It was six in the evening when the car screeched to a stop near a small cafe in the outskirts of town. The taxi driver had tried to get her to converse, but Anelia had been too busy thinking about the preposterousness of her actions to really engage in the conversation."Be safe now!" The woman shouted, as Anelia stepped on the curb. "Thanks?" Anelia spoke loudly, although it came out as a question. Was the apprehension she was feeling internally so perfectly drawn on her face that the woman had felt obligated to wish her safe.Without another word from the drover, the taxi drove off and there was no way back now. It was too late to go back now. She had taken the bait and travelled so far away to get some answers.Anelia rubbed her palms on her jeans and unlocked her phone. There was no message to direct her any further, so she waited. She had barely taken a step in the direction of the cafe when the familiar tone of her phone signalling an incoming phone call rang."Yes?" She answer

Two pairs of sharp eyes stared at each other. One of the two were encompassed by wrinkles that crinkled deeply when the owner was in a merry mood, one that she currently was not in. The other pair that closely resembled hers, in that they were an extremely piercing pair of orbs that could not be bullied into casting their gaze down, continued to stare back at her.“Should we not intervene?” The most talkative of the twins said in a voice that was close to a whisper. Brett’s only response happened to be a sardonic smile. Of all the people present in the room, he happened to find great amusement in the situation at hand.As if Mrs Hally, their grandmother, finally registered the words that Dave had quietly uttered to his twin, she turned her eyes to him. “I’m most disappointed in you two,” she said pointedly in the direction of Dave and Brett. “Your brother has always been stubborn and difficult to deal with, but I’ve always counted on you two to balance out those very characteristics

He was calm, cool and utterly composed as he walked down the remaining steps. If anything, he seemed to have walked in the middle of a very a boring play. His eyes finally shifted towards Freda after they had scanned her entire body and Anelia glimpsed the facade breaking for a mere second. In the next second, his features were schooled and it was if as she had imagine that crack.“You have been busy, Freda,” Dexter drawled, looking up at the stage with a lazy gaze. He twisted to look at the hall around him. “And fantastic choice of a hiding place, by the way. I never would have taken you for the sort to know of such dilapidated places.”Freda paced across the stage, the knife shining under the large beam of light she and Anelia were both under. “Why, thank you. And this,” she said, gesturing to the entire building. “Was my favourite place to hang around in my younger years. But, of course you never knew that because you never bothered to know me. But that’s all in the past. What’s im

Days passed by and Anelia attempted to keep her mind occupied with the restaurant, the priceless conversations that always arose between her colleagues during work hours and avoiding her best friend like the plague. Emma had tried to pry into the specifics of her sudden meeting with Freda, one that her friend didn’t fail to label as careless and reckless whenever the matter arose, but had failed to gain much information. Anelia couldn’t bring herself to repeat the drama that had unfolded that day, for fear of failing to keep the fact that Dexter remembered everything and had made his intentions towards her clear from her. Knowing her friend, she would have all her belongings packed in just a few minutes and toss her in the next taxi back to La Vida.The thought of going back to La Vida, of going back to him, it brought shivers all over her skin. Whether it was from fear or excitement, she was not too sure. Perhaps, it was a bit of both. She feared the unknown, the possibility that so