Chapter 24

—THIRD PERSON POV—

While Noah's group is searching the room, Anette was still tied into the chair, still half asleep. Her head is hurting more than expected but she's fighting off her aching head. She opens her eyes to see that she's still tied to the chair. She looks through the place as Dave was in the table, writing something.

The drug that was injected to her is already taking effect in her mind. As Dave sees she's already awake, he stands up and acts cool. Instead of seeing Dave as himself, she visualizes him as a different person.

"Noah?" She asks. Her mind is already a complete mess because of the drug. The 'happiness' Dave was talking about was already consuming her. "Noah!"

Dave grins as he knew that the drug has already messed with her mind, making her hallucinate. Then he knew that Anette's happiness was spending a lot of time with Noah, and maybe later, includes her friends, Cherry and Vilea. As a result, her mind just roams around Noah's image, making her think that the first person she sees is Noah himself.

He acts quickly, he runs towards Anette, trying to imitate Noah. He unties the rope tied to her arms and legs. "I was waiting for you to wake up." Dave says.

"When did you come here? Are you alright?" She asks him which she thinks is Noah. She's both happy and worried because of what she did to him before. She looks at him with complete happiness that her eyes are starting to tear up. "Listen..."

She starts to speak while he's untying her. Dave thinking that everything he's worked hard for is now paying off. He looks at her with the same look he gave her the first time they met. It was love at first sight... He knew that in the end he'll end up with her for some reason. It was her first mission in the agency and he still remembers every bit of their time together. The way they talk and bond with each other even before they became each other's nemesis.

"I'm sorry if I did what I had to do before I went here... I was just afraid I might lose you before we even start.. I mean... It's alright for me to give myself up before I even lose you..." She says with a pinch of embarrassment in her voice. Her cheeks already flushing a little bit as he finishes untying her. They stood up, face to face, both of their faces full of passion and love, you can't deny it. They're both in love. One is in love with the person front of him and another is in love with a hallucination.

Dave is now completely lost in thought of Anette. Acting on impulse, he carasses her cheek, wiping off the little tears that fell, and slowly leans over to her. Anette almost completely lost in thought of Noah, she also couldn't bring herself to think of the situation she's in.

Just as their lips touch, Noah peeks at the small opening of the door, witnessing what he could call the impossible. That's when Jennifer and Cherry came from the other room. As Anette saw them both, she already knew who she thought they were. Vilea and Cherry. She smiles as she thinks that she's already saved by them but she saw that Dave couldn't be found.

Noah trembles by the door, confusing Vilea and Christopher that's also hiding. As they also look into the small opening, they also witness something that their friend, Anette, would never do. Lost in disbelief they act recklessly, Vilea opens the door with a large slam as Christopher goes back to the bar itself to wait for the enforcement he called. They pull away from each other as Vilea barges in without a drop of hesitation.

"Anette!!" She shouts, not thinking of what will happen next. She's holding back her tears as she sees that Anette is hand-in-hand with Dave. With the impression and the tone of Vilea's voice when she shouted at Anette, her head starts to hurt, making her vision quite blurred than before. She groans because of the pain and when she open her eyes to see the person in the door, she sees a different figure which is Jennifer in her eyes. She remembers what Jennifer did before she passes out and she starts to get furious. Another figure comes out which is Noah. On his face, his anger and frustration is written and his expression darkens even more. He stomps as he makes his way towards Dave and Anette. With his dark and frightening expression, another hallucination took place as Anette sees Dave making his way towards them instead.

As Noah was going to grab Dave's collar, Anette takes his arm, spinning him down along with his body, holding his arm behind him. Noah's mixed emotions are about to burst just as he was spinned down by the one he called the love of his life. It wasn't like the times they joked around on sparring with each other. This is full of force that if Noah moves she's going to get hurt.

"Anette! What are you doing?!" Vilea shouted as she came to save Noah but then Cherry rushed between them. As Anette's guard was down, Noah pulls away from her grip making him loose free, leaving them to a one on one with each other.

As for Vilea, she stopped as she kept on denying the fact that Cherry was already on their side. Her soul already trembling of despair but she keeps a straight face with her. As she took one step, Cherry starts to fight Vilea. Though Vilea was good at the computer rather than a physical combat, she remembers how Cherry taught her how to defend herself in such situations. With that, Vilea knows some of Cherry's openings and tries to put her down. While the fight between the two friends are happening, Jennifer approaches Dave with a grin as both of them sees what's happening to the relationship between the four of them.

Vilea and Cherry's friendship as well as Noah and Anette's relationship.

"So I guess after this mess we'll both get what we want huh?" Jennifer says to Dave with a very low voice but no sense of disappointment.

