Kay Sea Gee

Chapter 12 - Superhuman

2009-02-01T06:29:00.000-08:00

Pangkor Island Resort,
Dunes.

Vylum’s face was dark. His braids swayed slightly in the still wind of twilight. His fingers, previously clenched, were now stretched out wide. As if he was trying to grab at a huge imaginary ball. Popping veins on his fingers due to the effort was visible even from Shaun, Jasmine, Maggie, Ren and Mei Ling’s vantage point. Kevin looked sad, but not a bit surprised. As if he expected something like this to happen.

Something like this. It had to be what everyone was thinking. A fight.

A fight is how two people settle their differences physically. A fight is not just a fight, but also why they fight, and in what manner, they fight. Why they fight is still a murky blur.

But in what manner they fight. Is a completely different story. Vylum’s words echoed in everyone’s minds. ‘I’ve gone to places you’ve never thought possible and met people who could do things you’ve never imagined,’ No one thought much about anything when he said those words, but as they watched, they began to realize that he actually meant it.

Again, thousands and thousands of black, slimy tentacles crept up Shaun’s body, wrapping around him again and again, swallowing him whole. That alienated green in his eyes, down to the bleached white skin, every part of Vylum’s whole he was afraid. He feared. Not only he, Jasmine, Maggie, Ren and Mei Ling too were feeling the same thing. That same fear. A slimy, black, disgusting fear that hid in the corner of your mind and waited to pounce on you. The minute you think of it, the fear creeps back slowly, gradually. Eventually.

Black, vine-like tentacles were crawling like worms out Vylum’s sleeves. They were small, tiny, vein-like and shiny at first, when they started to crawl out from Vylum’s sleeves, slowly and invasively. But they grew in length and size, and soon, black vines so long crawled up his arms and his legs, they forced their way into every nook and cranny of his body, into his pores and out again, in through his mouth went a million tiny, vein-like things, into his nostrils and his ears, into his eyes and into his skin. Ren retched, the others gasped. They couldn’t believe what was happening. Only Kevin didn’t seemed surprised. The black veins were sharp-tipped at the end, and as they pierced Vylum’s own eyeball he screamed, blood poured from his mouth as the blackness consumed him. Swallowing him whole. His skin darkened into a terrible, dead gray. His eyes a brighter shade of green and his mouth an endless black abyss. The veins retreated after they transformed him.

Violent Vylum.

He let out an inhuman scream. He had fangs, bristling with a dirty, rotten yellow. His hair was long and ragged, but his two braids remained. Maggie bit her finger to stop herself from screaming. Jasmine retched. Shaun’s eyes were wide open.

That’s not human.

The shrieking stopped. Vylum returned back to his senses as every trace of black tentacles retreated into his sleeves. Leaving only a darkened, terrible figure in its wake.

‘This is who I am now,’ Vylum snarled. Again, an inhuman edge tainted his voice. In a flash, he extended an arm and black-green vines shot out from his sleeves, sharp-tipped, gleaming and headed directly for Kevin!

Everything happened in less than a second. One second, the vines darted out like deadly blades, homing onto helpless Kevin. And the next, they were a wreathing, burning, smoldering mess on the floor. The stench of rotten, burning meat filled the air. Kevin’s palm was up. Vylum raised an eyebrow. His other arm flashed out in a second and more of the killer blade-like vines shot out from his other sleeve, they lashed out at Kevin. And again, Kevin’s hands went aflame. A bright red fire flared up and engulfed his hands and in a swift movement, he set the approaching vines aflame and a wreathing mess on the sandy floor.

A pause. The flames cackled as the vines ceased their wreathing. The stench. Shaun felt like vomiting. Everyone did.

‘You’re special too?’ Vylum asked. His voice almost human.

‘Since forever,’ Kevin nodded gravely.

Shaun stared at the two of them bewilderedly as the enormity of the whole situation hit him in the face. Humans were the creation of God. They were meant to walk this Earth under his service. But Adam and Eve sinned, and for that we have to pay. Humans have evolved since then. That was all. Humans have no purpose, no extraordinary thing that allows them to bend the laws of the universe, let alone break them. The chains of human boundaries, no one can run superfast and not one can jump superhigh. No one is supersmart and no one is superstrong. No one should be able to shoot black vines from his sleeves and no one should be able to make fire sprout from his hands.

Superhumans. Was that it?

In the time he took to think, more of the horrible stench filled the air and the cackling flames increased in a chorus as more black vines shot out directly toward Kevin and more of them fell to the floor in a burning mess. The fading light and the speed in which Kevin and Vylum were moving at made it difficult for anyone to see anything. All they saw was blurs of black that encompasses the distance between Vylum and Kevin in a second and flashes of bright red on the sand.

In a few minutes, there was a pause. The whole area was filled with a rotten, putrid stench now and the ground was littered with burning foliage. As Shaun looked closely, the vines burned like paper, like plants. Tentacles that swallowed him whole, green eyes.

Plants.

Kevin was breathing hard. But Vylum seemed like he wasn’t breathing at all. He smiled again. An alien smile.

His hands moved in a sudden blur and black blurry things flew around in a rapid flurry. Kevin didn’t even have time to react, when probably ten or more shards of wood, each two to three meters long, lay head buried in the sand all over. The cracks and seams in the wood glowed an alien green as they pulsed and illuminated the darkness of the twilight. Kevin lighted his hands and spun around, the fire trailing a tail of brilliant flame behind him as he spun, running toward the nearest shard of wood. He ended his spin and connected with a shocking blow to the shard of wood, an explosion ensued, splitting the shard into millions of pieces that flew everywhere.

Kevin composed himself, then turned his attention to Vylum.

‘What are you playing at Vy!?’ He yelled. ‘If you wanted to kill me you would have done so by now!!!’

‘I enjoy these little pleasures,’ came the soft reply. From each shard of wood, a vine sprouted and lashed itself toward Kevin. The shards of wood was everywhere, and if from each shard, a vine lashed out at the same time…

Razor tipped vines drilled through his palms and sliced off his fingers. The vines gouged out flesh from his body, sliced the tendons in his ankles and hauled him upright. Each vine tensing. Kevin was tied up and helpless. Fresh blood spilled onto the floor, accompanied by agonizing screams.

Retching. Vomiting. Gasps. All the five of them could do was stare. Or could they do something else? An invisible hand grabbed hold of Maggie and pulled her into reality. Someone was murdering someone else! The police can help! She felt for her phone. For Kevin’s phone. Shaun saw her and did the same thing. Jasmine felt for her phone and so did Ren and Mei Ling.

They were all not there.

More screams. The vines pulled, stretching Kevin’s joints and sockets to their limit. A shoulder popped, an elbow snapped. Screams. Agonizing, painful screams of a dying person. The pulling stopped, the vines slacked and Kevin slumped to the ground, his fresh wounds grinding with coarse sand. He was barely conscious. Vylum strolled closer, smiling his alien smile. The swagger in his walk indicated that he wasn’t even bothered that he was killing his best friend so painfully. It indicated more of a ‘walking along the beach’ feel.

‘How did you like that hm?’ He grinned down at Kevin. He spat at him. ‘My job is nearly done, once I finish you off, I would’ve accepted my honor, and the real killing begins,’

Vylum reached down and patted Kevin’s bloodied, matted hair.

‘I gave you my trust Kevin,’ he smiled sadly. ‘And now I’m taking it back,’

He lifted his hand, and took a few steps back. When he stopped. All the vines suddenly tightened again, Kevin screamed. He was hauled up onto his knees, bleeding all over from deep, disgusting cuts infested with black slime. Black tendrils again sprouted from Vylum’s right arm. But this time, it took the form of a huge, lance-like cone with a razor sharp tip. It lengthened and thickened and became blacker and shinier as the slime hardened.

‘Goodbye, old friend,’

He flashed forward, the huge black, hardened lance right in front of him, its razor sharp tip directed at Kevin’s bleeding, battered body. A deathblow.

When suddenly, a figure sprinted out of nowhere. He was so fast, no one even saw him. His whole figure was just a blur of motion as he sprinted across the undergrowth, over the sand dune and directly toward Kevin and Vylum. Sand was thrown everywhere as the blurry figure flashed forward, and then, like in a slow motion scene in a movie.

The figure kicked Vylum directly in the gut.

Blood, black in the moonlight spilled out of his mouth and his green eyes widened. Even his wild, ragged black hair flew around wildly. Ribs cracked, bones broke. The force of the kick threw Vylum almost thirty paces from where he was standing, he face planted in the hard sand just after the tideline in a sickening thud. All eyes turned to the figure, standing now. Behind him was a tangle of footprints in the sand and far beyond, over the sand dune, a ragged gash where he tore out of the undergrowth.

Jasmine concentrated. That guy. With a pair of glasses, a belt, and his shirt tucked in, he’ll look almost exactly like, like…

George.

Chapter 11 - Truth

2009-01-29T02:49:00.000-08:00

Pangkor Island Resort,
Dunes.

The five of them ran through the undergrowth beside the hotel, trailing a lone figure walking toward the sand dunes on the other side of the beach. Jasmine, Shaun, Maggie, Mei Ling and Ren kept their voices down and their bodies close to the ground, being careful not to be seen by the lone figure. Thankfully it was sunset, and their shadows were spread out behind them. It would be harder to navigate while remaining hidden from Kevin if their shadows could be seen easily. Shaun wanted to see who this someone was. He needed to see who this someone is. Who could have been manipulating them all this while?

The five of them trudged slowly now. They’ve been tailing Kevin for more than ten minutes now. Originally, they thought Kevin was already there and meeting that someone, but he didn’t left yet, when they set off for the dunes, Maggie saw him walking out from the beach and the five of them managed to hide in the shadows of the setting sun. For the last ten minutes since then, the five of them stuck closely to the flora, shadowing Kevin silently. Adrenaline raced through Shaun’s mind, was Adranne and Lucas okay? Were they going to keep the Adwin, Jonathan and Ryan in their room? Is Nicole okay? Where did she go?

Shaun caught sight of a slight change of movement in Kevin’s direction and stopped everyone in their tracks. They all watched Kevin. He turned off right a little, toward the beach slightly; his eyes were glued to a sand dune ahead.

The meeting place.

Shaun signaled to everyone that that was the dune and began moving slowly toward it. Kevin walked pass the small sandy hill then turned a sharp left, it was then when Shaun knew why Someone chose this place. It was like a room, with walls of sand instead of brick and cement. On the wall of sand facing the sea, there was no wall. The sand dune opened out only to the sea and this was where Kevin strolled in. This was the meeting place. It was secluded and someone had to climb over quite a bit of sand to see what was happening inside. And anyway, it’s so far from the beach that nearly no one came here. The sun was setting slowly in the distance. Its bottom just touched the horizon. A dapple of light, like a heat wave, vibrated the image, distorting the horizon, light melted with water.

Twilight. The middle of night and day, when it was neither too dark, or bright.

Shaun, Jasmine, Maggie, Mei Ling and Ren went down on their hands and knees and crawled on their bellies to the top of the dune, to see what was happening on the other side. Thankfully, some bushes were growing at the top and they could hide themselves well, especially in the fading light. They all sat there and waited, staring at the lone figure before them. Kevin had his back faced towards them. He was looking out over the sand dunes on the other side. Waiting. Just waiting for him to come.

And come he did.

A figure slipped out on the ridge of the opposing sand dune. He was short and had black hair. But what really made Shaun gasp was his black turtleneck, bleached white skin and his two braids. The millions of tentacles began crawling all over his body again. Swallowing him whole.

Violent Vylum. He walked towards Kevin and stood roughly five or six meters away, his pupils of his eyes still shadowed by the two long, black braids that covered them. Maggie wasn’t that taken aback when she saw him, because perhaps she had seen him like this before and she had felt this scary feeling before. But this was new to Ren, Mei Ling and Jasmine. They were frozen to their spots, eyes wide with fear. A drop of sweat slid past Jasmine’s brow. She rarely perspired.

‘Hello, old friend,’ Vylum said with a grin, so like a smile but so completely joyless.

Jaws dropped.

It all made sense now.

‘It’s been quite some time since we last talked hasn’t it?’ Vylum asked Kevin. His smile unwavering, his body unmoving. Kevin on the other hand, wasn’t as scared as he was supposed to be. He was calm, he looked almost distant.

‘Yeah man, hello buddy,’ Kevin said.

Jasmine reminded herself again that there was no possible way that she was hearing was what she was hearing. She knew with every fibre of her being that it was the truth, but other part, the sensible part, denies it. It was worst of for Maggie, she wasn’t just denying it, she was rejecting it. Gasping, unable to believe what she was hearing, lies. All lies, from someone she had trusted for so long. Shaun shushed just loudly enough so that everyone could hear, but not the two figures facing each other.

