A strike of fear hit her when her eyes landed on a slightly ajar door to her apartment. She remembered locking it in the morning.
Was it a stalker, a burglar, or perhaps a serial killer hiding somewhere behind her old furniture, waiting for her to walk in so he can slaughter her like a cow and mark the property his?
After years of frustrating over that one idiot in every movie who walks into the house despite all the angels of death beating red bells around him- some even begging to use the pudding in the upper compartment- Daisy knew better than to be one of their troupe.
She must call 911 even if there was a single thread of mixed feelings. Caution was always better than falling blinded in the arms of fate.
" Yeah... can you stop fussing already? I said I'll do it. "
The sound from the other side of the door had her breathing out a sigh of contentment. It was Jasmine!
"For a moment you had me there." Daisy reflected just a shadow of the satisfaction she felt deep inside, in her smile as Jasmine stood before her.
"When it should be me guessing who was the manly rapunzel out there peeping at a lonely girl inside her apartment," Jasmine uttered while Daisy wasted no second in wrapping her arms around her perfect figure.
" Manly rapunzel!? Am I to feel sad for Disney or disgusted about myself?" Daisy exaggerated, barely keeping a gasp behind the guard of her tongue.
"Didn't mean it that way, Daz," Jasmine waved off as the girls walked in. " Well you see, stalking is mostly attributed to men in books..."
"uhmm?"
"Yeah so my snoring brain mumbled it to me when I saw a pair of eyes through the gap.... but then my gaze landed on your hair and this was the first thing the scientist living in my upper compartment suggested!"
" Could have said hairy Rapunzel instead," Daisy plopped on the couch.
" Very smart Sherlock, very smart. "
" Who picked you up?" Daisy asked, taking a can of soda from Jasmine's hand and struggling to open it without cracking a nail.
" Lucy had to... until her mother found a new task to bang on her head. So I took a taxi." She gulped down the content of the can in one big sip.
"ohh-"
"But! Like always, my luck slapped me with mockery_ something I'm very fond of by being close to you _ and the car gave out fumes in midway!"
Daisy did not let the smile slip from her lips on Jasmine's uncovered taunt.
" The fool kept on telling me not to worry and that he'll fix the issue in seconds but I slammed the money to his face and was long on my way before he could even get to the front. Ahh! thanks to the guy who rescued me so I could reach the house without having blisters on my feet!" Jasmine sighed with dreamy eyes, clearly lost in the virtual image of her 'guy'.
"Haha okay... looks like he put some spell on you."
" Girl, he was hot! Very very ho-"
"Had a name?" Daisy smiled wickedly, grabbing the remote from the coffee table.
"Umm... Allarick. Allarick Hemsworth!"
Allarick.
The remote fell from her hands and so did the smile she had struggled all day to keep up. It couldn't be him. Why would he ever-
'You have a little surprise waiting for you.'
"Is there a ghost behind me?"
Daisy stared numbly at her sister, her mind struggling to give her the assurance her trembling hands and dry mouth needed, desperately.
"Daisy?" Jasmine called again, " Should I be worried?"
Yes.
"No."
***
" You're about to leave?" Jasmine asked, peeping through her door.
" Yeah. Why?"
" I'll come with you," Jasmine announced with an air of finality before rushing back into her room and shutting the door close behind her.
" Jasmine I'll be late!" Daisy yelled over the slamming of cupboard doors, " And besides, what will you do in my uni?"
" I'll walk you off and then take a stroll around the city! It's been ages since I lasted breath the city's air!" Jasmine sounded from the other side.
Putting up an argument with Jasmine was like hitting a rock with your head, hoping it would break before your skull ruptures apart.
***
" I'll see you in the even-" A shiver from someone's proximity put a cover over her vocal cords.
" Wait... aren't you the same guy from yesterday?" Jasmine's face lit up in something close to excitement.
" I suppose I am, miss... "
"Just call me Jasmine."
" Right. Jasmine."
His easy mannerism on top of his causal way of conversation with Jas did not go unnoticed by Daisy. Allarick sure had treated her like a piece of dirt these past few days and she couldn't help but create a bigger mess out of her nerves than to actually try to come out of it, but this blow won't be tolerated by her. Allarick had an, as she called, obsession with her and it terrified her to merely think about what went through his wicked mind as he graced her with his thoughtful look every day and that undesirable night. And being pulled into what seemed like, a cascade of unfathomable incidences, she wasn't about to take this encounter as a coincidence... especially not when he had used the word 'surprise' yesterday.
