THE DAGGER IN HER HAND

But oddly said, I also love the dark sounds that you made.

The scream when we were fighting.

The endless cursing in the night.

From: A poem with your name –by: Adi. K-

**************

Russel Clad and his wife, Claire Clad, rushed to the hospital when they heard their daughter collapsed in school.

"What happened to her!?" he asked angrily at one of the bodyguards, who was assigned to keep their eyes on Tarsa. "How could she possibly be in such a critical state?!

"My apologies Mr. President, Miss Tarsa had been unconscious when we took her to the hospital," Mark, the head of the bodyguard of Tarsa, informed him in an apologetic tone. Her condition shocked him as well.

"What was she doing? Did she do any strenuous activities?" Claire asked Mark, she kept staring at the emergency room which the light was still on, indicating that the activities inside were still going on.

"I don't know for sure, I don't think that is the case," Mark replied.

"What do you mean you don't know for sure?" Claire squinted her eyes dangerously at him, as her demeanor became rigid upon hearing that lame excuse. "Weren't you by her side?"

"No, because as per your order we are not allowed to enter her classroom." Mark didn't mean to rub the two prominent people in front of him the wrong way, but he just simply reminded the president about that new order, which was given three weeks ago.

Even though it was against the procedure, but Mark was able to say that it must be Tarsa, who insisted on this and Russel didn't have any word to refuse his only daughter's persistent request.

Therefore, when Tarsa studied, the four bodyguards would roam around the school, but not too far. Most of the time they would be in the cafeteria nearby, where they could see Tarsa's classroom and watch the girl since she sat near the window.

Therefore, when Tarsa collapsed, they could respond immediately, albeit it was still not enough.

On the other hand, the girl couldn't be blamed either for having such a desire to be left alone… in her teenage years, she must have felt suffocated living under the scrutiny of others, since she was the daughter of the president, while her other peers had a normal life, not to mention her condition made everything more complicated.

Actually, everything went perfectly fine and this was the first attack in the last four months, so they thought she was doing good. Russel and Claire wouldn't have thought that Tarsa's condition would drop all of a sudden.

"We will talk about this later," Claire glanced at her husband, as she wiped her tears and sat down on the chair. She closed her eyes tiredly.

"How long until the media heard about this?" Russel needed to make sure everything was under control. He didn't want to cause unnecessary problems with this, as someone might want to stir the situation in the wrong direction to his disadvantage. He lived in politics. After all, everything could be used as a weapon to go against you.

Marry, the secretary stepped forward and replied to him. "Two days, but we will try to hold back a little bit longer," she replied.

There were too many witnesses in the school when they picked Tarsa with an ambulance, hence the news could be leaked out easily without knowing the source and the pressman would start making camps outside.

"Rearrange my schedule," Russel ordered and sat down beside his wife, staring at the emergency door, waiting for someone to come out and bring good news for them.

They needed heart transplants urgently because the three operations that Tarsa had undergone didn't bring the result that they expected.

==============

"Apparently, you don't seem interested in what I said, Miss Xierra," Mr. Zeets said. He noticed that the young girl in front of him glanced at the window a couple of times during his speech.

Both of them now were inside the minister's office and Xierra managed to make Damon and the other ten protectors wait for her outside of this room. It goes without saying that as Kairi, Xierra could use her power to subdue them and enforce her order out of their will.

She didn't always use this, but as the ninety-ninth Kairi, her power was stronger than the previous Kairi's, hence they couldn't disobey his orders.

Xierra knew her own power, therefore she was confident that she could slip through the fingers of her fate. The fate that she just heard last night from the old fortune-teller.

Will she die? Not today…

Yet, why did her heartbeat so fast? She could feel her power weakening with the second that passed.

"Yes, finally you noticed," Xierra said languidly, as she laid back and crossed her feet, staring at the middle-aged man in front of her intensely.

It was only less than an hour before the sun disappeared. A total solar eclipse. And people out there were very excited to see this phenomenon.

"Why don't you come out and tell me what you want?" Xierra slightly squinted her eyes. "Why should we beat around the bushes when I am already here?"

Mr. Zeets frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Xierra knew that the man in front of her was not Mr. Zeets. Whatever creature it was, they were trying to stall the time until the solar eclipse happened and Xierra lost her power completely.

However, even though she knew it, she couldn't act rashly. There would be a chance that her instinct was wrong, although it never happened before, still, she was taking serious precautions for that small mishap.

She had lived like that since she was appointed as Kairi.

"This, what I am talking about…" Xierra spoke in a low voice and everything happened very fast.

Xierra reached out the dagger that she was hiding around her ankle, which was covered by her long brown pants and dashed toward Mr. Zeets, with that weapon in her hand.