‘How long has it been? One and a half years?’ Vylum answered his own question. ‘My my how’ve you grown Kevin, grown more and more idiotic,’

Kevin had a quizzical look on his face after that. Almost sad.

‘You’ve grown away from the truth Kevin, you’ve denied yourself, unable to control the guilt that’s building up within, no matter how much you bully, you’ll never ever be able to get rid of the guilt. Ever,’ Vylum hissed.

Kevin was the one bullying George! He did it to get it out of his system, to get rid of the pushing! To get the guilt out of himself!

‘I was feeling guilty! And that’s the one thing that’ll never change! I’m truly sorry,’ Kevin said in a rapid outburst, his voice trailed into a sad, soft and timid tone, a voice that sounded like it knew it was not going to help out in anything within the situation. ‘Vylum, forget this madness, forgive me and come home,’

‘No,’ Vylum hissed in reply almost immedietly. His face darkened. Up till now, his braids always hid his pupils. But now, in the setting sun, his braids moved to the side, and his green pupils flared up in the fading light. It was almost glowing. None of them could explain it. The vines crawled and spasmed all over their skins, a feeling of scared-ness so great, that it amounted to fear. And very little, do we actually feel real fear. Maggie gasped. Everyone gasped. But not Kevin.

Kevin just stared at Vylum with sad eyes.

Thoughts were rapidly rifling through Shaun’s mind. It HAD to be yet it COULDN’T, it was too impossible. Kevin is Vylum’s best friend!

Kevin is D!

He was the one who pushed C down, whoever it was! He was Violent Vylum’s best friend once! He killed someone!

Ren’s words of what Kevin had said to George echoed through his mind resoundingly, almost sadistically, mockingly. ‘Do you want to know why I do this George? Huh? Do you want to know? Its because I have to get it out of my system, you see pushing is always a bad thing, it always hurts the person you’re pushing, but it makes the person pushing you feel better, feel good, I’ll give up after the pushing is out of my system, but until then, I’ll continue to push you because no one cares about you,’

Kevin is the one bullying George!

The pushing. Kevin needed to get the pushing out of his system. Shaun’s eyes widened, he then whispered, more to himself, than anybody else.

‘The pushing that he needs to get out of his system is like, like…’

‘Guilt,’ Vylum snarled. Unknowingly completing Shaun’s sentence. ‘You can’t take the guilt, Kevin,’ Vylum continued. ‘You’re not strong enough,’

‘I’m sorry, just come home old friend,’ Kevin said, the sadness in his voice was unmistakable.

‘We both know that’s impossible,’ Vylum smiled, almost kindly. ‘I’ve gone to places you’ve never thought possible and met people who could do things you’ve never imagined, I’m superior, I’m not insane, I’m better, I’m stronger,’

‘Why call me here?’ Kevin said softly.

‘I’ve always lived by this Kevin, its something I believe in,’ Vylum started. The key to sanity, is having two important things,’

Vylum waved two fingers out.

‘One, life,’ he said as he smiled. One finger closed and only one remained.

‘And the other, trust,’ he finished. ‘With these two things, one can keep their sanity, and use it as a shield against madness, but you see, what made me this, this … monster,’

Vylum looked up, straight into Kevin’s eyes. Everyone could hardly believe it. Vylum’s eyes were misty with memory.

‘Is you,’ he choked. ‘You were my best friend Kevin, you were my trust, and Delia was my life,’

‘Delia?’ Shaun whispered. A girl?

‘His first love,’ Maggie sobbed. ‘She was C,’

The memory in Vylum’s eyes vanished in a blink of an eye, and its substitute was pure rage that burned so intensely in his green eyes. ‘You killed her Kevin, you killed her and I lost my faith in you,’

‘You took away my life, and my trust,’ He snarled. ‘And therefore, I lost my sanity,’ His hands were clenched into fists and his face muscles were flexing and shaking, in a futile effort to contain that much rage and hate.

‘I have a mission Kevin, I could have chosen anyone, but this, is why I chose you,’

And with those final words, Violent Vylum took over, and the night knew no happy end.

Chapter 10 - Convergence

2009-01-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

Pangkor Island Resort,
On the way to Room 370,
5:00p.m.

Adranne had provided everyone with tasks to complete. It was late noon now, around five o’clock she guessed. She headed briskly to George’s room to talk to him, to comfort him. As she was moving, she knew that everyone was doing their supposed tasks. Lucas and Shaun were meeting up with Kevin and Maggie, Mei Ling was comforting Ren and Jasmine was comforting Nicole in their room and Adwin, Jonathan and Ryan were probably in their rooms or out swimming she didn’t know. That was another problem she had to deal with, she’ll probably ask Lucas to check on the trio to make sure they stay put and that none of them knew anything about what was going on. If one of them wants to know, the three of them would want to know and if the three of them wants to know, they would waste a lot of time explaining what had happened last night and this morning to them. Speaking of which, so much has happened in such a short time.

Ren thinks Nicole betrayed his trust because he told the story of George’s past to her and she told everyone else. In fact, no one told anyone anything. The only person that told someone something, was that Someone. That Someone told George that Ren had betrayed his trust and that Ren told his new friends George’s secret. That Someone was pulling the strings, turning everyone against each other.

Adranne’s train of thought was cut short when she stood in front of a door with the big number ‘370’ engraved on it. She pressed the doorbell and waited. She could hear sounds from inside, of a scared-looking boy flinching, then inching forward to the eyehole to see who it was then gradually, finding the courage to … click. The door opened and a boy whose face was dominated by his glasses and his fear stared out.

‘What do you want?’ George said softly. He was as timid as a girl.

‘I just want to talk to you George,’ Adranne said in her most calm voice possible.

‘About what?’ He asked back.

‘About what we know,’ Adranne said. ‘About you,’

Pangkor Island Resort,
Room 302.

Jasmine blinked awake. She had fallen asleep.

A little while earlier she brought Nicole into the room and they barely talked. She could sense that Nicole was in one of her don’t-talk-to-me-when-I’m-THIS-pissed modes and she understood that. Nicole couldn’t be talked to when she was angry. She had to let if all out before talking about it and then, let even more out through the talk.

It was somewhere during the waiting for Nicole to ‘let it all out’ that Jasmine fell asleep. It was quite awkward just now, being in the same room as her and not talking to her, especially since hotel rooms are relatively small, but she didn’t mind. She knew Nicole well enough to just ignore the awkward-ness.

She rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock on her phone. Five o’clock. She glanced around her room, then her eyes set on a sleeping figure under a blanket on the single bed beside the one she was lying on.

Nicole.

She must have fallen asleep too during the wait, Jasmine guessed. She smirked; at least she could go out and look for Adranne now, once Nicole falls asleep, it was seriously hard to wake her up. Jasmine went and washed her face, grabbed her stuff and her phone then sped off to the lobby to search for Adranne.

After she left, and after the door clicked behind her, a handphone dropped to the floor, falling seemingly from nowhere. The screen blinked, then the whole phone switched off.

It was Jasmine’s.

Pangkor Island Resort,
Room 307.

‘So it really is Kevin?’ Adranne asked softly. ‘Kevin is the actual bully?’

George nodded timidly.

It was almost half an hour before when George had let her in and they both began talking. Only now was she able to get George to tell her who was his actual bully and now that she knew the truth, George began to look like he was going to run away. Finally she had managed to get him to tell her what she wanted to hear, what else could she want? More answers? He couldn’t tell her so many things, so many so many things. She wouldn’t understand or even comprehend the size of it; he couldn’t take that many questions.

Adranne was confident. She knew now that Kevin is George’s actual bully. Kevin is the one who pushed George about and told George that he wanted to get rid of the pushing in his system. Kevin is the one who made George look scared, not Violent Vylum or any lame character that Shaun made up. She could talk to Kevin and Maggie, ask Maggie to make Kevin stop bullying George, they could call a councilor, they could make things better between George and Kevin. She looked at her watch, 5.20p.m.

They could help George.

Suddenly, George yelled at her. It wasn’t just any yell. It was loud, almost feral. It wasn’t that timid, nerdy voice that he used when he was talking to her for the past half an hour, actually she was doing most of the talking.

‘SHUT UP!’ He screamed. His eyes were wild and he was breathing hard. Adranne nearly screamed as well. She didn’t say anything! George seized a pillow and hurled it at Adranne, who was sitting on the bed. The pillow hit her in the face and she fell backward onto the floor, but it was a pillow, how much damage could it do? She actually nearly laughed a little when she was struggling to get up, seriously, how much damage could a pillow do? Pushing the urge to laugh and the humour aside, she got ready to yell at him back. An anger was bubbling inside her and she was so ready to scream at the retarded nerd. But she heard the door open, and then there was a gust of wind.

She tossed aside the pillow and dashed to the door, looking out.

George’s room was the very end of the block and a long corridor lay in front of his room, there was no staircase at his end that allowed easy entrance or exit, the only way was for someone to run through the long long corridor and down the staircase or the lift at the end of it. But to Adranne’s amazement.

There was no one there at all.

Pangkor Island Beach,
The Streamz,
5.30p.m.

Shaun and Lucas spotted Maggie sitting by herself at a table at the Streamz, her face a sheet of worry. They sped to her and grabbed seats around her before she could object, apologizing repeatedly and so loudly that it was drawing attention from the other hotel guests who were eating there. The repeated apologizing got so much on Maggie’s nerves that she yelled at both of them to shut them up.

The two boys shut up immedietly.

‘What the hell do you two bean-spillers want,’ she snapped. Her phone was on the table and so was Kevin’s. Where was he by the way? The boys have never seen her without her boyfriend by her side. Shaun started first.

‘Look, sorry Maggie that I told my friends, I was sure I didn’t tell anyone about it but Someone told you that I told my friends, I need to know and I need to know now,’ a pause. ‘Who is that Someone?’

Maggie’s features softened. ‘You’re really sure that your friends didn’t tell anyone at all about it?’

‘Absolutely,’ Shaun said softly. ‘You have to trust me, Someone is turning all of us against each other, you NEED to tell me who told you,’

Maggie sighed. You could tell that she was still angry a little at Shaun, but not as much anymore, partly because… ‘There, look at that message,’ Maggie said, handing her phone to Shaun. Lucas and Shaun read the message slowly.

‘Shaun and Lucas spilled, they told everyone about it, you cannot trust them,’

It was from an anonymous number.

‘Do you know whose number is that?’ Shaun asked and looked at her.

‘No, I acted too quickly and got angry too fast, I’m sorry Shaun,’ Maggie said softly. It helped now that she thought about it, she wasn’t someone to forgive that quickly but now that she knows that Someone is playing around with the others two, she was reluctant to remain angry at them.

‘It’s okay,’ Shaun said back, the softness of his voice could match even Maggie’s. Lucas had a little awkward moment there as the two of them shared a look for a brief moment.

‘Okay so anyway,’ Shaun said, stopping the moment abruptly, ‘Who could have sent this?’

Maggie shook her head in reply, ‘But,’ she added. ‘I have this,’

She waved Kevin’s phone in front of their two faces.

‘What does that have to do with anything?’ Lucas asked.

‘If you look closely, this message has to do with everything,’ Maggie whispered. Shaun and Lucas looked at the first message and their jaws dropped. It was the same number as the message sent to Maggie’s phone, and no doubt, the same message sent to George’s phone! That Someone was manipulating them all! The message said:

‘Kevin, meet me at six o’clock in the dunes, at twilight,’

‘Kevin’s gone you know,’ Maggie said. ‘He went off like fifteen minutes ago, told me that he was going to party in one of the boys’ room, but so obviously he went to that dune place,’

Just at that moment, Shaun’s phone rang. It was Adranne.

‘Shaun, Adranne here, I know who’s bullying George!’ Adranne said, she was out of breath and she sounded like she was running. ‘It’s Kevin!’ She almost shouted through the phone.

Shaun yelled a silent yes. It wasn’t Violent Vylum; Vylum had nothing at all to do with any of this. It was Kevin and all they had to do was talk to him, talk to a councilor, it was so much more easier than the alternative, than if Vylum was the bully.

‘BUT!’ Adranne gasped. Shaun could tell she was really running now. ‘He ran off somewhere, I think he couldn’t stand my questions, you need to find him, I’m going to check on the three boys and make sure their in the room, I need Lucas’ help, ask him to come up while you find for George?’

‘I can’t find for George, apparently Kevin also ran off and I need to find for him with Maggie! I need to go find for Kevin, Adranne, George can wait, Someone sent something to Kevin and asked him to meet him at some place, I need to know who this Someone is,’

‘Someone,’ Adranne said softly. That person was connected in everything, who could it possibly be?

