"One, two, three, four, five, six" Isabell counted the tiles of the floor of her room "Six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve" She stopped walking "I know it was Jade and I'm a century percent sure that douchebag was smoking narcotics" She continued the counting "Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seven—" she stopped
"And I am a century percent sure that I'm going to lose my mind if I keep on thinking about it"
Xavier wasn't home yet and she would have to wait so that she could talk-fight with her brother about it. All Isabell needed was to distract herself till then
"Okay, let's think about something else" She sat at the corner of her bed, "But what?" Her body fell back to the mattress, hair floating all around her bed, she started at the ceiling
Sebastian? "What the fuck did- did you just say, Isabell?" Her voice startled at her inner sound
You know maybe he isn't as bad as we think "WHAT?" She sat up in a flash, and a shock of electricity fell at her from inside
He is- "No no no, Isabell" she cupped her hands around her cheeks "What's happening to you, My girl?" Her face worried about her
He is- "Shut up! He literally insulted you in front of the entire freaking class" But whose fault was it? "W-what, no- I mean" she couldn't even believe in herself "He humiliated every single fellow in front of the entire class" Isabell breathed,
Everyone else
"Huh? Hey, what's wrong with you?" She knocked her head with knuckles to get a reply "He is bad and heartless and wild and horrific and terrible and ice cold and unokay type of person and the Knight!" She yelled the last words but there was no one to reply to her
"Damnit Isabell! He is the knight and he is not even a human but some psychopathic monster" The veins over her forehead tightened, She exhaled but still no reply and no words to come out
"This is getting wrong" she got up from her bed "This isn't good a distraction. You hate him and you know why," She said, her eagerness was gone and all that was left was an anxious face, her steps took her to the study table "You absolutely know why. You absolutely know why you started to hate the knight in the first place," She said, she repeated till her hands were holding the recorder in them. She didn't start to record but played a saved recording in it
Isabell could have held a meeting with herself or at least given it a thought on the question of whether distracting herself using a recording of Emily was a good idea or not. But instead of doing that, she smashed the play button, and as the button pushed a familiarly warm voice came out of it, dissolving Isabell into the memories of the day
Isabell: 'You don't have to be nervous, Emily. We are just going to record an interview'
Emily: 'Okay, Bella'
Isabell: 'Tuning in: February 28 2021. Today Emily is going to reveal some information about the Throne Of Demons to us'
Isabell: 'Are you ready?'
Emily: 'Yes I- I am really'
Isabell: 'You don't look really ready'
Emily: 'Haha, yeah maybe not really'
Isabell: 'Maybe we can talk about something else first'
Emily: 'Umm..like don't have a problem'
Isabell: 'So….Does our Emily have a person of interest'
Emily: 'Haha, that's not– okay, okay. Well not in that way and neither in that, but I have a cute little I mean clumsy elder brother. I know, I really know every sister will say the same thing but he is really, like really really the best brother this world has ever seen
Isabell: 'I swear I won't say that'
Emily: 'Haha! Maybe someday in the future, you'll be saying the same'
Isabell: 'No chance'
Emily: 'I want to meet Zavy someday. You have told a lot like a lot of battles you guys have fought'
Isabell: 'Yeah, yeah. I'll arrange a meetup for the two of you soon and you'll wish I had never done it'
Emily: 'Looking forward to meeting your own personal Monkey'
Isabell: 'Oh! Yeah right. Okay okay tell us about this best brother'
Emily: 'He is half a decade older than me. And my brother is nothing like me. He is always smiling, he is cute in the most beautiful way, is kind, is caring, talks a lot like a lot a lot, and his social skills- they are on a-damn-other level. He has always been taking care of me, like my parents were never around even before they passed in an accident but he was and I don't know how he managed to shrug everything off with a simple smile.
He is the best like best and he is literally good at everything like every single thing, there is nothing that boy doesn't know, except that her younger sister involved with drugs
Isabell: 'It's not- it's gonna be alright, We are going to solve everything and your precious best brother will never need to know this about you
Emily: I hope everything you just said comes true
Isabell stood in the center of her room, her eyes shocked up with tears just realizing how bad of a distraction she had chosen. She stopped the recording, clenching the metal box even tighter now. In the blurry sight of tears, her ears heard the door unlocking, a sound that she had been waiting to listen to for hours.
Isabell tossed the recorder back, she cleaned every inch of tear and her face was already back to anger when she ran opening the door of her room and she found Xavier at the front door
"Zavy, I need to talk to y-" Her words stopped coming out as she saw the boy along with his brother, the same guy who made Isabell come home early and skip all of the lectures
"Hi! Jade" She forced herself to speak, Isabell waved a total of three fingers at him "Hey, Izzy. How are you doing?" Isabell felt like her nickname left an unpleasant impact all around in the air "I'm doing well, thanks for asking" she purposefully forgot to ask him back
"Zavy, can I talk to you for a moment?" She let a bare smile touch her lips "Okay," Xavier said tossing his bag towards jade that he caught with one hand
"Hang in my room, will be back in a minute" Jade nodded to him and they walked in opposite directions.
