Deeanna cut her cake which was a Genoise and opened her presents. Her mother had offered her a beautiful necklace with a crystal looking heart along with a matching bracelet. Salome's gift was a novel called "The Death Cure" by James Dashner. Deeanna had already bought and read the first two books of the series and it was with immense joy that she received the third one. As for Liam, he had gifted her something that she was not expecting at all. She was torn between accepting the gift to be polite or return it...to be polite. By the time she opened the box she had stopped smiling and the only thing she could do was to stare at the content with saucer eyes. An 18K Rose Gold apple watch was waiting for her inside.

"Oh no. Oh please do not tell me he did that" Deeanna moaned.

She was excited to have one. That she could not deny. However, what bothered her was the price! It did cost a fortune! Well for her...certainly not for Liam. They were all shell-shocked as Deeanna removed the watch with extreme precaution.

"He has got to be kidding me!" Deeanna continued as her eyes welled up, removing papers and little booklets from the box.

A little piece of copybook paper caught her attention suddenly. She took it and it read:

I am serious. Haha! The look on your face right now. Priceless!

Lots of love,

Liam.

"Should I give it back?" Deeanna asked.

"It depends if you want to" Salome laughed and Deeanna glared at her.

"Hey! Stop joking! This is serious!" Deeanna reprimanded.

Mrs. Aysun took the watch and observed it for a moment before saying:

"Well it would be rude to return his gift now, wouldn't it? I believe we should just talk to him and tell him not to buy such expensive gifts next time."

"Yes," Deeanna answered.

That was satisfactorily enough. She would have a talk with him the next time she sees him.

They had dinner and tried to use the apple watch. It worked perfectly well and Deeanna really liked it. They also sang and danced and it was finally time to say goodbye to Salome.

"No way!" Salome cried when Mrs. Aysun told her to call her father to pick her up, "And it won't be fair to make you clean up."

"But there's so much to do my dear," Mrs. Aysun said.

"It'll be fine ma'am! I won't do anything too tiring, ok?"

"Ok. Alright then" Mrs. Aysun smiled.

Salome seemed way too determined and excited to help for her to refuse her anyway.

Housework began soon after. Mrs. Aysun washed the dishes while her daughter and Salome started taking down the decorations, causing glitters to fall gently like snow during the process. They put the deflated balloons, the empty cake box, along with the other waste materials which could not be used again in large biodegradable plastic bags and made their way outside towards the dustbin.

As both girls stepped into the moonlit night, they felt a chill and the faint sound of frogs croaking along with other nocturnal animal noise.

"Brr..." Salome shivered, "It's kind of cold here. Pretty cold for a summer night."

"Tell me about it. Looks like it's going to rain soon too." Deeanna agreed as she opened the latch of the gate.

They walked outside, dragging their large bags with them.

"It's a pity Liam did not attend the party" Deeanna breathed, "He missed a great dinner."

"And a delicious cake" Salome piped up.

"With its delicious fruits and yummy cream" Deeanna added, "Anyway, we kept some in the fridge. I'll pack some for him tomorrow."

Deeanna opened the dustbin lid and allowed Salome to put her large bag in first. As Deeanna was about to drop hers, a large white dog appeared from the rear of the dustbin and began barking at her as if she was some sort of intruder.

"What's wrong with it?" a confused and surprised Salome asked out loud, "Oh Deeanna!"

The dog was now advancing towards Deeanna menacingly. Almost by instinct, the young girl backed off with small steps until fear completely swept over her and she turned around before running away, yelling her heart out while the dog chased her.

"Deeanna!" Salome cried.

Deeanna ran as fast as she could, reaching the latch which for some reason was not opening. She gave up and ran past her house, her heart beating extremely fast, blood rushing in her face and fear flashing in her eyes.

"Oh no!" Salome gasped and took off after her friend.

But it was too late. Deeanna was already out of sight.

"Mrs. Aysun!" Salome cried as she made her way back to the house.

"Help!" Deeanna screamed as she dashed in the opposite street, causing her to run around her own house, "What is wrong with you, dog? I didn't steal your fortune....or bone..."

After making a round around her house, the exhausted Deeanna sprinted towards the big iron gate on the opposite side of her house. With some luck, it might be unlocked. Her plan was simple; hurry inside the meadow and shut the gate behind her before the dog could enter. At least she'd be safe then.

As the dog closed in on Deeanna, she gathered all of her remaining energy in her limbs to reach the tall gates looming over her. She could not make out some parts of the empty meadow behind the iron gates. Hopefully, there were no bushes. This meant that there would be no surprise dog waiting for her there as well, hidden somewhere. As she drew nearer towards the iron bars, she realised that could make out the inscriptions on them. Quietly and almost instinctively she mouthed in a very low-pitched tone:

"It lights the night, up in the sky, bright it shines, the rays of light."

Why was she saying those words? Why now? Could it be that it was the only thing she could do so as not to think about the dog that was running after her? She supposed so....at least for the moment.

"And to think that I was going to have a splendid secret seventeen and enjoy it...THIS LOOKS LIKE A JOKE TO ME!" she yelled out to herself.

That was it. In 2 seconds she would push the gates open and go to the other side and it would all be over. Deeanna ran as fast as she could, putting her hands in front of her to push the gate open only to see it locked from the inside! She was sprinting so rapidly that she did not manage to stop herself in time and banged on the gate, lost control and felt herself fall on the soil harshly.

She remained flat on the soil, her eyes closed from the shock. The young girl realised that she must have broken the iron gate as she did pass through them despite the fact that it was shut. She opened her eyes and helped herself sit on the grass. She noticed that her elbows and her legs were bruised, but not seriously.

"Well, at least this heavy iron gate didn't hurt me" she muttered to herself.

The brown-eyed girl suddenly crossed her eyebrows as she looked down. Where was the iron gate? Since she passed through it, it must have fallen with her. She must have fallen on it. Looking up, Deeanna saw the iron gate standing still, but what was most puzzling was what she saw on the other side of the gate. There was no house or street on the other side. Only grass...and the edge of a high cliff with a rough sea on the horizon.