[UNEDITED]

This was the highest I could take.

"What?" I shouted so loud that Dylan had to take a good look at me.

"He was in transition. Rosie insisted to stay with him all night. She was forbidden a hundred times, but she wouldn't listen. Something happened to Dan that night. He lost it and attacked her. She tried her best to keep him away, but he was too strong for her."

I closed my eyes and imagined what it would to be like to be attacked by the person you loved the most. I couldn't finish the thought.

"Rosie had a knife on the table, she used that, desperate to stay alive. That's where Dan got the cut from," Dylan pointed to his jaw.

I shivered.

"She did not survive. Somehow the knife ended up in Daniel's hand, and he sliced her spine. She died instantly."

I hid my face in my palms.

Dylan let a small sigh escape him, "When he was back to normal, he kept asking for Rosie. It was a tough thing, telling him what he had done. But we had to. Dan has never been the same since. Every time he looks at his reflection, the cut on his jaw reminds him of what he has lost, and the life he could have had if he had not been infected."

I looked far away, lost for words.

"He was the funniest, jolliest one of the two of us, you won't believe!" Dylan laughed as he reminisced in his old memories, "Life was normal even after what we had been going through. He had a reason to live, plans for a family, albeit of a short life. But then this happened, and he broke down, forever."

Dylan picked up a rock and threw it on the water, something he always did when he was here. It skipped on the water.

I suddenly remembered how Daniel had acted when I had mentioned the cut on his jaw. I had pinched right on his wound. And all this times I had thought that he was born a prude. I was so, so wrong.

"If there's anyone in this world who would anything to get rid of this body, it would be him. He has suffered the most while in this state. He hates himself so much you can't even imagine!" Dylan said.

I knew what he meant. He made perfect sense.

We sat there for a long time, each lost in our own thoughts.

"What about you?" I asked him suddenly, "Don't you love anyone?"

Dylan gave me a lopsided smile, "Yes, I love Nicole, Aunt Mel, Daniel, Uncle and Riley."

"Ha ha!" I pushed him, "I am serious!"

"Does it even matter?" he totally ignored my question.

I left a small breath. He was teasing me.

"You should kidnap me, you know," I told him coyly, "Officially!"

He looked at me, amused, "Give me one good reason for that, please."

I swallowed.

"I don't really believe that there isn't any cure for your condition," I told him seriously, "There has to be a way out."

"How does that relate to kidnapping you?" he asked.

"Kidnap me, and ask for the cure as a ransom from Uncle Benjamin," I winked at him, "If he created the problem, he should know the solution to it either!"

"Not a bad idea, you know!" he told me, his mind elsewhere.

As he kept on thinking, I had my neurons working other ways as well. There was a war being planned right in my house, and fifteen hundred Rank Three people were being sacrificed to achieve whatever it was that the government wanted; but I still could not help myself feeling guilty for whatever was happening to these people. For a moment, my own words excited me. If Uncle Benjamin had created these viruses, I was sure he knew how to reverse them either.

My guts told me that I would find the solution in that discarded building at Northbridge Avenue, but I couldn't really be too sure about it.

The war was indeed out of my expertise, but the least I could do was to seek for a hint of the cure for these people, or at least for the sake of the person sitting next to me throwing stones into the lake, who I was certain now that I wanted around me for the rest of my life.

It was time for me to go home, and Dylan started walking me towards my house. All we did was walk in the woods, but Dylan seemed to know the oaths he was taking.

"How do you know the way so well?" I asked him.

"Just a product of having lived in this place for such a long time," he smiled as he made his way through a bunch of bushes.

"I need to learn this," I said tentatively.

"Why?" he turned at me.

"How am I going to contact you guys otherwise?" I explained.

This topic had come up so many times, but none of them were answering me properly.

"You know," I said after thinking for a while, "If you guys think I am a nuisance or that you cannot trust me at all, you can forget that I ever said anything about contacting you."

"It's not like that," Dylan broke a branch of a tree to make way for me, "It's just, we have operated alone for all this time. It could be extremely dangerous for us to get involved with someone who is directly involved with Benjamin."

"The same thing," I said curtly.

"We don't think you will cause us any harm. We think that you may be tricked into giving away our location or details. Or maybe you can endanger your own life."

"Does it matter to you if I live or die?" I asked.

Dylan was silent for a long time.

"A lot of people have died because of us, whereas they should have been the ones to live. I don't think I want to lengthen that list any further."

We fell silent after that. We crossed the lake, and soon afterward I was back to the shore and the cottages.

"So, are we meeting again?" I asked out of the blue.

Dylan scratched his chin, "We have to. If you really want to help us, I think we will need a form of communication."

"And, how do you think we will do that?" I asked.

"I am not sure about calls, but we can always meet here."

"Cool," I said, "But how will I know when to find you? Or on which days?"

"How about you look after your school's over?" he suggested, "I come here every day."

"Sounds great," my heart fluttered as I thought about the uncounted days in future when I will get to lay my eyes on this beautiful creature.

Dylan waved at me, "Stay safe."

"You too," I smiled at him.

I turned and started walking towards the roads, but I could feel his gaze on my back. I walked for a few moments and then turned back, hoping to see Dylan still looking at me, but he wasn't there. He was gone.

I turned back with a boulder pressed on my chest, and a stream of disappointment that I wasn't sure should have been there.

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