After a few seconds, Tiffany pulled away hurriedly, wiped her tears, and then stood up.
“Babe,” Aiden walked to them and then pulled her into a hug as soon as he got to her.
“I’m sorry that had to happen,” he whispered.
Tiffany said nothing, she only stood still while the guy hug her not even attempting to wrap her hand around him.
“Are you okay?” Aiden asked after he broke the hug with a faint smile on his face.
“I’m glad you all came to look for me,” she started as Marlie and Declan also walked up to them.
“Thank you for coming despite… Despite… all you saw and heard today. I… I…” She couldn’t complete her sentence before she burst into fresh tears again.
“Can you all just let me be for now? I want to be alone for a while. Please.”
“Why, babe?” Aiden took her hand in his.
“Nothing, I just want to gather my thoughts,” she nods her head and then removed her hand from Aiden’s slowly.
“If it is about us seeing you like this that is making you worry, I hope you forget about that, okay?” Marlie smiled.
“That’s not it,” Tiffany nods her head.
“Shall we give you a ride home then?” Declan asked.
“No, I’ll go alone,” she refused.
“Anny, you can’t go anywhere looking like…”
“Give me money for cab, I don’t have any money on me,” she turned to look at Aiden.
“Babe,” Aiden sighed.
“Should I just trek home?” she raised a brow.
Aiden shook his head, brought out his wallet, and handed it over to her.
“Take it, you might need to buy something.”
“No,” Tiffany removed a few notes from his wallet and then returned it. “I’m okay with this,” she added and then turned to leave.
“Tiffany,” Senator Han called.
“Huh?”
“Don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us if you need anything, okay? We’ll come to check on you again,” he said with a smile on his face.
Tiffany only nod her head and then resumed walking.
“Will she be fine?” Senator Han asked.
“I guess she’s not feeling comfortable with us seeing her look like that,” Declan twitched his mouth.
Aiden said nothing as he began to trail after Tiffany slowly.
He was only going to make sure she board a cab safely.
==
Tiffany switched on her phone as she stopped in front of her door, removed her key from her pocket, and unlocked the door.
As her phone switched on, she switch on the torchlight and then pushed the door open.
Tears rolled down her eyes as she locked the door behind her and then collapsed on her mat.
Here she is again, alone.
With everything she heard today, Tiffany shunned everyone out of her life including her own boyfriend who had always stood by her.
Aiden’s parents played a huge part in her misfortune.
If she was going to act on what she heard today, she was going to end everything with Aiden also.
But she couldn’t bear that, Aiden was the h best thing that had ever happened to her.
Back then when her father had hugged her and she had hugged him too, she felt like she had loosened up so easily. She wanted to push the old man or better still, pull away from him. But she couldn’t, she felt another type of warmth that she had never felt. She felt as if nothing would ever hurt her again with that big shoulder that hugged her possessively.
Tiffany had never felt so confused in her entire life. She had never felt sad the way she was feeling. She had never imagined that the truth about her family will hurt her this much.
She wiped off her tears with the back of her palm and then, the guardian appeared in her room and this time, the tiger spirit came with them.
“Did not believe I’d ever see you cry,” Benroy crossed his arms across his chest.
“Mountain guardian,” Chephirah frowned.
“Tiffany?” She turned to face the lady who ignored their presence.
“Why are you here?”
“Are you still going to be stiff after…”
“Just shut up,” Medusa kicked his leg.
“We came to see you because we think everything you heard today might take a toll on you,” she bent down in front of her.
“I am fine,” she wiped her nose with the back of her palm.
“I know you’re not and first I’m grateful for how much you are able to keep yourself in front of them. It is something only we know how hard it is. You… You probably see them as meal earlier, right?” she raised her brow and Tiffany raised her head slowly.
“How do you know?” She stuttered.
“That they looked like a meal to you?”
“Yes. Earlier, they smell somewhat delicious and I was extremely thirsty, I… I yearned to have a taste of them and not on food or water,” she hiccups.
“I know and I’m sorry that happened child,” the Lion spirit sighed.
“Why do I feel that way? Tell me please,” she cried.
“Tiffany…”
“Just tell me.”
“Akilang wiped off all the animals in his surrounding before he starts to feast on human beings and…”
“What?”
“That happened for a few weeks before we managed to trap him but by then, a lot of lives had been lost and we only managed to save a few of them,” Chephirah explained.
“So… When I turn to a monster… I will start feasting on humans?” She shook her head in disbelief.
“Tiffany, Akilang was a very good and nice mountain guardian before this happened. It suddenly became greedy and showed dark interest in owning the world and everything in it. Akilang started claiming the world as his and started killing any creature that doesn’t bow for him. This vexed Harengon, the guardian leader, and then made a report to the Creator and that didn’t end well. Akilang’s greed turned him into what he is, he wasn’t a demon from the beginning,” Tiger spirit interfered.
“Did you purposely tell me to go to that house?” she frowned her face.
“Well, yes,” Tiger spirit nods her head.
“You met Medusa?” Chephirah turned to look at the Tiger spirit.
“I only appeared in her dream. It’s not fun fighting with this little human. I want to face Akilang head-on,” she shrugged.
“Medusa,” Benroy shook his head and the lady only rolled her eyes.
