in love with a villain | choni

-55-

Everyone was busy and attached to work the whole day, aside from Cheryl who ran back home when 12 noon hit the clock. She secretly kept the box in her bedroom, specifically in the bathroom cabinet under the sink. She knew that Cylene might have found it there, but she made sure to place it behind all the other stuff in it.

She resorted to seeing the photos stored inside, still anxiously curious. She tried her best to recall who was with her in the picture and even though her mind got a clue, it obviously still wasn't clear because of the medicine given to her. She wondered what the harddrive contained, so she took her laptop and got into further inspection. She loaded the drive in and clicked the disk, but it displayed a password requirement.

"Oh, come on," she whined under her breath. "Think, CM, think."

She tried different combinations of random codes, including her birthday, but none of it worked. She gave up typing anything nonsense, so she instead scrutinized the keychains. There were two: one was a folded keychain knife, which she found so cool, and the other was a "Starry Night" painting in a small varnished wood.

She wondered why in the hell would she own something inane like that until something snapped in.

"Hey, this is just a random thing that I wanna give you because I find it cute. It got it from the street art gallery in the South."

Remembering that part of a conversation made her nose sweat. She closed her eyes and hoped for more of those.

"Look, you may think like 'ugh, this is corny as fuck, I'm a dude, yanno', but come on, it's art. And it's Vincent Van Gogh-inspired."

She replied, "You know, I love anything you give me. No need to explain. Where is it?"

"Ta-da! It's cute, right? Also, I got a partner for it, if ever you didn't like it. It's a keychain knife. It's so cool and like when you press the button, the blade comes out."

She loved how excited the girl was in explaining. Adorable.

"By the way, cutie, at the back of that wood keychain, I carved a set of numbers. It's our anniv, which hopefully we'll reach."

"Aww. Now I'll have these numbers as my code in everything."

Cheryl panted heavily as she opened her eyes. She took a look at the mentioned keychain again to see if the numbers were there. With no doubt, she typed the four-digit pin, "0126" in and it gave her access.

"Holy shit, yes." Cheryl smiled to herself.

The drive had different folders with dates and random names as their filenames. Little did she know that the key to retrieve herself back was sitting right in front of her.

6:25 pm

Cylene arrived by this time and headed directly to the kitchen to have a glass of water. She was confident to think that everyone wasn't around, except for the maids. She didn't waste time climbing to their bedroom and chose to stand by the garden to unwind. She tried to call Cheryl, but all of it was dodged, intentionally.

"Ma'am Cylene, your snacks," one maid approached her table, carrying a tray that held a piece of buttered bread and a glass of juice drink.

"Thank you so much, I'm starving. Give yourself a break, too." Cylene smiled. "Thanks again."

She had almost finished her sandwich when she heard the sound of a car pulling over. She got excited to welcome the person whom she thought was Cheryl, so she left it on the table.

"Babe? I'm heeere!" she called, walking towards the front door with a smile. "Oh, uh." She awkwardly smiled. "Sorry, Sir Tim. I thought it was Marrion. I've been waiting for him to arrive."