A real trip to the past. Two years ago from the current timeline, or more or less a year after the students from HCA were exchanged with those from a school in Country J.
After regaining clarity about Steffy and Wendy"s situation, Sofony discreetly visited the country and stayed there for three days. One reason for this decision was that she had a business meeting with some foreign investors to deal with. The other, to check on those two girls and see how they were doing.
Before leaving the country for Alina City, she made sure to strengthen Steffy"s "own" memories, instilling to the depths of her sister"s mind that this life had always been hers.
Deeming too that Alina City was still dangerous for them, she hypnotized the two to prolong their stay in Country J. After all, Alina was indeed still not safe, with Gio still not found and with an unknown host freely roaming around. Sofony couldn"t bring herself to imagine them being victimized by another Clarissa.
A day after Sofony flew back to Country F, Wendy had gone out of the dorm late at night to buy some medicine for Steffy from the nearest convenience. She discovered her best friend"s sister"s condition late due to their dorm room"s distance. Also, the girl currently had no one with her since all her roommates went back to their hometowns or houses for vacation. Steffy was too sick too to phone her so if it weren"t for her whimsical visit, the idiotic girl would have died from a mere fever and everyone would be in the dark about it.
To be honest, when Wendy went out, it was not only late at night, but wee hours in the morning, around 1 am. Hence, it could be understood why Wendy"s face was so ugly, scratch that, sour, when she stood outside of the 24/7 convenience store that she just exited from and saw something peculiar in the darkness ahead.
The place beyond the reach of the light coming from the lamppost was so dark. She initially has no problem with that since on the way here, it was also the same path that she took, lighted up by the scant illumination from her phone"s LCD. It had no flashlight function, that"s why.
Actually, Wendy didn"t really put much thoughts about the way back, thinking it would be the same as when she first went here. She would once again use her phone to make sure she was not stepping into something unspeakable, disgusting, and slippery. And then once back to the dorm, she would go to Steffy"s room and boil some rice or porridge there before making the girl take the medicine.
So what was the reason why she was now only standing like a frozen ice sculpture in front of the automatic gla.s.s door of the store? With a frowning face even? With the darkness growing steadily creepier each second, why was she still not moving her feet and hurrying back to where she and Steffy were currently staying?
Well... It was simply because she saw a black shadow on the opposite side of the wide road which initially came from the dark shades of the tree nearby. It had a stature of a man, with a height and built similar to her brother Simonne. However, after wobbly walking towards the street, this shadow mysteriously vanished, as if it had collapsed and got sucked into the ground. If her eyesight was not playing with her, the mysterious shadow disappeared after reaching the long stone bench there. The scene had been very spooky, the hair on her fair skin stood up when the cold wind of midnight swooshed by.
The silence of the place which came after that mind-boggling scene was so eerie and heart-stopping too. She knew this was exactly the moment when most people would just be compelled to run back inside the store or faint on the stone pavement.
Oddly though, despite Wendy"s hairs standing, the first thought that came to her was,
"d.a.m.n! What"s that? It can"t be? Am I that unlucky? It"s a suspicious man for sure! How did he vanish? Where did he go? Is he a criminal or a serial killer?"
Wendy, the weird brainy G.o.ddess of HCA and also a known beauty of her current school Edogawa High, had thought of this first instead of wondering if the shadow that appeared before her was a ghost or not. She worried more if there would be news of crime here reported tomorrow, if that shadow was that of a thief, or a kidnapper, or a rapist.
If her conjecture was correct... oh no!
Due to her odd sense of righteousness and cautiousness acting up, she seriously started to weigh out whether to check out what she saw or not.
After her eyes wandered the place with great vigilance, she made up her mind and picked up an old-fashioned long umbrella from the rack near the trash bin. She mentally vowed to return it on a later time. For now, what mattered was to be prepared in case she would need weapons to ambush and knockout a criminal wannabe. This umbrella just happened to be the best weapon nearby since it was quite st.u.r.dy, not to mention, has a good reach.
