"Thanks." she said as we made our way out of the cafe. 

"What for?" I asked as I pulled my hood up, and tucked my hands into the pocket of my hoodie. 

"Everything." She replied, her voice nearing a whisper, nearly inaudible. This was something I noticed she did quite often, especially when she was embarrassed. A smile spread across my face, although I wasn't entirely sure why. 

"Anytime." I said. "So what are you planning to do to find out why so many people have recently killed themselves?"

"Well, I am not entirely sure. Everything I know about solving mysteries comes from the books that I have read. That's not exactly a good source to rely on." She shrugged. "Regardless, I think that we should first make a list of everyone that died in the past 6 months or so. That way we'll have a good point to start with?" She asked, instead of stated. I nodded back at her. 

"My place then?" she whispered yet again. I arched my eyebrows, as if I questioning her statement. "So that we can have a paper and pen on which we can make that list?"she elaborated. 

"...Alright." I hesitated and finally motioned for An to lead the way. An tucked a piece of her dark hair behind her ear and began to walk ahead of me. After she was a good 5 steps ahead of me, I began to follow her. 

It didn't take us long to reach to her house. It was merely a 5 minute walk. Her house was a typical house for that of our town. It was a two storied house, painted a dull brown color. The roof was painted a dull red and had a slope for the winter seasons when it snowed heavily. In between the porch of the house and the fence, there was a small garden. My calling it a garden wasn't entirely accurate since there were barely any plants or flowers. Even the plants that were present in the garden, were dry. It seemed like there was once a time when this garden was full of plants and happiness, but wasn't anymore. The garden had lost all its former charm and beauty along with any happiness that ever inhabited it. 

Once we reached the house, An pulled out a key from her bag and opened the door. As we entered, I was hit with the strong smell of food, although I couldn't tell which one. An closed the door behind me and hung her coat next to the door while I stood awkwardly waiting. As I looked around, I first noticed the lack of picture and the dull colors that adorned the walls. There was not a single picture in the house from where I could see. I took a small step forward and could see the living room to my left. It was not too big, but not too small either. Apart from the most basic furniture, the living room was empty. There were no decorations. On the couch, however, was a girl around 9. Her eyes remained fixed on the television and she seemed to not notice us entering the house. From behind me, An told me to climb up the stairs. I did as she asked. 

On reaching the second floor, I was greeted by the same dull and empty walls as that of the first floor. An passed me and entered the first door on the right. She motioned for me to follow. Her room had plain white walls with just the most basic furniture present. The only difference color in her room came from a huge world map that hung on the wall facing the bed. I noticed how there various places on the map were marked in blue ink. An walked in and sat down on her bed, and placed a bag next to her. 

"I'm sorry for the mess." She apologized. This was weird because not a single thing in her house, apart from maybe her bag, seemed out of place. Everything seemed to be right where it belonged. 

"Sit down?"  An said. I pulled up the chair from her table and sat down with it, feeling extremely awkward the whole time. My brain kept telling me how much of a stupid idea it was to come to the house of a girl I had just met. 

An walked up to the world map, and tugged on the end. The whole map folded up, revealing a white board which had been scribbled all over. "This is all I have so far." She said and sat back down on her bed. I stood up and carefully read what she had written on the board. She had scribbled across overly 20 names on the board and then had written how they had died. Next to each suicide she had stuck sticky notes as to how and why they killed themselves. 

An walked up to me and began to say something. I, however, was preoccupied thinking about how if I hadn't met the crazy hazel eyed girl last night, my name would have been up there. For some reason, that's the moment the reality about how close I had been to killing myself. And honestly, I had no idea if  I felt happy, sad, or angry on being alive. 

I snapped back to reality when I felt a hand against my shoulder. "Sorry, I sort of zoned out." I muttered. An sighed and shook her head in disappointment. 

"There are around 5 people in this list who killed themselves in the past 6 months. That number is extremely high for our town. I checked the previous numbers. There has been a total of 3 people who killed themselves in the past 4 decades. My gut tell me that these 5 people that did kill themselves are not actually suicides." she explained. 

"So...you think someone's killing them?" I asked as I looked at her like she had gone crazy. I mean surely there wasn't some serial killer going around killing people and making it look like suicide. But of course I didn't say it out loud to her. 

"Don't look at me like that." She said with pain in her voice. 

"Like what?" I asked, knowing well what she meant by her statement.

