Janet couldn't forget those pair of eyes. She just couldn't. They had a strong resemblance with someone she knew at the same time didn't know at all.

"What the hell did you do!?" A shouting broke her trance.

She looked at Arthur, dumbfounded.

"Who... is she...?" Janet muttered.

"You seriously! You're the clumsiest girl." Arthur growled out.

"Arthur, what is this crying over this silly phone? You can get plenty. Stop crying over petty things like this!" Arthur's mother's voice calmed Janet down and soothed her anxiety. "Moreover, I'm glad that it broke, otherwise you know Janet for how long has he been using it? I told him so many times to buy a new one but he always used to stick to his past things, his past life."

The comfort was gone as soon as it came to her; she couldn't help but feel the deeper meaning hidden behind those simple words. Also, as much as Janet knew Arthur, she finalised that Arthur was not the one to cry over these things, but then why?

"You are destruction." Arthur whispered, "Just like everyone else."

Though she didn't pay attention to what he was saying at first but then she stood there, transfixed.

'What does he mean by everyone else? Did he actually take me for someone special?'

Janet became intolerant, the questions in her head were eating her out. She saw Arthur taking long strides towards the door, the broken phone still in his hands before he was out of her sight.

"He overreacts so much!" The woman beside her said in annoyance.

"Are you sure he is overreacting Mrs, Dubois? Or that was really important to him?" Janet asked slowly.

"The thing which is important to him can be cyanide to you." She said.

Janet shivered. It was late and she really wanted to get back to her room soon.

"Uh... I totally forgot what I had come here for." She nearly slapped herself for forgetting it.

"What's the matter?" Mrs. Dubois asked.

"Uhm... I don't know how to say this but Avery... she is not well."

"What happened to her?" Mrs Dubois furrowed her eyebrows as she spoke.

"I called her by a nickname that I randomly chose for her, and... she kind of became hysterical. And she is acting like I'm going to hurt her."

Mrs. Dubois felt the need to go there with Janet and that's when Janet encountered Anissa.

"Hey! Are you okay? You look stressed." Anissa asked.

"I am alright, but Avery..."

Janet ran after Mrs. Dubois and Anissa followed them.

Back in the room, they saw Avery curling up like a ball, her hands over her ears and she was muttering something under her breath over and over again. Mrs. Dubois ran to her and touched her forehead.

"Ms. Harper, are you alright?"

Avery was not in the state to reply and Janet started having guilt trips, she couldn't even understand what she did wrong.

"You did nothing wrong, Janet. Don't worry." Anissa comforted her but Janet got the creeps.

'How did she know?'

"Trauma, depression. I assume the name given by you triggered some instances or rather horrible incidents of the past, that's why she's acting this way, but nothing to worry about, she needs a good night's sleep and a relaxed state of mind. But I must warn you, Ms. Tyler. Do not, try to pressure her to tell what happened, that might worsen the situation. She's a tough girl and I know she'll handle it." Mrs. Dubois cleared and gave an assuring look to Janet.

Anissa kept her phone on the bedside table and moved over to Avery.

"If you ever feel like you need someone to talk to, I'm always there." Anissa said.

Janet couldn't conclude if she was the angel sent by heaven or the messenger of the devil, because sometimes she couldn't help but feel a little scared by the look she gave. It's simple, so simple... so simple that it masked the real, Janet couldn't think more. Vanilla, she remembered, what Arthur had told her that day being drunk, he would never say it again but Janet thought she got the idea.

Anissa's phone lit up with a notification and Janet took a quick glance at the wallpaper, a beautiful lady with brown curly hair, big captivating black eyes, and red lips...

"Who is she?" Janet couldn't help but ask.

Anissa turned around briefly and then picked up the mobile.

"Oh, I have to go, Mrs. Dubois is calling me." She said smiling at Janet.

"You didn't answer my question."

"Doesn't matter."

Janet didn't press any further. She really wanted to stop this nature of hers, the curiosity.

Janet watched Anissa slowly leave the room, but suddenly she stopped and turned, her voice firm.

"Meet me at the terrace after two hours."

Janet turned to sleeping Avery and caressed her hair.

"What is that which is haunting you till now?"

Janet wasn't good with hugs but she hugged her sleeping form and blew a kiss, "I'm here for you, always." She whispered.

Then she quietly opened the door of the room and went to where she was needed.

1:00 am

"I thought you wouldn't come." Came a voice which was calm and composed.

"That's impossible," Janet said to the figure whose back was facing hers.

"I hope you're not in a rush." Anissa turned and said, "Come, sit."

Janet carried her tired legs towards her and saw Anissa pour scotch in two glasses.

"I just need sleep and..." she took a breath and continued, "I don't drink."

"Birthday?" Anissa asked with no change in her facial expression.

"Huh?"

"When are you turning eighteen?"

"Does it matter?"

"Maybe? I don't think you're very far, so drinking a little must not bother you."

Janet suddenly felt like she did a wrong thing coming here alone, without telling anyone. But at the same time, she needed something, at least some information about the place and the people. Who she would've even told? The only person closest and dearest to her was sick, Avery. And she didn't remember making any other people her friends. Wren? Addy? Riley? Arthur? They were all shit.

