A Rose Of Revenge

✴️Chapter 16✴️: The raid.

Justin woke up with his head in his hands. He had a nagging headache, a terrible one at that. The aroma coming from the bedside attracted him to the cup beside the bed. It was green tea. The type he liked drinking in winter.  But after he had been drugged earlier that day, it would be foolishness on his part to trust them with the things that would go into his belly again. They drugged him once. They could absolutely do it again.

He wanted to sit up on the bed but the feminine voice of Nora, which was still as delicate and as beautiful yet commanding as before, echoed in the room.

"Yes?" She said to the phone, balancing into the armchair.

"I just saw the news. My goodness, you're more cruel than I thought you'd ever be" Said Phillips on the phone to Nora. The newspaper was on her crossed laps and her hands were still trembling, knowing that she had just taken the life of twenty four innocent people. Her concience wasn't calm at all, it kept pricking her. But she feighened confidence. She sucked in a deep breath, sat up in her chair and said to the person on the other side of the phone "Everything has its timing. If one beat is missed, it can ruin the whole song. Strike while your enemies are relaxed, so they wouldn't have time to react"

"In just one day, you threw the nation into confusion, burnt down my brother's mansion and threw the internet into chaos. I must say, I'm impressed".  He said to her, still amazed at how fast she was in achieving things he couldn't even do since he came back from the states.

"I didn't burn down his house, only because of revenge. I burnt down his house, so he'd have no choice but to live with your parents. You two will live under the same roof, it'd be easier to monitor his movements that way". Nora said to Phillips.

Phillips didn't know whether to be impressed or be intimidated by Nora's calculative mind. It was oppressing to him but still he was happy and proud that Nora wasn't his enemy. He couldn't risk to have her as an enemy. At least, not now.

  "I'll get back to you". Nora said to Phillips before hanging up. She was trembling beyond control and couldn't hold the phone anymore, allowing it to slip from her hand to the floor.

  Her eyes darted down to the newspaper in her hands and she took her time to read the sentence she had 'accidentally' seen while speaking to Phillips.

No one present in the mansion escaped the fire. A man identified by the ring on his hand, known by his friends as Butcher Lee and the security man, were blown up into different pieces, some parts of their bodies are still not found.  Her mind read the words on the newspaper silently. Her mind flashed back to when the middle aged security man saw her from his post and wanted to walk up to her and ask her a few questions. If he had known that he'd die the next minute, if only he had known...

Justin sat up in bed when he couldn't hear anything from Nora anymore. He only heard what Nora said, he couldn't hear what the other person was saying because of the distance. He didn't even know who the person was.

He got out of the bed he once laid, holding his head like it was going to fall off at anytime, moving like an hypnotized person towards the end of the bed, his eyes not moving away from Nora, who was still overwhelmed by the death of those twenty four workers, staring blankly at the newspaper. He had so many words to tell her but he didn't even know how to start the conversation.

Nora noticed that Justin wasn't on his bed anymore, she almost jumped out of shock when she saw Justin staring blankly at her. He was looking at her but he wasn't seeing her that she knew. He was in another universe of his own. She adjusted herself in her chair, closing the newspaper and placing it on the table.

  While Justin was still contemplating on what to say and how not to start an awkward conversation, she observed her once upon a time best friend. He was in casuals. A black T-shirt and black pants. His hair was neatly glued and trimmed, in a jet hairstyle and his Nike sneakers made her recall those times she wished Justin actually had a girlfriend. Then he would have someone to tell him, he looked good.  The only thing about Justin was that he wasn't muscular. He had always been slim. Even now, he looked slimmer.