The Glowing Rock

Aaliyah was in the bathroom washing her face the next morning when she quickly had to grab the walls and hold on, for the earth was trembling and the walls had just vibrated like there had just been a small earthquake.

Quickly, she finished up everything and rushed to Alastair's room to find him and see whether he had experienced the same thing when she found him going down the stairs.

Even before she found him, her senses told her he was in an awfully worse mood today and he was highly unapproachable. His demeanor was heavy with darkness and cruelty, and she was a bit surprised to see that he had his long hair tied backward.

What the hell was going on?

Of course, she followed.

Noises were coming from the sitting room as she walked down the stairs, trying to make as little sound as possible.

She sighted about three people there, together with Theodore and Alastair. The new face was also a female, and she was almost as relaxed as Theodore was... only that you could see she was a little scared of Alastair from the way she kept glancing at the man every two seconds like he would attack her while she wasn't looking.

But the minute Aaliyah came into view, the woman's attention was drawn to her.

"I assume he hasn't told you anything," Theodore said, drawing Aaliyah's attention to the man with glasses. God, how could someone reek of so much calmness, yet so much power at the same time?

"Told me what?"

"We'll be gone for three days," He stated.

Aaliyah looked at Alastair again, and she gritted her teeth and stopped herself from asking him where he was last night. Something was pushing her to walk up to him and ask, and another was holding her back, telling her to be patient.

But her patience was running out. He would be gone for three days!

"Alas...,"

"You don't wanna do that," The woman said to her, shaking her head with a warning.

"I'm only...,"

"The only person that speaks to him when he's in a mood like this, is Theodore. He will pull out your tongue if you do so, or anyone else." She explained.

Aaliyah was beginning to wonder why they were all exceptionally beautiful and breathtaking. They were filling the room with their beauty, and she was just... interrupting.

"Maybe their presence was what made the house shake," She mumbled to herself.

Soon enough, they all left the house.

Aaliyah ran after them when she heard the sounds of rotors running, only to see them stepping into individual helicopters and taking off to the sky. The feeling of de javu hit her, about how those three men had walked into their cars and driven off the night of the wedding.

Aaliyah stared at the helicopter Alastair was in. He was the one driving it himself, and she could still make out his face till they got to a certain height and began to fly away. For a second there, she would have sworn he glanced back at her...a very short moment that had her heart skipping a beat.

Maybe it was just her imagination.

The man doesn't care.

She had just turned back to go inside when she recalled the female on her window from yesterday with the tiny voice. Aaliyah tiptoed to the back of the house where her window was located and looked up.

Her room was on the second floor! And the second floor is pretty high!

Just then, Aaliyah noticed something there.

There was a thick buildup of vines that had started from the ground and gone over the fence. They had turned and twisted around each other, and there were so many dried leaves on the ground, even though the vines were already growing new leaves.

It was the first plant she had seen since she got here that wasn't dead like everything else around here. It's like when choosing a place to build this mansion, Alastair had purposely chosen a place that had no vegetation and no chance of turning into a vegetative field.

Maybe he liked it that way.

For everything to be dead... like him.

Who knows? Maybe everything comes alive in the night... like him.

"What strange thoughts I'm having...," Aaliyah thought to herself, shrugged, and turned around.

"Hi," A tiny voice said.

And she shrieked.

"Third time that I'm scaring you. I usually don't appear scary,"

"Who are you?" Aaliyah asked.

"Yuan," She replied.

"You...live around here?"

"I live very, very far. Your husband just left,"

Aaliyah cringed at her words, "Call him by his name,"

"What are you doing here?"

Aaliyah smiled, "Nothing."

"Then, come with me," Before Aaliyah could react, Yuan had already grabbed her arm and pulled her along, "I have like, a lot of things planned out for these few days. You will not be bored, Liya,"

Liya. No one had ever called her Liya before, and Aaliyah didn't know when she smiled.

"Wait, I don't even know you," Aaliyah said after her.

"I'm Yuan. I'm twenty-three years old. I'm not from around here, but I know a lot of things,"

Well, that is another way to properly introduce yourself.

Yuan pulled Liya into the mansion and ran up with her all the way to the second floor. Liya was not very used to being up here, since she usually spent most of her time on the ground floor. Meanwhile, this was the floor Alastair's room was located.

