Reason died so long ago that most are zombies to some degree or other, all seeking "brains to consume" - hence social media. The hordes are whores for ideas and have no capacity to make sense of them. They will support nonsense with as much force as sense. They will ask for explanations they have no capacity to comprehend- and then blame you, ridicule you, set others against you.

Unless you become the horde master.

I stare. I just stare. My skin grows just the slightest bit moist with sweat, I presume. I stare, with an unfathomable expression at the article she shoves into my face. My voice has grown quiet- but I'm pleased that I'm not giving off a shocked, drama-queen worthy reaction.

"That's me," I voice out, sounding totally composed, but really, this is a tad bit surprising. Twice in a row? And they've managed to get their hands on some background intel on me as well, coming along with a few very old pictures.

"No, I totally thought you had a twin you lost in the Apple Carnivals," Melian snorts and then removes her legs from my coffee table and leans forward. "This could mean a whole scandal, Isa. Don't be so careless."

"Look, Melian," I reasoned with her, "It's as professional as it comes. Wolfe is my boss, I'm an economic analyst who works in the multinational company he owns and has founded. It's not like we're dating!" I put my arms up in the air, exasperated by the happenings that today has entailed. I lean back, my face towards the ceiling, "People are so exhausting."

"Don't you think I don't know about the first article either, Isa?"

I'm sure shocked but I eye her carelessly. "Do whatever you want to. This doesn't mean shit."

"That's what you know!" She argues, "Don't mess around with Wolfe Theodore, Achelois," she says in a serious warning, "He's not the boy you used to be friends with."

"Are you kidding me, Ian?" I laugh at her mirthlessly, "When were we even friends? Stop daydreaming, for Jesus's sake."

"You're still not taking me seriously, Achelois," she snaps, "Listen to me." She sighs and looks at the ceiling, and then out of the glass windows, her eyes trained hard behind me. "A lot has happened when you were in Montreal. Trust me, he's not the same. Wolfe Theodore isn't fucktard anymore- he's ascended to being the most wanted gazillionaire bachelor of the entire world, probably. He's way more popular and wanted than you think," she says it like it's a burden, "Stay away from him. He'll get away, he'll leave you to fix the rest of it. I don't want to-" she huffs, "You're cautious about stuff like this. I shouldn't be explaining this to you."

"Like you said right now, Melian," I grunt, "You know I'm not that type. And it's just called being old acquaintances. And this," I point at the photos of us fighting in the gym, "I had just gone to train with Elide. He showed up out of the blue and told me it was his gym and it was his offer to spar."

"Like I said, again, Isa!" she sort of scolds, "THAT'S SOMETHING YOU KNOW, NOT THE MEDIA! YOU'VE BEEN TARGETED TWICE NOW," her tone softens and she sighs, "Whatever you do isn't the concern of the media- they like to spice things up all the time. Considering how high the gym is situated," she closes her eyes and I see the tension in the crinking of her brows, "Whoever released this picture toiled quite a bit. That means they knew you were up there. It was like a set-up plan."

"What do you-" I stop abruptly in the midst of my snapping as her last analysis starts making more sense than it should. "There were only me, Elide and Wolfe-" I let my voice fade away as I tried to put broken jigsaw pieces together in my head, yet I just have a few pieces- a major part of the story is missing.

"I don't know who did it and why they did it, Isa," she says, her voice concerned and worried, "You need to be careful about your surroundings. Who they're associating you with isn't a mere guy. Nor is all of this a random accusation by Raven back at highschool about you and Wolfe in a dity relationship. This is," she stretches her arms sideways, "-a way bigger issue."

"I know," I sigh.

Later that evening, I help Melian make dinner, still distracted by the events. Bits and pieces of conversations I had overheard and the analysis of Wolfe's actions ran rapidly inside my head, but I was unable to come to a conclusion. In comparison to Wolfe, I came in hundreds, at least. A lot of successful and pretty women would give him an easier time than I would, so there was no point in him trying to clutch me- as if I was pretty, but I wasn;t. I was a thin rod of Alaska Ice.

Hmph.

I tossed and turned in my bed- thought and thought until my thoughts concluded that thinking about this was a waste of time.

