For 卂.卂
• Everything might break apart, but your kindness will never •

"Emergency meeting!" Ria sent the voice note as she dragged her green suitcase from under her bed and packed her function wear as quick as her buttery fingers could.

"Ria!" She heard the frantic voice of Annabelle Lisa boom from her trusty iPhone. Annabelle was a delicate, small-boned young girl, usually dressed in square shouldered dresses, preferring Victorian wear over modern clothes.

"What happened?" She asked, fearing the worst. Annabelle never needed a reason to be scared, sometimes her own toenail scared her. But her fear made her kinder, more sympathetic and amiable, a permanent splendid smile stuck upon her face, it was her only mask.

"Hey Anna!" Ria squealed. "Nothing's wrong!Where's Yara and Scar?" Ria carried on stuffing the suitcase before zipping it shut.

"Present, Miss Colton. Or should I say Mrs Shakespeare?" Laughed Scarlet Brunes, mostly known as the notorious sweet dealer at Overview Academy Sixth form. She was like a little bunny, petit and burrowed in her comfort zone with friends she'd had all her life and of course her signature hoodies. Her biggest fear was the box outside, the world she was yet to meet.

Scarlet stopped laughing as she realised that Ria's smile hadn't disappeared even though she had called her by a name she very much despised. "Why are you smiling so hard? You know it's kind of creepy."

"Stop being such a tractor, Scar, Ria seems so happy, we should be happy too!" Annabelle impeded, Scarlet had a tendency to lose her filters, but the RAYS were used to it.

Ria pulled out a cardboard box from under Damien's bed, her parents seemed to have left a dozen in their room already. She delicately placed her diverse collection of books into it. From Harry Potter to boring biographies, she owned a copy of most of her favourite reads, and some experimental ones too.

"Where's Yara?" Ria asked as she put her last collection, his dark materials, a trilogy by Phillip Paulman, one she held close to her heart into the box. Her fingers hovered over His and Hers by Alice Feeney, for a peculiar and unnamable reason, it didn't feel right for her to put that book away just yet, she thought she ought to re-read it before taking it to her new home, after all, it as a book about home.

"Yo, Ria I'm right here, do you need another prescription for your blind sightness." Ria would know that voice anywhere. It was the one and only, Yeretzi Drews, Ria's best friend, partner in crime and inventor of the theory compass (a figurative compass of the mind where all theories run wild). "This better be important, I was busy searching up on zombie apocalypses again and... I think I found a lead!"

"You found a lead?!" Ria seemed almost flabbergasted, however also hopeful and immensely excited, one can simply say, she was a child in a candy store. "This is crazy! Send me the lead ASAP."

Worn out and exhausted, Scarlet rolled her eyes and sighed. "Here they go." They never did stop, Scarlet had the right to be annoyed but like every other teenager, Scarlet didn't realise how important the conversation was, once those little segments go missing, they can't be found again, sometimes they are the most important ones too. It's not what one says that is always important, it's the fact that they spoke, one day, they may stop speaking.

"They never stop, do they?" Giggled Annabelle. Before Yeretzi could respond, Annabelle added: "But you haven't told us about the announcement yet, Ria."

"Oh yes!" Exclaimed Ria. "So... guys..." the pause was quiet long, almost heavy. They each had their own theories in what Ria would say, but none of them were right. "We're moving!"

"Oh my god!"

"What the heck!"

"Where?!"

"How?!"

"This is absolute bonkers!"

"Calm down guys. It's bonkers, I know. My parents just told me now." Ria's smile stretched so wide, one might have seen her and wondered how much pain it was causing, though she couldn't feel it, yet. Like most of the pain in the world; it slowly spreads, like a mutiny within one's self, disguised as a friend.

"Send the address on our chat. I want to see it!"  Yeretzi pulled out a bucket of popcorn from wherever she kept her hidden stock of deliciousness. She looked up to see everyone gawking at her precious red and white bucket. "Also, stop eyeing my food, I'll bring some to school on Saturday."

"Sent!" Ria chimed as so did all their devices. "We're moving on Saturday so you might have to pack it for me, Yara, I might leave early."

"Sure." Yeretzi responded, though her eyes were glued to her phone, as was Scarlet's and Annabelle's. "It takes ten minutes from mine to walk to yours. That's great, you can come over everyday!"

"Well ten minute drive from mine." Scarlet sighed, partly irritated by the excruciatingly slow WiFi and partly by the unsettling feeling emitting from the address.

"Unfortunately, it's an hour from mine." Chirped Annabelle, her true feelings pushed aside. Truth was, Annabelle sometimes felt like a stranger, she wasn't close enough to the RAYS as she wished, the distance grew when her parents decided to move to Ciraville.

"Ria..." Yeretzi looked up from her phone with a perplexed look. "Is it just me or your moving into a manor, called Kildare, which I can't seem to find a picture of, anywhere on internet?." Yeretzi spoke with deliberate slowness. Her strangled words wrapped around Ria like a choker made of nails. "This seems dodgy to me."

"Hang on, Yara, geez, I know you like your theories but don't dodgy Ria's house." Scarlet defended, unsure herself. Scarlet couldn't find anything either, nor could Annabelle.

"It's like it's not in our existence." Whispered Annabelle. She thought she was speaking to herself, but it seemed she wasn't. They all heard. They all remained silent. Silence hung heavily upon the four like a lead cape draped over a knobbly door made up of four heads. Scarlet didn't like the unfamiliar feeling of fear meandering through her veins. She looked up to see their dazed face before breaking the silence.

"Annabelle. Wow." She fixed her eyes on a shaken Annabelle. "You have a good sense of dark humour. It was very interesting to hear that come from you. Wasn't it guys?"

"Yeah" chorused Ria and Yeretzi, fazed by their own worries that seemed to be sprinting through theirs minds.

Yes, it indeed was interesting, and very hilarious. The funniest jokes tend to be the most honest ones, the ones that come from the hearts and minds of the innocent.

Sometimes, we can't see somethings, not because they don't exist, it's because someone is running against death to hide it till their very last, last breath. The true question here is, who is hiding what? And maybe why?

"Make sure you call us when you get to the manor on Saturday, we want to see it." Yeretzi pushed away any sliver of doubt. She trusted Mr and Mrs Colton, what was there not to trust of people as kind as the Coltons?

Yeretzi was a smart girl, but in that current instance, she had become a fool. One may say she was ignorant; but truly, she was only happy. Happiness can sometimes shadow the rational, the facts in front of our eyes, so that we can smile, for maybe one last time. It can make us trust even the fear we nurture dearly within our souls.

One can never wholly trust someone. There's always a portion of distrust among every relationship, every bond, every human.

•—•

This probably my first attempt in giving my character friends who don't just drop dead lol XD
I did that a LOT with hidden within.

What do you think of the RAYS?

Who's your favourite?
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