The Sight Beyond The Haze

Chapter 5: A Little Request

"You might want to explain something to me," Bianca said coldly to me after I woke up from a heavy sleep.

"How did I got here?"

I looked around me, putting my long black to red hair to my right shoulder.

"I suppose you walked and slumped to your bed," she said sarcastically and turned her back to me. "How can you leave me there?" Bianca demanded to me.

"I did not," I reasoned with her, "I was suppose to get us drinks but.." Then I remember what happened, Zachriel. "I passed out."

"Liar," Bianca told me in a small voice. "You were with Caspian and one of Layla's friend. I saw you talking with them."

"I did talk to them," I agreed with her because I did talked with them both. "But as I am about to find you, I saw Zachriel and got curious so I followed him. I did not meant to suddenly disappear. I'm sorry. I should've told you where I'll go."

"Then what happened to you?" she asked and turned around to look at me. There was still that sullenness on her eyes and a slight pout on her lips.

"I just passed out after..." my voice trailed away, remembering something of importance.

I eavesdropped Zachriel's conversation with Hermes.

"I... Bianca," I suddenly changed my tone into a more serious one so Bianca renewed her interest and nodded for me to go on.

"What?" she pouted but still listen to me.

"I overheard Zachriel talking with Hermes when I followed him," I started, "we were at the other end of the scorched building that's why you did not saw us but they were not aware that I was there. They were talking about a... girl."

"First—" Bianca sat by my side "—you are a jerk for disappearing like that. Second you're either telling me what actually happened or you are being a very good actress and you're telling me a lie and I'm buying cause I trust you very much. And third, I'll let it pass because I think what you're about to tell me is a very juicy and fishy story. So go on."

With that, I continued, "Zachriel is leaving Amitiel and he's pleading for Hermes' help to look out for the girl when he's finally gone. Zachriel said he wants a peaceful life for the girl," I added, but now that I really thought of it, it sounded rather cliche.

I sighed deeply as I really think of it clearly, but I think Bianca thought something else.

"I'm sorry." Bianca hugged me tightly. "Are you hurting because Zachriel's leaving or because he cared about another girl? "

"Bianca," I said with another sigh and a look to her, "it is not anything like that. I cannot explain why I feel like this," I looked at Bianca. "Why I am so affected like this. He seemed really familiar to me. And I'm wondering why is that."

Worry, concern, and care streaked Bianca's face.

"I want to really know him," I gripped her hand. "I want to know where he came from, I want to know who he really is. Maybe in that way I can solve this mystery in my head. Why am I like this. It sounds like an obsession, but I think it is just almost curiosity, but then more than that."

Bianca sighed before answering me, "In that case I can help you."

"Really?" I said incredulously to her. "But how though?"

"I can help but—" she pulled me up so I would stand then proceeded on pushing me to the bath room door "—first you need to fix yourself, thank goodness it's Saturday today."

I nodded obediently at her.

Bianca waited patiently for me as I did inside the bathroom all that I should do. After that, she gestured me to follow her outside the door of our dormitory room.

"There is something weird about that whole group," she started as we made our way to the quadrangle.

"What do you mean?" I asked her and combed my rather frizzy hair with my fingers. It was still wet from the water I bathed myself with, but Bianca just cannot wait any longer and practically dragged me out of our room. And so, that was my reason for my ridiculously tangled hair.

"When they tranferred here, they seem to know each other already." Bianca pointed to a space near a tree and we sat while she continued on talking. "First to tranfer here was Zachriel Legrand, about five years ago I think, sixth grade. He was a complete loner, and everybody is torn between being scared of him or finding him very cool. The next year, Haziel Imbert transferred here." I gave her a confused look, reminding her that I don't know who in the world was that girl. "Well, I suppose she's not yet here. She usually shows up at the middle of the school year, and I don't have any idea why, so don't ask me. But they were totally in speaking terms and she seems to really know him well. The next ones were Hermes Runella and Caspian Cashel, after almost two years ago, and then they instantly became a group. Last year was Layla Gwen and she became the queen bee without any effort. You know how she was, yeah?" I nodded at her as an answer. "Pretty with personality as sweet as sugar. All of them became the top of the academy hierarchy, academically and socially."

I nodded for her to go on.

"The thing is, people don't really know who they are," Bianca said in a conspiratorial tone, "if you ask someone who knows them, they can't answer you because they don't know. They know of them, but not them as in in personal manner. There are only a selected few people who might have or might have not known them. Even the people inside their circle doesn't know them. How rich they are. Why are they here. And this is Amitiel, your value is your family's riches. And throughout every school year, they are disappearing and appearing that I thought that was almost normal and everyone probably thought so too, because they do it everytime. Last year Zachriel didn't study here at all, but when this school year started he seems to know Layla. That happened with Haziel and Layla too. Remember when I told you that Haziel Imbert appeared at the middle of the school year?"

I nodded again.

I don't think I would be able to impart anything on Bianca's monologue. Even if I wanted to talked with her, every questions I have, even when I haven't asked her yet, she would magically answer or explain.

