"What a nice view, isn't it, Clarissa?"
She would get her answers; she wouldn't hesitate to go on the offensive if she had to. She clutched her fists tightly. Good people like Inuwa seemed to suffer the most, always being subjected to the worst, whether it was physically or mentally.
She hated it. Why couldn't they live without something going terribly wrong? She was beginning to get tired of fate and its sycophants dragging her and her friends around that gilded cage without a second thought for the travesties it caused.
"It is a nice sky, but this isn't something I hoped to talk about with you," she answered robotically.
The boy's already widened smile widened further. He took a sip of his drink, which looked to be a milky chocolate upon further evaluation. Confidently, he then lifted his drink as if it were a trophy.
"If that isn't what you wished to talk with me about, what is?"
He looked up toward her, a slight warmth in his eyes. But, to Clarissa, every part of his aesthetic was patched together, a sum of years of experiences. To see such warmth mimicked was unnerving.
As a result of this unnerving experience, along with the spiral alignment of the poppies, the chaotic, blood-like red of the area and the deadly calm prevailing in the usually windy area, Clarissa was at her wit's end. As such, she couldn't filter out her thoughts anymore.
"Stop playing games! You know what happened to Inuwa! Spit it out, Vector!" She demanded, her fists clenched tightly. Upon realising the mistake she made in her tone, she coughed and repeated herself with a more robotic-sounding voice.
"Sorry for my crassness; what I meant was, how did you find Inuwa?" She inquired.
"Oh… I see," his smile remained the same. Fixed and stationary. He opened his eyes to reveal his blood-red irises; inadvertently, he unnerved Clarissa in the process.
"Well, how about you come sit down here with me, and we can admire the sun together. That would make for quite a nice experience together, wouldn't it?"
Clarissa didn't doubt that. This Edenic, pristine landscape was often a place where she could come lay her worries out bare and be as vulnerable and helpless as she wanted to be. This was the area that brought her the greatest comfort in life.
As such, there was a prickling, stifling desire to let her guard down and surrender to the warmth of the area. However, she wouldn't fall for it so easily. The chaotically crimson poppies, the spiralling alignment of said poppies, the boy with red eyes at the centre of it all. It was all too coincidental. It was all too terrifying. So, for now, she concluded, she would pretend to be receptive to his gestures.
"And how about I offer you a drink to go along with it?" He said, offering her a cup of hot chocolate. Apparently, he had two with him.
"I'll gladly take you up on your first offer, but I'm not in the mood for drinks right now. My bladder is quite easily upset by dairy after all," she half-truth-ed. She was lactose intolerant but had taken her lactase pill that day. She then sat down next to Vector; her legs were tucked into her body and her arms wrapped around her legs. In that position, she looked incredibly defensive, like a hedgehog recoiling away from the world itself.
Her reasoning for not accepting the drink was far more paranoid than anything else, but it was founded on reasonable logic. Why would he have a second cup? Sure, he was expecting her, but he likely also expected her to suspect him and distrust him. It would make no sense for one to buy someone who holds little to no trust in that person a drink or a meal without a 3rd party to assess or guarantee that it's safe. Therefore, it'd be reasonable to conclude that inside the drink was either a drug or poison. As such, it would be best to just avoid that in its entirety.
"I figured as much," he responded. What does he mean by 'figured as much'? She wanted to say she knew the answer, as she had a suspicion but needed to affirm it through gathering as much evidence as possible. Resolutely, she clutched her phone in her pocket and clicked the 'off' button 5 times in quick succession.
This would set off the 'emergency' app, which, when activated, would read its holder's temperature and heart rate. If it drops below a certain point, a signal would be sent, and then emergency services would be dispatched. This app was more for identifying potential murderers than saving victims. However, it'd be useful in this situation, which is why she downloaded it in the school before talking to Edgar.
Edgar…. She thought. He was probably profusely searching for her, holding a handkerchief, wiping the sweat off his forehead and huffing like a Victorian grandmother. Of course, he didn't know about Inuwa and Clarissa's secret hangout spot. No one knew. Which is why it was even more odd that Vector was there.
No one just happens to 'stumble' across it so quickly in the roughly 1 hour that it took for her to get there. It had to have been a place he knew for about a week for him to remember the directions well enough to know all the fastest paths to get there.
But that was denied simply because Clarissa had frequented the area many times that past week aside from the day before at the party. It was simply unnatural. Of course, this could be her letting her suspicions run wild, but at the same time it'd support her current theory.