"Like I'm crazy. I know it seems like I am crazy. But trust me on this... I feel it in my gut that there is something wrong with this. I don't know about all the other people, but I know for a fact that Claire would never kill herself." Tears threatened to fall down from her eyes. I knew I should have stopped and just trusted her but I couldn't. I knew it in my heart that there was a chance, a big one for that matter, that Claire had killed herself. And if she had, and there was no conspiracy going on there, An is not doing herself a favor. She needed to move on. 

"An..," I paused, weighing my words carefully, "you can't know for sure-" 

"But I can!" An yelled,  interrupting what I was saying. "I can!" She yelled once more with tears streaming down her face. She walked to her bed and sat down. She tugged hard unto the bracelet that hung on her wrist. She sat there on the bed, while I stood looking at how broken she seemed for some time. Finally, An broke the silence by whispering "I do for sure.". She seemed more composed now. Tears were no longer streaming down her eyes, and she wiped the remaining ones from the back of her hand. She seemed calm and collected. She got a look in her eyes, like she was seeing something in the distance and that the scene brought her immense happiness. 

"Let me tell you about Claire..." An said looking right at me as she patted the bed next to her, as if telling me to sit next to her. I did as she asked. 

"Claire and I hadn't always been friends. At first I hated her. Almost everyone did. Not because she was mean or anything that was wrong with her. It was because of everything good about her. She was the student who got straight A's and whom all the teacher's loved. She was so good at sports, I mean she was the best our school, even this whole town, had ever seen. She could dance so gracefully. Her voice, when she sang was so beautiful. And she was beautiful, so very beautiful." She said as a smile spread across her face and there was a new shine in her eyes. I could tell that she loved Claire as a friend, possibly even as more than that.  

"She was perfect. Claire was perfect." She continued, "But her life...not so much. Once we did get to know each other, I found out that her life was terrible. Her parents used to beat her when she was a child. It stopped as she grew older, but the time left scars all over her, especially emotionally, although you could never tell. Her parents married each other when they were young, and in a period of their life where they had been high, drunk or both most of the time. As time passed by and they came to their senses, they realized that they didn't really love each other. But then came along Claire, and they decided to wait longer before getting a divorce. As time passes by, it became a sort of competition between them as to who could last longer in the marriage. They both did their best to get the other one mad, and the anger was generally released on Claire. As she grew older, the physical abuse turned into emotional. I remember how she told me that 'You'd think that the emotional abuse would hurt less, right? You would be wrong'. If I told this to anyone who knew her, they wouldn't believe it because Claire seemed so happy. She was so brave and...stubborn."  An said the word 'stubborn' with a little laugh, as if she remembered a memory. Then An paused, as if reliving the moments with Claire. 

"Everything you just told me, An, points in the direction of suicide." I said with sympathy in my voice. I thought to myself how clear it was that Claire killed herself, probably unable to handle the abuse at home. 

"But don't you see?" An looked right at me for the first time since she began telling the story. "She was stubborn. She told me that her parents tried their best to make her life a living hell. But she promised herself that she would survive. She would grow up, get into a college, get a job and then live her life. She promised herself that she would get out of Myst and live a life and never look back. She had to win at everything. So she decided that she would win at life. She knew she was too good to die. She told me just two weeks before she died." An paused. "Do you trust me now?" She asked. 

I still wasn't entirely convinced if I was. The words "No." and "Good bye." were at the back of my throat, but I held myself from saying them. The words from the note the crazy hazel-eyed girl left me floated around in my head. The note told me to help find what was lost. What could that mean? Did it mean I had to help An find her peace by finding out if what happened to Claire was truly suicide. And I remembered the fact that according to the note, I would get to meet that girl again as soon as I solve this mystery. 

The crazy- hazel eyed girl an enigma wrapped is a blanket of mystery. One thing about me...I loved solving mysteries. So I was willing to whatever it took to find and solve the mystery of the hazel-eyed girl. And if helping An is the way to solve the mystery...

"I trust you." I replied. 

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Hi. So here's the new chapter. I am going to try to make the updates quicker now. So you can expect another update by the end of the next week. Hope you like this. 

Question:

Are you also drawn towards mystery (if yes its a good thing you chose this book ;-) )? What do you think is it about mystery that seems to be so charming to people? 

Do tell me what you think! Also show me some love and like, comment and share guys. 

~ Sky