Case of Amber Hark: Death is The New Birth

Chapter 14: Eliote and Gicca

GICCA'S Point of view

I could hear Rique snoring. I scratched my itchy neck and yawned. I stretched my body a little while remaining lying down, and I decided to sat on the bed.

Rique was exposed to my sight with his mouth widely open—snoring. I would like to take a picture of him having that letter O in his mouth. I would like to bully him with that maybe it's time for him to be bullied, because he is always the one who bullies.

Ah. He is just lying next to me, that's why the volume of his snoring was able to wake me up. *roll my eyes*

I slowly moved my sight on the left corner of the bed, there's Lance. Sh*t. We slept together, next at each other! I dropped my jaw and immediately covered my opened mouth. Why did I not noticed that we were sleeping together? Sh*t. I want to lay down again! His handsome face is seducing me, his lips are perfect as heaven! his nose, his jawline, everything! Lance is perfect.

I bit my lip so hard as I slowly laid myself down again near to Lance, nearer than earlier. This is my first time flirting with my crush without him noticing, I won't hesitate to grab the opportunity! But before I lay down next to him, I first covered Rique's face with a soft pillow to calm down his tired mouth. It's a good thing that Lance and Ali didn't wake up to his noise.

As I slowly lay down with my heartbeat, my cellphone suddenly rang. It rang so loud!

It woke Lance up. He immediately opened his eyes and our gaze met. I have not been able to lie down properly, I am pausing in my current position. My heart pounded even more and my cheeks warmed up. The energy of shame flows through me now.

Lance is probably wondering now why I'm lying close to him when the bed is wide. Sh*t! What a shame!

I could not think of anything to do. I got up quickly, grabbed my cellphone and ran outside. I don't care where my feet will take me. As long as I will be away to Lance, that'll be fine with me. I have to vanish this crazy embarrassment I am feeling right now.

I touch my chest when I reached the basement's kitchen. I feel so nervous, nervousness and embarrassment mixed up! What on Earth am I doing? I squatted a little as I leaned my arm on the table and trying to catch my breath.

I looked at why my cellphone was ringing, and saw a call from a number not registered in my contacts. It still rings. Who is this?

I can still feel the flow of shame on me *breathes heavily* I answered the call despite the nervousness and shame I am feeling, "Hello?" I answered.

"Where are you, Gicca?" a husky voice on the other line. I do not know who owns it.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"It's me, Eliote. Where are you? I'm at your house now. Your mom is looking for you, she's worried. Where are you?" he is very anxious as he released words one after another.

The nervousness I felt when Lance caught me lying close to him has added another nervousness now. My parents had probably heard the news about our violation. For sure dad will be very mad with me. Ugh. I am really confused by what is happening.

I am a kind of child who cannot hide from her parents. I immediately report a little of my move to mom, even every where I go, mom should know. I'm a kind of child who can't run away from her parents, but shockingly I did it now.

I also do not want this to happen to me, but I can do nothing because it is already here. We need to stand up for it as boldly as we did when we took the confidential file.

"Hello, Gicca? Are you still there?"

I blinked twice when I got back to reality, "A-Ah, yes I'm still here."

"Where are you?" he asked again.

"Have you heard the news, Eliote?"

"I already know about that, where are you? Please tell me."

"Tell my mom I'll be home soon, and I'm fine here. Thank you." I sadly dropped the call.

I don't want to tell him where we are now, it is a secret basement right? Is there a secret being told to others?

One more thing, I know Lance won't like it. We all know that he does not like Eliote, he does not trust him. Which he got his point, we just met Eliote, I should not have much trust in him.

Also, I got what I wanted from Eliote so there is no reason for me to stick with him. I will choose Lance now, over and over. Call me a user then.

Just a few seconds later my cellphone rang again, I glanced at it and the same number was exposed. I rolled my eyes and answered,

"Eliote, stop calling me,"

"Gicca, I'm going there, right now."

I frowned, "You don't know this place. Sorry, I can't tell you where I am now. Please Eliote, just stay away from us so you won't get into trouble with Lance, and so you won't get into the trouble we have entered."

"I don't care. I'm going to see you today. I'm going to get you."

