𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 : 𝐅𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦. 𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝟏𝟖+ 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧'𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬. 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫, 𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨. 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞, 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞, 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐫. 

𝐈𝐟 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬, 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞. 𝐓𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐦, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬. 𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐞, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧. 𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐬. 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬, 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩.

There's mention of violence as well... If you're uncomfortable with this, please skip this chapter.
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"So, you're saying you went to meet the author yesterday?"

"Exactly! There was this huge event being held for the celebration of adapting that story as a webdrama. So, both of us thought, that it'd maybe, make things a little bit more clear. Just like you, the story changed when original Althea held the phone. At one time, it was the regular cliche and suddenly, it was a tragic fiction. We thought maybe, she'd know. But, just as we reached there, the author suddenly left and, we couldn't meet her. At first, I thought it was a mere coincidence but, after that, Althea started behaving weird. She would often feel nauseated and then, suddenly, she disappeared and you returned. That too, after being forced to do..." Liz stopped from completing that sentence.

Death by suicide not only affected Althea, but everyone who cared deeply about her. She wasn't even dead. In a way, she was a survivor, this experience was one of the most challenging experiences that she had ever faced. While there was no easy way to grieve, it was often helpful to understand what she might do to make things better. Talking about things, though, wasn't easy.

"Look... Original Althea was way too afraid to go for it... And I couldn't even ask her as it could trigger traumatic experiences. She was someone who needed some time to be left alone, I needed to honor that and busy myself with other things. I know it won't be easy for you. But, could you please, read the rest of story here... The story changes just for you and maybe, we could get what's going wrong." Liz asked, her eyes shining with desperation. In a way, Althea knew that Liz couldn't ask anyone other than her, to do this. That's how their friendship was after all. She had the right to ask anything.

"That said, you do have the choice, not a right, but a choice, to violate this need and request clarification, of mine. You don't have to answer. You don't have to go for it if it's too much..."

"It's okay. Even I want to know the rest of the story. If I get back there, of course, by miracle, it'd be handy..." Althea smiled. She knew she'll have to read things further.
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As Althea' condition failed to improve, everyone started getting depressed. Then one day, it happened, she breathed her last. Her body became lifeless, with it's soul gone, forever.

Soul was a form of pure energy, it couldn't be destroyed. It simply took different physical forms. The act of a soul to give up one form resulted in death of the said physical form, in this case, Althea had no more use of that physical form. The act of a soul to take a new form, caused birth of a new physical form. This concept was called REINCARNATION, which was the root of the “cyclical” nature of life and death in humans, as opposed to the one shot life and death that was the common knowledge for humankind.

Althea' death wasn't taken well by others, especially Melchor and Analyn, who had long started to blame themselves for her death. After some time, Melchor' condition worsened and he chose to end his sufferings. He decided to end it all, himself, along with it...

Melchor' death was a major unexpected event in everyone's life. Nobody saw it coming. Analyn' condition also started worsening and, it wasn't getting easy to help her. Alon and Chesa were equally tensed. Though, Chesa wasn't that close to Althea but, Melchor, she had started to know and acknowledge the presence of them as friends.

That's when it happened. Alon summoned Alab, the other moon staff user, for healing Analyn. He accepted but, he was still out due to healing the long line of casualties in war. Alon mentioned about his best friend's, Melchor' death, in his letter, which made Alab accept his invitation and, he came back. Chesa met Alab. The readers get to know their past story.

When they were little, he and Chesa used to study together in the library near the academy. Chesa belonged to the military class of family, despite having difficulties with magic manipulation. On the other hand, Alab had a fantastic control on magic. Studying together, made them close. He'd never let the bullies get to her for being magically weak. Not like she needed great protection. She just needed occasional motivational doses and she'd always come up with her best.

Then, Alab' older sister passed away due to a disease when he was eight, he had to move away from the Academy. Chesa would always cry remembering him and their previous memories. He did send letters, for sometime, but, it stopped soon after. She thought she'll never meet him again.

She was so wrong.

When she was sixteen, they went on a trip to the capital city. She saw him in a busy street market. She recognized him from the scar he had on the forehead, from one of those fights in the playground when he was in the academy. He was obviously on a date, holding a girl's hand, looking at souvenirs. She wanted to approach him, but she lost him in the crowds. Though, she missed him, it wasn't romance, but, pure longing, for a friend.

