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“Drew… Drew, what’s wrong?” Nico asked worriedly as he clasped my shoulder. “Why are you crying?”
I couldn’t stop crying. Tears wouldn’t stop falling from my eyes.
I turned my head to Nico, and more tears fell. The mere thought of losing Nico, of that same accident happening to the both of us was breaking my heart. I was afraid, I was worried, and I was really sorrowful.
Why do I feel that way for a mere vision that I couldn’t even explain.
I looked Nico in the eyes, and I was really thankful that he was there with me. I pulled him closer and I leaned my head on his chest as I continued on crying. I cried and cried as I clenched the back of Nico’s shirt.
“It’s alright, Drew…” Nico comforted me as he rubbed my back. Even though Nico had no idea why I was crying, he was still comforting me, and I was really thankful for that. He didn’t push me for an answer or an explanation, he just stayed by my side and comforted me. “Everything will be alright.” Nico wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tight.
His warmth somehow calmed me down.
The longer I stayed inside that car, the more painful my heart gets.
“Have you calmed down?” Nico asked as he watched me finished drinking the glass of water he gave me. We were outside the secret room and were sitting on the edge of his bed.
“Yeah. I feel a lot better now…” I said guiltily. I ruined the good mood, that’s for sure.
“What happened, Drew? Why did you suddenly cry like that? Did I do something wrong?” Nico asked worriedly as he looked at my face.
“Can we go swim?” I asked Nico. It was the only way for me to fully calm down.
“Sure…” Nico said with a worried smile.
I was afraid to tell Nico the truth. I was afraid that he might think that I’m going insane.
I was really afraid that I might drive him away.
Nico led me to the pool, and when I got there, I suddenly had mix emotions about taking a swim.
Swimming usually makes me a lot calmer. It helps me think and it helps me relax, but when I saw Nico’s pool, something inside of me started moving. Like a piece of a puzzle was suddenly moved.
For some inexplicable reason, the pool at the Bellard Mansion looked very familiar and felt very nostalgic to me.
Not wanting to worry Nico even further, I walked down the pool without showing any signs of hesitation. “I’m sorry, for worrying you,” I told Nico as we both walked towards the middle of the pool. “I’m alright now, Nico, so don’t worry too much,” I added.
Nico took my hand under the water. “I’m always going to be by your side, Drew. You can tell me anything and everything. I want you to know that.”
“Thank you…” I replied and squeezed his hand tightly and then rest my head on his shoulder. Nicopetted my head.
I went down into the water and Nico followed me. He smiled at me and then swam closer. He held my cheeks and kissed me. That underwater kiss was truly amazing. It was exciting, it was intoxicating, it was magical.
Nico didn’t push me for answers, and I was really thankful for that.
I want to say that I was fine after that.
I want to believe that everything went back to normal for me.
It didn’t.
Those visions. They kept on bugging me. They kept on playing inside of my head, and no matter how hard I tried to get rid of them, I couldn’t. They lingered and lingered inside of me. I wanted answers, I wanted to know what those visions were, why they kept on appearing inside my head.
The answer came in an unexpected way.
Our production company had many projects that time, and one of them needed a special consultant to make the movie as good as possible. That consultant was a psychic named Amanda Holter.
There was something odd about that psychic. I was walking down the hall and walked pass her that morning, and she was talking to herself. She was talking, having a conversation, with no one in particular. I looked at her ears, but there was no headset on it.
She didn’t look crazy to me, she actually looked somewhat normal, but she was talking to herself, and that was a little… Wait, what am I thinking? It’s not like I’m any different from her, after all, I kept on having those visions.
“Wait!” I heard Amanda’s voice. I thought that she was just talking to herself, but then I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned around to see her behind me. “Do you have a minute?” She asked.
I hesitantly brought Amanda Holter to my office, and I somehow regretted it instantly.
“I know what I’m doing,” she whispered to herself. “Everything will be fine.” She paused. “They’re really the same, I know that…”
“Ummm… excuse me…” I hesitated. I was really afraid to talk to her. “Who are you talking to?” I asked carefully.
