Eyes So Blue I Drown

43| Invaded

ARABELLA

Fantino's words bring a flood of emotions. All I want is to see my family again. I can already picture myself at the airport, hugging my mom and dad. A soft smile tugs at my lips.

"Arabella?" Fantino's voice brings me back to the present, "Luca asked me to tell Leah that he won't be able to come home tonight. He's busy with police custody. Inform her okay"

"Police custody? Why?" I inquire, my curiosity piqued.

"It's nothing important, he'll be free from it soon. The only thing that it harms is his time" Fantino reassures me. "And... he told me to tell you that-"

"Is there anything else Neville asked you to tell me?" I interrupt. I disconnect the call when he didn't have anything to say.

Such a time waste.

~~~

I wake up with heavy breaths. Though I had a very good sleep.

The room is still dark. I glance at my wristwatch kept on the nightstand after turning on the lamp. 4:00 AM.

My flight is at 8 AM.

Yay.

With a smile on my lips, I get up from my bed. I'm not being ignorant of my surroundings, I just don't want to live like this. I want to see myself like how I was a month ago.

Like how I was before seeing him again.

After washing my face and putting on some warm clothes, I open the window of my room, feeling the cold night wind blowing against my skin. I see the stool of the window is wide enough for me to sit on it.

I carefully adjust myself on it and look at the moon. I never understood how people can be obsessed with that thing and stare at it for hours. I thought it was such a boring bullshit.

But today I feel it is much worse than that. Because it's insisting me to think about him.

Some people are not just meant to be.

Sighing heavily, my eyes shoot down at a person near the empty pool. My eyes quickly shut, but I slowly open them again, holding my breath. It's happening again. Who is that person?

The person is just sitting there. I watch him. I keep watching him for a solid five minutes until he gets up and begins walking.

The lamplight present before the main door of the house falls on the person and my mind goes blank.

If I'm recognising right, she's definitely Leah.

I get out the window and stomp downstairs, seeing her sitting in the hallway on the couch. It's dark around here, all the lights are off.

I walk towards her, "Arabella? What are you doing here?" she asks when she sees me.

"I should be the one to ask you" I sit beside her and say, "I saw you sitting beside the pool. What happened?"

She sighs, "Nothing just... I'm worried about him. Couldn't sleep much, had a nightmare and Fantino wasn't here either. They're so busy these days"

"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask, trying to help her.

She shakes her head. "I'm afraid I might lose him like my parents and my other brother" she speaks lowly.

What? She has another brother besides Luca. Why did I never know about it?

Suddenly, we see guards rushing outside the house. Lights are turned on eventually and the sound of their footsteps keeps increasing. "What happened? Is something wrong?" Leah asks.

We both stand up and get surrounded by three of the guards here, "Some people are trying to invade, we need to shift you both to a safe spot, come with us"

"What?! Who-" Leah was saying something but gunshots filled the air around us.

I hold Leah's hand, "I'll take care of her. You go and help the other guards" I quickly say to the guards, trying to help.

One of them nods and passes me a gun, "Don't think twice before using it. One of us will accompany you. Be quick" he says, pushing us upstairs.

The guard takes us to nowhere but Leah's room. He opens the closet and looks back at us, "Get inside."

"How both of us are supposed to fit in this small closet" I clamor.

"There's a small secret place to hide behind these clothes" Leah informs me and looks at the guard, "We'll get inside it when those bastards step inside the house alive."

"We can't take risks!" the guard raises his voice hurriedly.

"Well, I trust the security my brother has arranged for us!" Leah's voice raises too.

We hear the sounds of gunshots again. What the fuck is happening? I feel like I'm in an action movie. "You both stay here, I'll go keep an eye on the door," he says and leaves, closing the door behind him.

We both sit down beside the bed, in the corner. She rubs my shoulder and comforts me. She's really calm right now, "Don't worry, my room is safer than even Luca's room. There's so much emergency stuff we can use."

I nod at her.

After a few seconds, I hear some sound from the window. "Don't make noise," I tell her quietly and peek outside.

I watch two men in the backyard, having something in their hands. "Two of them are there. They're doing something, I can't see what is there in their hands" I speak.

Soon, she offers me a binocular.

I watch them again. And my eyes can't look away.

That's a fucking bomb.

I sit back again and breathe. I gulp hard, we're going to blast.

"What happened?" she asks, "You okay?"

"They are trying to blast this house," I tell. I can't believe anything of it.

She panics. "What the actual fuck. They horse shit -"

I walk to the door to call in that guard but he's nowhere here. I can't see anybody around here.

"I need to go to them," I say, there's a small fear in my heart, "You stay here" I stand up and look down the window.

"But- You can't go like that, it's dangerous!" she whisper-shouts and pulls me back.

"I can fight them" I say confidently, "Look, we don't have time, and any other way, I need to go or else-"

"I'll come with you too" she insists, I deny. She needs to be safe, I can't trust her in fighting yet.

"Do you have a pair of shoes?" I ask and she gives me. And surprisingly, they fit my feet perfectly. "There's this pipe connected to the wall, I can go down with the help of that. I've learned parkour a little too so it won't be that hard"

"Please be safe. Let me tell you how to use the gun" she says.

I shake my head, "I don't need it."

"You should. You might need it. It won't take much time" she says and instructs me quickly about the basic reload and shoot stuff.

My heart races as I close in on the two men, my footsteps soft as I approach. The strange, unsettling device they're tinkering with sends shivers down my spine, but I can't afford to lose focus. In the distance, the sound of gunfire serves as a constant reminder of the danger that surrounds me.