SIX: CRIMINAL

In the void of her dreamland, it slowly seeps in. Amalya is lying on the grass in her dream with a plastered smile on her face as the wind plays with her hairs on the grass.

But suddenly, she frowns when dark clouds appear from nowhere and cover the sun. The ground starts breaking at spots all around her. Amalya sits up with a confused look on her face.

The dark grey vines begin to sprout through the spots each breaking her dark purple flowers at its tip.

She feels a voice making its way into her head. Something pricks her just behind her neck. She turns to see a thorn.

"You see that thorn?" The voice comes "That is exactly what Kendrick is. He is going to stab Jael in the back when she never saw it coming"

Amalya seems confused. "Who or What are you?"

The voice ignores her question and keeps going. It comes back with the wind. "Cut the flowers gently, Amalya. Cut the Black Amethyst. Each flower has a word. Rearranged them to mean something to you. They are just words".

Amalya begins to pluck flower after flower. "Who are you?" Her voice tiny.

She seems younger and in a paradise that never existed.

"Daleth. It's Daleth. I'm not dead." She is done plucking all the flowers.

"Open them, my love, open".

She opens the first. "Wouldn't." Second, "He." Third, "Just". Forth, "Die!" Fifth, "Till..."

Amalya starts to rearrange the flowers. Surprised at what it's forming, she reads it out for the voice to hear.

"He just wouldn't die! Till..." She looks around her with bright eyes. "Till what?" she feels the voice fading with one word echoing around her.

"You" The word becomes a noise. She places her palms on her ears to chase away the voice. The noise comes encircling her. Her screams fill the void of her dreamland.

Amalya wakes up with a start. "What the hell?" One of the things that Jared says all the time, she looks above her and hears Jael's even breath.

If she is asleep then what is the problem? She lifts her fingers to the spot where the thorn pricked her. She gasps when she feels injury marks and that is when she knows that dream isn't a joke.

Amalya joins Jared at his side as they head to the main room for their breakfast.

Amalya is okay till she sees Kendrick standing in the middle of the man room. She tugs at the sleeve of Jared's shirt.

"What?"

Amalya seizes the opportunity to tell him everything. She expects a reaction similar to hers but she just finds him grinning at her.

"Amalya darling, you sure you don't have a thing for Ken and right now you're jealous 'cause you think in that small brain of yours that he has got the hots for Jael."

He lays a hand on her head. Amalya glares at him and moves his hand away.

"No!" she tells Jared. "I can't have a thing for someone I just met yesterday".

They sit at the table side by side on bar stool. Amalya is expecting Jael to sit next to her but the chair is taken by a boy that looks Indian. She greets him and he greets back introducing himself as Sahil.

Amalya searches the room for Jael and finds her sitting on a barstool across the room. Jael is laughing and Amalya looks for the source of her amusement. Amalya follows the direction of Jael's eyes to see that Kendrick is sitting right beside Jael and he is also laughing.

Amalya glares at him. If eyes were bullets, Kendrick would be dead.

Amalya taps Jared and jerks her head in Jael's direction.

"See what I was talking about?" Amalya whispers, Jared sends a grin in their direction and continues to eat his breakfast.

Amalya takes two spoon-full and continues to stab at her plate of Gazpacho and at Jael next twist of laughter, Amalya jerks of the barstool and walks across the room where Jael and Kendrick are seated.

The light bulb above them is lits the bar with light.

Amalya looks at Kendrick's  plate of Griccho and not Gazpacho 'So he thinks a different type of dish is going to get him a girl that easily think bigger,'Amalya thinks.

She takes hold of Jael's hand and sends Kendrick a tight smile. "Kendrick, do you mind if I borrow Jael for a few minutes?"

Kendrick doesn't exactly sense a thing when Amalya starts talking like a grandmother trying to hold off her anger towards her daughter's misbehavior.

In return he sends her a mischievous grin, "Sure. Go ahead". Amalya leaves the room with Jael. She is practically pulling her back to their bedroom.

"Do you know how funny he is? He is so-" Jael is saying to she is cut off by Amalya.

"Oh! Shut up". Jael put her confused look and Amalya throws the question at her. "So what are you thinking getting fresh with him?"

Jael looks shocked before she starts laughing. "Me? What makes you think that, Amalya?"

Amalya places her hands on her hips. "Ken? You've never given me a nickname. He touched your hair and you didn't say anything but each time Jared does you almost explode-"

Amalya points out the door – "Last time I checked, Jael hardly finds things funny."

Now, Jael has her finger nails stuck in her mouth. Jael pulls them out of her mouth to defend herself "That's what friends do, Amalya."

With this, Amalya starts pacing round the room. She stops pacing when she stops right in front of Jael. Amalya stared at her shoe less feet.

"Friends," Amalya repeats and then she looks at Jael. "Friends? Since when? Yesterday? Do you know how stupid you sound right now? You don't even know him. How are you sure you can trust this guy?"

Jael feels the anger boiling in her. "Amalya, enough of this nonsense."

"How are these thoughts even getting into your head, anyway?" Jael asks and Amalya quickly explains everything.

"A dream?" Jael asks.

Amalya nods and looks at her bags of flowers wondering if she should check for words in the flowers.

"Amalya, how can you judge a sweet guy by a stupid dream? From Daleth? That's just impossible. We don't even know where he is. And since when are words written in flowers?"

Amalya tries to prove her point with the injury on the back of her neck but she realizes that must have come from anywhere too and slowly begins to doubt her dream is true but there is just something in his eyes that tells he is not trustworthy.

Jael knows she must find out for herself even though she has forgotten the thoughts of love for him.

Jael comes into the main room with a scowl on her face and Kendrick knows he needs to up him game before she discovers the other angles of him.