Full 180

B

"You're being intentionally unhelpful with your responses," Stella plucked out the weed away from her hair. The sun was scorching and she swore she heard cows mooing away in the background. She was also very sure that she was going borderline mad. Mad with anger, that's for sure.

"I'm just mostly amazed that you failed to remember who I am," the lad uttered slowly. Stella was mostly amazed at how he remained utterly cool in the scorching heat. She came from the utter freezing winter of Wisteria. And now, she's wiping sweat off her forehead.

"Maybe you're that forgettable," Stella shrugged and decided that fanning herself with her hands may help and proceeded to do so.

The pretty lad held her chin and turned it towards him, before peering closely into her eyes, "I highly doubt so," he uttered and Stella stifled the urge to rub her arms from the sudden shard of cold air that surrounded her. Was she imagining all these?

"Okay, perhaps, we could start with a name."

The pretty lad looked at Stella and almost looked as though he was resisting his anger a little at the sheer audacity that he had been forgotten, "Lovick."

"Okay, L for short then," Stella said and L glanced at her once with a slight glimmer in his eyes but it was gone in an instant when they heard loud wails behind them. L pulled Stella down and they hid behind the tall grasses. There was a muddy footpath in front of them and Stella was still trying to piece together her reality when she saw two young children being thrown to the ground from a crate. And even before Stella could utter a  cry of alarm, they were silenced by the horses that followed. Stella turned to look at L in disbelief and she found herself shaking despite everything. She didn't sign up for this.

She felt sick in her stomach as a familiar sense of nausea swept her. And the next thing she knew, blackness consumed her.

-

"I'm afraid her psyche may not take it, you heard me. Perhaps, it's too soon."

Stella felt like throwing up the moment she woke up. She got out of bed and examined her surroundings. It was dark and save for the fire crackling in the lamp holder, she couldn't see a thing. To her alarm, a familiar voice uttered, "You're awake."

"And I can't seem to shake you off," Stella murmured with a tinge of despondency. She sighed loudly, "I've been pushing this away, but I supposed you have.... done something, similar to the movies, time traveled, haven't we?"

"Yes.'

"And I suppose there's a reason."

"Yes."

Stella sighed again. She wished that she could scream and shout at the top of her voice, yet  all she did was to...sigh.

"Could you stop sighing?"

"No," as if to prove her point, she sighed again. L stood up and moved towards her. Stella scooted away from him. This time, it was L's turn to sigh. Stella was almost close to falling off the bed when L moved quickly to stop that. "I was about to say, you'll need to sit to hear this."

Stella shook her head, 'I would like to stand if you don't mind and distance."

L nodded and he shifted his head to look outside. There was just barely that bit of moonlight that filtered in that traced his profile, and Stella was about to roll her eyes, "Don't go poetic now," she said as she played with the hems of her sleeves. She felt nervous and anxious, almost as if she could snap. L smiled thinly, breaking that thread of anxiety, "You know what. Forget about this."

If Stella had her phone, she would have thrown it at him, but she didn't. Instead, she threw the fancy cushion on the bed at L. And L blinked and the cushion disappeared. Stella wanted to reach for more but L was before her in a jiffy. She sighed, there really was no way to come out victorious in this mental tirade.

"I promise that I'll try to accept what lies ahead of me, as calmly as I could. Within reasonable grounds."

L nodded lightly, "You're tasked to prevent a murder."

"By?"

"A client."

"And why me?"

"You're..."

"Don't tell me "the chosen one"."

L smiled thinly, "trained for this."

"Trained by?"

"Me."