Grace's POV
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"I'm sorry." Alice spoke up, finally breaking the tense silence. The same silence that had fell around us the moment I spotted her in the school hallway, and still surrounding us as we both sat here in one of the cafés downtown, a bit faraway from our school.

It seemed too awkward to talk to her about Fraser within the school walls, when everyone were sending her warm condolences, especially since this was her first time coming to school after what happened to Fraser. That's why I agreed almost immediately when she texted me to meet her in the school's parking lot after school.

And now we were here in this small, cozy café.

"Why are you apologizing, Alice?" I asked, exhaling a small sigh.

The waitress came by and placed both of our coffees on the small table between us. Alice wrapped her hands around her cup, looking away from me.

"I just feel bad for not talking to you for days." She murmured. "Even if this all must've been hard for you too."

I leaned back against my chair, noticing how different she looked from the Alice I was used to being around. There wasn't the usual bright look in her eyes. She hadn't even bothered to wear anything brightly colorful today.

"Don't feel bad." I shook my head at her. "Look, I understand. And I'm not mad at you for distancing yourself."

She looked up from her cup, her wide brown eyes trained on me now. "Grace," She stopped, furrowing her brows as if searching for the right words. "It wasn't an accident."

I swallowed thickly and rubbed my clammy palms on my jeans. Even if I had repeated this conversation a hundred times in my head, it still felt nerve-racking.

"It wasn't." My voice dropped to a whisper.

Her expression remained the same as before. "I know, it can't be. I saw him. It didn't look like an accident."

I merely nodded at that, not sure what she wanted me to say. Was I even supposed to tell her the truth?

"I just don't know...who could've done that to him. Fraser was nice to everyone." She added, her voice sounding a bit strained. "He cared about me. Fraser was...you don't understand but he cared about me more than my whole family does sometimes. I just..."

I bit the inside of my cheek, forcing myself to not let her words get to my head, forcing myself to not think about Jack.

"Nobody can understand how this even happened. My parents are devastated, my Aunt and Uncle are devastated." She sounded almost broken and I didn't know what to do. "I can't believe that he's...gone."

I saw her eyes growing a bit red and she swiftly wiped them with the edge of her sweater sleeves. "I'm sorry. It's stupid–"

"I know who killed him, Alice." The words left my mouth in a rush and I instantly wished that I could take them back.

Alice blinked and looked at me in surprise. "What?"

"I know–"

"You told the police that you didn't know anything related to whatever happened with Fraser." She cut me off, sounding confused and a bit angry too.

And I felt like I couldn't blame her. I knew the overwhelming emotions you felt when you lost someone close to you. It was horrible, beyond horrible.

"I couldn't have told them." I answered.

"Why?" She looked surprised now, her voice rising a bit. I was glad that there were very few people besides us in this café.

"That night when you got drunk and called me," I started. "You told me that you saw those men dressed in black. You told me that they were talking about a guy named Burner."

Alice frowned at that and for a moment I thought that she might not remember it.

"Yeah. I remember that." She nodded, gripping her cup. "They were...they looked a bit older than those other people at that party."

I knew there was no backing out now. "Those people were involved with Fraser's death." I continued, looking at her straight in the eye. "And that guy –Burner– he's in this too."

Alice was silent at that and I really wished that she'd say something.

"How do you know that?" She asked after a while.

I let out another sigh and placed my elbows on the table, covering my face with my hands. "It's complicated."

"You can't just say that." She let out a short laugh in disbelief. "You can't just tell me who killed Fraser and then refuse to tell me how you know about that."

"I...can't." I whispered, closing my eyes behind my hands.

She let out a small sound of impatience--desperation. "You're just making it up then."

"I'm not."

"This will sound so sketchy if I tell the police." Alice said and once again, I was glad that there were few people here.

I pulled my hands away from my face and looked out from one of the glass walls of the café. The sky had somehow filled up with dark clouds and it was probably going to rain soon.

"You can't tell the police about this, Alice."

