A young woman, with dark brown hair flowing past her shoulders, sat alone on a tire swing under a giant magnolia tree and watched as a delicate ruby-throated hummingbird flew through a bed of golden chrysanthemums and perched itself on the railings of a sunny wooden deck. In the distance, a car was approaching and the startled hummingbird hurriedly flapped its iridescent wings and disappeared into a thick patch of woods surrounding the woman's house.

The sound of the car engine quieted down and another woman, very similar to the first one but with hair pulled back in a high ponytail, took her suitcase out of the car's trunk and dragged it towards the tire swing while shouting gleefully "Surprise! Linda, I'm home for spring break!"

Linda's lips curved upward as she sprung from the swing and ran toward her younger sister.

"Sherlyn, it's good to have you back!" she laughed. "How was your very first semester at Blue Orchid? Did you like all of your professors? More importantly, did you meet cute guys?"

"I know you'd ask!" Sherlyn smirked. "Yes, there's this handsome fella who shared a table with me in Public Speaking 101. He has eyes that remind me of black pearls and whenever he smiles, oh my god!" her cheek was flushed. "You should have seen his dimples. Unbelievably precious."

"Aw, looks like you're crushing hard on him." Linda lightly shoved Sherlyn's shoulder. "Please tell me you asked for his number. What's his name, anyway? Is he in your major?"

"Johannes Sitohang. Sweet name, huh? I got his number. We were paired for a project."

"Nice!" Linda gave Sherlyn a high five. "What project?"

"Well, since it was a public speaking class we had to prepare a speech," Sherlyn said while twirling her hair. "Lee-sensei being a xenobiologist, however, assigned us to make an argument for or against breeding the exotic animals we have learned about throughout the semester."

"That sounds fun, integrating xenobiology and public speaking together," Linda nodded. "So, this Johannes dude, was he good at arguing whatever stance you and him took?"

"Oh yeah, he was incredible. We decided to argue for the breeding of Queen Alexandra butterflies. He spent weeks tirelessly compiling a ton of resources to back up our reasoning." Sherlyn's hazel eyes sparkled. "I helped too, of course, couldn't let him do everything alone."

"Good to hear, he seems to be a hardworking and dedicated student" Linda clapped. "So, I assume you got an A+ for the project. I am so proud of you, little sister."

"No, we didn't." Sherlyn sighed. "We only got an A- and the person who got the highest grade was the professor's nephew," she kicked a gravel on the driveway. "Kenta. I despise him."

The monitor faded to black and half a nanosecond later a blinding blue light appeared. Linda was sitting on her bed with her laptop. She glanced nervously at the digital clock at the bottom of the screen before muttering to herself. "That brat better not forget about our weekly video call!"

A notification popped up and Linda pumped her first in the air. "Freaking finally!"

"I'm sorry I was ten minutes late!" Sherlyn's face filled the screen. "But I have great news!"

"This better be as good as you said it is," Linda folded her arms. "You won a lottery?"

"Very funny." Sherlyn rolled her eyes. "No, but I made a real progress with my love life!"

"Yeay! That's worth celebrating!" Linda's frown turned into a smile. "With Johannes, right?"

"Who else would it be, silly?" Sherlyn chuckled. "I asked if he was single and he told me he is. I then asked if he has been seeing anyone and he said no. He then said he has never actually been in any relationship at all but wouldn't mind trying to be in one."

"You go, girlie!" Linda gave her a thumbs up. "So, what's next? A romantic getaway?"

"I mentioned to Johannes that there's a new tavern opening downtown and everyone has been raving about their Reuben sandwich. He's interested, so we're going there Sunday evening."

"Not a bad plan!" Linda grinned. "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach, after all."

The monitor went dark once again and then it showed Linda with glassy bloodshot eyes in a room with walls painted pastel green. She was cradling a lifeless Sherlyn in her arms, cans of crushed beer and two empty bottles of acetaminophen surrounding them.

"Why, Sherlyn? Why?!" Linda screamed. "We only had each other. I raised you all on my own after Ayah and Ibu died protecting us from that fire, but now you're gone and their sacrifice is for naught. Why?!" She held her sister's cold fist and noticed a piece of crumpled paper.

"A note?" Linda whispered to herself and then smoothened out the letter before reading it.

"Dear Sherlyn, I owe you an apology. I should have been honest from the moment you asked if I were seeing someone. It's true that I wasn't, but there's someone who has been occupying my mind. I was too afraid to admit my feelings to this person, still am building the courage to do so, and in a pathetic attempt to kill those feelings I agreed to date you. I apologize. You asked me why I never returned your kisses and hugs. Now you know. I'm a coward and you deserve better. I understand if you curse me for all eternity, I deserve it. Regretfully, Johannes."

Linda tore the letter up and put her sister's stiff hand to her tear-stained cheek.

"That son of a bitch, using you because he has no balls to confess to another woman!" she spat bitterly. "If I ever meet him in person, I'll make sure to teach him a lesson, Sherlyn. I'm going to make him believe not even God can forgive his trespasses."

