Chapter 115 - A Day Before (3)

The evening eventually came.

Alexandra just recently finished eating her dinner and taking a bath. Diana also finished combing her hair and now she is being tucked in her bed. "Diana, tell me a story, please," Alexandra pleaded in a low voice which Diana heard. Diana smiled at Alexandra before she responded with a nod, "As you wish, young miss," She said in a gentle voice before she took a seat at her bed. She let out a sigh before she spoke in her usual gentle tone of voice:

"My mother told me this story when I was a child and read me this book multiple times since this was my favorite one. I shortened this one for you since it was long. It was probably popular, I don't know since I never asked anybody if it was. The title was 'The Snow Queen'," Her voice resonated inside her room and Alexandra listened to her. She never heard of a story with that title before nor did her mother tell her about it.

(This story is one of the popular short bedtime stories for kids and I read it before, so I decided to just use it. This was just the summary of that story. I will be putting the link in the Author's Thought, so I won't be reported or something for copyright. Credits to the original owner, anyways.)

"Once upon a time there lived a wicked goblin who built a magic mirror. Anything that was beautiful or good was reflected in it as ugly and bad. One day, the mirror broke and all its pieces fell all over the earth. A few pieces also fell in a small town where two friends named Kay and Gerda lived. Kay and Gerda were neighbors. They were very good friends and spent their days playing games, building sand blocks and running across the sun-kissed fields. One day while they were playing, bits of the broken mirror hit Kay's eyes and one piece pierced his heart. After that everything changed. Kay no longer viewed Gerda as his best friend. He poked fun at her and hit her on the head whenever he could. Gerda was puzzled and couldn't understand why he was behaving in such a strange way," Diana stopped for a moment to breathe before he continued once again.

Alexandra paid attention to everything that she said, at every word and detail. "One day, Kay and his group of friends decided to go on a sled ride over the snow. Suddenly, a huge sled drew up before him and its driver asked him to step in. Once Kay was inside, the driver transformed himself into a woman and sped away. She was draped in a white flowing gown and on her head was placed a crown made of ice. Her silky white locks cascaded like a flowing stream. Astonished Kay asked her who she was. I am the Snow Queen," replied the woman, whose face shone like a sparkling diamond. She tugged at the reins and rode past the clouds and the rainbow, till they reached a distant land."

"Meanwhile, Gerda waited for Kay to return. One day, she took her boat and went to search for him in the river. Seeing Gerda, a fairy cast her magic spell and made the boat approach her. When Gerda narrated her story, she sent her garden flow¬ers everywhere to search for Kay, but they returned empty-handed. Gerda sat under a tree and wept all night. Suddenly a crow flew down and informed her about a certain princess who had recently married a boy. Gerda grew restless thinking that Kay had married someone else and urged the crow to take her to the princess's palace. Gerda waited anxiously inside the palace and when the boy entered she sighed with relief because it wasn't Kay."

"Gerda carried on her search and came to a forest where she met a robber girl and her reindeer. Hearing Gerda's sad tale, the reindeer said he had seen the Snow Queen flying away with a boy to Lapland. She immediately set out for Lapland and the reindeer accompanied her. There, they came across a magician who told them that Kay was at the Snow Queen's palace and owing to the piece of glass inside him, he considered it to be the best place in the world. She suggested Gerda visit the palace."

"The Snow Queen's palace was made out of ice. It was cold and dark, and no one except the Snow Queen lived in it. One day, she challenged Kay to spell the word "Eternity" from an assorted chunk of alphabets, all made of ice and promised him his freedom in return. Kay wracked his brains hard but just couldn't spell the word. Just then Gerda arrived and seeing her long-lost friend she cried out in joy and embraced him. Just as her warm tears fell on his hard cheeks Kay felt his cold heart begin melting. He recognized Gerda and wept aloud. Suddenly, a teardrop fell on the alphabets and they spelled out the word "Eternity." Kay was set free and he went back home with Gerda."

"The End." Diana finally finished telling her the story and Alexandra just listened to her the whole time. A smile was plastered on Diana's lips. While she was telling her the story, she suddenly remembered her mother who would always tell her about that story when Diana would ask her to do so, even when she isn't going to sleep or just bored.

"That is all, young miss," Diana said and she yawned. "My, I'm getting sleepy already. I need to go back to my room, young miss," Diana said before she stood up from her seat and ruffled Alexandra's hair. "Good night and sweet dreams, young miss," She said and Alexandra responded in a low and gentle voice, "Good night, Diana," She said. Diana just smiled at her before she turned around and walked towards the door but before she left, she turned off the lights first.

When Alexandra heard the sound of the door close, she let out a sigh. She should be feeling sleepy and drowsy by now, she should be closing her eyes and falling asleep right now after all of those.

Yet Alexandra is still awake, staring at the ceiling of her room, with nothing to do. It feels like she needs to do something, it was like her day still hasn't ended yet. She wasn't nervous or afraid for tomorrow but rather she was anxious that she might don't do something that she should do today, however, she doesn't know what that is. This is one of the things that would keep her up all night.

