I Will Be Your Best Muse Ever

"Okay, okay, okay, I think someone needs to explain to me what's going on here," Ian broke out, "It seems I'm the only one in darkness here. Who the hell is Janice and how comes I've never heard of her? She doesn't even know you yet you seem to know her, how?" He looked at Liam and Clyde who seemed lost in thought.

"Ivan," Clyde spoke for the first time, causing his personal assistant, Ivan, to almost shrink out in fear. His voice dropped below zero degree and the air around him became suffocating. "Get me detailed information about her in the next twelve hours," he ordered, giving no room for argument and walked out with Ivan trailing behind him.

Liam let out a deep sigh he has been holding in and walked back into the VIP club with Ian trailing behind him. He could sense the tension radiating from Liam but he waited for him to speak up about who Janice is. But his wait and acclaimed patience seems to be futile. Liam sat down on, rested his head on the couch and shut his eyes. After what felt like eternity, he opened his eyes, picked up his keys and walk away with a murderous aura engulfing him. 

Ian was left alone in the VIP lounge and he felt like a kid abandoned by his parents. As much as he tried to remember if he had ever known a Janice, his memory failed him. Maybe he is missing something or maybe the alcohol has clouded over him. He sighed and after some seconds, he also left the lounge but not after reminding himself to get to the bottom of this mystery – and also to find out who this mysterious Janice was. 

… 

(flashback)

"Clyde, come let's play hide and seek," Janice sat down adjacent to Clyde who was sitting on the riverbank , his sketchbook opened in front of him as he captured the beauty of the sunset on the page. He was so absorbed in his work that he barely noticed Janice who was pouting, trying to get his attention.

He had come spend the holidays with his grandparents who lived in the rural area of the country. It has become his hobby to spend his summers with them and with every summer holiday he spends with them, he developed a passion for art which his grandparents especially his grandmother never ceases to praise his artwork.

"Fine, since you don't want to play, draw my portrait," Janice proposed and sat down in front of the riverbank and crossed her legs. She turned her face towards the sunset, her skin glowing in the warm light. Clyde took notice of the new scene before him and he could not resist the urged to capture the perfect moment on paper. Immediately he dived into action and began sketching Janice's silhouette, determined to make this his finest work yet. 

Janice sat perfectly still, giving out an aura of an innocent girl waiting for her lover to return as he promised. With every stroke of his pencil, Clyde could feel the emotion pouring out of the page and he knew that this was his masterpiece. He was so immersed in the work that after few minutes, he was done. He stepped back to admire his art, his eyes shone with pride.

"Hey Janice, come take a look," he called out to her. His eyes can't behold this beautiful artwork alone. Janice pretended not to hear him, still sulking at being rejected for a game of hide and seek. "Fine, if you don't want to see it, I will bring it to you." He said. As if on cue, Janice stood up and rushed towards him while still pouting but her mouth fell open. This is the first time Clyde is making a portrait of her and this came out more beautiful than she had imagined. Who would think that she could make such a cute artwork? 

"This…this is so beautiful," she exclaimed. "Clyde, will you give this to me?" she begged, making the cute puppy eyes that always have a way to melt Clyde's heart. "I promise to keep it with me forever. Please" she begged even more.

"Even I want to keep this too. I'm sorry I can't give you this one but I can make another one for you tomorrow, we will recreate it, okay?" Clyde said cautiously. This is the best art he has even drawn and with Janice in it too. He will rather die than part ways with it and now Janice want the same artwork. He was caught in a difficult situation, as he does not want to offend Janice and displease himself.

"Alright then, I will wait till tomorrow. I will come prepared and I will make sure tomorrow's drawing will be better than today's," Janice said, showing off a resolve which was unshaken.

"You wish, humph," Clyde taunts and Janice rolled her eyes at him. He knows very well how determined Janice was and he had a hunch that tomorrow's drawing would even be better than today's. He was tempted to release the artwork to him but he has already made up his mind.

