SHE

NINE

"So," I said, chewing on food.

Eden raised her head from her plate, raising an eyebrow, asking "what's up?" without saying anything.

"We should talk about what happened earlier," I looked at her, waiting for her to try to change the subject or get mad.

"Yes, you're right. What's going on? You've been quite out of it lately."

I clenched my jaw. She was doing it again, turning it on me.

"I guess I caught a virus or something," two could play this game.

She analyzed my face, trying to figure out what I was planning since I had given up so quickly. But before I could say anything, her phone buzzed, her eyes looking at it.

I quickly got up, grabbing it from the counter and giving it to her. Of course, not before checking the caller ID, which read "B Quiet".

She averted her eyes, knowing I saw the caller ID.

"Listen, this is not the right time to talk, and you shouldn't be calling from that number..." she immediately said, picking up the call.

It was clear, she didn't want me to hear any part of the conversation.

"Wow, okay, slow down B," she turned around, hiding from me.

There was a deadly silence, and even from behind, I could feel her change from her usual self to someone I was a stranger to.

"I'll be there in 5," she said, ending the call with her voice so cold it even made me shiver.

She turned around, coming to me and kissing me on the forehead she always gave.

"I'll be back later to check on you, so make sure to rest and finish the food," she grabbed her leather jacket and was about to leave, but I grabbed her hand.

"Take me with you," I asked. Somehow the thought of being alone today didn't seem so bright.

She smiled, "Ruby, you're sick. I'll be back soon, I promise."

I looked at her, trying to understand what this beautiful girl was hiding from me. But I guess it wasn't time for me to know yet cause I would've by now if it was.

"Alright," I said, still not letting go of her arm.

"Mind letting go of my arm?" she asked, a playful smirk on her lips.

"I have to do this first," I leaned in, giving her a passionate kiss, not wanting to let go.

But I did, because she had to go and I had to find out what was going on.

"You can't give me kisses like that before I have to go, that's unfair," she smiled.

"Well I just did, so deal with it Harper," I gave her a slap on the butt when she turned around to leave.

"I knew you were into that stuff!" she shouted nearly out the door.

I smiled, sitting down to finish the food like she wanted me to. I guess finishing it was more of a dream than reality since I could go only as far as one mouthful.

And then I once again felt the bile trying to exit my throat. It was building up quickly as I ran to the toilet, throwing it all up.

"f**k," I cursed as I finished vomiting.

I wasn't one to curse, but considering how sick I'd been feeling lately, that seemed to be the only way to put my physical feelings into words.

I slowly got up, the dizziness returning, the headache never leaving. I was growing used to the headache, I even found peace in the headache. For the second time today I made my way towards the sofa coming from the toilet, after throwing up. I hoped this wouldn't repeat anymore.

Even though I felt like passing out and never waking up, I took my laptop, focusing on what's more important.

Day by day, hour by hour, I slowly realized I was being foolish, I had feelings for Eden I wasn't ready to say out loud our admit, the fact that I kept it in me was also making me ashamed of myself. I wasn't one to not be honest. I hated lying or pretending. Especially when it's what I had done for most of my life.

This girl had changed my life in a matter of hours. However, hiding things from me just wasn't going to work out. It just so happened I was very into hacking, I loved it ever since I was little.

I started with the basics, any person knew of - "google". No hacking tricks, but perhaps it gave me any information about "B Quiet". It wasn't a name I was familiar with, and since I knew everything about anything, (another perk of being a daughter of parents who owned the whole town) it made it obvious it would be easy to search up. There were no helpful results, so I kept trying different variations for another half an hour. Running out of ideas, I decided to link it with Eden, trying "Eden Harper Quiet", which, once again, gave no results, but the following "Eden Quiet" did. Various results with articles about a gang called "Quietus" popped up, mentioned the potential names of the gang members, one of them being Eden.

I tried typing in "Quietus" separately, Wikipedia popping up with a definition of the word.

"Death or something that causes death, regarded as a release from life.. what the hell?" I read out loud, my brows furrowed.

I checked the other links related to "quietus". There were a few links about a gang named "Quietus", articles one after the other wrote "the leading gang "Quietus" takes down their enemy", ""Quietus" club shooting, 10 people dead, 3 injured", "Who is "Quietus" leader?".

I sat there, becoming even dizzier by second. What the hell was going on..?

This wasn't enough information, I had to know more and here the hacking talent came in. I accessed the police database, seeing what reports they had about "Quietus".

One after one there were reports about the gang, related to countless murders, but never was there any solid names mentioned, only potential ones. All the murder cases were classified as "solved", by a guy named B. Harper, with no person responsible for them.

There was something wrong with this. It couldn't be a coincidence that two of the names matched the most likely gang member names, mentioned by victims that were soon killed after giving testimony. Or was it and I was just reading into it too much. My intuition, however, made it clear the first one was the right one.

I looked into two of the murder cases, seeing the pictures of the dead people. Why stop at two? Because I had seen enough with only two of them. Few of the victims had been shot right in the middle of their foreheads, while a few were beaten up. Why few? Cause in each of the cases, there were multiple people killed.

I decided to try and connect both Eden and the cop under who's name the cases were solved, considering their surnames were identical. The search immediately came up with a know gang leader's name, whose two children, Blake, and Eden Harper had gone missing at a young age.

I should have been shocked or something, and I probably would lose it the first thing when I wake up, but my health problems just made me feel bad enough to distract myself from what was going on.

Somehow the only thing I could think about was Eden and if she was safe, as well as actually involved in any of this nonsense. It might have been the most un-intelligent thing to think about while my life could be in danger, but I just couldn't help it. She had grown on me and become one of the most important people in my life so far.

I shut the laptop, not wanting to think about it any longer because I could feel myself passing out. I was dehydrated, probably having another fever as well. I was weak and that's something I hated to be.

I laid down, my eyes opened. The exhaustion wasn't doing a great job in beating my thoughts about Eden. I had no clue how much time had passed with me just laying there like this, but I already heard someone opening the front door.

Eden came in quietly, probably not wanting to wake me up in case I was sleeping. Her smiling face came into the view, "oh, babe, I thought you were sleeping."

"I couldn't bring myself to sleep," I said sighing.

"Say no more, it's hard to fall asleep when the person you're addicted to is away from you," she smirked.

I smiled, wanting to say a smart-ass come back but I was too exhausted for that. Besides, she was right, in a way. I had grown used to her being next to me when I fell asleep.

I grabbed her hand, silently asking her to come next to me.

"Babe, it's mid-day," she smiled, but still laid down, next to me, "you look like s**t. Did you vomit again?"

"Aren't you a charmer," I rolled my eyes, smiling.

"I'll make you some more soup," she said, concerned, already trying to get up, but my arm around her stopped her.

"Just stay with me, please," I pleaded, my eyes barely staying open.

"Anything for you," she said, kissing my forehead, "you're burning, babe."

I laughed, "that's just cause you're so hot."

She smirked, "you're adorable. Now go to sleep."

She didn't have to tell me twice, as I snuggled closer to her, breathing in her fresh scent.

Seconds later I fell asleep, trying to remind myself to talk about the gang as soon as I wake up.

The person I cared the most about might be a threat to my life, yet all I wanted was to be closer to her.