‘Yes, I’m gonna find out who he is and why is he meeting Kevin, I’ll send Lucas to help you and I’m going with Maggie, I’ll update you,’

Adranne nodded to herself and mumbled an okay, then hung up. Imagine, George running off, Kevin running off, a random message from a random number for him to meet someone at someplace. Everything was beginning to sound sinister. It was beginning to sound strange. But at least now she knew that Vylum has nothing to do with anything, that maybe Shaun just made stuff up. That was good news. Could Kevin and George be getting into a fight?

Shaun hung up at the same time, telling Lucas to go and help Adranne upstairs, he stuffed his phone in his pocket and grabbed Maggie's hand.

'Lets go!' He said to her.

Maggie grabbed her phone and Kevin's phone and stuffed it in her bag. As they were running off, something fell from seemingly no where and smashed to the pebble-washed ground in millions of pieces. Three things actually.

Kevin's phone, Shaun's phone and Maggie's phone.

Pangkor Island Resort,
Lobby,
5.50p.m.

Mei Ling was done consoling Ren and they both were walking back to the lobby. Ren was so ready to forgive Nicole if she said sorry. He didn’t know why she told her friends but obviously she didn’t mean for her friends to tell. She trusted her friends like he trusted her, so it wasn’t really her fault and he was wrong to blame her. It was more like everyone’s at fault. Including his.

Ren and Mei Ling suddenly bumped into Jasmine, who was just coming down from upstairs, looking for Adranne. Before either of them could say anything, Shaun and Maggie ran into the lobby. The five of them stared at each other for a while, Jasmine, Shaun, Maggie, Ren and Mei Ling.

‘Guys, follow me, we’re going to see what Kevin is up to,’ Shaun grinned at them, then took Maggie’s hand and sprinted off to the beach, the beautiful sunset in the distance, it was nearly twilight. The time between night and day, where it was bright, and dark at the same time.

‘Where are we going?’ Jasmine asked Shaun as the five of them ran toward the dunes on the other side of the beach. At the same time, Lucas and Adranne were keeping Adwin, Jonathan and Ryan in their room and Nicole was sound asleep in Room 302. The five of them were on their own, going to find the truth, the last piece of the jigsaw.

‘We’re converging, to find the truth about things,’

Chapter 9 - Someone

2009-01-14T04:46:00.000-08:00

Pangkor Island Resort,
Swimming Pool.

Nicole was in an outrage. She stormed off in a different direction from where Ren walked off. She couldn’t get it, why can’t Lucas and Shaun sometimes get the information, process it and apply it accordingly? Why couldn’t they be more like Adranne or Jasmine, who kept everything to themselves the whole one-hour they were with Mei Ling and Ren. Why couldn’t they just get it? She knew it simply wasn’t their fault that they forgot or let something accidentally slip, if they knew that they weren’t supposed to tell George that, they wouldn’t. But it was because they forgot or they let something slip that she was mad at them. To confront them now would cause chaos. Nicole knew herself better. She needed time to cool down, to get so pissed off that her stress would just flow away, then she’d go back to one of their rooms and asked them what happened properly.

Obviously what happened was Lucas and Shaun accidentally let something slip about how Kevin bullied George and what Kevin told him about pushing. They obviously told George that and tried to talk to him. But he got scared and ran off, then he texted Ren right after that George knew he couldn’t trust Ren anymore because Ren told his secret to someone. And that someone was her! Nicole! He trusted her and she had been so stupid to tell the guys!

Pangkor Island Resort,
Lobby.

‘Why are you guys so stupid!’ Adranne cried as she slapped her forehead. After the commotion died down, the what what about Ren storming off then Nicole storming off. The four of them, Adranne, Jasmine, Lucas and Shaun sat down for a talk. Mei Ling had gone to check on Ren. Adwin, Jonathan and Ryan had obviously slept late last night and were still sleeping. ‘What did you tell him?’

‘We just told him that we wanted him to come down and swim with Ren and us later, did we do anything wrong? Like seriously, did we give him the idea that we know about something? Cause I don’t think we said anything wrong, right Shaun?’ Lucas said softly, guiltily. He and Shaun felt extremely stupid and embarrassed but Shaun nodded all the same. The two boys thought that Adranne was going to slap her forehead again. But quite the contrary, Adranne changed her expression. It was from angry, to confused.

‘Are you sure that’s the only thing you told him?’ Adranne asked. Shaun and Lucas nodded. ‘He only told Ren this and Ren only told Nicole. Obviously once one of you know, George would know Ren had breached his trust and Ren would think Nicole had breached his. But if you didn’t reveal anything, then who did?’

Shaun and Lucas looked estranged.

Adranne sighed.

‘Now, Mei Ling is off to find Ren,’ Adranne said, more calm now. ‘I’ve asked her to calm him down and bring him to her room, hopefully when we sort things out we can talk to him later, but as of now…’

‘I’ll go get Nicole into our room and calm her down?’ Jasmine suggested.

‘Yep,’ Adranne grinned. ‘I was going to say the same thing,’

After Jasmine took her handbag and sped off, Adranne stared at the two boys. ‘Shaun and Lucas,’ she sighed. ‘Go check whether Kevin or Maggie knows anything about this, whether Ren texted them or something, which I highly doubt, but it’s still on the safe side that we check,’

The two boys nodded.

‘I’ll go check on George himself and tell him that everything’s alright and that it’s okay to be afraid,’ she said. ‘We’re still under the assumption that Vylum is the true bully right?’

Lucas and Shaun nodded. ‘I hardly think it’s an assumption anymore though, I think it’s quite obvious that Vylum is the one bullying him,’ Shaun added.

Another sigh. ‘Alright, get hopping you two,’ Adranne said. ‘After Maggie and Kevin, maybe you can go check on the three boys and tell them to swim or something,’

Nods.

As everyone turned to go, Adranne suddenly stopped the two boys, her voice slid down to a secretive hiss. ‘Shaun and Lucas, you seriously didn’t tell anything else to George?’

The two boys again nodded. Adranne could see it in their eyes. They were telling the truth.

‘If you guys didn’t tell George, then Someone else must have. But who else could it be? Nicole, Jasmine and me are completely out of the question. And Ren himself knows about George’s past so what good is it that he knows? And I’m sure George was the one who texted Ren and told him that he doesn’t trust him anymore, right?’

Nods again. Adranne sighed loudly another time.

‘I’ll talk to you guys about this later, this is seriously strange, Someone told George, but seriously who?’ With that, everyone split up to do their things.

Pangkor Island Resort,
The Streamz.

A text message beep. Maggie’s phone. It was Shaun.

She grabbed it and looked at it in anger. She couldn’t believe that Shaun actually told his friends about the story both she and Kevin trusted him with!

‘Hey Maggie, you wanna hang out with me and Lucas around now? We want to ask a few questions about Double V,’

She was so angry, she replied back in a frenzy, ‘No I don’t want to be hanging out with untrustable people like you, ESPECIALLY you. I can’t believe you told your friends the story I trusted you with. And I even liked you a little Shaun,’

When Shaun received the message. He was bewildered. Not about the fact that Maggie was pissed off at him. But at with the question:

How did she know?

The story Ren told Nicole about Kevin bullying George was a different thing entirely. Even if Lucas and Shaun accidentally let word slip about THAT story to George and word somehow got to Kevin, even if both Kevin and Maggie knew about that story, and it wouldn’t matter to them. What matters is the Violent Vylum’s story, the story that they told Shaun and Lucas. But Shaun only told Adranne, Nicole and Jasmine and none of them told anyone. So how did they know?

Someone was pulling the strings. It had to be. There was someone in the group, in the whole group, Maggie, Kevin, George, Ren, Mei Ling, he himself, Lucas, Adranne, Nicole and Jasmine that was telling secrets where it was not meant to be told. He knew that he and Lucas was not fault for letting any of George’s past slip to George himself. He knew that even if Kevin and Maggie couldn’t possibly know that he told Adranne, Nicole and Jasmine because none of them told Kevin and Maggie. Everything would be okay if Someone hadn’t intervened and told George his own secret and Kevin and Maggie Violent Vylum’s story.

Someone.

Someone told Maggie and Kevin that Shaun told his friends about Violent Vylum’s past. Someone told George that Nicole knew about his past. That Someone knew about that no doubt. But who could that Someone be? This has to do with everything. If Someone didn’t tell Maggie and Kevin about this, at least the situation wouldn’t be so bad now. If Someone didn’t tell George, the situation wouldn’t be bad at all. All of that was a mystery but he must focus on the task at hand. He must talk to Maggie about it, he must say sorry and ask her for real if Kevin was bullying George, and if he did, why wasn’t she doing anything about it. Shaun himself will talk to Kevin and ask him to stop. That was manageable. Shaun could ask Adranne to tell George that it would be okay and he has to stand up for himself to prevent himself from being bullied. Everything would be okay then.

But if their assumption was right and if it wasn’t Kevin who really bullied George. Then it had to be…

Violent Vylum.

That would be a different story completely and if they knew that truth they could talk to a teacher or something. To stop George from being bullied and to expel Vylum or something for bullying George.

Nicole could always apologize to Ren, and say it was a mistake. That would all be okay in the end but what they really need is to help George. It was noon now. Shaun guessed that he had to skip lunch.

If Kevin really bullied George, they could settle it among themselves and Shaun could advice Kevin not to. A councilor would help.

But if it were really Violent Vylum who was bullying George, then no councilor could help. He need to inform teachers, probably kick Vylum out of school.

Speaking of which, of that Someone who was pulling the strings.

Could that Someone be, by any chance, Violent Vylum himself?

Chapter 8 - Breach

2009-01-13T06:14:00.000-08:00

Pangkor Island Resort,
Room 302.

‘Shaun did you say anything?’ Jasmine asked.

‘Violent Vylum, maybe it isn’t Kevin who’s bullying George, maybe it’s Vylum and he’s making George scared to tell the truth,’ Shaun said aloud this time.

‘Who the heck is Violent Vylum? And anyway, George himself told Ren who told me that Kevin was the one who pushed him around and treated him badly,’ Nicole countered.

‘I’ll tell you who’s Violent Vylum,’ Shaun said. ‘Maggie and Kevin told me his story and I think it’s quite true. It would make sense. Vylum is manipulative, and dangerous,’

‘He isn’t dangerous, you just think he is!’ Lucas said.

‘Have you looked him in the eye?’ Shaun snapped back. ‘Have you stared at him in the face and felt the millions of vines crawling all over you body?’

‘What are you talking about?!’ Adranne said loudly.

‘I’ll explain, I will, but remember, no questions until you’ve heard me out,’ Shaun said.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

After making sure no one would interrupt him, he began telling them about Violent Vylum’s story. About his two best friends C and D and how they were playing when D pushed C down to his because of jealousy. He told them how disturbed Vylum felt and the sadness and anger he had to endure after losing his two best friends. How he went crazy because he felt C needed justice but D was still his best friend. Shaun talked about how Vylum was torn between the two and then went crazy afterward, saying that he was the one who murdered C, who pushed him down. He told them how the police didn’t investigate and no one pressed charges against him. He told them how Vylum earned the title Violent as he was sucked deeper into depression, rage and insanity. But most of all, he told them of how he felt when he first stared into the face of Vylum.

Of the millions of dark, crawling tendrils, winding around him again and again, sucking him deeper, swallowing him whole. It was a terrible feeling.

‘It made people …’ Shaun said. ‘… Scared,’

A long pause. An uneasy silence.

The talk had definitely been more disturbing than that of George’s story, and even that of the female’s story. But Shaun had connected the dots between George’s story and Vylum’s past. And as soon as he finished his tale, everyone began connecting the dots too.

‘So are you trying to say that it isn’t Kevin who’s really bullying George?’ Adranne asked, managing to make out what Shaun was trying to say first. Shaun nodded. ‘You’re saying that it was Vylum and he’s making George scared, and when George is scared, he is forced to accuse someone else of the bullying and told Ren lies to get rid of some of the stress?’

‘Exactly,’ Shaun cooed.

‘But one thing I don’t get,’ Jasmine said. ‘You said that Kevin told you not to be friendly with George when you first met Kevin didn’t you?’

Shaun slapped his forehead. He forgot about that part.

‘It’s okay it’s okay,’ Nicole cut in. ‘The assumption is going to be this, Kevin doesn’t have anything to do with this. It is Vylum who is bullying George and making George scared. The result of George’s fear is bringing Kevin into the story, that Kevin is bullying him, okay?’

Everyone agreed.

‘Why are we trying to help George anyway?’ Lucas asked.

‘Because he just looks so scared sometimes,’ Nicole said softly.

‘Okay, Nicole, fish out more from Ren. Me and Jasmine will talk to Mei Ling while you two,’ Adranne gestured to Lucas and Shaun, ‘talk to Maggie and Kevin about it and try to figure something out tomorrow,’

Everyone nodded again.