"When Layla and Haziel met the first time last year, they were like sisters. Sisters!" Bianca emphasized. "Like they have known each other for a long time and they were shocked to find each other here in Amitiel."

"So if nobody knows something useful, what are we doing here in Amitiel?" I asked her suddenly, remembering that Bianca said she will help me in getting answers about them.

"Well because we need to get to the library," she answered, "and the library won't open until ten in the morning."

"We are going to search the library for some answers?" I said incredulously, almost disbelieving.

"Yes." she said seriously, "you see, just last year I volunteered to be a student assistant, to do some computer works, typing, sorting papers, and sorts, you know, which is a total geek and boring thing to do but is actually worth it." I smiled and shook my head when she looked at me to see if I was already judging her. "My point is," she lowered her voice like someone might hear us, though we are alone in our spot. "I have access to every school documents and students' profiles and academic records."

My eyes widened at the revelation.

"If you want, if you just want, we can look at their profiles and see what we can get," Bianca offered to me in the same lowered voice.

"Won't you get punish if we are caught?" I anxiously asked her, thinking of the punishments we will be getting once we got caught.

"Probably," she responded and then shrugged nonchalantly, "but no one would know if we don't just tell anyone, assuming we did found out something. So are you in?"

I nodded as an answer.

"The records are over at the very end of this building, it's on the third floor," Bianca said while we were jogging up the stairs in the library, "we won't be able to get caught since Madame Lee only go around the first floor, and this is the area of the library that teachers never went into." We both stopped at a door. "Here it is. We can find here every files and documents of this school in here, including the students."

Bianca fingered something in the backpocket of her jeans and produced a little key and waved at my face with a mischievous smile.

With silent anticipation, Bianca entered the key in the knob and carefully turned to open it. I silently prayed for some reason that I can't explain to myself. Maybe because, technically, we were doing something illegal.

"It's alphabetized so it would be easy to find their profiles," Bianca said in a matter-of-factly tone and pointed at the drawers inside the room.

The room was filled with those heavy metal drawers and this room was as small as our dorm room. There was only one table, and it was filled with papers and folders.

But a particular folder caught my attention with my picture plastered over it.

"Is this not my...?" I started to ask Bianca as I held it on my hand.

"Your file," she also noticed, while staring steadily at my file.

Bianca and I looked at each other.

"Maybe someone might have read that," Bianca guessed while still staring at it, "just leave it there, if one of the teachers took it out, the might noticed that someone went in here."

"Have you read my file?" I asked and I took my file protectively on my chest.

"No." I looked at her but she has already started to rummage through one of the drawers with a big letter C on it. "Are you going to help or not?" she demanded, so in the end, I just let go of my file.

"On it," I said then I knelt over an L drawer to find Zachriel's file.

My forehead knotted in confusion. I have already rummaged through the metal drawer, but there wasn't any trace of Zachriel Legrand's name. I repeated the process in the hopes that I just missed it somewhere, but my first search proved to be true. There wasn't any Zachriel Legrand on the files.

"Any luck?" Bianca suddenly asked me when she was done while I was still pouring my attention to that one metal drawer.

I shook my head at her as an answer, and slumped on the floor, my lips were pursed because of anxiety.

Bianca stood beside me and I shook my head "Huh. That's weird. Their files are not here. Let's go look for Haziel and Layla's file." Bianca said and moved to another set of drawers.

We spent almost two hours rummaging through the drawers with no luck and I was my patience does not came from an infinite void. It was running out.

"I do not think their files are here," I finally decided to tell to Bianca and wiped my face streaked with sweat with the sleeves of my shirt. "If their files are here, we should have found them ages ago."

Bianca was silent for a while, her hands placed on her hips and eyes slitted. She looked like she was thinking of another way with her poised.

"Maybe it's on the school's database," Bianca

She told me we should get our of that room, and maybe because there was not any functioning air conditioner insider or even just an electric fan, we were both sweating because of the heat. The dust that those drawers collected didn't helped and we ourselves collected cobwebs on our clothes and hair.

"We need to find a computer," she told me suddenly which had me looking left and right of us.

"There," I pointed at the nearest computer, just beyond another set of tables and chairs not very far from here.

"Okay." Bianca sighed deeply as we sit on the chairs. "I hope this works," she muttered under her breath and she turned the computer on.

"There's a password," I noticed and frowned.

"Don't worry I got this," Bianca said smoothly and immediately typed 1139159512, "see?" she gestured at the desktop smugly, as if she was proud of her work.

I clapped, then remembered that we were on a library, I looked around us again. Despite that, there was a victorious smile on Bianca's face that can make one think that it was her who instigated this.

Bianca was starting to rummage through the computer, but just as immediately, she swore under her breath, "Damn it."

"What?" I said, alarmed by Bianca's cussing.

"We should've done this first!" she whispered-shout at me. "Every students' files are being duplicated here in Amitiel's database, so of course every paper in that filthy room will be here."

And she laughed merrily because of that, while I chuckled lightly. We did not think of that in the anticipation that we were going to investigate. Or maybe it was just Bianca's fault, since I was not overly familiar with Amitiel's data collecting policies and procedures.