"Okay, well, I'll tell you how I found him now, I guess," he sighed.
"How did you, then?"
"I already said before, but here goes," he shrugged. "I was running in that race; I was in first place for most of it. But I somehow managed to veer wildly off course. Eventually, I began to run in circles. I had marked trees, but I somehow came back to the same ones. It was disorienting. Then, at some point, I had arrived at a cliffside-"
"How did you end up running in circles? Weren't you the top-ranked student this year? I find that incredibly hard to believe," she reasoned. "If you give me a decent enough answer, I'll stop pressing."
"I guess I just don't have a great sense of direction. All smart people have at least one God-given weakness. I mean you of all people should know that better than I do," he replied quite high-handedly.
Clarissa trembled for a second. As someone who was only deemed as 'Perfect' and 'Talented', she could do nothing as she was forced to keep performing, keep practising.
She had to practice nonsense like swimming and cooking to make sure no one would truly understand how utterly helpless she was. That was why this place was a haven to her. An oasis in a cage.
But that was her price to pay for finding a way to reach for the stars that lay outside that cage -and she'd continue to endeavour for that. With all her strength. With her confidence re-affirmed, she huffed.
"Well, I guess I shall continue," he said after getting the signal from her. "At some point, I had arrived at a cliffside. Since it was different from the usual hordes of trees that I had grown accustomed to, I decided to walk over there. However, something was strange. I could see a muff of black hair sticking out of a boulder, and there he was. Your boyfriend- Inuwa," he concluded.
Unenthused by the provocation, she continued to press. "And how is it you suppose he got that massive serration across his chest?" She hoped the question would trip up Vector, if only, trivially.
Vector, however, had a response immediately.
"Perhaps he was likely slashed at by a bear near the cliff in a tussle, and he decided to jump off- obviously, to escape the bear."
She countered immediately, having seen a supposed glaring hole in his idea.
"But first I need to ask, the only situation in which he'd be so ready to jump off a cliff would be if the cliff was at a height possible to jump from without sustaining injury in the first place, right?"
"Indeed," he answered, sipping his hot chocolate. While this happened, a small white rabbit had somehow wormed its way onto his lap. It had red eyes and a small horn-like appendage growing out of its head. Vector started stroking its fur. In response, the rabbit nestled cutely into his lap and relaxed. Seeing this, Clarissa was tempted to decrease her hostility. A man who could so readily earn the trust of animals couldn't possibly be foul.
"Why does it have a horn?" she asked, curiously.
"Genetic mutation… possibly?" he reasoned.
"Right."
"Well, if the cliff was at a height possible to jump from without sustaining injury, wouldn't the bear be able to follow Inuwa and jump down itself? Bears have far stronger muscles and are protected by more fat and skin to absorb the impact. I don't see why it wouldn't follow him, and then, as Inuwa faints due to blood loss, it could easily eat him."
"That's very true. But you seem to be forgetting something. Inuwa himself likely knew all of that," Vector countered.
"What do you mean?" Clarissa couldn't think of any way Inuwa could survive such an encounter.
"Inuwa is a fairly smart boy; what if he hung on the cliff's edge and waited for the bear to leave before jumping?"
Countered. She was completely countered. Inuwa was the type of person who could pull a trick like that in a desperate survival situation. It was beginning to frustrate her to a significant extent how easily Vector seemed to bounce off her points without a single hole in his defence. If Inuwa waited, then obviously he'd lose more blood, which is why Vector found him at the site of the attack. If that was the cas– wait. That was extremely coincidental, wasn't it? There was still something to press him for.
"Well then there's also something else I have doubts about," Clarissa stated.
"Go ahead then, ma'am. But you'll see that the story is largely fullproof. You can't win against destiny after all."
"What does destiny have to do with this?" She smiled confidently.
"Everything." The arcane boy said.
"Who cares about destiny? There's something in front of me right now that's more important." She declared.
Vector smirked.
"Your meeting with Inuwa was incredibly coincidental, wasn't it?"
"What are you getting at?" His smirk had been wiped off in an instant.
"What are the chances that in a race where you were first, and Inuwa was last, you'd meet him? Especially because those golden idiots at the centre seemed to drone on and on about how large the track was. I have a hard time believing that you managed to get lost in the same area as he."
"Well, what do you want me to do about it? It just happened- that is a fact," he said, rather uncaringly.
"Fine, well there's also something else I want to assess," she said.
"And that is?" his rude tone almost caught Clarissa off-guard. But that was good; he was finally cracking.
