New York, Queens

Crane Mansion

21:23

"Hmm..." Aaron hummed with a piece of paper in his hand. "It seems to me that there's no conclusive evidence of him doing anything wrong in here... I mean he's got some papers on mutation and radiation research but as far as the police are concerned he could just be interested in them... there's no evidence linking him to any crime he's committed..." Aaron sighs while putting the paper he was holding along with the rest. "...Fuck! I can't find anything worthwhile! These can't be all the documents he has, right?" The teenager voiced as he started searching every nook and cranny of the large dark drown desk. "...Come on... I need to find something soon or else all this will be for nothing...!" He quickly looks at the time through his phone and clicks his tongue. "And I've been gone for more than 15 minutes too... Someone's bound to notice..." He says to himself as he leans back a bit against the table behind him and suddenly something makes a clicking sound as soon as it comes into contact with his back.

You've done it now, chief...

Is what Aaron thinks to himself as he slowly turns around and notices he's touched a statue of a lion. Its head is slightly bent down and the blood drains from the teenager's face as he misinterprets the situation.

Please don't tell me I broke it!

As soon as he thought something along those lines, the wall next to the table moved like a sliding door, revealing a whole new room to begin with. "Now that... I didn't expect." Aaron voiced completely taken aback. Soon, he breathes out quite dramatically and steps inside the room. Immediately after doing so, he notices that the room is strangely lit up with blue lamps. And the most peculiar thing, at the far corner of the room, lies a woman, inside a glass pod filled with a transparent liquid. She's wearing something like an oxygen mask and a tube is attached to it running all the way to the base of the peculiar pod. "...I think I found something far more mind-blowing than just simple evidence..." Aaron spells out in awe trying not to freak out right then and there.

After recovering from the initial shock he notices yet another desk in the room, albeit far less formal than the previous one. Some more papers are lying on top of it and he quickly makes the most of his time by looking through them. "Human experimentation... Radiation abnormalities... The incident back at WalCorp all those months ago...! It's all here!" He says in a higher toned voice than he would have liked. "It's right here, evidence about his involvement experimenting on humans, and using them for his own benefit. I need to take pictures..." He said while readily snapping photos away with his smartphone. "...But why? How's the WalCorp incident involved? Here it states that after "what happened" it became his goal to learn about radiation and its effects... Isn't he trying to create mutated soldiers just so he can do as he pleases..?" Aaron muttered as he looked through the material once again. Below a stack of paper he found another file sticking out and quickly opened it, in the hopes that it would quell his curiosity. "Isabelle Crane..." The teenager muttered the name at the front of the file. "Is that Sarah's mother?" He inquired but no one was there to answer his question, causing it to hang in the air. He could only read on, in order to find the answer himself. "...She was close to the incident at WalCorp?! To that explosion?!" Aaron said in a louder voice than he would have expected, but he was too caught up in the moment to notice. "...And she's been comatose ever seen..." He muttered that last bit under his breath as he turned to look at the woman sleeping peacefully inside the glass pod. "So he's trying to restore his wife, to the way she used to be. That's why he's been researching and experimenting on humans. But he still uses those mutated for his own benefit, so I guess I have to bring him in... right? I'm doing the right thing, right?" He questioned himself over and over as he put the papers and files back to their original positions in both desks and closed the secret passage to the room back up.

As soon as he was done, a good 30 minutes had passed and he decided he had to get back to the party. He quickly opened the window of Crane's office that was overlooking the less crowded part of their family's domain at the time and after making sure nobody was looking, he hung from the ledge, closing the window back down. But this time, he was on the opposite side of the building, meaning, exactly where he wanted to be. After looking around one more time he let go and landed softly on his feet. Of course, the grass below him helped to minimize any noise he would have caused. Soon after that, Aaron walked casually back towards the fun, trying to shake off the clouds hanging over his mind.

New York, Queens

Crane Mansion

21:43

What is taking that idiot so long? He told me to keep an eye on her but what am I supposed to do if she goes searching for him or something?! What does he have to do in the first place?! He never told me about it! He said it is "top secret" or something, like he's a secret Agent for CIA! Well, he is technically something like an agent but...

The sudden surge of thoughts running through Olivia's head were interrupted by the dry voice of a certain black-haired girl. "Hey, Olivia." She greeted passively.

