So sorry for the long wait!! My schedule has been over flowing into my secret work life (I might be batman). With great power comes great responsibility guys😔

Ps: I am most certainly sure there will be mistakes. I deeply appreciate your understanding haha

Strokes of dots splash on my eyes. Blinding me to the world momentarily or perhaps blinding the world to me Momentarily. And I am back standing. I smell litres of feelings that are shoved down my throat. Pushed forcefully down my narrow oesophagus. Stuffed. I'm full.

My feet are sinking in the sand. I raise one foot. Up.Down. My leg takes time to reach the ground. Pain rocks from my knees up to my eyes. Suddenly the ground is coming closer to me. Closer. Closer. Pain radiates through my nose. I kneel to sniff in red colours. I taste red on my tongue. It's harsh, violent and gruff. Warm. Very warm. Too warm, maybe.

I look back at the blurry world. I find myself faced with scary beings lining up in this expensive neighbourhood. A white man too tall to be human is dressed in a black suit and causally leans against a blue roof, staring at me. Realistic spiders crawl slowly towards me. I was silly to think that would be the extent of it until I made eye contact...With Chucky. His eerie smile crosses over a streak of blood running down one of his eyes.

The red is burning. Deep. Deep down. I feel it rise up and spill out like bile onto the grey rock beneath me. All the litres of emotions are slurped up back and shoved even further down. My legs rise once more but my next step leads me into oblivion. I can't see where I am. Dum dum.They left me in the dark. They acted like I wasn't even there. Making decisions without my input or knowledge and dusting their hands over my head.

Dum dum. 

There's an insistent beating. Like a drum. Mother had not told me of this plan. Father had simply followed behind Mother's every wish. And even Helen. Did Kion know too? That my own family had abandoned me with his? Was that why he was being nice and flirty all the time?

They left me. There's a deep hole in my heart that sinks until it reaches the bottom of my stomach. My legs miss a step, and I stumble down curvy edges. I feel my hands tremble because my leg is vibrating. I press my hands together, but now I feel my wrist bobbing up and down like it has a mind of its own. I press my hands on both of my ears. There's a humming sound that buzzes against my skin, like when you put your face, and cheek down, on the classroom table while everyone is talking.

I want to sleep forever. Forever and ever. I slowly close my eyes as I welcome the timeless trance. Everywhere stays still and I feel every single blood cell in my body. My heart now hunched over my knee is beating at 100km/hr. I think the arteries corded around my heart and the veins that snake around my nervous system, connecting to my muscular system. The veins beat in my ankle, the hollow of my knees, my hips, and my arms. I feel everything.

Dum Dum. The beats crescendo. Faster and faster. Quicker and Quicker. Harder. Harder. "Wake up" I feel someone shift my body. Maybe it was the wind. Hairs on my body rise even before they try to shake my shoulders again. I dismiss it for the wind one more time. If I close my eyes well enough, it will leave me alone.

"Wake up" The distorted voice bubbles into my ears but as they hold me against themselves, the feeling of whatever they are wearing is like needles all over my body. I violently shake them off.

 It hurts.

They wrap their arms around me and press me tighter. The needles fall off as I hear them one by one drop dead onto the floor. It's so much better now. This feels like fluffy. You know those hairy blankets, not the cheap ones that fall off when you tug at them. I mean the short ones that have a shiny coat, and your hand slides over them like gliding on water. We stay like that for a while. The squeeze gets tighter. Too tight. Too tight. The grip on my loosens ever so slightly. So much better. And so I am curled up with the wind, its cold hands wrapped well and secure around me.

****

Cold gusty wind hits me and I sniff awake. Ugh, there's snot blocking my nose. I sniff again as my eyes slowly prick open from their lids, the sky is the same as it was this morning. I am sitting on a wooden staircase and below me are just a few more steps. I turn around to see about 30 more staircases. How did I get here?

"Someone's awake" I hear a deep throaty sigh that explains the entire reason for my occasional existential crisis breathes on my cold numb ears. They were numb until he breathed on them and now I can almost feel them redden. I turn to my side to see a boy snuggled with me underneath a fuzzy blanket.

I blink once.

Blink twice.

Pretty...

Pretty blue eyes stare behind me. The blue fades into something darker at the bottom of the orbs. When he looks back down at me, I see green vines twirling and mingling in the blue ocean. Floating awash deeper into the dark bottomless ocean. I hear my stiff-ass jaw creak open. He surrenders a smile at me and just then I see the moon in broad daylight. His eyes turn into upside-down crescents.

