1 1/2 YOUR MEMORY

For a twenty seven year old guy, Charles had been leading a very busy life, had took over his father's bank and kept it running as smoothly as his father had done before. It was the only thing that kept him occupied for five years after his whole family had died. It wasn't very easy; the massacre of his family was among those unresolved cases.

One thing that Charles could still remember vividly in complete horror was how Christina died. It was awful and mind blowing. Something that science still couldn't explain. Her body had gone solid; everything cracks like some piece of cement until she died frozen-like. He still wondered if his sister had died in pain or just simply died.

The enigma of the disease left everyone thinking, wondering and it was feared. The victim's body are paralyzed in due time, their organs stops working until their heart and brains caught up with everything. The victims wouldn't even realize it until they felt their lungs stiffed and unable to expand, and without oxygen, everything just stops and die. This phenomenon didn't explain why even the skin change and everything from within cracks, this is why the body is always handled with extra care to prevent from crumbling into pieces.

For five years the victims numbers lowered down, deaths was reduced, but the virus didn't exactly disappeared, it just took a moments rest, this Charles believes too.

Who is Andria?

Charles keeps on searching; there was a million Andria all over the world and finding the right person with nothing but the name is like a million to one chances. He believes that whoever Andria is she knows who the people were that night his parents died, she can provide him the answer, and so he needed to find her.

Charles keeps on mentioning the name whenever possible, hoping that someone can give him a lead, and that night on a charity event an older man he was acquainted and knew from the name Sato Minato took interest from the name Sumaya that Charles had mentioned. At first what the older man said was something that even Charles knew, when Charles thought Sato didn't know exactly who Andria is; his lovely companion who he believed to be the old man's secretary took an interest on the name.

She looked at him under her thick lashes, for a split second he thought she was actually seeing through his soul, there was something on those hooded eyes of her, promising things, dark things that he felt chills running down at the back of his neck.

"Why are you so held up finding her?"

Charles shrugged and said, "It's something personal."

She didn't even blink as if anticipating the most obvious answer, she just stared, and waited that Charles could have been embarrassed. Then the awkward silence broke when the old man cleared his throat.

"Well, do you know someone with the name?" The old man asked his secretary. She turned on him and brought out the most dashing smile that anyone could have swoon with. Her knowing eyes stared back toward Charles again, "Do you know how this person looks? Or are you one of those people searching a name without a face?"

The old man mused at the tone she had used, clearly offending to anyone higher than she was but Charles appeared nonchalant, he shrugged and said, "Since the name is universal it can be either of the two sexes. Yes you are correct; I'm searching with a blind eye."

"That is difficult Charles," even Sato admitted. "There is no way you can find this person without any information's rather than a name. You need a date or an age."

But Charles confidently knew he can.

Their conversations continued until the old man excused himself to meet other business men but his secretary, the gorgeous looking lady gave something that blazed his hope.

"What can you give me in return if I tell you that maybe I know who you've been searching for?"

Charles widened his eyes he even held his breath, this is it, this is what he had been waiting for. He can give anything even his own life just to find Andria! She smiled crookedly as if she'd heard what he has been thinking. "W-what do you want me to give you?"

Her eyes sparkled. "Something you wouldn't believe."

He let out a breath and squared his shoulder, tilted his chin and looked down on her with a new intensity. "Try me."

She finally grinned mischievously at him. "Well, don't mind if I do." She said and pulled something from her purse. She wrote her hotel address on a piece of card and handed it to him without any discretion. "Visit me there tonight at 2:00 am."

He grabbed the small card and held tightly on it as if it was his lifeline. "How can I be sure you'll be telling the truth?" He asked.

"The question is do you want to know anything about the person's name?" She challenged, smiling coyly more to herself than him. With an air of arrogance, she walked towards her boss without waiting any response from him.

He wasn't interested on the lady herself, but the information she can offer in finding Andria. He shoved the piece of paper into his trousers pocket and moved on to another crowd deciding to make the best of the event while waiting for the promised meeting later that night.