Isabell shut the door of her room "What the hell is he doing in our house?" Isabell greeted him with a fair shout "What do you mean what is he doing. He is my friend and it's not the first time he is here" He appeared puzzled
"I know he is still your friend but I didn't ask that, Zavy" She crossed her arms around her torso,
"We got a team project and we need to work on it together" That was funny to her ears and Isabell cracked up at his word
"You want me to believe that Mister Xavier Harrington is going to study in the first week of the year?" Xavier's brows raised in an inoffensive offense
"What do you mean by that, Izzy? You are not the only one who is in the final year" Isabell nodded slowly, understanding, her laugh disappearing "Okay, let's leave this one for later" Xavier kept his face down resembling a defendant standing in the courtroom even before her sister introduced the case
"Do you know your bestie is a drug addict?" She presented the case, Xavier's eyes twitched as if his sister had shot lightning at him using words
"What the heck did you just say?" His jaws stretched, eyes narrowed "Are your ears not working similar to the brain?" She almost yelled again, "Do you think this is funny?" Xavier asked genuinely "I don't know how many times I have to open your sealed eyes to him, Xavier. But your freaking friend smokes and I—-"
"You know what? You need to start concentrating on your own damn life instead of peeking into mine Every Freaking Second" Xavier seemed to be boiling up from accusation towards his friend
"I didn't blame you for anything, Xavier. Why are you getting offensive" The stretches on his forehead multiplied "How the hell won't you feel offended if I tell you I saw Ashley wapping marijuana yesterday?" It definitely appeared to be an offense to Isabell and that was the reason she suddenly went silent and didn't remember to tell him the she saw him smoking today with her eyes and the words stayed in her mouth and before she felt the importance of saying that out loud, Xavier was already out
----
After a moment of standing straight she walked and laid on the bed. Isabell heard a sound from her brother's room that sounded like a loud blast. Did Isabell put the two friends in an argument? She didn't care because right in the moment her brother's words were hurting her.
Isabell stared at the boxes of her ceiling while holding the recorder in her hands again. Guilt, Guilt, and Guilt were all her heart constructed of. Did I cross the line? Have I really hurt my brother by being overprotective? She asked herself and no matter how she thinks she couldn't find yes as an answer.
Isn't this how a sister is supposed to be? Isn't this the way you are meant to take care of your siblings?
She couldn't seem to answer herself so unknowingly Isabell pressed the play button.
Sleeping while crying was the fastest way to sleep for her. She let every thought go away and there was nothing left but cursed memories
Emily: 'Bella, I think I can do it now'
Isabell: 'You sure?'
Emily: 'I'm really ready now'
Isabell: 'Okay, Emily, So please start from the beginning'
Emily: 'Yeah- I will, I'll. So it- It was one month ago, exactly one month from today.
The beginning of the year and as you know it's not easy on students. I was stressed because of a presentation and that presentation was so important that I could never mess with it. I was skipping sleep and meals just to prepare for it and because of that, I was unable to function properly.
One day a friend of mine gave me a pill, he told me- he told me that it was going to boost my energy level and I could focus on my studies without a problem-'
Isabell: 'I'm sorry for interrupting you but can you please tell me the name of that friend'
Emily: 'Yes, his name is Max, he is a class fellow of mine'
Isabell: 'Noted. You may continue'
Emily: 'Okay, so as anyone can tell It was all my fault from the beginning.
After that day I started to ask Max for the pill- Fentanyl, it was. I started to take Fentanyl regularly and in two weeks I was addicted to it without even realizing that that pill was a drug. On the third week, Max declined to give it to me
He told me she broke some rules of the club and couldn't get access to it. I begged him but he didn't listen, I offered him tenfold but he never agreed. He said the rule be broke was selling it directly to me and the punishment for it could be beaten up to death-'
Isabell: 'I'm sorry for this again but is Max alright?'
Emily: 'I haven't heard from him since the day he told me that if I want the pills I will have to join the club. I don't know how he is, where he is, or even if Max is alive or not
Isabell: 'It- it's fine, you don't need to worry. Everything will be fine, Emily. We'll find him too.
Please continue
Emily: 'I believe you. Throne Of Demon doesn't ask you to give them money or things to join.
They are cunning to a messed up level, they would ask you to come to their base every day for two weeks and take a shot of morphine and when the weeks are over you are already addicted to it and then there is no way of going back to normal and you'll have come back to them crawling begging for drugs.
After those weeks they give you a mask with your name on it and tell you a code needed to enter the building: Inside of a cube, shadows entwine and secret enshrine....…'
The interview hadn't ended but Isabell had already fallen asleep, in her books crying is the most effective way to make you fall asleep. The shine of water was visible even from her closed eyes