My name is Heila and I’m a Writer.
My name is Heila and I’m a Writer.
Heila’s phone chimed, interrupting her thoughts.
Midnight.
It was bedtime.
She had always made it a point to go to bed at the same time every night. But tonight, she ignored it. Crouched on the floor, by the bed, she couldn’t move. She stared at her bandaged wrists, which had the faintest traces of dried blood on the surface.
It had only been a few days and yet she was almost already healed.
“How long does someone usually heal from an injury like this?” she had asked Harry that morning.
“For people like us, it should take around two weeks to fully recover and the scars to disappear. But… from what I can see, it looks like you’ll be back on duty in less than a week. Your wrists are healing much faster… I believe your Writer colleagues are also giving you a helping hand in this matter?”
“Oh, yes, Judy probably mobilised a few of them to help speed up the process. You see, the mission I’ve been working on is quite an urgent one…”
She had gone along with his assumption, but it had all been a lie.
Naturally, Writers could help one another heal certain wounds by writing about their recovery. And the more Writers wrote about it, the more likely they would heal.
But Judy had always known about Heila’s… particular predisposition, so she would not have bothered.
Heila’s body could heal itself much faster than any writing trick or magic could ever do.
My name is Heila and I’m… just a weapon to Them.
An almost indestructible weapon at that.
How lucky The Oracles were…
And she had almost exploded earlier. For a moment, she had lost her composure, lost control…
The build-up had started back at Portal that afternoon. Jake and Dany had tried to convince her not to go out; her body was still weak from the loss of blood and from directing all of her energy towards the healing process.
But the murderer wouldn’t be waiting for her. She had to keep working and think of a plan to ambush that criminal as soon as she could find the strength…
She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn’t hear Dany coming in. He sat next to her and gently brushed her hair away from her face. She jumped at his cold touch.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” He eyed her bandages. “Do you need help with that? These look like they probably need changing.”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll do it later.”
“Later? It’s past midnight.”
“I know.”
She heard him sigh.
“Listen, about what happened at dinner… I talked to Jake on his way out and he’s not mad at you. He actually feels bad so I think if you two talk it out, it’d be as if nothing ever happened.”
“But he’s right. Everything he said was right. It was irrational of me to react the way I did…”
Soon after they had left Portal, Jake and Judy had decided to drop by for dinner later that evening. Ray had also planned to come by since Harry was working night shifts. They had all agreed to have hotpot as Judy always insisted on bringing ingredients whenever she wanted to come over for a meal. It seemed like the most convenient option.
Everything was fine at the start. In fact, it had been a while since all of them had gathered around the dining table at the penthouse all at the same time. Only Ash was missing, as he had been enrolled in a university abroad.
As much as his parents wanted to get rid of him by placing him under The Oracles’ care, they still seemed to want him to succeed and provide him with the best education, all at their expense. Ash never lacked anything… except their love.
Thankfully, it seemed to Heila that Ash had integrated well with their little so-called family. So well that his departure got her worried about Nya: did she feel lonely, now that both Ray and Ash were not living under the same roof?
These past few years had been tough for Heila as a guardian: she felt that Nya and she were drifting away… It used to be so much easier to talk to her and be close to each other when she was younger.
For a while, Nya used to call her a ‘hero’ because she had ‘saved’ her from those ‘horrible people in white coats’. Then, when Ash had moved in, she would call her ‘sister’.
At the same time, Heila had been trying hard to be a guide for her, teaching her everything she needed to know about the human world, showing her kindness and what it means to be a good person.
All in an attempt to tame the Chaos inside of her.
Then, Jack turned up… and suddenly, Nya didn’t want to be so close to her anymore.
A wave of fatigue came over her and she ate her food in silence. Listening to Jake’s banters, which always made Judy laugh and Dany roll his eyes. Watching as Ray helped Nya fill up her bowl, while Nya struggled to keep her long hair in place as she leaned forward to eat.
The usual…
Heila put down her chopsticks and reached into her pocket to find a hair tie. By default, she always sat next to her.
“Here. Let me.”
She reached out and tied Nya’s hair into a ponytail.
“Oh. Thanks.”
Her ears had turned red but Heila pretended not to notice.
Who I am to you now?
Jake suddenly cleared his throat… a bit too loud. “So… now that Jack isn’t here, Nya, you can tell us the truth. There’s no need to hide your relationship with him.”
“What?” Ray interjected. “Did I miss something?”
Nya’s ears turned even redder.
Heila held on to her chopsticks a bit too tight. Not this again…
“Guys, I swear, Jack and I are just really close friends. You can ask Ash when he comes back this weekend if you need more proof. We used to hang out all three of us together all the time. There’s nothing more to it.”
