Chapter 5: When Things go South
----Ragens POV----
"Rage, is this book yours?" What book could aunt Arte be talking about?
"Let me see. Nope. This book doesn't have my mark on it."
"What mark?"
"My book is neither anonymous nor do I reveal who writes it. My identity at all is a treasure that can't be known to others. The only way to verify their authenticity is by my mark."
"What mark?"
"Let me demonstrate to you how I mark them." I took a knife and cut my hand, pressed my thumb on the bleeding part and opened the book to put my DNA thumb mark on it.
"Smart move, nobody can create a counterfeit of the book and the one who buys it would do whatever it takes to protect it." My aunt is as always as sharp as ever.
"No one in their right mind would reveal a secret which they are monopolizing." And I'm sure Arte would never reveal this secret to anybody because if she would, I would become the target for big organizations and national governments for my books are labelled as the 'recipe for certain success'. It means that they could lead to circumstances which these organizations fear depending on the hands where it may rest.
' I'll be travelling for seven months. Take care of the house while I'm gone, yes?' What was that for anyway, a pre conversation before the main conversation? Wait, what's this?
'Arte, why would you ask me if this book is mine when it has your name as its title?' She knows full well that I'd never write about her in a million years even if I want to because we rarely see each other in a decade. And fact is that I never do interviews or inquiries for I find that degrading as they are qualities I do not rely upon. I can find anything I desire on my own and with my own power.
'Come now, a police officer does not rule out any possibilities unless they find it illogical. I do not find your writing about me or someone else named 'Arte' as illogical. In fact, they are the most plausible outcome I have thought of unless the title of the book is some kind of code, puzzle or an abbreviation.'
'Okay, you win. Leave your fortune of a mansion to me. In fact, just take your sweet time so I can have it to myself while you're gone.' I couldn't shake the thought that she might have invited me for this task in mind. She didn't even listen to me and she was gone like a shadow after its owner.
-----Delu POV----
What could Nabyuk be doing? She always comes for me regardless of the weather but now I have to go before I become late. I have to fetch Vylemor again to make sure I won't be in the Volunteers club. I hope Nabyuk went ahead of me or else she'll nag me about prioritizing the vagabond who made me look like a desperate servant. And here I thought that that chapter of my life was over when we ate dinner at Vylemor's house but now I'm having second thoughts. Even Nabyuk is not responding to my messages and calls!
Now come to think of it, I don't even know where Nabyuk lives or who her relatives are. She always loved discovering the secrets of other people but no one knows a single thing about her. Gosh, these people really, always making trouble for me. If only I know what her last name is, maybe I have a chance in finding her in one of the biggest cities of the world.
What kind of person doesn't even know her friend's last name? As my problems escalate, I end up finding issues more about myself than those people I label as trouble.
No matter how many times I come here, I know that there's no such thing as black flowers. I don't know how they did it but Nabyuk didn't seem to care when she saw them. There's just this feeling I could not shake that I should not come here. Even I can sense the eeriness coming from the mansion but I could not find the words to define it. Maybe because for us, it never existed so we don't have the words to identify it.
When I knocked on the door, Karne came to answer. He looked like a zombie and I can see his eye bags but there's more to it. He wore the face that he saw something he should not have seen or are not supposed to be seeing. More like, he is afraid of something but I can see that he is determined to keep it to himself.
"Is Vylemor here?"
"Vylemor had been out of this house and he has yet to return."
"Return?"
"Do you know where he usually stays? Let's talk near the gate." Is he keeping me out of the house? We went outside the gate where we are out of range of the mansion when he began taking his phone out. That's when I noticed his shaking hands. He can barely hold his phone when he dialled a number but it isn't answering.
"Why did you answer when I dialled Vylemor's number the other day?"
"Vylemor won't give his number to just anyone so he gives my number instead." He sent a total of 18 messages then dialled the number again. After that he opened what looked like a GPS tracker but is totally different. "Is she, he?" What's he talking about? I looked at the time and I'm going to be late if I don't go now.
"If he doesn't answer, that's fine. I can just tell the teacher that I could not find him anywhere." Yeah right, he might be at the ES again but that's too big a place to search for. I'll just find him there this afternoon.
"Uh, Miss Decade was it? Uh, actually you don't have to go to such troubles. The school will know." Karne is a college student at our school and he lives with Vylemor and his family despite being unrelated. Figures, of course the school will know or that they don't actually bother looking into it. I knew something doesn't add up and I'm going to look into it. Nabyuk will be thrilled to dig information regarding this issue of mine.