"Are you even serious right now?"

"You can't." I pressed on those two words as I looked at her. "Telling them will fuck this up even more."

And I didn't want to put Jack's life in any more risk than this.

"Fuck what up?" She raised her hands in the air exasperatedly. "Fraser's gone now. The least we can do is give him justice."

"You think I don't care about justice?" I frowned at her.

"I don't think so." She frowned back at me. "Or you won't–"

"That same guy killed my parents, Alice!" I hissed at her, a bit low even if people were exiting the café now, preferring to leave for their homes rather than wait around for the rain to start.

As expected, Alice's eyes widened a bit at my words. She opened her mouth in surprise, "I thought your parents were back in Manhattan?"

I shook my head and looked away. It felt harder maintaining eye contact every time I talked about my parents. "They are in Manhattan, just dead."

I heard her inhale sharply and I refrained myself from looking at her, not wanting to see the pity or the shock. I didn't deserve pity.

"What—Why did you never tell me that?"

"Because this all sounds fucked up." I rubbed my face irritatedly. I really wanted her to understand this. "It's not as easy as it sounds, Alice."

She slumped back in her chair, still looking surprised. Both of our coffees were long forgotten about, almost cold now.

"I don't understand." She had a faraway look in her eyes. "Why would he do that? To you, and then Fraser?"

I pressed my lips together, feeling the familiar heaviness over my chest. I slowly took out the folded paper from my hoodie pocket and passed it to Alice from over the table.

Alice eyed the paper but didn't make a move to take it.

"I saw this thrown few feet away from Fraser's body that night." I said. "It's...something he wrote before..." I stopped there, hoping she'd get the rest of the unsaid words.

Alice slowly took the paper and unfolded it, an almost scared look on her face. The same dreading look I had when I was about to read that paper.

It took her few minutes to read the words scrawled on that paper, all the while her expression remained blank. I looked around the café and saw the waitress standing along the cash counter, talking to the other employee.

The café had emptied by now and I couldn't even make out anyone outside on the streets. It looked like it would start raining any second.

When Alice looked up from the paper, there was clear surprise on her face, mixed in with a bit of sadness.

"This," She looked at me then blinked. "This does sound a bit fucked up."

"It is." I murmured.

Her eyes flew back to the paper in her hands. "What does he mean by the red seed? What is the red seed?" She asked. "Frost and—Why are they after you?"

I knew those questions would come one way or another.

"I don't know what he means by the red seed. It's just something Burner wants, something he wanted from my dad." I stated carefully. "But my dad refused to give it to him."

She stared at me before raising her brows and leaning back in her chair. "This is a lot to take in."

"I can't blame you." I whispered and Alice didn't say anything in response that, looking a bit lost in her thoughts. "You'll have to keep this all with you, as a secret—whatever that I told you right now."

She looked at me and I saw a wave of sadness passing over her features. "Who else knows about this?"

"Only Luca."

She nodded then. "I-I won't tell anyone. I promise."

I nodded back at her, blowing out a sigh. I really hoped that she didn't tell this to anyone. Involving more people into this only fucked things up even more.

"What does this mean?" Alice spoke up suddenly.

I looked back at her and saw her gaze directed at something written on the other side of the page in her hands. I took the paper from her and squinted my eyes at the barely visible numbers scrawled at the edge of the paper.

"I don't know." I whispered, furrowing my brows.

Alice leaned over the table towards me, trying to take another peek at the written numbers. "It looks like some sort of phone number. Or perhaps a code?"

I frowned at that, reading those incoherent numbers again.

"It looks like a password Fraser would keep." She murmured. "He always used such kind of difficult passwords for his email accounts."

I looked up at her and slowly, my eyes widened in realization.

"What?" She asked, a little bewildered.

"I think I know what this is about." I pointed over at those numbers, the numbers that were probably the password to the encryption on my dad's laptop.

"Well, what is it about?" She asked, waiting for me to explain.

