Beginning Of Part 2 (  Shift in P.O.V. )

I woke up abruptly to the sound of a loud honk in the distance. My eyes met the morning blue sky that had no sign of clouds in any direction. I instinctively turned to my right to look for the girl I had just spent the entire night with. We hadn't moved from the place where we kissed. After I had a wonderful kiss with that crazy hazel eyed girl we just...fell asleep.

My eyes landed on the spot where once the girl was fast asleep, all I saw in her place was a piece of paper. I grasped the paper and inspected it. On it was a poem written in a neat cursive handwriting, which if I had to guess, belonged to the girl.

I stood up and looked around to as far as my eyes could see. There was no sign of the girl. Not even footsteps or even an impression of where she was once laying down. It was like she never existed anywhere but in my memories. But honestly, that was fine by me. It was like...the perfect memory. I felt like adding anything to it might ruin it. My brain understood this, but for some reason my heart ached for another memory.

In my conflicted state of mind- with a part of me not wanting to see her while the other part dying to even glance at her, I slowly got up and patted myself free of dust.

I looked down at the paper and read it.

"Hey Stranger

Look into the past, and help find the piece of it that went missing. Help me solve this mystery and then come and find me.

P.S. stop and take a breath once a while. Look up at the sky and enjoy the beauty. Tonight search for a constellation whose beauty led her to being punished, but then was saved by a prince in shining armor.

I'll be waiting for you.

Crazy Hazel-eyed girl."

I was expecting a 'goodbye' or even a 'thanks for last night'. But instead, the note was just wrapped in a blanket of mystery, just like the girl who wrote it. The girl who I still refer to as 'the girl', due to the lack of a name to her rather beautiful face.

I glanced at the note once more, unsure of what it meant. All I understood was, that if I were to do what she wanted me to do, I would be able to see her again. That promise was good enough to make me do a lot of things which I wouldn't otherwise. 

Giving up on trying to decipher the note, I tucked it in my back pocket. I began walking, when my phone suddenly began to ring. I looked at the caller I.D. to discover that my dad was calling me. I held the phone in my hand and let it ring a couple more times. After the sixth ring, I answered the call.

"Rhys, I have been waiting for you for the past half- hour. Where have you been?" My dad whisper-yelled into the phone.

"Hello, dad. Good morning to you too!" I replied, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Don't be smart with me, Rhys. Now is not the time. You promised to visit their grave with me this time. I was a fool to believe you. You haven't visited them since their funeral. At least you could have visited them today.  You do remember it is their anniversary today, don't you?" He said, his voice an octave lower than usual. I could sense the disappointment and betrayal in his voice.

"I do remember. And you also know that I am not going to visit them. So good bye then, dad." I said carelessly into the phone. Despite wanting to hang up, I didn't. I stayed on the phone, listening to the short and hard breaths my dad was taking on the other side of the phone. After a few moments, he sighed. Although it was only a sigh, its meaning was clear as day. My dad was tired, and I had pushed him to his limits. He was damn near to giving up on me. Despite what my actions said, all I wanted for him was to not give up on me. However, I just didn't have the courage in me to say anything to him. Especially after what I was going to do last night, I needed him to stay away from me. Me. I was the problem...not anything else. 

"Rhys...just come to my office. I just want to see you once." He said. 

"Sure, whatever." I replied and hung up on him. 

"Today was the day they died". I thought to myself. I balled my right hand into a tight fist, allowing my nails to dig into my palm. I closed my eyes in order to feel that pain. Once I felt wetness in my palms, I sighed and let go of the fist. I brought the hand up to my face and looked at the blood rushing out of the wounds. I smiled a smile filled with pain, tucked my hand in the pocket of my hoodie, and continued walking towards the sheriff's office which was where my dad worked since he was the sheriff of the town of Myst. 

When I reached the sheriff's office after a walk of 20 minutes, I stepped in and was instantly greeted by the plump and very maternal lady in her early 50s, who was the receptionist. 

"Good morning, Rhys!" she said in her usual cheerful voice. 

"Hi, Mrs Anderson." I replied as I walked towards her desk. 

"Oh please! How many times do I have to tell you to call me Judy? Anyways son...how are you?" She asked sympathetically. 

"I am fine Mrs. An-...um.. Judy. Is my dad in there?" 

"Yes, honey. He is in his office. Go on in. He has been waiting for you." She  said with a sympathetic smile. I knew she meant well, but I hated that smile. I tried my best to return hr with a small smile. 

"Thanks, Judy." I said as I walked past her desk and into the main hall of the small Sheriff's office. There were a total of five people who worked there. My dad was one of them. He had his own tiny office, while the other four merely had their own desks. Like usual, there weren't many people in here. The number of crimes committed in our town of Myst was really low. The last murder here took place over 6 decades ago. Generally, people here were friendly and no one harmed each other. 

I walked towards my dad's office and knocked on the door. My dad looked at me and signaled for me to come in. I stepped into his office, closed the door behind me, and took a seat on the chair in front of his desk. My dad was writing something in a notebook. I looked at him. He looked so much older now than he did last year. It was like he had aged over ten years in just that one year. He used to look handsome once, but now he just looked like an old man who had no care for the world around him. He hadn't bothered shaving for at least a week, he probably hadn't combed his hair for a week. I wasn't even sure if he showered regularly. Everyone dealt with grief differently. Seems like my dad's way to deal with grief, was to become a slob. 

My dad finally looked up from his notebook and muttered a "hi". 

