Eyes Like Ice by Radia Al Rashid (books successful people read TXT) 📕

Anna waves her off, “Later, Sarah!” she turns to me, “What did you do exactly to mess things up, dumbo?” her brows furrowed.

“I pretended to talk to someone to avoid his gaze and I don’t know why it needed to be you I called then, and you started to panic. In reply, I began to act all foolish and you know the rest of it.” I sink into the seat, despaired.

“Tsk, tsk! You need to shake off that weirdo of your head and focus on your health now. No offence intended but you’ve always been so not-at-all-natural around guys.” She giggles.

“If nobody tells me what’s going on, I’m gonna get out of the car RIGHT NOW.” Sarah is mad, it’s clear in her voice.

“Oops! Sorry, I was so caught up in Annabelle Gaston’s inquisition that I didn’t get a chance to explain.” I turn back to face her.

“Hmm, it can be Mr. Richard Miller, the new CLO of the Company. I mean, your description says the person to be him though I have no idea about his nick name, Ted or whatever.” Sarah pulls a string of hair and tucks it behind her ear.

I nod at her while waiting for Anna to arrive with our drinks. I’ve always been a non-alcoholic, childish nerd, so it’s being easy for me to deal with the restriction against drinking.

“Is there any possibility he’s hiding his actual identity?” I scratch the back of my wrist.

“Nah! Why should he? He’s very talented and qualified. In fact, Dad himself appointed him in that post, not for nothing. I think you’re just messing up all those tons of mystery novels’ plots with reality.” Sarah grins.

“What did I miss, bitches?” Anna sounds ten times louder and more cheerful, this is how she lights up every time we come to this bar.

“Blah! Forget it, let’s finish the drinks fast to go skating!” I’m actually feeling excited to finally go for skating after so long. I decide to totally cut Ted off from my mind and for the rest of the day, not a single word reminds me of him.

It’s almost 5, God! let Jules outside for some more time, I’m not ready to ruin my really good mood right now. She’ll be super mad if she can once figure I went out. I gasp and quicken my pace. As soon as the front door comes into view and no car is seen being parked in the parking area, I let out a sigh of relief.

“Serena?” I call out cautiously after stepping inside of the house. Nobody responds.

Well, maybe she’s upstairs already started freaking out officially. I grin and head towards the stairs. I call her again, this time louder than before. My worries start to swell in my throat as I gulp hard.

“Serena? Where are you? Julia? Anybody home?” I become tensed. Yet nobody answers.

Is it some prank or, a new way of Jules to freak the hell out of me? So that I won’t go out in such physical condition again? O God! you can make it as bad of a chide as possible but only keep them alive. I start sweating and my head begin spinning at a slow pace which will exacerbate in no time. I cannot imagine anything bad happen to anyone around me after that accident.

“Please, out with it! Don’t freak me out any further, I promise I will not go out again.” My mouth wide opens to inhale more air. Still, nobody says a word. The silence is becoming too much for me to tackle with. I quickly search all the rooms upstairs. Then come back downstairs to double check every room, but to worsen my fear, nobody is there to be seen. Suddenly, I think about calling Julia. I check my bag with shaky hand and wow! I can’t find my phone. I upend the bag to let out everything inside it. All the stuffs drop one by one on the floor except for my phone. I start freaking out like crazy, I’m shaking to the core.

O my God! Where the fuck did, I leave my mobile? Did I? No! did I forget it at the ice rink? Holy shit! What do I do now? How should I react!

A sudden ringing of the doorbell startles me all over. I try to calm down when I hear Anna’s voice from outside.

“Eve! Open the door, you forgot your phone at the car.”

A rush of hope passes through me as I run towards the door.

“Hey! Thanks a lot Anna, I was this close to die.” I swallow.

“What is it? You’re looking like a dead-body. What happened?” Anna expands her eyes.

“I-I can’t say what is it, it’s just I can’t find anyone here. Nobody’s answering me, even Serena is not here.” Tears start welling up in my eyes.

“What! What are you saying? Where are they?” Anna pushes me slightly aside to step in.

I look at my mobile and my heart leaps up to sit in my throat. 22 missed calls! My God! why am I always so freaking callous to silence the phone? Why did I do it? What just happened?

“It’s, it’s silent, Annie! I totally missed the calls, it is saying, it is fucking saying 22 missed calls!” I begin to shout at the height of my voice. The entire world blacks out before me.

