Section 2

CHAPTER-5

Camilla woke up the next day and studied about her science project. Or we could say a constellation project. She can admit it that she found it a little difficult to put all her knowledge into a project which was easy for the others to understand but she figured out what she would do with the project. She just needed a little more knowledge about the stars.

In the school Clover told Camilla that Toby was showing abnormal titanium levels in his body. Most probably what he ate was something related to titanium. His condition was more than pathetic.

Camilla also was worried about Toby. He was a good dog. He was not the one who saved people from being robbed or murdered but he had a lots of love filled in him.

Camilla met Lukas at the canteen. All the others were busy with their mental condition. Mark had that weird night seen. Hermosa had a fight with her father the previous day and Webster was with the physics teacher in the physics lab, learning how does a vernier caliper works. If only she knew what the hell that was.

Lukas asked her, "if no one is sitting here then can I do the honors?"

"Excuse me, are you making fun of a girl who is sitting alone in the canteen?"

"Oh no, you got me wrong! I would never do that!"

"Yeah why would you anyway? Please sit!"

They ate in silence for a long long time when suddenly Camilla thought of how about she asks Lukas to go read those mysterious books in the library with her. He knew which book was okay to read and which one actually had real content. That way she didn't have to go through each and every book.

"Why would I say no? Meet me sharp at 5 in the library!" Mark said with a solid voice. But he always had his solid behavior with him. He never have had friends in his life. He was so tough that he wouldn't even let himself get attached to a dog if he did adopt one. He had a thick skin.

Webster was onto something new. He was designing a space rocket for no reason. He said, "The moon and the celestials have always mesmerized me. I can't imagine being here on earth without having a shred of knowledge about the other celestials." But Webster was onto something suspicious. He had this crazy idea of making a rocket from the middle of nowhere. Even Lukas was working on the weird science project of which only Camilla and Lukas knew. Maybe they are conspiring against some bigger cause. Maybe they were working together. Who knew what they were upto. But Camilla didn't know any of that. She was behind the curtains as she has always been.

Camilla and Lukas met up at the library at 5, as was planned. They dug up books and theories and myths. She also read that hell was a pit of hellfire which always kept burning. And then she found a book about the pole star. She didn't show it to Lukas obviously. She went to a corner and read the book in silence. The book said:

The pole star is one of the greatest myths of all. He was no more than an ordinary man living in a village. His name was Luther Shanning. His village was famous for the gold they made. People said at that the gold was not some ordinary gold! It had properties of titanium too. At that time titanium was not known too well due to lack of scientific equipment and the people themselves didn't know that titanium was making the gold unique. Luther was himself a great dealer of that time. He had a perfect life and a perfect lady until their village was attacked by the king of the capital. The king demanded for the gold business they had. But the villagers didn't want to loose their pride so they were killed brutally. Luther showed great bravery in that fight. He had killed the captain of the army in just a matter of seconds. King was amazed by his fighting skills and demanded Luther to be their new captain. Luther declined that offer as he didn't want to work under a corrupt king. But the king put Luther's lady's life at risk. He was left with no choice then. He had to work for the king or see the love of his life killed mercilessly in front of his eyes. He chose to save his love and give up his freedom.

Then his lady decided to bring Luther back from that burning hell. She learned all the fighting techniques she could. It took her decades before she could polish her skills enough to break into the palace and challenge the guards. She was getting impatient about seeing him. She broke into the palace even before she completed her training.

She made it till Luther's cabins. She found his sleeping soundly in his bed. She smiled uncontrollably before she could wake him up. But Luther woke up on his own. He didn't remember how speaking her name would have felt like. He craved the feeling of holding her into his arms. Camellia was her name and she was beautiful of all the princesses in the capital. She was there to take him home where he belonged.