" Never knew you shared the same uni with my baby sister," Jasmine showcased her pretty smile, one that was an exact replication of her mother's; something that made her all the more dearer to their father. Daisy was aloof when it came to feature inheritance. She was a beauty nevertheless, rare and distinct.
For the first time that day, Allarick eyes lingered on a frozen Daisy, satisfaction mocking her vulnerability. " We share a lot more than just a uni," Allarick smiled as Daisy looked up to him. A smile so charming yet for her, it was a proclamation of a part of his painful ridicule. " Classes, I mean."
" Isn't that a work of fate..."
" Allarick. Allarick Hemsworth."
" I know. Us meeting like this?" Jasmine offered him her curious gaze, expecting him to lead the conversation.
" When fate weds karma, life becomes a show worth living through... at least for some."
The double meaning. again.
" Now that is some philosophical stuff there," Jasmine chuckled.
" There are always two meanings to philosophical sayings: superficial and... deep.... which one do you understand Daisy?"
Jasmine watched them with a glint of suspicion as their gazes locked into a heated stare contest.
" What does he mean, Daisy?" Jasmine piped in, a hint of jealously burning the smile on her lips.
" We'll be thrown out of class for coming late," She uttered, low and slow, containing the hurricane inside of her.
" Right," Allarick muttered, finally averting his eyes from one sister to the other, " I'll see you around again sometime?" He asked Jasmine.
" Whenever you say."
" I tell Daisy to let you know when. I better get to the class before making a fool out of myself." And with that he stormed off like he never stood there in the first place, pulling on the strings of her heart until they begged to be released.
" See ya!" Jasmine waved with a different kind of excitement radiating from her curved lips... the type that would drag Daisy through hell and back if she didn't take a step now.
***
" You sure are not picking me up?" Daisy asked, skimming through the pages of her assignment as she walked down the corridor.
" You have to be on your own for now," Jasmine sounded from the other side of the cell.
" Like you were ever here in the first place to be my butler, I have always been on my own." With how engrossed her eyes were in flipping through the papers, it almost seemed as if she had a pair on her forehead too, visualizing and avoiding any student that might have thought it right to take the vacant corridor. " By the way, what's keeping you occupied?"
" I'm going out with Allarick-"
Bump.
The phone dropped to the floor and all the papers went flying around her. Daisy was yet to decide if it was his name or he that caused her to fall back on the marbled floor.
Jasmine's faint hellos were engulfed by the heavy thump of her heart as her eyes travelled to the man of her nightmares, looking down at her with a shadow of a faint smile showcasing on his lips. Nothing about him gave the hint that he would ever take delight in someone's fret, yet here he was, not putting an ounce of effort to hide his amusement.
"Clumsy... noted. " Allarick took a step, purposely stepping on one of the many papers now covering the floor, leaving the mark of his shoes on the work Daisy had spent weeks to complete.
What was worse: him ruing her assignment that was due today or ruing her life? probably the latter.
He knelt beside her, bowing his head down and looking intently as her fingers fumbled together in what he termed as nervousness. " Am I making you uncomfortable, Daisy?" his words were a mimicry of the smirk on his lips and mockery in his silver orbs.
" Stay away from my sister-"
"Or else?" He scooped closer. If that was an attempt to intimidate her, the boy had it good, for her light gulp of Silva did not go unnoticed by him and it provided him with a weird satisfaction he had been craving for since long.
"You have played me well and I have kept my silence, but I'm telling you Allarick if you bring my sister into whatever is cooking in your garbage mind, I'll kill you with my own bare hands!"
Once the words were out without a thread of hesitance, fright took root in her. A slap was the least she expected... maybe a punch too!
But nothing happened.
Except that he chuckled, really.
It was beautiful, Daisy would admit it, nothing like she had ever seen before, yet though it sounded genuine, something about it appalled her senses. Perhaps, cause it was rare to see him laugh except for the times his pals would say something mischievous in his ears midsts the crowd and he would try his hardest to contain his laughter until he could no more. Or maybe cause it presented her as a fool.
"Resistance of the rocks against the water always makes a river a lot more alluring than a dead one. I can promise you a good round of applause once you'll be done fighting and fall to the ground in utter despair and pity."