She Who Blamed God and He Whose Dreams are Not for Himself

Chapter 3 : The Inevitable Invitation

Smack*, a quick and thundering sound of a slap, " Andrew you should stay away from Aira !!!", Those are the words Aira heard the next day in the office, that day, Aira was early and no one was supposed to be there, supposed.... However, it seems to be she was late, Laura and Andrew... was already inside.

"I really thought her accident was just an accident Andrew, I was a fool for forgetting what happened 2 years ago, but why didn't you remember?"

"Laura, it is not I who is to blame, did I burned her house down?, Exactly it is not I who that have to change, it is that noble's daughter who should be imprisoned"

They argued loudly, but on the other side of the door was the complete opposite, Aira froze just as she gripped the doorknob, her mind completely engulfed and she thought "my house he said, what Andrew was talking about yesterday that made Laura shocked was not their past event, it was my accident?"

"How many times have you said that to me already, and how many times did you not just fail to do it, how many times do other people have to suffer just for your arrogance?""Laura !, I am just an inch away from what I dreamed of, now is the time to take care of her once and for all, I have evidence and the police I met yesterday said that he would take upon the investigation, you have to help.""Andrew, you should think of what would happen if this continues, the police would lose his job, your project will be disturbed by her to a point of cancellation—""Yeah I know but this is our only chance to—"Smack* another slap, even harder than before.." CELYN !!, THINK OF HER, SHE COULD BE THE MAIN CASUALTIES OF YOUR DOING ANDREW, THAT INNOCENT CHILD." Laura shouted.

Laura's footsteps were closing to the door, yet Aira didn't move a single inch, Laura opened the door and she was surprised to see Aira frozen on the other side, she tried to run away from the office, but Aira managed to grip her hand, with a blank face Aira asked, "what would happen to Celyn?"

Laura shoved away and shouted " LIKE HELL WOULD I KNOW WHAT SHE WOULD DO", Laura kneel down and covered her ears out of stress, she started crying and Andrew came to the door and said, "Inside Laura, we will talk about this, all 3 of us!" Laura stood up and wiped her tears, without eye contact, Laura and Aira went inside.

"We shouldn't be doing this Andrew, what if she knows someone from the studio?" said Laura shaking and holding her tears back, she sat down inside and Andrew held her shoulder from her back, "calm down Laura, I told everyone to stay at home for today, there is no one but just the 3 of us" Andrew sets up a chair and gestured Aira to sit down. Andrew sat down and he started to comfort Laura and he said, "Laura is paranoid after what happened to her, she is a very cheerful and outgoing girl, but when it comes about a certain someone, she is like this, afraid and paranoid, anyone who went through what she went would also be traumatized."

Aira glanced at Laura, still crying and shivering then she asked, "what happened to her?", Laura nodded and said "I'm fine, tell her Andrew, she needs to know", Andrew sat down beside Laura still holding her hand and he said

"3 years ago, a noble family was searching for a fresh graduate to teach their daughter, we were both offered to be their English literature teacher, I accepted the offer and Laura declined, one day, it was raining heavily for hours and hours, the daughter of the noble family and I were the only one inside their mansion, she asked me once, why did I study English literature and what drove me to do it, I told her about my dreams and I let her read the book even before I started publishing them, she became interested in me saying that seeing my passion is somewhat rare in this world, after that day, she kept telling me to read her the stories, day by day, she becomes closer to me than what I expected, to a point of obsession, texting me every minute, telling me to accompany her every time, and even raising my salary so that she gets to see me every day, I decided to quit the job, and she asked me why? I said to her that I wanted to pursue my dream and publish my book. She cried and with no one else on the mansion, she said to me that she will support me to pursue my dream with whatever ways she can, and I believed she did, through many book companies that she bought just to ease my book publishing, however, I refused. Laura at the time was helping me in making the book, on September 27th, 27 civilians were reported missing, and Laura is one of them, they threatened each of the victims and gathered them in an abandoned building, Laura was handcuffed, tape on her mouth and legs tied up, they shot a girl besides Laura, Laura's scream was muffled and she was in tears, one of them approached Laura and whispered " when you get out of here alive, make sure you give this to a person named Andrew, or else" and he walked away shooting another person beside Laura. Other victims were tortured and were told different things when the police arrested them, there were 5 deaths, 12 gravely wounded, and Laura isn't one of them. When the police asked Laura about her relatives, she told the police to call me instead, and when I got the phone call I rushed to the police station and she was there shivering like she was freezing, she stood up and dragged me to the bathroom and she gave me the letter."

Laura's eyes at this point were drenched in tears, she was shivering, remembering the tragedy that happened to her and Andrew gently caress her hands and he continues" to Andrew, I tried to help you to achieve your dreams that we always talked about, I trusted your intention, but what did I found, you and a girl named Laura with a book coming from a small local book community, you and Laura especially, did you forget that you have me here waiting for you to come back?. And I knew that it was her, my private student, the noble family's daughter, she was behind Laura's abduction but there are other parties that collaborated with her, 27 problems and Laura is one of them, and I can't accuse her unless I have the evidence of her relation in both accidents, the 2nd accident is your house, I don't know why she did it and she didn't leave anything directly for us, and that is why we need the police to investigate it furth—"

Laura slammed the table in front of her and screamed, "Enough Andrew, I don't want anyone else to experience what they did to me, especially not Aira or Celyn, you made me promise that we will take care of Aira and Celyn as their guardian, we have time to run away now !"

She then looked at me with horror in her eyes " Aira, you are on my side right ?, you also think that we have to run away don't we ?, both Celyn and you might be in danger if Andrew keeps searching for this evidence that we don't know existed or not."

Aira, once again, blamed god who made her experience such things, sorrow, terror, and many more, Aira was speechless, her face was lost in the void

"the glimpse of light you gave me, the hope I believed in, was the very flame that devoured my family."

Those are the words Aira never spoke of, her eyes were looking down constantly, avoiding any eye contact from both Andrew and Laura, ignoring Laura's plead, she asked.

"Andrew, was this your plan all along? You saved Laura, using me as a diversion for that noble's daughter so she targeted me instead of Laura, is that why you bother finding a main role actor on the corner of a village?"

Andrew avoided Aira's gaze and he looked to the side, he paused for a second and then said, "I never knew that she would do this, I thought she was aiming for Laura and if Laura becomes closer to me then she will strike again, but my speculations were wrong."

A slight smirk formed on Aira's face, a chuckle in terror, without eye contact she asked"you knew it all along, didn't you Laura?"

Laura cried even more "Andrew didn't tell me anything about it, he did it without my knowledge and one day you showed up, I can't really do anything at that point"

Laura grabbed Aira's hand and she said, "let's just run away from all of this Aira".

Run away, run away, run away, those words echoed inside Aira's head, her eyes unmoving, her body trembling from fear, Andrew was silenced and he moved away from Laura and sat across her, Laura kept pleading to run away, her tears were still dripping from her face, but Aira was consumed entirely, nothing can get to her now.

"A voice mail has arrived", the silence breaks and all of them stared at Aira's phone

"Playing", and a gentle female voice was transmitted "you can't do anything, why don't you come to me instead, Andrew, we can talk things over, my place 6 pm today, I am watching, always watching."

Laura fell to her knee, the terror of the past haunts her once more

Andrew covered his eyes with his hand, the inevitable invitation has come for him

Aira stood still, and chuckles in uncertainty, the path to her misery welcomed her