Deep down, both Melian and I knew it wasn't. But it's a lie we feed ourselves when we're desperate and hungry- and so I did, for starving would only bring me Hades in flesh. So, I set my phone down on the bedside cabinet and stared up at the ceiling.

The illumination of my phone's screen was the last thing on my mind before I went back to sleep. The article on my phone glowed feebly one last time before it shut off due to screen inactivity.

"'Richest and Most Eligible Billionaire Bachelor' spotted again with who might be the winner of his heart."

Winner of his heart, my ass.

The next morning passes by in a hush hush. Meanwhile, my so-beautiful morning is marked proudly by Wolfe with twenty two missed calls and sixty nine unread texts. While I'm not completely sure about the calls, I'm oh-so-sure about the sixty nine texts. A long groan escapes my mouth and I fall back on bed, arms outstretched. Sixty nine texts, you can't faze me with that, I'm an internationally renowned spammer and you know it, Theodore. But twenty two texts? I guess my pep talk for him had absolutely zero influence. What a worthless, worthless person.

Melian offers to drive me to work and tells me that she'll pick me up at closing as well. Throughout the drive, she chews me out and gives me the motherly talk about how to stay away from 'bad guys' like Theodore who'd pass up no opportunity to 'take advantage' of an 'innocent' girl. I begin to regret accepting her offer. I guess those are the anti-perks of trying to cope with Melian Frostine, the enigma of the century. 'Waiting for death' mode snapping into place.

I almost open the door before Melian is done. She's midway of a sentence and I'm already out of the car like a flash. She glares at me. "I was still speaking to you, you see."

"Look, I coped up with you so that you wouldn't drive us right into a tree. I have no plans to die young. Plus, my survival instincts kicked in, Mom." I roll my eyes and Melian spares me a glance full of annoyance. "Run along, Ace. Reme-"

"Yes, mom. Please be on time."

I have almost entered the office grounds until her shout draws my attention to her. I jog over and lean into the car by the window. "What?"

Her brow furrows just slightly and she sighs. "You'll probably ignore me again, but Isa, I'm worried about you," she murmurs gently, "You're my best friend since we were in diapers and you're the fiercest, most independent, strong and beautiful woman I've met in the entire twenty four and a half years of my life. I can't afford to see you getting swallowed up by all of this-" she crinkles her nose worriedly, "The publicity, the hassle, the risk of breaking you heart-"

"Thank you for the concern, Ian," I say gently, "I don't thank people all day round, so this is one of the rare moments when I display how much I appreciate and value our friendship- it's more valuable to me than bonds of blood. However," I sigh, "Yep. I'll take care- yet, you should be the last person worrying about me getting into matters associated with the heart."

"You're not the kind that dives headfirst and I know it," Ian says with confidence in her own words, "The situation however- the media pressure, the hate comments that come along-" she shakes her head exasperatedly, "Bad situations bring out the worst in us."

"Listen, Melian," I sigh and look at my watch, but I notice I still have a lot of time, not that I'll be punished or shouted at but that I like to be on time, "We're never so vulnerable than when we can trust someone. People I thought would never turn their back on me- they'd never been there all along. People I thought I could call family-" I grit my teeth, "They became worse than the monsters in my head," I shake my head, a sad smile breaking out on my face, "Don't worry, Ian. My trust is so non-existent that you could tell me the sky was blue and I would still go out to check."

She spares me a last worried glance before I lean inside and pinch her cheek. "Don't you worry about this. Try not to kill anybody on your way- knowing you, you'd probably die worrying about me. I'm twenty three and a half years minus six days younger than you. But I still have grown up. And you know it. Now, scram."

"Behave at the office, okay?" she teases me playfully before driving off. I scrunch my nose- she isn't a huge fan of fast cars. How boring.

Time passes before I know it, and I have ducked two cups of latte before eleven in the afternoon. Usually, Nicolas makes sure to visit me by ten but he hasn't showed up until now. Under other circumstances, I would go check up on him, but since the company is busy, so am I. I'm thinking hard about a financing plan for the Manhattan Real Estate Branch since their analyst was fired recently for messing the data up in the final plan. A new merger is around the company, so things have been busy up until now.