“While you guys are here, can you just tell me everything else that I need to know? Please, it will hurt so bad if I find out later on, please,” Tiffany cried.
Chephirah sighed, stood up slowly, turned to look at Benroy, and then shook her head.
This was going to break her even more.
“There’s something you’re hesitating to tell me,” Tiffany stood up hurriedly.
“No,” Chephirah shook her head.
“There is, tell me, please,” she pleaded.
“Tiffany…” Chephirah sighed.
“Please,” she pleaded, her voice breaking.
“Just please, don’t take this to heart, okay?”
“Okay,” she nods her head.
“Akilang… Akilang kîlled your mother,” she pressed her lips together and played with the ornaments on the tip of her cloth nervously.
“W… What?” Tiffany staggered.
“I’m sure it’s not intentional. It was just going to hide inside her but ended up taking all the lives she had in her. I am sure…” She was still talking when Tiffany fell to the ground slowly.
“Tiffany?” she hurriedly bends before her.
“I… I want to sleep. I suddenly remember that I am sleepy,” she stammered and then laid on her mat, shivering.
“Tiffany.”
“Please, let me sleep,” Tiffany coughed.
By now, tears were refusing to fall from her face no matter how hard she wanted them to come. She just wanted to keep crying while thinking about everything that has happened to her and what is happening.
“Okay,” Chephirah nodded her head and then stood up.
After Tiffany was sure they had left, she stood up hurriedly, walked to her clothes, and searched through them thoroughly.
After a few seconds of searching, she removed the kitchen knife her boss gave her a week after she started working at the cafe, appreciating her for learning everything about sandwiches and coffees in that short period.
“This… This will put an end to my misery,” she chuckled miserably.
She shut her eyes tightly after she had removed the seal on the new knife and then dived it right into her chest without a second thought.
She winced in pain as she felt blood drip on the floor.
God was surely never going to forgive her.
=
Aiden didn’t tear his eyes off his phone as he sat on the floor of his living room beside the table.
He was hoping to wait for the lady’s call but his hands were itching to call her so badly.
As he glanced at the Kitten that meows beside him, his mind trailed back to what the lady had said earlier in the day about almost being assassinated in the mountain.
Aiden shook his head as he realized the girl from back then was Tiffany after he had connected all the puzzles.
Has she been living with that kind of guilt for the past ten years?
His was bearable, he only witnessed it, but what of Tiffany?
Aiden remembers vividly how the girl’s face turned red.
Wait, how could he miss that?
Will Tiffany become like that when Akilang is finally unleashed?
Will her hair turn silver like back then?
Will her nails turn into claws?
Will green flames come out of her body?
Aiden was scared of what he saw back then and there was no assurance that he wouldn’t be scared if she changes again.
That day when that girl kîlled that man in the mountain, he had witnessed it and while she prepared to attack the other man, he had run away from her, calling her a monster.
Does she remember that?
He didn’t mean what he said, he only called her that because he was scared.
He wished every day for the past ten years that the girl was alive and left the mountain.
He had believed a monster in the mountain had entered her back then, but growing up, he knew there was nothing like that unless he only wanted to fool himself to make himself better and less guilty.
To think that the lady is Tiffany, is both relieving and heartbreaking.
It was relieving because he got to see her again, and heartbreaking because he had called her a monster and ran away for his life.
=
MEANWHILE…
As Martha dropped one call, another call entered, and it felt as if a president’s house was on fire and the press was trying to cover the incident.
“I told you to make the adornments perfect! Make it both mature and Cozy!” She snapped, dropped the call, and then picked another from another phone.
“We’ve talked about the number of TV stations that are going to enter the venue, why the fûck are you still on about it?!” She yelled.
While this was happening, Theodore only watched his wife while sipping a glass of orange juice slowly.
“What is the occasion?” He asked after Martha dropped the call.
“Aiden’s birthday is in two days,” she answered and then collapsed on the chair because of him.
“You’re thinking of that in this situation?” Theodore frowned.
“Then what should I do? If you think I’m going to let that shît that happened here today get to me, then you’re wrong. I’ve made an announcement to the public about choosing my heir on Aiden’s birthday. It would be a huge setback if I cancel that because of some monster!”
“What?”
“You have no idea how much I’ll make with Aiden just smiling and waving at the guests. You don’t know anything. You don’t think you’re still in the year 2000 or whatever, do you?” Martha hissed.
“I… I can’t believe this,” Theodore shook his head.
“Just watched as you have been watching all those years, don’t interfere in my plan. When I’m done with everything, you and I will have our time together, okay?” she faked a smile, and then stood.
Theodore watched Martha as she picked a call and walked towards the stairs.
“Just watched as you have been watching all those years, don’t interfere in my plan”?
What a horrible way to pick on him.
==
Tiffany creased her brows as the pain she was feeling began to reduce, she removed the knife gently, walked towards her phone, and pointed the torchlight at the knife which was stained with blood.
As she hurriedly removed her cloth, the pain had left her like there was nothing there. It better not be what she’s thinking.
Tiffany glanced at where she had stabbed herself and frowned her face as she saw nothing but the only little stain of blood which she hurriedly wiped off with her hand.
Tiffany’s expression suddenly change and she smiled darkly,
“You don’t know? We are indestructible. We are going to live forever, controlling the world together. We are immortal!” she growled and then burst into laughter.
*
TBC…