Chapter Twenty

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Aloura sighed at the sight of the house, cringing as her gaze fell onto the bloodied mess she'd left after this morning's beating. It seemed like whenever she'd get home from work, she'd find her father had drunkenly destroyed something. But Aloura paid no mind to the mess; instead making a beeline for the basement, in search of more information on who this organisation was. How her mother was involved.

And most importantly, Elias' connections to them.

Aloura made the cold floor a resting place, prying open the taped box and pulling out random sheets of paper- inspecting them for notes from her mother. She frowned at the lack of anything important. There was nothing much to see- mainly hospital notes from her workplace- and recipes she'd spent her life perfecting. Aloura sighed as she ran her hand through her locks, staring at the mess before her. She sighed again and began organising the papers into separate piles.

She lifted the sheets she'd already looked through and placed them in her mother's work pile behind her, before lifting more sheets of paper out of the box and into her lap. She frowned as she looked through them, her mother was a gynaecologist, and her farther a surgeon, why were there work sheets for an oncologist. Aloura flicked through the stapled sheets, dismissing the patient confidentiality stamped on the papers.

Details entailing the patient, who Aloura found to be, Katherine Kadar, and her chemotherapy treatments. Aloura's heart sank a little at the words written at the bottom; deceased. Aloura wasn't expecting to find much on the sheets of hospital information, but at the sight of underlined letters throughout the papers, Aloura grabbed a pen. Writing each letter underlined in a straight line, hopeful to make sense of her mother's clues.

Deliveringyoutoevilvictim174

Aloura's heart sank at the realisation, these weren't her patients, these people were the organisations victims.

She hastily placed the sheet to the side, and grabbed the next one; Edward Ren victim 86, except he didn't have cancer- but heart failure.

Aloura placed the sheet down and picked the next off her lap; June Stevens victim 91, brain Aneurism.

Aloura frowned at the common denominator being her father as their surgeon. Is dad part of this organisation mama? She thought to herself. Were you?

Aloura placed the sheets to her side, a reminder to take them with her to research. She lifted the next sheet of paper, a sinking feeling weighed her down as she stared at her own name in the sheets before her. Aloura Olea West.

Aloura breathed out as she pulled her eyes from the sheet. Too scared to read the remaining of the sheet. Her eyes fluttered shut for a moment and she swallowed the bile that rose into her throat before dropping her eyes back to the sheet.

Aloura Olea West: Michael West alms. Followed by a description of the young girl, signed off by her father. Aloura frowned. Her father was offering her.

Her mother had scribbled out the rest, writing a simple, but powerful, no, in the margins.

Aloura was angry, confused, the pit in her stomach seemed to be never ending- she'd swallow to fill it up, but it remained void. Aloura however, had no chance to grieve, her father's drunken footsteps echoed throughout the hallways. She froze and watched the stairs as his advancing figure. She knew she had no time to hide the papers she'd looked through, so she made no attempt to cover up her actions. Instead, she rose up, her shoulders stiff as Michael stopped, his eyes fixated on the tipped-out boxes and the piles of paper spread throughout the basement floor.

Neither of them moved for a few seconds. They watched each other with angry eyes, although only one of them had the right to feel that way. "What is the meaning of this, girl?" he sneered after a moment, still not moving towards her. Aloura ignored him, an action she found herself surprised by.

"How did mama die?" Aloura questioned, her nose flared as she watched the shocked expression that filled her father's face.

He frowned, "don't talk to me like that girl. She got in an accident because of you" he pointed a grimy finger at her.

Aloura laughed bitterly, "was she protecting me from something" she lifted the sheet of paper to show him, although he was too far to be able to see what she was holding up anyway. "Because this paper has details on how I should be murdered."

Michael didn't reply, nor did his eyes meet Aloura's, they remained transfixed on the sheets of paper she held before her. This only angered the girl more, she took a daring step towards him, placing another sheet of paper in front of his face. "Who is delivering you too evil?" she took another step forward, "and what did they do to my mother?"

The mention of the organisation had clicked a switch in the drunk man's mind, his eyes had suddenly darkened, and his face scrunched up in anger. "Who the fuck do you think you are questioning me like this?" he stepped into Aloura's face, throwing a hit directly at her face.

His reaction was enough conformation to Aloura that whoever this organisation was, her father was a part of.

Elias sat at the edge of the rooftop, his eyes flickering to his watch every couple of seconds. Something he'd found himself doing a lot recently when it involved Aloura. His heart was basically in his mouth, and his stomach felt queasy. He knew why; it was two hours after he had agreed to meet. But he didn't know why he was felt anxious about her being late- maybe she had just fallen asleep or forgotten to meet up.

He sighed sadly and wiped the blood from the side of his lip for the hundredth time. He'd have to clean it himself if Aloura didn't show- but it felt wrong. Aloura will be here. He told himself. She'll just apologising for being late and I'll have her clean me up.

His eyes flew to the now cold box of cookies. He'd won the fight tonight and had gotten to baking her cookies the second he'd gotten home. Elias tore his eyes away from the container and into the sky, falling to the lone star Aloura had introduced him too.

"She's okay, right?" he asked the star. It didn't blink, Elias frowned, before sighing. "I'm going crazy."

He took a seat in their usual corner, resting his head on the cold wall, the rooftop felt cold without Aloura sat between his legs. It wasn't welcoming or comfortable like he'd felt it was when Aloura was reading to him and playing with his hair.

"I'll just sleep here, she'll come later or in the morning when she realises she slept in" Elias told the star, laughing lightly before closing his eyes.

The star didn't blink. 

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