As soon as we entered the café, it started raining heavily. Alexis told me to go back to the office and wait while he grabbed coffee for the both of us. I did just that.
I waited for him to come back as I sat on the couch, keeping my head down as the three women stared at me like a worthless piece of trash. I didn't like it. I didn't like the feeling of being watched when you know others are thinking low of you.
"So... Where are you from?" The Indian girl asked, stuffing the fourth cupcake in her mouth since I came back to the office. Her question made Emery glance up from her phone at her, then at me like she was expecting me to not tell her. But then she went back to doing what she was doing before.
"I'm from Japan. My mother was actually born here, in Brecei." I replied. She nodded quietly and paced back and forth in the room, still eating cupcakes.
"So, why did your mother go to Japan?" She asked and I felt my breath catching in my throat. That was the question I had dreaded, even before coming here.
What if I tell them and they start calling me a lowlife who's mother ran off with a drunkard?
Fortunately, I didn't get to answer the question as the door burst open with a single kick. Alexis came in, that lazy smile of his, still there. He was tall, probably 6'0, but I was taller. He was dripping from the heavy rain, holding two cups of coffee in his hands and he sat down beside me.
"Hey, what did I tell you about not making the couch wet, you oaf?!" The computer girl shouted at Alexis.
"You're the oaf, Nyxis, don't use your name for others." His voice was laced with mockery, that lazy smile still there.
"Alex..." Emery glared at him for saying that to Nyxis.
"What?" He asked, his smile fading, as his sly expression turned into that of an innocent child. But I could tell that he was doing this on purpose.
Their bickering continued as I sipped the coffee quietly, focusing on how I would manage temporary residence here, deafening their sounds out.
Emery stopped arguing with Alexis when a buzzing sound filled the room. She looked at her watch and then at Nyxis.
"Nyxis, I am right here, in this room. You can tell me the details verbally." She said, probably annoyed by the interruption because she was just about to beat Alex in the argument.
"You weren't listening." Nyxis declared and pressed a button again that caused her watch to buzz again and again. "Besides, mission details are supposed to be confidential, and how can we be sure that you're cousin isn't a desicle?"
That question caught me off guard and I coughed at my coffee, spilling what was in my mouth on the floor.
This is the most embarrassing moment of my life!
"Clean that up. Now!" Nyxis ordered me.
Who did she think she was?
"Nyx, stop." Alexis intervened, rubbing my back up and down as I kept my head down in a coughing fit.
"Don't tell me to stop, tell this guy to leave. This is my office and if he wants to be here, he needs to clean up the mess he created!" Nyxis was almost shouting now.
"Nyx, please stop." This time, Emery spoke.
"Why? Because he's you're beloved cousin? If you care for him that much, then might as well clean up the mess for him?!"
Emery did just that. She took off her black coat and started sweeping the tiles with it. Nyxis didn't like it. She stomped out angrily, slamming the door shut behind her and when she did, the Indian girl and Alexis went after her.
After father died, I tried to burry this feeling of helplessness. But as I sat there, still coughing, the sight of these friends fighting because of me and Emery sweeping the floor with her coat, time kept digging at my old wounds until it found the one thing that I had buried long ago. Guilt and helplessness.
"Please don't tell mother." She finally spoke, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
"What?" I finally got my breath back and gathered the courage to speak.
"Please don't tell mother about any of this. About how my friend just insulted you." She looked up at me then. "Please"
I saw something in her eyes then. It took me a moment to realize what it was.
Fear. There was fear in her eyes when she mentioned Aunt. Painfully enough, I recognized that fear all too well. It was the same fear I used to have when I would ask mother not to tell father that I was bullied again in school or he would beat me up again and say: "You're too weak."
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"Are you going to tell me, or will you wait till I inject this poison in your body?" She said as she picked up the injection that contained some kind of purple liquid.
I don't know how and why had I ended up coming to this underground prison with Emery. Maybe because I didn't want her and her friends to fight again.
"You really want to know?" The man, who was tied up with chains, sluggishly replied to her question with a question.
She pointed the needle at his arm. "You really don't care that you and your family are going to die mercilessly?"
He looked like a man in his early thirties. Brown hair and blue eyes. So, he might have a family. And the way his gaze flickered from the injection to her face in disbelief and horror proved the theory correct.
"You have my family? No, please don't hurt them, I'll tell you everything." The man spoke, pleading for mercy.
"Oh really?" She arched a brow at that. "But I don't think there's any going back now. The alliance has them, and they're probably screaming for their lives right now."
"No, please, don't hurt them. I beg you!" He was practically begging now and the sight of him, begging her in horror, made her lips twicth upwards at the ends.
She placed the injection back and smirked. "Good, now tell me about the Poison Tree."
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🔸Tip: Poison Tree is a desicle organization that directly fights the DHO to diminish the humanity in order to establish a kingdom of their own. It has the following structure:
• The proprietor; who tests the newly joined members and runs the organization. Rumors say he is one of the nobles.
• Four main pillars; East, West, North and South, spread throughout the country, that financially support the organization and the proprietor.
• The predators; members who fight the DHO directly.
(Hope this info helps TUT )