But that was certainly unimaginable because the king's daughter had fallen in love with Luther. She had fixed a marriage date for making him forever hers. Cecilia was her name and she didn't seem like leaving the obsession of Luther soon enough. But Luther and Camellia decided to run away at that moment. They would live far away from the capital where not even the king himself would be able to find them. They got a cottage outside of the capital on the banks of a river. That was the place of dreams for the king himself.

Raged with anger Cecilia sent a search army to search for Camellia and Luther. Only demon could know how jealous was she of Camellia. And they finally found the two lovebirds when they were wraped into each others arms and enjoying the beauty of the moon. They did that every night. But that sight of them two made Cecilia burn up with jealousy. They were both tied to wooden staffs to burn.

"Oh poor Camellia! What can be worse than seeing the person you love burn to death? A lady so beautiful with long black hair! I have to admit Camellia that you are the prettiest of them all. Your eyes speak the language of the fairies. But you don't deserve Luther and you cant be more beautiful than me. Its only me who can marry Luther." Cecilia said all those horrible words and put Camellia to fire. Luther watched her burning all over and all he could do was just shout and beg for her life. He just wished for death to come to him then. But Cecilia had other plans for him. He was thrown into a cellar undersea where there was no light and no food. The only water he had was the salty sea water which he couldn't drink. he died with tears in his eyes and cursed that he had to see Camellia burn in front of him.

The only twist here is that at the moment of Camellia's death, she was cursed with immortality by the gods. She had to avenge what happened to Luther. Camellia kept burning until a local villager found her shouting. She was revived there. She had been burning for centuries. From that point onwards she pledged to avenge Luther. Only if she knew that Luther was alive she would have gone on a search mission for his sake even if she had to search under the lava to find him.

Camellia changed to Camilla. And Luther was still not found.

CHAPTER-6

Camilla wanted to burn the book then and there. The legend was written down in the book! What could have been more horrible? Reading her dead love again or surviving in the world without her love? She decided to burn the book. She bought the book from the librarian and she couldn't have been more disgusted to read the legend.

Then Lukas asked her, "I am having a movie night at my place today. I have this amazing movie which I have been wanting to see from years but I never got the time to see it. They published a remake just a couple of days ago and I think that the remake would be much more better. Would you like to join me?"

"Why would you ask me?"

"Actually I have been spacey with my friends from past year due to the science club head. I cant even see them in the eye now because I couldn't be there when they wanted me the most. Lately its only you whom I am able to match a vibe with and I don't wanna see the movie alone."

"You became a softie all of a sudden, huh! Yeah sure I will come. I just have to go home to take care of something and grab my stuff."

And Camilla could really take a break from the world and watch a movie for once.

And on the other side of the tracks, Clover was going through a nightmare. All her animals were showing abnormal quantities of titanium in their bodies and no one had any severe symptoms of titanium poisoning. She was not only suffering from the shelter problems. She also had severe difficulty in sleeping. For once she slept. After a lot of trouble she did sleep and the dream she saw was awful.

She and her other friends, Mark, Hermosa, Webster, were all in a truck full of civilians and all around them were monsters whose faces were half falling from their chins. One of the monster was more than 40 feet tall and was wearing an armor. The streets and the buildings around them were all red as if they were walking through fire. They were all hiding in the truck and were having guns; each of them. And suddenly someone spots out Webster and he was shot the next moment. DEAD!

And Clover woke up after seeing dead Webster. She was having really bad days.

On the dead end of the forest, the construction workers were building another mall on the lands of farmers. They found explosives in the land. Those were not even buried deep below, as if someone had put them there on purpose. The explosives were also filled with titanium. And the bomb exploded right on their faces. All died on the spot. That explosive caused death of almost 40 people at once.

The next day with all those 40 dead bodies, the 3 dead people in the abandoned mall were also found. The authorities were yet not able to open the basement. All the dead men showed abnormal levels of titanium in their bodies. But titanium was not the cause of their death. The people at the abandoned mall were killed due to water logging in their lungs. That is a very severe condition, especially in the people who are smokers. Person lies in pain for more than 60 days. Not even a murderer would be punished with such a death seeing the amount of pain the person have to undergo for 60 days.

