Trauma

"I'm not sure what he told you. However, I'll just start from my time at Vastum. At Vastum, I was part of the chemistry department. We worked with the manufacturing department to synthesize certain chemicals, while also working with the research department as well. That department is kind of versatile in its work. Well, one day, while working with the research department on a certain project, I was using the supercomputer, which stores the data for all the previous projects, and stumbled across the chemical structure for the poison. I didn't realize what I had found out, so I wasn't too careful with it and researched it in broad daylight. By analyzing and tracing it back to its ingredients, I realized that what I had discovered was the recipe for the poison that killed billions of people in the Loser's war."

Up until this point, Amanda was speaking with her eyes glazed over. As if she was transported back to the time she was at Vastum.

"A college of mine had confronted me the day after I found out. He said that I had found out too much and that I shouldn't have been so curious. 'Curiosity killed the cat', he said. And I was the cat. Or I would have been that day if I hadn't caught him off guard by pushing him to the floor during his rambling. I then escaped from the facility using one of the emergency spaceships and escaped to the nearest planet. At that time, the only planets on my mind were those heavily affected by the war, Ferus and Vastum. I knew that escaping alone to Ferus was a suicide mission, so I headed to Vastum where I had at least one friend. And as luck would have it, when I arrived, I managed to catch him at the AT center."

The more she talked, the more Amanda kept trembling. It eventually came to a point where Charles was forced to physically snap her out of her hallucination of the past to return to the present. Then, we waited for her to get her bearings again. Once she was ready to continue, she took a deep breath.

"I went to his house. However, I was afraid of involving him in my troubles so I never told him the full story. But I suspected he knew some of it. He never asked me to explain who I was running from or why. Then, his house was broken into."

Amanda paused, and I saw her tongue flick out to lick her dry lips. Her eyes glazed over again and I could even see some small tears start to form.

"I was at the kitchen that day, and saw the man who confronted me in Vastum run up to the glass door and smashed it open. He was alone. As far as I knew. He wasn't armed with anything high tech. But he did have a knife. Throughout it all, he was shouting and blaming me for everything. He...he said that if I didn't involve him, Kelvin would still be alive! I...I!"

Suddenly bursting into tears, Charles firmly pulled Amanda into his embrace as she cried her eyes out. On the other side of the bench, we all waited quietly for Amanda to calm down.

Charles wiped the tears off her eyes for her and whispered some words to her, before we saw her tears stop and her breathing turn back to as normal as it could be. Once she judged herself ready to continue, she straightened her back and faced us again.

"Inside me, I knew he was lying to intimidate me. But I was also incredibly afraid he was telling the truth. In what he probably thought was a moment of weakness from me, he lunged towards me. In a panic, I threw something at him, I don't remember what it was, and ran out of Kelvin's house. I ran towards the forest for my life, and I could hear the man's roar of rage from behind me. He was also insulting me and swearing. It was then that I met my savior, Helen. I was running blindly then so I didn't immediately see her, but she saw me first. She threw something at the man behind me, I don't know what, and her actions made me instinctively trust her and run towards her. She told me she caught me in her embrace as I passed out. The next time I woke up, I was in a car at sea driving towards Media Luna."

At this point Amanda's face complexion got better. The worst was probably over, and she was no longer glazed eyed. She was properly looking at us now. Charles, who was looking at her intently before, relaxed a slight bit and also moved his eyes towards us.

"At Media Luna I met many people who helped me recover from the shock of that night. It was also there that I met my husband, Charles, who came over during the trading season."

Finished with her story, or at least the parts that were most relevant to us, she tilted her head to pass over the lead of the conversation to us.

"For the two of us, as I mentioned earlier, we were involved in this due to befriending a boy in Aquarius, Ken, whose sister was poisoned. We were then approached by Liz, who also knew Ken's sister, Barbie, and found out more about this whole conspiracy. Other than that, I heard from the police that our house was invaded recently. Furthermore, there was a note from the previous owner, Kelvin I believe, that stated a couple of ingredients. This was what led us to the poison."

Giving another brief rundown on our side of the story, I saw Charles narrow his eyes at our points. Amanda was showing a thoughtful look. But when I mentioned the line about Kelvin, she paused.

"You two didn't know Kelvin?"

