Arorhea opened her eyes to find herself in a dark room though she remembered to switch on the night lamp light before she slept. How did it turn off? It was pitch black now. She stretched her hand towards the right where the lamp was usually placed and realised it wasn't there. She reached for the left side too and there was nothing either. In fact, she couldn't even feel anything around her.

"Wh-where am I?" She said in the sight of a flambeau burning across the room. She looked to her left and right—it was mysteriously creepy.

A man walked around his heel boots whispering on his phone, "yes, ma'am," Rhea heard him say, "she's still unconscious."

* * * * *

"Rhea!" Ember happily walked into Arorhea's bedroom along with the maids with food trays. There was no response from her side. He searched the room and even the balcony to say, "she's not here!" He rushed to Mrs. Helberg and the others and searched for her with his brothers in the whole building.

"Do you know any place she can be?!" Mrs Helberg asked worriedly and Loraine rushed to the lift as the other two brothers followed him. Maple rushed to the banquet hall, Ember to his room and Loraine to the terrace top

"Arorhea?!" Loraine called her as a cold breeze hit him. Turning around and searching the whole place was done but no clue was found of her.

* * * * *

"Are you aware where this place is?" Said Sabrina sitting next to Rhea.

"No! Why have you taken me here?!" Arorhea screamed trying to release herself from the chains and ropes tied around her. She cried, "what do you want??"

"Will it be cruel of me to say that I don't want you in this world anymore?" Rhea gasped at her words. Sabrina scoffed, "oops, did that hurt? Let me say something more to it. I'm not that wicked. I won't kill you or do you harm. I'll just let you stay here to rot to death. I don't want my fingerprints on you, right?" She laughed, rather maniacally.

"Sabrina...WHY DO YOU HATE ME SO MUCH?! WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS UP TO DO ME WRONG?!"

"Oh dear. It's been 6 years already and you don't already know?!" She scoffed, "you interrupted in my love life and now you're back again when things just started to seem right. What do YOU want?"

"Listen, I never interrupted in your love life. I don't even like Ember-"

"Did I mention him?" She smirked.

"I-"

"I tried so hard to get you out of here yet you just never read the signs! Why are you so up to make trouble for both of us?? Why don't you just leave me alone?"

"Can you stop saying that?? I haven't made trouble for you, it was YOU who did that!!" Rhea cried.

"Of course I did, but that was so that you make less trouble for me. Like that one time, the incident about Rosa Parks and her grandson. That worked really well though," she smiled, "then, what brings you back?"

"Wait....what? What did you do to her grandson?"

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO HER GRANDSON," she said, "it was merely an accident. But since Mrs Parks and my father were really close, I got the chance to discuss the whole thing with her. How, you, being the girlfriend of Jacob Parks, tried to push the old lady on the road but accidentally killed Jacob?"

"Why would you do that?! He was so older than me! How could I possibly-"

"But it made sense, didn't it?" Sabrina smiled, "plus she has a poor memory to even remember anything."

"Um....but what about the actual girlfriend?"

"She looked like you, I've seen her," Sabrina said casually, "I don't know, maybe she's dead too, who knows."

"No she isn't!" Rhea justified, "and we're both Indians doesn't mean you can say we look the same! That's so stereotypical!"

"Whatever, do I look like I care? But don't you think it was realistic? Like everyone believed in it like crazy!"

"And now no one will believe YOU," Ember entered the scene with a phone in his hand and Loraine with another, Maple, showing off his newly bought jacket that made him look like a CSI character.

"Get in the car, miss," said Loraine and Maple helped him seize her. They separated her from Rhea and held her arms.

"This is an assault! Leave me!!" Sabrina yelled at them. But they took her to the car With appropriateness.

"And you, miss," said Ember as he leaned down to free Arorhea from the chains wrapped around her, "are you alright?" He smiled.

"Never been better after seeing you," she beamed at him.

He blushed, "u-um, I hope she didn't do anything else to you."

"No she didn't," she quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and cried.

"She's actually not that bad at heart..." Ember explained to her, "she's just obsessed with me. And that's what makes her do these things," Ember paused to hear her say, "how did you know I was here?"

"I found your location. Thank God she didn't take away your phone. And this place is not far from Nason, so we're good," he broke the hug and picked her up but she didn't say anything to oppose the act. They exited the building and he put her in the car.

"W-where are the others?" She enquired.

"Do you wanna go together with Sabrina?" He chuckled.

"H-haha, no," she laughed nervously as she observed him drive from his left profile. He let down the window and realized it was so windy outside. The wind came in, spiralling and entangling his hair which now made their way to his face.

She removed them from his forehead so they wouldn't poke his eyes. To thank her for that, he smiled at her and the sun that shone, sparkled up his blue eyes too. She realized once again how beautiful those are. How beautiful the person actually is. Inside and out.

* * * * *

"You can't do this to me!" Screamed Sabrina as the two boys held each of her arms in the empty hallway, "I'm a lady now! Let me go!"

"Sorry, Sabrina, we have no other choice," sighed Maple as they took her inside the huge living room and released her. Ember and Rhea followed them. She hid behind Maple and Loraine.

"Ah! Sabrina!" Said Mr. Wilson horrified of his daughter's sudden appearance.

"Hello Mr. Wilson," greeted Ember and he greeted him back. "I would like to share an information to all of you."

Sabrina continuously trying to pull him back or cover his mouth, he walked forward, ready to play the recording, "about the matter that occurred around 6 years ago, about the de-"

Rhea rushed in the front, snatched his phone and ran away as soon as he almost played the recording. Horrified faces looked at her go out of the room.

"W-who was that?!" Asked Mr. Wilson as if he had already found Arorhea familiar.

"That's—" Said Mr. Helberg. "Ember-? Who was that?"

Ember rushed out of the room to fetch her, ignoring the men in the room. She was at the terrace top. Sabrina wasn't in the room anymore either. Loraine and Maple went along with them but let Ember reach her and talk to her. She moved away and avoided him.

"Rhea!" Ember held her hand to pull her to witness her eye full of tears, streaming down her cheeks. It was high time that he was seeing her cry like that. She was shivering and avoided looking at his face but he forcefully grabbed her head and didn't let it move sideways, "listen to me, Rhea! Calm down!" Rhea didn't obey, "why didn't you let me tell them about Sabrina?!"

"I-" She calmed down as he let her go. "Please don't make her life more miserable.."

"Huh?"

"She doesn't have a mother, right? Even her father doesn't give her time. She had relatively less friends than me in high school even though I'm the one between us who's an introvert.

She loves you, Ember. She knows that you're the only one who would give her all the love she had missed in her life. You're so insensitive, Ember!" She said and walked away from him towards the terrace entrance after handing his phone back to him.

He looked at the screen, "Y-YOU DELETED THE RECORDING??!"

"Sabrina?" Loraine said as he noticed her standing behind them while Rhea reached them. They were shocked to see her. She rushed out of there into the elevator and left. Tears gathered in her eyes.

-to be continued...

"Get in the car, miss"
— Loraine Helberg
(Afterlife Of Ember & Rhea)