The group gradually gathered in the living room, except for Emily, who stayed in her room the entire day.

Diego comes around twelve, barely says a word to Rachel, doesn’t care much that Abigail is lying on the couch, grabs some leftovers and leaves with his laptop instead. Shortly after, Alex follows suit. His eyes meet Rachel’s, she gets up and comes near him by the fridge.

“The fallen princess regrets being here, sis,” he takes a bite of the cold pizza slice.

“Don’t read people’s minds,” she whispers, looking over her shoulder to see if Abigail moves.

“She’ll be a liability. It was a mistake bringing her here.” He takes another bite.

“You agreed to it, remember?”

“Clearly misjudged it. She regrets it. Haven’t I made myself clear? How long until someone brings our door down? How long until a team of assassins teleports here? Admit it, it was a mistake.”

“It’s too soon to admit anything, Alex. Yesterday it was a turmoil, especially with the Jade Harris thing. We’ll give her time, and you’ll stay out of everyone’s heads. Are we clear?”

“Yes, our dear, fearful leader,” he grabs another slice and leaves.

Rachel grabs her laptop and sits again on the couch, facing Abigail, who is still fast asleep. Closer to two, Megan walks in and Rachel gets up, only for Megan to grab an apple and leave without uttering a word.

Where have you been all this morning?

As expected, whatever it is that’s bothering Megan, silence is always her answer.

It’s well past four when Ánh finally joins her. Rachel looks up and smiles at her.

“Một miếng khi đói bằng một gói khi no,” she says loudly while laughing.

“Shh, Ánh! You’ll wake up the beauty princess there,” Rachel whispers and points to Abigail.

Ánh comes closer with a slice of pizza in her mouth, she sees Abigail and sits next to Rachel.

“What were you saying?” Rachel asks her and laughs at her happiness while eating the slice.

“That I’m starving…” she whispers now and focuses on Abigail, “she didn’t make it to her room? That must’ve been fun!” Ánh says loudly again.

“Ánh!” Rachel’s tone is sharp,, but she says it whispering.

“Oh! Oh! You… you…,” she gets up and puts her hands on Rachel’s shoulders, “are absolutely right… poorrrrrrrrrrrrrr, Abigail!” she shouts again and laughs.

Abigail grunts a bit, showing she’s alive.

“I’m going to go back to bed, sleep. See you!” Ánh kisses Rachel’s head and smiles.

One hour later, Abigail finally gets up, she nods at Rachel, grabs her head, heads to the kitchen, drinks a full glass of water in one go and rests her head on the dinner table.

“You should eat,” Rachel keeps typing on the laptop.

Abigail grunts, leaving Rachel puzzled. She returns to the couch and switches on the TV. She turns the volume louder, trying to distract Rachel. Muffing the sound of her nose running, holding in the tears.

How was I so stupid…? I misread the entire situation. God, where is she? I hope I don’t cross paths with her today.

It wasn’t about Megan itself, if she was honest with herself. Abigail couldn't deny Megan's charm - the short ginger hair, beautiful green eyes, and freckles were pleasing. However, Megan's role as the Angel of Death overshadowed it all.

No, it wasn’t about Megan. It was about all the other Megans that life had put in Abigail’s way. Those she pursued, attempted to show affection to, and constantly rejected her. Most, due to the age, never expressed their reasons. But Abigail knew it in her heart that if she was thinner, it would’ve been different.

While most days that didn’t bother anymore, in these she did. And she could only control one thing: how much she’d eat.

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Why is she still here? Abigail grabs her arm with such tightness that it hurts, avoiding to look at Rachel.

She leaves to take a shower, cries there the entire time, goes back to her room to see that Emily hasn’t opened the shades, everything is dark there.

“Emily, are you… okay?”

She doesn’t answer and pretends to be fast asleep.

Ánh asks Abigail to meet for dinner, and there is Rachel again, sitting across the room, tapping on her laptop.

What is she doing? Abigail’s blue eyes linger a bit longer and her eyes meet Rachel’s that quickly focuses again on her laptop. She is writing the response she wishes she could say to Jade Harris. Without Megan, she can’t find the right words. Something the world will never see. More of an exercise of conscience than an actual speech.

“Do you want some eggs? Bacon?” Ánh asks while cracking the eggs and mixing them.

