~ALISON
His head fell back down onto the bed, pulling me along with him and I landed on his body. It was sticky. Beads of sweat covered his entire body and dripped like he had been beaten by the rain.
My free hand found his face. I tapped the side of his cheeks insistently to try to wake him but it felt nearly impossible. He wouldn't let go of my hand no matter how hard I pulled.
His chest was heaving up and down rapidly and I panicked. I needed to get his mother. I tried to stand up when suddenly, the temperature in the room dropped drastically.
My hammering heart stilled, eyes slowly growing wide and all the hairs on my body stood firm and tall. I knew this feeling, eerie and unsettling. I slowly turned to look to the edge of the bed beside Daven.
Eden. He was there once again. Standing and watching with cold eyes.
A strangled gasp escaped my lips.
"E—den?" I stammered. "What are you doing here?"
His eyes were fixed on Daven, whose body convulsed with force. The more he stared the worse it became.
Something unsettling stirred my stomach. "Eden, are you doing this?" Worry pulsated through me. It was terrible.
"Stop, he could die." I said to Eden, frantically. But Eden didn't look up at me once.
My heart cracked. He hadn't spoken to me and I didn't know why. It was as though he had a grudge but had to deal with something first, what I didn't understand was—why Daven.
"Eden." I called out his name once again when Daven became worse. I was breathing hard, chest heaving, anger and pain settling within me.
Then finally, Eden looked up and his mouth moved. "KILL."
"What?" I tried to make sense of what they meant...
Then Daven sat abruptly, letting go of my hand and causing me to slide off his body violently. It was a good thing that the bed was big enough and so I didn't roll off it.
He stood up and walked over to the window like he was a robot being controlled, without looking back. I ran across the bed and came to stand beside him.
He was so close to the window which was on the top floor of his family's very tall mansion.
Was he going to jump off the window? The thought sent chills down my spine.
My eyes darted back to Eden who stood behind, his eyes not leaving Daven with a sinister look in them. So sinister, it didn't feel like the Eden I knew.
I turned back to Daven, "Daven, you don't have to do this. It's not you who's doing it."
Daven turned his head, his face expressionless and his curls, curlier than ever, sitting messy on his head, with bare chest.
His eyes—the most chilling part—had taken on a different colour. I had seen it before when I came in but thought I had hallucinated it regardless.
However, seeing it a second time...
His lips parted lightly, it was so light, barely an inch and I thought I heard a snarl. Before he turned back to the window, stretched his hand and reached for the pane and threw himself off the window.
I had tried to reach but it was late, he had jumped off before my hand touched his skin. My mouth opened wide in shock. I leaned over the window and looked down below. He was standing on his feet.
My brows creased. My mind whirled. Confusion settled in. How was that possible? No. The height was one that would cause death upon impact once someone jumped off.
Then he began moving, no... running.
I sprinted out of the room and ran across the hallway to his mother, Madeline's room. I knocked on the door, frantically.
I heard the sheets ruffle on the inside and didn't stop until I heard the soft taps of flip-flops slapping against the ground. The door knob turned and revealed her face.
Her lips still drooped and her face was creased in a frown. "Alison?" She said with a voice that sounded shocked. "It's so late at night, what are you doing up by this time?"
"I'm sorry, ma'am." I began, trying my possible best to keep my heart from racing so much. "It's Daven."
Her eyes shot open, wide and filled with fear. QQ"My son." She breathed and pushed past me, running towards his room. Her mouth dropped in a gasp and her brows creased in deep worry while her eyes searched the room.
"He jumped out the window." I said.
She turned to me, hands flying to her mouth which dropped wide open. "Did you see that?" She asked, her voice a whisper, her lips trembling.
I don't know what to say at that moment. I opened my mouth to reply but she walked past me briskly out the door.
I followed her. She got to her room and frantically searched for something around her bed.
"Where the hell is my phone?" She asked, yelling on the top of her voice.
I could see the panic in her voice.
My mind was whirling with confusion at what was happening. Then her door burst open and the housekeeper walked in.
Madeline turned to her, "get the driver." Madeline yelled.
The housekeeper bobbed her head like a fish out of water and dashed out of the room. It was chaotic.
What the hell was going on?
"Ah!" She exclaimed with a shaky voice. It caught my attention. She had found her phone and was tapping the screen frantically. She pressed it to her ear.
"He's gone out again." She said, voice shaky with one hand on her waist. "I don't know what to do at this point."
I watched her, trying to make sense of what was happening.
Then her eyes glanced briefly at me. Then she walked away to her bathroom and shut the door, leaving me blank headed.
Within minutes, doors flung open once more with the housekeeper walking in and she stepping out from the bathroom.
"Is it ready?" She asked the housekeeper and she nodded in response.
She dashed out of the room.
I just stood there dumbfounded.
Two hours had already gone by, I was seated on one of the couches in the lounge area, my eyes were sore from staying awake all night and my feet insistently tapping on tiles while I kept glancing at the wall clock which only seemed to tick slowly.
After what seemed like ages, the door finally clicked. A bulky man dressed in black suit walked in after the housekeeper. On his shoulders dangled an unconscious Daven. His body was stained with mud and then his finger tips...blood.
Or perhaps, I was hallucinating again.
Then Madeline, his mother, stepped in and disappeared with them as they walked up the stairs and took a corner down the hallway.
I sat back down in my seat.
I should leave. It wasn't my place to be here. But then back home, there was nothing for me.
I drew in a very deep breath to calm my racing heart and my mind. Just as I did, the sound of heels clicking on the tiles forced me to stand abruptly.
My hands were shaking so much I intertwined them and rubbed my thumb against them. Madeline was walking down the stairs with a poise she didn't have earlier. Her face was hard and cold and it felt like all the panic from earlier had evaporated.
Her body felt stiff and the aura that she carried was different from when I first met her. It was more intimidating. I had to look down to avoid her cold gaze which sent chills down my spine. The change was so abrupt.
"I'm sure you saw what had happened." She said and took the couch opposite from mine.
She gestured to the couch behind me. "Sit."
"Oh!" I exclaimed and lowered myself into the seat. I was shaking over and had to keep my composure all through so I wouldn't slip up.
She crossed one leg over the other, her back ramrod straight. "You witnessed it all."
I glanced at the ground to avoid her gaze.
"Answer me." She demanded, tone sharp.
"Y—yes." The atmosphere had shifted. It was tense and hung over me like a dark cloud.
"Good." She retorted. "How much do you want?"
I blinked, not quite catching the question the first time.
"I know I already pay you for looking after him and truthfully you did well by informing me about his condition." She said, voice calm and chill.
"Thank you." I muttered, not quite sure if I was really expressing gratitude.
"Don't mention." She said, "Now, all I have to make sure of is that this..." She gestured with her fingers to what had just occurred. "...never gets out, no matter what."
She leaned towards me. "Do you understand?"
I swallowed, "Yes."
"I'll pay you in exchange for your silence." She said point blank. "But if it ever comes out..." She paused, her eyes narrowing dangerously.
I didn't even want to imagine what might happen.
"Let me think about it." I blurt.
She sighed and relaxed back into her seat, "Alright, I'll let you have that. However..."
My heart stopped.
What could she possibly want to say?
"You can't go anywhere else and you can't leave the mansion either except you're leaving with Daven and a guard."
My eyes grew wide. "What?" I wasn't expecting that.
"I'm sorry Alison, but you're stuck with us now unless..."
Then she stood up without saying anything else and walked out of the room, leaving her words hanging over my head.
'Unless…what.' The word hung over my head like a looming threat.
What exactly did she mean by that?
A knot twisted in my chest. What had I gotten myself into?