TURN BACK THE TIME, BABE. BOOK 6. READY TO RELOAD

RELEASE YOUR MASK I

ELIDETH POV

Lately I felt Wish acted differently. I didn't realize until our return from New York. We no longer spent so much time together. She didn't sneak into the kitchen with Joe to cook some of her delicious dishes, she was not the usual clown who made Farrokh laughing anymore, she didn't take care of my hair and my mental health as she used to. If Freddie was not at home, we might see her oftener but when he was around, she tended to shy away from us. She was more and more away to try to control Killer and that got me worried. She was very focused on that. When I asked her about it, usually she wasn't very eloquent but she managed to play her enticing weary smile and assured me everything was near the end.

She didn't like to talk about her increasingly close relationship with Nina and eventually I had chosen to stop asking. But that breach of confidence between us hurt me because we always had talked openly about all kind of things. She had let me know when Nina and she had started their relationship and now suddenly we barely talked.

I was aware of she ought to involve emotionally with her in order to control her and take advantage of her influence over that woman. I didn't want to delve into those purely carnal aspects of that relationship but I knew perfectly well Killer's powerful sexuality and its own place in her set of values. I could guess the struggle my friend and guardian had been submitting herself, and that made me love and respect her even more.

That's her difference respect somebody else. She was a real professional, used to discipline. She was able to try to smash the terrible demons of her past for the sake of the mission. My mission became hers, we were two pieces of the same gear. So complementary in our differences, so in synch in our sensitivities. And however, we were in such strange mood, as though we were angry with each other. Such a singular situation.

Even now she had shown herself so strong and powerful helping me constantly with my miseries. Having Freddie's love closer to my heart than ever, seemed to turn me into the strong and powerful one this time around, while Wish even physically seemed to show all the accumulated tension over these two years. I feared for her to eventually lose her balance and strenght but whenever we tried to talk, we didn't seem to find that old chemistry, that singsong rhythm in our conversations. The wink of complicity looked like it had vanished into a weird reservation, an unnecessary care.

That's why when I got her whatsapp, since such a long time, I felt a familiar warmth around me. It's been days without talking and I started to need her.

- Is Farrokh with you now?

- No, Freddie has left with him -I texted.

- Do you know where?

- I think he told me they were visiting Mary.

Mary lived just three blocks away from us but Freddie didn't even think walking to her home since years, more or less two minutes walking. He always drove there in order to stop in front of the building and sprinting his way in, thinking of the annoying paparazzi.

- Alright.

- What's wrong?

- Everything's fine. Thanks for the information.

- Where are you?

- Don't worry about me.

- Wish, where are you?

- I'm at Nina's. But everything is ok.

It was useless keep on texting. She just stopped using the messenger app.

WISHFUL-THINKER 10 POV

The rows with Nina flared up again the last week and it was always the same. She insisted Freddie and Eli's son was our passport to Sally and I denied that option on and on.