"Will you keep staring?" He chuckles deliciously, white vapour puffs out from his lips as he quirks an eyebrow at me. Majestic. You know...You know, the feeling of when you see someone so beautiful, you don't want to be their friend or their romantic partner rather you simply want to observe them from afar. You want to hold their face in your memory and reminisce on the beauty of life when things go astray. This feeling.

"Yes," I barely nod my head up and down as I take in his every form. His jaws are well angled even though I don't know the right angle. His cheeks are small but when he smiles they push out and go kiss his eyes. His eyes. Magnificent.

He throws his head up into the sky, his chestnut fluffy hair flying everywhere and when he comes back down, I am met with the stars.

"At least you're honest" His Adam's apple bobs up and down.

"I am" I nod my head as drool pulls at my lap. I hurriedly swipe away at the drool. I don't bother cleaning my eyes because, around this favoured being, I might as well be a speck of dust.

Piere. This is he. The classic bad boy of the community school. Not just a normal bad boy who goes about fights or has anger issues. No. He's the last born of Lyon. Big brand in jewellery, medicine, education and astro.His mother a dignified ex-model was also an actress and still got a master's in Astrophysics. His father is from a line of medical business and a philanthropist. Piere attends the same school as Kion. I and Kion sip tea concerning matters that may or may not mention the name Piere.

I could feel his chiselled chest through this blanket, and I couldn't believe we were sharing the same blanket. I heard rumours of him dating almost as fast as he would hurl a football at the pimp of the whistle, he also almost went professional with his basketball skills at age 14 but his parents withheld him. The point is, he's Mr Quarter-back and a talented athlete to almost be recruited at age 14, comes from a respectable family so he doesn't worry about his academic success or the consequences of his mischievous behaviour and has almost every girl in his beck and call. Aka...

"Are you Kion's new chick. The one from school?" Piere's eyes peer into me. Or maybe I'm imagining the spark of interest. Did he mean Kion had chicks out of school?  Yup, Aka, asshole. 

"No, I'm not with Kion like that" I flinch away from his scrutinizing gaze.

"Uh-huh...Kion must have bad taste to take you" He pokes around my buttons.

"He must!" I nod in support of this notion.

"He would have been betraying Kiona" Piere whispers under his breath.

"Kiona?" I repeat. Kiona was the dark-skinned girl I had seen from close up back at the library. Ever since that day, even at school we never got within a mile's radius of her group. It felt like she was always up at this pole in a throne room that I could never reach. I could tell even from the little amount of time I was there that she liked Piere. I think everyone knew. Maybe Kion knew too.

"But they aren't dating" I wonder again.

Piere looks at me like I'm stupid or something. Uh, rude. I didn't even know this majestic boy.

"No they aren't, but he's liked her since forever" Piere reinstates and I try to find the logic behind this loyalty.

"That doesn't mean anything! Just because you liked someone doesn't mean you must keep falling for their tricks or that you shouldn't move on."

 I defiantly continue. "If you're still stuck up on one person just because of the memories of when you liked them, you're sure to miss out on your current ones" I pump my arms and shoot them into the sky.

Piere lets out a huge sigh once again. He stands up, leaving me in the blanket as he mumbles something. At at least he doesn't argue on this topic. Though what he mumbled didn't sound pleasant.

"Um...how long was I out for?" I grip the edge of the blanket, why does he even have a blanket out in the first place? Piere rests his chin on his hands, closing his eyes as he thinks for more than a second.

"Fifteen? Maybe twenty? I couldn't check when you clung to me like a koala" He juts out his lower lip into a pout. My eyes trail to his roughened-up clothes.

"Wait, are you telling me I gripped you so tight you couldn't let go?" Oh my god, if I did I would legit look for a hole and throw myself in.

"Yeah, basically" He shrugs his stiff shoulders. Was this my fault again? He does little shoulder rolls to further explain. Okay, step one. I'll look for my phone in my pocket. Step two, I'll go to Google Maps to search where I can find holes. I doubt it would bring it up. Step three. I'll find this hole and throw myself into it. Step four-

"I'm wasting time" His impatient voice snaps me out of my reality check. 

"Want to follow me trick or treating?" His hand waits for me to grab on as he pleasantly requests me to be his bride.

"Huh? It's not even Halloween yet" I blink back rapidly at his confusing words.

 "It's Halloween a month before the actual Halloween here in America" He grips my hand as he pulls me up from the confines of the ballet and into the warmth of his shirt.

"I see" I panic as I shove myself away from his hug.

"What's your name?" He asks with a higher pitch as he bends down and begins to fold the blanket.

