The Marriage Swap || ON HOLD TILL SEPTEMBER

15| 𝙻𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚖𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚜

I shut my eyes and see the dead;
Broken bodies, dripping blood.

I feel the slumber pull me under;
Dreams of terror, blames of horror.

They say, "All of this is for you. Because our love is true."
But does that not make me the sinner?

- from Axel's notes

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☘︎ Eᴠᴇ Kᴀᴠɪɴsᴋʏ ☘︎

A lab rat's destiny is to die.

Cruel as it may sound, it is what it is.

Just how a chemical formula is destined to see through to its final form after the errors and trials and mini-explosions. But for the first time, I came across a formula which was destined to fail.

Were it not for the fact that the formula equation was made with such detail and precision, I would've been sure Michael knew I was going to steal the blueprints and intentionally swapped them with a fake one. But that wasn't it.

Not only did my lab rat perish the moment the blueprint's reaction saw its end, the entire counter where I'd set up the chemicals exploded into cinders and liquid. Like that was their final destiny. It was sheer luck Vicky's reptiles were encased in their glass vivariums, shielding them from the outside atmosphere and protecting them from the little explosion and the chemicals that were exhaled from it. Still. . .

Being reminded of my surroundings, I chance a glance around the yacht's open area. The same yacht that was cruising its way towards the island of Bali. The same yacht where Axel, me and Vicky are in—Axel had dragged his niece along despite her protests because he'd thought the explosion in the green house was done by an outer party who wanted to harm his family.

Vicky and I had let him be in the dark. Both of us did feel guilty, even if Vicky pretended to be indifferent about it. But it had to be done. And now Vicky had locked herself in her room in the yacht, ignoring everyone and doing Newton knew what on her laptop. While I was here, drinking like a drunkard and roaming the open area of the yacht in the middle of the night like a woman possessed.

I take a large gulp from the wine bottle in my hand, staggering bare-foot over the wooden flooring. Axel was sitting on a lounge chair, intently reading the hardcover copy of Pride & Prejudice, his brows furrowed in concentration as though he is a scientist observing a specimen of interest. I didn't know he was a Jane Austen devotee. I didn't know he read.

The moonlight makes his seated form illuminate with a somber light, his hair blending in the darkness, the strands almost looking ethereally silver. The sense of deja vu hitting me, I watch him read a few pages, while taking a gulp after gulp from the wine bottle in my hand. The mere sight of him was somehow more relaxing than the alcohol numbing my system. He was like a unique variant of chemical I couldn't stop myself from being facinsted by.

But then I notice him pause. I watch his lithe fingers shut the book, neatly placing it on the glass table beside him. I'm nearly intrigued whether he sensed my presence, but he doesn't look to his left or right, Axel glances up. At a night sky full of stars splattered like diamonds on deep marine velvet. And in that moment, grief washes over him like tidal waves of agony.

He looks like a heartbroken prince from a daydream. The kind of prince who was seeing his kingdom fall in front of his eyes and couldn't do anything but bare the pain of it. Oddly so, I find myself being attracted to the depressing charm of it all. I've always been a little malfunctioning like that.