"There's so many fun things to do around here. We would not be bored,"

"Fun? Here?"

"Yes, of course,"

"How do you know that?"

"Because I've been here before... a bunch of times."

"To do what?"

"A few things," Yuan turned and smiled at her. Aaliyah thought Yuan looked younger than her age, and she had a vibrant smile and the most alluring brown eyes she'd ever seen on anyone.

Her skin was dazzling too, and her short brown hair was straight, full, and beautiful.

Then, Yuan stopped in front of a door and pushed it open, "This, Liya, is the frickin coolest library I've ever been to,"

Aaliyah's mouth fell open as they walked inside, seeing the stack of books that stretched around the place and all the way up.

"Does this extend to the third floor?" Aaliyah asked, seeing as the ceiling was very far up.

"Yes,"

"I've never been to a library before. What's...it all about? Why are there so many books?"

Yuan paused, "You're not serious,"

Aaliyah shrugged, "I'm sorry, I don't have much... knowledge about... anything,"

"No freaking way!"

Aaliyah rubbed her arm, feeling awkward and exposed.

"That makes the fun even better!!" Yuan suddenly yelled, more excited than she was before, "I get to teach you stuff. I've never taught anyone anything. Look at that! Both of us are about to try new things,"

"Huh?"

Aaliyah sat down while Yuan took a novel and read it out to her. Yuan had thought this would be the best way for Aaliyah to learn fast since she only grew up listening and picking up words from there.

Whatever word they came across, or a sentence that was too much for Liya to understand, Yuan would explain it to her better by breaking it down. Coupled with the fact that the book Yuan had chosen was mind-blowing and made Liya feel like she had been captured in the book, it was also a really fun experience.

Yuan was lovely and smiled a lot.

Aaliyah thought her teeth were perfect.

"Wow, I didn't know people could be so creative," Aaliyah commented once Yuan closed the book.

"And I still can't believe you don't know what fun is. Anyway, you claim you don't know much, but you speak fluently,"

"The people I grew up with...were always yelling at me, or gossiping about something. I picked up a lot of things from them,"

"Why were they yelling at you?" Yuan sat down next to her.

"Because...it made them feel good about themselves. They Fed on our mysteries. I and the other kids, especially me though. Since I was the oldest,"

"Other...Kids?"

"It was an orphanage inbuilt with a church."

"Life must have been difficult for you. I'm sorry," Yuan placed a hand on Aaliyah's.

"And now look at me. I'm married and I live in a mansion with the refrigerator fully stocked, and I have better clothes to wear. You know the best thing? I have shoes to wear! Now my leg doesn't sting anymore, and is slowly healing,"

"Yeah...," Yuan looked away. Aaliyah could not see the expression on Yuan's face as she added, "You're...married,"

"What about you? I still don't know anything about you,"

Yuan turned back to her, and shrugged, "There's nothing much to say about me. I come from an average family, everything about them is very much average although I don't know who my mother is. I've never met her before, and I stopped caring a long time ago. Basically, there's nothing about me that would interest you,"

If only Yuan knew how wrong she was. She was extremely lucky to have that average life she spoke out, and Aaliyah couldn't help but envy that about her... and so many other things.

"I highly doubt that,"

"It's evening, already," Aaliyah motioned her head at the window.

"I Don't Know if you've noticed... but something has been glowing inside your dress for a while now," Yuan told her, pointing.

Aaliyah followed the finger's direction and saw her something indeed was glowing inside her pocket. She took out the object to see that it was the diamond-shaped stone she had found lying outside yesterday. It was glowing much stronger than it was when she found it.

But, the strangest thing of them all was, that she did not remember putting it into the pocket of this new dress.

"What's that?" Yuan asked.

"It's a glowing rock,"

"That much is obvious! But, why do you have it?" Yuan asked, then she began to breathe heavily, "I feel weak," She moaned in pain and swayed like she was about to fall

"What's wrong?" Aaliyah held her firm, very worried.

"It's...the rock. Put it away, Put it away!" Yuan groaned again, feeling like her body had been set on fire.

Aaliyah had just picked up the rock to throw it back into her pocket when it spontaneously became much brighter around her, and Aaliyah looked up and behold!

A very busy street stood right in front of her.

"Yuan, Where are we?" She whispered.