The house seemed to go still. The lack of noise at that moment seemed to make Jun’s spine crawl. A lot of thoughts went through his head. But the one that bothered him most was the feeling of danger that rang in his mind. He rushed out of the room towards the staircase forgetting the lamp. In his hurry, it was quite hard to figure out which staircase led to his room. He needed to get to his documents. Just then, he heard a door open on the other side of the house and he stilled. Slowly and stealthily, an attempt to mimic those trained for war, he moved away from the light of the other room; his greatest fear, the squeaking wood floors under his feet. He felt that someone was coming closer so, he stopped breathing, paused in place behind the staircase; the lit lanterns, doing nothing to reveal his figure to the night.

Right then, a thought crossed his head, why was he hiding? There were quite many ways to translate the mystery of the black pearl.

“Aunt Mary?” he called out into the darkness, but no voice answered.

“Aunt Mary is that you?” he asked and right that moment, he heard a loud crash through the other door and he rushed towards it.

“Aunt Mary, are you okay?” he ran into the next room to find a music box fallen on the ground, with his Aunts’ bent figure looking down at it with pained eyes.

“Are you okay?” he rushed to her side and helped her to stand straight.

“What are you doing out of bed?” he asked.

“I came to find you.” she said and he froze slightly.

“You were listening to my conversation.” he said wearily.

“You should not blame an old woman for her bad habits.” she said, allowing him to lead her to sit down. “You are asking about the black pearls? Why?”

“Those pearls have a history to it, Aunt. It came up in our research of the war. I asked my friend to look into it. You have one black pearl? Can I see it?” he asked in fascination. The old woman chuckled at his behavior, “Sure. Tomorrow, I will show it to you.” she said and he nodded. Silence returned as the two sat without a word for a long minute.

“Jun, something tells me you are not only interested in the bailey building for a project.” Mary said, “You should not be looking into these things, Jun. It is dangerous.” she said and he frowned.

“Things are not as you hear in the books.” she said and Jun pushed his chair closer.

“Aunt mary, this is only for a school project, yes. But I found some things fishy. That is why I looked into it more and you are the only survivor of that incident.” he said and she sighed.

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“I was hiding for most of the incident. But, they did not find me in our home. I had come out with Suyi to make an escape. The things I saw..” a look of pain flashed though her eyes.

“Aunt…”

“The way they moved through the place searching every face, dead or not, they had to be looking for someone.” she said.

“Who?” he moved closer.

“Anne. They say otherwise but when I led them to my building and they saw her lying on the kitchen floor they stopped looking. The people that died, Jun.” she shivered slightly.

“It was not a foreign raid or Asian rebels but the government? How? Why?” he asked.

“I don’t know. They said that I would be the mascot. Survivor?” she scoffed, “No, they let me live. They wanted someone to carry around to support their reform. My identity, a black woman married to an immigrated Chinese was just right and Suyi was alive, perfect.” she sneered darkly as she spoke.

“The people who came in to rescue the building from the so called rebels were but reinforcement, not the police. That captain stone; I can’t believe he was hailed a hero to the end.” she scoffed.

“You are no more their mascot, Aunt. They can’t force you.”

“You think so? I live as a symbol of good administration. Every time I step out that is what I stand for.” she chuckled darkly.

“What about Anne? What was so special about her? Did you later find out?” he asked.

“I moved around a lot. I heard talks; a dangerous spy, they said. Word is, she sneaked into America at the end of the oil wars. She was trained to stay in plain sight.”

“Is it alright for you to know this?” he frowned.

“Just as it is not alright for you to be asking about this; Do you want to become like your uncle? You don’t know how hard it was working with those who killed him. I got the family this far. Don’t let your curiosity ….” her red eyes struck him a stern look.

“You are portrayed to be brave, Aunt Mary. The opposite is what I see.” he laughed slightly.

“Jun!”

“Grand Uncle was your husband, how could you not even try to avenge him?” he asked and she stood slowly.

“My mother made me a bracelet once. She had heard that Kuni Jeans were quite expensive. So she went to the factory while she was pregnant with me and climbed the iron fence, stole scraps of Kuni and brought back home to make a bracelet. Good luck for her daughter, her daughter will be able to brave the world to touch gold someday, quiet yet strong. Who says, staying quiet and doing as told is not brave? It takes a certain kind of person to suppress their anger and look ahead.” she said and turned back to gaze at him with sad eyes.

“You should go to bed, aunt. It’s late.” His deep eyes smiled and she nodded.

“We should both go to bed.” she said and started walking away before pausing, “The staircase to you room is that way.” she said and he chuckled in embarrassment.

Jun moved upstairs in regulated steps. With a look, one could not tell what was going on his in mind till he reached his room and shut the door. He took off his shoes slowly and placed them by the door, before he moved towards his bed in haste. He hurriedly placed his research and important documents out on the bed then rushed to the wardrobe and hurriedly emptied one of his smaller bags, before returning to the bed and throwing everything in. He grabbed the bag and towards the door and slipped on his shoe. As he bent to tie his shoe lace, he heard creaking and paused. Though subtle, he could still hear it because of his proximity to the door.

She was coming.