Chapter 87: OUT OF THE ORDINARY

Xender's POV

“You look worse than I do,” Charles said as he pulled up and came to a stop right in front of my gate.

“Tell me about it,” I replied, running a tired hand through my hair.

“How are you holding up with Alda? I have been too caught up in my own mess to even ask.”

I let out a sigh. A deep, heavy sigh. “It's fucked up, man. I completely fucked up with today's incident at Alda's company.” I breathed, feeling more devastated than I have ever felt before in my life.

“What happened? Did Alda get angry at you about something?”

I stared at Charles, wishing more than anything that I could just open my mouth and tell him everything. But Mike hadn't believed a single word I said, so why would Charles?

“I just fucked up real big, and I need to go see if she will ever talk to me again,” I plainly replied. Charles didn't push it; he only gave a understanding nod.

“About Albert, Alda's driver. We haven't been able to find anything that could clear his name,” Charles said, just as I was about to grab my suitcase to leave the car. It instantly added to my mounting headache. “At this point, we are probably not going to come up with any strong evidence, and Seth, on the other hand, is playing his games well. He makes sure he leaves no trace.”

“When is the next trial?” I asked, pausing.

“I'm not entirely sure, but it should be within next week, Thursday or Friday. I will confirm the exact date with the lawyer.”

“What about Mr. Albert’s car camera dashboard, or any other car in Alda's parents' house that might have caught one or two things?” I asked out of pure frustration, already knowing the answer to that question. The police had already secured and searched through the entire area, but absolutely nothing was found.

“You and I already know the answer to that question, Xender. The Barnards live in a private residence, and as fucked up as everything was, the security guard claimed Mr. Barnard had dismissed him early that night. He claims every camera in the area wasn't even active,” Charles said. But hearing it out loud, it just didn't sound convincing at all.

“Is that security guard the same witness posing at Seth’s side?” I asked, recalling from the past trial that Seth's lawyer had claimed someone saw Albert flee the scene.

“Let's talk more about this tomorrow. Let Lucas know we will be meeting at my office tomorrow morning,” Charles said. I gave a tight nod before making my way out of the car, shutting the door, and heading inside the house immediately.

But as I pulled up in front of the stairway that led up to Alda's bedroom, a wave of hesitation hit me. I didn't know if I should go up there or not. I decided to just go. If she was already fast asleep, I would turn back around and see if I could catch her the following morning.

But the exact moment I took my very first step onto the stairs, I felt a violent vibration underneath my leg. The entire ground vibrated aggressively.

I immediately grabbed the wooden stairs handle, steadying my balance as my heart dropped straight into my stomach. My first thought was that it was a typhoon. But why on earth would a typhoon happen in the middle of spring?

After what felt like a full minute, the violent shaking suddenly stopped. Right after, a loud, explosive clashing sound echoed from upstairs. Pure fear immediately gripped my chest. I dropped my suitcase right there on the steps and dashed upstairs, my heart hammering as I needed to make sure Alda was okay.

“Alda! Alda!” I yelled her name in fear as I reached the landing and violently pushed the door to her room open.

But the sheer mess I met inside had me completely wondering if I had entered the wrong room, or stepped straight into another universe.

First, it was the water. I dashed right into a layer of water covering the floor, leaving me completely confused. Then came the wet leaves, tree branches, scattered clothes, and broken wardrobe doors. It looked like everything in the room had been turned into a violent mess.

But through it all, I just couldn't understand a single thing. What are branches of trees doing in here? How on earth did tree branches make their way into a second-story bedroom?

My eyes frantically scanned the entire chaos, searching for her. And then, I saw her. She was crouched down low beside a figure on the floor. I couldn't see the figure's face clearly, but a long mane of white hair floated gently above the little leveled water filling the room.

Then I noticed it. The water around them was actively being stained with something dark.

Blood.

Panic surged through my veins like ice.

“Alda,” I called out, taking a few cautious steps toward the crouched figure. Hearing my voice, she finally turned around to face me.

Pure, glowing green eyes met mine. Heavy tears completely clouded them.

My gaze immediately traveled down to the figure laying on the water-filled floor, and I nearly thought I was looking at a goddess right out of a cartoon movie—except for the fact that she looked so terrifyingly real.

