It took a while until the figure of Michelia opened the door of her house wide and put on an umbrella then walked briskly towards Neil.
As Neil got closer he could see that the girl heading towards him was the real Michelia. Neil's eyebrows rose to find Michelia's tears had rolled down her cheeks.
When the gates of the house were fully opened, Neil didn't take long to think. He immediately lunged at Michelia and hugged her tightly.
Umbrellas had fallen at their sides and Neil's tears unknowingly fell. "I miss."
Michelia nodded on his shoulder and tightened the hug even more. "Me too."
They let go of the hug that had lasted long enough. Neil put his hand on Michelia's shoulder to get a better look at it, observing what changes had happened to his best friend.
Michelia looked away from his gaze. However, a smile still graced his face. Then she said, "We'd better go in, it's raining here."
Neil smiled back, he nodded and realized he had pulled Michelia to share the rain at night so their bodies were drenched.
Neil followed Michelia into the house, the girl gave her a clean towel and some clothes which she handed to Neil.
"That's my father's shirt. You'd better change it right away." Michelia tilted her head to the side. "You know where the bathroom is, right?"
Neil laughed crisply, he nodded and hurriedly changed his clothes.
They sat on the same couch holding a mug of hot chocolate each in their cup. Neil sighed with pleasure and leaned his body against the sofa more comfortable.
"You're thinner, Neil," she said breaking the silence between them.
"I think of you, to the point where it's hard to eat," Neil said jokingly followed by a laugh by Michelia and a light pat on the shoulder.
"So how did you get here?" asked Neil at last.
"So long, Neil. It's all because of Skylar, he helped me get here."
"Skylars?" he asked in surprise.
Michelle nodded. "You know what? He cares about you, Neil. He goes out of his way to bring you back, meet your father and win him over too."
"Why do you want to? Why did he who didn't come to take Faiz away and send you here instead?"
Michelia lightly touched the back of Neil's hand and began to say "He will, but I knew something must have happened when I left there. Maybe his mother suddenly came and caught him. He hasn't had time to tell."
"How did you get here?" Neil asked again curiously.
"I said it was very long, so let's not talk about it now," she said.
"How are you?" Neil chuckled as Michelia rolled her eyes at Neil's statement.
"Okay, how are you?"
There was a brief pause between them which made Michelia's eyebrows rise with a question mark swirling in her head. "I'm good, always."
"Surely not, what's wrong? Something happened?" asked Michelia with a barrage of questions. "You always have a hard time making up stories. What's wrong?"
However, this time Neil shook his head. He didn't want Michelia to know about his suffering. Michelia had just arrived and was not familiar with this dimension.
"Wait?" Neil stiffened when he found Michelia's eyes on his neck. "What is that? The crescent moon on your neck?
Neil rubbed his neck and Faiz's words flashed through his mind.
Faiz grabbed Neil's shoulder and pressed it. "Listen to me carefully, Neil. Sain took advantage of it, it's not an ordinary blood exchange to heal you. It was an exchange of blood-forming a bond more than marriage. You didn't know it?"
"How did you know about that?" asked Neil in disbelief, because he trusted Sain more than this.
"I've read about it in a book in this library and I remember when you mentioned it. You also don't know that there is a small black crescent-shaped mark on your neck. It's a sign of Sain's complete ownership of you, Neil. How could you be tricked by him with such a big problem,"
"I don't know, it just came out of nowhere," he said with half the truth he said.
"What happened?"
"Nothing, Lia."
Michelia exhaled, she took a sip of his drink.. and opened her voice again. "Everyone has opposites here, right?"
Neil blinked he wasn't surprised Michelia knew this fact earlier than Neil did then.
"That's right."
"When I arrived here, I was in my room. . You know what surprised me?"
"I don't know."
"I found a lot of condolence letters on my bed. It answered my question as I wondered why I no longer had a shadow.
'You ask, I answer. Let me say it again, Michelia has died with her head cut off.'
Neil choked the words ringing in his ears.
Michelia then continued. "Because this Michelia could have died."