The story so far: 

---- Aija is a Volunteer at the Pristine School at Innermost. She works along with Zuri and Ze, who are her friends. Aija has run into the possible kidnapper. Zuri visits her family at Apper town. Zuri meets a girl – Nala – at her father's shop; Zuri likes her. Ze meets up with Zuri and Aija for dinner. He has fun and gets drunk. Ze offers to bring some water for Zuri from the dispenser in the basement of the building. He is hazy, drunk. When he doesn't find flavored water in their building he goes to a different building. He feels a sharp pain at the back of his head and falls unconscious.

---- Aija finds that Ze hasn't returned for a long time – she decides to go look for him as she is worried about the kidnappings. When she doesn't find him in her Apartment basement, she goes looking for him in another Apartment.

---- She stumbles upon a boy, Rez, hiding from his kidnappers. She takes him out of the basement into the cold night, where the boy's kidnapper catches up to them.

---- The man puts a blade into Rez's chest after an attempt to flee.

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****4.4 - Aija****

**Warning: Blood, death, violence**

Aija halted. 

Rez's scream came out muffled through the man's palm covering his mouth. Aija was stunned – she couldn't move. Nor could she find her voice as she looked at Rez gradually losing consciousness – dying.

The man removed his blade from Rez's chest and wiped the blood off on a cloth he took out from a pocket. He took out a glass jar from the inside of his jacket and opened it. The shape of the glass jar was familiar to her.

He said something in a language Aija didn't recognize – there only existed one language in the present day world. A girl came running towards them and halted much farther than them. Aija wasn't able to make out the woman in the dark, but she tried to ask for help.

"Help..." she said, her voice barely a whisper.

The woman didn't move, said nothing.

A voice in Aija's mind told her to run. But, she couldn't move, couldn't look away from the man.

When the man had finished chanting, a light emanated from Rez's body. It was blue; the blue of lightning. The sphere of light shimmered as it moved and floated above Rez's body. The man held out the glass jar, and the sphere of lightning-blue light settled into it. The man closed the jar, put it into his jacket, and stood up. The glass jars, Aija realized, were familiar because she had seen them before. The spy/kidnapper had been carrying them. So, they weren't magic or just hover-lights. They were something else entirely.

The man said something to the woman in the language Aija didn't understand. It made her wary for it was apparent now that the woman worked with the man. She knew she had to run, but Aija was frozen to the ground. The woman said something that sounded like 'nè.' Aija wished she could see the girl's face, but it was too dark, and the girl was standing far away.

The man gave her one look; the girl just nodded and left. The man turned to Aija and gripped his blades tighter. Aija alerted. She understood one thing – she was next.

She willed her body to move, to run. She didn't want to make any sudden movements lest he run after her before she was even prepared. He was immensely swift and had outstanding reflexes. She wanted to stall him for as long as possible for one wrong move meant the end of her life.

She proceeded to walk as slow as possible, backward. The man followed. His eyes held an intense look; she knew that every single fiber of his concentration was on her. Aija was panic-stricken, and several thoughts pranced through her mind. About Ze – if he was alright; about Rez – his young life snuffed out so soon; about how to escape her own beckoning end.

The man stopped after a step towards her, his eyes scrutinizing her like he'd seen something in her. He tilted his head sideways, still looking at her in his intense manner. And then he bolted. Aija was so terrified by his sudden movement that she let out a small scream before realizing that he'd run away from her.

She gasped as her legs gave way, and she fell to the grassy ground. She heard footsteps on the lawn, and she lifted her head, hoping the man hadn't come back for her. It wasn't him – it was the spy/kidnapper from before.

He stopped before her and looked at her for a second before turning to look at Rez's lifeless body.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Aija was silent. This man was an enemy too.

He knelt and held his hand to her. She moved away. How could she trust him? She had seen him carry the same glass jars filled with those lights – souls? – and she didn't want anything to do with this man. He was probably a murderer too.

He sighed, "I must go after him."

They heard a set of footsteps. The man stood up immediately. "I must leave. I'm sorry. I hope you aren't hurt." he said and ran in the direction the other man had run.

Aija sat there for a while, unable to comprehend what to do.

Someone behind her said something that sounded to her like, "Zuh'tih!"

She turned around to find a girl around her age, walking towards her. She saw Aija and then walked further to where Rez lay.

"Zuh'tih!" she yelled again in the strange language as she looked at Rez's unmoving body. She ran her hands through her dark hair, utterly annoyed. She bent over to Rez and closed his eyes.

She said something in that same language looking behind Aija and Aija then realized that someone was behind her.

A man joined the girl looking as annoyed as she did. 

Aija sat there, perplexed. She couldn't move although all she wanted was to run from there. She tried to will her body into movement, but it was frozen. The young man looked at her, finally. He came to where she sat and kneeled. His look was gentle, eyes soft and Aija felt slightly calmer than before.

"You're lucky we came in time," he spoke in CommLang, his voice feathery. "He would have killed you."

Aija didn't know how to respond. She looked at him quietly, not knowing whether to be relieved or let another round of panic grip her; although she did feel relieved that she wasn't dead already. Her relief also made her guilty; guilty that she was alright and Rez was dead.

"I thought he was hiding in the basement." The girl said in CommLang.

"Hmmm..." agreed the man still looking at Aija, now something like curiosity on his face.

"I found him there," admitted Aija, softly.

"And?" asked the man.

"I brought him out. I was going to take him to my Apartment."

"Are you crazy?" the girl yelled at her. "If you had stayed inside we could have saved him!"

"I'm sorry! There were footsteps there, so I thought it would be safer since there are drones. The power was out too, so I couldn't use the elevator."

"You're sorry?" she yelled. "He's dead!"

Aija found the tears she had been desperately trying to hold back, running freely down her cheeks now.

"That's enough." the man told the girl.

"I was only trying to help..." Aija said between sobs.

Now the guilt really ate at her. Could Rez be alive now? If only she had stayed inside. But she hadn't known any of this would happen. Was it her fault that Rez got killed?

"It's not your fault." the man said softly placing his hand on hers.

Aija continued sobbing. She couldn't think of anything to say or do.

"Take care of him. Call Kuna." the man ordered the girl, and to Aija, he said, "Come."

He held out his hand to her; Aija hesitated for a moment. He seemed to be a good enough person. Would he hurt her? She would have to find out.

She accepted his hand and let herself be pulled up.

He smiled, "Come with me."

"Where?" she demanded, panic coursing through her again.

The man frowned, looking at her differently now. "Come," he said again.

"Tell me where, 'cause I'd rather go home."

His frown resettled between his brows as he said, "There's something we need to talk about."

"Talk to me. Here." Aija pressed on, wiping her tears.

He shook his head, "No. Not here." he said with absolute finality.

Aija was sure she wouldn't be able to argue with him anymore. "Alright." she agreed. "But, I need to find my friend first," she added. "He went out a while ago, and he hasn't been back. I'm worried."

"Is he the dark skinned kid with his hair shaven off?"

"How did you....?" Aija was shocked. "Where did you see him?"

"Saw him in that building." admitted the man pointing towards Block D.

If only she had gone into Block D instead of Block B; if only... Maybe she would have found Ze and Rez might have been saved by this man.

"I can assure you that he's alright." said the man impatiently.

Aija observed that he was restless now. He wanted to be gone from there, soon.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yes..." he said, shifting his weight from one leg to the other, holding his hand out to her.

She didn't take his hand but walked ahead of him. She turned around to see if he came and caught the girl who was now carrying Rez, glaring at her; the anger clear on her face.

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