'You won't tell anyone right?' Blair asked Eliah as she dropped her to her room.

Eliah chewed the inner of her cheeks, looked down on her perfectly carved nails, made a thinking face and finally, said, 'No, but only on one condition.'

'And that is?'

'If you have to sneak out, you'll do it with me.'

'Deal.' Eliah, with a satisfactory face, went in her room.

Blair huffed as she turned around and gasped.

'Ace, you?!—I mean hi.' Blair closed her hands into fists.

Ace raised up his eyebrow. To Blair, Ace was the most different sibling. If it wouldn't be for his dull grey eyes, he woudn't look like one of Mackenzie's. 'And you were where ... ?'

'I ... ' Blair looked down on her yellow pumps. 'Would you tell Adrien?' Blair had no idea why did she even ask but for her, Ace seemed more cooler than Adrien but Adrien was surely not a person to forgive. Just thinking about his cold eyes, she shuddered.

Ace smirked. 'That you snuck out? If you had ran away then I would've.'

Blair furrowed. 'You are not angry?'

'Why would I be? No one likes sitting in a house no matter how big it is.' Ace shrugged as he looked down on his phone than slid it back in his pocket. 'Speaking of which, have I given you a house tour yet?'

'Not really.'

'Well, would you like one?' Ace offered as he tucked his hands as he placed his hand on his waist just barely that his fingers touched.

'Sure.'

'Sweet. Follow me.' He began walking towards a direction of a lobby at the back.

Blair sprinted to catch up with him. 'Why are you not angry? Or mad for me sneaking out?'

'Because you had to. I mean we've kidnapped you but jeez! You did take time to do this.'

'You expected me to?'

Ace turned left and looked at Blair. 'To be honest, if you had taken more longer, I would've taken you by myself. Like you are kidnapped, at least you should've ran away once or twice. It'll be fun.' Now Blair thought where did Eliah took the "fun" concept. 'Here we are,' Ace pushed open the door and revealed a gigantic library that made a loud gasp from Blair's mouth. ' THE Library slash boring slash old people's AKA my bid bro's place.'

The library was divided into three floors with spirals staircases climbing up to provide the required book. Each shelf was filled with books with with tags over them informing the genres. On the first floor laid a large comfy l-shaped sofa with a table in the centre. A coffee machine was placed on the counter of a small snack bar. Two tables with three chairs each were placed at the corner.

It was the library of Blair's dreams. Just by stepping in it, giddiness tickled her. She knew, if allowed, she'll be spending a lot of time here.

'Can I look?'

'Yeah but I need to show some other stuff so you can visit later.'

Blair's eyes sparkled. 'Can I?'

'Well, Yeah. You live here.' Ace answered her in a duh tone but Blair didn't mind. Just by looking the library, a wave of happiness crawled up to her. 'Come on.' Ace beckoned Blair to another look just a few metres away. 'This is a ballroom.'

Blair blinked twice. She stood into a vast, empty room with no furniture but a piano. A massive window, almost of a wall, lit up the room. 'Who plays the piano?'

'Eliah.' Ace answered. 'And Adrien.'

'And you don't?'

Ace gave Blair a small smile. 'Let's just say I was a left out kid and a grumpy one who would cut Eliah's doll's head and stitch up a dinosaur or a horrible face on it just so she can scream the loudest and scare the butlers.' Blair chuckled softly but Ace just shrugged. 'It was fun.'

'Fun? Scaring people was fun to you?' Ace closed the ballroom door and walked to some other direction while Blair wondered how could they remember the place. Even if Blair had lived here for her whole life, she'd still get lost.

'Ah, you haven't grown up with a sibling have you? Well, let me tell you,' Ace opened another door of what seemed like an office. 'Siblings and annoying is a perfect couple. You know, like Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. Made for each other.'

Blair narrowed her eyes. 'Not all of them. This is your office?'

'Yup.'

Blair looked around and found nothing extra ordinary. It was exactly like  the one displayed in the movies. A room full of luxurious furniture.

'Do you like it?'

'It is nice.' Ace gave her another of his small smile before he lead her out of his room and into a gym room with all the possible equipments for exercise laid there. A big LED was attached to a wall and a bar was at the corner.

'This is The gym. My baby. The shiny-whiny advantage for being rich.' Blair tried to hide the awe about the fact that they had two rooms for training. One for the training of weapons and one for exercise. Now that she noticed, the training room was attached to the gym.

Ace walked out and so did Blair. As she passed out of a room, she noticed pictures of perhaps their family but Ace changed his route. 'Why aren't we going there?'

'Not really important. Come on.'

'Ace,' Blair stopped him. 'What's up with you?'

Ace turned around, facing her. 'What possibly can be up with me?'

'You're being ... nice and weird.'

He made a face at the comment. 'Shouldn't I be?'

'No. You are my kidnapper and I shouldn't be going on a house touring with you. Why are we doing this? And why can't we go in there?'