Webster was meeting a mysterious man in the middle of the night almost everyday. They both go to the forest and don't know what they do in the forest. Webster had been on something from past few days but meeting a mysterious man looked more like Webster was getting into a cult which would ruin his life.

CHAPTER-7

Hermosa was exhausted at her house. She always felt that the house was toxic and the air of the house was becoming unbearable. She was looking for a college which was far away from that house and she didn't have to come home at all. Her heart was totally filled with poison for her father.

Someone knocked at her door which made her startle. She shouted, "Come in!"

It was her father at the door. "What are you doing, my girl?" he asked. He was always that sweet to Hermosa but after she found out that her father killed her real mother, she was filled with hatred.

"I am conspiring to run away from this house and never come back."

"What? Are you alright, Hermosa? You'd leave your father and the family's legacy? For what?"

"Yes, I'd be leaving everything just to get away from a toxic father."

"Is it about you found out about your mother?"

"What else do you think this could be about?"

"Hermosa. Baby. You have heard the maid's part of the story. What she told you was truth but don't you wanna hear my side of story for once?"

"What do you have to say about killing my mother?" that was what Hermosa said on the outside but from deep inside she wanted to hear what her father wanted to say. Even if she didn't know it herself but a part of her was finding a reason to forgive her father and get back to how they were. She missed her father obviously. So that's way she listened patiently as her father started speaking.

"Your mother was a very fine lady of her time. We used to study in the same school in another town. Even I was the basketball captain of the school and she was the cheerleader so as happens at most of the places, the cheerleader and the sports captain are always into a relation, so were we. Me and your mother were in a casual relationship. But slowly she started to fall in love with me. By chance even the college we got was the same so we used to live in the same dorm room for almost all the time. Even I fell in love with your mother. But when we parted our ways for having a job, she was obsessed with black magic. She started praising the devil. Then she even sacrificed animals in name of satan. But I didn't know that and we were married soon after. Then she got pregnant with you. As soon as you were born, your mother started to behave weird. She always used to stay away from the sunlight because she said that the sun god have cursed her to always stay in the dark. She never even ate vegetables. She said that vegetables are eaten by sages. Once she made you eat raw beef. Your grandma stopped her but her madness had no bounds. She even disagreed to see the therapist said that she was alright and she can never be mad because her devil was always looking after her. I was scared to send her to the asylum as I feared her madness wont grow further due to forced actions. One day she took you and ran to the basement. She shouted like crazy, 'Sacrifice the girl to get the eternal life'. And one of the maids saw and straight away reported that to me. I ran the to basement when she was about to burn you into ashes. By force I got a hold of you and held you over to your grandma who was in the basement just right after me. Your grandma took you and locked herself in her room. That's when you got the burn mark which you have on your thigh right now. I tried to tie your mother and I thought of sending her to the asylum right away. Even I was filled with anger at that point so I threw her at the wall. I don't know what came into my mind at that time I smashed her head once again at the wall. She died of my hands. For moments she regained her senses and asked for forgiveness and thanked me for killing her because she wouldn't have stopped without death. And then she died. I felt guilty at that time. I killed the love of my life out of anger. I wanted to kill myself. I buried your mother into the wall and went straight to your grandma . I was traumatized for months. But your grandma and uncle helped me to get back to my normal self. You see, whatever I did was out of concern for you. And that's the story of me brutally murdering your mother. Nothing else could have been done at that time. Going far away from the house would be all your choice when you turn 18 but don't give your old man the trauma he got at the time when his lover died. Your old man wont be able to bear the separation."

Hermosa wasn't able to say anything. She didn't have words which could escape her mouth. Her father left the room. Then Hermosa thought that maybe all the sinners are not guilty. Maybe some of them are just sinners to save their family from harm.

