Chapter 67: Pursuing the Case

JADE:

“I saw Marian in the classroom, and then I just saw her in my dreams…”

Liam brushed more of the hair away from my face. “It was only a dream, Jade.”

“No, it wasn’t a dream back in class.” I was wide awake when it happened. I saw what I saw!

“Jade… You’ve been under a lot of stress lately. Maybe you should take it easy.”

I frowned. True, I have not been sleeping well these days. We were all swamped with class works and assignment as the semester was about to end. But, was it really just stress?

Maybe Marian was telling me something important…

“Take it easy, Jade, hmm?”

I nodded. I just have to hang on for a few more weeks. After all this semester’s school works, I’ll take a really long vacation and treat myself well by doing absolutely nothing at least for a few days. Maybe I could ask Liam to come home, so he could meet my parents too…

That’s what I thought that morning, but after the next few nights, I began to doubt if what Liam suggested was true…

For the succeeding days after seeing Marian’s apparition, the nightmare kept on repeating itself at night time as soon as I sleep.

Sometimes, instead of having her heart taken out, I saw Marian being drained out of blood from all the possible major veins in her body, but always, the scenes would end up with her warning.

By the end of the third night, I was so fed up, I stayed awake in bed…

I started dreaming of Marian before almost every day starting on that time I saw her die. It would surprisingly stop whenever I slept with Kix’s wolf form. Now that he wasn’t here, I felt scared and alone

Why was I seeing her again in my sleep? Why was she there, and what did that nightmare mean?

I told Liam about it over lunch when he commented on the growing dark circles under my eyes.

“Jade… Do you want to consider talking to a psychologist,” he asked.

I held myself from talking back. Dianna’s words from before suddenly came back to me. Did I really sound insane just now?

“Liam, why are you suggesting that?”

“I know that you have a lot on your plate recently… So many things have happened, and you also saw Marian die. There could be a lot of reasons why you’d be stressed out, and those stressful things could manifest in your dreams, Jade…”

I bit my lips. As someone who was studying in a medical-related field, I knew he had a point. However, my heart was saying otherwise…

“What if it’s not that, Liam? What if Marian is really telling me something here?”

“Jade, she’s dead. Dead people don’t come back to life and haunt other people’s dreams. Besides, why should it be you? Shouldn’t she haunt those people who killed her instead? Why was she showing up in your dreams?”

“Well, maybe because I was the last one who saw her body… Maybe it’s because she knew I cared for her, and I wanted her to get the justice she deserved.”

“What are you suggesting, Jade?”

I drew in a long breath. “I… I want to pursue Marian’s killer…”

“Again? Haven’t we been through this before?”

“Look, there’s a reason why I keep seeing her. That time in the classroom – I really saw her, Liam. It wasn’t a dream. I’m sure she was there. Maybe she’s warning me about something. Maybe there was a connection between her and me that I haven’t discovered yet.”

“And that connection has got something to do with her case? For God’s sake, Jade, Marian died a brutal death! Do you want to have the same fate as hers?”

Just then, something ticked inside of me.

“Don’t end up like me…”

“Don’t get caught…”

Weren’t all those things that Marian said in my dream some sort of warning?...

“Liam, I really have to know the truth. I can’t simply pray for all of this to end without doing something,” I said.

I didn’t want Liam to think that Marian has exactly warned me not to end up like her… He’d just be more worried…

“No, Jade. This is insane! Why are you putting your life in the line like that? Who knows what kinds of people were behind her death?”

I’m more than frustrated about Liam. Why was he so against it? Does he not see how solving Marian’s case would lead me back to my peace of mind?

“Fine! If you don’t want to help me, then don’t. I’ll get help somewhere else.” I still had the number of that police officer who interviewed me about the scene of the crime. Perhaps it’ll be much better for me to contact him.

Liam’s eyes were ablaze. “And whom are you going to ask for help? Kix?”

“What,” I said in exasperation. “Hah, so this is what it’s all about? You thought I was going to ask help from Kix?”

I knew that wasn’t what Liam probably meant, but at that point, I was getting irritated with his lecture.

“Wasn’t that what you were thinking of doing? You even got your alleged poisoner’s number when you were with him!”

“Which you had deleted, so I don’t have it anymore... Look, Liam, the point here is you don’t need to help me if you don’t want to. You don’t need to drag other people’s names into this too,” I hissed.

So it all boiled down to that? He’s thinking I’ll ask for Kix’s help for this?

I walked out of him from the canteen and went back to the classroom alone.

Liam didn’t get it. If she and Marian had been in each other’s shoes, wouldn’t she have wanted for justice to be served too?

I frowned, my eyes darting downwards to the red shoes that I was wearing at that time…

It all started with these red shoes, didn’t it?... The day that it had been anonymously delivered to my doorsteps – wasn’t it the same day that I started getting all these weird vibes?...

I shuddered. What if these red shoes really belonged to someone else before me? Someone tied up to all these mysteries...