Chapter 4 Casualty

The news was viral as of now, it's the other woman, not my Mom. I felt relieved from hearing that news.

I took an exam last week, and luckily I already passed it. All of a sudden, my phone rang.

"Hello?" I answered. Nobody speaks in the other line.

It's an unknown number. I'm hoping that it was my mother, but I can't hear anything coming from the other line.

Maybe, someone is joking, and he or she's going to play some jokes? All of a sudden, the call ended. I went downstairs to have my breakfast, it's already 8 am.

While I'm in the kitchen, a loud knock on the door is echoing inside the house.

I rushed to the door to open it, I'm a bit surprised. It was my uncle, he looked sad and tired.

His sweats are dripping. "What happened?" I asked. "Your Mom-"

"Where is she? What happened to her?" I cut his words. "She is in the hospital right now, we need to hurry!"

I automatically rushed to the kitchen to turn off the stove and went upstairs to get my important stuff.

After a few minutes, we reached the hospital. We went inside, the nurses and doctors were looking exhausted. I followed him until we reached room 014.

My uncle opened the door. For an instant, I became astonished. My mother is lying in bed, and she's unconscious.

Different tubes and wires were connected to her to keep her alive. What I witnessed, can cause my heart to bleed. It hurts. It hurts watching your mother in that kind of situation.

Why? Did I do something wrong to be miserable like this?

First, my lady, then the second was my mother. I keep silent. My uncle pats my shoulder.

"Zhian, when she's on her way to work, a group of men held her, and they forced her to get inside the van."

"She fought back, but she didn't make it," he added. I sat beside my mother, and I kept listening to my uncle. We heard the door creak, and someone entered the room. She looks familiar. My eyes widened, and my jaw dropped a bit.

Right, she's the one who called me yesterday while we are inside the classroom.

"I'm Sammy, your Mom's niece." She smiled at me, but she looked exhausted.

I offered my chair to her because her knees are trembling like she's going to fall to the ground. My uncle handed her a bottle of water to calm her.

I never thought that girl was my cousin. She asked a favor of me yesterday.

She said if I can manage her projects, and homework in exchange for what I wanted. She added that she can't manage her time because of a fully-loaded schedule.

Not only that, but she also said that she feels like her body is going to be weak. Her family has a financial problem, so she needs to work along with her studies.

I felt worried about her at that time, so I accepted her request without the exchange of anything.

She looks like Zoe Amethyst, her facial expressions, her brunette hair, hazel eyes, and her sweet, yet weary smiles.

Their differences are the name and their height. Zoe Amethyst is 154 centimeters, while Sammy is 160 centimeters based on my observation. My uncle said that he needs to do something.

He told me that Sammy and I were in charge of taking good care of my Mom.

Well, that is a good point for sure. A few minutes have passed, and we are still covered in silence. I gulped, and I decided to talk to Sammy.

"Sammy?" She looked at me when I called her name. "Hmm?" she said with a puzzled look.

"Do you know, Zoe Amethyst?" I asked her. She looked down and took a heavy sigh.

"Yes."I gasped for air when she said that. "How?"

"Zoe Amethyst was my best friend in grade school," her voice starts to weaken. "I'm shocked when I heard the news that she hung herself, and cut her wrist."

"I never thought that she could do it, she's a clever, and brave woman," Sammy added.

Everybody says that, even her relatives and friends. I never doubt that kind of trait in her. She paused, she's already sobbing. My heart melts.

I don't want to see a woman crying with a kind and beautiful heart.

The door suddenly opened by itself. We both glanced at the door and waited for someone to come in.

However, no one came in. I think it's just the air. "Do you believe in ghosts?" she asked me out of the blue. "What do you think?" I replied.

A shadow suddenly appeared beside Sammy. Her eyes widened while looking at me. The way I see it from her, Sammy can feel it too.

We covered our ears because of the blaring noise. Strange circumstances happen. We're in a different place, it looks like an old villa.

I looked around to make sure that no one was going to attack me.

Sammy is with me. We stare at each other for a couple of minutes. My mind can't absorb what's going on right now.

"Did you know this place?" I asked Sammy. I have the feeling that this villa was from Riego's Family.

"It's Zoe Amethyst's villa, this used to be our playground when we were children." We walked to the pathway and decided to get inside.

Maybe, I can get some information from here. I can help Amethyst.

"Sammy!" She disappeared suddenly, I can't find her. I'm just looking around, then all of a sudden, she disappeared. I ran towards the strange door, and I opened it.

All of a sudden, I saw an old booklet with neat penmanship.

I think it's a diary. A strange noise echoed in this room. The fears crawled in my body. A woman's scream gave me goosebumps.

Where did that scream come from?

I start to read the first page, it's normal. Nothing special, it says, the day that she met Sammy in school.

They were happy, and shy at first.

I turn it to the next page.

This page has a drawing of a house, and the notes said, "Zoe Amethyst's dream house."

I turned it again, the notes make me feel haunted.