But, it was destiny. Yes, it was true love, he was definitely going to come back. And, he did come back. Completely unchanged from before. Chesa was in her final year of the Academy and he came as an assistant professor in the healing department. At first, Chesa was bitter. It hurt her to see him already standing as a teacher where she was just a struggling student.

It was hard to even approach her but, Alab tried. Tried his best. And, soon, three months before her graduation, they confessed to each other of their love. She used to love him unconditionally and she felt that he was also in true love with her. After so many efforts of getting her, he was afraid to loose her. He wanted a name for their relationship, so, he started convincing his parents for their marriage but his father was not convinced (because he believed that Chesa' magic manipulation was way too beneath them) and his mother (she was in the favour of their marriage before but, surrendered before his father, out of love for him) also stopped helping him and wanted him to marry someone who would help with the maintenance of magic manipulation in the family.

And they succeeded in changing the mind of Alab, through serious manipulation . Although he felt the most satisfying happiness with Chesa, he was ready to get engaged with a girl of his parent's choice for his parents. He got engaged without telling Chesa.

He left the Academy again and distanced himself from everyone. That's when some previous bullies started calling for Chesa. They showed her the engagement news and she was devastated. She cried for weeks and tried to convince Alab. He wasn't anything rude but, he told her how his father had said of harming himself if he didn't go with their plans. So, she lost all her hopes. She decided to leave him and stopped talking with him. And, she graduated from the academy.

Here came the twist , Alab, after sometime started missing Chesa and one day he wrote her a letter, saying that he cried for her and was missing her a lot. Her response was very rude. Then again he started to approach her by writing letters. But she decided to move on. So, she went for a vacation after a month of his engagement and he came to meet her (his dedication - took a leave from everything in his life, travelled in a carriage for 9 days straight, also took a boat travel for 6 hours, etc.) She was confused about the stuffs he was doing and had already done. When they had a chat, it went like this:

Chesa : "Why have you come here? You are already engaged, this is not ethically right."

Alab : "My happiness belongs to you and I feel happy when I'm with you. I don't have feelings for her, I feel for you. I don't even know why I was even doing those things."

Chesa : "Okay. I don't think I have anymore words."

Alab : "What should I do to convince you that I am ready to do anything for you? I'll break my engagement and will come back to you one day."

She thought he was lying. They had no more talk then. It hurt her to even look at him. So, she changed herself and left. Where? Nobody knew.

Alab' love was way too dedicated. And guess what, he broke his engagement one day and then his father austracized him, this time his mother told him BE HAPPY. And with time, his father also got convinced for their marriage. The amazing thing is, he didn't leave before convincing everyone. But, when he finally went back to Chesa, she wasn't there. Nobody knew of her whereabouts.

Alab was devastated. And now his father said that he'd do anything to help and find her. He even blamed himself for the things but, his efforts weren't enough before Chesa' intelligence. Her hiding was perfect, way too perfect to even exist. So, everyone assumed that she had died. At first, Alab couldn't adjust to the fact but, Melchor helped him move on and he was finally able to get himself together. Their journey continued, on different paths, of course.

Chesa, in the meantime, used all her time and efforts in improving her magic manipulation to survive in the enchanted Forest (where monsters resided) along with her guardian (a lady who found Chesa laying unconscious outside the forest when Chesa first arrived and was attacked by a monster). She knew all the creatures, residing there. The reason she was able to track the exact monster was due to her experience. They had now, met again when Alab came to heal Analyn.
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"So, I feel true love RETURNS whatever the circumstances are. If you are meant to be together, you will be together forever. Even if, the love life doesn't run smooth." Liz said as they read till that part.

"He loves her. Truly, madly, deeply. Trust me I've witnessed it." Althea said, a little distracted. Her mind couldn't process as of why Melchor would die in a such a way.

"Looking back at the time, we've bunked our classes and the sun is about to set. It'd be better if we leave the campus now." Liz said, standing up from her spot. Althea gave her phone back.
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On their way back, Althea was walking cautiously as she was in no intention of having the accident reoccur. Suddenly, a masked man ran towards them. Althea saw something shining in his hand. It was a knife. He rushed towards her and stabbed her. Even though she very clearly saw the knife, it still didn't register as being stabbed at that moment, until the guy pulled the knife out and stuck her again.

Beside her, Liz panicked. She caught the hands of the guy trying to stop him but, to no avail. His grip was way too firm.

Was she going to die again? If yes, will she be back to the novel' world? There were no answers, just questions, like the last time...
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Number of words : 1915
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