Chapter Twelve

Theo hated himself for accepting all the new and strange information without any doubt. He felt like someone was controlling him, forcefully making him believe it all.

He had no idea when two days passed. At least, it felt like two days. He was not certain as it was always bright out the window. He still had found no door that would lead outside. And the windows could not be opened.

Theo felt suffocated. He tried not to show it, but he was restless. He wanted to break the windows. He even tried to break the one in his room. But even if he hit it with a chair, the chair merely bounced back. There was not even a crack on the glass.

More importantly, Theo was angry because two winged men came to take Nes away. As Theo stood in the living room, watching the two angels with similar features bind Nes's hands with a glowing golden rope, he wanted to snatch it and throw it away. Theo, not even for one second, believed Nes could kill someone, let alone two people. Nes was surely controlling and a little cold, but she could not kill anyone. His sister was not a psychopath.

Nes stood silently. She did not even try to fight back. Not that she could win. Still, Theo would have fought back.

"Are you okay?" Daisy asked him. Theo did not feel like talking. He did not reply. Instead, he went near Nes and grabbed her arm.

"Tell them you didn't do it," he said in her ear.

He knew she did not do it. What he could not understand was why Nes was not telling the truth.

"Tell them the truth, Nes," he said.

"What truth?" Nes chuckled.

"Step away from her," one of the angels said.

"I want to talk to my sister," Theo pressed.

"Let him," their aunt said gently, like always. Theo was not a fan of Casta. She made him feel uncomfortable.

Theo pulled Nes away with him. "You are hurting me," Nes said.

Theo wondered why all of them thought a girl like Nes killed two people when if Theo grabbed her a little tightly, she said it hurt her.

"Nes, please. Why aren't you telling them the truth?" Theo said.

"Theo, look at me," Nes said. And Theo did. He looked at his sister, into those silver eyes that seemed to know every secret of humankind. "Do I look like a killer?"

"No," Theo said without a pause.

"Don't just look at me, Theo. See me. And tell me who you see. Do you see a murderer?"

"I see my sister. My unbearable narcissistic sister." Theo suddenly felt like tearing up.

"You can't imagine a murderer when you look at me?" she asked.

Theo did not answer. He wanted to say no. But his subconsciousness said otherwise. He did not want to accept anything else other than a no.

"I killed her," she said. "I killed your friend."

Theo suddenly let go of her hand. "No, you didn't." 

She is not a psychopath. She cried when the neighborhood cat died. My sister is not a psychopath. She can't kill someone.

Nes smiled. "I'm not a psychopath, Theo. I can feel, if that's what you are wondering." She turned away from him. "But I'm a fucking murderer. Try to live with it."

Theo could not move. He thought he would fall, but he did not. She was lying. But Nes rarely lied. Would she lie about something this big?

Someone touched his hand. It was warm. Alex. "What did she say?" Alex asked.

"She is lying. I don't believe her."

"She did kill them, didn't she?" Alex muttered.

"Shut up!" Theo yanked his hand away from Alex.

***

"I want a caramel pop," eight-year-old Alex said.

"What's that?" Jin asked. By that time, all four of them were usually together. Alex and Theo had other friends too, but mainly, they hung out with Nes and Jin.

"An ice cream flavor. Too sweet," Nes said. "I took a bite out of hers the other day and it was sweet like it was all sugar and nothing else."

"That's caramel, Nes. Don't be uncultured," Alex said.

Theo watched them and thought they were all immature. But he also bought a caramel pop and found it quite delicious. The next time, he joined Alex's side against Nes about whether caramel was trashy.

They had a teacher named Mr. Steven who taught them English. Mr. Steven paid more attention to the girls in the class. His favorite student was Alex, even though Alex was not that good at English. She wrote 'are' after 'I' most of the time. Mr. Steven never lost his patience and told her gently to correct it.

Then, one day, Alex told them Mr. Steven loved her. "He loves all the students," Theo said.

"No. He loves me more," Alex pressed.

"He is a teacher, Alex. He cares about you, yes. But loves you? That's too much," Jin said. Jin was combing Nes's hair, which was long even back then. They were all sitting on Jin's bed.

"It's not like he told you he loves you," Nes pointed out.

"But he did!" Alex exclaimed. "He said he loves me a lot."

It was Nes whose eyes seemed to bulge out of the sockets. "He told you that?"

"Yeah. And he kissed me too."

"Kissed you?" Nes started yelling then. "Kissed you where?"

"My lips, eyes."

"He touched you too?" Nes asked.

"Yeah. My arms and chest," Alex replied.

Back then, Theo did not know what was wrong with it. He thought Mr. Steven merely cared for Alex.

Seven days later, Mr. Steven was found dead in his office. He was stabbed in the eye with a pencil and then his throat was slit. On the table were many magazines. Later on, Theo learned that those magazines were porn magazines that involved children. No one knew who killed Mr. Steven, however, most people were happy that he was gone. Especially parents felt safer after learning a pedophile was dead.

At Mr. Steven's funeral, kids still cried because they had no idea what pedophile meant. Nes told all three of them what pedophile meant. Jin said he knew, but he never doubted Mr. Steven. Nes said she always knew he was one.

"Are you jealous because he loved me and not you?" Alex cried. She was inconsolable and did not think being a pedophile was a bad thing.

Nes snorted. "Jealous? Honestly, Alex, I knew he hated me, but that's just because he knew I could see through him. He never came after me because he knew I would not stay quiet."

"Alex was not quiet. She told us," Theo felt the need to point out.

"Telling kids like us is equivalent to staying quiet. Kids can't do shit. She should have told our parents or any of the teachers," Nes said. She smiled then. The smile was cold and for a moment, her smile looked like the smile of a villain. "You should thank heaven that not all kids are the same."

At that exact moment, Jin looked at Nes.