The Somnodora returned to its default white screen, ending the memory-dream. Keith woke Linda up. She blinked and, after readjusting herself to the Dream Chamber, she glared at me.

"You see? Your darling brother isn't as perfect as you remember him to be!" she pointed her long finger at me. "He has no spine and I bet he knows not the pain of losing a sibling."

He almost did, I was tempted to reply but instead I said "No one is perfect. I'm very sorry you lost Sherlyn, I could only imagine your anguish, but Johan couldn't have known that breaking up with her would drive her to end her life. If he had known, I'm sure he would act wiser."

"Wise? That good-for-nothing douchebag?" Linda snickered. "He's a heartless monster! He didn't even show up at Sherlyn's funeral! I bet he was busy snogging the woman he fancied."

"Linda, please, that's unfair!" Moira rose from her seat. "We don't know what Johan thought. He might not come to the funeral because he felt too guilty or maybe because nobody let him know of the incident. I don't know what happened in between the letter and the suicide, but if poor Sherlyn cut contact with him after the break up and the university didn't make her death known to her classmates then it is possible Johan has no idea she passed away. Consider that."

"But shouldn't he be suspicious?" Linda stared defiantly at my wife. "Shouldn't he have asked himself why he hadn't seen Sherlyn around on campus after he did that atrocious thing?"

"Maybe he thought Sherlyn purposefully avoided him and he didn't try to track her down because he wanted to give her some space?" Moira shrugged. "I believe Johan isn't a cruel person."

"What happened was unfortunate," Keith, who had been awfully quiet, suddenly chimed in. "But Linda, the past is in the past. I'm sure Sherlyn wouldn't want you to hold grudges against her ex-boyfriend. That aside, why are you taking out your anger on Nardho? He's innocent."

"Shut up!" Linda roared. "Why are you siding with a man you just met barely an hour ago? I thought you're my best friend, Keith. Why aren't you defending me?"

"Best friends aren't afraid to tell each other off when they step out of line!" Keith retorted. "But seeing how you don't seem to want to admit you crossed a line, we're through. Also, if we were truly best friends, you wouldn't have bossed me around. Let me repeat: we're through."

"Through? Who do you think gave you a job when you were laid off?" Linda's voice was laced with venom. "Who do you think paid for your rent when you couldn't afford to?"

"Your gas lighting technique isn't gonna work on me anymore," Keith said calmly. "I've wanted to resign for a while now, anyway. I don't like how you treated me like a mere servant in this company. I held my tongue because I needed the money but now that I have enough in my savings to get back on my feet, au revoir!"

"Fine, technicians like you are dime a dozen, anyway. You're replaceable." Linda yawned. "You bored me. As for you two," she glanced at Moira and me, "Leave this premise and don't come back. But know this, Nardho: when I did security clearance to grant you and your wife access to this laboratory, I gained information about your family too. Johan isn't safe from my wrath."

----

Keith insisted on escorting us to the parking lot. Just before I unlocked the door to my car, he tapped my shoulder, his eyes full of unspoken emotions and he struggled to say his sentence.

"I-I'm ashamed that I couldn't do more during Linda's outburst," he looked at the ground. "But I can t-try my b-best to delete your information from the c-company d-database and destroy a-any copy of it Linda might have stored elsewhere. In the meantime, p-please be vigilant."

"Not your fault, Keith. You stood up to her and that was enough," I smiled. "And thank you for offering to get rid of my personal information, that would help, and I'll keep my guard up."

"If you ever need anything while evading Linda, you can call this number," Keith handed me a business card. I turned it over and scrunched my eyebrows together when I realized it had the number for a pizza delivery service. Did Keith have a part-time job on top of the one he quitted?

"My son owns the pizza parlor," he explained upon seeing my confusion. "Ask for George and he'd get you in touch with me. This is the only way to communicate without Linda interfering."

"Speaking of interference," Moira chimed in, "there are no CCTVs in this parking lot, right? I don't want any footage of us making its way to Linda's hand."

"No CCTVs, thankfully!" Keith exclaimed. "This parking lot isn't part of the company. It's a shared parking lot used by many other businesses around this block and since this part of town has extremely low rate of car theft or vandalism everyone has been lax about installing CCTVs."

"I'm relieved," I let out a breath. "Well, we should get going, Keith. Thanks for everything."

"Take care."

----

"Nardho, what are we gonna do?" Moira looked at me worriedly once we were at a red light.

"I should find a secure way to warn Johan and Kenta about that dangerous lady," I sighed uneasily. "Maybe it's easier if we tell Neesa first and then she can relay our message to them."

"We aren't going home, are we?" Moira asked as she glanced at the built-in car GPS. "Whose address is that you're punching in? Nardhia's?"

"No, you heard what Linda said. She knows about my family now. I can't risk putting my twin, Tony, and my niece in danger too." I said shakily. "We're going to Rain and Vannie's."

"Fingers crossed they let us stay with them," Moira bit her lips. "Nardho, I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything wrong, honey. Linda is too consumed by resentment but it has nothing to do with you," I replied. "I love you so much. We will weather this storm side by side."