Chapter 1

My phone blows up as I adjust to the light streaming in from the window. I didn't expect anyone to call me this early in the morning, but whoever was calling me must have something important to say. Without thinking anymore, I try to lift my lids and fish for my phone in my pockets.

My hands reach for it, and I pull it up in front of my face, and the name on the screen is my Uncle Jean. I let my eyes adjust to the morning light as I yawn and stretch into the lying position with the phone in my hands. I accept the call as soon as I see his name blinking on the screen for a minute too long.

"How are you feeling today, Neville?" he asks. "Are things okay with you?"

I twist and turn abruptly, and the pain shoots from all sides, and the pain is so sharp that I close my eyes shut. I couldn't realise that I was in this much pain. Then, I softly open my eyes again and try to remember how I got here last night, and then it all comes back to me at the mercurial speed of time.

The news, the party, the neon lights, the loud music, Cami, Nika, Marko and the fight we got ourselves in. His beefy hand collided against my shoulder and leaving it motionless. Me not fighting back, but just taking the hits. Then, I fell to the ground and passed out from all the pain.

It unnerves me.

"I'm not good, Jean." I breathe on the phone. "Any news about my dad's mysterious killer?" I look around the room and realise I'm not in the student's home I was staying in earlier. This is certainly a different place. "I don't remember much of what happened last night except the terrible news that I got while I was out and indulging in a rave of sorts. I have no idea how I got here."

"That's fine, son, but I think—" He blows out a laboured breath. "I think you have to come back. There's no reason for you to be there since your studies are done with, and you were supposed to come home in two weeks, anyway." There's silence over the static. "I need you with us and I think you would be better protected where I can help you manage things."

"I agree with you, Uncle." As my head is still throbbing from last night's indulgence, I run a hand over my hair to soothe myself. "I need to be with you and our family staff." I wipe some tears that fall incessantly. "You know I can't believe he's gone? He's just gone. What I am supposed to do without him now?"

Jean's voice is soft and comforting when he speaks.

"You know how much your dad believed in you, right?" He coos. "Michael wouldn't want you to break down the way you are breaking down right now because he had always believed in how strong you are. He was so proud of you, Neville." Jean's voice takes on a sombre tone. "Whenever we were alone, he would tell me, Neville, this, and Neville that. He would show off your pictures to your auntie Maxine and would talk her ears off because he wanted to always see you thrive at whatever you chose to do with your life. That's why he let you complete your last semester abroad, even though not seeing you every day broke your old man's heart more than he let on. He would not want you to give up on yourself and throw in the towel just because he's gone, Neville." More silence. "Can you hear me, son?"

I nod my head, sobbing, breaking down to pieces. When I realise he can't possibly see me, I try to form coherent words again.

"I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to him properly when he was alive. I wish I could see him, and hug him, and hear his loud laughter one more time."

"You and me both, son, but the truth is all you get is a funeral." He cries softly. "You'll have time to say goodbye and pay your respects when you get home."

"I am coming home." I wipe some of the tears with the back of my hand. "I need you guys more than you need me. Right now, I want to be home. I can't sit still here and party my life away while my dad's killer is free and on the loose to do whatever they want. I need to be among loved ones, and I want to pay my respects." I cry some more. "I have to attend the funeral, even though I don't want to."

"I'll book your seat on the next flight available. Get ready, son, to leave in an hour or so, and pack whatever you need." His voice breaks. "I might advise you to take some painkillers to help with the pain. Anyhow, I have to get going and make some arrangements for you to be home."

"Take care, Jean."

With that, I drop the call.

How could he possibly know that I was in physical pain?

I never mentioned that, to begin with.

How does he know?

My brain answers the question for me.

He might mean those words for the hangover. The one that was caused by you partying too hard, Neville.

This crisis is not the time to start suspecting family.

My fingers unlock the screen to check in the online messenger chats to help me recollect the rest of the night that I can't remember. It would help me connect the dots if someone used one of my credit cards to check me in here or if they didn't. Since this is not a student's home, it would make sense that they would use a card. This room is akin to a posh hotel's room. I see a message on my phone that shows a transaction has been processed for around a thousand something euros.

Maybe I paid for it myself?

I reach for my wallet in my pants pocket and see that everything is still there, my passport, my identification cards, and credit cards and nothing is touched. I just don't seem to recall how I ended up here.

As I'm thinking that, a series of messages pop up on my phone's screen. The incoming messages are sent by Nika, whose boyfriend punched me into unconsciousness the night before. She was with Cami at the rave party.

Where is Cami???

And Marko???

Where did you take them when you came back to talk to us? You took them somewhere, right? Was it because you all fought?

You came to see us in the tavern when I left for a moment to pee. Another girl standing right next to them using saw you. When I got back, neither Cami nor Marko were there.

Are they with you?

More messages come in and blink in the notification centre of my phone.

Marko's number is switched off.

I can't reach Cami, either.

Where did you take them?

The messages confuse the heck out of me. I have no recollection of having gone back. I presume I passed out, and somebody called an ambulance or an emergency service or something or whatever they call when someone gets too smashed to stand upright. I believe those were the people who got me out of there and checked me in this place.

If they didn't do it, then how did I come here?

And if I believe Nika's words and did go back to see both Cami and Marko, then why is she texting me? Where are they right now? What happened to them?

Should I even care about them when they left me out there alone to lie on the ground like that when they were done with me?

The memory of them walking away as I lost any semblance of consciousness flashes in my mind.

I shouldn't care, given what they have done to me.

Another message pops in.

What did you do to them?

So I do the only logical thing I can do in this situation. I block her number from my phone before I try to use the washroom.