'Because I don't want you to stay in your room and weep like a child. There is so much for you to see and you really wanna know about some grandpa's and granny's makin' a tree? Come on girl, get a grip.'

'Are you kidding me right now? You are saying this? You? You freaking kidnapped me and used to torture me with your knife.'

'Well yeah, I had to. You wouldn't listen other way.'

Blair furrowed. She couldn't decipher the meaning of it. She twisted her neck and looked into the room filled with pictures again.  Something nudged in her head, calling her. She didn't hear any voice but she knew, she can remember. It was a feeling of surety. 'What do you want from me?'

'Nothing. Just chill out. That's all.'

'Stop paying nice with me.' Blair snapped. 'I know you guys will kill me at the beat so no way in hell I can trust you. Tell me the truth about what you know.' She pointed at Ace, talking in codes about the picture she found. She wanted to know more, about her but at first, she wanted to know if she can trust.

'What do I know?' Ace chuckled. 'Well, you really wanna know?' He began walking again and Blair sprinted to catch up with him.

'Tell me.' Blair felt the weight of the photograph in her pocket. Nervousness shook her to core as the giddiness of the revelation of her past was to come.

'I know that they will kill you,' Blair's giddiness vanished at the very second. 'the second you remember about the scar and honestly, I don't want you dead. I mean, you a good girl.'

'They'll kill me?' Blair saw the coming but it still hurt. 'Even Adrien?'

'Why? You having a crush on him or something?'

'No.' Blair shook her head more than she should've. Why would Adrien kill her? Or anyone? What has she even done to them? 'So, like that's all? That's gonna be my life?'

Ace shrugged. 'You can make the most of it if you want. I mean, I'll accompany you.'

'Why are you being so nice suddenly?' She kept on asking the same question cause he never answered it honestly.

He leant in and Blair smell that fresh smell of cherries from his mouth. 'Because I like you.'

Blair, out of irritation, stepped back. 'Eww ... like don't even.'

Ace smirked and bit his bottom lip. 'Okay, but soon you'll be falling in my arms and kissing me in the moonlight and stripping down. That'll be hot.' 

'Can you like, shut up?'

'See right there? My charisma made the Goldie blush.'

Blair didn't even bother replying. Disgust took over her and she instantly made her way up to her room, closing her door and locking it, trying her best not to throw up.
---
At night, Blair's sleep abandoned her to the darkness. As she laid quietly on her bed, her mind wandered about her past. How horrible could it be to steal someone's memory? It's not just the urge to remember, it's the emptiness laying in the pit of her stomach, the loneliness of a great grief, the vacancy of an echo—an impression of one's own's moments.

How long could I survive without knowing? How far could I live?

She stood up from her bed and without any second thought, picked up her swim suit and rushed down to the pool.

It was empty, like the middle of the night suited it to be. She changed her clothes in a haste manner as the urgency to remember something clawed her throat. As she stared down in the water, her reflection came out as a false alarm. Who is this girl? She asked herself. What does she know?

For her answers, Blair dived in the water. The faint yet dark blue covered her vision. 'Help me! Blair, Help!' Bubbles of water came out of her mouth as she heard a distant voice coming out from none but the memory department that had been closed for a good while.

She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to recall why would someone need her in the past? Who was the girl? As she focused, only a mane of red hair flew before her eyes.

Oxygen depletion led her up to the surface of water but her mind stayed behind. She took in a a good amount of oxygen as she jumped back in but this time, nothing came. She came back up, suck in oxygen, went down, swam about, tried to recall the red hair, the voice, closed her eyes but all in vain.

She was yet again lost.

'You need to stop trying.' Came a voice.

Blair came on the surface and breathed deeply. As she rubbed her eyes, Adrien sat on one the edge of one of the beach chairs, looking intently at something.

'I need to remember!' Blair panted. With her hands, she pushed her hair back to her head.

'You will.' He used his utterly calm tones as he unbuttoned his suit and took his jacket off. 'Give it some time. Memories of a lifetime are not easy to recover.'

'Why did you take them?' Blair got out of the water and walked up to the towels laying on another beach chair. 'Why would you destroy my life?'

'You will understand the utter reason only when you remember them.'

'And how can I?'

'Like I said, give it a time.' Adrien leant back a little and scrubbed his jaw. Something twirled among his fingers but from Blair's angle, she coudn't see. She was standing at the end of the room while Adrien was sitting at the other corner. 'Might I ask your forgiveness to intrude but curiosity took the best of me.'

Blair furrowed. 'What do you mean?' She played all the scenarios Adrien might've found out about the photograph. It was in her room, in her sundress' pocket that was hung by the door of her bathroom.

'This.' He twisted his fingers that the photograph rotated and faced Blair, taking away her breath and the colours from her face.

Before Blair could muster up any sensible answer, she jumped as a sudden alarm wailed in the building and only words of panic she could understand coming out of the room were,

'Run!'

oOo