"You're absolutely right," I agreed with her, "we didn't thought about that."

"Moving on, there you go," she said and I could already see Zachriel's name on the screen.

"Scroll it down," I instructed Bianca, eager to see more.

"Wait." Bianca's forehead knotted and her hand was vigorously scrolling down and also moving the mouse on the mouse pad. "That's it."

"It can't be, give me the mouse."

In my impatience, I immediately went ahead of myself and get the electric mouse out of Bianca's hand.

"It's so..." I started, but my sentence fell short of what I wanted to say. I gripped for words to come out. Looking at Zachriel's serious face on the screen. His name was shining brightly, but his personal information was extremely short to the fullest.

"Short?" Bianca supplied and I just nodded as an agreement, she then started to read Zachriel's file. "There's no home address. No contacts. Not even his birthday. There wasn't any mention of his previous schools, not even the name of his biological mom and dad or his academic records for the fifth grade and below."

"No," I whispered silently, my breath rattled and my mind was confounded. "Let's see the others' profiles," I said mindlessly as if the dread in my heart was something I could ignore.

This was not worth anything. We just wasted our time here and the information we got was certainly not helping me that much. They did not unravel anything. It just created more confusion.

Why, out of all the students, were theirs were like these? It just cannot be a coincidence, can it?

"Okay," Bianca said and after a moment Caspian's file popped out of the screen. "This is so ridiculous."

Like Zachriel, Caspian's profile was tather short too. It didn't gave anything away.

"I'm really really sorry, Sera." Bianca's voice was so low and broken for me that it made me guilty. She was just helping me, but it turned out that she really invested too much in this. "I hope I didn't told you I can help. I think I totally ruined everything."

We have also seen the others' profile and like Caspian and Zachriel, it is super short and definitely not helpful.

"At least we tried, did we not?" I asked and she just nodded her head at me as I try my best to lighten up my voice. "I'm going for a walk, Bianca, you can go ahead to the dorms. I just need some fresh air, do not worry."

"Are you sure?" she asked anxiously then she caressed my arm to comfort me. "I can come with you. Just tell me everything and I'll listen."

I shook my head, "No need..." I rolled my eyes and smile, "I'm okay, Bianca. I just need some time to be alone and think, to clear my mind."

"Okay, then." Bianca said hesistantly. "I'll just hang around in our room. Go there if you feel like you want to tell me something, alright?"

We waved goodbyes as we parted ways.

I looked up and realized I was actually hungry when my stomach vibrated with protest. The adrenaline of doing something illegal worn out. It was just midday and I have nothing else to do now. But instead of eating lunch, I just toured around the academy.

While I was aimlessly walking around, I also wondered what Amara was doing.

Would she get mad if I suddenly visited her? Would she kick me out? Or would she be happy to see her only daughter and child?

In the whole month that I have been here, it was only Zachriel Legrand whom I have been thinking about. I paid no mind to both my mother and father whom have never bothered to talk to me or even just send me a message, however short and simple.

I still haven't told Bianca about what was my life outside Amitiel was like. I bet she did not have any idea that I was a poor kid or that the estate magnate Mr. Tharraleos was the one paying for my school fees and everything. Or that I came from a broken family.

To sum it up Bianca does not know that I have such a different life compared to hers.

Bianca did not know that my life was not as luxurious as the life she had been leading since she was just a kid. She didn't know that my clothes were only as few as the fingers on both of my hands. I never told her anything.

Because everything has always been so temporary within my life.

She always thought that I was a pretty girl that was so cool like Layla Gwen and her friends. That I belong to that kind of group.

In return, I basically do not know anything about Bianca. All I know about Bianca was that her family owned a vineyard in California. She seemed really upset whenever our conversation will stray towards her family, so I never really pushed

I do not have a great life and my mind was going crazy about some boy that I just met. I can't even tell this to my friend, whom I do not know much about too. But then the craziest and possibly the most foolish idea appeared in my head when I saw him sitting under the shade of trees in front of the woods that led to the scorched building.

I know this might come biting me at the back but I have got to at least try if this was the only thing that might shut me up.

"Hello, Hermes," I called at the person leisurely sitting under the tree.

Blazing blue eyes met mine, it was stormy inside that blood drained from my face. My fingers were ice-cold and I felt like I was floating every step I take to get closer to him.

"How are you doing?" I asked him politely and nodded once.

"Seraphim!" Unlike his very intense eyes, his voice was very welcoming and warm, his black dreadlocks hanging on his forehead.

"Someone told me that you can get anything. Is that true?" I asked, not even dilly dallying over what I wanted.

He answered me with a chortle, his fiery eyes were like x-rays. Reading and analyzing me. I swallowed and breathed deeply.

I raised my eyebrows, waiting for his reply.

"What if it is?" his voice turned icy and frigid, equaling the intensity in his eyes.

"I need something," I answered plainly.

"Shoot." He looked up at me, angular cheekbones and jaw, and intense blue eyes.