Sitting on the waiting area’s bench, I noticed that the west station is a lot fancier than the city’s. My eyes are so heavy and I keep yawning since I got here.
“Come on. What’s taking you so long?” My left foot keeps tapping the. A gap between a minute, I bite my finger nails.
I don’t want people to notice that I’m having an anxiety attack and about to lose my mind.
I dialed his number again. He’s not answering me. “Come on, dude. Do not leave me hanging.” I rest my head on the bag that is on my lap. It' been two hours since I arrived.
When the bus stopped at the station to unload, my head is on chaos. I don’t have any plan and just stared at nothing for an hour. Then 30 minutes, I finally decided to plan my next step. My original plan was the hotels since Mira gave me a lot of money for my run away, but living in a hotel is very easy to track. Hotel Records.
That’s the only good plan I had. What am I suppose to do here in west? Most people here are fancy-concerned citizen like. The type of people that will welcome you inside their house when you say that you are lost, but the truth is they think that you are very suspicious. Ending? They will call the cops on you. I can’t let that happen. 
When I realized that I have no plan, I desperately called this one person. I don’t want to do it, but he’s the only option I have left.
I dialed his number, and after two tries, he picked up. The first thing he said, “Wow, I’m surprised that you called me. What do you need now? Want to raid the Island and kill old man?” He stopped when I cried over the phone. “Shoot. Seriously, what’s up?” 
“Can you come pick me up? I’m at the station. Please, I have nowhere to go.” Trying to sound strong, my voice only shakes. I feel shame to sound so desperate pleasing him.
“Station? As in west?” He asks. 
“Yes. Please? I’ll explain when you get here.”
“Yeah, okay. But I’ll have to let old man know that you are coming.”
I figured that. “Yes. I don’t really mind that, just get here please.”
“I’m on my way.” The he hangs up. I don’t know what’s taking him so long but I badly want out of here.
I dialed his number again.
He finally picks up. “Muscle man! What is taking you so long?”
“I can see you now. Get your bags.” 
I collected my bags and got up. I finally see him when he rolled the window down. For some reason, I feel relieved to see him. “Finally.” I walk over to his car.
“You look so terrible than the last time.” 
“Than the last time?” He’s teasing me again, isn’t he? Annoying, but he’s my only choice right now and I need to endure his presence--- and Old man’s.
“You always look terrible.” He chuckles. “Let’s go. You need some serious showering.” I smell fine, he’s just annoying.
Deal with things, one at a time. That’s my goal. I’m using one of these ‘things’ as my survival technique. Denise left me no choice.
For fifteen minutes on the road, he would not stop slapping the steering wheel to the beat of the song. I couldn’t fall asleep, so all I did throughout the drive to was to count and observe if his hands were cooperating well with the beat. It disappoints me every time when his tapping does not meet the beat.
“Wake up. We’re almost there.” He taps my shoulder gently. It feels weird that I don’t have to climb over to enter the mansion.
“Why is he outside?” I ask him.
“Yeah. He’s waiting for us.” He turned the radio off.
“One of his acts to make me believe that he actually cares for Kathy, eh?” I rolled my eyes. When Mr. Bartley wave his hand on me, I smiled.
“Do me a favor, don’t act that you know about him. Keep your suspicion to yourself.” Then old man’s guy opened the door for me while the others gets my bag.
“Jess! What a pleasant surprise.” He gave me a kiss on the cheeks. “Come, come. You will love the room I arranged for you.”
“Thank you so much. I’m actually embarrassed to ask for your help. Kind of feels like I don't have a space here.”
We entered the mansion. I complemented mostly everything, and for four times, muscle man cleared his throat. No one finds it suspicious. Maybe muscle man got some throat problem.
“Oh, please. It’s a pleasure that you are visiting the mansion.” yeah, right. How about we visit your private island, huh, old man? Will it still be a pleasure?
To my surprise, this mansion is a lot bigger than I thought. There are hallways that goes through many rooms. Mine is one right turn, first door. Muscle man and old man accompanied me to the room.
“This is a beautiful room, Mr. Bartley. I can’t thank you enough.” I said. “Did Kathy used to live here, with you?” Muscle man clears his throat once again and he’s looking at me while signaling me to stop. I can tell that he’s nervous.
“Of course. I gave her everything, including this room.” His hands are resting above his walking cane. His lies are good, and how he lies is mesmerizing. Maybe he is professionally trained to lie.
“Wow. So this is hers.” I look around. Yeah, the walls are her colors. Nude and matte.
“I figured that you might want to see a glimpse of her life before.” He taps the cane on the floor. “I’m not going to bother you anymore. I have somewhere to go. Stay here long as you want, okay?” He taps Rufus on the back. “Call Rufus if you need anything. He is the man of this house.” Then he left.
