Back Story

"It was raining that day. Definitely the worst day of my life. Nothing was going right and I just learned that Dad was going to remarry. He said that mum was never coming back, no matter how much we waited. She disappeared on us one day and I've been waiting for her ever since then. I think it was around that time that Ran appeared and I finally had a friend.

"But back to that day. I didn't want to go home at all. I didn't want to meet that woman again, she's too . . . well, that's another issue altogether."

"I walked under the rain for so long with my uniform drenched. I'm surprised I didn't get sick. Ran and I talked and talked as I kept walking. The town looked so pretty that day.

"Then the rain stopped suddenly. I looked up to see the ugliest yellow umbrella I'd ever seen in my life. I turned around and saw a little red-headed girl smiling brightly at me as she held the umbrella.

"She asked me what I was doing in the rain and Ran answered, 'None of your business.' We thought the girl will walk away crying but she just continued to smile. 'Then can I join both of you?'"

"Wait, Caitlyn said that? She knew?"

"We think so too because she said two of you so specifically. It didn't sound like an accident. And she knew who she was addressing most of the time. When we were introducing ourselves, she couldn't pronounce my name and went, 'Then you're Dor and he's Ran'. We've been stuck with that ever since that day. We just sat there talking and looking at the rain pour while the town glimmer. I have never seen the town look that pretty before." He sighed wistfully.

Dor had gone back into his body with Ran when they begin the story.

"So you fell for her then?"

"She was like an angel sent to us that night. She's my angel."

Kaia looked at him. When he talked about the things he liked and the other side agreed, she could see both of them at the same time in the body.

Despite herself, Kaia smiles a little. Caitlyn has gotten even Ran to blush with just a mention of her name.

"You're smiling? We thought you would be, you know, mad." Dor looked nervously from side to side.

"I'm just impressed with Caitlyn. If she likes you then there's nothing I can do about it. But I'll still be keeping my eyes on the both of you though. Don't you dare hurt her."

"We wouldn't dare to." Dor and Ran's voice blended at that moment, surprising everyone.

"Well this has been entertaining but I'll have to go away now." The book started to float away. "Kaia, don't forget to ask what you need to."

Kaia gave a thumbs-up as it disappeared.

"Ask us? Does it, by any chance, have anything to do with extending a person's life?"

"Yes."

"I knew it. Look, Kaia, right? Kaia, as much as we suddenly want to shower you with gifts we can't help you extend your lifespan. We don't have enough lifespans to do that."

"What?"

"See. The trinket collects the lifespan of anyone that dies by suicide. When it has longer than a million lifespan, it allows me to give the extra years away and as you can tell, I don't have a million."

"You used your first million checkpoint on the store clerk."

"He is a good guy. I wanted him to live a little longer." He mumbled, "And … I didn't have many people to give to."

"And you can only do it once every million lifespans, right?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry I couldn't help you, Kaia. By the way, what's Caitlyn's favourite colour?"

"Yellow. What else can you do then?" Kaia was biting her fingers, she didn't have much time left. She has two days at the longest before something happens to Aliya.

"Ok. Yellow." He wrote it down on his phone. "I can . . . transfer some of a person's lifespan to another person."

"Have you ever done it?"

"The transfer? Once or twice. But who will you get from? I can't give you because . . . I don't have any, only the trinket is keeping me alive."

Kaia narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm not doing it for me and I don't want your lifespan. I need you to take from me and give it to someone else."

"How? You have just two years left. Who can you give it to?" He leaned against the table, looking at her.

"You would expect that with something so important like human life and time, they would find a way to preserve it instead of finding a way to trade this lifespan for appearances." Kaia sighed, feeling like she's slowly losing her mind.

"I have wondered about that too. What are you going to do now? You're not going to do what I think you're going to do right?"

"Remain on standby. I'll send you an address any day now and you'll have to come as fast as you can. Ok?" Kaia began to gather her belongings to leave.

"But why?"

"Just come when I call you. Jacket." She took out his jacket from her bag and tossed it to him.

"I thought I lost this. It was with you the whole time?" He inspected the jacket back and front, even checking the pockets.

"You left it with me when you ran away that day." She signed at him, annoyed. "Don't worry, I washed it for you."

"I didn't think it was dirty I was just checking if you forgot anything in the pockets." He folded the jacket in his arms and thanked her.

"It's ok. Thank you for the snacks." She walked out the door, with a wave.

"Wait! Let my driver drop you off. Alex!"

"That's not necessary." Kaia protested but he kept insisting.

"We don't want what happened today to happen again to you, especially if you're going to be alone. Who knows what'll happen." She could hear a mixture of sarcasm and concern in his voice.

How Caitlyn managed to keep track of each personality is beyond her.

