Darkly and Eternally Yours

Chapter 8

1 week later:

"Well from the impression you're giving me, I'd say he seemed pretty skeptical from the very beginning." Dianna said, taking a bite of her cheesy burger, sauce dripping down on the plate.

"He is mysterious." I agreed, staring at the yellow greasy fries, with no appetite.

"Maybe he was bad news, you might've just dodged a bullet." She said.

"Thing is, I don't even know what happened, I at least deserve to know why he just left me, things were going great, everything was normal, UNTIL he saw the picture." I said, taking a long sip of my vanilla shake.

"True, did u try calling him?"

"Multiple times, his phone's turned off." I replied.

"Kiara, don't take this to heart, I mean he was an one night stand after all. For all we know, he could be a lunatic or maybe he's bipolar, that would explain his constant mood swings." She said, holding my hand. I appreciated the fact that she was trying to lighten the situation, trying to make me smile.

I smiled hesitantly, "Or maybe personality disorder, that one's convincing." She smiled, and continued talking about the latest guy who had asked her out. But my mind was somewhere else, I still couldn't shake off the feeling of peculiarity. Adrian felt exceptionally distinctive, every time he talked or touched me or even flashed those rare smiles, there was something unusual in them, in him. I had this thirst to know more about him, I wanted to ask him, why he left, why when he saw my dad's picture, he looked...guilty? My mind was heavy with all these questions and no answers.

"Kiara! Let's go back to the campus, or we're gonna be late for our classes." Dianna said, jerking me out of my agonizing thoughts. We gathered our things up and walked out of the fast food joint.

"Did you see Stacy Melver today? She looked so overdone today, she bought this new Chanel bag and had been parading it around everywhere, she looks so outrageous today, it's just ridiculous, she looked like she was wearing every article of clothing she's ever owned, I wonder who she's trying to..." Dianna rambled on, but I wasn't hearing anymore.

Across the street, I saw a tall figure wearing a black cloak, it looked so familiar, almost like I should've known it. It was just standing there, frozen solid. It looked so dark, giving off a vile, somber, brooding demeanor. It looked ghost-like and chilling.

"Di, do you see that dark cloak across the street?" I asked, my eyes still glued to the figure, in fear that it will disappear if I looked away. "What dark cloak? I don't see any dark cloak." She said, her voice baffled. The figure moved a little, I'm not sure if it was the wind, but I could faintly make out a face. The cloak moved a little more, And I saw a pair of eyes, inside the darkness and I knew I'd recognize those beautiful haunted grey eyes anywhere. His eyes weren't on me but to the left, which was my right. His expression looked pained, angry and foreign, I'd never seen him like that before. He looked almost villainous and menacing.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of tires screeching followed by a woman's bloodcurdling scream, I looked to my right and saw a truck had hit a car. The drivers were still in their cars, they seemed safe but people were still screaming , crowding the area, a haunted expression in their faces. "Oh my god." Dianna exclaimed covering her mouth with her hand, terror etched on her sharp features. "It's Mrs. Maury." She said, her soft voice drowning in the screams.

"What? No it can't be her!" I exclaimed my mouth dropping in shock. I looked over to where the dark cloak was, but he was gone.

Dianna pulled me over to inspect the car crash, but I didn't want to move. Everything happened on spur of the moment, with no warning, I didn't know how to react, my body was rigid in shock. "Dianna, I saw Adrian, he was there wearing a black cloak, but he disappeared." I told her, my voice shaky, a crazed expression on my face. "Kiara, now's not the time, come on!" She said impatiently, pulling me again. "No! I SAW him across the street, he disappeared the second the crash happened." I exclaimed stubbornly. I know it sounded deranged, but I know what I saw and I was desperate to make her believe me.

"Kiara, we have more important things here, someone just died! And that someone is Mrs. Maury!" She shouted and pulled me over. It was too crowded for us to get in, Dianna squeezed through the swarms of bodies to affirm who it was. When she came back she looked shattered, like a broken doll, when our eyes met I knew that it really was Mrs. Maury. "The kids are fine, only Max and Martin's there, Mary isn't with them, but Mrs. Maury..." She said, her voice soft and small, tears welling up her eyes, She looked like a little girl who had been denied of a cookie. I hugged her tight, both of us bursting into tears.

Mrs. Maury was a single mother, her husband had left her years ago for another woman. She struggled to raise her three kids, pay their school fees, keep a roof over their heads and deal with a high demanding job at the same time. She was a kind woman, she lived two houses down Dianna's and they were very close. Mrs. Maury was a maternal figure to us, inviting us over for brunch, Christmas, Thanksgiving Dinners. Now this woman, just died in front of us, it felt surreal. She was crossing the street with her children, Max and Martin, kids about the age of five to six, she pushed them away from the cars, but couldn't save herself.

I squeezed Dianna tighter when I saw some uniformed men ushering Max and Martin inside a car, the two brothers were clutching each other's hands . They looked so lost and confused, they had no idea what was happening around them or how drastically there lives were about to change.

Amongst all of this, I knew I saw Adrian and a strange feeling in my gut was telling me that although it was impossible, he had something to do with this and I had to find out, no matter what.

Never had I ever been this determined about something. If I only knew...