"Clyde, come in for dinner!" Grandmother Finn called out as she arrived at the riverbank that was a stone throw from her apartment. "Oh Janice, you are here, come child, let's eat," She also invited Janice on noticing her with Clyde. Janice concurred and walked with Clyde to Grandmother Finn's apartment. She was shocked when she saw the different varieties of food Grandmother Finn prepared and she wondered who was going to eat all of this. 

"Did Grandma have guests over? Why did she prepare a lot of food? You and Grandma can't finish all of this, can you?" Janice whispered to Clyde as Grandma disappeared to the kitchen. Clyde chuckled and ruffled Janice hairs affectionately, "Why not wait and see, huh?" He said, teasingly.

"Stop ruffling my hair, I'm not a baby," Janice protested. 

"You are just seven. You are still a kid," Clyde said, enjoying the way it made her flustered.

"Clyde, will you stop picking on Janice, you are her senior and you should protect her not torment her," Grandma said sternly in the defense of Janice as she walked out of the kitchen with a bowl. "Are you okay, child?" She asked Janice tenderly and the later nodded in affirmative causing Clyde to sneer at her, 'how dramatic'.

"Let's eat, everyone," Grandma announced and dished out the food, putting more than enough in Janice's plate, knowing how much the little girl loved to eat. Before everyone could finish their food, she has already finished her and she still looked like someone who wants more. Grandma smiled and still added another portion to her plate and she still finished it, this time around, looking satisfied and filled up. 

"Grandma, this is delicious and I will come again tomorrow," Grandma chuckled at her innocence. "The door is always open for you anytime, any day. Feel free to come around, okay?" grandma assured her and Janice smiled widely, shamelessly showing off her missing tooth. It was hard not to smile back at her – she was just so adorable.

The next day…

"Clyde, let's play hide and seek, after we are done, you can then draw me watching the sunset, hmm?" Janice suggested while bouncing with excitement as she walked with Clyde to the seashore. "The sun is still out and there's about two hours before sunset. We cannot just be sitting idly while waiting for the sunset. I will be your best muse ever," she boasted.

Clyde gazed down at her and smiled. The height difference between them is really much since he was double her age. Yet, her personality was anything but small. She is excessively comfortable and carefree around him and he always find that amusing. Sometimes, he do wonder how she would react if she find out who he really was. A part of him cannot wait to see the shock on her face when she finally found out.

Unconsciously, he chuckled and Janice turned to him, "what is funny with what I said?," she asked, looking at him suspiciously. Realizing he'd been caught, he decided to make good profit from that situation. "Hide and seek, huh?" he asked, Janice nodded in positive. "What am I getting in return if I find you?" he asked, a sly grin spreading across his face. 

Janice was shocked for a moment. She'd never heard of playing Hide and Seek with a prize. Nevertheless, she refused to fall into his trap. "You are getting me as your muse in return. Do you even know what that means? I will be your inspiration for today and you are even going to get a better artwork than yesterday's. It might even be worthy of hanging in an art gallery," She said boastfully, priding in the fact that she apparently made his artwork beautiful yesterday. 

"Alright, fine, you win," Clyde said, intentionally giving up. "Go hide let's start," he said. Happily, she ran away and went to hide in the opposite direction from where they'd came. She darted around a corner, trying to put as much distance from herself and Clyde as possible. After some seconds, he turned around and went in search of her. 

However, after an hour he could not find her anywhere around the river, Fear began to settle in his heart as he called out her name, hoping she'd answer. He traced her footsteps and realized that had at the start, hid behind a tree. He noticed another set of footprints, much larger than Janice's and the hairs on the back of his neck stood erect. He ran towards the direction the footprints went and he saw the moving truck. He shouted her name and almost immediately, everywhere became dark. He fainted. 

"Janice," he mumbled the name as his consciousness flickered back to life. Where was he? Was he dead? The last thing he remembered was the truck and then everything went black.

"Son, are you okay?" It was Mrs. Irene Finn, his mother. She asked worriedly, bringing him back to reality. She almost died when she heard what happened to her son.

"Child, how are you?" Grandmother Finn asked. She was worried sick when Clyde hadn't come back home after sunset, so she had called her son and a rescue team was sent. They had found him unconscious on the riverbank and immediately sent him to the private hospital under B.N. Group.