Dedicated to catrinaburgess for her inspiration.
Raina's gaze was fixed on Leslie's long thick eyelashes thinking it would distract her and remind her that Leslie was just being paranoid but every fibre of her body seemed to be against her. Leslie had always being like that since she knew her in high school and somehow, they ended up in the same college. When Raina turned sixteen, an unexplainable event had happened and an even stranger one at eighteen. On her sixteenth birthday, before she blew out her candles, she fainted and never got to eat her cake. At the hospital, she appeared to be the cause of the hospital electricity failure and had reduced their power source to a generator, thereby disconnecting many life supports and thereby earned many glares from staffs and patients, and was finally declared free to go.
Leslie had been moody weeks before Raina turned eighteen. Raina had tried to find the cause of the change of behavior but was replied with an ice look in return. Preparations were made. Shockingly because aunt Lydia had allowed her. Raina would have preferred fainting again because what had happened on her eighteenth birthday was far worse than iron, her kryptonite. People had coupled up to dance and every corner of the event hall was crowded with bodies, Leslie was the one who had invited every single one of them. She was the social butterfly unlike Raina.
All was going well until she felt like she was the only one seeing the man but Leslie's gaze was on him as well, so not crazy. He was dressed in an overall iron clad carrying a metal sword that gleamed with silver. The sword was astonishing but things like that and him could not mean good. Only she and Leslie were seeing this. Even when he had taken further steps towards her, she didn't want to move as she had stood transfixed. But when he had covered the distance between them and tried to seize her, he had immediately started to get fried. His body was being roasted with every second that had past. But Leslie had been watching.
"Don't tell me that you tried contacting me and set up a rendezvous just to tell me that I'm a fae?" Raina said, trying to sound brave, "I mean, can you even hear yourself right now?"
Back when they were still friends, Leslie had been a hater of fantasy films. Raina had even compelled her to watch Twilight and when she was done, she had uttered a lot of complaints saying the stuff ain't real and here she was telling Raina that she was a faery.
"I know this may sound insane but you have to trust me and no one else."
If she didn't have self control, she would love to rip Leslie's eyes out of her socket. How could she mention that word!
"I know trust is a liability where you are concerned. You have probably witnessed it first hand," Leslie continued. She was talking about the incident. Something that Raina would have loved to forget. "But the people after you are more forceful than they were six years ago. Don't be expecting a single metal man next time."
Raina remained silent as Leslie continued. After what had happened on her eighteenth birthday, she kept telling everyone about what she had saw but many shook their head. Thinking she had back up, she went to Leslie but she denied ever seeing anything and acted like she was one of those people at the party. Leslie had even gone far as hiring a therapist for Raina to cover the whole act.
"You are not crazy, Raina."
"Then why did you act like I was? Why didn't you stop the metal man when he had tried to hurt me?" Raina finally said.
Leslie face grew guilty as hell. "I wasn't in a position to do so."
Raina narrowed her eyes at Leslie, "What do you mean?"
"I'm saying that if I had done anything at that moment, I would have been killed," she paused for a brief moment, "That's because he wasn't here for me and interfering would have caused me to breathe my last."
Raina already knew the answer to the puzzle piece. The metal man had come to kill her and not Leslie. And to add to the fire, she believed every word Leslie had said. She had no idea why she was believing her, after all she had hated Leslie after the incident.
But one thing just doesn't add up for Raina. Something that had made her question life and death simultaneously. "Why wasn't I killed? Why didn't I die? What stopped the metal man? Why had he just roasted in front of me?"
"Too much questions, Raina. Questions that I don't have answers to," Leslie said.
Anger began to flare up inside Raina. "You're telling me that you don't have answers to the very things that are important. You just called me here to what exactly?"
Leslie paused for a moment. "I need you to come with me. Please don't act so stubborn this time. If you had just listened and let me help you, maybe those things would not have happened to you."
Raina felt like she had had enough of it. "Stop! Please. This was a mistake and I never want to see your face again."
That was how Raina left the coffee shop just to be confronted by another even worse situation at work.
"Miss Ford, Mr McCabe wants to see you in his office right now," Amanda had informed her as she returned to her office.
Mr McCabe was anything but friendly to Raina. Her saving grace at the office was Jordan, considering he was McCabe's son. Sometimes, she felt like she was using Jordan to secure her job but she shook the thought with a "a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta." She only came to the office when she needed to submit her article, but this time, she had left no stone unturned before she went to see Leslie Hale.
The office gave a cool atmosphere, thanks to the installed air conditioner. But amidst that, she could feel the heat in every fibre of her body as she entered. McCabe's face had a smile plastered on as he leaned behind on his desk. Not saying a word, he motioned for her to take a seat.
The smile could have been mistaken for a genuine one if she didn't hear the first words that was spoken by her boss:
"She has gotten to you already, hasn't she?" Then the smile vanished.