"No. We went through an intermediary when we got the house."

"Then how did you find the note?"

"The intermediary gave it to us."

These were technically all not lies.

Charles and Amanda raised an eyebrow at my answers, but decided to not pursue them.

"When Margret came around, she had a bottle of poison. I reckon that was yours?"

This time it was Charles asking the questions.

"Yes, it was ours. We suspect that may be one of the reasons why our house was invaded. But then we would have to ask how did anyone from the pro-Colonizer faction come to know about this jar, and that it came from us."

Charles nodded his head at my line of reasoning, while Amanda fell into deep thought again.

"Just in case, we will discuss this with our side to see if there are any moles among us. However, assuming that they didn't know about the jar, why else do you think they would break into your house?"

Charles folded his arms and looked at me straight in the eye.

"Another reason we think so might be that they are extremists, who targeted me because I am quite known to be in contact with anti-Colonizers, and visit anti-Colonizer planets. Although based on the pictures the police sent me, I find this a little less likely. Our intruders ransacked our house probably knowing I was out, since I streamed myself on a boat a short while before they broke in. They also seemed to be looking for something."

Pulling up my personal terminal, I showed the two of them the pictures of our ransacked house and Charles furrowed his eyebrows once more.

"We came here to ask whether these attackers may or may not be related to those who chased after Amanda? Since even though there is no concrete evidence for it, we thought it might be worthwhile to explore this possibility too."

Hearing this, Amanda looked up in shock before sinking back to a contemplating expression again.

"That does make sense. Since the same house was burglarized within the span of five years. Maybe some people from the pro-Colonizer faction thought that there was something in the house that was incriminating enough to them since I was there before and you were openly anti-Colonizer after living there."

Trying hard to rack her brains to think through all the possible reasons my house was invaded, Amanda's face turned into a very serious one. Beside her, Charles was typing on his personal terminal.

"Also, there are some other things we have to tell you. Other than the note, in Media Luna at the house we stayed in, we found a jar of the poison. We handed that over to Linda. And also, Kelvin wanted us to pass something on to you."

Amanda immediately broke out of her serious atmosphere and blushed in embarrassment.

"So that's where I hid that. I was so unnerved during that time, I forgot where I had placed that bottle of preservative I had made in Vastum."

Immediately after she blushed, she then processed that there was also a letter.

"So you met Kelvin? How is he? Is he doing well?"

Excitedly, Amanda showed a lively but slightly nervous expression.

"I don't really know if he's doing well, but he should be. We didn't meet him though. The intermediary I mentioned before also passed me this letter."

Taking out the letter from my chest pocket, I handed it into Amanda's eager hands. But upon hearing that I didn't see him, I could feel her liveliness slightly diminish. Nevertheless, she flipped over the letter with a hopeful smile.

Watching her read it, her smile turned from hopeful to sweet, before it finally showed a hint of sadness and longing. Once she finished reading it, she folded it and stored it into her chest pocket.

"Thank you for passing this to me."

Beside her, Charles didn't seem all too fazed by her reading a letter from what would probably be her ex-boyfriend. But upon seeing her smile transform, he placed a reassuring hand on her back.

"We will investigate things on our side, and will update you on anything you need to know. Thank you for coming today."

Charles nodded at her words and we all exchanged personal IDs.

Bidding farewell to the couple, they went inside their house while we headed back to our own.

[I wonder what was in that letter?]

"You didn't read it?"

Teasing her with a smile, Sazzy jumped as she exclaimed.

[No I did not! That would be too rude!]

Oliver laughed from my side as we all tried to lighten the atmosphere after that heavy talk. However, inside my mind, I was reeling from the horrifying experience that Amanda went through.

If I was alone maybe I would be brave enough to risk my safety for justice or the welfare of others. But I was an outsider. Something that almost everyone we had met had reminded me about. Unlike all the others, involving ourselves in this entire conspiracy was optional. Not only that, there was more risk than benefits currently.

Glancing at Oliver, I felt my heart speed up at the fear that being involved in this mess was going to harm him. I had lost him once, but I did not plan to lose him ever again.

Once we got our alternative personal terminals, I was planning to ask for some advice from Linda and Liz on how to remove myself, and especially my brother, from being associated with the anti-Colonizer faction.

There was just too much risk.