Clatter. Clang. Bang. Boom.

More such noises follow. I press my hands to my ears and block them out. Each syllable of these noises threatens to freeze my heart. They're still there. They won't go even if I press my hands to my ears harder. I sigh and look at the ceiling, trying to push the tears back again. It's my new trick- if I feel tears pooling in my eyes, I look upwards and the tears spread over the surface of my eyes and they suddenly back down. I start fanning my eyes to quicken the process.

Blackness sets over me as I shut my eyes. Not just shut- I shut them with all my eyes, almost clenching them. A myriad of colors and shapes take over as usual. In the dark room, even the ticking had a relaxed feeling, as if it was a heart-beat at rest. The air flowed over me as if it were the coolest of waters. The darkness in that way was a sanctuary, a place to recharge and forget the things the world said had to be done. So, in the darkness that stole even my own form, I was content to let the darkness pass and awake when light streamed in with its bold confidence. There was something in the darkness that was like a promise, like the world before dawn. It was a room as a canvas rather than a finished work of art.

Black spots swirl in my vision. I feel lightheaded. My lips feel chapped. I feel thirsty. My body aches. The lightheadedness soon turns into a kind of electrifying pain that I am not able to handle. I start gasping. I want to open my eyes, but it feels like someone has glued my lashes to my cheek. I struggle. I fight against the oblivion that threatens to take over.

"Can you hear me?"

I can. I want to say I can. But then again, I don't want to. I squint my eyes, clenching them closed. I don't want to wake up to such disturbance and chaos. I hate it. My parents are fighting. Again.

"Isa?"

I want to relieve others, but then, my heart wants to feel selfish and shut up. A few more moments of silence. I want to be swallowed up by the darkness. I want to become whole with the darkness. I want to forget. I want to emancipate myself of the knowledge that I exist.

Who am I? Who is this 'I' that we're talking about?

"Stop trying to wake her up. She'll wake when she feels better," I hear more hushed voices, "It was mild. It's okay."

"She's been out cold for hours now, Nico," he rasps, almost basking between hopelessness, worry and angst, "And we still miss pieces of what has happened. WHAT THE FUCK IS EVEN OUR SECURITY DEPARTMENT DOING?!"

His raspy voice had a deep timbre, the kind that anchors your soul a single moment in time.

I try to flick my eyes open. They won't.

The bantering has stopped. The air once again embraces my skin like a long lost lover. I feel drunk. My head dances between a peculiar feeling that can't be called lightheadedness or heaviness. The darkness belts out a sweet melody, captivating my senses, leaving me wanting more.

I cough. The thirst is too much to bear.

"Isa?" I hear the annoying, concerned voice again.

"Shut-" I cough again, "Shut the fuck up, will you?"

I sit up and rub my eyes. I feel my hands being pried away from my eyes. A soft, wet cloth is dabbed at them. "You shouldn't rub your eyes."

"Shut up," I murmur. I open my eyes. Everything is slightly blurry. My face distorts into one of annoyance, until I can finally see everything.

No, not see.

I'm clueless.

"It's my house," I hear Wolfe murmur. He sits by the side of me on the bed. Nicolas sits on a stool by the side of the bed. I pick up the glass on the bedside cabinet and drink from it, hastily, in desperation. I flinch at the sudden onslaught of bitterness on the top of a parched throat. I cough even more and place it back on the cabinet with a loud thud. Apparently, the liquid bounces out of the glass and falls on the table, some on my hand too.

"The fuck was that?!" I howl and press both sides of my head with my fingers tightly, "My head reels."

"It was brandy, gal," Nicolas mutters, "You asked for that one," he hands me a glass of water. I sniff at the glass and peer at it carefully. "It's water this time," I hear him say.

I drink the cool water and feel it quench my throat. I moan in relief and set it down by my side. Crossing my arms, I look up at the ceiling. "Cyanide, huh?"

"How do you know?!" Wolfe asks almost immediately. I let out a little chuckle. "I knew it. I knew he would brush it. I knew it all along."

"You knew what?" Nicolas perks up, too. They sneak in glances before looking at me. "Don't tell me you were doing that purposefully-" Stellan pipes up suddenly. I give him the eye and he makes an action of zipping his lips and throwing the key away.

"I could smell it."

"You could do what?" Wolfe asks incredulously, "You could smell the cyanide, Isa? Don't play me."

