Clara considered the risks that came with getting closer to Beckah. She had used different rental cars over the course of the past two months, but she had been parked near Beckah’s house in the morning, followed her to work and stayed in the company parking lot all day. She knew that Beckah wanted to escape the broadcasts desperately and would not be thinking logically. The risk of Beckah recognising that the same car had been in the same places as her was low. “Let’s risk it,” Clara said. “We’ll just have to come up with a cover story if she notices us. At least she’s never seen you before.” She waited for Beckah to drive off and kept a distance between them so Beckah would not see the car in any of her mirrors. She was able to see that Beckah’s driving was erratic and she took time to move when the traffic lights changed. Clara parked down the road from Beckah’s house and pulled out a pair of binoculars she had been keeping in her car. She tried them out and saw that she had a
Caiden looked like he was unwilling to answer her question. Clara understood his reluctance. He had explained how easily the future changed on previous occasions. “I won’t make you answer that question,” she said. “I’ll proceed as I planned.” Caiden was likely worried that she would do something different if she knew that Beckah’s breaking point would come in the next 24 hours. “I’m sorry I can’t tell you. This event is so important, I don’t want to tell you the details in case it changes things,” he said. “In the future I saw, you get what you want. I don’t want that to change.” “I understand,” Clara said calmly. “I won’t press you for any hints today. I’ll take everything as it comes.” *** Clara sat in her car in the parking lot for the second day in a row. She had let Beckah walk into the office unscathed by any messages. She was planning to let her do 30 minutes of work before sending the first message and photo of the day. She had a lot lined up for today. If Beckah turne
“I’ll meet you there,” Beckah said after reading the message. Clara turned on the ignition of her car and looked up the route to Trinity Academy. The school wasn’t in this state, the journey would take over an hour. “Is there any chance you could teleport me there?” she asked Caiden hopefully as she drove away from Beckah’s house. Caiden shook his head. “I can only teleport myself,” he said. “You’ve got a head start on her. You’ll get there first.” “She’s probably a better driver than me,” Clara said with a sigh. “We're tracking her so we can see where she is at all times,” Caiden reminded her. He picked up the laptop she had hurriedly shoved on the backseat and put it on his lap. Clara took a peek at the tracker and saw that Beckah had not left her house yet. That reassured her that she would get to Trinity Academy first. “I’ll help you break in as well,” Caiden said. “I’ll disable the security system so no one comes to disturb you two.” Clara had not considered that probl
“She’s going to come up here,” Clara said to Caiden. She was calmer than she was expecting. Perhaps it was the presence of Caiden next to her that was helping her. She wasn’t alone anymore. Clara stepped away from the edge and kept her umbrella up. It was still raining hard and she wanted to be able to see properly. She faced the entrance to the roof so she could see Beckah arrive. It was not a good idea to have her back turned to a murderer. Beckah came into view five minutes later and Clara lifted her umbrella so they had a clear view of each other. “Hello, Clarissa,” Beckah called out. “Or is it really Clara?” The bully approached her and Clara was able to see her up close for the first time in a while. Beckah was soaked through as she had elected to not wear a coat or use an umbrella. Clara could see in the moonlight that Beckah was ghostly pale and her eyes were red rimmed from lack of sleep. She looked defeated. Clara was pleased to see the person who had killed her l
Clara gasped and moved to save Beckah. She reached out and felt Beckah’s hand slip past hers. All she could do now was look over the edge in horror. Beckah fell quickly through the air and Clara closed her eyes. There was no way that Beckah was going to survive the fall onto hard ground. She heard a thud that was muffled by the sound of the rain and opened her eyes again. Beckah was lying on the ground below. She couldn’t see much in the dark night, but she could tell that the bully wasn’t moving at all. Caiden pulled her back from the edge and put his arms around her. “...Is she dead?” Clara asked fearfully. “I’ll teleport down there and check,” Caiden said in a quiet voice. He disappeared which left her alone on the roof. Clara took a deep breath. Everything had happened so quickly. She had been ready to let Beckah atone for her past actions and then she had been pushed to the edge of the roof. It was like the incident at the train station, only this time it hadn’t bee
Clara had always intended to get even with Heather and Joey after succeeding with Beckah. They weren't as evil as Beckah and she considered them easier to take revenge against.She already had a vague plan for them. They didn’t need an elaborate plan that would take weeks to come to fruition. Clara already held enough damning information about them. “That’s right,” Caiden said with a frown. “There’s not much time left.” Clara stilled. Caiden was right. There wasn’t much time left now that she had defeated Beckah. Soon she would be saying goodbye to everyone she cared for and giving up her soul. “Let’s appreciate the time we have left together,” Clara said. She tried to stop her voice from shaking. Caiden kissed her on the forehead and Clara knew he could hear the panic in her voice. “We’ll make use of the remaining time,” Caiden said. “I can tell you about what I can see in the future so you don’t have to spend too much time planning. There’s more time for dates that way.” Clara
