[CONTENTID1]In everyone's heart of hearts, there was a state of grace called warmth.[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]

2014

When Kayleen was seven year old, her father passed away. Ever since then, she began to act grumpily. Every morning, she would look out for him and cried frantically. Then, her mother had no choice but to fabricate a story.

"In our heart of hearts, there's a state of grace...called warmth," Madam Ceci held little Kayleen's hand dearly. "What is warmth?" Little Kayleen asked, snuggling her head below her mother's elbow. "Can we use that to get father back?" Kayleen entwined the tip of her index fingers, and puffed out cold breath from . "Warmth is the health of our hearts," Madam Ceci spread her palm on the surface of Kayleen's chest, which yield a chuckle from little Kayleen. "Without warmth, our hearts...would get sick," she continued. Kayleen swayed her body right to left, and left to right, trying to stomach her mother's words. "Sick?" A second later, her eyes slanted at her mother. "Like fa-fa-father?" she asked. Madam Ceci looked away for a while; a tear strung at the corner of her eyes. It took her everything just to nod her head. "Mm, li-like father...and so, if-if you did something wrong...heaven would take the warmth away," Madam Ceci squeezed her lips hard as she tugged Kayleen closer to hold her in her arms. Kayleen nodded robotically while gesturing a cross sign on the surface of her chest with her stubby fingers. "I've crossed my heart. I'll never do bad things anymore..." she said confidently.

Kayleen believed that for a long time...until, today.

Two years ago, her heart stopped cold. She committed a sin and therefore, heaven took the warmth off her heart. Today had marked the end of her probation’s period, but the warmth, it still…not coming back to her. Kayleen go through a lot; “a lot” to her literally means everything one would never wanted it to happen in their lives: witnessed a psychopath’s murder, kidnapped twice, and…took an innocent person’s life. The secrets she tried too hard to keep until now had been smothering her from inside…until, it got to the point where death was her second nature.

Kayleen halted at the demarcation line between the Juvenile Centre and the world beyond. She felt incredibly defeated as she lifted her head to look upon the enormous skies. Her eyes watered; she hadn’t known how much she’d crave for moments like this, once it was gone. Being held on probation for two years was wearing away at whatever sanity she had left, and what she got out of it was burden that echoed painfully in her heart. There was no end to it. She wrapped her arms tightly to ward off the morning chills that coursed inside her veins. Both anxious and nervous, she slanted her vision at the left side, carefully eyeing a middle-age lady officer, who dressed in silvery uniform.

Officer Tifa was watching at the seventeen year old girl ever since they had left the Administrative building couples of minutes ago. Kayleen was relatively tall and skinny. She had got a round face with clear white skin. Her hair was shoulder-length, straight, and black. Kayleen slumped forward as she pressed her hands together; wrinkles formed on the surface of her forehead when Officer Tifa angled her body toward her. Officer Tifa could tell that Kayleen was glancing at her out of the corner of her eye, and so she took it as a sign that Kayleen was anticipating something out of her. Officer Tifa let out a suppressed grunt. “Kay-ssi.” she called. “You looked really good in white dress.” Her eyes scanned Kayleen thoroughly from head to toes, then a smile crept on her lips. “White is a nice choice of colour for this very special day, my dear.” Kayleen’s face reddened, but not in a good way. She was thrilled by the officer’s baritone voice. Her voice was within the range of voices which snapped her out of something. It reminded her of the kidnapping events two years ago. An image of a masked guy plagued inside her mind – his voice, his suffocating scent, and every word he had said to her. For a lifetime, she wouldn’t forget that. Why did he kidnap her? What did he want from her? And…why did he kill…the girl she saw inside the dark room? The news belatedly revealed that he was a paediatric surgeon, and a psychopath. But...she doubted that.

