Fear.

We all have experienced it one day in our life. Some of us, more than others. I have myself experienced it so many times in my life that I have completely lost count. But I liked to believe that one day, I would overcome all of my fears.

That's what people do, according to me. Maybe one day, they were scared of something but the next day, they came back stronger and the fear went away.

But what happened tonight to me.

I don't think I could overcome it.

Scared.

That was one word to describe me when I was with this little girl. Her nails buried in my wrist and the look on her face completely terrified me in a way that I couldn't understand.

I was sure that it was, by far, one of the most terrifying moment of my life but I had a feeling that it wouldn't be the last one.

"I don't understand," Frederick said, snapping me out of my thoughts, "What is Amelia doing here?"

"I have absolutely no idea," Cloud replied.

"How can you not know, Cloud?" Frederick said, his voice raising, "It's for you to know this sort of things."

"Fred," Rain said in a calm voice as he walked to Frederick and put one hand on his shoulder, "You need to calm down."

"How can I calm down, Rain?" Frederick asked, unable to keep the disbelief out of his voice, "Amelia marked Luffy as her next prey and you want me to calm down."

"Nothing will happen to him, Frederick," Cloud assured him.

"How can you know that?" Frederick asked him.

"I won't let anything happen to him," Cloud replied but his eyes were on me the entire time and I quickly looked away under his gaze.

It has been about thirty minutes since I entered this room and found Frederick with Cloud and Rain and for this thirty minutes they have been talking about a certain Amelia with the twins.

Did you know this type of conversation that sometimes you find yourself in and you have absolutely no idea what the other person is talking about?

Because it was exactly what was happening to me at this exact moment.

For thirty minutes, the boys had been talking about a certain girl named Amelia who I assumed was the little girl who burned my wrist. I didn't know her, but the way they were talking about her told me that she wasn't good news. And I didn't know what she did to me but the way Frederick was freaking out told me that I should start to be a little bit worried.

"Cloud, something is wrong. How could have Amelia enter the house without us knowing?" Cale, one of the twin, said. I had learnt their names in the course of the conversation.

"Yeah, we should have sense her the moment she passed the front door," Calum, the twin of Cale, added.

"Maybe she hid in the shadow of someone?" Frederick suggested and Rain shook his head.

"No, it still doesn't make sense. Even if she did hide in the shadow of someone, we should have sense her," Rain said.

"Amelia is no longer what she used to be, Frederick. She is no longer that much powerful," Cale said.

"If she is no longer what she used to be, why didn't Cloud get rid of her years ago?" Frederick asked. Cloud looked like he was going to reply but I decided that it was time that I speak.

"Can I say something?" I asked and everyone looked at me.

"No, you lost your right to talk, the moment you got out of the car," Frederick said.

"Frederick," I said in exasperation, "I waited for you for two hours but you still didn't come back. I wasn't going to sit there any longer. What would you have done in my place?"

"I would have not get out of the car when someone precisely told me not to," Frederick replied.

"Frederick, everyone knows that you would have never done that. You don't listen to anyone," Calum said and Frederick told him to shut up.

"Frederick, you shouldn't have bring him in the first place," Rain said as he crossed his arms.

"I didn't have a choice. It was either I brought Luffy with me or I stayed home and I needed to come," Frederick said, giving Rain a knowing look.

"Alright, enough with that. We must find Amelia and quickly," Cloud said finally, "Cale and Calum go put a barrier around the house. Amelia might have been able to enter but she won't be able to get out of here."

Did Cloud just told them to put a barrier around the house?

"Alright, boss. We're on it," Calum replied, getting out of the bed with his twin.

"Cool. I came here to party but now I must put a barrier around the house because of some evil spirit," Cale said with a sigh.

"Don't be a lazy ass. We have some work to do," Calum scolded his brother and they both got out of the room.

"What are you going to do, Cloud?" Rain asked as the twins were out of the room.

"I'm just going to annoy the hell out of Amelia," Cloud replied with an evil smirk and Frederick gave him a worried look.

"I have a bad feeling about this but I'm going to trust you on this. Just promise me that you won't let my cousin get killed," Frederick said and Cloud nodded.

"Nothing will happen to him, I promise," Cloud assured him before turning to his brother, "Rain, you know what to do?"

"Yep! Don't worry," Rain replied before saying to Frederick, "Fred, let's go."

Rain got out of the room and Frederick turned to me, "Don't do anything stupid, Luffy."

With that said Frederick followed Rain out of the room, leaving me completely confused about what just happened.

"I'm confused," I said at last and Cloud let out a laugh.

