12 Each With Their Own Agenda

The road was dark and deserted, save for the lonesome figure of Nigel walking in the middle of it. His only solace in this dimmed and hushed world are the street lamps lighting up the sidewalk. Nigel was put into a melancholic mood, but he did not mind this. In fact, he relished this type of mood and ambiance. In a modern man's world, it is quite difficult to find any significant silence with all of the distractions one can get from technology and society as a whole.

Nigel went home a few minutes after Shyla left. While he was on the way home, his mind kept wondering on the events that happened to him today. While walking along the road that leads to his house, he received an unexpected phone call from Rena. This made her seems suspicious in his eyes, but he answered her call in the end. While he does suspect her, he doesn't have any solid evidence at all. He doesn't want to act like a petty man, accusing her of something that she did not do…yet.

"Nice! You finally answered!"

"…What's up?"

"What's this? Why do you sound glum? Are you not glad that a beautiful girl called you?"

"Only if that beautiful girl is wearing nothing while calling me over the phone."

"Wow, Nigel. I didn't know that you were such a pervert."

"Well, you'll know more about me if keep on hanging around with me."

"Eh!? Are you perhaps an exhibitionist?"

"No! Okay, let's stop talking about that stuff and tell me why you called."

"Oh okay. So tomorrow afternoon, there's this art exhibit in the museum. I plan on visiting it, do you want to come along?"

After hearing Rena's purpose for her sudden call, he thought for a moment before coming up with his decision. He believes that he can use this event to gauge some truth to what Shyla had told him today. 'Maybe I might found out something tomorrow' Nigel guessed as he quickly told Rena his decision. Shyla hadn't also told him when they were going back to Dr. Perchard's previously hidden research room.

"Sure, okay. When and where do we meet?"

"How about outside the museum, at around 4:00 PM?"

"Ah, can we meet thirty minutes later from that time? I have to visit the Computer Science department first."

"So 4:30? No problem with me. Okay Nigel, see you there!"

"Gotcha."

Rena ended her call with Nigel after receiving his reply. During the call, she was smiling with a happy expression painted on her face. However, after the call, her face immediately smoothed out. She was now like a lifeless doll, still and devoid of any emotion.

She made her call while she was inside her bathtub which was covered with springy bubbles and warm water. While her body might be soaked in this warm water, with its hotness reflected by her reddish hued face, the aura that she was emitting was far from "warm". Her whole situation looks like a newly created broadsword, piping hot from the forge, placed in the middle of a tundra.

It did not matter how hot the temperature of the bathtub is, it will always be overshadowed by the void-like expression that she had. She was like a mannequin or a puppet who can change their expression at will. She raised her submerged hand above the bathtub's water, letting small amounts of water trickle down her arm while she observes the water's flow until it dropped back inside the bathtub.

The fragrant scent of the soap that she was using had spread out of her bathroom. She stayed inside the bathtub for a quarter of an hour, until she emerged out of the bathtub. The small trickling of water flowed down from her gorgeous body, while she dried herself with a pink, dry towel. She wore her bathrobe after tying the towel in hair in a swirly way as she headed towards her desk.

Her room was atypical room for a college student. It was a grand room, with red velvet carpet covering the entire floor. A huge and grandiose bed was sitting in the middle of it, enough to fit three people. A pure white wooden desk was placed on the right side of the room, filled with paper organizers, books, and a laptop. A sofa was placed near the window which leads to a balcony made out of marble. A bookshelf was placed in the corner of the room, filled with books related to archaeology and religion. A piano was also placed in the lower left side of the room, covered with a red silk with fine golden embroidery at its edge.

There were several documents on top of her desk. There was a document there which contains a table, with several of its contents, are marked by green with a time and class written inside of it. Another document contains a medical record of a person who had an accident when he was five years old. A new, brown enveloped was placed at the very top of these papers.

Rena grabbed the brown enveloped and opened with a paper knife. Putting back the paper-knife in her table's small drawer, she poured the contents of the letter in the table, mixing it with the rest of the documents.

When she saw what was inside the letter, although not visible from her face void of emotions, she was utterly shocked. The contents of the letter were images! It was the images from Nigel and Shyla's short date! There were even images of them coming out from the movies, or both of them shopping in the mall.

What made Rena more shocked is that she felt a slight tinged of frustration when looking at the pictures of them together. There was even envy mixed with her budding frustration. Unsure of what was happening with her mental state, she laid down to her grand bed and contemplated the meaning of her feelings.