"Of course. I promised you I'll make you happy. And after this, I can take Anette and you can take that boy" Dave says as he continues to watch their fight.

Both Noah and Vilea are making sure that they wouldn't hurt them. But as Anette and Cherry were concerned, they're not the same person they see.

"Anette.. Let's talk about this..!" Noah begs as he continues to spar with her, but Anette's patience is running low as she is very frustrated with every time Dave keeps on making diabolical schemes.

"Let's talk about it when I get you to the agency!!" She exclaims. Using more forceful attacks, giving more bruises to Noah as he isn't fighting back, just defending himself from her. "I told you to leave me alone from the very start! I don't like you! In fact! I HATE YOU!!"

Her words struck Noah to the very core of his heart, making him lose his guard. She pushes him down, his face on the floor, and his arms gripped tightly by Anette behind him. "It's over Dave. Turn yourself in already."

Her words confused him. 'Dave?' He asks himself.

Before they even stopped the fight before, the two best friends still fighting each other, don't understand the reason why they're even fighting. As they hold their guard on their one-on-one, Vilea couldn't resist not finding out the truth that made them like this. That made Cherry become like this.

"What happened? Why are you fighting me? WE'RE FRIENDS!!" She exclaims as her tears falls keeping herself from hurting her. Though her body is already in pain, she doesn't stop defending herself from her friend. 'I won't fight back. Even if she means to hurt me.' She tells herself.

"Friends? What's your standard of 'friends'?" Cherry says, her expression still the same since the beginning. Vilea's cool is now something she couldn't control.

"US!!" She stopped, making Cherry stop as well. Hearing the response she gave her, she grew confused. "We're friends, Cherry" she says in a low voice. But something triggered Cherry which made her mind hurt with the effects of the drug. She holds her head, to fight the pain, which made Vilea worry.

"Cherry?" She says. Making Cherry's mind even more of a mess. Since she doesn't rememeber her real name, when she hears the word 'Cherry', the side effects of the drug makes her mind more difficult to think. As she continues to break down from the effects, she gets little fragments of what she sees as memories. But with her thinking too much, she passes out right as Anette pushes Noah down the floor.

When she pushed Noah down, she saw that her friend Cherry passed out because of Jennifer but is actually Vilea. She grew even more furious, seeing her best friend unconsciously lying on the floor because of someone she doesn't even know.

"Noah! take Dave!" Anette says to Dave as he goes to keep Noah from escaping. But just as she rushed to Vilea, Noah loose free and is now facing Dave. Their glares are already filling the room with tension. While Anette readies to do a one-on-one combat with Vilea whom she sees is Jennifer, the real Jennifer takes Cherry and brings her to the nearby table.

"Anette!! What are you doing?!" She repeats what she said when she saw her hand on Dave's. They begin their combat but Vilea still knew that Anette is better than her when it comes to physical combats. "Anette!! It's me!! Vilea!!"

Anette pauses for a second, to look at the person she sees as Vilea, and looks back to find Vilea already going to take her down. She dodges her attacks and tries to look at Noah and Dave also in the middle of a fight. She thought that Jennifer is also needed to be brought to the agency so she doesn't think twice in fighting her. Meanwhile, Vilea is already thinking that Anette's mind is already messed even before they came to save her.

"Anette! Remember when we went to the mountains to camp?!" She says that made Anette stop her tracks. Anette surprised to hear it from someone she doesn't even know, she turn more cautious. "We promised!!"

Her words, turned back and reminisced through Anette's mind. Vilea's words already making her think twice. As Dave saw that Anette was already doubting what she's seeing, he continued to fight Noah but he shouted loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.

"Don't listen to anything she's saying! She's trying to confuse your mind!" Dave says to Anette, but she's already doubting everything she sees now. Her face filled with confusion as she keeps on thinking how a stranger would have know that. But Vilea already knows what to do and she just needs a little more push.

"The time when we slept in the bathroom right after we drank outside too much" She says embarrassingly, but proud. Anette continues to think that Jennifer knows things Vilea and she went through.

"How do you even know that?!" She cries as she rushes back to her. But eventually she lost focus when Vilea spoke. "Because I'm Vilea!"

As she lost focus, her head makes it hard to balance herself and her legs aren't cooperating. But as she almost fell, Vilea caught her arm and helped her in lying down. Vilea couldn't help but worry about Anette even though she has more than enough wounds to take care of herself. She brushes her hand across Anette's hair, then Anette's eyes opened slightly. She saw a figure in front of her. But instead of a hallucination, she sees the person she always cherished.

"Vilea..." She says softly enough for only Vilea to hear. Vilea couldn't keep her tears from falling as Anette passes out right after.