‘Remember, no one tells Ren that we know and no one tells Kevin and Maggie that we know about their secrets respectively, get it?’ Adranne asked.

Nods.

‘Alright, now what?’

‘Partayyy!’ Shaun laughed and jumped on the bed. And party they did til one a.m. After that Adranne chased everyone to bed and pleaded them to be ready for breakfast by nine.

Monday,
Pangkor Island Resort,
Lobby.

‘It’s TEN O’CLOCK,’ Adranne moaned. ‘We can just forget about breakfast and go!’

She, Nicole and Jasmine were the only ones down at the lobby at nine. They couldn’t reach any of their phones and none of them wanted to go all the way up and call them, besides, they were engaging in a lively conversation with Ren and Mei Ling. They both were down early, had their breakfast and were hanging out in the lobby when the three girls came down. Ren and Mei Ling decided to accompany the three girls until the boys came. Nicole couldn’t try to fish anything out from Ren because the other two girls were there. Ren can’t know that she told them already! There was no way to ask Ren questions until he and her were alone by themselves, and that was hard to come by. On Adranne and Jasmine’s side, things were no different. They can’t ask things about George to Mei Ling if Ren and Nicole were there! It was like mutual interference. Each didn’t want the other there and can’t tell them to move off. They just had to wait patiently.

Suddenly, Shaun and Lucas came out of the lift, looking neither tired, nor sweaty from running from the room all the way down to the lobby. They didn’t even look like they knew it was late!

‘WHERE WERE YOU GUYS?!’ Nicole snapped at them.

‘Sorry,’ Shaun grinned. ‘We were talking,’

‘To whom?’ Adranne said and she stood up and stood beside Nicole.

‘George,’ Lucas grinned.

‘NO!’ Nicole yelled. ‘What did you tell him?!’ She hissed.

Shaun and Lucas’ face suddenly darkened. The look of uncertainty dawned upon them. What was going through in their minds was whether they did the right thing or not, they weren’t exactly sure what they could tell and what couldn’t be told. They were confused.

‘We didn’t, I mean…’ Lucas began.

‘DON’T HESITATE!’ Nicole cried. ‘What did you tell him,’ she hissed again. Everyone was silently staring at them now.

Suddenly, Ren’s phone rang. It was a text message. He took up the phone, and from the look of his face you can tell that the message was from George, that Lucas and Shaun had actually accidentally let something slip. And most likely, it had to do with…

‘Nicole,’ Ren said softly. His face showed no expression. ‘I trusted you,’

With that, he walked off without another word.

Chapter 7 - Connecting the Dots

2009-01-12T03:24:00.000-08:00

Pangkor Island Resort,
The Streamz.

The buffet dinner was as good as breakfast was. Even though it was good, the eight knew that for the next two more nights this was to be their menu til the parents and the kids get home. Their cruise would take them to Thailand and back and was quite a nice surprise for the eight of them.

They were having conversations while eating.

‘So, how do you like Kevin and um, Maggie?’ Nicole asked. She wasn’t looking directly at Lucas and Shaun but she was eating. It was an honest question, but it was inquisitive as well. It was as if she wanted to know something.

‘Their nice,’ Lucas said. ‘We’re going down to the bar with them later I think, why?’

‘No reason, I just wanted to ask if they’re nice,’ Nicole smiled. ‘Cause Ren, Mei Ling and George are,’

She stressed the word George, but no one seemed to have taken notice.

‘Anyone here know who’s Vylum?’ Shaun asked everyone. Lucas nodded and put his fork down. He and Shaun had discussed about it earlier and Shaun told Lucas how he felt about Vylum. About what one feels when one stares into his eyes.

‘No, who’s that?’ Jonathan asked.

‘No, nothing, its just some guy we met earlier,’ Lucas interrupted before Shaun was about to talk. He hissed into Shaun’s ear later, ‘We’ll tell Adranne, Nicole, Ryan and Jasmine later,’

The talk on their newfound friends didn’t really help Nicole accept the fact that Kevin would be a nice person. She didn’t like it that Lucas and Shaun were mixing with them but she already promised Ren not to tell anyone and she isn’t someone to go back on a promise. Adranne liked Mei Ling’s company, but didn’t love it. Mei Ling had a tendency to continue talking on and on and she had an annoying accent in her English.

‘Like morning call girls,’ Jasmine grinned.

From what the talk showed, Ren, Mei Ling and George weren’t really popular in the school. Ren was the guy who everyone thought was a geek, but was actually pretty cool when you got to know him. Mei Ling was a typical Chinese girl and George was a bottom feeding nerd bullied by Kevin. Kevin was obviously popular and Maggie, being his girlfriend would be popular too. Vylum was the only one no one knew about. Except Lucas and Shaun of course.

He was disturbed. Crazy even. But he obviously loves his friends a lot. Correction, loved, his friends a lot. Now no one looked at him and no one cared about him. Shaun wondered about his parents. What’s their story? Did they give up on him and sent him to social services? Or maybe beneath that veil of rage and insanity, was a softer part of Vylum, his true self that opened up to only his parents?

Whatever the reason was, Violent Vylum was a suitable name indeed. Shaun still gets the chills whenever he thinks about that face. Those whites of his eyes, his pupils blocked by his black braids, his white face. He still felt the tons of dark, black tentacles climbing all over him, swallowing him whole. But like Kevin said, it got better. And hopefully it will continue getting better until he would just think that he was unwell at the time. Vylum really made him feel uncomfortable.

What of the female?

That was what was going through Adrannes head over the course of the dinner. That female, it gave her an edgy feeling. A nervous, anxious feeling when she’s around, whether material, or in her mind. Adranne felt like she was up to something, and that something isn’t something good. And that guy. Although he looked quite okay it was strange that he was together with her.

Weird stuff was happening.

Or maybe she was just really beautiful. So beautiful that it made her unconsciously jealous? Could that be what is bringing out that edgy feeling? She would have to ask the girls, like she planned earlier. If they had that edgy feeling too, wouldn’t it seriously change the way they thought about her?

Dinner was over in a jiff. Adranne hurried Jonathan, Adwin and Ryan to sleep. She convinced them that they were tired and offered to switch rooms with them. Since she herself, Adwin and Ryan were in the same room, and Jonathan, Jasmine and Nicole were in the same room, it would be better if she exchanged rooms with Jonathan for one night. So the three crazies Adwin, Ryan and Jonathan get to sleep one room and the three girls get to sleep in the same room so that Adranne could talk to them.

Lucas and Shaun were going to wait it out in the lobby for Maggie and Kevin so they could all go to the bar later. Adranne didn’t bother asking them to sleep early cause Lucas was the same age as her and Shaun was a year younger but more or less matured enough to handle himself. They were both sleeping late again no doubt and they could maybe meet up with the female again, that would mean that they would both be sleeping even more later than usual. She made up her mind not to rush them tomorrow and make them skip breakfast.

Pangkor Island Resort,
Lobby.

Waiting was long and boring, it was an hour since they started waiting and they could hardly stand it anymore, especially Shaun because he had really wanted to go for drinks with Kevin and Maggie. Which wasn’t that big of a surprise. Lucas asked him just now whether or not he fancied her, but Shaun said she was only a friend and waved the question away briskly.

Later on, Shaun received a text message from Maggie that she wasn’t able to come back and that she was really sorry. She said Kevin wanted her to follow him to a club with some friends so she had to follow. She added at the back that she really didn’t want to go though and would’ve came back for drinks if she could and that lightened Shaun’s mood a little. Lucas smiled a little at that. There had to be something going on between them. Not texting or calling or any of that yet. But soft spots he guessed. They liked the look of each other. But Lucas didn’t tell this to Shaun.

Lucas called Adranne and asked if they could go over for a talk. She said yes so they began to make their way to their room, Room 302. Today was Sunday and tomorrow it would be Monday. On Wednesday morning, the parents and the kids would be back and everything would return to their boring routines. It wasn’t boring boring, but it was less fun than it would be once the parents were gone.

Pangkor Island Resort,
Room 302.

‘The guys are coming,’ Adranne said when she hung up and faced the two other girls.

‘All of them?’ Jasmine asked.

‘Nope, only Shaun and Lucas,’ she replied hurriedly. ‘Okay quick! Continue where you left off before they get here!’

‘Okay, as I was saying right, it’s just strange how the guys look at her and fuzz out like that when they imagine her,’ Jasmine continued. ‘It’s okay that she’s beautiful and if they want to talk to her I get it, but not that much and not that obsessively la,’

‘Agreed,’ Nicole said. ‘Especially with that not that obsessively part,’

The doorbell rang. Adranne opened it and let the two guys inside.

‘Where is the other three?’ Lucas asked.

‘Oh, in the next room, talking or playing around I guess,’ Adranne said in reply.

‘What did you guys want to talk about?’ Nicole asked. Her eyes intent. The three girls just sat and watched them. A second or two of silence passed.

‘I don’t know,’ Shaun mumbled.

Laughs.

‘Okay la, let’s talk about our new friends,’ Nicole grinned.

Silence once again. Adranne didn’t really had anything to say about Mei Ling, only that she was seriously a typical Chinese girl. Jasmine didn’t really have anything to say about any of them too cause she didn’t spend the day with them. It was down to Lucas, Shaun and Nicole to talk about what they think about their new friends.

‘Okay la I’ll start,’ Shaun grinned. Always in his eager mood to start something and get it going. ‘You guys know Kevin right?’

Everyone nodded. Nicole tensed a little at his name. Only slightly, not noticeable. She had an urge to tell everyone what Ren told her about George and Kevin. She knew she was supposed to keep it a secret and forget it, but she also knew that she could trust her friends.

‘He’s quite cool la, he likes surfing and water sports I think, and his girlfriend is Maggie and…’

‘That’s not really talking,’ Adranne interrupted, grinning in the way she always did.

‘I know something that I shouldn’t tell you guys, but I want to,’ Nicole hissed in a low whisper. She was smiling. Everyone leaned in, curious.

‘Okay Shaun, about that Kevin guy, he’s not as cool as you think. He’s a bully. Do you know anything about George?’ She asked.

‘Oh, the guy he asked me not to make friends with? The guy with the high pants and the glasses and the…’

‘Yes,’ Nicole said. ‘That George,’

Shaun nodded.

‘Yeah, Kevin bullies him a lot apparently,’ Nicole said. ‘Kevin pushes and shoves him around a lot. Pushing may not sound like much but pushing George everyday is, Ren told me that George isn’t happy about it and Ren’s not supposed to tell me about this so none of you can spill!’

‘Oh my god, are you serious?’ Shaun said. ‘He seems like a really nice guy.’

‘No he’s not in fact,’ Nicole said. ‘You know what Ren told me? Kevin tells George that he pushes him because he wants to get the pushing out of his system,’

Everyone put on a face.

‘Weird I know but still, pushing is not nice and Kevin isn’t being nice either. Does Maggie know that he’s bullying George?’ Nicole asked.

‘I don’t think so, I don’t think she’s agree to that,’ Shaun said.

‘Why, you know her well enough to know what she agrees to and what she doesn’t agree to?’ Lucas teased. Shaun pushed him playfully and they all laughed.

‘So Maggie doesn’t know that Kevin is bullying George, and Kevin pushes George around when bullying him to ‘get the pushing out of his system’, is that it?’ Shaun asked.

‘Yeah I kinda guess it’s like that,’ Adranne said. ‘Both George and Ren can’t know that you told us right Nicole?’

Nicole nodded.

‘So it means we can’t tell Maggie to tell Kevin off for bullying George,’ Adranne sighed. ‘I hate bullies,’

‘Me too,’ Nicole moaned. ‘It makes George look so… scared, all the time,’

Silence.

Suddenly, ‘Wait! Say that again,’ it was Shaun.

Nicole blinked awkwardly. ‘I said, it makes George look so scared all the time,’

Scared.

Shaun connected the dots.

‘Violent Vylum?’ He muttered under his breath.

Chapter 6 - George's Turn

2009-01-11T05:19:00.000-08:00

Pangkor Island Resort,
Swimming Pool.

Adranne sat on a wooden chair with Mei Ling under an umbrella, chatting with her feverently about furthering studies. They seem to get along quite well together. Adwin, Jonathan and Ryan were fooling about in the pool like they were supposed to. The crazies were splashing water and dampening the soil of the plants that were planted around the pool so much that the plants looked fit to die in a few days.

Ren and Nicole were engaged in an, well engaging conversation. It was about George’s past.

‘You get the feeling don’t you?’ Ren asked her.

‘The feeling that he’s always so scared all the time?’ Nicole asked, just to clarify if it was the right feeling. Bingo. Ren nodded.

‘He has this thing about him, its that look in his eyes and how he seems so paranoid all the time,’ Ren said. ‘It makes him look scared, all the time,’

‘But who or what could make him this scared all the time? Does he have a phobia? A bad childhood? It’s the bullies isn’t it?’