'Is this jealousy?' She thought while being amused by the idea of her being jealous. She was not sure if it is jealousy, however, she does know that it will hinder her mission if she does not resolve this issue soon. She took a huge breath and exhaled slowly. It was an action which is ingrained in her, proven by how smooth and quick she was able to do it. This breathing technique calmed her mind, as she began to prepare for the phase of the mission.

…

A long black car passed by a grand metal gate inlaid in the middle with an intricate metal carving of a creature that is a mixture of a moth, a snake, and a bull. Passing by the gate, the car rode on top of a long asphalt road going straight towards a brightly lit mansion that can be seen from a distance. The roadside was decorated with a black Victorian lamp post.

The light coming from these lamp posts served as a guide going towards the mansion. There were also bushes below the lamp post, trimmed neatly, which are all attached with flowers of varying shapes and colors. If it were daytime, the beauty of this roadside garden would have astounded any willing visitors.

The long straight road ended with a circular one, both of which are created from the same material. There was a small water fountain in the middle of the circular road, which added to the beauty of the landscape of the mansion. The water fountain was a Venetian type, with four sculptures of horses acting as the central pillar for the two discs in the fountain. The discs get smaller the higher it is placed. There were a total of three discs, two being held by the main pillar, and one that acts as a base for the central pillar.

The fountain was also inlaid with lights on its main water container. It was a thing of beauty, elevated by the bushes surrounding its base filled with flowers in a neat arrangement. The car stopped in front of the mansion's huge teak double door. A young lady came out of the back seat of the car, who immediately headed towards the door. The car went away in a prompt manner after the young lady left.

The young, silver-haired lady went inside the mansion by swinging open the door and walking right straight after. Upon opening the door, two lines of servants quickly formed. When the lady began her first step towards a huge staircase that splits into two parts, the servants ranging from the head butler all the way to the maids began to bow down towards the young lady in a right angle fashion.

In the split section of the staircase, a middle-aged man and woman are standing right next to each other. They were both accompanied by the head butler, who was standing slightly behind the man, still bowing towards the young lady. Both of them were smiling towards the young lady. The middle-aged man had a wild smile on his face, while the middle-aged woman was smiling in a prim and elegant way.

The middle-aged man was sporting a brownish-colored hair while wearing a polo shirt with a mark of a horse in the left chest area. From his face, one can do an easy inference that he had experienced the vicissitudes of life. However, one can also guess that he was quite a dashing man when he was young. He was sporting straight pants and wearing nothing but sandals for his feet.

The middle-aged woman can be hardly called a "middle-aged" woman. She was still looking youthful, with her lush silver hair neatly pony-tailed behind her. She was wearing a simple dress, but it did not impede the beauty that she possessed. She was wearing a small circular golden earring in both of her ears, and a silver ring is bounded in her right hand's ring finger.

"Welcome home, dear."

"Welcome home, Shyla. How was your day?"

""Welcome back, Miss!""

The man and woman asked greeted her at the same time. Upon finishing their greeting, it was followed by the greeting chorus of the servants of the mansion. Their combined voice reverberated inside the mansion. Their greeting was happily meet with the young lady, smiling towards the servants around her. The butler gave a signal to the servants, which every servant understood. In a prompt and elegant manner, the mansion's servants took one step backward, turning around in a hundred and eighty degrees, and quietly left the main lobby.

When the main lobby is deserted by the servants, the middle-aged man nodded towards the head butler. The butler nodded in return, turned around and exited out of the lobby. Shyla walked towards the middle-aged man and woman, hugging them after reaching them in an arms' reach.

"Did you enjoy your little date?"

"Mom! It wasn't a date! It was a formal meeting! A meeting!"

"Ah yes, that's what your mother keep on using too when we were still dating. She always told me that we were having a meeting. Like when had a date on the library, she called it "study meeting", or when we went to have a quick swim on the beach, she called it "swimming meeting", right?"

"Dear, you should understand why right? If I don't call them that, I'll be very embarrassed by the fact that I was alone with the boy that I love." The middle-aged woman said to the middle-aged man while blushing.

The middle-aged man looked at the woman with tender and gentle eyes, while the woman was looking at the man full of love and infatuation. In a short span of time, they created their own little world leaving Shyla there unable to do anything.

Annoyed of being left out and ignoring her presence, she waved her hand wildly between the two lovebirds, who were, in fact, Shyla's parents. This did not stop the two of them, and they continued to whisper sweet nothings to each other's ear. This caused Shyla to give up, letting out a huge sigh while looking at them with her well-known stoic face.