'Is Andrea part of this deal?' Andrew asked himself. 'That's the only explanation for her being a guest here… Geez! Not when I planned to forgive her.' Ratty turned toward Andrew and said, "Now that you heard that she is here as a guest, what is your decision?" He realized it was foolhardy to turn back now. Not after coming this far. "Tell them to bring her out." Ratty shrugged and asked, "What if she refused to follow them? Should I tell them to drag her or knock her out if she proves difficult? " "Maybe I should come with you. She will willingly follow you when she sees me." "No. I suggest you stay closer to that fence and wait for us. " Even though he wasn't satisfied with the instruction. Andrew had no choice but to stop on his track and said, "Do all you can to bring the two of them out of here. " "Things may get bloody inside that house. I don't want you to be caught in between the crossfire," the tall and barrel chest said. He turned at the men at his back and ann

Hundreds of patients were cramped in the tiny room. The lucky ones gawked at him from their lice-infested bed, while the less fortunate moaned from the blankets on the floor. "This is West Wing A, " Benita explained. "It's the ward for those with terminal disease… Those on the floor were those who can no longer afford to pay for the hospital bed." "Why are there so many people inside this small ward? This place is overcrowded." "That is why it's called a public ward," Benita answered back. "And that's my sister over there. " Like the majority of the patients inside West Wing A, Benita's sister lay on a blue blanket with her eyes closed. And she immediately opened her eyes when she heard her sister's voice. "Hello, Amelia. Meet Andrew. He is also a patient here." The lady lying down was a shadow of herself. Thin with jaunty skin and shallow eyes. She looked up, offered a thin smile and let out, "Hello Andrew. Nice to meet you. " Just like her sister, Amelia is tall and she po

The root of all evil Andrew recuperated in a few days, and he was soon seen in his usual happy mood. Because of the recent incident, Elizabethan attached three personal bodyguards to him and warned him never to go out without them. "I don't want to see your legs in Arkansas City anymore. High time you settle down here and take over your responsibility, " the old man yelled at Andrew as he barged into his room one sunny afternoon. "I'm not a kid, Daddy. You can't be dictating where to go for a grownup man like me." "Then act like a grownup and stop risking your life over unnecessary things. The fate of a whole nation lies on your shoulders. Why will you get killed because of a woman? " "My son was also kidnapped with her. You didn't expect me to ignore my only son, did you? " "No, I don't. But I expect you to leave it to capable hands and not plunge headlong into a deadly trap. I heard Andrea was an accomplice to the kidnapping." "Lies, Dad. And that is why I want

Nothing existed for a very long time, neither pain nor memory. Everything was silent and peaceful until the nightmare began. It was a big bird, so big Andrew knew deep inside that it could never be real. And when the bird landed on his chest and went for his eyes, Andrew pulled himself out of lifelessness, jerked his eyes open, and breathed out loud. And the poor bird leapt out of fright. Where he woke up wasn't on top of a soft foam as he had imagined. The large bird was just a small crow who saw Andrew as its dinner and decided to start the sumptuous feast by having his eyes. 'Where am I?' The rain has stopped, yet the sun refuses to resume its daily task, and the breeze bites the skins of whoever it sees on its way. It took him some minutes to come back to his senses, and he immediately leapt up from his laying position, felt faint, held his stomach with his palms and then vomited. 'Holy Madonna! Where is my phone?' Hundreds of bodies were tossed slapdash everywhere.

Just like the presence of honey that attracts the multitude of ants, the royal forest soon filled with legs of the press, newscasters and some daredevil citizens. Since it was transmitted live, almost all the inhabitants of Orange County watched it from their various homes. As expected, this generated a lot of reactions from all and sundry. And for the second time in a few months, the royal family name was dipped into the mud. "I heard they have a human abator inside the royal forest, and that they used to kill people and then sell their part of the body for organ traffickers," an old woman muttered with a toothless grin. "The hearsay may be true, " her equally old and toothless friend answered back. "Where will they see the money to build all those big castles and racy cars if not that they are into drug and human organ harvesting and trafficking? " "Let's see if the authorities will sweep this under the carpet as they normally do." "Then people will revolt and turn this