Cherlyn’s eyes bore into Felzein’s with an intensity born of years of silent suffering.
Her heart a fragile tempest, torn between fury, yearning, and sorrow too deep for words.
“Doctor Vradistza… five long years… Do you have any idea what it is like to grieve for someone whose very body was never found?” she murmured, her voice trembling on the edge of shattering.
Felzein said nothing, but his gaze was heavy with unspoken remorse, more eloquent than any confession.
“I searched for you… I waited, even when the world had turned its back,” Cherlyn pressed on, her voice thick with anguish. “And just as I was beginning to accept your loss… you reappear, here of all places.”
A bitter, hollow laugh escaped her lips, tears tracing silent paths down her cheeks, “Why? Why did you hide your survival from us all?”
Felzein inhaled deeply, a quiet sorrow etched into the lines of his face. Beneath his composed exterior, wounds yet raw lay open.
“Because if I had come back… more lives would have been lost. Yours among them,” he confessed softly.
“I did not disappear out of fear or cowardice, Cherlyn. I vanished to protect everything… to protect you.”
Rosa, Melati, and Dewi remained motionless, their eyes flickering between one another, words caught in the stillness of the room.
They bore witness to the exchange between Felzein and Cherlyn with a shared sense of perplexity, as though the true weight of the conversation lay just beyond their grasp.
This was no simple reunion of two estranged friends.
Beneath the surface stirred something far more profound, a quiet storm of emotion and unspoken history.
Though the full story eluded them, one truth cut clear through the haze: this encounter was anything but ordinary.
For Rosa and Melati, their intuition whispered of a tangled past, far removed from mere camaraderie or fleeting regret.
Their eyes met briefly, a silent recognition passing between them, as if both were piecing together fragments of a secret long buried.
They had suspected all along that the bond between Felzein and Cherlyn was laced with shadows, wounds that time had not healed, desires left unfulfilled, and stories left untold.
Stories that Felzein had guarded jealously, sharing with no one, not even with those closest to him.
Dewi stood quietly to one side, her thoughts weaving through the fractured dialogue like a puzzle with missing pieces.
No clarity came just yet, but a slow-burning certainty took hold within her. Today, a veil was being lifted, revealing a truth long concealed.
Only the measured rhythm of breath and heartbeat dared to disturb the profound stillness, as if time itself had paused to listen.
With measured steps, Rosa advanced, taking her place between Felzein and Cherlyn.
The quiet gathering had thickened with unspoken tension, and now she summoned the small but resolute spark of courage within her to speak.
“Forgive me, Felzein… and Doctor Cherlyn,” she began softly, her voice careful yet unwavering. “May I ask… what was the nature of your relationship in times past?”
The words hung in the air, shattering the silence with blunt sincerity.
In perfect unison, Felzein and Cherlyn turned their gaze upon Rosa, eyes alight with a flicker of surprise.
This question arrived swifter than either had anticipated.
Yet, a fleeting glance passed between them, rich with unspoken understanding, an almost imperceptible nod, heavy with shared meaning.
No further words were needed. It was clear: the moment had come.
Melati and Dewi, standing quietly a short distance away, exchanged glances of apprehension.
Rosa’s forthrightness had caught them off guard.
They had not expected such candour, cutting directly to the heart of a tension that had simmered long beneath the surface.
And yet, beneath that apprehension stirred an equally potent curiosity.
Felzein drew a slow, steadying breath, as if summoning the strength to pry open a door long bolted tight.
“Ocha…” he addressed Rosa with a softened, familiar tone. “I will share… though only in part. But I beg you, let this remain between us.”
Cherlyn’s voice joined his, grave and unwavering, “Because what we are about to disclose carries weight beyond measure. It could imperil… especially Doctor Vradistza’s own safety.”
Rosa’s eyes widened, disbelief mingling with shock, “That serious?” she murmured, scarcely able to fathom it.
Melati and Dewi nearby mirrored her astonishment.
None among them had imagined the past entwining Felzein and Cherlyn held such profound depths.
A brief glance passed again between Felzein and Cherlyn, a silent accord sealed with a slight nod, an unspoken vow of candour.
“More than that…” Felzein breathed, his voice low and laden with meaning. “What we reveal is not merely history, but portents of what may yet unfold.”
Melati’s voice cut through the stillness, steady and resolute, “We shall guard this secret.”
Rosa and Dewi nodded in near-perfect synchrony, their expressions resolute, unflinching.
No trace of doubt lingered in their eyes, only a steadfast determination to listen, to understand, and to honour the truths about to be entrusted to them.
Melati and Dewi moved forward, joining Rosa who had stood at the fore all along.
Now the three stood shoulder to shoulder, a quiet, unwavering line before Felzein and Cherlyn.
In the hush that followed, something unspoken passed between them. A quiet pact. Trust, newly forged yet firm.
They would listen. They would keep what they heard sealed within.
“I trust the three of you,” Felzein said softly, his voice measured, though a keen light still burned behind his eyes. “But before I begin, allow me to ask something first.”
He drew a long breath, as though rousing himself to stir slumbering memories.
“Have any of you ever heard of the great explosion at the Vuska Laboratory, in Switzerland?”
Rosa and Melati glanced at one another, puzzled.
Their blank expressions were answer enough. They both shook their heads slowly.
“I… I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it,” Melati murmured, her voice barely above a whisper.
Rosa gave a quiet nod of agreement.
But Dewi’s reaction was different. At the mention of ‘Vuska’, her eyes widened with a flicker of shock.
Something about the name struck a chord. She swallowed, steadying herself.
“I have,” she said at last. “It was mentioned in a few international reports, but the coverage disappeared almost as soon as it appeared. As if someone had deliberately buried it.”
Felzein turned to Cherlyn, their eyes meeting in a brief, silent accord, before both returned their attention to Dewi.
“In that case,” Cherlyn said gravely, “you must also suspect that it was no ordinary accident.”
Dewi nodded slowly, “Yes… the reports hinted that it was sabotage. Someone on the inside.”
She paused for breath, her expression darkening, “And if I remember correctly, the explosion supposedly killed the lab’s chief researcher. A brilliant young scientist. But, the body was never found.”
She fell silent, her eyes distant as though reading the headlines once more, etched into memory.
“Some said the body had been burned beyond recognition, reduced to ash,” she added, her voice hushed.
“How dreadful…” Rosa whispered.
Melati nodded solemnly, her brow furrowed, “A young scientist… how tragic…”
Then, all at once, her eyes widened. Her breath hitched.
“Ahhh…!” she gasped, a quiet cry escaping her lips, as if the final piece of a long-unsolved puzzle had clicked into place.
A faint smile ghosted across Felzein’s lips. His eyes held a quiet composure, the sort born not of surprise, but of expectation as though he had long foreseen the moment Melati would at last piece the fragments together.