“Ahhh… I’m sorry,” she said with a smile. “I must’ve have scared you,” she said.
“Well…” I admitted.
“You might not see him, but I’m with a little boy,” she said seriously.
“Excuse me?” I asked confusedly.
“He’s my partner, a little ghost boy,” she said nonchalantly. “He’s actually beside you right now.”
“EHHH?!” I said and instantly looked to my side. I was really afraid. I was afraid by the thought of a ghost beside me, but I was also afraid of the thought that I just let an insane woman inside my office. “What are you talking about?” I asked nervously as I looked around my side. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“I’m not kidding…but in retrospect, I shouldn’t have said it so casually.” Amanda said. She then looked to her side. “I understand. How is it my fault, you’re the one he’s scared of.”
“Ummm, are you possibly…. talking to him?” I gulped and then smiled awkwardly.
Amanda sighed. “I’m really sorry. You just are so similar to this one guy I know that I started to think that nothing really fazes you, just like him.” She said. “Let me get straight to the point then; are you possibly… not from here?” She asked.
What the hell? This woman. Did she ask to talk to me and even scared me just to know where I’m form? She’s really insane, isn’t she? “If it’s my hometown you’re asking…” I said politely.
“I am not talking about that.” She suddenly said, sounding somewhat serious. “Where are you really from?”
“I’m sorry, but if it’s not my hometown you are asking for, then I have no idea what else to answer,” I replied honestly.
“I see,” she suddenly said, her eyes sparkling. “That must be it. You don’t remember at all, do you? Then let’s try to do it this way; haven’t you had any weird memories lately? You must have had some, I can sense it,” she said.
Weird memories… ahh… those visions… she must be talking about those… How did she find about them?
“I wouldn’t call them memories…” I sighed.
“Can you tell me about them? Maybe I could help you,” she said.
Telling someone about those visions might be just the thing that I needed. It felt so heavy, keeping it to myself, I wanted to tell it to Nico, but I was really afraid that I might scare him off. Amanda Holter was different though. She’s talking to what she claims to be the ghost of a little boy, if anyone would take me seriously, surely it’s someone like her. Someone just as potentially insane.
I told Amanda everything about my visions and she seemed to understand it. “As we thought, you are similar to him,” she said and then smiled. “What you kept seeing weren’t just any visions, I believe, they’re memories.”
“How can they be memories? Look, it’s not like I’m doubting your… skills, but I can remember my high school days really well. The man I kept seeing with the younger me, I just met him a few months ago, when we were in high school, we were practically strangers to each other,” I explained.
Amanda smiled at me. “I understand your confusion, and I don’t know exactly how I’m going to explain this to you without making you even more confused,” she said. “You think so?” She said as she looked at her side. “I guess you’re right.”
I just hope that she would stop talking to her ghost partner. It’s driving me insane. The whole idea of me taking a psychic seriously was already driving me insane.
“Are you familiar with the scientific theory of multiple universe and timeline?” She asked and all I could do was nod. “Well, it’s sort of like that. What you considered as visions are actually memories from a different life you had.”
My head hurts just by hearing her explanation. “Different life? You mean like reincarnation?” I asked confusedly.
It’s not like I believe what she was saying entirely, but at that point, what choice do I have? I kept on seeing weird visions of Nico and I, memories as Amanda Holter calls it, that in itself is crazy enough, and an equally crazy explanation sounded very logical to me at that point.
“Not exactly,” Amanda said. “You’re situation is a bit more complicated,” she said as she stared into my eyes. I guess she was reading my fortune through my eyes. I was starting to believe that the eyes were really the windows to one’s soul. “Do you have a pen and a paper?” She asked.
I handed her a piece of paper and a pencil and Amanda started drawing. “There,” she said and then showed me a drawing of a tree. It had many roots that converged to the trunk and as the trunk goes higher it divided into different branches.
