The Vanessé Club (Part 2)

Zack signalled the guards to leave as we sat down. Suddenly, the atmosphere had become heavier and tense. But it was bothering me why he would let a bunch of women listen to such a sensitive conversation while he tells his guards to leave. When I made eye contact with him, it felt like he was staring into my soul. This lasted for what felt like a thousand years before he finally broke the ice.

He looked at us with hostility, "So, how do you know about the party?"

"We're one of the investors." I replied calmly, but my heart was thrumming inside my chest. I just hoped that the nervousness wasn't showing on my face. If I made one wrong move here, we would be losing our only hope.

"You're here for that drug promotion?" He asked as he lighted a cigarette and breathed it in.

At this point, Noel and I were totally confused by what he meant. The product they were going to promote was a drug?

Whatever it was, we didn't have time to ponder over it for long since we might seem suspicious.

Oblivious to what he meant, Noel quickly blurted out in agreement, "That's right."

Suddenly, realization hit me. The drug used for turning humans berserk— could it be that drug? We glanced at each other and it seemed like he, too, had the same thought in his mind. If this could actually lead us to the drug, we needed to persuade Zack more. He still seemed a little hostile towards us. If we directly asked him for the address of the party, it would seem even more suspicious. We didn't know if all the investors were given the address prior to this day. In that case, there was only one option Ieft for us. It seemed really risky and I would have to choose my words very carefully, but that was the only choice I had.

"He told us to meet you here personally." I said with a half smirk, "You understand whom I'm referring to, right? You musn't disobey his orders. You know what will happen otherwise."

Fear flickered across Zack's face. He seemed a little intimidated by my threat. After seeing that my plan worked, I felt my heart calm down a little. This also proved my suspicion. Zack was indeed working for another man, who I assume would be the mastermind behind all of the terror happening in the city.

Zack crossed his legs and leaned back, "Alright, then. If he sent you here, I have no reason to deny. The party will be held the night after tomorrow. I'm not allowed to reveal the location of the party so you have to come to the club at 9pm and my guards will pick you up."

"Alright. That should be the end of our discussion." Noel got up from his seat and flashed a sly smile at him, "Looking forward to the party, Mr.Zack."

Zack simply scoffed back in response.

As we walked out, we came across the guards who were standing still on either sides of the door, their expression as neutral as a statue.

We quickly brushed past them and out of the club. When we were outside, I could finally breathe in peace. It felt as if a huge burden had been taken off my shoulders.

"Well played, Mr. Timmy." Noel smirked at me.

"You too. With the girls, I mean." I teased back. We talked and laughed on our way back to the car, glad that everything worked out as planned. As we got into the car, Noel's phone rang. It was Anastasia. Noel answered the call and put it on speaker. "What's up?"

"Are you guys alright?! Did they do anything to you?" She yelled into the phone in panic.

I frowned in confusion, "No, what happened?" "Oh, thank god." She sighed with relief, "When you both went into that room, the tracker in your sleeves were switched off. I couldn't connect to it anymore. When I looked into the CCTV camera near the door, I found that the guards were pointing guns at the door."

Our eyes widened as we looked at each other.

A chill ran down my spine. He hadn't actually signalled the guards to give us privacy. If we had made even a single wrong move, he was ready to finish us off. We were playing with fire when we were talking to Zack Salvatore.

"He must've had a special security system which switched off all devices when we entered the room." Noel ran his fingers through his hair in shock, "We were nearly dead."

Later that night, we returned safely while making sure nobody followed us back home.

Only after changing back into my pajamas did I realize how exhausted I actually was. Every inch of my body was screaming in pain. There was a lot of work in the coffee shop which had already worn me out in the morning, after which, I had to go to the police station and then to the club. I looked out the window, thinking about how long the day was.

Just then, I heard my phone ring.

Surprisingly, it was Mr.Ryan.

"Must've called to check in on the orphanage." I thought.

I picked it up, sighing when I realized that I had to tell him about Sam's death.

"Hello, Rai. I..heard about what happened. " He said in a somber tone.

"He must've seen the news." I thought.

It would be hard for him to digest so much at once. He saw Sam growing up in this orphanage and was like a parent to him.

"I'm sorry for not picking up your call earlier. I was busy. How is everyone doing? Was the murderer caught?"

"No. Aleck was called for an interrogation and it seems he wasn't guilty." I replied. I wasn't allowed disclose any further than this. Noel had asked me to keep everything that happened in the interrogation a secret.

"I see, that's good." He said. "You must be tired now. I'll not bother you anymore. I'll call you some other day. Have a good night."