"Sarah? Uhm, hey?" Olivia replied somewhat hesitantly. She wasn't in the mood for their usual bickering and glaring, since her focus was on her mission but Sarah continued to act the same way nonetheless.

She better not ask me about Aaron! I have zero clue of what I'm gonna tell her!

She thought in a feat of nervousness as she felt the sweat drops forming on her forehead.

"I'm going to cut straight to the chase... Are you dating Aaron?" She said in the same cold fashion as before, her eyes piercing through Olivia's skin.

Huh? Is that what this is about?

"Uhm..." For some reason she hesitated to reply. Back when it was JJ, it came out quite naturally but now for some reason she froze in the face of her "rival". It was obvious Sarah was interested in Aaron right from the get-go which was the main reason Olivia didn't like her. Truthfully, Olivia felt interested in Aaron from the start too, and even now, her feelings haven't changed, but she doesn't know if what she actually feels is love yet. And now, Sarah has her pinned against a wall both rhetorically and almost quite literally. "No, we're not." Olivia replied while clutching the cup in her hands tighter in frustration. Why couldn't she just have lied about it? All is fair in love and war, right? But for some reason she didn't feel that way. She didn't want to trick her into thinking they were dating. She wanted to beat her fair and square and then say it to her face with a proud grin. Seeing her defeated and disappointed over a lie wouldn't be a satisfactory win, or even one at all at this point. That was how she felt at least.

"Is that it? Then that's good." Sarah flashed a confident grin in response to her words. Why was she so happy about it? No, she knew why she was happy....

"Good? What do you mean?" Olivia raised her face from her cup and tried to play dumb.

"Because I'm planning on making him mine... You see there aren't many decent guys our age in school, but he... he's different. And I like that." The rich girl said with that same high-and-mighty façade of hers making Olivia all the angrier at her.

"Make him yours? You know he's not an object, right? You can't just buy him off with money or something..." Olivia shot back but the grin from Sarah's face became all the wider.

"I know that, of course. If that was the case I would have done that a loooong time ago. But boys can be tempted by things other than money you know..." Sarah replied seemingly igniting the fire.

"Why are you telling me all this?" Olivia finally asked, as her mind reached a dead end.

"Because I know you're interested in him. I realized from the first time I saw you talking to him. You're in love." She replied with a know-it-all smile as she waved her finger around.

"What do you know about me?" The blonde girl said in an angry tone, finally looking back into her eyes.

"Everything there is to know about you, Olivia Marshall. Your mother works as a vet and your father's a mechanic. You aspire to become a doctor and you love playing games back at home." Sarah recounts all the details about her and the blood drains from Olivia's face, who stares off into space instead.

"How?" She manages to spell out.

"I have my ways, you see. I can't possibly tell you how, but I know. And I know you're not good enough for him. You even went out together before, right? And yet he hasn't asked you out again. He hasn't even showed any romantic feelings towards you. Do you know why that is? He's simply not interested. You're just playing around while I'm serious... And I'll show you just how serious I am." The rich and arrogant girl talks her way inside Olivia's mind who just looks down at her cup in defeat. All that anger, turned to frustration in an instant.

"Hey, girls. Is everything okay?" Aaron's voice suddenly makes it into her ears but she doesn't bother to raise her head. The blow that Sarah had struck was just that immense.

"Yeah, Aaron everything is okay! We were just talking about Wraith!" Sarah said as her cold demeanor turned into a bright and cheerful one.

"Pffftt! About who?!" Aaron almost spitted out his drink in response to her words.

"He's been all over the news lately so we were discussing how cool he is!" The black-haired girl quickly shifted the conversation as she moved closer to the young man.

"Oh yeah... makes sense! Haha!" Aaron laughed it off awkwardly.

Phew! I thought maybe Olivia revealed something accidentally!

Aaron thought to himself as he shot her a sideward glance.

"Where have you been all this time anyway?!" Sarah asked trying to avert his attention to her instead.

"Uhm... I was on the phone. It was really important so I had to take it." The teenager quickly came up with an excuse as Sarah nodded and didn't question him further.

Saved!

"Oh that's a nice song! I love it! Let's dance!" Sarah grabbed his hand and dragged him to the imaginary dancefloor.

