Chapter Three
He is coming to kill me. The words repeated itself incoherently in her mind.
What had Alianne meant by that? Had she predicted her death? Was that why she had died so peacefully despite being murdered in such a brutal way?
And who was Nikolas and Samantha? How were they related on any way to her death?
All these questions battered at her as she sank unsteadily onto the bed, leaving the book at her feet, still opened on the page, the words jumping out at her.
She didn't know whether she wanted to cry or scream. She didn't know if it was for her sake or Alianne's sake. She buried her face into her hands.
Crack.
The high-pitched sound of glass cracking had Chryseis starting, her eyes flying towards the source of the sound-the floor length French-windows that graced the balcony of Alianne's bedroom.
Even spidery lines had spread out like an intricate web on the pane of glass for the top to the bottom, almost shocking in their symmetry. The night sky beyond them looked eerily distorted.
Chryseis barely had the time to register what was happening when, with a resounding crash, the glass shattered outwards, raining down shards onto the balcony even as Chryseis let out an involuntary scream of horror.
Chryseis sat on the bed, eyes wide, on the glass shards, the silence almost deafening in the aftermath of the incident. Loud footsteps thumped outside the door before the door slammed opened to reveal her parents.
For a while they stared at the French windows in silence, shock rooting them to their position.
Her mother was the first to make the move. She lurched forward towards Chryseis; face pale with fright, stumbling in her haste to get to Chryseis.
"Oh my God! Chryseis, are you hurt?" Her mother gushed out in one breath even as her hands ran over Chryseis to check for any hidden injuries.
"I…I am fine. Just a little shaken." Her mother, though placated for the moment by Chryseis' reassurance, continued to eye her beadily.
"This is strange." Her father's voice brought their attention to him, who was crouching among the broken shards, fingering one of the pieces in his hands.
He stood up and walked over to Chryseis and her mother, taking with him the piece he had in his hand.
"Look. The piece is cut to neatly." He indicated to the clean edge of the piece.
Startled, Chryseis could see that he was right. The edges were smooth, too smooth.
"Put it away, Sean. Chrissy just had a shock. She needs to rest first before the police comes." Straightening, her mother suddenly swayed.
"Mom!"
"Gabrielle!"
Both Chryseis and Sean cried out and reached out for her at the same time, her father wrapped an arm around her mother just in time to stop her from falling.
"Oh dear, I am feeling a little dizzy. Maybe I should go and lie down." Gabrielle attempted to smile at them, but ended up coughing instead.
Her mother did indeed look slightly pale. Chryseis realized worriedly.
"You shouldn't even have been up." Her father said grimly as he led her mother out of the room.
"Chryseis?" Her father's questioning voice had Chryseis getting to her feet and moving out of the room.
At the last minute, she turned back and retrieved the notebook lying on the floor then, with a look at the balcony, turned to leave the room, shutting the door gently behind her.