After a very long day of shopping they finally were walking back home. It wasn’t a long walk. It only took around 20 minutes to reach Jack’s apartment from the mall. As the two were walking back Alice’s phone buzzed indicating that she had received a message. Alice took her phone out to see who it was. “Hmm, it must me Jack huh…” Jasmine teased but Alice ignored. ‘So, you are the new protector of Jasmine. Remember the chances of supporting character dying before the main protagonist is always high in the battle field. So who would that person be in this case? Stefen/ you or JACK? It's not over.’ A cold shiver ran down Alice’s spine. It was clearly a menacing message and only Jack’s name was written in bold letters. ‘Does this mean that Jack is the next target? The message must be from that same anonymous person’ Alice thought. “Are you fine Alice?” Jasmine asked with a concerned tone seeing her friend turn blue. “Is there a problem?” Alice could not hear anything Jasmine was say

“But what should we do? And why aren’t we involving the police till now?” Jasmine said. “I don’t know why we never thought of involving police into this matter in the first place, what I do know is that now I don’t want them to be a part of this in any way,” Jack did not emit a positive vibe. “What do you mean?” asked Stefen, he doubted Jack’s thoughts. “Whoever this maniac is, I will be the one to find it and hunt it down until…” “Until what?” Jasmine asked. “Even I don’t know what I will do, all I know is I can't let this person threathen us one by one, and who knows when this simple threat could turn into an action we can't avoid,” Jack said with an evil smirk. “No matter what Jack, you must think about Alice before taking any wrong move,” Stefen warned. “But what should we do now? How are we going to find this person? And what do you think he or she or whoever this psychopath is will do next? ” Jasmine raised pyramids of questions. “Actually, I did not want to tell this to

Jack opened his apartment door and walked in silently. He saw no one in the living room so he went to the kitchen only to find it empty. He walked upstairs and saw the guest room door half open. Walking towards the room he saw the person he was wanting to see seating on a chair facing her back and writing something. “Alice?” he called her still standing outside the room. Alice was startled hearing the voice in the midst of the silence that was there. She turned around and saw Jack outside the room. “Jack?” she was contented to see him but she broke her smile immediately remembering that she had hurt him. “Did you forget something? You can come in,” she spoke maintaining her calm composure. “I just wanted to speak to you about what happened this morning…” Jack spoke softly unlike in the morning as he entered the room. “It’s not your fault.” Alice stood up from her chair and walked towards Jack but Jack walked pass her seeing the documents on the table that Alice was working on. He

The two went for a walk by the path beside a river. No vehicles except bicycles were allowed in that zone. The walking area was guarded by the metal barriers and there was a street lamp after every seven meters; lighting up the road as well as glowing the river waters, adding shine to their calm body. It was still not so late at night so the cafés were still opened and few musicians’ added life to the night with their melodious voice by the roadside. Old couples were walking holding hands on one side and walking stick on the other whereas young couples were seated on the tables outside the café as they were experiencing new feelings and new attachments. Parents were holding their child’s hand as they were out on a night stroll after having their dinner and few lonely birds were on their phone late at night, talking to their loved ones who lived far from them and consoling their lonely hearts with the sound of their voice. “I thought I’d forgotten what life actually is,” Jasmine said a

“You ready to leave for work?” Stefen asked Jasmine. “Yeah, I guess,” Jasmine sounded exhausted. “What, already tired?” he chuckled. “No, but what about Alice and Jack?” “Don’t worry, I had a talk with Jack, he will be fine and on top, they both need some time alone and among themselves too. We’ll file sick leave for them.” “I guess you are right but what if things worsen between them, I mean we tried giving them their space yesterday and you saw the consequences yourself.” “See, there are always two ways we can see things. Either be optimist or be pessimist… and I want to bet on the positive side. We can’t force them to solve their issues, can we?... So, the best is we let them figure things out themselves. And I’m pretty sure they will because they value each other, much more than they value their stubbornness.” Stefen explained. Jasmine nodded her head and the two went to work. It was already afternoon when Jack came out of his cave and made his way to the kitchen. He entere