Janet brushed the feeling. If Anissa tried to attack her, she'd fight back, she never considered herself to be weak, but at this late hour, alone, on the terrace. The awful thoughts whirling in her head terrified her.

"I don't drink." Janet stated, firm and cold.

Anissa didn't seem to care, as she just shrugged her shoulders, and judging by the look she gave, Janet concluded she might be a little drunk. Maybe she was making it easy for herself, to spill the words out of her mouth, from the corner of her heart, more easily and she was making Janet her companion in that journey. But Janet knew she needed to be sober and remember each piece of detail she was going to get. Janet quickly typed something to Avery though she knew Avery was not in the state to receive it, but she sent it anyway just to let someone at least know.

'At the terrace with Anissa.'1:07 AM

"So...?" Janet came and sat near her. It wasn't like she could look at the whole city below; she could only see the flights taking off very far, on runaway, the red and white lights blinking beside wheels, but it was distant and foggy. On the other side of the terrace, she could see the forest attached to the back gate of the court, and suddenly she remembered the incidents she witnessed there, and the lone thought of being there alone with the unseen made her shiver. The forbidden forest, they say. Now she knew why.

"Shall I start from the beginning?" Anissa softly asked, her fair skin glowed in the radiance of the new moon and Janet observed slight pink appear on her pale cheek. Might be the drinks.

"From wherever you are comfortable sharing with." Janet replied forcing a little smile out of her, Anissa might forget it all the next day so it didn't really matter.

"So... I'm Anissa William." She laughed and sipped from her drink. "What do you want to know?"

"Who was that on your phone wallpaper?" Janet asked.

"My mother." She replied.

"She is beautiful." Janet said slowly, "You have got the exact same eyes as her, black."

"She was indeed beautiful, the most beautiful of all..." She looked away and sipped some more.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Janet gasped acknowledging.

"Don't be."

"When did it happen?"

"Many... many years ago."

They both sat in silence for a minute, Janet's black hair flapped in the wind and hit her face but she didn't bother to remove it.

"Her name was Eloise Anderson. A dancer, to be specific. She was not so famous; I wonder why she would sacrifice herself for some prick, maybe love was the reason. That's why I hate the idea of love; it makes people dumb and blind."

Janet's heart thumped in her chest, Arthur had also written something similar in his diary.

"She could have been famous and alive." She looked away.

"Her death was not natural...?" Janet asked.

"Anything but natural. She was murdered."

Janet gasped.

"Yes, you can search it on the internet and get loads of craps about it being suicide, but I know... she'd never kill herself. She didn't have any reason, and I bet no one wants to die by choking themselves."

"You mean..."

"Her neck was... snapped. Dark marks were found around her neck..." Anissa choked on her words, not being able to complete them.

Janet's head started spinning; she remembered who she had encountered in the forest that night, and she shook to the core comprehending she might have seen her soul. But why her only and not someone else? She was not anyone special.

"I... I don't know what to say..." Janet said almost whispering the words out.

"You don't have to say anything, you wanted to know so you just listen."

"There was no investigation?"

"Yes, there was. The police came to hide and tamper with the evidence and closed the case saying it was suicide. And moreover, I never had the chance to say anything; who would have paid attention to a 7-year-old motherless child?"

Janet's heart clenched.

"Ms. Anderson-"

"Mrs." Anissa spat. Janet had half guessed she was a single mother, but anyway, it didn't matter.

"Her husband didn't say anything?"

"Her husband is a prick."

"Is he alive?"

"Well and alive."

"If you don't mind me asking-"

"Cut the crap, Janet, you're here for information, so you don't have to say things like that. He is Jacob William."

Janet's throat constricted, she hadn't prepared herself for so many surprises.

"Mr. William?!" She gave a shocked cry.

"Hush. You're going to wake the whole world up."

Anissa was pretty badass when drunk, Janet concluded. Janet mentally tried to make a map, as it was getting harder and harder to keep track of everything.

Arthur William, son of Mr. William and Mrs. Dubois (the nurse), Anissa William, daughter of Mr. William and late Eloise Anderson. So, Arthur was her stepbrother, oh Gods. Mrs. Dubois and Anissa... they seemed to have a pretty bonding even though Mrs. Dubois was her stepmother. What the actual hell?

"Anissa, do you suspect anyone?"

"It can be no other one than my dad, shit, I hate to call him my dad. It was not even one year since her death that he married again. Aliénor... is a pure beauty... you know"

"But they say beauty is a curse." Janet blurted out. Anissa looked at her, strangely, maybe she looked fearful for a second. Then she laughed.

"But she happened to be the best thing that had ever happened to me."

"You hate your dad for killing your mother for someone, and you don't even hate that 'someone'?" Janet asked confused.

"My mother loved him, and he didn't return the love, now he loves someone with his whole heart and-"

Anissa's hand fell shattering the glass pieces everywhere. Her eyes were as red as the magma, and before she could fall Janet ran to her and held her tightly.

Shit, she had blacked out.

Yup, yup, yup I know, it's been long, and I wanted to upload this a year later, but couldn't stop myself from posting this, so here we gooooo....

What do you think 'bout Alienor and Eloise?

And do you really think something going wrong with Mr. William?

Let me know about your ideas ;)

Thanks for reading! ♡