Anna rushes to me and grabs the phone. She quickly taps on the screen. “It’s Serena and... and Julia! Jesus!” she murmurs.

I feel like fainting, “Please, call them back, now!” I mumble, trying hard to be stable.

“Serena’s not picking up the phone! Fuck! I’m trying Julia’s number; you just try to calm down.” Anna is pacing across the living room.

“It’s switched off! What do I do now! Hey, look at me” she sits on her knees beside me. “Breath Eve, breath. You can’t be sick again. Look at me, everything’s just fine, okay? Now, tell me who else to call?”

“Will, Will… call him, he might know.” I let out the words shakily.

“Right! How could I forget.” She leaps on her feet and dials William’s number instantly.

“Fuck! Jesus, why did they need to switch the shits off!” she clenches her jaw.

“What happened, Anna? What happened to them? Did they...” I start crying like a baby.

She wraps her arms around me, “I don’t get it, but please, don’t think of anything bad! It’s gonna be alright, trust me!” she tries to sound reliable but the doubt is apparent in her voice.

For another 10 minutes, she dials and re-dials the numbers.

“Ted! Can he say anything about it?” suddenly she stands on her heels and heads towards the door. Before I can say anything, she’s already out of the house.

I struggle to stand up, my knees are shaking like never before. My lungs are dying for air even though I continue inhaling. Gripping the corner of the stair-railing, I stand on my feet. I reach out to grip the table by my side to halt from falling. Something touches my palm and I shoot a glance at it. It’s a piece of paper, kept there intentionally to pass on something, maybe! I abruptly reach out and grab the paper to hold it before my eyes.

Mija! I called you for at least 20 times, maybe it’s silent. I’m going to the RTG hospital now. Jules had an accident.

The universe crashes in my ears. I stiff at the words on the paper. I keep staring at them mindlessly. I am feeling extremely guilty and totally dead inside. Is Jules going to leave me too? Are they planning to stab me over and over with their harsh deaths? I can’t anymore! This time, I won’t go through the pain again! I will end everything.

“Eve! Ted is not home. I hammered on the door for the last 5 minutes at stretch. What is this you’re holding? Hey! Lemme see.” Anna snatches the paper away from me.

“Okay! Let’s go, let’s go to the hospital then. Now we at least know, where to find them, right? What are you waiting for, Evelyn? Let’s go.” She pulls me by my hand.

“I am not ready to face another death, Anna!” I let the words out mechanically.

“You kidding me? She’s going to be alright, dumbo! No worries. Let’s not kill anymore second, we need to go NOW!”

                           ******************************************

It’s been almost two weeks now I’ve been spending more than half of my days in hospital, by the side of Julia. To say in a more appropriate way, the ever-sleeping Julia. God has taken my parents away but couldn’t take away my sister. So, He just put her in coma and at the same time, left my life totally meaningless. The more I look for a way to start living, the more darkness invades my surrounding. I put on a pair of leggings and my go to white T-shirt before taking the morning meds for the first time after Julia’s accident. Each second passes and I can feel my body is falling apart inch by inch.

“I’m leaving Serena. Be done with your dinner without me, it’ll be late as usual.” I slightly raise my voice to reach her as she is working in the kitchen.

“Did you take your breakfast Mija?” Serena’s pace is getting near.

“Yeah, I did! Don’t forget to have yours.” I lie and quickly duck out of the door. I don’t have any energy or patience to face her interrogation, I’m just too tired. All I can remember is the day I got the paper with the news about Julia’s accident. Everything happened too fast to process. Before even reaching the hospital that day, I was entirely drained out of the hope of seeing Jules again. When Serena rushed towards me saying what happened to her, I felt a flicker of hope to see Julia again, although she wouldn’t be conscious. I don’t want to recall any of these but my mind keeps wandering about the darkness, the screaming of mom, the gurgling sound emitted from dad’s mouth before giving up on his life, the wailing of Serena in the hospital corridor...

“Hey, Neighbor!” that deep, alluring voice calls out from behind. I spin around.

Ted Bundy slash Richard Miller is standing in a pair of grey sweatpants and black T-shirt, the calm eyes are staring at me through the large specs, his aura is collected as ever. I scan him abruptly before finding my voice, “H-hello!” I mutter.

“How’s your sister doing? You’re not looking quite alright. Are you feeling