Chapter 4

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Chapter 4

Adrianna stood quietly in hushed breath as her fingers delicately traced along the sleek piano keyboard. Just touching the instrument radiated a sense of warmth and comfort to her. It was almost like being in the embrace of an old familiar friend, and it was one. The last time she had touched a piano was almost twelve months ago when she had performed at a music recital. But she hardly wanted to play anymore, not when it brought back so many painful memories.

Adrianna didn’t know why she was in an empty music classroom during the middle of lunch. One minute she was looking for the washroom and the next minute she ended up here. It seemed that no matter how hard she tried to avoid it, there was just something about the piano that drew her back time and time again. Today was no different.

Taking a shaky breath in, she sat down and placed her slender fingers on the keyboard. For a couple of seconds, she sat completely still before her eyes fluttered closed. Steeling her resolve, she played the first piece of music that came to mind. It just happened to be one of the earliest songs she committed to memory.

Despite previous years of experience, some of the notes came out rough and cringe worthy. It seemed that after months of non-practice, she had lost a touch of her skills. With a sigh, Adrianna started from the top. This time she tried to put more of her heart into it and let the music carry her away.

While she was playing, she didn’t notice someone enter the room.

***

For most of the day, the dark haired boy watched her from a distance—studying, analyzing and plotting his next course of action. He had made sure that he was placed into every one of her classes in order to maximize the success of this mission. Even though he had not conversed with her much today, he had already learned a lot about her through his observations only. Patience was a virtue when it came to hunting down your prey.

There was no doubt about it that Adrianna Spencer was as equally beautiful as she was intelligent. That much was clear as her hazel eyes constantly shone with curiosity and the eagerness to learn. Her analytical skills were also higher than the everyday moronic teenager in this school.  This was demonstrated during English class where she surprised him with her detailed interpretation of the novel they were reading. Even with that aside, he could also tell that she was skilled at reading people’s personality and motives. He found it amusing that she had tried to analyze him, but of course he was always one step ahead of her as he was trained to reveal no emotions.

While it was clear that Adrianna was book smart, it seemed that she could improve a lot on her street smarts. She wore her heart on her sleeve which practically radiated with innocence and naivety. She also trusted too often and constantly let her guard down. It was so easy for others to take advantage of her, including him. She would never survive a day in his world. 

The fact that he had entered the classroom without her noticing only proved his point. She could be dead within seconds, but he wasn’t going in for the kill just yet. There was stuff he needed and information to be extracted before the last part of his assignment could be fulfilled.

For a few more seconds, his sapphire eyes watched Adrianna’s fingers glide over the keyboard. Although it was clear that she was a little rough around the edges, she seemed to be an experienced piano player. As he continued to listen to the echoing song, the melody of it suddenly struck him to be familiar. He immediately frowned when he realized that he had learned to play the exact same song as a child and had helped a little girl improve her skills on it as well.

The boy scowled at the thought of her and the flood of memories that were coming back to haunt him. He gritted his teeth. Suddenly the feelings of happiness, sadness, pain, anger and hatred all gnawed at him. His hands clenched together as he forced the memory of his past into the darkest abyss of his mind and locked it away. The last thing he needed to feel was emotion, especially emotion for her.

With a clear mind, he emerged from the shadows and walked towards Adrianna.

“Canon in D by Pachelbelm. That’s a good choice,” he said in a cool collected tone.

She immediately flinched and pressed the wrong note at the sound of his voice. Her eyes grew wide when she turned and saw him. The way he stood against the afternoon sun made him look like a dark angel. Somehow, he looked even more dangerous than when he was sitting beside her in English class.

“O-oh, uh...thanks,” she stammered. “H-how did you know?”

He flashed a devilishly handsome smile at her. “Well there’s not much I don’t know about classical music.”

Adrianna nodded before quickly standing up. Being in the same room with him was bad enough, but being alone gave her the creeps. “Well I should get going, my friends are waiting for me in the cafeteria,” she said as she tried to walk past him. She didn’t get very far before a large hand wrapped around her arm and pulled her back. The skin to skin contact immediately sent waves of electricity through her body, making her shiver.

