Street Signs

Chapter 6

BRIELLE

I called Queen.

"b***h?" he uttered as soon as he answered the call.

"Queen, why didn't you lie to Dad?"

"OMG, b***h, sorry I didn't realize it right away. Besides, you didn't tell me so don't blame me! Did Papa Sy scold you?"

"What do you expect?"

His gasp reached my ears. "I'm really sorry, Sis. By the way, have you found one?"

"No. I don't think so if I'm gonna find signs again. If I still remain clueless about this till next week, I'm done."

"Don't worry, if justice is meant for Zayden, then you'll eventually find it."

I thanked him before I ended up the call. I turned on the television while I was looking for a night cloth in my wardrobe. I was just bothered when I heard the news was still about Zayden. It was days since I stopped watching the news and listening to radios. My boyfriend's death was still a hot topic in the entire country because they couldn't find the killer.

I switched off the television and went back to bed when I was done changing my clothes. I was so tired of fake news and bias reporting of the most well-known news program in the country. They had received multiple awards, how did they deserve them?

I read again the message sent to me by that hidden number. I was still confused about it, so I tried recalling everything. First, I saw a sign. Second, there were words already beside the sign saying: A SIGN FOR ZAYDEN'S DEATH. Third, jumbled words were sent to me that I assumed were also connected to the sign. When I fixed them, it turned out to be: THOSE WHO SEEK TO HARM ME AND MY LOVED ONES HAVE THEIR INTENT TURNED BACK UPON THEMSELVES. If those signs were related to my boyfriend's death, what was their implication?

My heart jumped when I came up with an idea. My boyfriend was brutally killed at Abbey by an unknown killer and unknown reasons. If I would just be going to base on the message, then I could assume that he was killed intentionally, because of what?

"s**t, no," I bit my lip, "bad idea."

I turned off my phone and decided to sleep since I was surrounded by negative pieces of stuffs and I wanted to get rid of them; however, my head could not stop thinking even though I closed my eyes already. I could not find inner peace, so I got up and went to the window. I opened it and looked at the view outside. Since it wasn't yet too late, there were still many lights outside and the buildings in the city were still bright.

The cold and soft air breeze touched my skin. There was something in the wind the made me goosebump— perhaps the memories flashing back into my mind. I used to stay there with Zayden every night that he would visit me. I would just look at the moon and stars up high with him and tell random stories. I damn missed it much, but it would just remain a memoir of us.

"I miss you so much," I whispered in the mid-air. "Well, I can't do anything but just miss you. I didn't imagine you being a promise-breaker," I forced a laugh.

A moment after, I felt the somnolence visiting my soul, so I went back to bed. Fortunately, I was able to get my sleep faster than I expected.

Dazzling sunlight greeted me as soon as I opened my eyes; I forgot to close the window the last night. The familiar smell of eggs welcomed me as well when I went down going through the kitchen. Daddy and Akie were there already, but not yet eating their food. They greeted me good morning when I took a seat.

"How's your sleep, Big Sis?" Akie asked. "I hope you're all fine."

"I'm fine, cutie," I smiled, then I asked him back his question.

"I can't say I had a good sleep, Brielle, 'cause I was worried about you. You didn't go home early yesterday, and you didn't eat the food I made for you. But it's all fine, I made another one. C'mon and taste it!" he grinned.

I grinned back, but it faded easily when I looked at Daddy and saw him frowning at me. I guessed he was still mad at me for lying to him, and it seemed like he was waiting for me to tell him the truth.

"A-about yesterday..." I uttered.

"Don't talk about it yet. Respect the foods in front of us," he said. "Just eat."

"O-oh..."

I looked back to Akie whose face couldn't be painted. I started eating the food, that was made by him. When I was done, as well as them, I headed to the gate and waited for Daddy.

"Brielle, why is Dad mad at you?" Akie asked, looking at me with his face worried.

"He's not mad at me," I said, "we just have a little misunderstanding about yesterday. Don't worry, we'll fix it later after school."

He was still to speak when Dad came, holding his backpack.

"Let's go," Dad said as he opened the car for us.

I and Akie were in the back seat. My little brother was trying to open up again the topic, but I refuse to answer since Dad was listening to us. Fortunately, I was the one to first get to school.

"Take good care, Akie," I said as I kissed his forehead. "Bye, Dad!"

Daddy didn't greet me back, he just continued driving until they finally get off of my sight. He was still mad at me; nonetheless, it wasn't his fault to feel that way. He might be starting to lose his patience because he had a stubborn daughter.

I sighed for the last time and fixed my posture before entering the gate. I was at school and I didn't want to mind my problems there, so I just walked through like nothing was bothering me. When I finally arrived at my room, I puckered my eyebrows.

Everyone was so quiet listening to the one who was talking in front, so I was shy to interrupt. Was some business going on in there, eh?

Before entering, I took a look again at the guy who was still introducing himself to everyone. I didn't know him, so he might be a transferee. When that idea came up in my mind, I looked at my wristwatch. Was I late already? But it was just seven o'clock for Pete's sake!

The professor was in front already, so before I entered, I greeted him first and asked sorry for being late. He looked at me with a smile after I spoke and told me that I wasn't actually late, that everyone was present in the room already because he informed them the last day— in when I was absent — to be early because someone would be joining the class.

I went straight to Queen and asked him who was the man in front. I had interrogated him thrice the same question, but he didn't response because he was focused on the guy. So, instead of insisting him to answer me, I just turned my gaze at the guy and listened to him as he spoke.

The guy actually had a good-looking personality, and the way he spoke and postured was like of a professional, no doubt everyone's eyes was on him.