The Endgame

Leilani manages to get to the guest room just in time to dodge off the murderous bandit. She can't believe what her life has become over the last few hours. She can't believe she let Solar the backstabbing bitch totally mislead her like that. When she can feel her breathing pick up a normal pace, she sends the recording to Nevan with a voice note where she tries to sound comprehensible and cohesive but obviously fails to do so.

She thinks about killing Solar as the rage inside her starts to bubble up with an insatiable hunger. She needs to think straight, she needs to act logically now although killing that stupid dummy would feel so good at this moment. She breathes through her anger when Nevan texts her that she

needs to get out of this house as soon as possible while he'll go to the police with the recording.

In the midst of all the turmoil, she feels grateful for him to be in her

life...she feels hopeful and somehow strong enough to fool the bitch. She thinks about Oriana as she gets out of the room. She'll need to call her as soon as she's out of this shithole. She's got a lot of things to catch up on.

Solar's complete lack of any knowledge on self-defense made it so much easier for Leilani to knock her unconscious before dressing up as Solar the rich fashionista to fool her dumb servants and finally to slip out of the house. Thank God the murderous duo wasn't around or else, she'd be the one going beneath the soil real soon.

Marlene opens the door to her brother's room when she sees the light is

on.

"What the hell is going on?" She demands.

Fabian doesn't understand her question and quirks his brow with

annoyance plastered all over his face, "What the hell are YOU doing here in the middle of the night?"

"Seriously? I thought you'd be there with her. Dude!" she points to

Oriana's room. It could be such a romantic night with cuddling, kissing and God knows what... only if you weren't a totally robotic prude." she rolls her eyes.

"You really want me to listen to your crap now? Get the hell lost before I kick you out!"

"Woah! Why are you so mad? What's up?" Marlene's brows bunch together as she scrutinises Fabian.

"Nothing! Seriously, Marl! I'm exhausted."

"Did anything happen? Did you guys fight? OMG! Did she throw a vase at you and broke it? Was it the sound that I heard, then?"

Fabian can't help smiling at the nonsense that his sister is relentlessly spewing out.

"Nothing like that happened, come on!"

He narrows his eyes, "Wait! What sound?"

"What do you mean what sound? There was this breaking sound coming from that room or your room. You didn't hear it?"

"No! I was listening to..."

"Yeah your heavy metal that magically drowns out all the noise! I have no clue how you enjoy this weird music so much!" she feigns a surprised expression.

"So you did hear something, didn't you?" Fabian practically jumps up from his bed.

Marlene dramatically holds her hands up, "Woah! Woah! I didn't do anything to your girlfriend, I swear!"

"No time for that!" He hurries down the hall. Marlene follows him with genuine shock this time.

"What is it? Why are you freaking out, dude?"

Fabian chooses to ignore everything as he turns the doorknob.

"Seriously, Fabian! What IS going on? I'm not a child and you can't

ignore me forever. O my GOD! WHAT THE FUCK!" Marlene screams at the top of her lungs as her eyes scan the room before her, petrified.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER, FABIAN?" she keeps screaming as if she forgot how to talk normally.

Fabian's face goes full-blown pale as his hazel green eyes are locked in front of him from behind the glasses. He forgets to breathe.

"IS SHE... FUCK! FUCK! IS SHE DEAD?" Marlene's scream mingles with crying now.

Oriana....

Pool of blood... Blood everywhere....

Blood splattered on the walls...

The carpet is soaked in crimson liquid... Her limp body....

Her hair disheveled across the floor... Her empty eyes...

Marlene screaming.... Death....

"I have no idea." Fabian manages to let out the words that almost get stuck in his throat on their way out. He cannot unstuck his eyes from the gory pool of blood around the very inanimate Oriana's head. He can clearly see her lifeless eyes looking forward, at nothing in particular, but he can't admit she's gone. He can't understand what's happening...all he knows is, he might be in the middle of an extremely horrendous nightmare and he more than anything, wants to snap out of it.

"Is it real?" his voice sounds confused.

"I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T WANT IT TO BE TRUE! OMG! SHE

PROBABLY IS ALREADY DEAD!" Marlene doesn't lose even a little bit of intensity from her voice. She's intensely shook, no doubt about that.

Suddenly, Fabian looks through the nightmare and realizes he needs to get his little sister out of this mess.

"Come on, you need to get out of the room." He grabs Marlene's arm. "BUT WHAT THE FUCK, FABIAN! WHO KILLED HER?" She's

sobbing uncontrollably.

"I don't know, Marl. I don't know." as he drags Marlene across the hall, silent tears start to roll down his cheeks.

Blood everywhere...

