His death.

Death was no stranger to her, and nor did she fear Death. To her, death was a concept that was perhaps the simplest thing to understand, because it ends.

You die in your sleep, you die in the middle of a sentence, you die after an argument with your partner.

All of it has one thing in common: death ends you. It ends your sleep, it ends your conversation, it ends your fight.

Death ends.

But memories of the deceased live on in their loved ones.

But Alara didn't want Ren to end. Not when he was only 15. Not when he had not even experienced his first crush, first love, first romance... The firsts he had were the firsts no one wanted.

First time tortured, first time stabbed, first time experiencing psychological torture.

"Oh, not to worry," Valesque's easy tone jolted Alara out of her worry. "Well, he won't die... yet."

"What? But you-" Alara faltered, unsure what to believe.

"Well, the poison is in his body. There is no antidote-"

"YOU BASTARD!" Alara screamed so loudly that her words echoed throughout the room.

Grinning evilly, Valesque continued, "It doesn't matter. It's a poison emitted through smell, specially customised for your brother. You're welcome. The poison only affects people of B+ blood type and since it's been with him for more than a week, you can expect his death in three days' time."

Three days' time.

In the end, it wasn't weapons that felled her.

It was those words- those three words that made her fall to her knee. Three days. That's all the time that I have left with him. Her world was oddly quiet as the realisation sunk in, and the fight in her seemed to ebb out slowly.

"Why?"

It was Maren's voice that made her look up. She had almost forgotten that he had come along with her for he had been so quiet all these while. In fact, that was the first word he had uttered ever since they had stepped into the office.

"Maren. I am disappointed in you." Valesque's tone oozed genuine disappointment, and Alara watched on as Maren and Valesque held each other gaze steadily and unflinchingly. "Coming in here with weapons- what are you planning, Maren? To kill me? The man who brought you up?"

At those words, Maren broke the gaze. Alara could see his fingers trembling as he clenched his fists tightly.

"Be the man who brought me up. Be the man I know! Right now, I don't know this Valesque. This isn't the Valesque or grew up with; be the man I know." Maren demanded as he forced himself to stare back into Valesque's eyes.

But those eyes that he stared into were full of one emotion- disdain.

"I am who I am. There are no two sides to me, Maren. There isn't. Don't delude yourself into believing me to be something that I never was."

"Maren, no!" Alara cried when Maren turned on his heel and left the room brokenly. In his state of torment, he had forgotten everything, forgotten his promise to her- his promise to watch her back and protect her.

Sobbing, Alara got up on and lashed out at Valesque. "You bastard. You damned bastard!"

"Words are more potent than one would ever expect. Words are more powerful than any other weapon," Valesque remarked, grinning as he made his way to her. Roaring a battle cry, she brandished her knives in a menacing fashion, only to be met with sniggers as Valesque lunged for her neck in an attempt to strangle her.

It was a predictable and witless move especially since it had been Maren Santos, the best of the best, to train her in the art of fighting. How ironic for him... and me, Alara thought as she willingly surrendered her neck and used her knives as a dual weapon to plunge them into his stomach.

In the end though, they were both idiots.

She had underestimated him, for underneath his suit was a thick vest- thick enough to protect his stomach and vital organs. She knew it when she realised that she had trouble getting her knives to penetrate through his suit. Fortunately for her, her knives were sharp enough to imaple the vest and inflict superficial wounds on his skin.

However, to make those wounds, it meant that she had left them stuck in his stomach and ended up being left defenseless.

"You vacuous imbecile, do you think I'm that easy to kill?" ranted Valesque manically, grinning diabolically even when his eyes screamed that he was in agony. While she tried to writhe in his grip, Valesque continuously spouted words into her face. "So many people have tried and failed. You will succeed."

In response, Alara mustered up the most amount of saliva she could muster while being strangled. A glob of icky saliva managed to be spat into his face, catching Valesque by surprise. Temporarily distracted, his grip on her neck loosened and she took the opportunity to kick him hard in the groin.

He yelped and attempted to grab her, but the pain must have been too numbing for him as he collapsed to the floor, bleeding profusely while sweat dotted his brow. Heaving heavily, Alara retrieved her knives by cold-bloodedly pulling them out of his stomach, leaning against the desk while she tried to catch her breath.

Her heart had calmed down when out of the blue, Valesque somehow regained his strength and slapped her hard.

Stunned by the man's strength, Alara was caught off her guard and subsequently fell, choking and coughing. She didn't even have time to recover from the stinging slap, let alone the strangulation when Valesque started kicking her continuously. In an attempt to shield herself from his relentless rain of blows, Alara forced herself into a fetal position, her mind racing frantically for ways to save herself.

She started to time the seconds of when each blow would land on her, and it turned out to be three. Three seconds was all she had to save herself.

After his sixteenth blow landed on her, she started to count.

One.

She got up unsteadily on her legs.

Two.

She corrected her fighting stance to a proper one.

Three.

She punched Valesque twice in the face and once in the knee.

As they danced a vicious fight, she started to fear that she was on the losing side of history. If only Maren was here...

"Thinking about Maren, Alara?" smirked Valesque as if he could read her mind. "Are you waiting for your knight in shining armour to save you? Are you waiting for your dear Romeo to show up? What makes you think that he is loyal only to you? How long have you known him- two years? I've spent half a decade with him- and he thinks of me as his father-figure.

You heard him for yourself- be the man I know. That is proof enough that he believes that there is a good part in me. Honestly, dear girl, who do you really think he will stand by at the end of the day? You, or me?"

Wheeze.

Renald coughed violently and sighed morosely as he sunk back in his comfy bed. He could still feel it.

The chill in his bones.

Is my coffin ready? I have no more secrets to spill. Am I finally free? At least in death, I do not have to endure any more pain.

And I would never have to find out if Mama betrayed us all.

"Where's my sister?" he managed to choke out softly. His eyes scanned the room, and found nobody in there. His bedroom had never felt more unlike familiar than before as he could not even rely on Loia's flower for relief. He was accustomed to its soothing scent, a most marvelous scent that calmed him to sleep.

I need it now more than ever.

He just was about to give up asking for his sister's whereabouts when a familiar man entered his room.

"Maren? What are you doing here?"

"I need to get you out of here. An angelic kid like you shouldn't die in such a hellacious place." replied Maren as he hastily shoved his clothes and medication into a duffel bag.

Something was wrong.

"Stop it. What's going on? Your movements are so fast, so swift... what's wrong?" gasped Renald.

"I... I..." Maren's usually focused steel-blue eyes were lost and full of despair. "I..." Maren sighed, throwing his clothes back into the duffel bag. Sitting on the edge of his bed, Maren rubbed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. "I..."

"I..."

Steel-blue met brown.

Chocolate brown with beautiful golden flecks.

The guilt was all consuming and overwhelming, coming into him at full force when he found Alara staring back at him.

Smiling at him when he said something stupid.

Hitting him playfully when he flirted with her.

Her eyes shone with love when he stared into her gaze after a long kiss.

Cursing at him with her eyes when he forgot to do an important ask.

Tears coming out of her eyes when they hurt each other.

His friend. His love. His Alara.

Alara.

Everything spilled out of him in one go. About confronting Valesque, about him leaving Alara to Valesque... even the words Valesque had said.

He had expected a stern scolding from Renald, but it seemed to be the Berrera way of 'action first, talk later' as it was all Renald needed to hear to leave his bed.

"Let's save my sister first and then we'll talk."

"Okay."

Alara, wait for me. I'm sorry, I really am. I'm coming soon... please don't leave me. Live.