The same instant, my eyes flew behind her and noticed the rain slowly pattering against the café's large glass walls. The waitress looked like she might ask us to leave any second since we both were the only ones left in here.

However, that's not what caught my eye. Right outside the glass doors of the café, I saw a figure leaning against a lampost along the sidewalk. The way he seemed to be staring right in our direction –his face shaded under the black hood of his raincoat– grew a sense of paranoia within me.

I folded the paper and stuffed it in my pocket, before standing up and looking at Alice. "I'll tell you about it back at my house. Come on."

Alice didn't object and stood up as well, before we both left our table and exited the café.

I couldn't help but feel as if someone was watching our backs, staring at us as we made our way towards Alice's car. Maybe it was just me, or maybe it was the slight rain drizzling over us, but I couldn't wave off that panicky feeling.

Though I didn't say anything. Not until both Alice and I were seated in her car, driving away.

•••••

When we got inside my house, I wasted no time in fetching Dad's laptop once I had locked the front door. There was this uneasy feeling tugging in my gut the entire time we drove back home, and for some reason it still wasn't going away.

I ignored it for the time being and placed the laptop on the couch in the living room before sitting down myself. Alice joined beside me and so did Frost, barking at Alice until she picked him up in her arms.

It took a little while before the screen lightened up and showed the same desktop picture of my family. I made a mental note to change it later, but then again, I don't think I'd be using this laptop ever again.

"Your brother," Alice spoke up, her eyes trained on the desktop picture as she hugged Frost. "Is he...back in Manhattan too?"

I didn't look at her, but focused on opening the folder of Dad's travel entries. I don't know why but I couldn't make myself tell her about Jack. Ever since I got his call last night, I just couldn't even think about him without getting all queasy in the stomach.

"Dad always wrote an entry after every travel journey of his, to keep track of his research notes." I said, totally dodging off her question. "The thing Burner wants is the thing my dad found in his last travel journey, to Australia."

Alice nodded with a small frown on her face.

"And my dad must've written something about it in the last travel entry." I continued.

"You didn't read it?" She asked.

I shook my head before clicking on the last travel entry. "I can't. It's guarded with a password."

Alice's eyes widened in realization and she stopped stroking Frost's fur. "And you think that number written on that paper–"

"–is the password, yes." I finished her off before taking out the folded paper from my pocket.

It took me seconds this time to type in the given number on the laptop. I slightly held onto my breath before pressing enter. And to my relief, the bar turned green; giving us access to the last travel entry written by Dad.

"It worked." Alice breathed out before leaning back against the couch. "Go ahead. Read it."

I didn't have to be told twice before I started scanning the words, a bit used to the typical writing style of each of Dad's previous travel entries.

Everything was silent around me except for the few times Frost barked. At one point, the feeling of slight unease started growing into something much more inside of me. I was almost halfway done through that entry and I still hadn't read anything related to the only thing I needed to know about.

I licked my lips impatiently and scrolled lower, my eyes trailing across the words. However, I stopped at one particular line,

Burner won't be happy, but I can't let him get the red seed.

"The red seed." I murmured and Alice perked up at that, her eyes following my own on the screen.

"...Nicholas told me that he'd help me, he managed to enclose the red seed into one of the souvenirs I was taking back home." Alice read and I followed her voice along the words. "I know that Burner will do his best to get his hands on it, but I need to prolong that."

I blinked in confusion and Alice stopped reading too. "Did your dad bring back anything from that trip?"

I frowned at that. "He brought back a lot of things."

Alice stared at the laptop screen before rubbing her face. "You'll find it, I'm sure you will, Grace." She said and I felt the uneasiness almost clawing at my chest this time. "I need to get going, though. Mom told me to be back home straight after school."

I nodded at her, pushing my hair away from my face anxiously. "It's okay. I understand."

She looked down at her lap before glancing back at me. "Do tell me if you find something." Then she stood up from the couch and placed Frost down. "If I find something related to...Fraser, I'll let you know."

