TRUST ISSUES

“Who are you?” Her anger resonated through my very soul.

I kept silent. What was I to answer when I didn’t understand the question itself. Who am I? I am her brother’s girlfriend, an acquaintance to her and a wing woman who helped her go on a date. I was someone whom she herself invited to her birthday party. But she knew all of that and there was no more to say about our relationship.

Honestly, I would’ve preferred some answers for a change.

What was that metal orb like thing? How did it end up in my bag? How is that liquid in the metal orb healing Nathan?

“Activate RED.” Emma whispered under her breath.

A gauntlet thrice the size of a normal hand tore through a portrait hung on the wall and stuck to Emma’s hand. Before I could notice, two tentacles launched from the wall behind me and tied me up, leaving me immobile.

Emma punched the wall behind me and effortlessly broke it, threateningly.

“Now tell me, who are you? Whom do you work for?”

I raised an eyebrow but remained quiet.

“This is the first time that Nathan has ever been noticed for hacking into something. And it was you who asked us to do it. What’s furthermore suspicious is you readily bought the fact that he is a hacker, you didn’t even question much. So, tell me, who are you, really?”

“Hold on. Hold on. I asked you to hack the bank? I told you to ask your dad directly! You were a scaredy little cat who couldn’t ask their parents about their job and decided to hack a bank!”

“Oh! So you are blaming me now? I wouldn’t have bothered about this if you hadn’t brought up the whole thing which was entirely unnecessary and unrelated to an outsider like you, and made me so curious about it!”

“Can you bitches just shut the fuck up?!” Nathan yelled at the top of his lungs. “Firstly, this has nothing to do with hacking the bank. Secondly, just shut the fuck up Emma. Your voice is drilling through my brain!”

Both of us quieted down after Nathan’s temper.

I was relieved to find out that whoever attacked Nathan wasn’t related to the Harmony Foundation. It was only a coincidence that my kidnapping and this incident happened on the same day.

But on the other hand, why was a teenager hacking into things that would get him killed?

The tentacles let go of me and Emma put the gauntlet on the ground. “I’m sorry.” Emma apologized.

“Let’s talk outside.”

***

“Brace yourself, this is going to sound ridiculous.” Emma said, making a serious face.

I nodded.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

“Me and Nathan are part of a super secret scientific society.”

Yeah, indeed it was ridiculous. But what can I say, after seeing a ball that can magically heal a dying person, a gauntlet that can break walls and tentacles that I have only seen in animated pornography, this sounded like the most sane thing I’d seen or heard.

Emma walked me down a spiral of steps that were secretly hidden beneath the carpet of her bedroom’s corridor. The steps ended in a massive basement that was filled to the brim with props from science-fiction movies.

“These are some things I built so far.” She said proudly.

The room had 10 foot long mechas, futuristic guns, weird looking vehicles and lots of gauntlets, shields and swords.

“So Nathan is a genius hacker and you are a genius engineer?” I asked.

“A mechanical engineer that also specializes in neural links!” The pride on her face exploded through the roof.

I moved around and looked at the stuff, when Emma asked, “Hey, where did you find that Medix healball?”

“The what?”

“You know, the ball that fell out of your bag.”

“I am not sure.” I replied. “Actually, I have something to tell you too.”

I told her everything, beginning from the newspaper article about her father to the stranger who saved me from being kidnapped. “I think somehow that sphere ended up in my bag when he picked my stuff from the car?”

“This is too valuable to be lying in a car like that.” She commented, completely unbothered by the fact that I was kidnapped only half an hour ago.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” I continued after her affirmation, “Why did you trust me with your secret?”

“There’s no point in hiding it when the cat’s out of the bag, right? Not to mention, you would probably try to trespass into our house again if you didn’t get some answers.” She continued, “Hope you don’t get mad, but I need to confess something. I have been tracking your locations and listening in on your conversations through your phone.”

What?

“Come on, I had no other choice! Wouldn’t you want to find out about some freak that tried to break into your house and has some mystical thing that carries her around?”

Fair enough.

I asked, “Were you being honest when you said you only saw the surveillance footage because you heard some sound?”

“No, actually. The surveillance cameras have built in AI that can detect if someone tries to break in. I got a notification, so I checked it.”

Well, I wouldn’t have believed it if she said this the first time. But in hindsight, how did I believe that she heard the sound of me being thrown against a wall from within her bedroom that is around half a kilometer away from the gate?

After some more conversation and checking up on Nathan to make sure he is doing fine, I decided to go back home.

Even as I walked through the most crowded streets of Mellston, I felt overly-conscious of my surroundings. The incident from this morning had left a deep trauma in my mind.

As I approached my house, I regretted not asking for Emma to walk me home. Considering Nathan’s state, I couldn't be selfish, so maybe she should've sent a killer robot with me for my protection.

Once I reached home, all I wanted to do was lock all the doors and sleep tight until my dad came back from the ‘weekend-sale’ grocery shopping.

Unfortunately, there was already someone at the door, waiting for me.

“Hello, Annabelle.” William Miller greeted me. “Hope it’s a good time to talk.”

I handed William the cup of tea I just prepared and took a seat a few steps away from him. While I was preparing tea, I messaged Emma about her dad being here. I sent her that message in the sense of requesting protection from him, but she took it as if I was informing that he wasn’t at their house.

I wouldn’t expect my father to harm a girl either, but my dad wasn’t arrested for murder.

William took a sip of his tea. He commented with gratitude, “This is some of the best tea I have ever had.”

“Can you please tell me why you are here?” I asked.

“I heard you are asking around about me. I apologize for the incident that happened this morning as a result of your own doings. It was excessive, I admit. I only want to know this- why are you interested in learning about my past?”

My heart raced, so did my mind. I spoke as my thoughts formed, being as surprised by what I said as Mr. Miller. “Learning that your boyfriend’s father is a murder doesn’t do any good to the relationship. Ever since the day I read that article, I feel afraid to be around a murderer’s son. I’m sure Steve wouldn’t do what you did, but that doesn’t mean I can blindly trust someone who comes from a family such as yours.”

Wow, that was very offensive.

William Miller warmly smiled and chuckled mildly. “I understand. As a father, I wouldn’t want my daughter dating a dangerous person either. So I can see where you are coming from.”

The irony. Nathan might not be dangerous himself, but he has life-taking danger surrounding him.

He took a deep breath and continued, “I do not know how you were able to connect me to the people at Harmony Foundation, I am not interested either. But all I want to tell you is that you shouldn’t dig into this further. I won't deny that me and some others have done heinous things to people. But they were bad people. They deserved all that happened to them, and possibly more.”

William picked up the cup of tea again and gulped down the remaining tea all in one go. “As for your relationship with my son, I can assure you that he has absolutely nothing to do with whatever happened in my past. I have made sure to not let any of my children learn about it, for I feared the possibility of them hating me. If you are still concerned about your safety even after this, you are free to do whatever you please about your relationship. Just make it as painless for Steve as possible. I can’t see him suffer.”

William got off the couch. Before he left, he remarked, “I was being honest when I said that was the best tea I have ever had. Hope you can make me some more of it some other day.”