Oriana isn't breathing... More blood....

He can't think straight as his brain throbs in his ears.

The guy from the party might've been back...he might've followed her all the way down here. How could he leave her like that! He feels the guilt bubbling towards his throat as hot tears keep rolling down his face. His

mother is asking him something but he doesn't seem to hear anything clearly...

So much blood....

Lifeless eyes....

Inanimate face...

Someone killed Oriana...she's gone... Oriana is dead... Gone forever!

For the next 24 hours, his house became a crime scene. A detective Rylie came to question everyone and everything just to find out later that

the killer turned himself in on his own. Fabian didn't want to know who the killer was partly because he didn't care anymore and partly because he was suspecting someone to be the killer all the way. He didn't know if he could take the surprises anymore.

Now standing in front of Oriana's coffin at her funeral, he knows his suspicion was right. Alvis is the murderer. It's not his gut feeling or anything. Marlene couldn't stop cursing Alvis since she knew about it so there wasn't exactly any way out of knowing the name.

"Hey, how're you holding up?" Nevan shoves his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, okay I guess. Did they catch them?"

Nevan puffs out a sharp breath, "They caught Solar but Landon and Axel escaped the country and vanished into thin air....... the police found

nothing! Literally... Nada! Man, it's so frustrating! Weird part is Solar didn't

know shit about their grand plan.. she was just a victim of Stockholm

syndrome maybe! It's fucking crazy!"

"Everything is crazy, isn't it?" Fabian shrugs.

"Yup, apparently! They found Raya's body though. Her dad came in and. well, the investigation is ongoing. They closed the tuition center,

which...is not so surprising!" "Yeah!"

Nevan silently stands beside him.

"Did you ever doubt Alvis?" Fabian's eyes are locked to the casket before them.

"To be a fucking murderer? Never, mate! Never! The world is upside down...that's all I can say!" Nevan looks at Fabian with hurt in his eyes, "I'm really sorry for what happened."

"Yeah me too. The funny thing is we never really made it." a tear finds

its way down his left cheek and he abruptly wipes it away. "And still it feels devastating!"

Nevan pats his arm and decides to go with standing in silence rather than looking for appropriate things to say.

Two crows fly over their heads filling the silence with their aggressive caws, as if to underline the emptiness of their existence, the ridiculous

meaninglessness of hopes and dreams. The wind rustles through the willow trees, that seem to be quietly mourning with everyone here. Leilani fights off a sob that gets stuck in her chest as she looks at the drooping leaves of

the Willow trees. She remembers the Willow tree at the back of the tuition center. They never regarded that as sad but often joked about burying Landon under it. She remembers the one from her childhood, just outside the window of her room. She used to love the tree. Never did the droopy

leaves seem to be mournful to her until that day. She wrote that poem sitting under that very Willow tree.

She lets out a heart-wrenching sob when she recalls Oriana's eyes lighting up when she was reciting her poem with so much passion and appreciation... She sighs as she thinks to herself, it all started with some

lovey dovey teen-like crushes and who could've thought the ending would be set at the graveyard!

She catches Ilona with the corner of her eyes and immediately every

single limb of her body is set on fire. She storms off towards the fake crying bimbo.

"What do you think you're doing here?" She doesn't even try to sound any less irritated than she actually is.

"What do you mean? I'm mourning the loss of Oriana just like everyone else here." her voice annoys Leilani even more.

"I really wish you were dead instead of her."

"You mean you wish to kill me? You murderer!" Ilona's voice is dripped with poison.

And then everything goes blank.

No sound

no movement no light

no wind

no crow's cawing no weeping

no sobbing

Everything goes completely still... Silence...

Quiet...

No sign of existence...

Slowly...very slowly... The leaves rustle...

The wind whistles... The people gasp.... Metal clanks...

Lights appear.... Sounds float in...

Voices...inaudible voices...muffled voices make their way to her ears...

"Leilani? Leilani? Leilani, what the hell? Leilani, don't! No, Leilani!

Don't... "

All the senses come back to her like a flash of lightning. She sees Nevan, Fabian, Marlene and some other people that she doesn't recognize circling around her. Nevan's hands are gripping her shoulders to hold her back. back from what?

"Why did you do it?" Nevan's voice trails off. Frustration, anger, betrayal, hopelessness and sadness are smeared all over his face.

What did she do!... What is he talking about? Turning around from him,

her confusion evaporates, which is immediately replaced by regret and numbness. In front of her lies the limp body of Ilona, the strangle marks

on her neck are as fresh as ever...as if they are mocking her silently........ the

eyes that are unusually fixated on her face are lifeless........ She just committed

another murder and this time, there's no escape from the consequences!