Jake raised an eyebrow. “Really? Hmm… But what if… Jack is the one who has a crush on you and you just had no idea all this time?”
“No!”
Nya had full-on shouted.
The room was silent for a few seconds.
“Well, I’m glad you and Jack aren’t a thing,” Ray said. “I don’t know what happened for you to take him under your wing, Jake, but I get bad vibes from this guy. And he’s the Mastermind of Death.”
“Bad vibes?” Heila blurted out.
She hadn’t exactly wanted to chime into the conversation but the words had come out of her mouth before she could have stopped herself.
“Yeah, I’m personally not close to him, but to be frank, I always thought he looked like he would be a bad influence on Nya. It’s just… a feeling I get when I see him. Probably a Mastermind instinct thing.”
“You’re feeling this way exactly because of the nature of your power,” Jake said. “You’re the Mastermind of the Sun, Ray, don’t forget that. Your aura is such a contrast to his that you would naturally be… should I say, repulsed by him, by nature. That’s also why Ash and Nya aren’t bothered by him. The Moon is on the dark side of the Mastermind power spectrum and… well, Chaos was always known to be very compatible with Death. But other than that, you don’t have to worry, I’ve taught him well but obviously if he harms even a strand of hair off of Nya’s head…”
He waved his hand away as if to say he would personally throw him out.
Ray laughed. “Anyway, I’m not too worried anymore because it’s been fine so far. And as much as I still have this bad feeling at the back of my mind, I just have to trust you on your words.”
“Thanks, Ray. And that’s why again I’m saying, as someone who has directly been supervising that kid, I’d totally approve of him as Nya’s boyfriend. Besides, he’s one of us!”
Nya looked down at her bowl, avoiding everyone’s eyes.
It was clear she didn’t want to be here, listening to this.
Heila slammed her chopsticks on the table so hard that they rolled away and fell on the floor.
“Jake, please why can’t you just drop the subject?” she said, gritting her teeth.
“Heila…”
But she ignored Dany. She couldn’t hold it together anymore.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to achieve but you’ve been receiving the same answer from Nya since this morning: Jack’s not her boyfriend. So let’s leave it as that and stop bringing it up.”
“Heila, I was just teasing,” Jake said. His expression became serious. “There’s no need for you to get so worked up about it. I know it’s trivial, but trivialities are what help lighten the mood sometimes, especially after everything that’s been happening lately.”
“Then, I don’t want to hear it.” She picked up her bowl and stood up. She knew she had to leave before she said something she would regret. “If you’ll excuse me…”
But Jake sprang up to his feet and stared right at her with fiery eyes.
“Here are my two cents, as a veteran elder brother: you know you’ll have to let Nya go one day, don’t you? She won’t be under this roof forever. If all goes well, she’s going to finish her studies, get a normal job and date like a normal human being. That’s the whole point of you fostering her, right? She hasn’t even had a boyfriend yet…”
“There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Yes, I know that, of course, but my point is you have to let her breathe.”
“I am!”
“Are you now? I saw the way you were looking at Jack today and that look I saw in your eyes was… if I dare say it… full of jealousy!”
She looked away. “No! That’s not…”
“You could’ve at least been happy for her when we saw them together whether Jack’s her boyfriend or not. What? Don’t tell me you also got ‘bad vibes’ from him too.”
The room had turned into a deafening silence. As if time had stopped. Heila’s heart was pounding way too hard against her chest. She wanted to run but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t look at anyone.
Jake seemed to have noticed that their outburst had gone too far. He softened his voice. “Damn it… Heila, I’m sorry, I…”
But she didn’t want to listen anymore.
“I’m sorry too,” she muttered as she left the dining table as fast as she could.
And that was how she had ended up shutting herself in her room until past midnight.
“I’m so tired, Dany.”
“Then sleep.”
She chuckled. “I mean… you know what I mean. First, the underground attack and now this… Gosh, I have to message Jake later… I feel so stupid…”
Dany wrapped his arms around her. Tears started rolling down her cheeks.
Soon, she couldn’t stop the sobs that came out of her. Her whole body was trembling but Dany’s embrace kept her steady.
“What… what will I do… once Nya leaves to live her own life? I’ll have no other purpose but to just chase and kill criminals for The Oracles. You know… you know that at the end of the day… I’m just being used.”
“Then… how about finding a new purpose? Maybe… we can create a purpose of our own. Together.”
She looked up at him. In the dim-lit room, his mismatched purple and brown eyes shone like stars from another universe.
“What… what do you mean?”
He bit his lip. “I just had the craziest idea…”
“What is it?”
He took her hands in his.
“Heila, let’s get married.”
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