A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Max's POV

By afternoon when I started to feel hungry I forced myself to get up from bed and make myself some lunch.

I was not in the mood for making anything fancy.

I made myself some good old peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a cup of black coffee.

The black coffee tasted as bitter as the feeling I had in my whole system.

I cursed the day that I first met Tul.

If I had known that a day would come when he would cruelly and ruthlessly plunge a double edged knife into my chest I would have avoided him like the deadly corona virus after I returned the cable jumper that I had borrowed from him on that fateful day when we first met.

After finishing my sandwich I took another couple pain pills to prevent the pain in my head wound from coming back. If only those pills could also take away the pain in my chest.

I spent the next few hours sitting on my couch in the living room watching the afternoon news which didn't really sink into my brain.

By close to six in the evening, my front door buzzed.

I peeped through the eye hole before opening the door.

Mook.

I opened the door wide to let her in.

"Why wouldn't you answer my calls???" was her greeting to me upon entering the living room.

"I didn't know that you were trying to reach me," I said and I wasn't lying. I hadn't heard my phone ring at all.

Wait, where was my phone.

I looked all over my bedroom. I couldn't find it.

And then it occurred to me.

"Hey, Mook," I said, looking around because she was suddenly missing. "Mook? Where are you?"

She reappeared.

"Don't panic," she teased. "I just went to the dining room to set down the dinner and drinks that I brought for you and me."

"Now that you have mentioned dinner, I'm suddenly feeling very hungry," I said. "I had nothing but a miserable peanut butter and jelly sandwich earlier at lunch. But before I forget, would you please do me a big favor?"

"What is it?" she raised an eyebrow at me.

"I think I left my phone in my car," I said. "Would you please go and see if it's there?"

"Sure," she said, already heading out the front door.

While she was outside in my driveway, I decided to go to the dining room to check what food she had brought for dinner.

The delicious smell of food greeted my nose as I opened the white plastic bag.

I was lifting the plastic food container from the plastic bag when I heard the front door open again.

I heard voices and they weren't Mook's voice.

All I had to do was to lean a little backward to be able to get a view of the front door and the living room.

I held on to the edge of the table to support my weight because I felt my knees suddenly going weak.

Mook was not the only one coming in through the front door.

Ella and Tul were following close behind her.

"What have we got here?" Mook was asking excitedly as Tul handed her a large plastic bag containing what I presumed was food.

I noticed Ella bringing in a big case of Heineken beer.