Chapter 28: Exposed (Part 1)

I woke up when I felt a hand caressing my cheek. I slowly opened my eyes and saw a faint figure of a person sitting beside me. But I closed my eyes again because of the light coming from the lamp on the bedside table.

"Ven?" I heard Vyl's voice. I tried opening my eyes again and saw his worried expression. "How are you feeling?"

Instead of answering him, I looked around my surroundings. I’m inside my room again. My gaze fell on the wall clock and saw that it's already midnight.

"W-What happened?" The question came out more like a whisper. My memory is a bit hazy so I'm not sure what happened but I do remember falling from the roller coaster with Vyl. Then the floating thing and after that, it's all a bit unclear.

"After you passed out, I brought you back home." He's now currently caressing my head gently. "Get back to sleep. You need to rest."

"W-What happened to the people? I mean, the ones who saw us. And what about Drake?"

"I casted a spell to alter their memories of what happened. I replaced their memory so no one will remember it. Rest assured. And Drake is fine. I brought him in his unit."

I sighed in relief. I stared at him again and noticed something. Besides the relief expression, maybe because I'm alright, there's something else. He looks somewhat exhausted. A bit pale even. I touched his right cheek and caressed it

"Are you okay?" I asked him worriedly. Instead of answering, he touched my hand placed on his cheek and squeezed it. "Just a bit tired. There were so many people who saw us. I altered all of their memories."

He closed his eyes and inhaled a deep breath. "Being here in your world is a disadvantage for my powers. I'm weaker than my normal strength."

He slowly opened his eyes and there, it became clear to me the weariness hidden in it. There were thousands of people in that amusement park. Thousand pairs of eyes saw what happened. And he altered all of their memories. I suddenly felt worried for him.

"You should rest too. We're both tired," I said but he just kept on looking at me with a soft smile on his lips.

"I'm anxious, Ven."

My forehead creased because of what he said. "Of what? Anxious of what?"

"Don't you realize? Someone's after your life. And I'm one hundred percent sure that it's because of me."

It was only then that I realized everything that had happened to me earlier. The knife thrown at my direction with exact precision. The roller coaster.

Come to think of it, out of all the people who are with us on the roller coaster, I was the only one who accidentally fell. Or was it really an accident? Only the screw parts under my seat were removed.

It's actually obvious that it's targeting only me. I suddenly shivered at the thought.

Someone is actually trying to kill me.

"For the moon's sake Heavenly, they're after you and not me! And I know this is the Lunarians' doing." He squeezed my hand again while shaking a bit. "I don't want to see you getting hurt. I don't want to put your life in danger."

This is the first time I saw Vyl like this. He's both scared and anxious. All because of me. I hate seeing that kind of expression. I feel like I'm bothering him, and I'm the kind of person who doesn't usually open up because I am afraid of bothering people. And now, this. He’s having a hard time because of me.

I didn't say anything. Yes, I am scared but for some reason, having Vyl beside me makes my entire system at peace. I know he'll protect me no matter what.

He touched my wounded cheek and whispered something in the air that I didn’t quite hear. It was only after a few minutes that the tingling pain on my cheeks suddenly faded. I tried to touch the wound that was supposed to be on my cheek but it was not there anymore. He healed it.

I flashed my sweetest smile at him.

I slowly pulled him to lie on the bed. He didn’t say anything else and just lay down beside me. I was sideways facing him while he was staring at the ceiling.

Silence filled the room. Vyl looked like he's now lost in his own thoughts. Gradually, I began to feel the sleepiness engulfing my whole system. But before I drifted to sleep, I saw Vyl raised his hand. He's looking at it intently. His brows are furrowed and he’s obviously troubled about something.

Maybe because I’m already so sleepy, I started seeing things. It looks to me like his hand is fading then it immediately returns to normal. Maybe I really am sleepy and my eyes are starting to get blurry.

-----------------

It's only morning, Vyl and I are currently watching a movie while eating ice cream. And guess what? It became his second favorite. We each have our own cup while the gallon of ice cream was just in front so we can just refill immediately. Guess the flavor?

It's coffee crumble.

Yep, Coffee crumble. It's my favorite flavor and I think all of my favorites becomes his favorite too.

We're currently watching a horror movie. I’m not easily scared by these kinds of things so I’m cool with the movie. But you should see Vyl's face. He was so focused on the movie from the moment it started. In fact, he kept on asking me what are those things and why the hell do they look scary as fuck.

Now I know that Pluvenians are ignorant in anything paranormal like ghosts shits.

Suddenly, a woman's scary face appeared on the screen. I was startled because of the loud sound effects. I noticed that he was also startled because he jumped a little in his seat next to me. I was giggling because of his reaction but stopped when he suddenly stood up and took off one of his slippers.

I frowned at him, waiting what he would do next.

I choked on my own saliva when he suddenly threw the slipper hard at the direction of the T.V.

"Hey!"

The impact of the slipper created a bit of a crack on the side of the T.V. I don't think he was satisfied and was about to come closer to hit it but I stood up and stopped him.

"Hey, calm the fuck down!" I am now pushing him back to the sofa.

"What the hell?!" He complained.

"What's wrong with you? Why did you throw the slipper at the T.V?! It created a crack!" I pointed to the part of the screen that had a crack.

"What's its problem?! Why do the scary old lady's face needs to fucking show up?!" He was fuming mad.

Instead of getting mad too because of what he did to the T.V, I burst out laughing. This guy never fails to make me laugh without intentions.

"You do realize that there's nothing funny here, right?" He looked at me blankly with furrowed eyebrows.

"Y-You should have seen your f-face," I said while laughing hysterically. My stomach is already hurting from too much laughter.

"You're always laughing. I'm your happy pill, huh?" He said with an irritating smirk drawn on his face, obviously mocking me. I immediately stopped laughing.

Happy pill? Where did he even get that?

"And where did you learn that?" I asked him with a raised eyebrow. Instead of saying anything, he pointed in front. He's referring to the T.V.

“Ahh." I should have known. That was a stupid question of mine.

I got up from sitting on the floor because of laughing earlier. I reached for your remote and turned off the T.V.

"Let's stop watching it. Maybe the next time you got scared again, you may end up actually ruining it," I said with a snort. He looked down guiltily, feeling ashamed of what he did earlier.

There was a moment of silence but he was the one who broke it. "Hey Ven, why don't you get one of those magic boxes that you connect to the T.V?"

Magic boxes?

He noticed that I can't understand what he's saying so he explained further. "Drake calls them video games. It's really fun."

Video games as magic boxes? That was adorable.

So, he knows how to play video games, huh? He often hangs out in Drake's unit and it would usually last for hours. So, they've been playing video games. No wonder they get along so well.

I just shrugged at him and took the empty cups of ice cream and put it in the sink. I'm about to wash the dishes when the doorbell suddenly rang. My head snapped to Vyl's direction. I looked at Vyl nervously while he was just chilling on the sofa.

Who could be outside the door right now? Mom? Dad? Hellios? Are they visiting me?

It can't be Drake. He's not the type to ring the doorbell. He would just keep shouting our names or knock loudly until one of us opens the door for him and would just barge right in. Perks of being the owner's son.

Whoever is outside rang the doorbell again and I quickly hid Vyl inside my room, panic was visible on my face. He was about to protest but I glared at him so he was left with no choice but to keep quiet.

I fixed myself for a second before opening the door nervously.

"Ven!"