Chapter 3: Something Sinister Is Happening in Mariana Islands (part 1)
. . .
"There are three sorts of people; those who are alive, those who are dead... and those who are at sea."
–Aristotle
. . .
Raven had left his mother's social media accounts alone for many personal reasons after she passed away six months ago. In his defense, everyone who knows Leigh Anne Song-Fall and especially everyone who matters in her life had been made aware that she was gone, after all.
On hindsight, maybe Raven really should have just deactivated her accounts... like any normal person would have done.
Yeah, maybe he really should have.
(But Raven kind of liked the idea of letting himself think whenever he sees her contact number, her account, her name and even her profile picture in his chat-box, with their old messages still intact that she was still somewhere out there, reachable, that his mom was still very much alive.
It was force of habit of his sending messages to her too.
For example:
'Mom, I'm on my way home.'
'Mom, I'm coming back late.'
'Mom, happy birthday!'
...sometimes, it made him kind of sad and a little bit of bitter, the things he does to regain some sort of semblance of normalcy in his life.
Sometimes, it made him feel kind of pathetic.)
However, after finding a dead end on his one true lead, on that 'Blessing' (whoever they are)–he suspected that person had either changed numbers or... or something–he thought it wouldn't hurt to check his mother's laptop now, just to be sure.
It's not like the thing was actually off-limits to him even when his mom had been alive. Mom barely even uses it since she has her own computer at work!
Thankfully, her password still remains the same: his and his father's first names (ravenray). No space, no caption... how on earth his mother's accounts still has never been hacked with such a ridiculously easy password, considering that this was her password for all of her other accounts as well even after all this time, Raven seriously had no idea.
It was actually kind of unfair since his account had been hacked once but oh well. It makes things easier for him at the very least.
So really, who was he to complain?
Sighing noisily, Raven resolved that his impromptu idea of cleaning the house could probably wait for another time. He's in Detective mode right now–
"Chunky, WHAT THE HELL!" he groaned, glaring at the back of the cat's furry head (for real, why does cats always think it's a good idea to jump in front of the keyboard?!), "Look, I'm trying to do some serious work here. So could you please move your butt–I can't see a damn thing!"
The cat meowed too loudly in indignation when Raven picked it up by the scruff of the neck without a warning and proceeded to dump the fur-ball somewhere... behind him.
And with that out of the way...
Cracking his knuckles in anticipation, Raven hurriedly leaned closer to the screen as he hurriedly browsed through any strange messages on his mother's emails, the too-brightness of the laptop made his eyes hurt a bit for a few seconds, but he didn't really want to risk his cat dumping itself right in front of the keyboard again.
(Raven knew he was intruding here.
This could be borderline stupidity too.
...Because really, what he was hoping to gain?
Some sort of closure? Answers to questions Raven thinks he was better off left ignorant? Because come to think of it... surely his mother had a perfectly good reason why she had thought it was a good idea to leave her son in the dark about this one even though Raven would have been too happy to help back then and even until now...)
Unsurprisingly enough, most of the emails are for work. Or the occasional times Raven had to use her email for forwarding some messages for school-related matters, nothing promising.
Blah, blah, blah–
...to be honest, it was all rather boring.
But when Raven had the brilliant idea of trying to type the word 'sea' on the search bar, he realized he may be finally on to something. His sanity and guilt could catch up to him later.
The same goes for Chunky's meal.
...No, seriously, the cat needs the diet.
It's for Chunky's own good.
...Greater good, really.
As if reading his mind, Chunky suddenly bit at his foot.
Jolting, Raven yelped, "Will you please KNOCK IT OFF?!"
Embarrassingly enough, it had cost him a few more precious minutes but once Raven managed to successfully pry the stupid thing off of him (and was sure as hell it wouldn't try to give him anymore love bites all over again because to be fair, while his cat was seriously cute, Chunky's teeth seriously kind of hurt), and when he turned his attention to the screen again, Raven noted that there was a particular email which had been sent a few years back... way before the shitty pandemic happened.
And much to his surprise, Raven was quick to realize that his mother had actually been the first to reach out to... to one Ms. Casey Liu.
Okay.
Okay, this is really, really awkward.
Who is this person again?
Raven doesn't... he didn't know any Casey Liu.
...Maybe she's one of his mom's friends?
But if she was, then why didn't he even saw her in his mom's funeral? All of her friends, some were even old schoolmates from New York and Beijing even came to say their goodbyes.
And the name doesn't sound familiar too.
His mouse's cursor hovered over it, reluctantly.
Biting at his lip, Raven tried to mull what he was to do again, but for the life of him, the feeling of something... something wrong, was nagging at him, like he was missing something again...
Raven had a strange, nagging feeling that the clues were already all over him now, that it was already in his hands, just staring right at his face but he still couldn't make heads or tails of the answer. And he seriously felt like an idiot.
His mom used to tell him: "Look at the bigger picture."
Look at the bigger picture, huh...
But...
...But how?
How can he look at the bigger picture if he doesn't even have a single clue what the hell he was supposed to be looking at?
Ugh.
Something's seriously not adding up here...
Mentally apologizing to his mom, Raven opened the email.