But he made a very valid point. She didn't pay attention to the faces of the maids so she doesn't know if she still sees people's faces like that or not.

Speaking of which, why is that happening to me? It suddenly started when that girl touched my face. But Dorran's face was normal and even Max. Why is that?

"So? What do you say?" He looked a little too excited for her liking but she needed to go home as soon as she could and make her plan so she agreed.

"Great. There comes Alex right now. Hey, Ale-"

Dorran stopped midsentence when he felt Kaia grab onto his shirt. She had the same expression as when she looked at the people on the main road. Her body became still and tense, the closer he came.

"You called, young master?"

Kaia's grip tightened as her hand flew to her mouth. She saw piles of flesh and eyeballs move with his every step and talk.

"Kaia? Are you ok?" She looked up and saw Dorran's normal face and almost cried with relief. He thought for a moment then spoke.

"It's ok." He reassured her. "Alex, could you drop my guest off? I will be accompanying her to and from her house."

"Yes sir. I will go to bring the vehicle now."

"Oh and Alex?"

"Yes sir?"

"Can you wear a mask? I heard the dust is getting worse these days."

"You don't have to worry about me, young master but I will remember to get one."

"Are you ok, Kaia?" He bent to her height and touched her head. "You're burning up. We should stop by a pharmacy on our way to your house."

Kaia shook her head, "I just want to go home."

"Ok. I'll get you home safely. I promise ok?"

Kaia nodded.

Something's wrong.

Do you think I don't know about that? There's nothing I can do right now.

She's a handful.

Isn't everyone?

No. Not everyone. Most. But not everyone.

♣

"Come by anytime! And bring your friends ok?" Dorran said from the car, waving at her.

"I'll try. Good night. And thank you." Kaia waved at him as he drove off.

She sighed and made her way up the small road to her house. She is unable to understand anything that's been happening to her this day.

The sky has already gone dark by the time she made her way from his house. Even the door of her house is already unlocked.

"Kaia! Welcome back. How was your first day of school? I made dinner."

Kaia dropped her bag and stared at the silhouette of her father in the kitchen, his face too looked like a deformed blob of flesh with unblinking eyes.

"Kaia? What's wrong?"

She quickly moved away from him, tripping over the chairs as she crashed onto the floor. As he was about to touch her, she quickly covered her face with her arms, trembling.

Her father stopped just as he was about to touch her and just walked away.

"I'm trying to be nice to you here, Kaia. Why can't you see that?" He threw the spoon he held in his hands onto the floor. "I'm trying so hard here. Do you think it's easy for me?"

He took a bottle of wine from the fridge and stomped to his room. "This is the last time I try to take care of you."

Once he was gone, Kaia looked around her. She arranged the chairs she tripped over and picked up the spoon he threw on the ground and placed it in the sink.

She trudged to the bathroom and stared at her reflection on the mirror. She touched her face and could feel smooth skin but she should only see lumps of flesh and eyeballs staring back at her.

But Max and Dorran looked the same.

At that moment it finally clicked.

♣

"Kaia! What the hell?" Max exclaimed the moment he saw her.

Kaia trudged to Max and Aliya, dark circles around her eyes. She looked like she would fall asleep any minute now.

"Morning." She signed at them.

"What happened, Kaia? Are you ok? Are you sick?" Aliya touched her head to feel her temperature.

"I'm fine." She pushed her hand from her head and made her way to the school.

She was up the entire night, staring into the mirror so that she could get used to looking at that image again but she threw up too many times from doing that. She really had to get used to this fast because almost everyone she passed looked that that. She also tried to work out who her first target would be.

Luckily for her, this school's ID worked the same way as the old schools did. Meaning she could see the map of the town and the best place would be the old hangout of her father's drinking buddies. She had to go there many times before to pick her father up so she knew the place by heart.

I should go tonight. The sooner I get it, the better.

She'll send her location to Dorran just before she enters in there. Just to be cautious.

Kaia groaned.

This isn't going to be fun. But her body is lighter so she might be able to get it over with quickly.

"Kaia? Are you sure you're ok? You look really tired." Max kept asking, even Aliya worried about her and even though she knew that they are just concerned about her, she was beginning to feel irritated with them.

She put on the best smile she could and signed, "I'm fine. Don't worry."

Max and Aliya looked at each other sceptically and back at her.

"That is the fakest smile I've ever seen."

"Agreed. It's not becoming for you to fake it this much, Kaia."

Despite everything she's feeling, Kaia smiled at them. She can't really be mad at these idiots.

"That's the smile."

"Yup. Finally."

Max's phone rang in between their conversation. Now that they made Kaia smile, seeing the expression he made, she knows it's her turn to do the same.