28 True Sight

"Dione…Miles?" Venice stuffs up the quarter size cheesecake unto her mouth, puffing out her cheeks in a cutesy manner, as she perks up her question.

"Ding ding ding~ Correct" Dione's voice was a combination of both a 4-year-old girl to a not-so-teeny. Regardless of which, she roams around blissfully, not minding the crowd, and shuffles herself between me and Venice's seat.

"My cake is ridiculously delicious, right? Hehe~"

I swear to god she's a handful to deal with, but her whole identity feels similar conversing towards a small child that deflates the deepest regrets in our life. Hence, the thought of annoyance in my head was surprisingly replaced by a joyful amount of green whistling grass blown from the summer breeze.

Her sparkling eyes behold countless synergies of both purity and charm, bewitching like a kid wanting to have the attention of her life. Of course, I needed to mind the words that I would utter, to be a righteous role-model for this lovely girl.

"Yes. You love baking things?" Venice asks as she wipes her gorgeous mouth freckled with tiny pieces of leftover crumbs with a tissue paper. Moreover, the round platter that was supposed to be half-eaten was…completely devoured by Venice herself, evident from the fulfilled expression enveloped on her face.

"Absolutely! WHY?! Are you interested?" Dione nods vigorously from her comment and energetically pounces off from her seat towards Venice, catching her off guard.

"T-Too close!" I screamed while pulling them apart and hurriedly rushed into their centre.

"Hoo~ I never knew you were into girls"

"Yeah…I mean, no. Technically, yes, BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER" Despite her childlike appearance, I could observe a faint glimmer of deceitfulness swallowing me whole, extensively to her soul. It wasn't a gaze of an underage lass, but a leer so crooked meant for studying through careful observations.

Her image is perceived to be free of jeopardy on the naked eye, but her emotions distilled deep inside felt enigmatic, and it was, for me, fearsome by any means.

I had to shake off the current doubt in my head. It must've been also a speculation of my vast imagery, eyeing on something indifferent through the seams. But alas, my guts had always proven me right, with no exceptions.

"Y-yeah" My mood began to falter. I started acting wary from the little girl, who seems unfazed from the sudden adjusted manner.

Thinking much from the situation will bring me nothing but trouble, so it'll best be moving forward.

"I can teach you how~" Dione remarkably said as she tugs her hand unto mine and pulls me away from the room, and dashes forward towards the kitchen's floor.

Venice stood from her seat and calmly followed suit, while slowly wiping out the cluster cheese crumbs from the sides of her mouth. She was rather interested in the pastry that I would be serving her, freshly made out from the oven; with love~.

"I'm not the greatest cook, alright? The last time I've prepared my meal, I nearly burned the whole house."

Truth be told that I didn't find cooking as marvelous as taste-testing free dishes. I could easily distinguish ingredients from various platter from the back of my mind since I was…still genetically gifted by all sorts of strange cells in my body (?) I don't know even myself but, let's just get into it.

Dione and Venice, who had been thoroughly preparing the right equipment needed for the recreation of the Cheesecake dessert, flashes a sinister smile on my face. They had made a silent agreement that I will be the one doing all of the work required written in the recipe book. While they, on the other hand, will act as voices, whispering in my head, guiding me through.

"Okay, Let's start~"

"Y-Yeah"

I can't believe that I would hold a short break from the zombie occurrences outside our walls, and here I am baking nonetheless another meal.

"1&1/2 cups of graham *mumble mumble* ½ cup of sugar *mumble mumble*

For the last couple of minutes, Dione and Venice were deeply entangled MUMBLING something on the same page of their rusty recipe textbook. Dione had mentioned that the book was inherited from generations to generations, and was honourably received by Dione herself from Rogh, who was also a chef/captain of the cruise.

"Your dad is so full of talent. I'm proud of you"

"Yeah…but" She momentarily stops from beating the egg and stared blankly from the portrait framed on the right side of the wall. The famous cruise known as the "Titanic" was elaborately distempered with various amounts of colours layers on each figure displayed. The cool waves of the sea had almost reanimated the marvelous ship sailing towards the audience. The overall ambient brought by the art could also be described as ferocious but elegant to our surprise.

"Those were the words I've been wanting to hear…" A soft tearing voice came from Dione, who was on the verge of holding her tears. The joyous and jolly characteristics of herself were soon washed away by the endeavour she had reminisced.

"Do you know why boats stay afloat despite its massive weight?" Venice takes the bowl out of Dione and started mixing up the ingredients.

Dione replied with a sniffing gesture, wiping off the water fragments obstructing her sight. Alas, the curiosity kills the cat, as she manages to sink through the rhetorical question that Venice had earlier queried, vanishing the eerie regrets.

"It's because of the water's average density that displaces 1,000 pounds of water before the ship could ever submerge," Dione replied with a coarse voice.

"Buoyancy and such, correct? It is the force that causes the ship to float. Any object will either drift or sink in water depending on its density. If it's denser than the water, it will sink; if it's less, it will float. The size of the object is unrelated from the ability that it can hover."

Our conversation had been led astray and was driven offshore. But…

"If you wish to stay afloat, you need to propel the proper displacement that could weigh more than the volume of the water."

"Because any objects will float if the gravitational force is less than the buoyancy force? In other words, an object will float if it weighs less than the amount of water it displaces"

The gloomy face that Dione has once had was transformed into a spectacular smile beaming with delight. Her worried face was nowhere to be seen, and the extraordinary topics about scientific discoveries and such have detoured her distress.

Such a striking shift of topics had mended off the unfavourable negativity out from Dione's mind. She is a fragile girl and experienced the gloomiest shades of life. Even though she had yet to tell us her story, her gestures were more than enough to indicate her fright. I believe that no words can ever lighten up her confused heart, and as her newest friends, we would listen to anything she's willing to discuss

After a warm laugh, she began looking at the time. From the wall clock hung above, the clock's hand was pointed at 9, where the evening bell had loudly struck.

Fortunately for us, we have finished our snack and achieved the blessed cheesy cake we had been longing to adore. We didn't mind the minuscule mistakes we had cooked, nevertheless our meal tasted fantastical as we have had from before. A replica of such made from our rigid effort, with the help of our friend, Dione.

"Thank you. Do you mind if we hang out sometimes?" It was soon time for us to depart. And even though we had a great time here in the kitchen, she was still a growing kid that needed a lot of extra hours of sleep.

"Sure! No problem~" She states while hopping around in a giddy tune, as she headed towards the door.

The evening sky had seized the thunderous clouds, as it gave its way for the twinkling stars. The solemn night will soon depart, and our mission slowly progresses by.

~~~~~ Dione's perspective ~~~~~

A young girl could be found at the apex of the deck, spying inside a room through the open window. Her phone began to silently ring, and the voice of a lad speaks from the other side

"Hello, Dione's speaking."

"How were Venice and Paul"

"I've never seen Paul throughout the day. I suspect that he had been talking with Clinton for the past few hours but, right now, they're in some sort of meeting with Venice and my father."

"Very well. Remember, Dione, your mission is to deliver me the pendant of Paula Wattson."

"As you command, Grey turner"

"Kill if you must. On the 14th day, we will arrive at the harbour. Meet me there the soonest you can arrive."

"Yes"

The call ended abruptly, followed by the cold gust blown in the midnight air. To save her parents… to obtain the vaccine, she must follow his orders…