“This tree is the life of a person,” she said and then pointed her pencil on the roots. “There are many possibilities and many choices, but there is a point in life, that no matter what the past choices were, it would lead us to a single event, a single fate,” she said and pointed at the trunk. “Once we get to that common point, to that unavoidable fate, our life would once again have different possibilities, different destinies that would be determined by our choices.”
“Reincarnation works this way; at the end of your life, your tree would have a single leaf left. That leaf would be the vessel of your soul. When you die, that leaf would fall on the ground, and then the tree dies. Beside that tree, a new tree born from that fallen leaf would grow, and then a new life would start,” she continued.
“Looking at your eyes, I could see that what happened to your soul was quite different. Your last leaf fell, but instead of growing back a new tree, it revived the dying tree it came from,” she explained.
“So what your saying is; my life was reset?” I asked.
“Exactly. Your life was reset. It’s not unusual for someone to remember his or her past life, but sometimes it would come to them as a dream. I never heard of anyone remembering their past life like you do. Like it was a plain memory. The only reason I could think of is because you’re at the trunk of your tree, at that common point of your life that you can’t escape, and since all the roots converged into the trunk, your memories are starting to intertwine,” she explained.
“Why? If what you’re saying is right, then why did my life reset?” I asked and then laughed sarcastically. “This is crazy… Why is this happening to me…?”
“That I can’t answer,” Amanda replied. “All I could say is this; for Fate to reset your life, surely they favor you. And if you’re asking for a reason, I’m sure the answer will be in the memories of your past life.” Those were the words Amanda left me with.
I don’t know if talking to her helped me or just made my mind more clouded. All I knew was that things were more complicated than I wished them to be. Maybe finding an answer would just make things worse for me, maybe I should just let things be.
There’s already too much things going on in my life. There’s the constant flock of paparazzi and reporters after me, who all appeared after my stunt at Nico’s press conference, there’s the production for this big project, and then there’s the Robinsons.
I really need to get those stories back, it would make things a lot lighter for me.
I heard a knock on the door of my office and I snapped out of my trance. “Brent!” I was pleasantly surprised to see Brent in my office. “What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Just… I was on the area, so I thought about visiting you. Why, can’t I do that?” He asked as he walked towards my desk.
“Then, does this mean…?” I asked with a smile.
“Right, I’m not mad anymore.” A smile erupted on my face the instant Brent said those words. I’m not used to him getting mad at me.
“Really? That’s a relief….” I said with a smile. “I’m really sorry, Brent, for you worrying and everything…” I said.
“Stop apologizing, or I’ll get mad again,” he said. “Here.” He then placed a box of doughnuts on my desk. “You like them, right.”
“Wow, thanks… I really needed something sweet…” I said and then opened the box.
“Why? Did something happen?” He asked worriedly.
“No…” I lied. There’s no way I could tell him about Amanda. “There’s just a lot of things going on because of the movie, and I’m running out of energy, that’s all.”
Brent looked at me and gave a small smile. At the back of my head, I knew that he could feel that I was hiding something. He just knows too well, but even though I felt guilty about lying to him, there’s no way that I could tell Brent the whole truth. Not when I’m still very unsure of it.
Sure we used to play detectives when we were younger, but the situation I was in was very different. I needed to figure things out for myself first, before I let anyone else know about it.
“Are you still being bothered by reporters?” Brent asked me. I looked at him and saw how worried he was.
“Not so much anymore,” I said with a small anymore. “Don’t worry, they won’t be able to get inside our building anymore.”
“That’s good to hear…” Brent said. “Kyle, I’m just here for you, alright? Always,” Brent said as he looked at me seriously. “If that guy makes you cry, if he hurts you in any way, just tell me, alright, and I will make sure he regrets it. I don’t like that guy, not at all, but if he’s really important to you, then I’ll try my best to at least be civilized with him.” Brent said.
“Thanks, Brent,” I said. “You don’t have to force yourself for me. I’m really glad to have you, Brent. And very lucky as well…” I added.
“Am I interrupting something?” Suddenly, Nico’s voice echoed in the room. He was standing by the door with a sharp expression on his eyes.