"I know," he said then he gave me his hand, "Come with me, Luffy."

"I want to know what is happening first," I said firmly. I had enough of secrets. I didn't know what was happening and it was starting to get on my nerves.

"It's not the time to ask question," Cloud replied.

"Are you kidding? I can say that I was literally attacked by a little girl whose eyes turned completely black and you say that I should not ask questions. I think it's the right time to ask questions, Cloud," I told him and he sighed.

"Come with me then I will answer your questions," he said.

"What?" I asked completely surprised.

"You wanted to know my secrets, didn't you? So come with me," he said and gave me his hand once again.

I looked at his hand hesitantly, then looked into his eyes. Cold blue eyes. They were somehow captivating. My eyes fell on his hand once again and I looked at my own hand. My wrist had stopped burning but there was a sort of circle on it which appeared out of nowhere and I didn't know what that was but I guessed that it was time that I got some answers. Slowly I took Cloud's hand in mine.

"Why's the shock face, Luffy?" Cloud asked with an amused face as his hand enveloped mine.

"Your hands are..." I started then let my sentence unfinished.

"Cold?" Cloud suggested.

"Warm," I replied as my eyes locked with his. Cloud smiled before dragging me out of the room. My hands felt completely small in his and maybe because they were.

"So according to you, Luffy, my hands should be cold as ice?" Cloud asked as we walked in the corridor of the house.

"I never said that. I just thought that they would be cold," I replied.

"We are not in a twilight, Luffy and I'm not a vampire," he said with a laugh.

"Who knows," I said innocently and we both laughed.

We passed by some drunken teenagers making out in the corridor and all of them hurried away quickly when they saw Cloud. A few of them gave me a weird look but didn't say anything.

We went down the stairs, where the music was beating loudly. I looked around a bit confused at the fact that they were still partying at a time like that. It was nearly about eleven p.m. It was a surprise that the cops weren't there yet.

"Luffy, there you are," said a feminine voice and I looked around to see Emma standing a few feet away from me, a big smile on her face but it completely disappeared when she saw that Cloud was with me.

"Oh, Emma. Good to see you," Cloud greeted her with a smile but we could clearly hear the sarcasm in his voice.

"Cloud," Emma said in disgust but it made Cloud's smile only bigger, "What are you doing here with Luffy?"

"We were just.." I started but then realised that I had absolutely no idea what we were doing here. Cloud told me to come with him and I didn't really think about where he was taking me.

"We were just going to dance," Cloud told her for me and I looked at him with wide eyes as well as Emma.

"Dance?" she repeated in shock and Cloud nodded vigourously.

"Yes, dance," he replied as he let go of my hand to put his arm around my waist, bringing me closed to his firm chest.

"Cloud, I don't know how to dance," I whispered quietly to him.

"Don't worry, I will show you," he whispered back to me before giving his attention to Emma, "So Emma if you could please excuse us. We will go now."

Cloud and I tried to pass by her but she put her hand on Cloud's chest to stop him and he gave her a hard look and I mentally prayed for Emma to let us pass without making a scene.

"Let us pass, Emma," Cloud said firmly, taking care of pronoucing each word slowly.

"No, I won't," she replied, "Let go of Luffy first."

"And why should I do that?" he asked her and she folded her arms.

"I know what you are doing, Cloud and I won't let you take Luffy with you, I won't let you infect his mind," Emma snapped back.

"You don't know anything, little girl," Cloud said and Emma took a step towards him, a defiant look in her eyes.

"I know that you are evil. You are the devil himself. Now let go of my friend," Emma ordered him and Cloud removed his arm around my waist. I looked at Cloud and saw the cold look in his eyes. I opened my mouth to tell them to stop but Cloud beat me to it.

"You know what? I have enough of you, little slut," Cloud said and he took a step towards Emma, "You think you're powerful but you are not so don't try to order me around. Because if you don't, I will happily take care of your case personally and don't think that because you are a girl, I won't do anything to you because I will and trust me, you won't like it."

"Are you threatening me?" Emma asked in shock and Cloud smirked.

"I just giving you a warning. Don't make me angry, will you?"

"I'm not afraid of you, Cloud" Emma said but her eyes betrayed her. We could clearly see the fear in her eyes.

"Cloud leave her alone," I finally said and Emma looked at me, thankfully.

"I don't have a reason to. This slut is searching for it," he replied.

"Cloud, stop it. She is my friend," I said and Emma smiled triumphantly at Cloud who simply glared at her before he smirked, a malicious spark in his eyes. Emma gave him a questioning look but he didn't say anything.

Cloud just did one of the most unbelievable thing.

He kissed me.