“Don’t touch me!” she snapped while trying to yank her arm back. “I swear if you don’t let go of me right this instant, I will get a restraining order on you!”

His grip on her arm tightened. “That’s real cute and I’d love to see you try,” he drawled slowly. “But is that really any way to thank someone who’d come to return what you had lost?”

Adrianna stopped struggling and eyed him suspiciously. “And please enlighten me, what did I lose in particular?”

“Clearly it’s nothing valuable if you didn’t know you lost it by now,” he remarked with an indifferent expression. Then to test her reaction further, he turned to walk towards the exit. “With that kind of attitude you just gave me, I guess you don’t want it.”

For a moment, she stood in surprise at his comments before she chased after him. “Oh hey! Wait up!” When she stopped in front of the boy, her eyebrows were scrunched up in confusion and her pink lips were pursed together into a thin line. “Okay seriously, what did I lose?” she demanded with her arms crossed.

His lips twitched. He almost smiled at her bewildered appearance. Almost.

Adrianna huffed impatiently. “I swear if you don’t spit it out now, I’ll—

“You’ll what?” he challenged with an amused gleam in his eyes. “You’ll run to your parents? You’ll tell on me? You’ll sue me?”

Adrianna turned tomato red at how accurate his last guess was, but she refused to let him know. Instead, she tilted her chin up high and stood up on her tippy toes with her chest puffed out. Although she tried to look menacing, she probably looked ridiculous. She wasn’t close to his height, not even on her tippy toes. Regardless of all that though, she managed to sputter out the first thought that came into her mind. “No, I’ll beat you up!”

The boy raised an eyebrow at her attempt to look brave. “I’d like to see you try. With your small frame, I would be surprised if you can even knock down anything over five feet.”

“Hey I’m not small!” she muttered in annoyance. “Now tell me, what do—” Her last few words got cut off by the sound of a bell ringing, signaling the end of lunch.

He gave her a smirk. “Oh looks like the times up. Hmm, I guess it’s too bad that you won’t be getting this,” he said before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a white teardrop shaped necklace with a small black circle in the center.  

Adrianna gasped in surprise when she caught sight of the object dangling in his hand. Even though the necklace he held in front of her was worth no more than $10, it happened to be one of the most significant pieces of jewelry she owned. It was hard for her to believe that she hadn’t known it was gone from her possession, never mind the fact that she had lost it. She was usually so careful about keeping her belongings safe, especially the ones that she treasured. Then without thinking, she took two steps towards him until she was inches away from him. “Actually I would very much like it back thanks,” she stated while she reached forward to grab the necklace from him. Unfortunately, before she could take it back from him, the boy swivelled to the right and held it just out of her reach.

“Oh so this is important to you,” he mused thoughtfully. “Maybe I should keep it for a little longer. I think the white really brings out the colour of my hair don’t you think?”

At this point, Adrianna wasn’t sure if she felt like laughing at his comment or screaming in frustration. She decided to go with neither of those options and tried to snatch the necklace back from him again. Unfortunately, it seemed that no matter how fast she was, he was always one step ahead of her.

“How about a trade off?” he suggested. “I’ll give your necklace back in exchange for one kiss.”

Adrianna’s eyes widened in disbelief at his ridiculous proposal. She panicked as she tried to figure out what to say. “Y-you? Me? Kiss? No way!”

He studied her under his hooded gaze before speaking. “Relax I was kidding. But tell me something first, do you know who Dmitri Markovich is?”

She frowned at the boy’s cryptic question and bit her lips as she tried to think of anyone she knew by that name. In the end she came up with blanks. “No I don’t know him. Why?”

He shrugged. “Just curious,” And with that he tossed her the necklace and made his way to the exit. Just as he was about to pass through the threshold, Adrianna spoke. “Uh thanks for finding my necklace...I think.”

The boy stood silently for a few seconds with his back turned to her. Then he nodded and left as quickly as he came. His vague answer and passive gestures only left her reeling in confusion.

Okay what just happened there?  She wondered.

The rest of the school day pasted without any further incident concerning a certain mysterious boy. He seemed to have decided to keep his distance from her, which came as a huge relief. On the other hand, Adrianna was already piles behind in her work and so by the time Lily dropped her home, she was ready to call it a day. As she stepped out of the car, her friend shook her head in dismay.