‘Yes,’ Ren said softly. He lifted his head and looked around, to see if anyone was listening. It wasn’t necessary, but it was just something you do before you say something that was seriously a big secret. ‘It’s Kevin, the guy your brother and that guy Shaun is hanging out with,’

‘That guy?’ Nicole asked. He was good looking and she didn’t think that he would be into something like bullying. ‘How bad does he treat George?’

‘Basically he just pushes him all the time,’ Ren said.

‘Just pushes? No dunking into puddles and wedgies and name calling and all that?’ Nicole asked.

‘Nope,’ Ren replied. ‘But he pushes seriously hard, all the time, its like he has something to get rid off, something inside him and he always has to be pushing it away,’

‘Wait, I don’t get it, who’re you talking about?’

‘George’s bully, Kevin,’ Ren said. ‘Once, he told George after he pushed him so hard he face planted on concrete, I’ll say this in his exact words: ‘Do you want to know why I do this George? Huh? Do you want to know? Its because I have to get it out of my system, you see pushing is always a bad thing, it always hurts the person you’re pushing, but it makes the person pushing you feel better, feel good, I’ll give up after the pushing is out of my system, but until then, I’ll continue to push you because no one cares about you,’

‘He said that?!’ Nicole exclaimed. How cruel that must have been! ‘Didn’t George tell anyone about it or something?’

‘He told me,’ Ren said softly. ‘He tells it to me nearly everyday, he memorized Kevin’s words, and what he hates the most is that Kevin knows that pushing is a bad thing and he’s still doing it to George. He’s seriously a bully,’

Ren sighed loudly after that. Nicole sighed too. ‘Poor guy,’ she added.

‘Come on,’ Ren smiled. ‘Lets go swim,’

With that, he ran and cannonball-ed on top of the three crazies.

Pangkor Island Resort,
Beach.

‘D told you guys?!’ Lucas exclaimed.

‘Yep,’ Maggie chimed. Obviously delighted at the amount of bewilderment she caused the boys. She liked the way Shaun’s eyes and smile widened when he had that bewildered look on his face. Kevin laughed.

‘But don’t you want him to pay after what he’s done to C?’ Lucas asked, again with the bewildered tone in his voice.

‘It is not our place to decide who is right or wrong, I mean who knows, D was good friends with Vylum, we don’t know the actual truth yet, D has one side of the story, one that is biased against him, but that doesn’t mean we trust that his story is true, we have to hear the stories of others, and most of all, of Vylum. Why did he do that? Why did he say that he killed C?’ Maggie explained. ‘Was it because he couldn’t bear to see one of his best friends dying and the other going off without justice, or was there another reason? If D’s story was true, then Vylum really didn’t have a choice. He loved his two best friends so much that he went insane,’

‘If I were Vylum I’m quite sure I won’t do the same thing,’ Shaun said.

‘Agreed,’ Kevin and Lucas said together.

‘But that is the supposed story and we all partly believe in it and partly do not, we have to seriously start asking around again la Kev,’ Maggie said, she threw her arms around him and leaned on his shoulder.
Maggie stared at Shaun. Waiting for a reaction.

A look. Then he turned away.

Exactly what she was looking for.

Pangkor Island Resort,
Swimming Pool.

‘So you’re planning to actually go there?’ Adranne asked. Mei Ling nodded. From what Adranne saw in that period of time when they talked, Mei Ling was greatly analytical, impatient, short-tempered, snappish and superstitious. Every characteristic a proper Chinese girl who looked like her should have. Those two ponytails were the best of them all.

Adrannes gaze wandered across to the three boys, Nicole and Ren playing in the pool. Mei Ling was talking to her but she couldn’t be bothered. She was in a dreamy mood.

They talked until it was evening, like about five. Lucas called her earlier and told her that he and Shaun were going back to take a nap and shower. She asked them to be ready for dinner by seven. She doubted that they could be ready by then, considering that they slept so late last night. At around five, she hurried Nicole and the three boys to go and Mei Ling yelled at Ren to get out of the pool before she ‘burnt him with her breath’. They both laughed. It had to be an inside joke Adranne guessed.

An hour passed by in a hurry. She collected the four of them, made them dry up and pack their things and say bye to Mei Ling and Ren. They were all going to a dinner outside, so they couldn’t have dinner with Ren and the rest. They were having a buffet dinner at the Streamz, so Adranne had to gather everyone and get ready by seven. She after she’s settled with the four, she had to call Jasmine to get her to get ready. Jasmine wasn’t feeling well so she slept in til around three, after that she went to the library at the hotel to do some reading. Pretty soon, everyone was ready and at the lobby, waving the others off.

Nicole could see how George pulled Mei Ling in front of him and Ren behind him when going up the bus. Kevin and Maggie were behind them, waving goodbyes at Shaun and Lucas. ‘I’ll see you guys later for drinks or something!’ Maggie smiled and somehow, both Kevin and Lucas knew that that comment was especially for Shaun. That could be good news for Shaun, but bad news for Kevin.

A trip to the bar?

Adranne heard Maggie shouting it across to Shaun and Lucas and guessed that it would mean bad news. They may meet the female again.

It wasn’t only that. That they’d meet the female and they’d talk about her non-stop, neglect the girls and sleep late. Adranne was beginning to have this edgy feeling whenever she thought about her. She was going to have to ask the girls later.

She was disturbed.

Females.

Nicole was disturbed.

George and Kevin.

Shaun and Lucas were disturbed.

Violent Vylum.

What did it all mean?

Chapter 5 - Before Violent Vylum

2009-01-09T01:17:00.000-08:00

It was good that the kids were gone. The four of them. They were all annoying. Well not the twins. Justen and Julian. As you can see from the J’s in their names, they belong to the J family! Who’s surnames are actually Lee. They are the Lee’s. Combined, they are Jasmine Lee, Jonathan Lee, Justen Lee and Julian Lee! Justen looked a little fatter than Julian and he had a lazy eye problem thing. Julian looked a little skinnier but that was the only difference between the two of them. They talk the same and they walk the same. They school together with their sister Jasmine and they’re both fourteen. A year younger than Jonathan and they both don’t wear glasses.

It’s the same with Leon, Lucas and Nicole’s sibling. Their younger brother. Leon is not actually that annoying alone but he’s VERY annoying with friends. He doesn’t wear glasses too, like the twins. Leon is eleven this year and he schools in a government Chinese school back at home. The three of them are the Chen’s by the way. They’re the Chen family! Lucas Chen, Nicole Chen and Leon Chen.

Now Adrian. He’s Shaun and Ryan’s sibling. THEIR, younger brother. I’m serious when I say this, he’s like a teenager trapped in a small boys body. He seriously knows how to annoy you the right way. He’s SO annoying; it comes to a point that your hand actually itches to slap him if he’s even standing NEAR you. He wears glasses and is twelve this year. He schools in the same school as his brothers (much to their disappointment). These three are the Tan family! Shaun Tan, Ryan Tan and Adrian Tan.

And finally, the last family with no younger brothers is the Teh family, Adranne Teh and Adwin Teh. Thank god they don’t have younger brothers. Notice only the a younger brother’s older siblings would be annoyed the most by the younger brother? It’s annoying. Seriously. Adranne loves the twins though.

I’ve made memorizing the four younger ones easier! The Chen’s, the Lee’s, the Tan’s and the Teh’s!

Pangkor Island Resort,
Beach.

Shaun was disturbed. Like really disturbed. Everyone knew that he had this on-off mood swing thing about him everytime they went on holidays with him. Most of the time when he’s in the car or something he would sleep and get really blur and tired after that. Sometimes he even gets high on nothing. That makes him unpredictable.

But never before has his mood swung so much. He was literally not talking to anyone at all. He was contemplating. Thinking most likely, of what he saw in those eyes of Vylum. He couldn’t see the pupils; he could only see the whites because the two braids on his head covered the two pupils perfectly. But even so, he felt like he’s seen them. In his mind, they were a leafy green.

A dark, twisted green. So deep was the abyss in his eyes. Shaun felt the feeling again. As he imagined Vylum’s dark face as they stared at each other in his mind. How had he managed to know Shaun was looking at him and stare back? It made him feel. . .

Scared. Again. That same feeling. He made Shaun feel as if there were millions of dark tendrils creeping up his body. Like black vines, endless and long. Swallowing him up whole.

‘Shaun,’ Kevin said louder this time, which snapped Shaun out of his disturbed state. ‘Dude, you alright man?’ Kevin grinned.

‘Yeah,’ Shaun smiled back. He, Kevin, Lucas and Maggie were at the beach hanging out. It was early noon. The sun wasn’t at its hottest and the waves weren’t at their highest. Still, it was nice to just relax under the shade of an umbrella, sipping refreshing coconut water. Kevin, Maggie and Lucas were busy chatting back at the pool area earlier. Kevin suddenly noticed Shaun disappeared and followed his footprints in the sand here.

‘You’re thinking about Violent Vylum aren’t you?’ Kevin said softly. A pause. Shaun stared into empty space. Imagining against his own will. That face. That feeling. Millions of black tendrils. Crawling, sticking to his skin.

‘Yeah,’ Shaun admitted.

‘It’s alright man,’ Kevin said while smiling. ‘I had that same feeling too, when I first looked at him,’ Kevin’s eyes were misty with the memory. ‘It felt like vines, or roots, crawling all over me,’

Shaun’s eyes widened.

‘Seriously?!’ Shaun asked loudly. ‘I’m having the exact same feeling!’

Kevin wasn’t surprised. He smiled in fact. ‘Everyone has the same feeling after looking at him. Strangers, friends…’ He trailed off after that, staring at the beach in the distance. ‘Don’t worry dude, it gets better,’

‘Say Kevin,’ Shaun said, curious now. ‘About this guy’s story. Is it possible you could tell it to me?’

‘Who? Vylum’s story?’ Kevin asked. Shaun nodded.

A pause.

‘Okay,’ Kevin smiled. ‘Maggie always tells the best Vylum stories,’

Pangkor Island Resort,
Room 370.

Ren opened the door with his card and led everyone inside. The six of them shuffled in happily and settled themselves on the beds. Adranne, Adwin, Ryan, Nicole, Jonathan and Jasmine were happy to have made new friends. It would make the following three days even more funner than it would already be. Little did they know how much they’d regret being so friendly later on. If they didn’t make friends with any of these people. If they had just minded their own buisness. They wouldn’t have had to pay the price.

Correction, prices.

Ren was sharing a room with George. The nerdy Indian Kevin said not to befriend earlier. The six of them weren’t unfriendly and not talking to him if they were all in his shared room because it was rude. So they made friends with him anyway and found that George wasn’t that much different from Ren in terms of the way they talked and the things they liked. The way they looked though, was completely different. Ren was way cooler than George in that field. Everyone could tell that George was often bullied. He had that paranoid look in his eyes and he never looks at anyone straight in the eyes except Ren. He was shy and he didn’t talk much. Mei Ling had gone to another room with another friend and the six of them, Ren and George are meeting up with her at the pool later for a swim.

Nicole wondered what her brother and Shaun are up to. Obviously they were hanging with the other cooler people, Kevin and Maggie. Not that Ren or Mei Ling wasn’t cool. Kevin and Maggie just had that cool feeling. A vibe. She wondered who had bullied George this much to make him this shy and this. Scared-looking.

Scared.

‘You guys chill for a bit first okay,’ Ren grinned to the six of them. ‘I’ll be unpacking a bit then we’ll be off, George you’re staying in the room aren’t you?’

George nodded meekly.

Nicole sat on Ren’s bed and watched him pack. She liked the way his curly hair bounced when he moved, it looked brown in the noon light streaming in through the windows. Adranne and Jasmine chatted while Adwin, Ryan and Jonathan talked about the female again. Nicole groaned. Her again?! From what she could guess, they’ll be at it for the whole day. Maybe they saw her again at the Streamz or something. But Nicole herself had to admit, she was really really beautiful. But seriously who could talk about a person that much? Even if it were a really really hot guy Nicole wouldn’t talk about him as much as the guys did last night. It was weird.

It was also weird that the other guy that was with her. That lazy guy, was even with her. He would’ve looked fine alone but beside her it just didn’t make sense. That was probably what the guys were talking about the most. How could a guy like him, get together with a girl like her?! Nicole still again thought he was good looking, but good looking alone. Not good looking beside a girl that beautiful.

Ren had been watching her stone and he came over to her suddenly and told her subtlely.

‘Hey, I’ll tell you who bullies George and makes him look scared all the time later okay?’ He whispered. Nicole could sense the smile in that whisper. Or could she? It could be a frown. But she smiled back and whispered an okay anyway. Why? Was knowing who bullied George that important?

