Cursed

Chapter 11

Cassie's POV
"I wonder why Eva isn't staying here, I mean, this guy seems nice enough," I murmur, after Hunter lets me into the room he's staying in.
"This is what you woke me up for? Listen, she probably just wants to see the people from her village, it's been however many years, right?"
"Yeah but, his name, it's Jake Kim. Isn't that Eva's surname? What if he's her family?"

"Well at this point, even if he is, it's none of our business."
"That's not very like you."
"Yeah, but we know all she wants us to know about her past, probably more than that, if I'm being honest. If she didn't tell us about him, there's a good reason for it. And as curious as I am about those two freaks, I also feel like we know far too much about people we only just met."

"Someone's matured, in a way, it's a little boring."

"You're acting like I didn't know that. I'm bored out of my mind, and my instinct is to do some snooping around, but I shouldn't. Cassie, stop looking at me that way."
"What way?"
"You're trying to trick me into snooping, aren't you? That look on your face screams mischief."
"Well, was I successful?"
"...come on then. We don't mention this to Eva though."

We begin searching the house in the dark, for any sign that supports the idea that Jake Kim is related to Eva in some way.

"Hey, what's this?" I whisper.

A framed photo of what appears to be a mother and small child. A baby.

The mother looks reasonably young, maybe in her early twenties, as for the daughter, her pale gold eyes are half closed, and her darker lilac hair is short and messy.

"Woah, is that baby Eva? Who would've thought that's what her mother looked like. Eva resembles her more in picture than she probably does now, guess she took after her dad's looks."
"So this is Alice Kim," I mutter, picking up the photo. "I know you can't judge a book by its cover, but just by looking at her, I can feel the warmth Eva spoke so fondly of."

"What are you two doing?"

Shoot.

Turning around, I fumble around with the photo and place it back where I found it, looking up to make eye contact with the tall man.

"I- we were-" I begin.
"We were snooping around, okay? We apologise, but we just wanted to know why Eva didn't choose to stay here for the night. We were being nosy, we know," Hunter interrupts, "We're sorry."
"Yeah... are you gonna beat us?"

"What?" He asks, almost a hint of fear in his eyes.

"Y'know, like the teachers at school. You misbehave, you get the cane," I reply.

"Thank god, I thought she... never mind. To satisfy your curiosity, Eva is my niece, though she doesn't necessarily like me. She has more than enough reasons for that, I got that photo from Mrs Sutton, one of the villagers from Surrek."
"Did you not live there too?"
"No way. I lived in Hezra, I only moved here because some family live in Hezra. They hated me after I let the two of them go back to Surrek, I hope the brat doesn't bump into them, if they find out who she is, she'd be killed. Then Alice would kill me."
"Has she not met the rest of your family?" Hunter asks.
"She's met me, and probably a few people on her father's side. Make sure when in Hezra, she lies about her surname, she's lucky, looks more like her dad."
"Yeah. Sorry for all that Mr Kim, we'll go to bed now. Goodnight."

The next morning, we eat breakfast here and meet Eva and Cas in the middle of the village, one of the people they were staying with accompanying them.

"So what, I'm not gonna get to see you again for a while?" He asks as they walk over.
"I know, it sucks, we just have to get going as soon as possible. To find my mum and-"
"I get it, don't worry shorty. How about a goodbye kiss?"
"I'll kick you."
"I'll take that as a no. I hope to see you soon street rat."
"That idiot..." Eva mutters with a grin.