The Destroyed Magic Land

Leilani checks the time and gasps, "Shoot! It's really late...I better head home, Solar!"

Solar rolls her eyes in reply, "It's Saturday night. What's the rush?" "I've never been outside my apartment after 12. It's crazy!"

"Let it go for once, girl! You know, spice it up a little." she winks making Leilani think what part of spicing up is actually working in Solar's life.

Obsessing over that cheating bastard wouldn't exactly feel like spicing things up, would it? She immediately shakes her head silently chiding herself not to be too judgmental. It's Solar's life after all and she doesn't have to be the judgy one.

"I really think I need some sleep. We can hangout another day, can't we?"

"Sleep? Yeah, sure. You can sleep in the guest room and before you start presenting all your counter arguments on why you shouldn't stay here tonight, let me just stop you right here. It's fine to stay at your friend's for

one night." Solar smiles.

Leilani tries to make sense of her words. Staying here? At Axel's house?

It doesn't feel right. It kinda feels crazy.

As if reading her mind, Solar blurts out, "Axel isn't here and he's probably staying out tonight. You know, job and stuff!" she still sounds so pathetically ignorant of her husband's mischief that Leilani has to bite her tongue not to say anything.

"But still..."

"Please? It's gonna be really fun! I really thought we became good friends!" she pouts.

Leilani thinks for a while before responding, "Well, what the hell...

Sure! It's been a while I've had a proper sleepover!" she chuckles.

Solar squeaks, "Amazing! Let me show you to the room. Come on!"

Everything seemed to go in a very easygoing and fun way. They talked about their lives, the potential dating spots that Leilani should consider for her and Nevan's first date, the weird ideas for her novel and whatnot. She felt so giddy and happy to be able to spend some time without having any panic attack, or without pretending to be the happiest and most optimistic person in the world to hide her constant anxiety from others.

Everything seemed to be just perfect until after the dinner when she

goes to the guest room, Leilani starts to feel weird...uneasy even. She can't put her finger on what's bothering her so much but she instantly feels like she's made a mistake agreeing to stay here for the night. Solar's sweet talks sound very hollow and uncanny in her head as she goes through the events since the evening.

Doesn't it seem to be too good to be true? Is Solar planning to expose her secret by being sweet to her? Is she and her evil sister, Ilona are behind the perfectly curated show? Is she in danger?

She paces back and forth before deciding to go out the room and preferably slip out of the house, if luck favors her. She knows she is just being paranoid, which isn't something new given her colourful life. But still, she feels like something is majorly fucked up.

She opens the door and cranes her neck to check the living room when she hears voices...distant, inaudible voices. She squeezes her eyes shut to clear out her mind. Sometimes, she hears stuff that aren't there...auditory hallucination in fancy language.

She tries to still her thoughts and looks towards the living room when

she catches the voices again, clearer yet still inaudible. Her stomach does a slow backflip as she debates between going to the living room and staying here and shutting the door and sleeping like a normal person. But she can't do the latter as she's not a normal person. No need to sugarcoat...her life has messed her up and now she can't just pretend to sleep while people are talking in the living room. Especially, when Solar told her there's nobody

else in the house except for the two of them and the servants.

Could it be that the servants are just having their daily episodes of talking trash about the masters? Maybe it's actually just the servants chatting nonsense with each other. Gaaah! She can't push away the thought of something potentially being really wrong in this house. More often than not, her guts don't lie. So, she finally decides to step outside the room. She only hopes to God that she doesn't have another episode coming amidst this craziness. She tells herself, trying to be as reassuring as possible that she'll deal with whatever is awaiting her in the living room.

She can hear her own heartbeat as she inches forward, attempting to be as discreet as possible. She knows how ridiculous this whole thing might seem to an outsider, a normally functioning outsider. Well, it's too late for her to back off now as she can almost makes out the words floating from

the room. She wants to step closer when suddenly she stops dead in her tracks. Her body startles as she hears her name... Swallowing hard, she tries

to concentrate when she hears Solar's voice. Why is Solar talking about her with anyone! She doesn't understand.

"You sure she doesn't suspect you?" A pretentiously authoritative male voice asks.

Solar chimes in, "Not at all! She might be a bit of a psycho but she's too predictable and totally harmless!" Leilani bites her lip to keep the fighting scream trapped inside. How could that bitch backstab her like that!

Without thinking it twice, she silences her phone and presses the record button. If she's framed for anything, she wants to see the end of it. She can't help thanking the paranoid part of herself for thinking it through in this condition.

"We're taking a big risk here, Solar! If you screw it up again, trust me I'll have to kill you this time or worse, file for a divorce." Leilani doesn't

take long to recognize Axel's coldblooded voice. Her throat goes dry as her phone becomes slippery in her clammy hands.

"No, please no! Axel, you know I cannot live without you...it's impossible! You know it, honey! This time, I'll prove myself. I promise I did everything right. She doesn't have any reason to doubt me." Solar

sounds scared and entirely disgusting to Leilani. "You better be right!" Axel snaps.

Leilani shudders at the master-slave relationship between Axel and Solar. It's seriously screwed up. She thought Solar didn't know shit about her husband's pile of effed up crap but turns out, she still worships him after knowing that he's an absolute dickhead. How is it even possible!

"I think Solar is right, Axel. Leilani is indeed the most credible option for us to frame as Raya's killer. I've seen her being paranoid and acting psychotically on more than one occasion." the words cut through Leilani like a dagger. She can't believe her ears...and she definitely can't decide which fact is the most disturbing in this sentence. These monsters killed Raya, they want Leilani to take the blow as she's had an extremely

traumatizing childhood which nominates her to be the easiest victim in any situation and the other male voice belongs to Landon. Her head spins as her vision becomes blurry with every passing moment. Of course, that explains his indifference to inform the police in the first place.

"But I still think it was such an amateur move to kill Raya." Landon sounds disappointed.

"I know! I shouldn't have trusted that whore!" Axel spits.

"Is it taken care of?" Landon sounds more fiendish than ever. Leilani struggles to stand still but she can't let the beasts frame her...she can't let them go scott free after murdering someone.

"You mean Alexina? I never liked her!" Solar sounds childishly annoying.

"Shut up! It doesn't matter if you like anyone. Stay out of my business, will you?" Axel snaps again. "Yeah, I took care of her."

What did he mean by that? Leilani's throat goes even dryer. At this point, she's not sure if she has any saliva left in her mouth at all.

"Very good! Now, we need to give Leilani this night to settle in. In the morning, I'd expect everyone to do exactly what we decided on. I am warning you again, Axel. I don't want any more unnecessary blood and cover-up! Two is enough for this case."

O my God! They killed Alexina! They killed the two of them and now they're planning to get her killed or worse...rotten in the prison for the rest of her life. She needs to think fast...she needs to get the hell out of here and think fast! As she turns around to go to her room, she hears footsteps nearing her. Shit! She needs to move fast before thinking fast or else she'd be royally screwed.