Pangkor Island Resort,
Beach.

‘You sure you want to hear it?’ Maggie asked. The four of them were sprawled on beach chairs under umbrellas now. It was noon and the sun was bearing down on them. Maggie wore a blue bikini and a straw hat while Kevin was pretty much wearing what he previously wore. Lucas and Shaun nodded slowly, expecting the worst from the story. Like Kevin actually witnessed Violent Vylum killing someone.

‘Okay, I’ll tell it to you,’ Maggie said, she exchanged a look with Kevin but it only lasted a moment.

‘A year and a half ago, Vylum wasn’t like this. Vylum had friends. He had tons of friends but mainly, two really really really good friends. Lets say these two people, C and D,’ Maggie started.

‘So Vylum’s two best friends are C and D?’ Lucas asked.

Maggie nodded.

‘Vylum is closer to C than to D la, just for your information,’ Maggie continued. ‘One day, one and a half years ago, Vylum, C, D and a few friends were playing at an abandoned block of our school. It was at night, and orignially they had went there to plan a prank like toss tissue around and stuff like that but the school was locked. So they had nothing else to do. They were balancing on the rafters on the roof, like inside the roofs, there are huge wooden beams that cross over to the other side? Yeah, they were playing on those, balancing and jumping and all that la, the wooden beams were actually quite stable. But you see right, C fell,’

A pause.

‘No one knew what happened. There was just a shout, then a scream, then thud, he’s down four floors splat-bang on the concrete below. Everyone ran down but they knew it was too late. They called the police, the paramedics but before they arrived they agreed on a story, they were playing and C just fell by accident,’

‘Vylum and D knew the true story, especially D,’ Maggie paused for breath. ‘Vylum was closer to C and D didn’t like it. D was a highly jealous person and just seeing C with Vylum made him or her angry. So on that night while they were playing, he actually pushed C down. D actually killed C. No one saw and no one knew,’

‘Except Vylum,’ Shaun breathed.

‘Yes, except Vylum,’ Maggie said. ‘D thought nobody was looking, He just did it on instinct, he didn’t think, he didn’t even have the time to think, now was the chance and D did it, but Vylum saw. D noticed the way Vylum was glared at him and he guessed that Vylum knew. For the next few days, Vylum was devastated. He had lost two best friends. It wasn’t that because C was closer that D wasn’t close at all. They were both extremely close, the only difference was that C was just a little closer than D. Only a little. Now C was dead and he knew that he can never trust D. How could he? D killed C. The police came and investigated, they couldn’t find anything. They just couldn’t, no charges were dropped and C’s parents were convinced it was an accident. There was no justice. No nothing. There had to be. There had to be justice,’

Maggie took another breath and smiled. ‘Telling stories is hard,’

She continued, ‘Justice was always on Vylum’s mind, but D was still his best friend, he could never betray him and tell the authorities about what D did. But still there HAD to be justice, it was Vylum’s fault that he couldn’t betray D, it was Vylum’s fault that he couldn’t tell the police the truth. It was Vylum’s fault,’

‘He went crazy after that,’ Kevin continued softly. ‘He told the police it was his fault, and that he killed C, that he pushed C down. D told Vylum to stop but he wouldn’t, in the end, still, no one dropped charges. Vylum was tested for drugs and alcohol and sent to a psychiatrist. He came back but he wasn’t the same. He didn’t talk to D and he didn’t talk to anyone. D felt terrible but he couldn’t bring himself to admit that he killed C. He’s still filled with a lot of guilt,’

There was a long, heavy silence. It was quite a story. One that could make a person understand why Vylum was like this. Plus it happened a long time ago, so Vylum should be pretty unchangeable now. A question popped into Shaun’s mind.

‘If you guys know who C’s real killer is, why don’t you tell the police? I mean it’ll make Vylum well again and D deserves it,’ he said.

‘Yeah but you see,’ Maggie said. She looked around and asked Lucas and Shaun to lean closer.

‘D was the one who told us!’

Chapter 4 - Friends

2009-01-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

Pangkor Island Resort,
Room 302.

‘Beep beep! Beep beep!’

The sound of Jasmine’s text message tone caused stirs in the sleeping figures on the bed. Nicole was sprawled all over the queen-sized bed whereas Jasmine was only entitled to a tiny corner. Not that she minds, she was unconscious. Asleep. She didn’t know how much space her friend was taking anyway. The two girls got an additional bed for Jonathan and he was sleeping on it. Also in that sprawled way in which Nicole was sleeping. Wane, blue light peeked through the opening in the blinds. Jasmine sat up and scratched her head. 8 o’clock.

She grabbed her phone and read the text message, not planning to reply it, whoever sent it. Her jaw dropped in joy. It was her mum.

‘Jasmine dear, we (All the adults and the four kids), have gone on a three-day cruise. It’s a surprise for you guys this holiday. The eight of you are gonna be at the resort by yourself for three whole days! Don’t sleep late and take care of yourselves. Your papa will call you tonight to check on you guys,’

Jasmine smiled and replied back a quick thank you.

‘Yes!’ She thought to herself. ‘Sleeping in for three days in a row!’

As soon as she lay her head back on the pillow again. The hotel phone rang and immediately what went through her mind was that her parents were not going to allow sleeping in and stuff like that. And just as she predicted, it was some girl with a funny accent. Why the heck do hotels employ girls with funny accents to do the morning calls. ‘Gooda morninge this is your morninge call at 8 o’clock ah, blekfas is being serving ah downstairs, reememblur bring your blekfas coupon downstairs ah, tankew,’ the morning call girl hung up. God. Another three days of that would seriously piss Jasmine off.

Jasmine groaned and ran her fingers through her hair. Untangling them. She then proceeded to wake up the two of the most unwakeable people in the world.

Pangkor Island Resort,
Room 301.

As soon as she got the message from her mum. Adranne yelped in joy and literally slapped her brother and Ryan awake. She was squealing and even Nicole heard it from next door.

‘We’re staying we’re staying we’re staying!’ She screamed.

As soon as her little escapade ended and she snapped back to her senses she spent the next half an hour hurrying the boys to get ready for breakfast. Knowing Shaun and Lucas, she even made it a point to go to the fourth floor and wake the two of them up. She actually made it a point to do that. She called Jasmine and told Shaun to get everybody downstairs at the lobby by nine, because they had to pass through the lobby to get to the breakfast place. So logically speaking it would be better to wait at the lobby because there are seating spaces. And KNOWING Shaun and Lucas, they’d be late. As usual. Even with the one-hour time to prepare, she just knew that they’d be late.

Pangkor Island Resort,
Lobby, 9 o’clock.

‘THEIR LATE!’ Adranne growled as she looked at her watch. She had all the ‘vibes’ as she would herself call it, of an impatient person. A hand on her hip and her eyes on her watch. A tapping foot and the leaning on one foot. That pretty much made the cut that she was pissed off already. When they finally arrived, looking like they ran a mile and spitting out a million sorrys a second, she just snapped at them then smiled. When they were behind her of course.

She knew she couldn’t just snap at them without smiling. It was impossible.

Just then, as they were all walking to the breakfast place. Two buses pulled up in front of the hotel. Adranne took a glance at her watch again. Nine fifteen. The first bus was blue and white and the second was red and white but that wasn’t what caught her eye. The busses were PACKED with teens.

‘Whoa,’ Shaun exclaimed.

The twelve of them watched them as over fifty teens streamed out of the two busses and collected their luggage from the sides of the busses. Two teachers were busy trying to organize people into classes or something.

‘Lets go la lets go,’ Adranne said, which snapped everyone out of staring and made them all a tad hungrier for breakfast. The eight of them shuffled toward breakfast, dragging their feet on the floors. It was a blue-ish morning, full of dew and a cool breeze. A perfect outdoor-hotel-breakfast-beach day.

‘Maybe we can make some friends to hang out with for the next few days,’ Shaun said to Lucas. Little did he know that besides him, all seven of them were thinking the same thing. Their parents were gone! The four annoying kids were gone! They should make friends with some wild teens! Have fun while their gone!

‘That would be fun,’ Lucas smiled back.

And fun it would be indeed!

Pangkor Island Resort,
The Streamz (The Breakfast Place).

The eight of them can’t sit together. It had something to do with the confounded room system and crap like that. Apparently, only the people who resided in the third floor could sit at an eight-seater table. It didn’t make much sense. Adranne was asking the manager guy to why Shaun and Lucas couldn’t sit with them if the two seats are going to be empty anyway, but the manager guy kept at it until he pissed everyone off. He doubly pissed Jasmine off because she was already pissed at the morning call girl.

Pissed.

So in the end, Lucas and Shaun ended up sitting at a four-seater table. Only the two of them. So Adranne, Adwin, Ryan, Jasmine, Jonathan and Nicole are seating at an eight-seater table which could accommodate Lucas and Shaun perfectly, but Lucas and Shaun has to sit at the far side of the breakfast place at a four-seater table. It seriously didn’t make sense. But everything got better when the teens that arrived in the busses earlier streamed into the Streamz. Cheesy.

It was a shot to make new friends!

Pretty soon, the Streamz, where people Stream into was pretty much filled up. Ironically. Eight people, plus fifty over people, plus the other hotel guests kinda made the place feel like a fish market. People were sharing tables and all that and from what the eight of them could see and with their delight, the manager was going crazy.

‘May we sit here?’ A voice asked. Shaun’s eyes snapped away from the manager and toward the girl who asked him that question. She was beautiful, but nothing compared to the female last night. She was wearing a green sleeveless and a long flimsy white skirt. Her auburn hair blew about in the breeze and she smiled at him. ‘Sure,’ he grinned. She was holding another guy’s hand, much to the disappointment of Lucas and Shaun. The guy she was holding hands with was good-looking, even to Lucas and Shaun, who were real men (haha). He had really messy long black hair and a slight tan. He was wearing a faded yellow t and black surf pants. His neck was adorned with a string necklace with a single yellow sharp tooth. From what Lucas and Shaun could see, he was definitely a surfer of sorts.

The girl extended a hand to Lucas and Shaun, ‘The names Maggie, and this is my boyfriend Kevin,’ She smiled sweetly. Kevin smiled, but not as sweetly. Everyone shook hands and then set off to get food as it was a buffet breakfast. Lucas immediately went to his sister and told her about the two people they’ve met.

‘Oh my god we met two new people too!’ Nicole exclaimed. ‘There over there!’ She pointed the two of them out. Since they were all taking food she might as well introduce Lucas to them.

Nicole led Lucas to where this two people, a girl and a boy again, were taking hash browns from the American food section. The girl had two ponytails and thick-rimmed glasses. She was carrying a small bag over her back and she was wearing a white collared top and a pink knee-length skirt. She looked like the typical studious Chinese girl. ‘Hi Mei Ling! This is my brother Lucas,’ Nicole said while smiling. Mei Ling and Lucas shook hands but a bit awkwardly, like they were verifying each other’s status. The guy was a tad cooler looking than Mei Ling. He had real curly hair and he was wearing a black and white striped shirt and black shorts. He was the kind of person that seemed like a geek to his schoolmates, but is actually quite cool. He gave off the ‘vibe’ as Adranne would say. ‘Ren? This is my brother Lucas,’ Nicole gave one of her winning smiles again.

She was obviously trying to make as many friends as possible and from what Lucas could see, her first two catches were here in front of him.

‘Nice to meet you guys, Ren and umm, Mei Ling right?’

Mei Ling nodded.

‘Okay I’ll see you guys later or something? I’m going to eat with your schoolmates there I think? Kevin and Maggie?’ Lucas gestured to the two of them holding hands and getting food.

‘Oh those two!’ Ren grinned. ‘Alright buddy, we’ll catch up with you guys later, we’ve got nothing to do for the whole day today so we can all go to the beach or something later,’

‘Alright,’ Lucas grinned back. Ren, Mei Ling and Nicole walked off to get food while Lucas walked off the other direction to get his plate.

In a jiff, Lucas, Shaun, Kevin and Maggie were back at their table and devouring food. ‘So Kevin? Tell me more about your schoolmates.’ Shaun said in between mouthfuls of food. It was kinda awkward when no one talked at a table and Shaun was the kind of guy that always liked to start conversations.

‘Okay, just briefly, don’t mix with that guy over there,’ he grinned as he gestured to a lone dark-skinned, half bald, short dude who was wearing his pants really high standing in the corner there. He laughed after that as Maggie slapped him playfully. ‘He’s the biggest nerd in the school seriously, his names George,’ he laughed. ‘Seriously, he’s so lame,’

Shaun and Lucas laughed along. George did look quite lame. His pants were seriously riding up his hips.

