MELODY (Book 1) ✓

Chapter 28 (Threat)

I rolled out in the torturous sofa, feeling physical and mental pain in every inch of my existence. My eyes were swollen, head pounding, spine painfully stiff, legs tensed from the uncomfortable position in the past hours of sleep. Groggy and achy, my thoughts were tangled up into an incoherent mass.

Then everything came back to me.

Swallowing back the tears , I bit my lips hard, holding the sides of my head in hopes of reducing the headache. I distracted myself by checking my phone that apparently slipped from my hand and landed on the floor when I fell asleep. There was a new text message from Akram.

I sighed, sweeping my thumb to open it.

《 Sweet dreams, Mel. 》

The time of the message was 3:35 a.m.

I groaned.

How selfish of me to keep him up all night!

Eagerly, I typed a quick text for him:

《 Sorry for keeping you up. Thanks for everything.》

He was still asleep, for sure. He must've been really tired because of my childish request.

The memory of Akram, playing Brahms Lullaby for me was a ray of sunshine after the long night.

My heartbeat spiked up when I gawked in horror at the cellphone digital clock.

I'm late for work!

Life had changed since yesterday, but I still had to go to work just like any other Sunday. It was 7:05. I should be on my way to the café right now. I needed to hurry up and get dressed in less than 5 minutes.

Stumbling around to get ready, I hoisted Asha's gift sack and headed for the bathroom upstairs, feeling like I was going to lose my balance any minute.

Praying that nobody would barge into the bathroom, I freshened up quickly, and threw on a new outfit in a cautious hurry. My hair stuck out like the spikes of a porcupine, so I smoothed it back with tap water and my fingers. Sadly, there was no time for a real shower.

When I left the bathroom, I faced a ridiculous problem.

Where do I leave the bagful of clothes?

My heart couldn't find the courage to enter the empty, yellow-taped dorm room. I didn't even know if it was allowed to go in. Maybe I should leave it with the security before I left. With this ridiculous headache, there was no time to think.

My mind froze up in the middle of the hallway, when I heard the sinister high-heeled steps, quickly approaching me.

Click, clack, click, clack.

A second of crippling fear passed my mind, but then it morphed into a rush of simmering anger that pulsed through me in overwhelming waves. I spun around to eye the pretty cobra. The one who poisoned a poor girl who used to be breathing only yesterday.

The emotion was so intense that I couldn't control myself. I didn't know what came over me when my face contorted in disgust, dropped the sack and dashed towards Vivian, who pranced down the hallway with her reptilian grace. My surroundings blurred and turned into a red thoughtless haze.

How dare this dirty scamp show her face here again? How could she just come back to occupy human space and breathe and sleep in her contaminated room after she caused Tina's death?

Vivian smiled as sweetly as a killer shark when she spotted me walking towards her, but then her smile changed into a confused expression that caused her neat brows to furrow. She stopped in her tracks and tilted her head sightly as if she was asking for it.