I closed my eyes and sighed tiredly.
“You’re just in time,” Brent said. “I was just telling Kyle that I would make you regret it if you make him cry,” he said threateningly.
“It looks like you two made up, that’s good then,” Nico said and then walked inside. “That doesn’t mean that you can get too concerned or touchy with him.” He added. “Don’t worry, I would take really good care of Drew” Nico said.
What’s with these two? Amanda Holter just confused my head, I don’t need another headache.
“Wow!” My office door opened again. “This ought to be interesting,” Perry said with a grin.
“You’ve got to be kidding me…” I sighed.
“So, are you two fighting over Kyle?” He asked.
“That’s not helping at all,” I told Perry.
“I’m not trying to help you, silly. I’m trying to have some fun…” He replied. “Unfortunately, you won’t be seeing their possible fight, Mr. Anderson is looking for you,” he said.
I was actually relieved. I didn’t think I could handle being with those two clashing titans at that very moment. I went to Mr. Anderson’s office, not knowing what was instore for me. Of all the possibilities in the world, I’d never expected, nor even dared to think, what was about to happen.
I was practically frozen on my feet when I saw who was inside Mr. Anderson’s office.
“Kyle, come in,” Mr. Anderson said. Sitting on the sofa adjacent to his were Natalia Robinsons and Victor Cox.
“What do you want to talk to me about?” I asked as I slowly approached the odd group.
“Mr. Cox and Ms. Robinson actually came here to give us an offer, and I want your opinion on it,l” Mr. Anderson said. “They’re offering the rights to turn one of Mr. Cox’s best-selling book into a movie.”
“What book?” I asked suspiciously.
“The Red Ocean under the Blue Sun,” Natalia replied with a proud smile.
I can’t say that I wasn’t surprised, because I was, but more that, I was starting to get really angry. What a joke. They must be kidding me. That story was plagiarized from that journal they stole from me. If they think I would let them tarnish those stories any further, then they’re gravely mistaken.
“Really? There’s a lot of production companies out there, why us?” My question was directed at Natalia.
She grinned at me. “I was just curious. I’ve been hearing a lot of things about this company” she said. What a lie, she was definitely after something.
“Actually, I requested for this company,” Victor Cox said. “I really wanted to work with you.” He told me.
“I see…” He must be after me. I was pretty sure he just wants to get back at me for the things I said to him. “I guess I should be taking that as a compliment,” I said sarcastically.
“Mr. Anderson, with all due respect, I would like to focus on the movie we’re making right now. Why don’t we wait until we’re at least halfway through it, then we could start considering about their offer. Besides, a lot can still happen,” I said with a smile.
“I’m sure we could work things out,” Mr. Anderson said. “If you really want Kyle to be involved in this project, then you would have to wait until the project he is working on is finished. It’s quite a big project and I want him to focus on it,” he added.
“That’s fine. We’re not in a hurry. This story is very important to me, and I want it be translated in the big screen as accurately and artistically as possible. I want it to be a quality film,” Victor Cox replied.
Acting like that story really belongs to him, he infuriates me. “Like I said, Mr. Anderson, the movie project that we’re handling right now is really big, we need to put all of our resources into, for it be truly successful,” I told Mr. Anderson. “That’s why I think we shouldn’t make any decisions for now.”
“I guess you’re right. It seems our hands are tied until this movie project is finished. If you could wait until then…” Mr. Anderson said.
“We can afford that,” Natalia said. “As we said, we’re not in a hurry.” For her to be that willing to wait, surely she’s after something.
I excused myself and walked out of Mr. Anderson’s office.
I took out my phone and called Liam Brooks. “Hello, Liam, we need to move. Natalia and Victor are trying to make a movie out of the stories in the journal. It’s not enough that they stole it, now they’re going to butcher it.”
“Don’t worry. Everything is ready on my side,” Liam said over the phone. “Be prepared, Kyle, we’re going on the offensive. We’re getting your stories back.”
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