This has got to be a joke. I grabbed my purse on the couch and walked near the door, but Shanaia blocked the way. Her eyes, which were as black as her hair, stared deep into mine. Her pink lips opened to say, "That thing I told you before was a lie, and everything we've told you this day was the truth. Although it started by accident, it was Riley's choice to stay here, and you are the main reason for it, Katarina. That's how deeply he cares for you."
I smirked. "That does not change the fact that he lied to me. Why couldn't he tell me all that before now?"
Shanaia threw me a glare and crossed her arms. "You just called him delusional after what he's told you so far. You told him he was unwell, and he needs a professional's help. Do you think it was easy for someone like him to expose himself? Especially to the woman who he deeply cares for and loves? The least that he wanted to hear from you was to call him crazy, Katarina."
A wave of guilt came crashing down on me. I really shouldn't call myself a doctor of psychology, as I was not able to listen properly to Riley. I heard footsteps coming from behind me, and it was, for sure, him. He must have gestured for Shanaia to leave the room, and she did, stomping her feet loudly on the tiled floor as the man standing behind me sighed. He said, "I'm really sorry about her. Shanaia is really someone who could not stop her mouth from running."
I can see how much she cares for Riley, though. It honestly made me wonder if she thinks of him as more than a friend or if she was really just like that. Either of the two, it must feel very nice to have somebody think about you and your feelings. I've never had anyone like that in my life, and then my eyes landed on the one whom she's said has loved and watched me for so long. I had not realized that he was already standing before me.
"Was everything she said true?" I questioned. "Did you really come here by mistake? Were you really the man who saved me from that incident from years ago? Why have you not told me anything, Riley?"
"I am from the year 3056..."
I have found nothing about my family or even my ancestors. I have tried asking my parents about them, but even they had no idea. They felt sorry that they were not able to tell me anything about the Martins, and that's how I'd ended up being inside the lab in hopes that I could find anything in there that could make me see what had happened to our clan and why we were the only Martins family that was left in the world.
"Riley! What the hell are you doing in here? We're going to get punished if we're seen in here! Let's go!"
"No! Shanaia, I want to know what happened to the rest of the Martins! There must be something in here that could make me see a memory—" I was cut off when we heard a clatter from the other side of the door, and we knew that it was those brainiacs who spend hours and hours inside this room. They basically treat this place as their second home. And they, the nerds, were coming into the lab.
There was an opened portal as we went through the door that had the warning sign, but both Shanaia and I ignored it. "Come on!" I exclaimed, taking her hand and entering the portal that leads into the unknown. We were sucked into another dimension—a time where I was not even born.
It was the year 2009. From a distance, I could see that there was a huge fire. People had guns, and they were shooting everywhere. Others were screaming for mercy, but this bunch was ruthless as they stabbed them on the chest, put bullets into their heads, and never gave them another chance to see the sun for another day.
I heard a voice. It was yelling out a person's name: Katarina.
"Katarina! Get Katarina!"
"Find Katarina!"
"Where is Katarina?"
"Riley! Where do you think you're going? You can't possibly be thinking that you'll help her!"
"What if it's a child? Would you leave her alone?"
I was not wrong; Katarina was only ten years old when I found her. Tears were flowing non-stop down her cheeks, and her eyes were already puffy. Her white dress was covered in dust and turned gray; in her little hands, there was a teddy bear close to her chest. I was standing in front of her, and she was looking right into my eyes, as if begging for me to come closer and get her out from there, but I remained where I was. I could not lift my foot until she was taken away by a man. Katarina screamed in agony, and I knew it was her cry for help. My feet, which seemed too heavy for me to move, began running past all the chaos that was in front of me. Shanaia was shouting in the background, asking me to rethink my decision, but I pretended I did not hear anything. All I wanted was to save that little girl, and that's what I was going to do.
What I did not know was that this would cause me to get stuck in this world, as I've done something I should never have done—rewriting history. Katarina was meant to be killed. There were never supposed to be any survivors. Katarina was supposed to have drowned to her death.
As punishment for my meddling, I could never come back to my world until I made everything right, until I followed what was written in the books of history—there would not be one member of the Do family that was alive. In other words, I should kill Katarina.
The problem was that that was something I could never do.
"Why?" I slowly pulled my hands away from his. He drew small circles against my skin as he was telling his story, but I got so terrified that I did not even want him to touch me for a second. "Why can't you kill me, Riley? It's 2023, and you've been here since 2009. You've had plenty of chances to end my life and for you to get back to the world where you belong! Why did you not do what you were meant to do?"
I heard a sigh coming out of his lips as he turned away from my eyes. "I love you; that's why." Shanaia has said the same thing, but it was different when he was the one who admitted it. "I wanted for the two of us to start a relationship like other normal people do. I would never want to hear from you that I was crazy, especially because you're a doctor. That night from six years ago, it was me who wanted to take you home, and I talked with the guys about it. But I guess you still thought of me as a strange man, haven't you?" He laughed. "I've been going around and confessing my love to you here and there. You must not have wanted to build any relationship with me after all that."
"Was it true that you followed me everywhere? I was ten when you met me. Were you beside me for fourteen years?" Riley slowly nodded his head as I plopped on the sofa due to the amount of shock I felt. I could not believe that the man who saved me had been by my side all along, and he happened to be the person I'd been loving for six years. "Why have you decided to become a singer then? I'm sorry... There are just a lot of questions running through my head right now."
"I understand, and I know that this is a lot to handle. I sincerely apologize. It's okay if you were to ask me to leave you alone."
"No." I put up a stop gesture in front of his face. "Please tell me everything, Riley. I want to know. Why have you decided to become a famous celebrity? Was that also a part of your plan? You knew I was going to fall for you?"
"Of course not! I did that in order to forget about you—wait, fall for me? Katarina, did I mishear that?"
My tongue rolled back to the end of my mouth when I realized that I had kind of confessed to him. I looked away, but Riley sat beside me with a smile across his beautiful face. He persisted, "I didn't, right? You said you fell for me, right? You love me?"
With a face as red as an apple, I say, "This isn't the time for you to feel so happy. Shouldn't you worry about how you could go back to your world? Is there any other way than killing me?"
Riley shook his head. "No! Hell no! There is no way I am ever going to think about other things than this! You love me, right? You do, don't you?"
My stupid mouth. I shouldn't have asked him about the years that he was a member of my favorite band back in the day and how I was in love with him and still am.