After waking up from my nap, I got up and went to get something to eat from the fridge. With a bottle of yogurt in hand, I went to turn on the TV as I sipped on it. After a moment, my expression changed. The bottle slipped from my hands and fell onto the floor, splattering yogurt everywhere.
But I wasn’t faltered by it. I was sitting on the floor staring blankly at the TV when I stood up suddenly. Rushing to my bedroom, I packed two sets of clothes, my travel documents, and my ID. I then headed for the airport without informing anyone.
How could I have been so foolish? I had completely forgotten the reason I went to look for Darius after being shouted at by him. He tricked me with his words, and I believed him. Someone like Darius wouldn’t have said something so inappropriate. Those words were more likely to come out of Julia or Shelley. How could a man like Darius think of something like this?
Besides, based on my understanding of him and the bland relationship he had with Shelley, he couldn’t have been so sentimental. That was why he must have had thought of what to say beforehand and comforted me.
Things seemed to be much more serious than I thought. Christopher was in great danger, and they chose to let Darius, who was the worst liar, lie to me so that I would not worry.
I didn’t know if I should thank them or be mad at them for trying to hide it from me. Not caring about anything else, I rushed towards the airport. I never thought about stopping at all. I must find Christopher this time.
Since he was in such great danger, I needed to go see him. I wanted to be with him no matter what. If everyone disapproved of this, we’ll just die together. At least that way, we’ll be together.
While buying the plane tickets, I pulled out my phone and took a look at the message Mom had sent me. We’ll talk about minor things like this next time.
I was disappointed. If something like this was minor, what was serious in her eyes? Even though Mom loved me after she was back, I could never feel what I felt in the past. Perhaps the years of separation became a wall between us. Mom would never tell me anything, and she was never there whenever I wanted to tell her anything.
In the end, I told her to take care and left without any hesitation.
“Please give me a ticket to Yorksland. I want someplace that’s closest to Mapleton,” I said as I handed the ticket agent my money.
I had only found out about Mapleton of Yorksland a while ago. It wasn’t the town’s original name, but everyone liked to call it that. Renowned for its red flowers, the town was a beautiful sight, and a lot of people were attracted to visit the place. However, a fire soon burned everything down to waste, and the place was rebuilt into the town now known as Mapleton.
I sat in my seat and listened to the other passengers chat among themselves with my eyes closed. I slowly drifted off to sleep when I suddenly had a nightmare. In the dream, I saw blood flowing out of Christopher’s chest non-stop. He tried his best to walk forward but fell onto the ground after a short distance. The man tried to get up but had no energy left in him.
Then, his once bright eyes darkened and slowly closed.
“No… Chris…” I jolted awake from my dream and sat up straight in distraught. I had shouted, “Don’t die!” right as I woke up, waking up the other passengers on the plane. Some of them muttered their displeasure while a few of them asked if I was okay.
I shook my head but said nothing before pulling the blanket closer to myself. Christopher, please be alright. You have to wait till I find you.
Little did I know, my screams alarmed someone who was passing by earlier. The person was originally about to leave, but they stopped in their tracks. They then acted as though they were walking by again, just to take another look at me.
I couldn’t go back to sleep after waking up from the nightmare. Whenever I closed my eyes, I would see Christopher in danger, his body covered in blood. So I got up and went to the restroom.
After disembarking the plane, I walked along the unfamiliar streets. As I passed by an alley, a group of men came out from nowhere. One of them covered my mouth with a handkerchief as we passed by each other. But before I could even react, my vision darkened, and I lost consciousness.