‘Oh and if you’re going to make more friends, never make friends with him,’ Kevin said softly. His facial expressions weren’t like when he talked about George, all happy and laughing. He was serious now. A real serious look. Almost like fear. Almost. But you could tell that he was intimidated by who ever he was talking about. The same look was in Maggie’s eye. ‘Don’t ever make friends with him,’

‘He’s a freak,’ Maggie continued, ‘He’s some weird child, just plain weird,’

‘Anyway he’s so sad and dark that no one ever went near him, it used to be different,’ Kevin said. ‘He used to have tons of friends, until one of them ended up dead, we don’t know how, and even the police didn’t know why, one of them just turned up dead the next day in school,’

‘There was no evidence that he committed the murder and no charges were filed against him but he kept telling everyone that he murdered him,’ Kevin said softly. ‘He’s just plain weird,’

The chomping and chewing stopped as Lucas and Shaun listened intently to Kevin and Maggie’s story.

‘What’s his name?’ Lucas asked.

‘Vylum,’ Kevin whispered. ‘We call him Violent Vylum, because no one ever bullied him, no teacher ever told him off, Miss Ann tried to once, but Vylum countered back with so much fury that she just backed off and never laid an eye on him ever again,’

‘He’s just disturbed la I think,’ Maggie said quietly, she was thinking, ‘could be some family problem, if it is then we can’t blame him,’

The tension disappeared after a while when Kevin started eating again.

‘I still think he’s weird,’ he said. Maggie knocked his head with hers. It was cute that they did this. They were a good couple because they seriously looked good together.

‘Oh my god, there he is,’ Kevin whispered softly. The look returned to his eyes and the tension went back up again. He gestured to a boy that’s walking around outside the Streamz. The Streamz faced the swimming pool and it was an outdoor restaurant thing. One could see what was going on at the swimming pool from here. From what it looked like, Vylum was walking up and down. Pacing. He had long black hair, sort of like Kevin’s, but two extra long braids that went over his eyes. Braids like the Padawans have in the Star Wars films. He was wearing a black turtleneck in such hot whether and black shorts. The turtleneck alone made him weird already. His skin was so pale, it was nearly white. Bleached white like some vampire.

‘That’s Vylum?’ Shaun asked. Suddenly, the figure pacing around there spun around. His eyes, shadowed by his two braids met Shaun’s. It was only an instant. But Shaun could feel it. It was a tension unlike any he had felt through only eye contact. It was. What was the word?

Scary.

Violent Vylum.

Chapter 3 – Female

2009-01-05T06:46:00.000-08:00

Pangkor Island Resort,
Beach.

The crisp night air and the cooling breeze that blew from the sea accompanied the five children as they chatted. The shadows of firelight danced on the beach accompanied by the rhythmic crash of the waves on the shore.

‘No, but seriously, do you like her?’ Shaun asked Lucas. The other four leaned in and strained their ears to listen for an answer. They’ve been talking for over half an hour now. Ryan, Adwin and Jonathan went back to the rooms to catch an episode of The Simpsons that Adwin wanted them to watch. They should be back soon already. Meanwhile, the conversation came to an abrupt stop, as Lucas didn’t reply Shaun’s question directly. His mind was in a cluttered mess. He didn’t like her, but he fancied her. Were those two the same things?

In the end, he made everyone groan by saying ‘I won’t tell you guys till I’m over it,’ he grinned childishly after that.

‘Don’t like that la,’ Shaun mused in the way he always did when he was trying to persuade someone to tell him a secret.

‘Why don’t you tell us who you like hm?’ Lucas grinned at him. The girls all laughed as they exclaimed. Shaun blushed a little little bit.

‘I don’t like anyone,’ he smiled back.

Suddenly, the attentions of the five of them were drawn off their conversations and onto three figures that were running toward them from the hotel.

‘Oh my god it’s the three of them isn’t it,’ Adranne chimed, sounding neither annoyed nor happy. The three figures did turn out to be the three of them, Ryan, Adwin and Jonathan. They were laughing wildly, tears streaming from their faces. Again, they caught the eye of nearly everyone in the bar.

‘We don’t know them we don’t know them…’ Adranne whispered to herself. Laughs. The three of them threw themselves on the floor in front of their table, laughing crazily. They were out of breath and breathing quite loudly. The oily gleam of the sweat told the others that the trio had been running wildly like that from the room all the way to the beach.

‘Oh my god, stop la!’ Adranne snapped at them. Jasmine and the others were beginning to laugh too.

‘Was that episode that funny?!’ Nicole asked between giggles.
The three boys couldn’t answer. The five of them had to wait nearly a full five minutes before the three of them stopped their insane cackling.

‘Ryan what is that?’ Shaun snapped at his brother.

‘Ya la Seng,’ Adranne snapped at her brother. She called him Seng cause they were family. Jasmine, Jonathan and their two brothers also had nicknames for each other but not the other two families.

Ryan was the first to stand up and take a seat, Adwin was next and Jonathan was last. They all had their sips from their glasses before settling down. Ryan began explaining why they were laughing so hard earlier.

‘No, just now right, we just watched finished the Simpsons you know,’ Ryan giggled a little after that before continuing. ‘We were pressing on the elevator button la, cause we wanted to get back downstairs with you guys, then right, on the way down, the SUPER hot girl I was talking about just now and this other guy walked in,’ Everyone could see from the way that Ryan stared at thin air that he was checking her out.

In his mind.

‘She was wearing this orange bikini and she had a blue-ish, translucent shawl around her waist, like she was wearing a skirt,’

Suddenly, he just went blank for a moment. The five of them noticed him jolt a little, like he just received a tiny electric shock, then he was just empty for a moment. He said nothing and just stared into thin air with a strange look in his eye.

‘Eh Ryan stop playing around la,’ Adranne giggled. He didn’t respond. ‘Ryan?’ She asked, more serious now.

‘Um, Adranne?’ Jasmine said. When Adranne pulled her questioning gaze away from Ryan and looked at her, she gestured at Adwin and Jonathan.

They had the same expressions on their faces. Correction, they had no expressions on their faces at all. They were just. Blank.

‘Ryan stop it,’ Shaun snapped. Just as suddenly as he lapsed into the moment of blank-ness, he snapped out of it like nothing happened. The life returned into his eyes as he asked, ‘Where was I?’

Adranne turned away and stared at Jasmine, her eyebrows pulling a questioning look. Jasmine just shrugged.

‘You were talking about the super hot girl in the elevator, what happened next that made you guys laugh so much?’ Lucas asked. He had exchanged the same questioning look with Shaun a moment earlier. Ryan stared at the table for a moment, everyone thought that he fuzzed out again. Then he looked up at Lucas and said softly.

‘I don’t remember,’

‘What do you mean you don’t remember?’ Adranne snapped. ‘Stop joking around la Ryan, he MUST have did something that made all three of them laughed like crazy just now right Lucas?’ She asked. Ryan was always joking around so she didn’t know for sure if he was joking now or not. The laughing and what not seemed pretty genuine. This time, Lucas didn’t reply.

‘Lucas,’ Adranne repeated as she turned around. Nicole and Jasmine gasped. That expression. It was there again. A horrible blank-ness. It’s not an expression, cause there is nothing at all mapped on his face. No crease of concern or wrinkle of a smile. Could no emotion at all be an expression?

‘Lucas stop it’ Nicole snapped. ‘Shaun snap him out of it,’

Jasmine gestured at Shaun silently. She wasn’t smiling like she always did. Shaun was fuzzed out too! The three girls swirled around and stared at the other three guys behind them. They were all fuzzed out! Staring at the hotel. Then, Jasmine spotted them. It shouldn’t be considered them, the five guys wasn’t in even noticing the guy walking beside her at all. They were staring at her.

She was exactly as Ryan described her. Orange bikini and a translucent blue shawl as a skirt. Her auburn hair looked a bright brown under that spotlights of the hotel in the distance. She was gorgeous. Even the girls in their minds admitted it. She was smoking hot. No wait, she was beyond that. Her beauty was simply impossible. No woman could look that good. Jasmine stared around, all the guys were watching her every move. The guy walking beside her didn’t seem to mind the attention of every single pair of eyes watching them as they were walking toward the bar.

Nicole was the first to tear her eyes away from the female and check out the guy. The guy was incomparable to her. How could they even be walking side by side? The guy was hunched and dragging his flip-flop covered foot lazily across the sand. The first word that came into her mind was lazy and sloppy. He wore a loose brown t-shirt and a pair of black shorts. His hair was long and messy and his face was unshaven and rough. Nicole still thought he looked quite good, though she didn’t think Jasmine and Adranne would think so. In fact, he did look quite good as the other girls at the bar were checking him out too.

The crowd settled back down and the five boys snapped out of it. Their conversation resumed to where they left off.

‘There she is!’ Ryan hissed as he gestured slightly to the left. There, on the far left actually, on a table for two, the couple sat with drinks. The female chatted and laughed but the guy just grunted and nodded.

Throughout the night, the five guys kept stealing glances at her and talked amongst themselves of how beautiful she was. They talked like the girls weren’t even there. Adranne found it quite annoying when Lucas waved away her questions.

‘How could they stand it?’ Nicole asked. ‘Everyone is like staring at them and they just carry on talking like everyone’s not, how can they like, stand it ah, I won’t be able to,’

The two girls agreed. Quite surprisingly, Jasmine found the guy who was sitting with the hottie a little good-looking too. Adranne objected strongly and said he gave off a dirty vibe, although she agreed that the female was extremely beautiful. The three girls wondered why they were a couple.

‘Maybe their just friends la,’ Jasmine suggested.

‘Maybe,’ Adranne replied half-heartedly. And the three of them knew that they weren’t just friends. They gave off the vibe that they were more than friends. The night wasn’t like how the eight of them expected it to be. At least it wasn’t what the three girls expected it to be. Even that night, in their individual rooms, the boys kept talking about her till Nicole and Adranne got angry at their horny roommates, only then were the boys able to calm down and hit the sack. Adranne, Adwin and Ryan in a room, Jasmine, Jonathan and Nicole in a room, and finally Lucas and Shaun in a room.

Lucas and Shaun kept talking till it was around four. The call of sleep and the wine made them drowsy and they eventually slept. Adranne had to snap at Ryan and her brother, Adwin before they could settle into bed and Nicole had to snap at Jonathan before he could settle into bed. The three girls texted each other that this was seriously weird behavior even for people like Ryan and that they would talk to it about each other tomorrow.

‘Hopefully they all would snap out of it by tomorrow,’ Adranne said in her text message. ‘Its quite scary la,’

The three girls finally settled down into bed. Each hoping that they would enjoy tomorrow a little more. And as an answer, yes. They did enjoy tomorrow a whole lot more.

Chapter 2 - The Two Others

2008-12-13T02:34:00.000-08:00

Pangkor Island Resort,
Room 432.

Lucas grabbed his phone as soon as his message tone began sounding. The pitter-patter of the water in the shower muted Shaun’s reply as Lucas yelled at him to hurry up.

‘Hurry up Shaun! Jasmine’s asking us where are we, everyone’s there except us!’

Shaun mumbled something and Lucas just chuckled to himself. The slowpoke. Shaun was sixteen this year. Effectively a year older than his brother Ryan, who’s fifteen. He schools with Ryan at a private school that isn’t really well known. He had just finished an important exam the year before so this was a year he should really be enjoying. But in another year, he would have to take another important exam, the one that Lucas had just finished. Lucas is seventeen this year and he is schooling in the same school with his sister Nicole. Being in the same school, Lucas and Nicole managed to get quite close to Jasmine and Jonathan who used to be in the same school too. They also managed to get close to Shaun and Ryan too because they live really nearby. Sadly, Adranne and Adwin live quite far away so they didn’t really visit the two of them. They were still all great friends though and nothing would tear them apart. I bet you readers are getting confused now so I will clarify your minds from the confusion of memorizing who’s who.

Adranne and Adwin have the A’s. They wear glasses but Adranne looks more like Ryan than her brother. The both of them still look similar though, its just if Adranne were to be compared to Ryan, she would look more like him than Adwin. Adranne and Adwin are siblings. Remember that! I haven’t talked about their ages yet so I’ll tell them later. Jasmine and Jonathan have the J’s. They migrated to China not too long ago but still intend to keep in touch with the rest. They are having every end-of-the-year holidays with them already anyway. Jasmine is the eldest in the entire group, eighteen, whereas Jonathan is fourteen. They used to be in the same school with Lucas and Nicole, but ever since they migrated to China they now school with their two younger brothers, twins in fact. And yes, I will introduce the two of them very soon.

