[UNEDITED]

I needed Amaya's help one more time so that I could go get the vials from Dylan, but she was not available. One of her cousins were getting married, and she had to attend the ceremony.

So, I had no other option but to take it upon myself. I decided to sneak out of the school after lunch, and go see Dylan and then return before dad would come pick me up.

Mom and dad were attending the wedding, and so was Uncle Benjamin, which was a good thing for me. Dylan could come once they were gone, and then we could replace the vials with the ones that he would give me.

The plan was not foolproof. Any of my family members could decide to not leave me alone at home and stay back. If that happened, I would not have any luck with bringing Dylan in. If that happened, the task of exchanging the vials would fall solely on me, and the thought made me nervous.

Dylan did not know that I would go to the beach early today, so all I needed was a little time. I asked Amaya to tell dad that I was getting a detention, and she happily obliged. She was being very helpful, and I could not thank her enough for the things she was doing for me.

After lunch, I did not waste another minute, and sneaked out of the school. I reached the beach, and sat away from all the people, waiting for Dylan to arrive.

I was early by only about thirty minutes, and found Dylan walking impatiently at the shore. There was a small case in his hands, and he seemed agitated.

"Hey!" I walked up to him, "What are you doing here so early?"

Dylan looked at me in surprise, "I could ask you the same."

"I needed to let you know that my parents and Uncle Benjamin might be out of the house today. You can come help me get these vials down there."

Dylan smirked, "Not entirely sure of your own expertise?"

I swatted him, "Of course I am sure of myself."

Then I stopped. It wouldn't be nice to let him know that I wanted to spend some time with him badly, that too alone.

Luckily, he did not probe on it much.

"And, you are not going...to this wedding, I mean?" he asked.

"I gave them basic 'I-have-an-exam-tomorrow' bullcrap. They bought it," I smiled proudly.

"What if anyone notices that you are missing all these classes?" he asked me as he handed the case to me. I opened it to find seven vials placed carefully into ice.

I shrugged, "I haven't planned anything out yet. But I guess I will be safe for the day."

Dylan nodded.

"You should leave before anyone sees you here," Dylan urged, "There are quite a lot of people loitering over here today."

"So it seems," I took a quick look around, "When are you coming to my place?"

"When are your parents leaving?" he asked me.

"Around five. But I am not sure if they change their plan and one of them decides to stay with me."

Dylan thought for a while.

"I'll come to your house. I'll use the stairwell. If anyone decides to stay, you can always leave a note for me there."

I nodded, "That sounds good."

"Okay, you should go. Hurry," he urged.

Dylan grabbed my hand as I turned away, "Be careful."

I looked at his bright blue eyes, "I will, don't worry. And I am not going to be killed or something, anyway."

"I don't trust Benjamin," Dylan moved a strand of hair from my eyes, "I have lost so much because of him."

My breath caught. Would it really matter to him if I died?

He never finished the sentence, but let me go. I returned to my school in a trance. Did he really have feelings for me but was unable to express them? I needed to know. I couldn't really let him go just like that.

#

We were lucky.

All of them left the house for the wedding ceremony, but they left five guards to guard the house. I smiled to myself. No matter what happened, they would never feel the necessity to check the stairwell.

I waited impatiently for Dylan to show up. There was no need for me to leave a note at the stairwell, because no one had stayed back. I tried looking at my Chemistry notes, but I could never concentrate. At one point, I pulled out the case from my wardrobe, and checked on the vials inside. They seemed to be in good shape.

"Hey," Dylan's voice made me jump.

I looked up, and there he was, standing at my door with all his glory.

"I made it!" he said, slightly panting.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I stood up.

"I almost got caught. Had to run along the boundary to distract two guards," he pointed to the window, "Then finally got the chance to sneak through the window."

I nodded, "Let's go! We don't have enough time!"

We quickly entered the study and looked about. The place was as pristine as it had been the other day: there were no confidential files shelved, or there were nothing else on the table except for the pencil and writing pad that always seemed to be there.

I looked around once again, and was about to cross over, when the computer grabbed my attention. All the other times it just sat there staring at us. But this time, I noticed a blinking light on the bottom left of the monitor.

"Look," I told him, "He left the computer on!"

"Is that an anomaly?" Dylan took the case from my hands as I started to approach the computer.

"I never saw it turned on," I shrugged.

These things were very rare, and they were only used for educational and research purposes. I never knew how to run a computer well, but I had seen and picked up the basics at school. So I walked up and looked closely at the blinking light, and then slowly pressed the power button of the monitor.

The screen lit up, and I took a seat on the chair and took a look at the contents. The desktop wallpaper showed a picture of our family, and Uncle Benjamin was carrying a baby version of me. My grandparents were also present in the photo, and I saw a tired and worn-out mom carefully concealed behind a thick layer of makeup. This photo must have been taken when I was born.

"I see something," Dylan said, "There, at the bottom!"

There was only one window minimized to where Dylan pointed, and I clicked on it. It seemed to be the inbox of Uncle Benjamin's emails. All of them were read, and most had the words '[URGENT]' typed before them. But the top one was not read yet.

"Should we open this?" I looked back at Dylan. He looked about as torn as I was.

"It's rude to read other people's personal stuff," I said to myself.

Dylan left a small breath. I took my hand away from the mouse, but then something clicked inside me. I took one last glimpse at him, and then put the mouse pointer on top of the email thread. My hands shook a little as I clicked on the link, and the screen showed the loading page. I had never really read someone's personal stuff, and this was the first time for me. I hoped that I would not feel too guilty about it later on.

Dylan leaned in and looked at the screen expectantly over my shoulder.

"Just hope this is not from Ms. Pillai," he whispered, "I'm not ready to throw up right here. We had chocolate pudding in lunch."

I chuckled.

The email finally finished loading, and then I was looking at only a few lines typed in the body.

"We have given you too much time. If you do not give what we want, there will be consequences. There will be destruction of the empire that you have built stepping over innocent lives, and there will be blood and deaths of your dear ones. Will you be able to tolerate all these?

Think once again, and choose wisely. We are always ready to cooperate."

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