Helena's firm voice woke me up from retrospecting.
We were all watching Helena walking back and forth while talking to someone on the phone. Her voice was commanding, yet full of worries. She looked at me.
"Okay. I understand!" she said before ending the call.
"Brad... where is Sheryl?" she asked with urgency in her voice.
"At the guesthouse maybe... why?" I replied, confused at the urgency in her voice.
"I need you to call her and make sure that she's there," she ordered.
Puzzled by the situation, I dialed her number.
'The number is out of coverage area.'
"Holy shit! Try again!" she yelled when I told her that I couldn't reach Sheryl's phone.
"What's going on?" Luke asked as I tried to call her number again.
"My comrades went to Sheryl's flat in Paris and recovered some suspicious items. I just hope that those might shed some light on this problem," Helena answered while tapping some files on the hologram.
"I am currently downloading the photos of the documents and retrieved belongings. And... done!" she said while 10 photos emerged one by one on screen.
Everyone in the room was sitting in anticipation as Helena tapped the first photo.
We looked at a photo of a woman who seems to be in her late twenties. On her lap is a baby girl wrapped in a faded pink blanket and a pink bennie on her head. Beside her is a young boy holding a popsicle. Smiles are plastered on their faces. They seem to be in a park basing on the landscape behind them.
"Who are they?" Diana uttered while putting down her drinks.
I was looking at the photos intently. I wasn't sure about who they were, but a restless worry began creeping in me.
"The boy is Peter and the baby girl is ...!" Helena looked at me.
"Your sister..."
We were all stunned.
"They're siblings?!" Owen asked in disbelief.
"Are you certain? Is she part of this?!" Keira asked.
"I don't think so. I think she's also been victimized by her brother to get even with Brad's family. Whatever Peter's motive is, Brad's family is in grave danger! He's ready to kill!" Helena answered while showing other photos of their family and also their birth certificates.
All family photos contained only three of them on different occasions such as Peter's 7th birthday, Sheryl's christening, and others.
In one rare photo, which seems older than the rest, has a man holding Peter on his arms while blowing a candle on his 4th birthday cake. But the man's face was obviously vandalized so we couldn't recognize him.
"I am gonna kill him first before he harms my family!" I yelled.
I was dialing my parents' number when my phone rang. It was my father!
"Brad... they took Sheryl!" he said. He's panicking.
"What?! They who?"
"I don't know... they were in black wet suits and black ski masks..." he struggled to talk.
"And... your mom is shot... she... she's losing so much blood..." he told me as he cried.
"Just keep putting pressure on her wound! I am on my way there~" I told him as I ran to the guesthouse. My friends who were equally startled as I followed.
"Fuck you, Peter! I am gonna kill you!" I screamed like crazy. I was praying religiously that nothing bad will happen to my mom and sister.
After Alicia's death, I realized that death is real. Its smell, its look, and feeling still lingered in my brain making me feel sick and anxious.
We rushed into the guesthouse and found my father applying pressure on my mom's gunshot wound with a towel while crying in the living room. His flustered face was covered in sweat as he stared at my mom lying unconscious on the floor soaked in her own blood.
Luke and Owen helped me with my mom while Cassandra and Diana calmed my father. Helena searched the room while Keira called 911.
Just as my mom was rushed to the operating room, I got a call from Sheryl. I hurriedly walked outside to the parking lot before I answered the call.
"Hello... Shy?"
-no answer-
"Sheryl?!"
-no answer-
I could hear the sound of the waves hitting the rocks from the distance and the faint sound of clanging metals. I gestured at Helena who was following me to come and listen to the call. She listened silently.
A sound of shallow breaths can be heard.
"H-h-help..." Sheryl said in an almost inaudible voice.
"Sheryl?! Sheryl?!" I yelled anxiously.
I was so afraid that she might be in grave danger.
Then, I heard a man's loud maniac laughter.
"Gotcha! Gotcha! Gotcha!" he said while laughing.
"Fuck you, Peter!" I said which caught my friends' attention.
"Whoooohooooo! Do you like my present?" he said maniacally.
"Where are you? What did you do to my sister?!"
"Shhhhhhhhhh. If you wanna see her again, meet me at the dock--- midnight! Alone! If you ever ask for help from your brothers... I will deliver her body cold!"
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The call ended.
I cursed.
My friends pressed me for answers, but I didn't say a word because I know that Peter wasn't lying. Helena and I exchanged gaze before we both sat on the lounge in the hallway.