Sweat soaked every inch of her clothing as panic seeped inside her. Kayleen fidgeted. She bit her lips hard and brought her hands together. The officer sighed sourly. “Kay-ssi, your mother would come today, right?” she asked softly. It didn't take her long to notice Kayleen wariness of her. Of course, it wasn’t entirely her fault. Kayleen went through a lot of bitterness. Two years ago, she had once became the news' spotlight. People talked about her in and out; some pitied her, some poured their sentiments over the unfortunate events, like how the government should’ve implemented an efficient screening system for every individual that was about to become a doctor. It came with a conclusion that doctors with background of psychopath would never do good to the society, contrarily,  they were a silent threat that deemed to receive help, not vice versa. The incident had stirred up the whole nation. Never had it came across everyone’s mind that a respectable paediatric surgeon, would maliciously masking a murder with a so-called euthanasia (mercy-killing) toward the child patient. After a search warrant had been issued, Kayleen was found unconscious inside the surgeon’s apartment within two days. The criminal’s unit had released a statement to address Kayleen's issue, implying that she was aimed to be the next victim of the psychopath surgeon, however, they didn't include further explanation. 

Kayleen’s face was as pale as porcelain. In her deepest thoughts, today wasn’t a special day, but rather, it marked the beginning of her nightmare. There had been a time where she believed that living inside the Centre was safer than the outside world. Fear embodied her ever since the incident. After the first kidnapping, she was admitted to the hospital, but three days after, she was kidnapped again, and this time the culprit was the psychopath surgeon's lover. There had been no further clarification made by the police, nor the media. Her motive was not being made publicly, and many were still left pondering upon it. Inherently, Kayleen became emotionally unstable after two consecutive kidnappings; her case was handled upon the department of psychiatry (mental health). Kayleen was extremely guarded by the time she was rescued from the second kidnapping. The psychiatrist once spoke to the media that Kayleen was possibly experienced from Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder (PTSD), but no further elaboration attempted as it was a confidential matters related to Kayleen’s privacy. Kayleen wasn’t able to recognise her mother even. All the while, she viewed everyone as threats and that everyone was trying to kill her. Whenever the doctors or nurses approaced her, she struggled aggressively from them.

Officer Tifa pursed her lips and clicked her tongue as to catch Kayleen’s attention. “Kay-ssi. Did your mother contact you?” A frowned went past her. It was somewhat difficult to start a conversation with Kayleen. Officer Tifa recalled the day when Kayleen was transferred here. Never in her twelve years of service, had she ever encountered a juvenile's case like Kayleen Alice. The first ten months was a disastrous period for that girl, she never spoke with anybody, not even to her only family – her mother. They had to sedate her so she could sleep, otherwise, she would curl herself into a ball at the room’s corner, and trembled the whole day, murmuring something only God knew what. Whenever a psychiatrist came, again, sedatives had became their option as to calm her down. Kayleen was a fighter, even good one at that – she was able to take five peoples at one time. Even though she was black-belt holder in Karate, it had yet remained a mystery as to why she couldn’t escape from the previous two kidnappings. There had been some rumours around saying that the culprits were people she knew or worse, she was part of their accompliance. Nevertheless, the case buried soon after the psychopath surgeon was being sentenced into death.

“Here,” Officer Tifa outstretched her hand and presented a medium-sized package to Kayleen. “My good luck present. Take it.” Kayleen didn’t budge. There hadn’t been a single word came out of her ever since earlier. Officer Tifa couldn’t predict what was stored inside of her mind. 

“It’s marshmallow. Your mother once told me that marshmallow was your favourite.” Officer Tifa reached out for Kayleen’s hand and smiled warmly at her. “Your hand was cold!” she exclaimed, which alerted Kayleen, and she quickly jumped away. A torrid look dawned in her face. Officer Tifa scratched her head in dismay. She almost forgotten that Kayleen was easily frightened by a certain “raise” of voice. It must have reminded her of those unpleasant moments. If one never experienced it, they wouldn’t know how terrified it could be. She was kidnapped twice, and the latter almost kill her. After the second kidnapping, she was held inside the mental hospital; it even came out on the newspaper that she had gone mad. During that period of time, just everything about Kayleen Alice sparked interests in the public’s eye; everyone wanted to know her progress. Kayleen’s mother was such in a tight situation. The media even dug out her past with her previous husband; everything was out of control, and also out of topic but as l