I nodded, staring at her. She gave me a small smile and headed for the front door, her shoulders slumping in the process and I realized how confusing this must be for her.

Maybe I shouldn't have told this to her.

Just as she was about to open the front door, she stopped and I saw her frown a bit at the door. Before I could've asked her what she was doing, she leaned forward and peeked from the peephole. Just a second later, she turned around abruptly and looked at me with wide eyes.

"Grace, I-I think there's a guy standing outside in your yard." She said, her voice lowering down.

I blinked at her, noticing her gaze traveling back to the peephole on my front door. "What?"

She looked back at me and almost looked scared. "There's a guy out there." She pointed at the closed front door.

Biting on my lower lip, I stood up from the couch and went over towards the door before peeking through the peephole. Like she had described, I noticed a guy standing out in my yard, and under the dark cloudy sky, it was a bit hard to recognize him. But I did see the familiar black raincoat.

He was the same guy I had seen outside that café.

"Oh God." I whispered before pulling away from the door. Alice eyed me with her wide brown eyes, as if waiting for me to say something more.

"Do you know him? Was he supposed to come here?" She sounded anxious now.

I blinked rapidly, hearing my heart thudding loudly against my chest. "He followed us. I saw him outside that café we were in."

Alice paled at that and I almost, almost cursed myself for dragging her into this.

"Look, don't worry." I said and realized how stupid those words sounded. "Go and lock the windows. I'll check on the backdoor."

She nodded almost immediately and ran off towards the windows. I rushed towards the backdoor and felt Frost trailing behind me. Once everything was locked, Alice and I came back near the couch.

"Should we–" Alice was cut off with a loud bang on the front door. We both jumped at the same time while Frost let out a small bark.

"We should call the police." Alice breathed out, her wide frantic eyes fixing at me.

I felt my palms getting clammy with sweat, sudden panic filling me out of nowhere. I didn't know who that guy was, I had no idea why he even followed us. It was as if he was waiting for the right opportunity–

My eyes widened and the loud banging came again, this time more frequent on the door.

"The laptop." I whispered. "I need to delete that entry."

After all, why would a guy suddenly stalk us and start banging on my door, right after I find out the password to the last entry written by my dad, the same entry which stated where that red seed was—the thing Burner was after.

Alice didn't seem to question it and nodded. I rushed towards the opened laptop and almost heard the front door rattling a bit at the force of the banging. Since it was raining heavily by now, I wasn't even sure if any of the neighbors would hear the noise.

Alice moved towards the door and peeked outside again, only to pull back abruptly and wrap her arms around herself, her eyes looking frantic. "It's the same guy. He does not look happy, Grace."

I felt my hand tremble a bit as I scrolled through the entry, reading the last bits of it. I had to read it out lightly under my breath just so that my mind would break away from the loud banging and actually focus on the words right in front of me.

"...Burner's men are everywhere. I know he's trying his best to stalk me. I'm back at home, Grace and Jack seem a lot happy." My breath almost hitched at that. "Things should feel better, but they don't feel better. I shouldn't have agreed to Burner in the first place."

The banging stopped and I looked up at Alice, only to see her looking at me in panic. Just few seconds later, the loud knocking started again, this time on the backdoor.

Alice picked up her phone and I forced myself to finish reading the entry as quick as possible. My head was clouding up with panic, those loud knocks, and Frost's barks. And I almost felt like screaming out loud.

"...Grace was so happy when I gave her that necklace." I read. "She asked me what that red stone was. I just made up a name for it. It won't stay hidden for too long, but this is the only way."

I saw the entry finishing and felt a stinging sensation building up around the corners of my eyes.

The necklace. The red fiery stone inside it.

"Alice," I gulped down the sudden lump in my throat before pulling out my phone from my pocket and passing it to her. Alice, who looked like she had just seen a ghost, took my phone cautiously and looked at me. "Call Luca. If he doesn't pick up, call the police."