"Aisling...my name is Aisling, Piere" I call out his name as sweetly as I can. Gwoshie, even his name heavenly. He doesn't question why I know his name but he does turn back to me with a smile as we head up the stairs. My legs lead me behind him. Up. Down.

"Where are you from? You have a...funny accent" The last time someone had told me I had a funny accent was 5 years ago when our old neighbour who had just moved in. I guess everyone was so used to my accent that they never bothered to point it out.

"England" I trail off as my saliva lodges in my throat.

"I visited there last two summers for a cousin's birthday. Miserable place it was" He shivers as tremors run up and down his body. His whole body goes down depressed but soon his smile breaks out and just like that, I see the sun. This whole hair radiates with a holy light.

"*Ahem* So where do you want to have our marriage- um..sorry sorry. I meant where do you want to go trick or treating?" My legs have a mind of their own. Up down. And we are out on the streets. I'm walking behind Piere.

"The Arena. It's this place where they host huge events, Halloween is around the corner so they've been hosting this series of events. Wanna come?" I almost salute him with an aye sir, yes sir or whatever they do in the military but I quickly reject the idea.

"Uh no... I have this family bonfire gathering" I scratch the back of my neck.

"Oh! that's cool" His shoulders drop down like a sad puppy. I am about to say yes when his eyes suddenly grow cold as he looks behind me. I turn around, my back to his chest to see a cool-headed Kion. Uh-oh. His smile isn't there and his jaw looks like it's about to crack from how many veins are popping from them.

"Looks like your husband's here" He whispers snuggly in my ears and just like that I feel his heat elude me before I get the chance to jab him in the ribs.

"Kion" I call out softly. I had yelled and blamed his mother. He must be angry at me.

"Play volleyball with me" He simply states as he strides past me to lead me somewhere. Yup, he's going to secretly murder me. I turn around in my step to see his athletic build walk farther and farther. I look around for Piere but he has disappeared like a dream.

****

"Kion, go easier on me" I sincerely beg as my legs tremble faster than any vibrator. 

"kyaa" I scream as the molten rock falls straight at my head. Using my ninja skills, I duck down just in time as the rock hits the court and bounces out. This is not a game of volleyball, this is dodgeball. Kion keeps spiking the ball at me.

"Kion, I'm sorry" I feel myself grow more tired from the fatigue. "I'm sorry i ran out, i forgot my way home. I'm sorry." I stand in the middle of the court, my eyes clenched shut, not caring if the ball hits my face or not. I am tired of always being the sorry one. My body is as straight as an arrow and the wind stills as I expect another spike aimed at my head but I'm met with silence. I peek out from my lashes to suddenly see Kion in front of me.

"What are you sorry about?"

"For blaming your mother"

"No, you're sorry for being an adult and having feelings" He simply sighs. 

 "A few days before your twelfth birthday, your mother and mine had this dispute over something which led to a DNA test revealing that they were not in any way related. Of course, they checked the family record. It was easy that our family...your family, had this tradition of always checking up with relatives. After a deep week-old investigation, it was discovered our great great grand uncle couldn't bear any more kids so his family threw him under the wagon and looked for someone to clone him." Kion's settled on the dirty ground. His story isn't finished though.

"And you know, your mom felt betrayed in a sort of way and that night of your birthday she demanded we break ties with us or she'd report to the head family and they'd cut us off too. We did break off but the head family found out either way, nothing happened to our status, instead, your family was shifted to a branch family and we got closer to the head." I don't even understand why this made sense. It seemed like something out of a novel.

"What's the argument that spurred this whole thing on?" I asked the question that suddenly seemed of utmost importance.

"I don't know either, Mom won't tell" So Kion wasn't my cousin. Helen wasn't my aunty, neither Miranda nor Daisy were my sisters?

"How long did you know this?" I trek to stand in front of Kion.3

"I didn't know until now." A scared thought plants itself in my mind

"What if Miranda knew? Is this why she's so hostile"

"I'm not sure. Maybe. Maybe not. But now after you jumped down the window like  spider man 'I forgot my way home' She probably does now" I sit down in front of him. We both let it all sink in for a few minutes. The sun is slowly setting along the horizon. Shrill cold envelops my body heat and we hear the distant cheers of children.

"Come on, let's clear up" Kion dusts his hands and once again leaves me in the dust. I watch him go to pack up his shoes and bag and my mind drifts to somewhere nearby yet so far away.

 I have to go home but I am not ready to face Helen or Mike. I wonder if. I wonder why? I wonder when. What if? If then...

"Ashy? Let's go home" A hand is shoved in my line of vision as it waits ever so patiently for me to grab onto it. That's right, family should always stay and no one gets left behind.