That line caught their attention. Heather and Joey looked at her closely and Clara could tell they were evaluating her carefully. She knew that they probably wouldn’t believe her just yet. “Clarissa, if you’re willing to tell us that, you need to tell the police too,” Heather said. “I would be more worried that you two will end up the same way as Beckah,” Clara replied with a tight smile. “You two were also bullies at Trinity Academy. I’ve got things to iron out with you two as well.” Heather narrowed her eyes slowly. Joey looked highly suspicious of her. “I think you’ve got something wrong with your mind, but we’ll talk to you in private,” Heather said. “Where do you want to go?” “I’ll drive you two to the hotel you booked,” Clara said. “You can cancel any transportation you hired.” The two bullies followed her out of the airport without saying anything else. Clara could tell that she had them spooked with her words and confident attitude. She helped them put their suitcases in
Clara surveyed the scene with an analytical gaze. She could tell that their words and actions were sincere. Her only issue was that it felt like their apologies had come from fear rather than genuine remorse. “I’m not going to kill you two,” Clara said. “Just apologise without sounding so scared and I might accept it.” Heather wiped her eyes and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry for my past actions. I caused your death and indirectly caused more by not doing anything.” She sounded calmer now and Clara felt more at peace now that she heard a proper apology from her. Clara turned her attention to Joey. The model looked up at her and sniffed. “...I am sorry for everything I’ve ever done. For the first time in my life, I realise that I am not a nice person and I need to change.” Clara made up her mind. She stood up and walked over to them. “I want you two to give up your careers. Heather, you weren’t even doing much of the work anyway. Joey, your agency hates you and money can
“I’m getting married!” Clara announced happily. She smiled over her coffee and Arthur watched her with a bemused look on his face. "When is the wedding?" he asked. “Next month,” Clara told him. “I was planning to invite you. We’ve only just decided on the date so there’s no invitations to give out yet.” “Do you not have wedding planner then?” the hacker questioned. “Invitations are normally sent out much sooner.” “I don’t want a big wedding,” Clara replied. “James was fine with it and just asked that I invite him.” She was a little surprised that her grandfather had agreed with her desire to have a very small wedding. They both enjoyed high positions in society and people like them normally had grand weddings with a long guest list and a high budget. “I shall consider an invite as a great honour then,” Arthur quipped. “How many guests are invited?” “I’m inviting 12 people,” Clara said. “Caiden has invited a couple of friends. He doesn’t have any relations to invite.” “Of cour
Their first month of dating passed by quickly. They soon fell into a routine of meeting after work and going on dates. Clara was blissfully happy, but she knew they needed to discuss their future together. Caiden was only living temporarily in the UK after all. She chose to ask after they had finished eating Caiden’s latest attempt at a home cooked romantic meal. His cooking skills were unique to say the least. “Are you going to stay here in London when your job here is finished?” she asked. “Where would you like to live?” he questioned. “Here or in a different country? We have lots of options.” Clara thought about the matter seriously. She had grown up in the US and had been unexpectedly pulled into a different country. She did prefer living in the UK, but there were other countries to try as well. “We can move around,” Clara said. “I think we should make this our main country and travel to other places. That is if you want to. This is a decision we should make as a couple.” Ca
Clara kept a careful watch on the office building opposite so she wouldn’t miss seeing Caiden leave when his work day had finished. She had already missed seeing him before, she wasn’t going to do it again. Fortunately, he was one of the first people out of the building and Clara immediately began to pack up everything she had brought with her. Caiden entered the coffeeshop and beamed when he saw her waiting by the door. “Excellent. You’re ready to leave on our date,” he said and held his hand out to her. “Can we take a diversion first?” she requested. It was only fair to let Arthur know that she had found Caiden, but she had decided a text wouldn’t suffice and it was better to let them meet in person. “Will it take long?” “I want to introduce you to someone,” she explained. “Arthur has been helping me look for you and I think he would like to see the success of our search.” Caiden looked thoughtful and then he nodded. “I would like to meet him. He has provided assista