"I smelled it. Bitter almonds," I murmur, thoughtfully. "If he'd have brought in a vial, the odor wouldn't have come," I recall the events. "Also, the security would've checked him for any kind of suspicious vial or syringe," I laugh mirthlessly, "He had to have it somewhere very obvious but hidden to human perception. I spotted the blue folder after a few minutes of him indulging me in worthless chatter, I chuckle, "I then realized why he chose a blue folder. Hydrogen cyanide is pale blue in colour," I speculate, "He chose a blue folder so that it wouldn't be visible, how clever," I mutter, thinking of how he had almost managed to deceive me. If it weren't for the split second when I spotted the folder, I'd be rolling in my grave right now.

"He smeared it on the edge of the sharp folder. I knew by heart that he would do it. I still took most of the hit, because it would just confirm my analysis. Now I have a rough idea of how his mind works," I beam, "When he turned by my side, he used the corner of the folder and pierced my skin first, before rubbing the incoming edge against the cut," I said, rubbing my wrist, "It happened in a fraction of seconds. I knew there was a lot of concentrated cyanide on the edge."

"Wait, that is," Wolfe shakes his head and grinds his teeth in anger. I show him my hand and he pauses, looking up at me with curiosity once more.

"I changed my arm position in a fraction of the time he took to inject the cyanide," I rub my wrist again, "Just slightly so he wouldn't notice- but I'm sure he did. A cleverly conjured plan which was executed excellently, "And Wolfe?" I drew his attention again.

"You have a mole in your system," I warn him and he winces. "Just as I thought," he mutters.

"When I came, there was a weird woman," I reminisce. "She told me that one of my clients had bought his way through the list of my clients on waiting and said that the company asked me to take this client immediately because he was important. I looked at the identity card band of the temp and I was quite sure it was the legit thing, with the special mark and all." Wolfe debriefed all his employees regarding the special TPT engraving on the identity card once they joined his company. "But now I feel quite sure that she was a fake. How can it be?" I growl, "Ysabel was called up just exactly when this guy, Pyrrhos De-"

"Pyrrhos Deveraux?!" Wolfe howled out of the blue. I could see the rage and anger swirling on his face. I nodded slowly, steeling my expression. I felt Nicolas twitch in anger and Stellan lean against the floor length window, sighing. The glass of brandy shattered with a loud crash on the floor as Wolfe hurled it across the room. I had no right to ask him to calm down- I wasn't exactly easy to cool down when provoked.

"It's natural that you don't know him," Nicolas states, "He isn't just Pyrrhos Deveraux, that'd be Lucian Ha-"

"Lucian Hawthorne," I shudder, praying that Nicolas denies it.

He doesn't.

I don't tell him, either.

"Pyrrhos is his middle name, and Deveraux was his mother's maiden name."

I don't tell him that Lucian Pyrrhos Deveraux, or rather, Lucian Hawthorne, is in fact, probably, one of my own cousins who I don't know.

"Did you check the security cameras?," I hardened my voice and spoke up again. Wolfe raises his head and looks at me with a grim expression. He shakes his head, "We did. No trace. All the cameras of the company malfunctioned for some fifteen minutes around that."

"ALL OF THEM?" I shout in disbelief, rage taking over my veins. "That'd not happen unless you have a mole in each and every department of yours, Wolfe. Question yourself if you trust your employees," I sigh. "That's some serious shit, don't you think?"

"It is," Wolfe murmurs, "They managed to dismantle the backup cameras too. The feed wasn't sent to the hard drive at all," he growls and whips his phone out before turning to Stellan. "Inform the security department. I want every fucking object in the entire area checked. Every piece of trash upturned," he plants his fist on the bed and it almost shakes, "Every fleck of dust checked."

"Who is Pyrrhos Deve-" I pause awkwardly, remembering his real name, "Actually, Lucian Hawthorne. Who is he?"

"One of the biggest rival companies Theodore and Co has," Nicolas says, thoughtfully, "We've been at war for about two years, now; he belongs to old money but he's talented all the same," he chuckles and looks at the rubik's cube he had been holding, his expression more grim than before, "We do have a lot of loose ends- he just proved that." He stands up, awkwardly, "I'll leave, now. Have to get some things fixed right away," he says softly and puts his hands in his pockets. "Take care."

I nod and thank him. I'm staring at the now half-empty glass of water when Wolfe interrupts me. "Was there something else, some peculiar stuff you noticed about him?" He squints his eyes, "Even the littlest things could help now." He suddenly takes my wrist in his hand. I wince slightly, and he flinches too. I try to suppress it- the fear and the anticipation. He exhales loudly, rubbing his fingers slowly over the skin, now red. "No," I breathe, "Well, to go and explain in detail," I scrunch my eyebrows as it suddenly hits me, "He did mention about those articles and shit," I look at his eyes, trying to analyze him, but he puts on a poker face. "Oh," he mutters, "Anything else?"

