Shattered [On Hold]

08. Hello, Friend

- Kady - 

Listening to dad's soothing voice again, with my headphones on, curtains drawn, doors closed; I get lost in my own little world. Dad's beautiful words and music envelopes me in a safe bubble, making me feel warm, as if he was right here, his arms around me, singing for me just like he used to before he passed away twelve years ago.

He had a deep voice; the kind of voice that had an air of confidence and was so easy on the ears. His intonation had the magic of conjuring the deep oceans of emotion in the heart, making you fall in love in an instance.

Only a few people are fortunate enough to have the music and love that was inside him.

I close my eyes as I lay on the bed, trying to get lost in the music, but my head doesn't want to focus on dad's voice at all. How can I? There are so many questions in my mind about Logan's manager. When I asked Liv about it, she said that she saw that picture today and was as clueless and surprised as me. She left soon after that since I refused to talk to her anymore and lost track of time in my own thoughts. How come I never saw Logan's manager before? How come he looked exactly like Alex? What were they doing in the ghost town? But most of all, who is this Jace Martin?

I won't be in this situation if I wouldn't have let Sam take me to the ghost town. I sigh. Maybe this is how my whole life is going to be. Maybe no matter how much I crave for the normal, peaceful life I had before I met Alex, I'll never get it. Everything was going perfectly before I met Alex. There was no drama in my life. So how come I ended up here? What changed?

Then it comes to me. It was two years back, after a week of the incident in the café with Alex. Everything was going the way it was supposed to. It was the decision to go to Massachusetts that changed my life. If I hadn't gone there, if I hadn't opened the door and stepped into that hotel, none of this would've happened.

But that's exactly what I did.

I went to Massachusetts, I opened the door to the hotel and went into the lobby illuminated with a soft and welcoming light with my luggage. That was when I heard a scream, "My favourite cousin!"

I smiled when I saw Mia running towards me with her arms wide open.

I held open my arms too, and soon I was being crushed in Mia's hug. "Mia! It's been so long!"

"I know! Come on, everyone's waiting for you!" Mia said as she broke the hug and then, proceeded to haul me behind her.

I followed her through the lobby and into an elevator. After gliding up, the silver doors of the elevator opened to reveal a long passage way lit with soft glowing light with doors on either side. Mia guided me through the passage way and stopped at the last door before the end.

She barged in and announced, "Look who's here!" She stepped aside, making space for me to enter too. The chit-chat died away as everyone found me standing in the doorway.

"Hi!" I looked around the room meeting the gazes of the people in the room as they greeted me in return. Many of them were familiar as I recognised them as my family and close friends while some were not. I figured they must be relatives of Mia's fiancé, William. They were all scattered around the living room. Some were sitting on the sofa, others were gathered on the windowsill looking out into the beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean.

"There she is!" Uncle Kim, the closest person I've got to a father, came up to me for a hug.

"Don't underestimate her. She can be quite dangerous," one of my cousins, Noah, said from where he sat on the arm of a sofa. "I'm warning all of the people who don't know her, do not go on her looks! She is not as innocent as she looks!"