Hermosa went to the dinner table and had dinner with her father for the first time in years. She was not mad at her father anymore. They laughed and talked and Hermosa talked all about her life and how good she was doing at the theatre. Her father saw an image of her mother in Hermosa. Like mother like daughter. And all was good in their lives once again. Hermosa didn't want to be anymore mad at her father.

That night Camilla and Webster met. They were planning something from months. They met at the basement of the abandoned mall. That area was still under suspicion of the murder of the three people.

"I made everything needed for the communication", Webster informed Camilla and they went straight to the basement. Were those two kids behind the titanium abnormalities and murder of 43 people at once?

CHAPTER-8

The next day, Hermosa told everyone exactly what had happened the day when her mother died. And also she told everyone that she was no more mad at her father. And they all thought that it was something to celebrate and they all planned a night stay at Mark's house. And Mark finally told everyone about his relationship with Ana so that he could bring her too at the party. But just that his parents shouldn't find out about his girlfriend otherwise he'll be screwed. Lukas was also invited to the party then. The more the merrier.

But seeing Mark and Ana together made Camilla sad. She went to the restroom and cried her eyes out about Luther. Obviously Luther wouldn't want her to cry that bad for him but she couldn't help it. It isn't easy to live centuries without your lover knowing that he could even be alive for a while. The only thought that kept her going was even if Luther was dead, she'd bring him back from death no matter what happened to the world. 'Why was it that I have to cry myself every night to sleep? Why is it that I cant even hear one word from you even if its just some algebraic problem? Its been too long of being without you and I cant take it anymore. My throat feels heavy everytime I see a couple. Just thinking that why cant it just be us? Why did we have to die of some other woman's jealousy?'

"Did you know about the death of the 43 people?" Webster shook Camilla out of her thoughts in the science lab. She was working on the constellation project of Lukas.

"43 people dead? How am I supposed to know of that?"

"I don't know. They were all fed titanium after they died? I think it would be Cecilia's successors who were killing all of them."

"Abnormal titanium levels? It surely is some coincidence. How is Cecilia supposed to live for more than a millennia?"

"But people are dying right? And I am worried! What if next is the people whom we care about?"

"You want me to look into this?"

"Yeah please! People all around the city are not stepping out of their house due to the mystery killer."

"Where should I start from?"

"The abandoned mall where we are trying to teleport!"

"Can you be louder? Ugh!"

"Who is going to believe that you are ancient earth's Romeo and Juliet?"

And Camilla gave him a 'not so funny' look. She was about to go see about the deaths at the midnight. And she also had to burn the book in which was written the broken legend. But when she reached home and sat in front of the fireplace, she didn't want to burn the book anymore. It kept her memories fresh and her emptiness empty. So she thought of getting ready for the part instead. She tried an old dress from her closet. The same dress which she wore to the ball century ago where she felt a connection with the pole star and someone told her of the legend of the pole star. That was the time she knew that Luther can be stuck in a star. That was the first time she felt so close to Luther after they separated. She smiled after looking at the dress and imagined herself in Luther's arms while wearing that dress which made her blush even more. Oh god, she missed him so much!

And then Lukas popped out of the window! He was not supposed to be there.

"Do you mind if I come in?" Lukas asked and sat on the window pane.

"You are already more than in! Now get out before I call the cops."

"Calm down Cami. Why you gotta be so rude? I just came here to talk."

"Through the window?"

"I wont mind sitting on the couch!"

"Just get in already!" and Lukas made his way into her room and to her couch. He had a smile on his face all along.

"What did you wanna talk about?" Camilla asked.

"What are you wearing tonight for the party?"

Camilla turned around and had a bored expression on her face. In return Lukas's reaction was also blank.

"Is that what you wanted to talk about? My dress?"

"No no no no. I wanted to ask something else. Why don't you have a boyfriend?"

"How do you know that I don't have a boyfriend?"

"I did some digging obviously!"