I don't know how long I've been looking at the screen, trying to chalk out a proper plan but it's like some of the data is still wrong at places, so I advance to pick up my phone to call the temp analyst in Manhattan when the phone belts out shrilly. I flinch just slightly and pick up the call without looking at the caller ID, desperate to get rid of the god-awful tone all of a sudden. It's been ages since I changed my ringtone- I'll need to do it soon.

"In my cabin, Miss Crimson."

He ends the call on my face and I suppress the urge to throw the glass paperweight at the door. However, it is beautiful- a blue glass ball with the initials of my name, A and S intertwined in beautiful calligraphy. I place it back on the table and dial him right back.

"In five, sire."

I ended the call no later than he did.

In your face, bitch.

I jot down a quick reminder to call the temp by today lest I should forget about it after all. Wolfe spams my text with random middle finger emojis and I clear chat and block him before he annoys me further. Downing the rest of my water, I pick up my phone and shove it in the back of my pocket and sling my blazer on my lower right arm. On the way, I remind Ysabel that I'll be out to meet the boss and all my appointments can be paused for the time being. She nods and I walk into the elevator, checking up on the texts. Two from Melian, asking about any news on the stuff that was posted yesterday. I notice that the link of the article she had shared with me yesterday now says that the content of the webpage is unavailable due to security issues, my connection isn't private and a hell lot of other bullshit that I ignore blatantly.

"Good day, Miss Cri-"

"Day, Ms. Wright. Let's leave the rest to karma," I spare her a cheeky smile before turning around the corner, but this time, I refrain from clicking the security entry 1 button immediately. Any bits of conversation that I might pick up on will be valuable to the analysis of why I've been targeted twice. If Melian says so, it must be pretty terrifying. Tactfully, I pull out a piece of gum from my back pocket and chew it really fast. Once it is moist and sticky, I pull it out using the wrapping paper and stick it to the heel of my left stiletto.

That will buy me some time until Wright will notice an 'Entry' mark missing.

I inch closer towards the door but don't quite press my ear to the door. The security button is just a few inches away from my hand. I pretend to fiddle with the stiletto that had gum on it, because there must be security cameras around here, watching my every move. This thing I'm doing comes with risks of a lifetime- I could get fired and sued.

No thanks, I love my money.

"-shouldn't be able to catch the slightest of hints. Having known her, if she gets her hand on even the slightest leak, she'll interpret the entire situation faster than we can blink," I hear a voice- Wolfe's to be exact. His voice is urgent and angry. I can't hear the other half of the conversation, which means that he's probably using his phone.

"-Right. Track every bit of her movements. She's a bait, but she won't be the sacrifice, mind it."

Are they talking about Delilah Simpson? It's most probably her- considering the facts that her father is one of the biggest politicians in the United States- they're probably undergoing some power-hungry mission. Nevertheless, I stuff each word of the conversation in my head and fall back, to a few steps behind the button as my ears pick up on the distant clicking of shoes on the floor. Pretending to be annoyed by my shoes, I groan.

"Do we have a problem, Miss?"

A/N:-

Unusually smaller than the usual chapters, but that's because a lot of review shops recommended that my chapters are more than just a tad too long. They are, I guess. The next chapter brings in a plethora of twists. Again, what'dya think about the frequent articles? Something's fishy.

That reminds me, both Achelois and me are allergic to seafood.

Hehe.

Also, a huge thank you to everybody, because Fallen Queen won the first prize for 'Best Blurb' in the Rose Awards held by SBCreations33 ! Yay! Thank you.

Also, why do I love Mathematics so muuuuuucccchhhhh?!

QOTD:- What's your favorite subject?

Mine's undeniably, Mathematics, but I guess y'all know that.

Will Isa's childlike foolproof 'gum' plan work? I laughed a lot while writing that one, it sounds so immature! However, who do you think interrupts Isa? I look forward to your guesses! Mind you, I know the answer, so *winks*. Anyways, have fun pondering over this! 

Goodbye!

Signing out, your incredible, perfect, starry-eyed, and finally topped with sprinkles called 'stupid', (The rest of the adjectives were just me bluffing)
Dishaaaaa😍👊😎