CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE LETTER

I woke up to a very unfamiliar room. I saw Oli sleeping on the couch, Zhena on the other side and professor Kristoff in the doorway, staring at me.

He stands up straight and walks slowly towards me. "How are you?" he asks,

My eyes are weak, I can't open them properly, so I had to close them againuntil I speak to professor Kristoff.

"I'm okay," I answer trying to relax my back the bed. "What happened... where's alias Joe?" I ask. The professor slowly shakes his head and sits down beside the bed.

"He escaped..." he replies. I close my eyes once again, placing my hands on my forehead.

"It’s a he" he added. I slowly nod my head as I remember that kiss that alias Joe had given me.

I’m thinking, ‘Would a girl kiss me? Aside from his voice, and how tall he is, he kissed me. Surely, that proves that he's a he’

"Did Tyler catch him? Where is he?", I ask the professor once again.

"What do you mean?" he asks. I was puzzled by his surprised look. Clearly, it seems that he wasn’t expecting that Tyler would run and chase after a criminal.

I'm just about to speak, when both of my friends suddenly wake up.

Looking very worried about me, Oli covers his mouth with both hands and runs towards me.

"Oh God, Lara!"

Zhena did pretty-much the same, and they both embraced me, which made me feel very safe and glad to be alive.

"Alias Joe is really getting on my nerves, now. First, he killed my father...now, you’re his target you?”

“How could he?!" Zhena said, angrily, releasing her embrace.

"I was really worried, Lara. You passed out! Why didn't you call us? If Tyler hadn’t called us explaining he’d heard something suspicious going on our dorm room, we wouldn't have known that alias Joe was there, and about to kill you!" Oli said, He’s clearly furious, and I can totally understand why. I didn't reply because, for some reason, a memory of alias Joe kissing me suddenly pops into my head.

Oli sighs and looks across to Professor Kristoff.

"Thanks for looking out for Lara, professor Kristoff. I didn't know you were so concerned for my friend," Oli offers.

Clearly, he is teasing me, and perhaps the professor, too.

I close my eyes and shake my head in disbelief.

Professor Kristoff replies to Oli, chuckling, slightly:

"Of course! Lara is my student. You all are my students. It's normal for a teacher to be concerned about this kind of thing"

Zhena nods, and crosses her arms while giving Professor Kristoff a mischievous look, "So that's why you didn’t visit me when my father died," Zhena shoots back.

Oli chuckles. I just shake my head and warn them, "Hey, stop it, guys,"

I hear professor Kristoff chuckle once again. He’s staring deeply into my eyes, which makes me blush.

Suddenly, I remembered how alias Joe had stared at me in the same way. I look away towards Oli. I nudge him, and when he turns to look at me, I point to my stomach as a sign that I'm hungry. I can see that he understands.

Professor Kristoff clears his throat, rather unsubtly. We all turn to him. Sliding his hands to his pockets, he stands up straight, wearing a very serious face.

"This is a very serious crime, dear students..." he pauses, and looks at us one by one. "Your being attacked by a criminal, namely, Alias Joe, is a threat to our school. An official will come and interview you, Lara. And we need your parents along too…"

"No!" I protested, without thinking. They all turn to me in surprise. I bet they didn't expect that I would object.

"They must not know what happened to me”, I shout, emotionally. “My dad would pick me up from here. And he’d enroll me into another university, I can't leave this place now"

Oli turns around and gently strokes my hair.

"Lara, they need to know about what happened. You can talk to your dad about it later. If you lied to them they will be more convinced to change your school," Oli says.

I look down at my hands, and slowly shake my head.

"You don't understand. Dad warned me that if ever he heard anything about alias Joe, and the school were involved...he would remove me from here. I don't wanna transfer school guys, this is my dream," I said, my voice full of emotion.

Professor Kristoff nods his head and replies; "We know; we will do our very best to convince your parents not to transfer you, Lara. But they deserve to know about this. They're still your parents" he reminded me. I roll my eyes, resting my back against the bed once more.

"I'm going to buy you something to eat," Oli said as he leaves.

"I'm just going to change my clothes; I'll be back," Zhena says, and walks away,

Now, only professor Kristoff and I are left.

The eerie silence is broken when he abruptly says "I was worried,"

I roll over to face the professor,

"Why would you be worried?" I ask him.

He smiles at me. It’s a bitter smile. He shakes his head and looks at me again.

"Never mind," he says. I just nod my head and stare at him. He clicks his tongue and looks away. My forehead furrows at that,

"I have to go, Miss Williams, I have lot of work to do,"

He leaves the room without further eye-contact with me.

I shake my head and close my eyes, I want to sleep. It's still a mystery to me why I passed out. Maybe because of sudden panic attacks. I was nervous and I couldn't find any thought that could comfort me.

An unwanted memory of alias Joe kissing me flashes into my mind again. I slap my forehead and bite my lower lip in a feeble attempt to stop this movie from playing inside my head. Why am I punishing myself by remembering this damned thing again?

I hear the door open, but I don't bother to open my eyes, cos I know it's Oli. But suddenly I feel that someone gently stroking my cheeks,

"Sorry..." says a voice.

His voice isn't deep as alias Joe's...but why do I think it’s him? Why did I get so teary when I heard that?

It's not alias Joe. It's not him...

Suddenly, I hear "Tyler?"

So the voice saying sorry is Tyler’s?

"Hey", Tyler responded,

"What are you doing here?" Zhena asks,

"I just want to check on Lara,"

"Oh, okay..."

"How is she?" Tyler asks,

"Well, she's still not feeling well. Anyway, thanks for what you did earlier... You saved Lara's life," Zhena says.

I can feel that Zhena is sincere about what she said,

"Don't mention it, anyone would do that," he shot back,

"Anyway...by any chance...have you seen his face?" Zhena asks,

Now, I can tell that that question isn't just about me, it's about her dad and me. She's curious and now, so am I.

"Nope," Tyler quickly responded, "H-he...he escaped...I wanted to catch him but I couldn't, and I'm sorry about that"

I think to myself, ‘So that's why he's sorry...poor Tyler’

"That's okay, the most important thing right now is that both you and Lara are safe..." Zhena said sighing.

"You've read the letter?" Tyler suddenly asks, I secretly clenched my fists, as I forgot about that thing... how did Tyler know about that?

"What letter?" Zhena asks,

I wanted to open my eyes and tell Tyler to stop talking about that. But I am curious, how did Tyler know about the letter?

"The letter, it was meant for you," Tyler responded,

This surprised me. But it didn't make me open my eyesas I continue to listen to their conversation.

"I didn't know there was a letter. Where is it? Who’s it from?" Zhena asks,

"From alias Joe..."

Tyler’s response made me freeze. How did Tyler know about that? Had he seen the letter earlier? Had he and alias Joe talked about it?

How did he know about the letter that I crumpled??

- to be continued...