023

023

Gaia
Three hours. Three mother fucking hours. I'd been staring at my ceiling for three hours now since my alarm went off at four am this morning.

Did you know my white ceiling board has tiny white speckles that shimmer when the room was totally dark?

You might be thinking I was crazy or I might have totally lost it but the truth was; you just might be up to something, because at this point in my life I had no idea exactly what was going on. Ever since that silhouetted figure trailed me back home, I'd been feeling on edge most of the time. Also, the fact that my nightmares had increased in the span of two days wasn't helping either.

“I guess that time of the year was inching closer again.” I muttered wistfully “Great. Why don't you kill me already?

"No time to wallow in your own paranoia, Gaia." I sighed, swinging my long legs off the bed and shoving my feet into the pair of bunny slippers just in front of me. "You have school and work in a couple of hours."

I trudged to the bathroom and stopped in front of the sink. My face was swollen, my pitch-black hair scattered in all directions like a mohawk and my nose was the exact color as hell. My skin looked pale, a sharp contrast to my usually bright eyes. There was nothing bright about my brown orbs this morning, instead, they sported huge bags under them that seemed to contain all of my life problems.

"Great, where's Olivia when you need her?" I splashed water on my face, wishing they'd magically rid me of my eye bags but instead they seemed to come out more. “Her faculty just had to ship her away for some stupid field trip. Now I've got no one to help me hide these bags."

I was just about to head into the shower when something caught my eye. At the bottom edge of the mirror, red letters shone under the bathroom light.

"Holy!" I screamed, slapping my palms against my mouth. "What the?"

My breath hitched in my throat as I stepped closer to the mirror, hoping it wasn't something else.

I blinked once, twice, but the words didn't vanish. In fact, they were carved in there, waiting and mocking me all at once. Scribbled in red ink, I hoped, were the words;

YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS. IN BLOOD.

A blood curdling curling scream escaped my lungs as I lunged for the bucket of water and spilled its contents on the mirror, temporarily flooding the bathroom. My heart hammered in my head and my vision blurred a little. As if mocking my current predicament, the words shone brighter instead.

Screaming maniacally, I rushed towards my reflection and started scrubbing. Scratching and clawing at the mirror to erase all traces of the words that were now ringing in my ears.

This definitely wasn't paranoia anymore, someone was obviously out for me.

I had no idea how long that lasted for, or how I was able to pull myself together after that, but I just did, before making my way to campus.

The sun was bright and today's ambiance could make even the most sadistic of persons fall in love with nature. Well, everyone except me. Hiding underneath the cover of my hoodie, I weaved expertly between clusters of human mass that gathered around corners of the school, doing one thing or the other.

I reflected on the events of this morning. After seeing that ominous message that was obviously meant for me, I was a hundred percent sure someone was out there to hurt me. And the fact that I felt constantly watched as I turned the corners leading to the lecturer's block made my stomach churn more than usual.

Occasionally I'd glance back, to see if I could get a whiff of who it was, but all I got was a sea of numerous heads, hustling, and bustling about their normal business.

"Oww!!" I yelled as someone shoulder checked me really hard, my books and papers scattered to the ground. I glanced around but found no one who could've pushed me on purpose. “Fucking asshole!"

Grumbling loud enough for almost the entire block to hear, I gathered my books. Today was definitely not my day. I was still rambling on when something caught my eye. Lying inconspicuously under one of the papers I was supposed to submit to Cassian was a black envelope with a drawing of a skull marking its edges. It wasn't addressed to me or anyone else in particular, but I had a gut feeling it was mine.

Swallowing the bile that ridden up my esophagus, I looked left and right before packing up my books and hiding the letter in between them. As I walked further towards my destination, whatever anger that I'd built up had sizzled out instantly. Instead, an icy feeling of dread settled all over me, goosebumps appearing on my skin.

What was going on? Why were all these things happening to me?. I hadn't made any enemies that would go this far, right?

With my thoughts jumbled up in my head,but I didn't let them get to me. In less than no time, I reached my destination and walked in, slamming the door shut a little loudly.

