Half an hour has passed since I reported to the police what happened to Tazanna. I said it was a kidnapping case because I think it could be true at the moment. The driver knew me and Tazanna, but I cannot remember hearing that she knew that person. It was certain that he called our names, as if he had known the both of us for some time now.
Tazanna's phone is not reachable; I do not feel good about this. The call had ended with her loud screams, and I believe something bad had happened. If there is only one thing that I am wishing for, it is for Tazanna to be safe and unharmed. I felt my phone vibrating against my forehead. The caller is Vic. This man is working with her, not to mention the Grim Reaper that is targeting her; he might know about what happened. Something or someone else could be after Tazanna, and we all don't know. The driver could be one of its accomplices. My thumb slides across the screen.
"Hey, Tazanna has been kidnapped! Please, I need your help. Could you bring Zebin along with you? I'm at the police station. I beg of you, I want to find her as soon as possible."
"She's with me." My heart then starts to relax, although I should not feel like this after hearing that my fiancée is with the person that is trying to kill her. I cannot ever be more relieved than that. "She's at the hospital, near her parents' house."
It took another half hour to get to the hospital, where Tazanna had been brought in. She was sound asleep; there were bruises on her arm and face. I let the tears that were clouding my vision flow down. I wonder if this is what she had to see when the search party found my dead body. The room was quiet; it was scarier than I thought it would be. There was a part of me that did not want to get any closer to the bed where she was lying. I was afraid she'd feel cold to my touch, but I felt thankful she was warm. She was breathing, as the oxygen mask gets misted.
I could not protect her, even though I had promised to. The bruises on her skin had all turned purple. It was hard looking at her. If I had been by her side, she would not be in this place. It would have been so much better if it was me who was hurt and not Tazanna. I should not have let her go alone. I could have insisted on driving her to her parents' home; she would not have gotten into a car accident that way. I cannot believe myself for being a stupid protector; I should not even call myself that.
"I'm sorry..." The door slides open as Zebin enters and signals me to go outside for a moment. They must have found something that relates to the accident. I press my lips against the back of her hand. "I'll be back, my love."
"You should talk with him." Zebin points to Vic, who was seated with a hunched back and closed fists. "He's got something to do with tonight's accident."
"What?" I exclaim, and then my head turns to the man that Zebin was accusing of the kidnapping. "That cannot be possible; he was not the driver of the vehicle, was he?"
Zebin nods. "He was not, but he had manipulated the death of your fiancée this time. I wonder how many times he had considered doing that, since your fiancée's angel is great at protecting her from any harm. What made him do something that he must never do? Only the Grim Reaper himself can answer that, am I right?"
"Vic, what's going on? Have you really manipulated Tazanna's death? Was the kidnapping your doing? Did you really want her to die that badly?" He stayed in the same position, but his breathing was louder.
"Who was she before she was Tazanna?"
My eyebrows creased. "Excuse me?"
"Her soul... It was connected to the life I previously had before I became like this. Who was she before she was your fiancée?"
"What are you talking about? You're not making any sense, Vic. Won't you just tell me what happened with Tazanna? Are you really the one who did this?"
"Was her name before this life Serafina? What kind of relationship did we have? Why did my heart feel so much grief?"
"Vic. Please, I want you to tell me the truth or any little thing that you know about the accident. I am begging you. I want to know why this happened to her."
Vic turned his head my way and glared. "The card... It said she'd die in a car accident. I wanted this job to be over with, so I intervened. I hypnotized the driver, said that the car must crash and explode. He was to die together with her." I could not resist the anger within me upon hearing him say that. My hands grabbed him by the collar of his polo, and I glared back at him. "She was going to die anyway; why wait when I can make it happen without laying even one finger on her?"
"But it was not agreed upon that you could use your ability to hypnotize," Zebin argues, and Vic chuckles.
"She should be dead already; why are the both of you desperately trying to save this woman? You died because of her. Does it not anger you to see her living her happy and perfect life while you had to die for her sake?"
"You've found something, haven't you?" Zebin answers, as my grip on his polo loosened. "You've found something about your forgotten past, and this memory has Tazanna on it. Aren't all the reapers like you waiting for this to happen? Why aren't you full of glee? You've met the soul that could make you remember your past life and the sin you committed when you were once a mortal, like one of them."
"I have no intention of remembering the life I had lived in the past. I have already spent years as a Grim Reaper, and I will for the rest of my life." Vic walked out as I heard Zebin whisper.
"You've got no more life to live; you are not human." He then locked eyes with me and sighed. "That loser... He was once human before he became like that. They turn humans that had committed a great sin into Grim Reapers for repentance. They would not only have to live as reapers, they also would have no memory of the life they lived and the people that had been a part of their lives before. In Vic's case, your fianceé's soul definitely has a connection to his previous life. He probably had a glimpse of his memory with that person, and that explains his saltiness. To put it simply, his and Tazanna's soul had bonded before."