Long white hair floated in the water around a very pale, slender figure with distinctly pointed ears. She wore a blue dress that wrapped around her body like a second skin, making her look incredibly elegant despite the injuries. She was simply too beautiful to be real.

I shook my head in utter disbelief, stepping back.

Okay. I think I have officially gone completely nuts.

“Please... help me,” Alda said, her voice violently snapping my attention back to her. Tears ran down her face as those bright green, crystal eyes seemed to be the only thing telling me that this wasn't a hallucination or a trick of my imagination.

“You have to help me, please! She's dying on me!” she pleaded, her eyes boring desperately into mine. “Please help me take her to the hospital... I just can't lose someone else.”

Looking at her, the truth finally shattered my denial. This wasn't Alda. And I wasn't going crazy after all. Alda was telling the absolute truth when she said she shares her body with someone else.

“Where's Alda?” I asked her, my voice barely escaping as a whisper as I saw how completely devastated she was. She was shaking so violently that I watched her run her own blood-stained hands across her face without even realizing it.

“I don't know,” she sobbed, her voice trembling. “One minute I was here with her, the next minute she was just gone. I can't feel her anywhere around me, and it's completely freaking me out.” Her hands came up to wrap tightly around her own shoulders as her breath suddenly became shallow, like she was suffocating and struggling to breathe.

I dashed through the water toward her, dropping to my knees and immediately trying to call her attention back to me.

“Hey! Miss! I need you to look at me,” I said, gripping her shoulders firmly, needing her to focus on me. But when she finally raised her face to look at me, I saw the bright green color in her crystal eyes begin to rapidly fade away.

Alda's POV

I gasped violently, taking in a sharp, deep breath of air as I felt it suddenly fill my lungs again. My eyes finally focused, taking in the panicked face standing right in front of me, his voice desperately trying to call me back from the dark.

“Hey! Miss! I need you to breathe!”

Xender?

My heart leapt into my throat. If Xender was standing right here, then he must have seen...

Suddenly, the memories rushed back. I remembered Elba on the floor, and how Siofra had tried to heal her but the magical backlash ended up blasting me completely out of my own body and into another void of darkness.

“Alda?” Xender's questioning eyes instantly searched mine.

I took two hurried steps away from him, my eyes scanning the ruined room, frantically looking for Siofra. I found her. She was still crouched beside the bleeding Elba, her hands desperately pressing down on the wound. It was a deep, horrific cut, but we couldn't even figure out what had caused it. And for some terrifying reason, Siofra couldn't heal her. It felt like Siofra's powers were completely void against her injuries. I immediately rushed over to them.

“Siofra, are you okay?” I asked, my voice shaking.

When she looked up at me, bitter tears completely filled her eyes. “She's slipping away, Alda! She's slipping away and I can't even heal her! Does any of this make any sense?!”

Her raw cries filled the quiet room. I frantically looked around the mess, searching for anything I could use to cover Elba up. Spotting the duvet thrown across the other side of the room, I immediately picked it up and rushed back to Elba's side.

“We need to take her to a hospital, Siofra. That is our absolute last option, or she is going to die at this rate,” I said in a panic.

“How? How do we explain how she looks to human doctors?” Siofra threw back the exact question I had been fearing since the moment she realized her magic was failing.

“We will figure it out, let's just go!” I said, my hands trembling as I began wrapping the duvet around Elba, who looked even paler and more lifeless than before. “I will call my family doctor if I have to,” I muttered, trying to reassure Siofra.

That was when I heard Xender’s sharp, authoritative voice cut through the air from behind us.

“It's an emergency, and I want your private ward completely free,” he was saying into his phone. “No CCTV cameras active, and dismiss anyone who isn't you.”

I turned my head slowly to face him, and our gaze met.

He was helping us? I stood there frozen. Just this morning, I thought he believed I was lying about everything.

The moment he clicked the call ended, he walked straight toward us, his expression unreadable.

“Let’s get her to Mike. He's already preparing the clinic to meet us,” Xender said firmly. He walked right past me, carefully adjusting the duvet covering Elba's limp body before easily lifting her up into his arms.

He turned his head back to look at me. “I might need you to grab the car keys.”