Her Soul

11. her innocence

Riaan returned home late that night. To his surprise Jayden was awake. Jayden had his legs stretched and had a popcorn tub in between them. The lights were off, the room was illuminated blue by the TV.

"How was the party?" asked Jayden from the couch. He was up watching a movie. Riaan took a seat near him. He felt tired and his feet were aching. He had walked a long distance today.

"Riaan! I asked how was the party."

"Ok, just another party." Riaan did not tell Jayden about Aviana. "I am tired. Going to bed." Riaan got up. Jayden too got up, switching off the movie. The room became dark except for the yellow light from the kitchen.

"So what? Now you like Mithali?" He queried narrowing one of his eyes.

"What?" Riaan's voice came out sleepy. Two more minutes on the couch and he would be snoring loud enough to walk up the whole town.

"You are going parties with her now, " Jayden notified it to Riaan.

"Oh...ya...she has been asking for a while." Riaan's eyelids were dropping. He went to his room before Jayden questioned him further. Jayden gave Riaan an "I will deal this later" look and again switched on his movie.

There had been no trace of a lie in her eye. Could she really be innocent? If she really was innocent, then Riaan would have to question all the rules and protocols he ever believed in. Just the thought terrified the hell out of him.

But there was also another thought lurking in the corner. What if his father was also innocent? Maybe he was wrongly accused. Preston, Riaan's father was accused of letting an offender escape. But what if that offender was really innocent.
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The next day, Riaan woke up in a cranky mood. It had not been a good dream night for him.

His dream had been about exile but not Mr. Preston's, his own. Riaan stood in front of the D-Room members, as they told him he had been exiled. His three friends were also there but they stood still and watched him be exiled. The reason for his exile had been Aviana. He had let her escape. He had not taken her soul. He reached out his hands to Jayden before Jayden could do the same, Riaan had been pulled away. He had tried screaming but the voice wouldn't come out.

He had woken up hands outstretched, sweat beading his neck, breathing ragged. His white T-shirt had been soaked with sweat. He removed his sweat-soaked T-shirt, splashed water on his face, and tried to forget the dream. Running his hand over his chin he noticed he would need a shave.

"My boy has grown up." His father would say when he saw Riaan shaving. It had been a year since everything messed up since he had stopped being papa's boy. He had got the call, while he was at college. Jayden's mom had called. "Oh, my dear Riaan. Preston had been exiled. I am so sorry."

Riaan did not reply. He refused to believe any of it. His father was a very honest man, who followed rules. He was the one, who had thought Riaan to worship rules. Riaan had worshiped it, as much as he worshipped Preston.

He ran straight to Silas's home. Silas was his father's friend. Like his father, he had also been a D-Room member initially. Later on, he became the chief. Riaan had attended his congratulatory party. Preston had once joked, about how it would be if Riaan and Silas's daughter got married. Riaan had never seen Silas's daughter though.

Riaan had stood in front of Silas's house. Silas came and hugged Riaan, he did not hug back. Riaan stood paralyzed, his arms lose on his sides.

"Is it true?"

Silas hugged him tighter trying to provide comfort. "Yes, my boy, yes." Riaan had wanted to cry, but he did not. He maintained his composure.

Following his father's exile, Riaan had locked himself in his room. Kenya or Dash or Jayden would keep knocking. It had taken months for Riaan to come back to normal life. And after that people started seeing him for what Preston had done. Then slowly Riaan had worked hard and had climbed up the ladder. One could say he was the leading controversial figure among Roxos right now.

"Riaan! Open!" Someone kept knocking. Riaan came out of the trance as Kenya kept banging at the door.

"Ken, I will be down. Give me a few minutes." Riaan got ready and went down. Kenya sat at the couch, picking the popcorn that Jayden had spilled last night. When she saw him approach, she got up.

"Are you going somewhere?" She eyed his outfit up and down.

"Yes," he walked out.

"Again to see mithali?" She followed him wanting to know where he was going.

"No." Riaan was giving her one-word answers on purpose, he did not feel like explaining himself.

"Wait!" She stopped him by his arm, her painted nails glowing. "Where are you going?" She asked slowly, she had sensed something was wrong.

Riaan considered lying but decided to tell the truth. He was not going to explain though. They would think it was useless. He would better come back and explain. "To see Silas."

Apparently, she did not expect that answer because her eyes widened and she dropped her hands from his arm.
"Silas?"

"I will come back and explain. Bye."
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It was almost lunch when Riaan reached Silas's place. Riaan stood outside gazing at Silas's house. It was a big white, extravagant one. The last time Riaan had been here was on that disastrous day. It felt like a lifetime ago for him. Riaan had changed so much in this last year. He had become much stronger. He no longer felt like a little boy. He had become a man or something near, but not a little boy anymore.

His father had waited for years, for Riaan's first assignment. But when Riaan had his first assignment he was gone, exiled. Preston had missed the proud moment. On Riaan's first assignment he had felt resentment towards his father. If not for Silas Riaan probably would have been banished from being in a unit. It was Silas and a few others who had convinced the other Roxos to give Riaan a chance and not judge him with Preston's deeds.

A watchman was there, at the gate. He stopped Riaan when he entered.

"I am here to meet Silas."

The watchman eyed him strangely with a doubtful eye. "He is not here." His voice was flat. "He would return after a week."

Riaan wanted to meet Silas right now though. It more or less felt like a need. Now he would have to wait for another one week. He could call him, but Riaan did not prefer that. Disappointed, Riaan returned to his car. He could practically hear his stomach make sounds as he had skipped breakfast. He saw a waffle shop down the street so he drove there. His cranky mood only increased with his wasted trip.

The waffle shop was quite busy. Riaan considered going somewhere else but was lazy to find another shop. Near to the second window, a seat was empty. They were single seats, so he walked fast to grab it. On one side there was a wall, with a waffle picture on it. One the other side sat one hungry girl. She ate her waffle like it was the last one on earth.

As Riaan went much near to the seat, he noticed the girl had black hair. No!
Her brown eyes were focused on the waffle. Just when I thought this day couldn't get much worse.

Aviana sat there digging through her waffle. All these prior days he had followed her. He had given himself a break today but here she was again.

He went and sat near her. It took her a few minutes to register his presence.
When she saw him, she was genuinely shocked. She choked on her waffle and coughed. "Are you following me?" She narrowed her eyes at him.

Riaan looked up and then to his side, anywhere but her. Ya, he had followed her but not today. This was totally a very bad coincidence.

She waved her hands in front of his eyes. He decided to ignore that also. His waffle was brought. "Riaan, I am talking with you." He continued ignoring her.

As Riaan was about to take his first bite, a hand bet him to it. He looked up to see Aviana taking a bite of his waffle. "Hi, Riaan."

With a sigh, he slammed the fork on the table and turned towards her. He could feel the headache seeping in. "What do you want?" he grumbled through gritted teeth.
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