I rolled my eyes again, Eliote is a hard headed one. "It's up to you. How will you go in here if you don't know where we are?"

"I know," his voice seemed to change. His voice became more husky and became scary.

"It's up to you. It will not be my fault if you get lost... Anyway, don't be too exposed, Eliote. Criminals who drugged the innocent student are probably roaming around. They can commit another crime anytime if they didn't get the red key." I said to him without feeling the fear brought by his scary voice. Eliote's form is not that scary, Lance is even scarier.

"Don't worry, I'm always careful... And you too, be careful there, I'm on my way." the last thing he said before he dropped the call.

I just frowned. He will be here, he said. How will he know this place? This is a secret basement. I sighed and shook my head. He should take care of his stubbornness. How can I avoid him as what Lance said? and hey, why would he get me? Is that mom's order?

*sigh*

Anyway, how can I get back inside? I'm ashamed of Lance. How can I remove the embarrassment thing I made in his mind? *slapped my face* That was a wrong move and a wrong timing. I should have watch tutorials on YouTube on how to make a move to my crush without being noticed doing it!

---

I bit my lower lip when I dropped the spoon I was holding for the second time around. We are currently eating in the dining area, taking our breakfast. We just ate silently. Miraculously, Ali and Rique fell silent today for no reason, and so did I. I do not speak. I'm still ashamed of Lance because of the embarrassment I did earlier.

"I'll just get you a new spoon." Lance said a second time. I already dropped two tablespoons. Clumsy me! I can't concentrate on what I eat, I think about the embarrassment. It bothers me a lot.

But, It looks like he didn't make a big deal. He did not react or say a word to it. Maybe he thought I might just woke up in such a position? I hope that's what he thinks.

"You are thingking deeply, Gicca." Ali said then gave a bite to the newly cooked fried chicken.

I gently scratched my cheek, "A-Ah... I was just thinking about our situation." I lied. What is really on the mind is the shame.

"Here it is, eat well." said Lance as he handed me the new spoon. It's embarrassing for him, I disturbed him twice because of my clumsiness and stupidity.

"So, what are you planning to do?" Rique asked while sipping hot soup.

"Tomorrow we will leave, we'll go to George Hark's private place. I have gathered some information. Later I will sketch a map so we have a guide, and for us not to get lost. According to what I read, we will go through a forest before reaching that place." said Lance.

My eyes widened, "What is that, a field trip?" my philosophical question. "Ah, adventure.. dangerous adventure in the forest." I answered my own question as I threw a fake grin, then ate some rice.

None of us know George Hark's place, we may even get lost by chance. This is probably what Rique said, the enjoyment of being illegal. *rolls my eyes* this adventure can kill us. What if we get lost and then never go home? That means we will starve, or we may be attacked by wild animals there.

I shook my head. I am becoming acrimonious again. We have to take that dangerous adventure in the middle of the forest, because that is the only way to George's place. This is one of the steps we have to take to resolve the case. Are we gonna make it successfully? Hopefully.

I hope I can keep in my mind that I will never go back to what they said when we were in the old room, they are already repentant and I must forget that. I do not know to myself why it still haunts my mind. Because of their hard heads, we are facing this risky challenge.

"All right, as you sketch, we will prepare the things we will use for tomorrow. Do you have any equipment here that we can use in the mission?" Ali asked.

Lance nodded, "This secret basement is complete. In any case of emergency, it is complete." he said smiling.

Rique nodded to what Lance had said, "All right, we will prepare the equipment, and will do the planning." he said to Lance.

"Okay, all right."

"Wait... maybe it's better if we all carry a bag." me, giving them ideas.

Ali nodded, "Good idea, let's just divide the ones to be taken. But Rique should carry the heavy ones. Let's just carry the light ones, Gicca. " Ali said, obviously trying to get Rique's attention. They are starting again. ugh.

"Hey, there is no gender inequality here. Our bags should weigh equally." Rique said while chewing.

"Whatever," Ali rolled his eyes at him.

Rique made faces to Ali, Ali took revenge. I just gasped at what they were doing. They are acting immature. Maybe they will never ever get along.