I debate upon the pros and cons of telling him about it. I almost say it- then I don't. I cough, instead and pick up the glass of water, putting it to my lips. The feeling of caution hits my guts and I shudder, but don't show it. I know that the hairs on the back of my neck are standing straight again.

Lucian Hawthorne.

How come do I not know you?

"You look unsettled," Wolfe murmurs, "Do you still feel dizzy or something weird like that?" He shrugs, not taking his eyes off me but indicating to the maid who had just entered the room to clean the brandy glass mess. I wonder how he noticed her- his back faces the door and he is facing me. I steal a glance at Wolfe, a wary one. The only sound piercing the air softly is of the broken glass pieces as the maid quietly does her job. I shake my head, eventually.

"No," I let out a little chuckle and pulled my sleeve to my forearm and gazed at the prominent bluish green veins running over my pale skin and the bones jutting out at my wrist and ran my fingers over the reddened area. It is a pale red, and I still feel dry, jittery and thirsty.

"Want to go out for a little walk?" He says out of the blue. I look at him, and blink again. He shakes his hands, suddenly and his face beams with that awkward smile, "You just look like you could use some fresh air."

"You sure you ain't goin' to murder me?" I chuckle to make him nervous, "You know, I'm quite the strategist. I'll know if you'll try to," I cross my arms, a grin taking over my face as I enjoy the awkward smile on his face, "Treat me like a game and I'll show you how it's played."

"I'm sure you will," he shakes his head and puts his hands up in defense, "So much for trying to make you feel comfortable."

"Why-"

"Shut up," he half-growls, "Don't fool around, Isa," he crosses his arms stubbornly, "I'm trying to be a gentleman."

"Wh-"

"No," he says with finality in his tone, "Are you coming or not?"

I look at the options he has placed in front of me, and assess the pros of my final decision. Slowly I nod and put on a lazy smile. "No harm, no foul, after all," I shrug, "A little breeze wouldn't hurt."

A/N:-

Chapter 18! Who would've thought?! Isn't Achelous pretty clever and smart, though, for someone so young? Her analyzing skills are pretty cool! I'm rooting for her. YAY! I had to think a lot when I formulated stuff in my head. Initially, I had just Pyrrhos, aka Lucian to introduce until I gave him a totally different character! And now, how do you think he's a Hawthorne yet Achelois doesn't know him? Worst of them all, who are the Hawthorns, after all?!

A lot of questions and I'm lazy.

QOTD: What are the weird things or habits you haven't let gone of since your childhood?

Personally, I still smear glue all over my hands to enjoy peeling it off once it's dried (pretty quirky and childish, though) and I still bite my nails. I EAT PAPER, and people would say that's gross, but it's just a habit when I do Maths. 

Huh.

I hate soup and Mom now adds a lot of beans in my bowl of soup to heighten my anger. 

I'm pretty short-tempered, like Achelois. 

Or maybe, Achelois is quite short-tempered, LIKE ME.

Brush that off. I'm getting boring these days; losin' mah' marbles. Also, guys!

THANK YOU FOR STICKING WITH ME FOR SO LONG! I've won two awards in the last few days and I'm so, so CRAZY GLAD! I won the first prize for 'Best Female Character Name' in Watt-a-Mini awards hosted by nabs_xoxo and also the first prize for best blurb in the Starry Sky Mini Awards hosted by NSGraphics1 ! I'm so happy!

Thank you. I really couldn't have made it this far without you guys. I sincerely owe you a lot! Especially Sirenqueen46 , my amazing friend who seems to be a bit busy these days, Nayasha_Jena who still is obsessed with annoying the hell out of me, AzmiAzim2006 who admires me a LOT! (wink) , funnyteen8 who is funny as ever, Vish_Star who's extremely supportive, andrea_seamurr who amazes me with her witty pieces, Annabeth_Hespanha who is one of my silent motivators, anonymouswriter237 who peeks in every now and then to show her support, TheSimpleSilentMe whose votes and comments give me a lot of moral support, Anxietygirl_1405 who has been quiet for a bit but she has been a good friend, anjila2 who has been with me since the start, Riptideinker007 who writes awesome historical fiction which you should read, Ammaspet who's really supportive and the entire lot of them! I'm so blessed to have you all.

Thank you!

Yours sincerely,
Disha😍👊😎