"How's school going?" My dad asked me. 

"It's almost over...so that's good." I replied. 

"Did you think about what colleges you're going to go to?" 

"Not really." I shrugged. 

"Well you should start thinking about them." He said. 

"Okay cool. Can I go now?" 

"No you can't. Can't you be normal for once!" My dad said. His voice growing louder by the second. "I am your father. I am trying really hard to talk to you. The least you can do-" My dad was cut short when his office door opened. A girl around the same age as me walked in. I had never seen her before in my life but something about her seemed familiar, but I wasn't sure what it was. 

She walked towards my dad and started yelling at him, "All I am asking for you is to look into it once more. You can't just dismiss me this easily. I am telling you something is wrong about all of this. The least you can do is to look into it. Can't you just do that! Can't you just do your job!" 

Before my dad could say anything, Mrs. Anderson came in running and started  shouting at the girl and asking her to leave. 

"Its alright, Judy. You can go." My dad said, and Mrs. Anderson left the room immediately. "As for you, young lady, it's time to stop. Go live your life and accept that your best friend killed herself, instead of trying to find a way to prove that she didn't. Now get out of my office. Rhys, you can leave too if you make her leave. Go buy her a coffee or something, just...just get her to stop." My dad said and went back to scribbling in his notebook. I sighed but I would gladly take any chance to not have to talk to my dad anymore. I held the girl by her hand and dragged her outside. It was easy since she didn't protest. She followed me as we walked outside the sheriff's office. 

Once we stopped walking, I left her hand and took a step back from her. 

"I am not crazy. I know you think that I am, but I am not." She whispered and looked down at her shoes. Her voice cracked, and before she broke down and started crying, I asked her if she wanted to drink coffee or something. She nodded a "yes" and we walked across the street to a small coffee shop that was open 24 hours a day. I ordered a cappuccino for her and a double espresso for myself. 

To prevent her from crying, I asked her a question. "So what happened to you best friend?"

"My best friend is..I mean was Claire. She died. The sheriff thinks that she killed herself, but I know she didn't. And that's why I went to the sheriff's office. To show him this." She replied while looking down at her coffee. She opened her bag, grabbed a piece of paper and handed it to me. It was a list of eight names. 

"Who are these people?" I asked her. 

"Its a list of everyone in Myst who supposedly killed themselves in the past year. Myst has never had these many people who killed themselves. Something is wrong." She replied

"Its highly possible that there is some other reason behind the suicides?" I said feigning interest in the conversation. 

"I don't know about the rest of them, but I am sure that Claire would never kill herself. I just need help proving it." She said with desperation and pain filled in her voice.

"I just...need someone's help proving it." She said and looked at me for the first time since we met. I looked at her, and smiled when I saw her eyes. They were the same hazel eyes as that of the crazy-hazel eyed girl I met. My heart nearly skipped a beat for it couldn't contain my happiness at being a step closer to solving the mystery and finding "the crazy hazel eyed girl." I

If you couldn't tell already, I loved mysteries. My life was straight up sh^t. Solving little mysteries, even a crossword puzzle, was how I kept myself busy. Being busy kept my mind away from thinking about my life, therefore decreasing the chance of me killing myself. 

"What did you say your name was?" I asked her.

"I didn't. But it's Andromeda. You can call me An." She replied. 

"Andromeda? Isn't that a constellation?" I said growing even happier. A constellation meant that this had something to do with stars. And if this had something to do with stars it means that it has something to do about...her.

"Yes. My dad loved stars and constellations. He named my sisters and I a different constellation. I got Andromeda, the poor yet helpless girl who gets saved my a knight in shining armor." She replied. The confidence in her voice was higher now. She seemed to have gotten past her tears. I thought letting her talk about this would be a better alternative than giving her a reason to cry or remind her of the pain.

"What's the story of Amdoromeda?" I asked.

"Well, its a Greek myth. Basically,her mother boosted about Andromeda's beauty. This angered Poseidon who sent a monster to destroy her kingdom. Apparently the only way to save the kingdom was to sacrifice Andromeda. So they stripped her naked and then tied her to a chain near the sea, waiting to be eaten by the sea monster when this really brave guy 'Perseus' slays the monster, saves her life and they have a happy ever after and make tons of babies." She narrated animatedly.

I knew what the "crazy hazel eyed girl" meant when she asked me to look up at the sky and search for the constellation that was punished for her beauty, but was saved by a knight in shining armour. She wanted me to find An. She wanted me to find her and help her. And if this was what I had to do to meet the crazy hazel eyed girl, then I was willing to do it.

"I'm in." I said and looked at An.

"What?" She asked, looking confused.

"I am going to help you solve the mystery behind the death of your friend. You said that you just needed someone to help you...I will." I said and softly placed my hand over hers in an attempt to comfort her. She didn't pull her hand back. Instead she looked at me and just...smiled. In that moment, as I looked into those hazel eyes, for the first time in a year, I truly didn't feel so alone.

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Hey guys! I know I don't update often..but I promise that it is going to be much more often from now on.

What were your thoughts on this chapter? Do you like the book so far? Are you glad that the extreme romace in part 1 over?

Here is a question for you guys:
"I know its too early to say...but who do you think is the crazy hazel eyed girl? And how do you think is she related to An? Is it the hazel eyes or is there no connection whatsoever?"

Do tell me what you think by commenting. Also show me some love ❤❤❤ and like and share.

Thanks for reading <3
~Sky