In the middle of teasing each other, The doorbell outside rang. We were all stunned and looked at each other with a frown. We also stopped chewing.

"Who is that?" I asked nervously.

"I don't know, maybe a police ... or criminals who're looking for the red key." Lance replied.

Ali grabbed her chest, "Is this our death end?" she asked.

"Shh, we're not going out." I told her.

Lance stood up and walked towards the basement's living room. I quickly drank some water and followed him. He went to the basement's ladder and pulled something to its side. I was just surprised when a hidden telescope was revealed over there. I'm not sure if it's called a telescope.

Lance placed his eye on it while the other eye is closed. I heard Ali and Rique's footsteps approaching us, "That's so fancy." I heard Ali whisper as she looked at Lance, holding a telescope.

"Sh*t!" Lance cursed while frowning, "How did he know my address?" he asked as he remained in his situation.

We frowned at the same time, "Who is that?" I asked.

"Eliote ..." he replied with mixed anger in his voice.

"What? Why is that i***t here?!" Ali asked annoyed.

I bit my lower lip when I remembered Eliote told me he was going to pick me here, but I did not give Lance's address to him, how did he track us down?

---

A few hours later, we just let Eliote stay outside. Lance and Ali do not want to open the gate. They hate him.

I told them about Eliote calling me earlier. Again, they are mad with me again because I didn't report it to them again. They now think that I am too secretive. Eliote's call disappeared from my mind earlier, the only thing that was playing on my mind was the embarrassment I did to Lance. It dawned on me, I forgot Eliote had called me.

I told them I did not tell Eliote the address, but they didn't want to believe it. They say I'm too secretive, I provoke them to have less trust on me.

I just sat for a few hours while pouting, I was upset with my own action. Ugh. I did not really mean to forget about the call, and it is true that I did not give the address to him. Ugh. This is all Eliote's fault.

I also asked myself multiple times, how he tracked us down?

For a few hours, we watched Eliote with Lance's telescope. We waited gus next action, if he would leave or not, until we just felt that the surroundings were getting dark. Lightning and dark clouds can be seen from the telescope, the weather is slowly getting bad. A few minutes later, it poured a heavry rain and Eliote remained standing outside the gate.

I quickly stood up and frowned, "Let's just let him in," I told them worriedly.

Ali frowned back, "Do you hear what you are saying? We are up to a very serious mission towards Amber's case. We cannot just open it to anyone. And besides, this basement is a secret basement." Ali said as she emphasized the word 'secret'.

"But, Eliote might get sick. Have a heart, he's human too." I said.

"Gicca is right, let him in. Don't you have a conscience?" Rique sided with me.

"We don't know much about Eliote. He's a stranger, don't forget that."

"But he already been in and out to our house, he is not as bad as you think. I don't want to make him clean because I know how much, you guys, hate him. But I am stating a fact here. If you notice anything strange about him like how he has a connection to Amber Hark's case, in my case, I see nothing wrong with him. So, let him in!" I can no longer control myself.

The rain is getting heavier, no time should be waste! Eliote might be showered with the sickening cold. I will feel guilty if I'll just look at him while being cold in the rain even. When I was having a problem, he helped me. It's time for a payback.

Our quarrel escalated.It's me and Rique, versus Ali and Lance. In the end, they did nothing, I threatened them, if they will not let Eliote in, I will surely leave the basement.

I am not that kind of person, I know how to look at the people who helped me. It's okay for me to stay away from Eliote, but if I see him struggling, I can't just look at him. After all, I am still indebted to him.

That's it, we took Eliote inside the secret basement. He was amazed and his jaw dropped when he got inside. Unbeknownst to him, we all fought to get him inside.

I could not help but be mad with everyone, including Eliote. Everyone is making my day chaotic. We were all silent for a few minutes, we were all silent because of the anger in our hearts.

Until I could no longer handle the questions in my mind. I asked Eliote how he tracked me down, he told me he smelled me. His answer made no sense.I had punched him multiple times but he kept on giving a nonsense answer.

"Now that you're here, and you already know about the basement, you can't leave until the mission succeeds." Lance said, clenching his fist.

Eliote frowned, "What mission?"

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