章節 4: The Manipulation Symphony #1

Diana knew she should feel a little guilty for using someone's love for her gain, but she was desperate. A little part of her told her that he would forgive her.

She had decided to detach her feelings from this. If she died again then all that would be left were regrets and pain. Therefore, she decided to shut her inner voice and plan things out perfectly.

One thing about Diana was; she wasn't a genius. She had gotten good marks before in school but that was only book smart, and when it came to real life struggles and tricks, she was that confident in herself.

The only reason she was able to act calmly through this, was that she had gone through literal hell and she was scared of going through it again. She just couldn't allow this chance to get away from her.

After all, wasn't this twenty-four hours a blessing?

It didn't take long for Elliot to arrive, at least when you compare that to what it typically would take to go from the city to the more secluded area where her family resident lay. She was watching the CCTV that her family had implemented around the resident, so she can quickly meet him before anyone noticed, not forgetting to tell the guards to not be alerted.

She just didn't want extra trouble.

Her family was traditional, and that they wouldn't like for Diana and Elliot to meet at night while everyone was asleep - even if they were meant to marry each other not long from now. Also because the party was later that day, they would prefer if they held out till they saw each other at the party - as if that would jinx their engagement.

Oh, her family didn't realize it had gone totally wrong long time ago.

She saw his car pull over near the entrance, and she ran downstairs (quietly as she could) and opened the door before Elliot could ring the bell. Her messy sudden appearance startled Elliot. Not to mention that she jumped scared him; Diana was very organized and loved to stay clean, so to see her in this disheveled appearance was a first.

As she caught him in surprise, Diana was able to compose herself and let the play start.

"Elliot," She let a small whisper. Her eyes looking at him in total relief and vulnerability. They shone with untamed tears and the way she kept looking at him — as if he was the savior sent by God — all could make one want to protect and hug her into their arms until all problems disappeared.

She then jumped into his arms and locked her arms around his waist, burying her head in his chest and breathing in heavily. This had startled Elliot way more than before and if any of his subordinates would have seen his expression, they would have thought someone had possessed their boss.

But nobody could blame him, because Diana had never shown such reliance on him before, nevermind hugging him. She was like her family; conservative and traditional, which he admired and didn't mind because he thought that that was part of her and he loved her whole person.

He soon got himself together and hugged her back, feeling heavy as the thought of the potential reason for her to feel this scared. If something could shake her up to this point, then it had to be something extremely terrible.

Elliot didn't know the tens of changes that happened in Diana's expression as she hid her face away from him. She was confused as to what to feel as she felt the warmth emitted out of his body, warming her up. But she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable when scenes and flashes continued to pop up in her head every few seconds of how many times he had killed her, intentionally or not.

He started patting her back till she finally calmed down and then slowly pulled away from her to look at her face.

Diana had fixed the expression back to utter desperation. She continued holding onto his shirt as if he was going to disappear any second and leave her alone in this mess.

He looked just like her memory had served her but also completely different. Maybe it was because of the environment both of them had grown in, but he carried himself very well. His face was exactly the same as she remembered but his eyes had a sharp glint in them and it showed how much experience he had and how many obstacles he had run into. His shoulders were pulled back, and he stood tall, maybe even taller than she remembered, completely blocking the world away from her. And if she wasn't in this situation or if none of this had happened to both of them, she wouldn't have stopped herself from feeling secure.

"Is everything alright?" he asked. Anyone can sense how worried he was from just listening to him. His hands went up to her shoulders to look at her directly.

She nodded and looked down. She didn't want him to notice her lies. She was still a little terrified of him.

"Come on, tell me what's wrong." he urged her.

She slowly looked up and captured his hand, pulling him into the house, closing the door after them.

Before the door was completely closed, she had looked at the camera held above the entrance and frowned.

She needed to be careful.

She walked him toward her bedroom, and it wasn't until they were about to reach that she noticed how stiff he looked. She stopped in her tracks and stared at him questionably before a few memories started to appear inside her head.

Diana almost wanted facepalm herself but held back. She totally forgot about Diana's true personality (this body's) and how she never let him inside her bedroom — at least not in her parents' house — to avoid any accidents from happening.

She could only give him an embarrassed smile and say, "I don't want anyone to hear this." This seemed to convince him, and they continued on.

When they had entered the room and closed the door, she looked down to their joined hands and took a deep breath. "I-I had a vision,"

Slowly realization had crossed Elliot's face, and he became serious. Visions were extremely rare, it only happened within the Spiritual faction and even then one in millions would get a vision once in their lifetime. For Diana to get a vision, it was such an honor and a frightening thing to happen. Because visions only occurred when tragedies were about to ensue.

Last vision that was heard of was before the biggest war in history had happened, decades ago. The one who had the vision was able to recount some details but not all and that only helped in saving some nations from chaos. It wasn't known if he had been holding back or those were only the things he had been able to see, nonetheless, the country that discovered this was able to avoid being implemented in that war and got out with no scars.

She pulled him closer and examined his gray eyes. "Please Elliot, we have to cancel the engagement party." She pleaded.

"Please tell me everything from the beginning."

Diana nodded and began telling him everything that she could, mixed up with some lies. She told him she saw both of them being killed in the party, not sure if someone else got hurt too.

She mixed up some details that she made up, but made sure that she didn't go into full details since that made the lie seem obvious, and she heard that visions weren't that vivid anyway.

Darkness shadowed Elliot's expression. To think someone would actually think to kill his beloved or harm her in any way was unbelievable. No one would ever dare to do so, especially because they knew about how evil his mind worked sometimes.

Elliot was skeptical for a second, because even though his death and hers were a significant matter, how did that affect a whole nation? But the more he thought about it, the more he understood how severe it was.

If someone was out there to kill them, and Diana really had a vision about that — not forgetting how important their positions in society — then that definitely meant that the person who was going to kill them wasn't simple, neither in skills nor in the mindset.

So without further thinking, Elliot believed what she said and began brainstorming ideas.

Seeing how calm and deep-in-thought he was, Diana let out a sigh in relief. He believed her. Elliot, the one, and only in the business world, that could make adults cry and crawl in fear, actually believed her vague lie.

But she still couldn't relax. Especially since the main suspect was right in front of her.