"Let"s do this, fighting!"
Unfortunately, the woman"s silly fantasies of detective heroics were broken when she cautiously and determinedly approached the location, only to find out it was merely a huge black bundle pa.s.sed out ungraciously under the hard stone bunch. It was not a ghost, and it also didn"t seem like a criminal whom the girl would find alright to pummel to her heart"s content using a stolen umbrella.
"... Just a drunkard?" She frustratedly murmured to herself.
Bending down, she irritatedly looked at the bundle, using her phone to shine upon the man"s feature and see why he collapsed face down at this place. Not long after, she discovered what was wrong with him. She smelled the faint scent of metal and iron. With a quick scan of her phone"s light all over the person"s body, she noticed that there were blood trails starting from his forehead. Blood was also pooling underneath his midsection, letting her realized that he was injured in the stomach area.
"Hmm. He looks pitiful. Must phone the nearest hospital from here quickly."
For some reason, at Wendy"s mention of the word hospital, the person lying motionlessly on the sidewalk moved slightly. Accurately put, his body twitched. The girl heard a soft and weak groan from the man which informed her that he was actually still conscious.
Despite being a bit surprised though, the fingers tapping across the screen did not pause. Amidst this and without straying her eyes off of the man"s b.l.o.o.d.y side of the face that was exposed to her, she even managed to say, "Oh? Good that you"re still awake, it means you won"t be dying anytime soon. Just a second, I"m now dialing the hospital"s number. Since Country J"s hospitals are pretty responsive and alert, I"m sure they"ll get here within ten, no, five minutes."
Just when she was scrolling her contacts for the toll-free number of the local hospital here, she was surprised by the cold, blood-wet hand that suddenly grabbed her hand. Due to shock, her typing froze. Her eyes too widened at the man"s face that suddenly turned to her.
"..."
Son of a beast! Such a handsome face! So poreless!
The eyes were very expressive and could speak thousands of profoundness! His perfectly shaped full lips were so kissable. The brows had a nice shape too.
d.a.m.nable! Even with blood covering half of the man"s flawless face, it was still almost prettier than hers!
She thought when she recovered from the shock. "... I"m suddenly very p.i.s.sed off. The place is dark but his skin is glowing. What the effin" m.u.f.fin!"
In the midst of her unreasonable fits of jealousy, the man"s voice echoed softly and weakly in the air, teasing her eardrums.
"... Don"t...send...me to...the...hospital..."
Wendy blinked for a while. Towards his pleading stares and words, she tilted her head to the side, her eyes peering suspiciously at the man.
"Instead of asking for help, you"re begging not to be sent to the hospital. Aren"t you an oddball? The heck!"
"..."
"Hmmmm.... You"re so suspicious. I"m being tempted to not only call the hospital but the police too."
Out of consideration for her self-esteem, she didn"t start voicing out her hypothesis of what he could have possibly be doing in the middle of the night with his impossibly pretty face to end up b.l.o.o.d.y and injured in a gloomy street.
However, she did hold up her phone and began dialing the police"s hotline. To her extreme bafflement, when she was about to press the go b.u.t.ton, the lighting of her screen just went bonkers.
"Eh?"
It didn"t take long for the phone to go dead.
With blinking eyes and blank face, she exclaimed, "d.a.m.n! But I saw its battery is still forty-seven percent full. What happened?"
The dumbfounded woman studied the baby blue handheld device, her right index finger repeatedly pressing on the power b.u.t.ton. When several seconds pa.s.sed without it coming to life, her gaze went back to the man who was now almost lying dead underneath the stone bench.
She suddenly felt an extreme headache coming due to this trouble and regretted why she approached the place.
"Great... My conscience won"t let me leave this guy to die here, no matter how angry I was for how good-looking he is."
Wendy"s face soured the more she thought of what she would surely go through in the next few hours.
...
...