Usually, Harrison would appear inside my room at this time of the night to talk to me and somehow cheer me up by annoying me, I don't know how can he cheer me up if he is actually trying to annoy me, she thought to herself and let out a sigh. Okay, I should not depend on him, I should not, she reminded herself and she turned around her bed, facing her bedside table with some things placed on top of it. A golden pocket watch was one of those things, the one that Harrison gave her.

'Don't worry, you can still communicate with me if I can't visit you or if you wanted to see me or something. Just imagine this handsome face of mine and say something inside your head, the message will automatically be delivered.'

She recalled Harrison's words from before and she immediately sat up from her position. Although he sounded like one of those call center agents or something while he was saying that and the way he complimented his self, his face to be exact. Honestly, he was handsome and beautiful as one of those princes in a fairytale but his attitude is somehow… very far away from a prince. It's not like he is plain or something but he is a devil. Evil and mischievous and at the same time teasing and annoying. He might be double-faced like he acts differently around me and around others yet she wouldn't care.

But, she doesn't hate that because whenever he pulls off one of those snarky or annoying remarks of his, she would reply back with an insulting one and he wouldn't care. It's not like it's her true colors, an annoying and somehow foul-mouthed one but rather it was just another side of her she would always show when she is around Harrison. Alexandra's personality depends on the people she is around. If she is comfortable with them or not. Letting out a sigh, she proceeded with what she wanted to.

Alexandra imagined his face but she imagined something, that is rather different from him and she doesn't know why she thought of it. A monkey. She stifled a laugh and if ever someone saw her suddenly laughing alone, they would think she was crazy. Why am I thinking about a monkey right now? She asked herself and calmed herself down, taking deep breaths and letting it out slowly to do so. Let me try again.

A small face that is like a child because he is a child. Black and somewhat messy hair. Pale skin. Crimson red eyes that looked cold or blank, as if it held no emotion. Long nose. Pink lips that looked kissable and thin. A bored expression plastered on his face, a scowl across his lips, his eyes looking like it was dead or tired of everything that is happening around him. Congratulations, you just imagined what Harrison looked like.

[Hey, Mr. Pretty and Annoying. Are you there?]

That was the message for him. That is what she can only think of, rather than greeting him like this: [Hey, are you there? I need someone to talk to, I am bored]

Honestly, she feels so dumb sometimes but she thinks the greeting she told her was better. She thought about pretty because when she was imagining his face, she thinks that he was actually pretty. Prettier than her if he would become a girl, thankfully he isn't. Unless if he was actually a girl pretending as a boy, that would ruin everything. And when she meant everything, that would mean everything, except the world or other people's lives, of course.

Well, when he decided to transform in front of her as an adult just like he is, that proved that he was a male. Like, how could a female have that sharp and defined jawline? He clearly looked like an adult, a man, why does she have to doubt him? He looked strong and powerful and at the same time, he looked young and attractive while he was in his adult form. Moving on, his eyes looked pretty as well as his lips. Even his long nose also looked pretty. She wasn't exaggerating. He was like one of those male CEOs in a comic or manga (Japanese-styled comic), so young and attractive whose personality would usually be cold or arrogant.

Her co-workers would talk about it and show pictures of them. They admired them and somehow dreamt about having a lover who is like that, rich, cold, and handsome. To be honest, Alexandra wasn't attracted to those kinds of people even if they were handsome or attractive since she is attracted to beauty. She doesn't know why was it probably their hard-to-approach personality or what? They were rich, well it's normal for them to be rich since they are CEOs of some popular and top companies, so they are probably picky when it comes to things. They were born rich unless they built that company when they were a child or while they were at school or after they finished studying.

(A/N: I am not insulting those kinds of novels, comics, or stories. I liked some of them, actually. I am just building up Alexandra's personality or something. So if ever I offended you in a way that I probably don't know, I apologize.)

Harrison is more like one of those side-characters or second lead. He's annoying and would always bug her when it comes to some things. Although there are main characters or second leads that are like that, but he is far way different and mysterious. His past is…

Right, what was his past?

That's where Alexandra realized something. She doesn't know Harrison, what his past was, what happened to him, why did his mana decreased so much (He once told her the reason why he was staying in his child form), who his parents were, and such things. She only knows his full name and what he looked like. He was completely mysterious and unknown in other things. He knows so much about her already yet she doesn't even know what or who he actually was.

Then while she was deep in thought, she suddenly felt a stinging pain in her head which lasted for only a few moments. It cut off all of her thoughts and pulled her back to reality, then as the pain gradually went away, a voice inside her head became louder as each second passed by and she immediately recognized the owner of the voice.

[Crap, the pain was so much and I was tired. Sorry for the late respond, what is it that you need, idiot?]

His voice filled with boredom rang inside her head. It was like she was in a large and empty room with nobody aside from her and she suddenly shouted, the room would be filled with echoes of her voice that probably wouldn't stop after a few minutes. His voice echoed inside her head and that was the only thing that she could hear, since silence surrounded her and there was no noise inside her room, his voice sounded so loud. Why does it feel like he was using some sort of microphone or megaphone? She thought to herself before she responded.

[Took you so long to respond, Harrison.]