"You could as well rip the door right off its hinges!" Cassian groaned in frustration, tossing his head backward. "Aren't you ever gentle?"

I guess I wasn't the only one having a rough life...

"Is it a crime to be gentle and polite once in a while?" I countered, his current mood rubbing off on me almost immediately. “Do you always have to be an obnoxious human being?"

"Oh really?" He scoffed, walking up to me in three long strides. He towered over me, his face etched into a deep frown. “So slamming the door to my office is polite then?"

"Move." I hissed, sidestepping him “I'm not in the mood."

"Of course you aren't." He grabbed my arm, causing me to halt in my tracks. “You barge in here and," he paused, squinting his eyes as if noticing me properly. His eyebrows creased in confusion before a smaller frown crossed his features. “What's wrong?"

"Huh?" I quipped absentmindedly, my legs itching to take me to the solitude of my office. “What did you say?"

"What's wrong with you?" He repeated, twirling me in such a way I was facing him again. "You look..."

"Look what?" My eyes involuntarily flicked from his face towards the letter whose edge was peeking through my stack of papers. “What!?"

"You look worried." He sighed, sounding genuinely concerned. “Is something bothering you?"

"No." I let you a little too abruptly. “I'm fine."

"You're a terrible liar, Mila." He rolled his eyes. “You have bags under your eyes and your mood is unstable. You're usually always a hot headed bitch."

"Good Lord." I groaned, slapping the papers against my face continuously. “I really don't have time for this. Today's a bad day for me and I just want to hide in there and find out what this letter is all about." I pulled out the envelope, brandishing it in his face.

"What letter?" He stepped back, obviously trying to stop me from poking out one of his eyes. “What's that?"

"Nothing!" I shoved the letter into my back pocket. He made his way around but I stepped back, putting more distance between us. “It's nothing."

"That's not nothing." He shook his head furiously, strands of his sandy locks jumping here and there. “Give it to me."

"Hell no!" I jumped back. “Haven't you heard of privacy? Or are you so stuck up that you don't even respect that one rule?"

"What if the content of that letter is dangerous?" Something flashed in his eyes. It looked like fear and I swear I could make out his fingers trembling slightly. “It doesn't look like a normal message..."

"And it's not your business." I hissed. “It's my..."

The rest of the sentence died in my throat as his phone vibrated slightly. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, scowling almost immediately. He was just about to tuck it in again when it vibrated again. And again. And again.

"Who's that?" I raised an eyebrow. “Aren't you going to pick it up?"

"Why do you wanna know?" He sneered in a childlike manner and I pushed back the urge to smile. “It's not important."

"It's been beeping for a while now." Several beeps resonated in his pants as if to prove my point. “So it's definitely important."

"It's not." He shot back.

"Then pick it up." I countered, a frown on my lips.

"It's not your business." He snapped and I flinched. “Don't try to turn this to me."

"Oh." A sadistic smile made its way to my face. “I can't snoop into your business, but you can into mine?"

"Mila." He sighed. He rubbed his neck slowly, a conflicted look running across his face. For a moment, he looked genuinely scared, not for me, but like the words on that envelope meant something he’d seen before.
“This could be really dangerous. You don't understand."

"That could be really important too."

"You don't understand." He repeated. “Do you trust me?"

Never in a million years would I have pictured Cassian Corvin asking me that sort of question. I studied him carefully, while he stood there, some kind of hope in his eyes that I'd reply in the positive.

"No." I shook my head. “Not with my life. If you can't tell me why you're ignoring those texts, then you don't need to know what's in my letter."

"Wow." He huffed, deflated. “That's just wow. So you're not going to..."

"Never." I wriggled my arm out of his grasp and headed to the mini office. “And don't ever try to interfere with whatever concerns me"

"Great." I saw him nod. “Enjoy your day. I'm not going to interfere."

But I knew the last thing Cassian Corvin would do was to not investigate. And if he did, then my life would be more than what I was already facing now.

Great. Just fucking great.