"The slash itself."
"I told you the slash happened near the cliff."
"That's not what I'm concerned about."
"The slash is suspicious because of its depth."
"What do you mean?"
"When measuring the slash on Inuwa, the depth of the scar across his chest was around 3 inches; we decided to look up the length of a bear claw and found out that they ranged from 2 inches to 4 inches."
"So that means that a bear could definitely have scarred Inuwa."
Clarissa's grin grew to unnatural extents.
"Yes, but from what you've told me, it seems like it went like this: Bear had struck Inuwa, Inuwa hides under a cliff, Inuwa falls and loses consciousness due to blood loss from the depth of his injuries."
Vector stared on.
"But if the bear struck him in the middle of a brawl, then I doubt it'd be that strong of a slash. Its opponent was still resisting; it would require great timing to deeply injure a fast and agile human like that. So, it's only fair to conclude that if the bear had really struck Inuwa in the chest and tore through his clothing, that it wouldn't be a deep gash at all. Possibly, like a shallow rip."
Vector's eye twitched.
"All this brings me to one conclusion: there was no way a bear could've injured Inuwa that gravely in that situation. It is also uncertain that you could have encountered him, which gives me the idea that you were lying, weren't you?" she asked. "But what motive would you have to lie about an injured student? You could've left him to die, so why didn't you? Why didn't you, Vector? Inuwa's a good person, you know. You saved him because you knew that. Right?"
Vector's expression darkened.
"What do you mean by 'Inuwa's a good person'?" He asked sternly.
"Huh?" Clarissa responded. She realised she was stepping into uncharted territory here.
"What do you know of him… truly?" He asked.
She didn't want to answer, but in that moment, she felt compelled to answer. Like a divine force had made her answer and pour her heart out.
"He's a good person; he's helped all of us so much. He always made food for me when my parents neglected me; he's always helping those who need his help, and he even sacrificed himself for his brother! I admire him; he's a good person!"
"'Sacrificed himself for his brother' eh?" Vector repeated, clearly intrigued. A small smile grew on his face.
"Y-yeah, he's been studying and working himself to the bone for a reallyyy long time to get scouted in the same way his brother was. He's practically sacrificing his childhood."
"And why is that? Do tell," Vector had regained the condescending smile and bastard-like glint in his eyes.
Don't tell him. Clarissa thought in her head, but her weak inner voice couldn't compare to the violent torrent compelling her to answer.
"He couldn't leave his brother's side. He couldn't leave the person he considered his 'sunlight'."
Vector's expression grew grave for a second. But then he smiled.
"What can one expect from a crude excuse for a human being like that anyway?"
At that moment, whatever torrent Clarissa was trying to hold back poured out of her like water from a collapsed dam.
"He's perfect! Shut up! I won't hear any of that!
"He said it himself, didn't he?! He's a parasite! He's a parasite to you, to his brother and certainly to his other friends! He isn't someone to vehemently admire and worship like a god as you do!" He continued.
She was at her wit's end. What was she talking about before with him? It had dashed her mind entirely. She couldn't let this man discredit Inuwa's name any further.
"I won't let you try to convince me or anyone else otherwise! Inuwa's helped as many as he can! He's fixed our problems!"
"Has he really though? Have you ever truly felt… free? Have you ever felt what it's like to escape that gilded cage?"
Suddenly, she paused. When had she ever felt free? She had continued studying under her parents' demand. She continued doing this and letting them take advantage of her to the point that she began to starve due to neglect.
Inuwa had surely put a band-aid on this problem by allowing her to see her tragic life from another lens, by allowing her to expand that cage. But, in the end, she was still trapped. She was still restricted. She couldn't counter Vector's statement because he was right. Objectively, she had been silenced.
Even so, Inuwa wasn't a parasite. He'd saved her from trouble numerous times; she found that he was someone she could learn to rely on wholly. She could be her clumsy, pathetic self when she was around him. After all she saw through him, and he saw through her entirely in that sense. They were dependent on each other.
Dependence, Dependence, Dependence! She had finally come to the realisation that Vector had been edging her towards. Her relationship with Inuwa may have been nothing but dependence. With Inuwa, she did not need to work on her flaws; she could let them shine. But she was letting her flaws shine while ignoring her own problems at home.
That wasn't the way to go about life. Wasn't it? It was all dependence. All those smiles, all those sweet moments, all those promises. They were agreeing to stay timeless- frozen. So then, when Inuwa had begun to distance himself, it was because he realised that. If that was the case, then she was the one who had continued that toxic relationship.