She nodded and got busy with searching through my contacts. While I got busy with deleting that same entry, making sure I erased it from the bin too. Frost started barking in front of the back door, just as the loud banging increased. My heart almost lurched out of my chest when I heard the door knob jiggling, almost as if that person was trying to pick the lock.

"Hello?" Alice spoke up in my phone. "Is this–Is this Lucius?"

Once the entry was deleted, I made sure to switch off the laptop and hide it somewhere. All the while, my eyes kept on flying towards the backdoor, expecting for it to be thrown open any second now.

"No, who are you?" I heard her asking as I rushed inside the kitchen and stuffed the laptop in one of the drawers behind the kitchen counter.

"Listen, whoever you are–" She stopped once again and her expression transformed into one between exasperation and panic. "Ryder, or whatever your name is, we're in danger." She spoke out impatiently and I almost frowned at that name. "Tell Lucius that we need help, Grace needs help. There's a guy outside her front door and he's fucking trying to break in!"

The same moment, the lights went out completely. Alice hushed the exact second and Frost started barking loudly.

"Calm down, I've got the flash–" I was about to finish the sentence, trying not to freak out at the same time, when a loud bang came from the back door. I saw the almost night sky and realized that the back door was thrown open now.

"Oh my God." Somewhere around the house, I heard Alice's panicked voice.

I didn't get to say much when a black figure rushed into me, harshly shoving me back at the wall. Except that I didn't exactly hit my back at the wall, rather it was the corner of a cabinet that rammed against the back of my head. I blinked rapidly, trying to adjust my blurry vision.

All I heard were Frost's loud barks and Alice's faint screams, until the pain clouded over my head and everything went black.

•••••

The frantic shaking of my shoulders was the only reason why I jerked upright too quick, my face flushing against a dark, warm body. A small wince escaped my lips at the sudden jolt of pain at the back of my head.

"Grace!" There were arms around me and I really couldn't see anything other than black. "For fuck's sake, you scared me."

I was starting to think that I had somehow lost my vision, when the person in front of me –who sounded like Luca– pulled away and I could see my surroundings once again. Surroundings which looked trashed.

"What–" I stopped and looked around my house. Things were thrown around everywhere; the small glass table toppled over, the cushions thrown across the floor, one of the wall paintings not on the wall anymore. And right in front of me was Luca, sitting down on the kitchen floor, his brows furrowed in concern.

I blinked at him then looked away, feeling too choked up on words. Right then, I saw another person standing at the threshold of the backdoor, the same backdoor which almost looked broken.

"What the hell even happened in here?" The other guy spoke up and I seemed to recognize his voice at the far end of my brain.

Ryder.

Luca ignored him and stared at me. "Grace, are you all right? Do you feel–"

"Where's Alice?" I felt my voice breaking at the end when I saw Frost coming out from behind the couch, almost running up to my side and licking my hand.

Luca frowned and blew out a sigh. "I don't know. I–Ryder got that call. I think it was your friend, Alice. I came here as fast as I could've and when I reached here, there was just...this."

I clenched my hands into fists and felt my breath picking up its speed.

"Grace–" Luca's eyes widened as he looked at me, almost as if he knew that I was on the verge of losing my shit and panicking completely.

However, Ryder cut him off, "Whose phone is this?"

I looked over at the phone in his hands and realized that it was mine, it's screen switched on and glowing in Ryder's hand. "It's... mine."

I saw his eyes trailing across the screen before he passed it to me. I took it and looked at my screen. The way the phone trembled in my grasp pretty much told me how badly I was shaking.

Either you give us the thing Burner wants,
or watch as two innocent lives go down.

Two lives.

My stomach lurched involuntarily at that. 

I should've known. I should've known.

"I should've known." Even my voice trembled as I closed my eyes shut, leaning my throbbing head back against the kitchen counter.

Alice was gone. Just like Jack.

_______________________________________________________________________

You all need to get used to these long-ass chapters if you want me to complete this book before it reaches 60 chaps x)

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Crystal 🌿