"I do have a boyfriend. He's just far away and I don't really know where he is. And probably I don't even hear from him for quite some time. But some people cant be forgotten. They just cant be replaced by someone else. Their memory pinches the most."

"That's actually painful. Do you want me to escort you to the party?"

But then Camilla was filled with emptiness. "Yeah just lemme get changed then we will go to the party together." And she almost had a tear falling down her eye.

They reached the party and there were just Mark and Ana. They were getting ready with the drinks and Mark's parents were also watching over them. Its not easy to have strict parents. But they were in a good mood that day. They were planning to leave them alone and go for a long drive. They were both aroused. But before leaving his mother said, "Mark, baby, we are trusting you today with the house. You are all we have alright. I love you the most. Just take care of yourself and don't burn down the house."

Maybe parents are strict just because they don't know how to handle their child. Maybe they have a fear of loosing their child to something they don't even account for. Its not even the kid's fault. Its just the fear of the untrustworthy world. Strictness is just another toxic way of showing love. But how could Camilla know about this? Of all the years she have lived on the earth she never have had strict parents or she never have had a child of her own.

So they were all gathered and they started with a movie. A horror movie of course. Mark was so happy that his parents actually trusted him for the first time. They people didn't even know when they started drinking alcohol and they were all out of their senses. Except for Camilla, on whom alcohol didn't affect, and Hermosa who didn't drink because she wanted to go safely to her dad to have dinner once again. Those teenagers just wanted an excuse for partying, that's it.

Camilla also had to go check out on the titanium deaths so she offered Hermosa to walk with her till her house. Instead Hermosa didn't go straight to her house but she followed Camilla because she had sensed something fishy. And also Camilla didn't go straight to the investigation for the titanium deaths, instead she went to the abandoned mall for the thing she was continuing with Webster. And Hermosa saw her entering that locked basement. Hermosa was so struck with the fact that their own friend can be a serial killer who titanium poisoned people and killed them mercilessly. She was scared to death so she ran away to her house and locked herself in her room once again. She couldn't bear the fact that she was about to encounter another dead body if she hadn't run away from there. She was just assuming things without any clue. She let herself driven by fear instead of rightful judgement.

After all the basement was under suspicion of more than 40 murders, so it wasn't even Hermosa fault to be scared. Camilla checked the whole town that night but she didn't find a single person who could be kept under suspicion. But she went out of the town to a far end of the forest so that she could have some time alone with her pole star. She could fly without wings after all so why not use that super power for herself. She sat at a place where she could feel the energy of the pole star the most.

And then she found a white cat. It was a wild cat who was wandering off in the forest in search of some food. Kitty sat on her lap to sleep probably. They both sat there for hours. But as the dawn was approaching, Camilla realized that she have to get back otherwise she'd be in trouble. She asked the cat to get up. Of course, she could talk to animals too. The cat got up and pulled her trousers! As if she wanted her to see something. She was up for the adventure so she followed the cat. That was the moment she knew the forest a little more. It was so dense. No human could have been there in forever; when only you can rarely find places which are untouched by humans. The forest had a river too. The last time she saw that clear and fresh river when she was living with Luther after they had run away from the cursed kingdom.

The cat led her to a cabin in the forest. The first rays of sun were exquisite on the door made up of leaves. There she sensed Luther's energy the most! She had to inspect that place because that was getting really suspicious. The cabin had a cauldron inside of it! It had bubbling potions and spell books all around its walls. The cabin was so nicely hidden by trees and leaves that not even an animal could have identified that was a human's dwelling place. To be more specific, the cabin couldn't have been owned by a human. It contained spells that were sealed away for human race even before Camilla was born. And there it was; the extinct gold which had titanium in it, sealed in a jar and kept in utmost safety. Camilla couldn't get her hands on the jar but for all she could know was her past was back at her. It was someone from the past which had come to create havoc on the earth once again. What were they after now? Platinum?