Shaun and Ryan don’t have matching starting letters in their names like the others, but names are still names and names are worth remembering so this story won’t seem too confusing. Shaun is sixteen and Ryan is fifteen, they both school in a private school separate from Lucas and Nicole’s but they are neighbors to them. They have another younger brother, but again, I will introduce you to him soon. Lucas and Nicole again don’t have matching starting letters in their names. Lucas is seventeen and the second oldest in the group along with Adranne. He and Adranne plus Nicole and Adwin have the same ages. Nicole is fifteen and the same age as Adwin and Ryan. Hopefully that cleared you reader’s minds a little. Lucas and Nicole also have a younger brother and again, I’ll introduce him later. So mainly, there are four more people to introduce from the group in three separate families.

Pangkor Island Resort,
Beach.

‘Okay, so I was thinking, we should really do something for Shaun’s birthday next month,’ Nicole said to Jasmine and Adranne. The only girls in the group chatted together while Jonathan, Adwin and Ryan talked about the chick Ryan saw on the beach earlier.

‘Seriously, she is soo hot I tell you guys,’ Ryan stressed on as he saw the skeptical looks on Jonathan and Adwin’s faces. Ryan had this thing about him that made him seem like he was always lying. It’s not a bad thing, partly because he jokes around a lot. ‘I’m serious,’ he would say, and most of the time, he’s not.

‘She was wearing this orange bikini,’ Ryan said as he stared blankly, as if he was looking at her now. ‘Sooo hot.’ Ryan snapped out of his trance-like state and looked around for Jonathan and Adwin, who apparently ran off in the middle of Ryan’s half-obsessive monologue. He grinned as he realized that they pulled a fast one and ran off to stalk the two idiots. Nicole laughed as she saw what was happening, then turned away and continued talking to the girls.

‘When’s Shaun’s birthday again?’ Jasmine asked Nicole.

‘Umm, if I’m not wrong, its January the 17th,’ Nicole replied. ‘We should buy him clothes, I keep seeing him wearing the same things nowadays,’

‘No la, its just you, I see him wear different things all the time!’ Adranne laughed. She scratched her head then took out her phone. ‘Where the heck is Lucas and Shaun?’

‘I don’t know, don’t ask me,’ Nicole said.

‘It’s a rhetorical question Nicole,’ Adranne grinned. She punched in Lucas’ number and waited impatiently for him to pick up. ‘Your brother ah,’ She told Nicole as she redialed.

Pangkor Island Resort,
Room 432.

Shaun pulled a black V-neck over his head as he searched for his glasses. Lucas flicked through the TV channels with a bored look on his face. Yes, Shaun wears glasses. And so does his brother Ryan. Adranne, Adwin and Lucas wear a pair too but thankfully, his sister Nicole doesn’t. Jasmine and Jonathan however don’t wear them.

The TV reporter on screen yapped on about some fire on some state at some country while Shaun went back to the toilet to look for his glasses. Lucas’ phone rang again and he grabbed his phone. It was Adranne.

‘Where are you guys?’ She snapped.

‘I’m waiting for Shaun la, he’s finding for his glasses, we’re coming down soon already,’ Lucas replied lazily.

‘You guys better hurry up!’ Adranne said before she hung up.

Shaun came out of the toilet just as Lucas put the phone in his pocket.

‘You ready?’ He grinned sarcastically. Shaun gave him a look.

‘Yep,’ he replied.

Pangkor Island Resort,
Beach.

Jonathan forced himself to stifle his giggles as Adwin shushed him loudly. They both were behind a sand dune overlooking the beach bar. A figure was away from the bar, scouring the dunes for the two of them.

‘Woi! Guys! Don’t gay around la!’ Ryan shouted into the dunes, causing a few of the people at the bar to stare at him.

‘Stay down!’ Adwin hissed as Ryan approached. Jonathan bit his lip hard to stop himself from laughing. Adwin hid with Jonathan and when he realized that Jonathan was trying his best not to laugh. He felt like laughing too. They both could hear Ryan walking around and shifting the sand just over the other side of the dune they were hiding behind. It was a small dune, not like any one of those big big ones in the deserts. Suddenly, Ryan’s footsteps seemed to disappear into the distance. It was quiet.

Adwin whispered for Jonathan to stay down as he took a peek. He slowly peeked out from behind the dune and found himself staring face to face at Ryan.

‘HAHA!’ Ryan laughed. His laugh wasn’t like an ordinary laugh, he had to, sort of scream before every few seconds of laughter. His face screwed up like a withered apple as he saw Adwin’s shocked reaction. Jonathan began laughing non-stop too. The people at the bar just stared at the three figures rolling around and laughing maniacally on the dune.

Back at the bar, the three girls had to seriously hide their faces from the questioning looks the other guests seated around them were giving them. Surely, they had to be responsible for all the noise the other three were causing.

‘Okay, just pretend,’ Jasmine whispered to the other two girls, ‘that we don’t know them,’

‘What are you guys doing?’ Shaun asked questioningly. The three girls that were hunched across the table all stared up at him and Lucas.

A pause.

A long pause.

‘Okay, awkward,’ Lucas said as he sat himself down on Ryan’s seat. He heard a screaming-laughing sound coming from the direction of the dunes and recognized it immediately. His eyelids drooped in realization.

‘Ryan,’ Shaun grumbled. ‘That explains why you guys look so weird when we came,’

The three girls giggled.

Chapter 1 - Heaven

2008-12-04T02:43:00.000-08:00

Destiny.

Fate.

Purpose.

These things.

These things that exist on the fringe of our existences and on the wings of the world’s stage, these things that guide us slowly yet surely to the future. Everyone has purpose; everyone has a destiny. These things create who we are and why are we here.

Why are we here?

What is our purpose?

Is there a voice somewhere that tells us what we are supposed to do?

Is there a hint in our intentions or in our emotions that guides us to our destiny?

If there is, all we have to do is just find it.

Saturday
Pangkor Island,
Pangkor Laut Resort beach.

Three people walked toward the beach. Actually, two walked and one skipped. The white, powdery sand was illuminated a dim yellow under the glowing torches on the beach. The night breeze sieved through the rocks on the beach as the moon gently caressed the sea with its wane light, advancing as the flames from the torches and bonfires on the beach slowly dims. Adranne slapped Ryan on the shoulder playfully like she always did. Ryan skipping was rambling on about some topless girl he saw sunbathing on the beach earlier in the evening while Adranne was talking to her friend over the phone. It was just like Ryan to continue on talking without ever caring who was listening. Of course, he realizes in a while. But that while, can be a long one. Adranne’s suggestive slap might have helped when Ryan wasn’t talking about girls, but he was.

‘Oh well,’ Adranne thought as she continued talking with her friend, better to leave the guy alone than to ask him to shut up. If she had asked him to shut up, he would be even more annoying. Adranne chuckled to herself at the thought.

I really should introduce the characters shouldn’t I? As there are a lot of main characters, character introductions would come not too slow and not too fast either. But to the readers, the main characters in this book are based on true, dear friends of mine and this story is just a story, created at the whims of my imagination. It is all but fictional and none of it is true. Or is it?

Adranne smiled as she chatted with her friend. She headed up the beach to the dunes nearer to the hotel while Adwin and the still talking Ryan walked toward the bar that was set up on the beach. The torches were placed around the bar as a Hawaiian themed band played a number with ukuleles and pretty hula girls gave the guys an eyeful as their grass skirts accentuated their curves and their shadows danced on the sand.

As you can already guess, Adranne and Adwin are siblings. It’s because of, as you can guess again, the matching starting letters in their names. They both wear glasses but have completely different personalities, personalities that will appear and be explained later in this story. As of now, they will be just brothers and sisters who look similar. Ryan however is another completely different character to elaborate on. And again, I won’t explain what he is like just yet. For those of you who know this guy with the glasses, you would already know what he is like because he makes an impression, a big one, but still, a good albeit crazy one.

Adranne finished her conversation with her friend and ended the call. She slid her phone in her pocket and lay back on the powdery sand. Her hands covered the back of her head as she watched the stars that peppered the night sky. From the corner of her eye, she could see that Ryan and Adwin had already made it to the bar and found a seat. She turned and looked at their antics. Ryan was arranging the chairs at the section of the table that was supposed to join to another table, as the rest were coming down for a drink soon. Adwin kept pulling the chairs Ryan placed away so that the waiters could attach and secure the tables. She giggled as they argued which chair should go where as the waiters and nearby guests smiled. One of the waiters looked clearly annoyed. Adranne took her eyes off the bar and placed them gently back toward the stars.

How beautiful they seem, twinkling and shining there in the sky. No one could see the stars properly back in the city. It was because of the pollution mainly.

Here, on this island, with her dearest friends, was pure heaven. With that thought in her mind, she smiled and then headed to the bar to help the two idiots stop embarrassing themselves.

Pangkor Island Resort,
Room 302.

Nicole laughed as she watched Jonathan fumble with his slippers. The section that was supposed to go in between his big toe and his second toe came off and he was desperately trying to fit it back. Jonathan’s older sister Jasmine was frowning as she watched him fumbling.

‘Do it properly instead of hurrying and making mistakes la!’ She snapped.
Jonathan didn’t reply but continued with his fumbling. Nicole squatted down and helped him with the slipper as Jasmine rolled her eyes, whipped out her phone and sat on the bed.

Jonathan was a year younger than Nicole. Nicole is fifteen this year. Having just finished a major exam like all fifteen-year olds do at the end of the year, this holiday to the beach with her friends just seemed more and more heavenly. Jonathan was fourteen and would have to do the very same exam Nicole did the end of next year. But for now, he was taking his time and relaxing just like everyone else. Jasmine is a whole four years older than Jonathan. Being an older sister, she was required to be responsible and she didn’t like that. No one who was older than the others in the group liked being responsible, except maybe Adranne. No one liked being responsible mainly because the kids cause SO much trouble that the parents just HAVE to find someone to yell at. Jasmine is eighteen and she’s going to school with her brothers at a private school in China. One thing about being older is knowing how to appreciate that her parents had to bring her and her whole family back to Malaysia from China just to come for this holiday. So she thanked them by avoiding argues with her brothers as much as possible, as annoying as they are.

All three of them, Nicole, Jonathan and Jasmine had went to the same school once. But that was before Jasmine, Jonathan and their entire family migrated to China. Now Nicole studies in the same school with her brother, someone that I would elaborate on later.

Jonathan finally managed to fix his flip-flops with the help of Nicole and the three of them walked out of the room and prepared for a night with friends.

‘Where’s your brother?’ Jasmine asked Nicole. Nicole mumbled something about her brother being lazy as she stared a text message on her phone. Nicole, Jonathan and Jasmine were sharing a room and so are Adranne, Adwin and Ryan. The others were occupying the floor upstairs and the trio was lazy to check on them so they decided to join the three that were already on the beach.

‘Adranne said that they already booked a table for all of us! Hurry up!’ Nicole said as she took the lead as Jonathan began squatting down and fumbling with his slipper again.

‘Your brother is coming down soon,’ Jasmine said to Nicole as she put her phone away in her bag. ‘JON LETS GO!’ She yelled.

Oh, I should also tell you that everyone calls Jonathan, Jon. For short.

Pangkor Island Resort,
Beach.

‘Oh god Ryan! You know we can’t drink that!’ Adranne slapped her forehead as she saw the waiter bringing the drinks Ryan ordered. Ryan just grinned and shrugged.

‘Here you go miss,’ the waiter said as he placed a tall wine glass in front of her and then proceeded to place the other seven around the table.

‘WINE?’ Adranne cried as she slapped her forehead again.

Adwin just gave Ryan a wild stare. Ryan was going to say something when they were interrupted by a squeal. Jasmine came rushing toward the table and seized a wine glass. Eagerly awaiting the waiter to finish distributing the glasses and begin pouring the wine. Adranne just gave her another wild stare; simultaneously Adwin was still staring at Ryan wildly. Only this time, Ryan was staring back with a weird look on his face and was threatening to make Adwin laugh.

‘Sorry, I’m a sucker for good wines,’ Jasmine grinned at Adranne as the waiter poured the dark red substance into her glass first. Jonathan and Nicole came walking up and joined the four of them. Ryan broke off his stare at Adwin as soon as Adwin began to laugh.

‘Nicole, where’s your brother and my brother?’ he said as he stared at the two remaining empty chairs.

‘Dunno, coming soon I guess,’ she said as she took a sip out of her glass.

Jasmine’s phone rang.

‘It’s a message from my mum,’ Jasmine grinned as she looked at it. She read it aloud as everyone crowded around the tiny screen to see what it read.

‘From all parents, kids, please be back before midnight and don’t stay up too late!’

All six of them laughed. How can they not stay up too late? It was the first night of their six-day holiday and they don’t intend to waste it!

Ryan stopped laughing as he nudged at Adwin and gestured at one of the hula girls and commented about something sick. The other four sparked off into another one of their great friend-to-friend conversations that had made the whole group become so close.

The torches grew dimmer still as the night wore on and the music livened, they were in heaven.