Ava recovered quickly from her sudden blackout. Their family doctor diagnosed the cause of her black-out to be stress and to be frank, that was exactly what she was feeling at that moment. Especially after meeting that mysterious guy from the party.
She knew that it wasn’t safe to go out alone or be alone. Her father might have foreseen the consequences of allowing her to go anywhere alone. She had overheard Ken speaking to her father on phone about a supposed meeting that her father was to have with someone in Greene City. She also heard him saying that she would be safer in Greene City. though, she was very sure that her father was very sceptical about that new idea.
Ava had been living her life without friends for a long time, mostly because she was a stammerer who didn’t know how to communicate well with other people and definitely didn’t know how to make friends. She perceived her life as purposeless and useless. She understood perfectly well that it was all her fault. It was indeed her fault that she didn’t know how to make friends even as a stammerer, that was why she hated herself and always looked at the mirror, often wondering why she was born.
Now, she had a chance to start a new life and meet new people in a new city and she didn’t want this opportunity to pass by. Hearing that her father was returning the next day, she had made up her mind to tell him that she wanted to move over to Greene City.
**********
Ava lay down on her bed and took up her phone to look up Greene City in a browser. She saw tall and beautiful buildings, nice and clean roads, and peaceful citizens in their houses. With these nice photos, she also wanted to hear nice things about the City but unfortunately, the bad news was flying about in her phone about Greene City and the kind of people that lived there. The scared girl also read that there were too many dangerous gangs in Greene City that were supposed to be wiped away a long time ago, but those gangs were still standing and wreaking huge havoc everywhere in the City. The City literally had the largest number of assassinations mainly caused by Mutant Assassins.
She also saw the posted stories about lethal Mutant Assassins in the City, some of them had been arrested while others were simply difficult to get. A special committee was formed for the sake of eliminating the Mutant Assassins. The committee was specially made of renowned and deadly soldiers who had been trained specifically to eliminate all traces of the Mutant Assassins. The president of the committee had given the definite numbers of Mutant Assassins that they had killed throughout the years. Though the citizens of Greene City were happy that the number of mutant assassins was finally decreasing, some still complained about the green skull-tattooed men who were also called the Blue Skeletals. According to further research, she found that the Blue Skeletals had the largest number of members both in Greene City and outside the city. Though they were not usually pinned with assassinations, they were always known for belligerent violence with specific but unknown motives.
Soaked in the world of reading about the Blue Skeletals and Mutant Assassins, Ava felt a tap on her shoulder that drew her back into reality. When she turned to look at who had tapped her, she saw her father standing with a smile, “Dad!” she screamed and stood up from the bed to hug him.
“Ava,” David said, holding her close to him. He sounded tired, but she didn’t care. It was a good thing he came back safely from wherever he went. “Are you better now, Ava? I heard that something caused you to get sick again.”
“I-I am o-okay,” she said, nodding her head with a smile.
“I want to tell you something important, Ava.” her father said. “Something very important.”
She nodded and sat down to listen attentively to her father. It was obvious that he wanted to say something that needed to be heard and she prayed in her mind that it wasn’t going to be about Greene City.
“I have seen terrible things that will happen to you if I don’t protect you, and I have been struggling to make sure that nothing happens to you if I am no longer alive,” he said, “I finally found someone in Greene City who would protect you.”
Ava looked into her father’s eyes and could see nothing but fear and desperation. His face wrinkles were already beginning to show and his lips were broken. The anxiety in his voice drowned his speech and it looked more like he was going to kill himself if he didn’t tell her anything about his plans. She knew that he valued her and wanted to protect her more than anything.
“W-who is the p-person?” Ava held her father’s hands, trying to assure him that she would support all his decisions.
“His name is Philip Browne,” David sat down beside her on the bed and sighed, “I want us to move over to Greene City next week.”
Ava nodded without giving her father a reason to explain further, “Y-yes d-dad.” After she had agreed, his eyes shone with happiness and relief yet, he was still stressed out about something that she knew nothing of.
“I will tell the servants to start packing our bags, alright? You can also choose to pack your bags, since I know that there is a lot of stuff you wouldn’t want to leave behind.” he placed his hand on her shoulder and she nodded with a fake smile. Shortly, he left her room and once again, depressing silence returned to her walls.