She was sabotaging both of them.
But she couldn't just doubt her friends like that, could she? She hated herself for letting these thoughts occur. She didn't like doubting her friends. So, she decided to distract herself from this revelation with any straw she could grasp.
"Even so– I don't think it's right to call him a parasite."
"So, you do accept that he hasn't fixed your problems. What a wonderful declaration," Vector laughed while stroking the head of the rabbit.
"So, what should I do to fix them then? If you of all people have an answer, I'd be shocked,"
She responded. She had begun to look off to the side with a cold, unreadable expression.
"You don't need to do anything. I'll free you from this cage," he declared resolutely. He had placed the hand that was originally petting the strange rabbit onto his chest. He then bowed his head.
Clarissa was enchanted by the act. From that angle with the torrent of red behind him, combined with the regal purple of his prim and proper haircut, she couldn't help but feel at ease. So, at ease in fact that-
"Since your hand is off that rabbit finally, may I pet it?" She asked innocently.
"Sure, you can," he said, his smile growing. Clarissa moved her hand over the rabbit. She then rested her hand on top of its head, making sure to avoid the horn. Its cute baby-like button eyes followed her palm as she swooned internally. The horn in and of itself served to beckon her even further, as if it was a satellite guiding communication with her brain. The fur was soft, like a marshmallow.
"You're enjoying that, aren't you?" Vector smiled.
"Yeah!" She responded.
"Hey, Vector," she said.
"Yeah?"
"I'm glad I was wrong about you."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I had this theory and everything because you seemed to know a lot about us suspiciously. Like, you know about my clumsiness, my 'gilded cage', and you didn't seem that surprised about Inuwa's reality. It's almost like you've met us before. My bad!" She exclaimed, scratching her cheek.
Truth be told, she did suspect that part of her theory might be valid, so she had no reason to state all of that. But the chills she had felt during the entire exchange had unnerved her to the point she couldn't stop speaking.
Vector looked at her silently. His eyes were cold, dead. Clarissa noticed immediately, her unassuming smile fading instantly. She was correct. If that was the case, then it was certain that he knew about them through other, external means.
Immediately putting up her guard, Clarissa clicked her phone's 'off' button 5 times in quick succession to activate the emergency mode. That was for the worst case, she reasoned. Yet, she was unable to slow the quickening of her heart, or the rapid, shallow, laboured breaths she took. Because to her brain, death was imminent.
But she couldn't accept that reality. For someone to have been fighting for as long as she had, being given such a crude way of escaping was an insult to her and to life itself. That was what she believed.
The danger was immediate, immense, impassable. Death was certain; that was what she knew from reading the red of his irises. Once glinting with warmth, they had settled into the very carefully crafted disposition of a killer.
That was something that Clarissa immediately determined. After all, she was used to reading the eyes of those she loved. Like the one who was most prominent in her life, Inuwa.
Inuwa…
Inuwa… I'm sorry. I'll wait for you…
"Inuwa…"
Then suddenly, the horn expanded many times over in a split second. Suddenly, its end was protruding from the back of Clarissa's head. Blood spattered in a beautiful crimson spiral. However, the poppies made it hard to differentiate between what was blood and what was poppy.
But it was still easy to tell that someone had lost their life there, as there was that pink, gooey brain matter that had slumped out of her corpse like industrial sludge.
Her death was practically instant.
Immediately, the horn retracted back into the cute bunny. Subsequently, nothing was stabilising the girl's corpse, and she fell back. What remained of her head lay in the middle of a crimson spiral of poppies. She had finally been freed. Vector's grin widened. He got up.
And just like that, in the place she loved the most. Clarissa Rose had met her end. She had died drowning in regrets. Her death would eventually play a pivotal role in the conflict that had awaited Inuwa. However, for now, the curtain had closed on the story of Clarissa.
Vector spat at the dead body. Her muscles had begun to relax, and a foul stench filled the air.
"People can be so pathetically defiant to the very end. It took an abundance of effort- not without cheating– to end her. But I'm one more piece closer to the king. It's time I take out the Knight."
Vector smiled before running off into the distance.
At her corpse, a silver pen rolled out from an area unknown. It seemed to be facing her chest. It was almost indiscernible– the fact that it was silver was soon blanched by the excessive flow of blood from her corpse.
From the pen, an awry but dim light emanated, and then all went dark at the field where dreams were exchanged and bonds reinforced.