Elise began to cry, as she recalled the fear of the previous night, and Vera and Charles shared a knowing look, before she went to comfort Elise."Thank you so much, Elise. This was really helpful." Charles said, appreciating her, and she nodded."I just... When Samantha took apples from the fridge, I realized I also craved them, so I went to take an apple, only to be reminded of the scent immediately I bit into it." Elise explained, sniffing, and Vera hugged her once more. "Thank you so much, but can you not tell anyone about this? We don't want the culprit knowing we're close to figuring him out." Vera said, and Elise nodded. The both of them went out, and Charles smirked, thinking back on Layla and Kent again.When he had first met Kent—without exaggerations— he had smelled strongly of apples that he had wondered if he owned an apple farm.It turned out that Kent, who Vera had been suspecting could actually be the culprit. Vera came back minutes later and sat next to Charles."I

"Good morning, everyone." Charles greeted, standing at the breakfast table. "What about the cops?""Who's the culprit?""Where's Vera?""What's the evidence you have? It's daytime, the culprit can't strike." Everyone seemed to have questions for Charles, and didn't stop until he hit the table hard."Vera's missing." He said, and they all gasped."Ve…Vera's missing?" Layla cried out, and ran her hands through her red hair, which Charles stared at."Yes, she is.""Then what are you doing about it!? Where's the evidence? Who's the culprit?" She asked, looking like she was about to go crazy. "Why did you drag her into this mess? You only made her a target for the culprit!" She shouted, and half the people present stared at Charles like he ought to be hanged."The cops are on their way." He said."Layla loves Vera. It must be so hard." Samantha said, looking at Layla, with pitiful eyes."What are you going to do about it? I doubt you even know the real culprit." Layla snapped, looking ir

"I'm… I'm sorry. For not coming immediately. I knew she had a gun, and didn't know where you were. I didn't want a case like her finding out and killing you." Charles said, and Vera manged a little smile."It was just a moment's fear. You don't need to apologize. I'm not dead." She said. "You know, I was happy there were two others, who were more scared than I was. I was able to control my fear, and tell them you would come for us. What mattered is that you did. "Honestly, I've never been more grateful to hear someone sing. Kent surprisingly had a nice voice. He was also talking to himself." She said, trying to stop her eyes from watering, but they did, so she looked down."I've never been more grateful to him." Charles said."It was like hope. I immediately worked out where we were, with information from the girls, and I'd never been more happy to talk to you. All through the night and morning, I didn't want to say a thing because I didn't want you to think our plan had flopped. I d

Vera was shocked and looked like she had just seen a ghost.How could she be as heartless as that? How could she just kill someone she liked, and feel no remorse about it? She knew she was mentally troubled, but still it felt like she had taken it a step too far. At that point, she began to feel scared, knowing Layla wouldn’t hesitate to get rid of her. Even if she wasn’t a murderer, and Kent was the first man she had ever killed, it wouldn’t be a problem to kill a second time. Killing a person at first, seemed daunting, but once it was done, doing it the next time was always easier than the first. She could imagine Kent laying somewhere dead, his mysterious brown eyes staring up at the stars, unblinking, not closing, just staring. What could have been his last thoughts? Had he regretted following Layla, or had not regretted anything at all?The thought of it was so unnerving that she didn’t want to give it another thought. Layla was a scary and her mental problems were not at fault.

Charles stared at Vera, worried about her as she looked a bit pale. It wasn't easy to get past such a trauma.Imagine one's head being dunked inside water by a psychiatric patient. That experience is one which one wouldn't love to experience, but then, there was no choice than to console her.Hopefully, she would be able to get over it soon before the competition commence.“Are you okay?” Charles asked her out of concern.Then Vera looked at him weakly, and breathed out shakily.“I guess I am. I'm much better than when we were still there. At least, this place is quite sane.” Vera replied, and glanced at the window.“I understand.”“This trip just got messed up all because of that woman. We weren't able to do what we came here for, but regardless, I'm certain we're still going to win and have what we want.” Vera said, nodding her head to assure us both.“Yeah, I believe. Just lay your head back and rest until we get back to the city.”When they got back to the city, they drove off hom