'd thought that was legit foolishness and we had quarreled for days. She came back even more late that week because she took late nights shift, and pedaled on her bicycle so to save transportation costs. She had bought a new laptop a few months after, and when I had asked her if being obstinate had been worth it, she had said__" she stilled and then cried, even more, muttering Maya again and again.

"If I could bring back the joy I saw in another little boy's eyes, make him believe for a second there is still goodness in this corrupt illusion we call life, then I don't mind dumping this too on another boy's feet, making the most stupid decision any pauper like myself cannot afford to make and then living again in absolute misery just to raise money, again." Jasmine's voice had in it no emotions, like she read from a book.

"We had laughed so hard, knowing at the back of our mind. If it ever came to that, Maya would have dropped her laptop without hesitation."

Immediately the words left her mouth, she stood up and then with her hands shielding her face, she was leaving the house.

Nobody went after her, they were too shaken to react, too laden with their degree of sadness to console.