“You’re so boring,” sighed Lily. “And here I was hoping that we can spend some good old quality time together since we haven’t done that in like forever! I still can’t believe you’re choosing homework over your best friend! I mean how offensive is that?” she complained with a half smile.

Adrianna laughed and gave her an equally sarcastic reply. “Yeah it’s actually tragic that I have to spend most of my time doing homework when I could go out and watch a movie with you. That goes with the privilege of moving back to your hometown and changing schools when you’re about to graduate in a couple of months.”

Lily giggled. “Fair enough, it really sucks to be you right now.”

She made a face. “Gee thanks for the support.”

“You’re welcome.”

Adrianna stuck her tongue out at her friend. “Well I’ll see you tomorrow. Maybe I will consider going to the party on Friday since you’re making me feel guilty,” she added before she slammed the passenger door shut and waved good-bye to Lily—who immediately afterwards drove off into the horizon.  

When Adrianna stepped onto her front porch, she immediately caught sight of a small brown parcel in front of her doorstep. It was blank and devoid of any postage stamps or labels. The only writing it had was a word written in cursive. She immediately glanced around the street to look for any clues pertaining to the sender, but to her disappointment it yielded none. With a frown on her face, she picked up the strange parcel and stepped into her house.

“Mom? Dad? Casey? Anyone home?” she called out.

When no one answered, Adrianna assumed that her parents were still at work and her younger sister was still at school.

As she made her way through the disorganized stack of boxes, she curiously glanced down at the thin parcel she was holding. The only thing that stood out from the plain brown wrapping paper was the elegant black handwriting displayed in the center.  For a moment, all she could do was stare at it before her jaw fell open.

The writing read: Adrianna

At this point, millions of questions raced through her mind, but only one stood out. What is in there? Seconds passed before she finally set her resolve. There was only one way to find out...

With shaky hands, Adrianna tore through the wrapping paper until a frayed notebook fell out. Her eyebrows pulled together in confusion as she flipped through the pages of the book. The letters and shapes curved in angles that were unfamiliar to her. It was clearly not written in English, but rather in another foreign language. It seemed that whoever left the package here probably sent it to the wrong person.

Just as Adrianna was about to close the notebook, a small tattered photograph fell out from one of its pages. With a sigh, she picked up the picture and took a glance at it out of curiosity. At first, the washed out photo containing a brown haired woman and her newborn child looked like any other picture she would find in a photo album. But when she took a closer look at it, she noticed that the features of the woman seemed to be very familiar. She studied the picture some more and tried to analyze every detail.

The lady had a heart shaped face and a button like nose that seemed to match her petite stature. She had caramel coloured eyes that shone with happiness while her pink mouth pulled together into a dazzling smile. It was clear that she was enthralled with the baby that was sleeping in her arms. With such a glow on her face, it was easy to tell that she was a recent mother. She also appeared to be in the nursery room as there was a dark oak crib right beside the rocking chair she was sitting in.

Adrianna pursed her lips in deep thought. There was something off about the picture that she just couldn’t figure out, and the more she stared at it, the more it bothered her. Then a golden bracelet on the woman’s right arm caught her attention, causing her to look intently at it. A few seconds passed before she noticed that the band was more than it appeared to be. In fact, there were two letters carved delicately into the metal. She squinted in a desperate attempt to decipher them.

K.M...” she muttered to herself.

As Adrianna contemplated the two letters, the nagging feeling in her gut grew. Suddenly an image of a bracelet she had in her drawer popped into her mind and she raced up the stairs to grab it. When she reached her room and took out the golden band, her heart hammered. It raced even faster when she saw the two letters engraved into the metal.

K.M.

_______________________________________________________________________

A/N: Well I hoped you enjoyed this part of the chapter! It took me a while to get the second part of the way I wanted it to be. Just a forewarning, I’m going to be changing Aidan’s name to Simon since I’m starting to realize that I am going to have quite a few characters with the name A. So what do you think the photograph is about? What do you think K.M stands for? And what do you think the necklace means to Adrianna?

Vote, comment or fan if you like it!

Lastly this is dedicated to one of my awesome readers  :)

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