No doubt that this is Kathy’s room, old room. It smells like her apartment. You know that natural scent of someone’s private space? This is it. Unique.
I turn to him. “Rufus—“ I shake my head. It feels weird to call him Rufus instead of muscle man. “If Kathy is just like those other kids on the Island, then why does she have a room here? Is it a promotion?” I ask.
“I told you, I don’t know who Kathy is.” He shrugs his shoulders.
I rolled me eyes on him, then I start unpacking my bags. “You are no use.” What is he still doing here? Standing still while looking at me? “What do you need from me?”
“Why are you here, Jess? What trouble are you in right now?"
“Come on, muscle man. Can you just let me rest please?” 
He closes the door. “No rest. Continue.” Then he jumps over my bed.
“Don't be stupid, you idiof your guys saw you here like this they will think that we have a personal relationship. Please, I’m loyal to my boyfriend.” I threw him my bag but he dodge it so it went on the floor.
He scoffs. “Yeah, loyal. That’s why you left him there in danger?”
My head automatically tilted. He pulled out a gum out of his packet. The sound of him chewing makes my head hurts little by little. How did he know about this?
“How the—“
“Look where I work, Jess. Of course I know.” He taps the space beside him. I lay there. “Now what?”
The ceiling looks old, yet it looks new. With the design, arrangement, and the vibe of the room, there is no doubt that Kathy loved this room. If you open the window, the natural scent of west welcomes itself inside. I guess that’s why most of the windows here are closed. West smells good, fancy actually. I wonder why the locals don’t want it. At least, there is less pollution than the City.
“Denise—“ I was just starting when he cuts me off.
“Denise, your side chick, founds out that you know about her dirty secret and you are scared that she will do the same thing she did to her husband.” He pops his aired bubble gum.
“How do you know all of this?” At this point, I don’t doubt him. I mean his job is literally working for a man that has an illegal island somewhere behind the waters out back the mansion.
“I get bored at night, I investigate people.”
“Okay, then why don’t you know who killed Kathy?” There is a sarcasm in my voice. I need to be frank with him if I want to find out the truth.
“Don’t know. I tried, but somehow, it’s hard to find out who killed her. Old man trust me so much, enough to keep me here.”
“Why do old man care so much of Kathy’s death? I mean, she’s just like other kids, eh?”
He gets up only to sit on the sofa right beside the bed. He’s about to tell me a story. “The only thing that old man said about Kathy was that he gave her this room because he treated her as his own. Mostly because Kathy showed him kindness.’” He quoted. “Then after that, Kathy ran away, and then she’s dead. Old man felt betrayed and was scared that Kathy told the authorities about the Island. When he learned about Kathy’s death, he immediately thought that the person who killed her knows about the island.”
“So, basically, Old man is after the person who killed Kathy?” I ask him, he nods.
Great! Then they are doing the work for me. The only thing I need to care about is surviving Denise, and my focus right now is to cool down and try not to get killed by Mr. Bartley’s guys. I mean, you’ll never know when someone’s going to stab you in the back, right?
“You should go. I don’t need anything right now. If the guys see you here, they might—“ he’s gaining a hobby to cut me off.
“Old man’s in the island with them. My only focus is to guard the mansion, and you.” He smirks, then points at me.
I pointed at myself. “Me? Why me?”
“Old man doesn’t trust anyone, just me.” He proudly said. “Come on, haven’t talk to a friend for a long time. Old man trapped me here.”
I chuckle sarcastically. “So, we besties now?”
“If you say so. Let’s go out back. Sun’s in the mood today.”
I agreed to go through the tunnel to sit and observe the water with muscle man. I have no idea that he’s conducting a therapy session for me.
“How’s your mind today? You must be worried for leaving your boy with your girl.” 
I don’t really want to talk to him about my personal life, mostly my feelings. But he’s right here in front of me and I feel like I’m going to blow up if I don’t say anything to anyone. “Of course, I’m worried. He’s my boyfriend, but I can’t tell every one the truth when I’m dead”
He nods, then he threw a rock into the water. He offered me the rocks he collected when we are walking through the tunnel. “That’s right. Prioritize yourself first.” He threw a rock again. This time, I can feel a tension with the way he threw the rock. “You got a family?"
I threw a rock. “Both dead.” I leveled his force at rock throwing.
“At least you had a fantastic time with one of your parents.” Of course, he looked into my child hood.
“At least?”
He threw his last rock. I still have 4 rocks left but I put it down. “Old man took me away from them, but I have no choice but to be with him. I’m basically dependent to him because he’s all I have and he’s the only person who cares for me like this."
I’m about to say something when he gets up. “Don’t ever think that we built a connection, huh? This—“ he points at were we are just sitting. “This is not our spot. Just go back to your room before old man comes back.” Then he left.
Looks like this is not a therapy session for me, it’s for the both of us.