“No, thanks! I already ate,” Abigail smiles.

Rachel’s eyebrows raise and she pretends not to listen to their conversation.

“That was productive! I’ve been dying in bed all day. Sorry, boss!” Ánh laughs.

Abigail looks at Rachel, and the girl smiles back at Ánh.

“We all could use a break today. Tomorrow we’ll meet and decide what to do next.”

***

Aminu hasn’t spoken since the news of their abduction broke. He kept replaying in his head the last moments he saw them both, the joy on Abigail’s face when she gave him a ride back to the dormitory after the museum’s exhibition. That was only three days ago, but it seemed much farther away.

He keeps listening to his favorite Nigerian artists on repeat and that soothes him for a bit. Home is his sole source of comfort now.

Padma texts him, wondering how he is, but he won’t reply. He can’t and ignores her whenever they are next to each other working on the lab.

He comes to the sixth floor, the classes floor, to grab a coffee, like he does every day, at the same time. Then he goes to Abigail’s office, only to realize once there that she isn’t around. That she won’t be around. That she was taken, and he didn’t know if she was alive or not. The video showed her alive, but that was 38 hours, 21 minutes and twelve seconds ago. Was she still alive now and if so, why wouldn’t the terrorists say something?

“Aminu,” a colleague tries to catch his attention, but he’s looking everywhere but at her and misses her, with his coffee passing by as if she didn’t exist.

Another one touches his arm, and he drops the coffee on the floor, begins tapping frantically on his arm and tapping his foot. The man realizes he made a mistake and was about to touch Aminu again when Jade grabs his hand and tells him to leave. She guides Aminu to an empty room, and he sits on the floor, grabbing his knees in silence for over fifteen minutes.

“They are okay, Aminu.”

He forces himself to look at her while continuously tapping his foot.

“You don’t know that, o. How do you know that, o?”

“Aminu, Rachel Moore isn’t violent.”

“Isn’t violent, you say? Nah. Only when she killed in 2019 the 20 children that celebrated the Day of Peace, or the President on the same day this year, or the killing of that village, no, she ain’t violent.”

Aminu, she obviously didn’t do any of that, but how can I explain that to you?

“You are right, she is violent. Dangerous. But she’s also tactical and killing Emily and Abigail won’t bring her any advantage. Now, she can use them to bribe Abigail’s parents if she wants. They’d be willing to be penniless if that meant having her back. I’m sure the movement needs money.”

“You don’t know that, o.”

“I do know that. Aminu, they are alive and they’ll come back to us.”

***

“Why didn’t you bring Aminu with you?” Ánh pours herself and Abigail a glass of water.

Rachel deletes the file she was writing, closes the laptop and leaves the room. Ánh and Abigail watch as she leaves.

“You know how Aminu is. He needs structure in his life, his routine. I couldn’t bring him, Ánh.”

“Did you tell him the truth, at least?”

“And what is the truth?”

“Abigail…”

“That there’s an organization that develops weapons against us? Probably ran by the Institute that we work for, the Institute that Aminu left Nigeria for? That our government is most likely in charge of it all?”

“Yes, that truth. The one that we are discovering bit by bit.”

“Aminu needs…”

“Don’t.”

“Yes, structure. That would be too much for him to handle.”

“Abigail… don’t.”

“I love him, I do. I love Vero too. I love them both, but… I say this with the heaviest of hearts, I know that some things are better to leave them out of. They won’t understand them. If my parents are in fact part of this, Zach can handle it, but Vero? Her whole world would collapse, she’d get non-verbal again, she’d lose everything she accomplished.”

“And if you find out that your parents are part of it… Won’t that collapse your whole world? Zach’s too? How’s that different?”

“It just is. We’d deal with it differently than Vero. Just like you and I are dealing with this differently than Aminu would.”

“That’s not your choice to make. They are entitled to the truth and to make their choices.”

“That’s very pretty, Ánh, and all. But sometimes loving someone means protecting them, no matter the cost.”

***

“Last call for the remaining passengers on flight 684 to Brussels. All remaining passengers, please go immediately to gate number 74A.”

Zach pays for the candies on the shop and smiles. His long red hair gets stuck on his old backpack and he removes it gently. He enters the plane and sits in the first class, texting both Veronica and his parents.

I’ll call you when I land.