"I'll be on my way then." Yes, I'll be on my way to find the truth. I still have to make sure Nabyuk will tell me all there is to know. I know she does these things for her hobby but I also know that she's good at her job. She won't do anything for free unless you have something worth trading for. She won't take just about anything but I do know one thing she doesn't know. If I just find it and prevent others from it then I have a real shot.
I arrived in time just before the bell rings but I could not find Nabyuk anywhere. By the time our teacher came, Nabyuk is still missing and just like Vylemor, she doesn't have an excuse letter. I saw Karne after the flag ceremony but he seemed out of it. I went to the administrative office to get Nabyuk's address but the administrator told me that there's no Nabyuk in the enrolee record.
"Surely Ma'am, you must be mistaken. I have been with Nabyuk ever since I enrolled in this school. Can you please double check? It is urgent." This is bogus! How could she just declare a student of this school to be non-existent? I mean, she's a member of the student council, the newspaper club and the broadcasting club. There's no way she's not enrolled and yet they're allowing her to stay.
"Delu Decade, I have checked and triple checked the record even on the day of your first year here and there is no one of that name in my list." Impossible! No way! What is she talking about? I know, maybe some of my classmates know where she lives.
I asked the class president, the secretary, my teacher and everyone but there answers were all the same. "No, we don't have a classmate by that name. Perhaps she is in another grade level or she is in college already." "We've never seen you with anyone at all. You were always alone all this years."
"I don't think you have a classmate called Nabyuk nor do I know a student by that name."
"I thought you were just talking to yourself. Are you alright?"
"Did you check the other section? Maybe she's there."
Because of all the inquiries I have done, everybody is looking at me everywhere I go and I feel like they're talking behind my back. Rumors and gossips travel fast. It won't give you a single chance at all to recover and it grows fast every time it passes from one person to another. The only person who doesn't seem to care at all was Ragens, the one I hate the most. We are all posts for him, like background sceneries you can pass by and forget when it's gone.
I checked the student council but all positions were occupied by persons I didn't even recognize. But the most shocking yet was the revelation that we don't have a newspaper club or a broadcasting club.
The situation is getting worse the minute I'm advancing in my search for answer. Now, I'm becoming more desperate and the person who I know can testify that Nabyuk really does exist is not here. He's somewhere in ES or somewhere I don't know. I can't believe that I'd be relying on him like this but there's no helping it when aside from me, he also conversed with Nabyuk.
I really went to ES to find Vylemor because that's where I know he always goes. ES is a super titan entertainment paradise. It has 5 super wide arenas on the 1st 5 floors consisting of various sports venues and games famous all around the world. It continues up to the 50th floor housing all entertainment sections any person could think of and hear about. The other 20 floors above the 50th floor are rooms for those people who make a living in ES or those who literally lives in ES. ES is no mere entertainment section for it is one of the world's biggest money making industry which most people would kill to be one of those who are considered VIP's, granted special access to the restricted floors in the floors above the 70th floor. I won't be searching for Vylemor in any of those floors though.
I'll be searching for him in the 0th floor, the most restricted among the restricted floors. I don't know how Vylemor got access to it but I can just see the list of names that entered the elevator to the 0th floor that day. The only thing I'm concerned about is what I found out. Karne! There was no Vylemor for that day and for some reason, Karne had been a member of the Zero floorers all along. I only noticed now because of his relationship to Vylemor.
This won't do. Karne mailed me not to go to Vylemor's house anymore for some reason he cannot disclose. Even Nabyuk failed to appear at school just as Vylemor failed to. I approached Ragens to ask about Vylemor because he is his neighbour after all but got no useful information. He's just making fun of me. To think that he would tell me that he is at his house. That's impossible because Karne told me he's not there. Would he lie? I don't know. Ragens was serious so maybe he is telling the truth.
"Are you Delu Decade? I am the Guidance Counsellor, Saunter Mikado."
"I am. What can I do for you, ma'am Guidance Counsellor Saunter Mikado?"
"Some students and your teacher had spoken to me about you. Do you have time for a little chat?
"Actually ma'am, I'm in a hurry to go home because I was given a very urgent errand by my mother so if I may excuse myself?" What? I'm crazy now! This is bogus!
"Oh, okay but expect to be called to my office tomorrow. Go ahead and fulfil your familial duty then." As if! I won't be coming to school for a while. Maybe it's about time I use this access card. Let's see if it can do magic like Vylemor boasted it can. But still, I can't believe I'm doing this. Well, my life had been a perfect one but now that it became scarred with petty rumours and red-marked record, what could I possibly gain from enduring it when I could just create a path of my own.