"Good night."

I ended the call and tossed the phone aside.

Only after the conversation with Mr.Ryan did I remember that I was in charge of the orphanage.

"Oh, that's right. I have to call the workers to repaint the rooms of the kids." My shoulders dropped. The mere thought of taking care of the orphanage had worn me out already. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.

As soon as my head hit the soft pillow, my eyelids became heavy and I drifted back to sleep—

I felt a warm breeze hitting my face. I fluttered my eyes open and a familiar face smiled down at me as I rested my little head on her lap. It was that woman with beautiful black hair. We were surounded by a breathtaking grass field. Rosy petals were raining down on the ground from a huge cherry blossom tree hovering above us.

Suddenly, the scene rippled and shifted.

Flames surrounded a room where a little boy was crying helplessly in the corner. It was me. I kept calling out for my mom but she wasn't there.

"Leave us alone! Ahh!!" Tears streamed down the woman's face as she struggled and fought back as a man dressed in all black dragged her out of the room by her hair. I couldn't make out the man's features; my vision was blurry.

The flames rose higher and higher and my cries got louder and louder—

I bolted right up from my pillow, gasping for breath. I felt something cold trickle down my cheeks. I was crying. This was the most vivid dream I'd seen so far. It also felt very real. Almost as if...I knew that woman very well.

I shook my head.

But that wasn't possible. I was certain that I had never met her in my entire life.

"I must be way too exhausted...". I brushed it off and flopped back on my pillow.

——

I woke up the next morning to the sunlight stinging my eyes. I rubbed the grogginess away from my eyes, expecting to hear Noel and Anastasia bickering in the living room as always.

But it was awfully quite this morning. Usually, Anastasia and Noel's chattering would be the first thing I hear when I wake up. After brushing and changing out of my pajamas, I walked to the living. When I looked around, nobody was there.

"Where did they go?" I thought to myself as I made my way to Anastasia's apartment. I was about to knock when I heard the familiar tapping noises of the keyboard.

"Is she working? Maybe I shouldn't bother her." I mumbled under my breath and turned around to leave.

"Come in." Anastasia chuckled. "I can see you from the camera."

"What camera...?" I frowned and looked around, and surely enough, there was a small camera attached to the corner of her door. It was so small and hardly noticeable.

I swung the door open and walked into a familiar scene. I chuckled looking at the mess in the room. As if she had heard my thoughts, she laughed nervously, "Uh...don't mind the floor.."

She was sitting on a chair surrounded by a few laptops and a bag of chips laying on the table which she occasionally reached out to.

"What are you up to?" I asked.

"Just some work from the agency that I need to take care of before the party..." She was so focused on her work that her answer came out almost as a mumble.

"Oh, Good luck then. I need to go to work, too."

"Wait, I'll come along. I need a cup of coffee." She sighed, exhaustion written all over her face. It made me wonder if she usually worked all night long for the agency. What would happen if she didn't complete it within time? Would they harm her?

We walked to the coffee shop in silence. As soon as we entered the coffee shop, the girls' eyes twinkled with joy. The group had increased in number from the last time I saw them.

"Rai! How are you?"

"Are you sick?"

"Why weren't you there yesterday?"

"Nothing happened to me. I just left work early because I had to take care of something." I explained while trying to calm them down.

All of them surrounded me, showering me with concern while pushing Anastasia to the side. She laughed at the attention I was gathering and quietly watched me while leaning against a wall. Some of the girls even seemed pissed at the fact that she came along with me.

I glanced at Anastasia to help me out, but she just shrugged and smirked. The customers glared at the crowd and me for being such a nuisance.

"Uh, please keep it down." I said, while brushing past the girls and hurrying into the staff room.

"We're getting lots of female customers these days. Looks like you're getting popular day by day~!" Mira winked.

"I don't really enjoy being in the spotlight." I complained.

I thought back to how timid I was in highschool. I had no friends, or even relatives who would look after my broke mother. No one at school wanted to talk to me after knowing how my father left my mom. Rumours were spread among students saying that my mom was a prostitute, due to which my father had left us. My mom never told me the real reason why he left us. The students made fun of me and treated me inferiorly. I ignored their taunts until they started calling my mom by different names and saying that my little sister would turn out to be "like that, too". One day, I couldn't control my rage and ended up hurting them badly and was suspended from school.

But now, I have two amazing friends who always have my back. A smile played on my lips as I thought about the improvement in my life...but it had also gotten worse at the same time.

The rest of the day went by smoothly without any interruption. The only obstacle that we had to overcome now was the party.