When Clara finally looked up from her phone and glanced back at the door, the person she had been waiting for had already left. She had missed a lot in the two minutes her attention had been diverted.A member of staff approached her table with a cup of coffee in her hand. Clara looked around in confusion. “I didn’t order anything,” she said. Clara was aware that she was the strangest customer in the coffeeshop and the staff were probably wondering when she was going to leave. She had been the first customer of the day and had only ordered two drinks in the past three hours. “One of our regulars came in a couple of minutes ago to pick up his online order. He saw you looking tired and bought an expresso for you,” the staff member explained with a smile. “He’s a nice person.” Clara blinked in surprise. She had never noticed any of the customers paying attention to her. The incident must have occurred when she had been occupied with her phone. She checked the name tag on the girl’s
The weeks quickly turned into months and soon an entire year had passed. Clara had taken a position at St. Clair that had enabled her to travel around the world just so she would have better chance of finding Caiden. She returned to the family mansion on the anniversary of her return from the demon realm after an unsuccessful trip to New York. Her actual work had gone well, she just hadn’t found any signs of Caiden in the city. There hadn’t been any traces of Caiden in any of the 10 countries she had travelled to over the past year. He didn’t have any presence on the internet either and Clara didn’t have any idea of how she could improve her search methods. Clara collapsed onto her bed and closed her eyes. She was physically and emotionally exhausted from her search. Despite everything, she wasn’t going to give up. She would sleep for a while and then she would look at other highly populated places to visit. “Clara Kennedy.” Clara’s eyes opened immediately at the sound of
Clara landed on the floor of her bedroom alone and fully aware of the gravity of the situation. She didn’t have Caiden at her side anymore. She needed to find him for that to happen. Clara stood up and realised that her legs were shaking. She had been feeling intimidated by the demon king and had refused to let him know. Now her nerves and lack of sleep had got to her. She took a deep breath to calm down. She had vowed that she would be able to find Caiden and she needed to start working on that.One person came to mind immediately. Arthur would be able to help her. She took her phone out of her pocket and called him. “...Hello?” Arthur asked cautiously when he picked up the call. Clara realised he had assumed that the phone call was someone else using her phone to inform him of her death. “It’s me, Clara,” she told him immediately. “Things have changed. Can we meet up? I have a lot to tell you.” “Of course,” he said. “I think we'll need to go somewhere that allows for private c
Caiden was lost for words as he watched the events that he had foreseen so many times play out in front of him. It was no longer a vision of the future; it was happening in reality. It was finally the end of Clara’s life. Her soul floated in front of him as her eyes slowly closed. Caiden made his decision in that moment. He grabbed hold of Clara’s soul with his hands and pushed it back into her. Despite being very light, her soul wouldn’t move until he exerted all of his power. Clara’s eyes snapped open when her soul returned to her. “...What’s going on?” she asked breathlessly. “I can’t take your soul,” Caiden admitted. “I want you to keep it.” He had no real idea what was going to happen now. The contract had not been fulfilled properly. He had completed his part of the contract and he had stopped Clara from fulfilling her part. There was no precedent to follow here. He was the first demon to refuse a soul. “What’s going to happen to both of us?” Clara questioned weakl
Clara knew that her grandfather was confused to hear her sentimental words. They rarely talked about their personal feelings. “I haven’t been the best grandfather,” James replied with a deep frown. “I brought Beryl here to be your mother figure as I had felt that it would prevent you from becoming like my daughter. It turned out to be the worst decision I have ever made.” Clara could not deny that James’ decision to date Beryl and bring her into the family had been lethal for Clarissa. She decided to focus on something else. “Thank you for rescuing me when I was a baby,” she said. “I’m sure Clara would also thank you for looking for her.” “You don’t need to thank me for that,” James replied. “I would also like to thank you for taking me in instead of leaving me to the care system,” Clara continued. She didn’t know much about the British care system, but it was likely similar to the American one she had lived through. She had been lucky to be adopted by a decent set of foster pa
“It was a good ride,” Arthur said with a wink. “You kept me guessing for so many years. I’m so pleased to finally know what was going on the entire time.” Clara relaxed. The hardest part was over now. “Is everything over now?” he asked a moment later. “You’ve brought all of your targets down apart from Xavier King.” “It is,” she confirmed. Arthur nodded and then he looked deep in thought. He coughed awkwardly before speaking again. “Where did Clarissa go if you are in her body?” he questioned. Clara had been expecting this question. Arthur was the only person who had a connection to Clarissa and knew that she was using her body. It would have been odd if he didn’t ask where Clarissa had gone. “...She died when she committed suicide four years ago,” she explained. “Her body was alive for a short time and I was put into it. I’m sorry to tell that she died all that time ago.” Arthur frowned and looked away. “I see... That’s sad,” he said. “It’s odd to hear that Clariss