"But-" "No buts!" She cut him off before he could talk to Olivia and they made for the dance floor.

Olivia isn't looking too good.... I'll wrap this up quickly...

Aaron thought as Sarah started moving to the rhythm next to him.

... "...I saw you dancing in a crowded room... You look so happy when I'm not with you..." ...

"Oh I know this song! Weeknd, right?" Aaron realized and nodded as Sarah nodded back.

"Yeah, I knew you had good taste!" Sarah replied as Aaron bobbed his head in the rhythm.

.... "...But then you saw me caught you by surprise...

A single tear drop falling from your eye...." ...

Just then, he noticed Olivia had raised her face and was looking at them. No, she was looking at him. Her face a mix of sadness and disappointment.

"Come on, dance...!" Sarah grabbed his hands and put them on her waist as she continued swaying to the rhythm.

.... "I don't know why... I ran away..." ...

Aaron turned to Sarah for a second, but when he turned back to where Olivia was standing, she was no longer there. She had left. She ran to the door and didn't look back.

... "I'll make you cry... when I run away..." ...

Suddenly, a knot formed in Aaron's stomach and he instinctively looked down.

"What's wrong?" Sarah asked as his hands fell from her hips.

To everyone looking at him, he seemed confused. But everything started to make sense in his mind. He knew what he had to do.

"Look, Sarah. I don't know what you talked about with Olivia..." Aaron tried to say but he was cut off.

"We didn't really talk about anything significant."

"Even so... I'm really flattered by your advances but I just don't see you that way. I want us to stay friends, if that's okay with you." He said as politely as possible, although he wanted to lash out at her for making Olivia feel the way she did.

Sarah's face fell completely and she looked down at her heels. "....Okay." She raised her face and formed a smile. Although it was far from a genuine one.

"Thanks, now if you'll excuse me..." Aaron said as he left the dancefloor and the building altogether, chasing after Olivia.

The song had just finished as the door closed behind him, and the people dancing had stopped to catch their breaths. A single girl remained on the center, her gaze still stuck on the front door of her house. "...I lost..." She whispered to herself as a tear escaped her eye. "I lost..." She repeated over and over as a waterfall came running down her cheeks.

New York, Queens

Olivia's Room

22:30

"Olivia!" Olivia's mother's voice was heard behind the door of her room. "What happened sweetie?" Her mother kept calling out to her but her efforts bore no fruit, as her daughter was wrapped inside her blanket and her thoughts were eating away at her little by little.

I didn't know what that feeling inside of me was... I had no clue how to interpret it and I didn't think acting out on impulse was a good idea... But when I saw them together I finally realized what it was... I'm in love. Just as she said... I'm in love with Aaron. But he doesn't love me back... If he did he would have made a move by now... After that date he hasn't done or said anything! Maybe it was an excitement that happened to fade... or he decided to look Sarah's way... They must be all alone together now... Why isn't he here? Why doesn't he look at me? Why doesn't he like me? Am I not good enough? I want him to look at me... I want him to tell me I'm the only one! But most of all, I want to see him now, more than ever...

As her own thoughts assaulted her heart with every turn, she heard a soft knock on her bedroom window, and instinctively jumped up throwing away the blanket hugging around her body in the process.

"Wow, the cocoon turned into a butterfly!" Aaron commented as soon as Olivia opened the window.

"Aaron! Why are you here?" Olivia asked trying to hide the blush on her face.

"Why, you say? Well, I did what I had to back at the party, so decided I wanted to spend some time with you, so go get dressed!" Aaron explained as he looked up and down her pajama attire. "Or you can just come looking like that... They're adorable by the way." She suddenly became as red as a tomato in response to his comment about her light blue dragon-patterned pajamas.

"W-Where are we going? And why are you wearing your suit?" Olivia asked as she noticed he was wearing Wraith's suit.

"It's a secret! Now go get dressed!" The young man replied as he brought his index finger in front of his mouth.

Soon Olivia was dressed and stepped out the window and through to the fire escape.

"You ready?" Aaron asked looking back at her.

"Ready for what?"

"Oops, time's up!" The teenager announced as he picked her up and fired a hook on a nearby building. Soon, they were soaring under the night city lights.