This was the first time I had a nightmare in my whole life. I usually can’t remember what I dreamed of but this one, I wanted to figure it out. It was so short but appeared to be one of the longest dreadful scenes I have ever came into. My 25 years of existence bottled up with questions.

I shifted my head slowly to find a better angle to think. I was in cold sweat. I was trembling a while ago. I am sure about this feeling. I was scared briefly but I managed to recover. I can’t help but to sit motionless.

Now that I realize it, I’m not even able to change my clothes. I was too tired. I even slept wearing the same thing after a long travel and random meet ups with the appointed chess pieces of my grandmother.

Clueless. I lied again having a fast memory rush rampage inside my brain, looking for that scene. No – I can’t find it.

I tried to brush it away. It is totally non-sense to come back to that nightmare over and over again when in the first place it will just mess me up. I decided to wash up first. Marrying this bed became my priority earlier; now I think I should I wash up.

I can still feel the heaviness in my chest. Why did I feel so afraid? It made me sank into deep sadness that never existed in my heart. I wanted to cry but – why? I wanted to run to someone but I can’t think of anyone. Nana? No. I ped my luggage and tried to look for nice thick clothes.

Andy was right. It’s getting colder as the night progresses to its fullness. I got so disappointed to discover the obvious fact that I only have t-shirts and jeans packed. I am not into clothes. I always wore the same design that I am comfortable with. What make my closet full are those designs with varying colours or patterns. Shopping wastes my time when there is so much to do in the office.

But I have a lot of pull-overs at home and even thick wide hooded jackets. Why did I not bring them? Because it is summer and it’s supposed to be hot 24/7. This place is so weird. I dug deeper and caught my black hoodie waiting for it to be summoned. It was my favourite. Since nobody knows me in this place, I thought to myself that I can wear it freely. If I wear this in the office all my staff will go nuts seeing their workaholic Company Director inside an oversized jacket with cat’s ears designed on its hood.

My room has its own comfort room. Oh thank God I wouldn’t need to disturb Laura for this matter. I got my toiletries container out of the front part of my luggage and went to take a bath with my towel swinging on my left hand. The doctor did a good job. He sealed the bandage properly and I think I won’t have a hard time with it while washing up.

There was a warmer but every time water touches my skin, its combination with the wind-blown from the top mini window of the rest room gives me chills. I need to hurry up. I might catch cold if I stay here longer.

I went out in a hurry. My hair is still dripping but I don’t care. I got to dress up faster because my whole body’s starting to feel numb. What is wrong with this place? As soon as I’m able to get inside my pyjama, I wore my t-shirt and a topped it with my hoodie. My hair was wrapped with a mini towel that I found hanging in the comfort room. I wanted to thank Laura for being as thoughtful as that.

Washing-up made me feel awake. Now I think I won’t be able to go back to sleep since I am originally an owl, a certified nocturnal being.

I took out my mission notebook. Ugh. Nana – she’s the one to blame for this. I didn’t even sign up for all this stuff. If only I could say NO to her that’ll be great but I can’t and I think I will never would.

Nana’s the only person left to me. She brought me up by herself ever since my parents died in a tragic car accident when I was still young. I think it was too long ago I can’t even remember their faces. I only have pictures of them but there were no photos with me in it.

Nana told me that it’ll be a lot easier for me to move on if I will not see those. I grew up in a controlled environment. I was home-schooled. Since she owns a wide variety of businesses starting from food-chains, to auto-mobiles and technological gadgets, she even owns some agricultural firms and that includes farms and live-stocks production. I irrevocably became a master of what she is doing because I was trained during my early age only by the best people that she personally knows.

It became a piece of cake for me to be admitted to universities and get scholarships which in the opposite became a loop hole for other people to often misunderstand me. I became a confident introvert, a friendly sociopath. I am good with blending in but only choose those people whom I am comfortable with. I know how to start a friendly conversation with a stranger but as much as I am capable of doing that also equates with the same degree of how I can make things awkward with some people who do not match my wave length.

No, I am not intelligent, I am closer of being just a smart person – someone knows a little bit of something about everything. Nana never underestimated me. She gave me a full control on her companies the moment that I earned my diploma.

I know her so much. She was a grand-mother who’s a mother to me and also a best-friend who never left my side but moulded me to be independent in all aspects. She will always tell me that when she’s gone she wouldn’t like other people trampling over me or inflicting me mental and emotional pain by using the fact of being an orphan as my point of weakness.

I loved playing mind games with her. We both believe that everything can be handled with a ‘mind over matter’ sense of strategy. We both enjoyed it so much during my teen-age days but I never expected that she will pull me out of the company abruptly just to play this one for a longer time frame than the former ones.

“Kirsten, I want you to play with me again. This one will be different because it is the most exciting game that I thought of for so long. I think you’re ready now for something as big as this.” Nana said while her smile slightly adjusted her big round glasses upwards when her puffy cheeks rose because of pure enthusiasm.

Her hair was layered with silver strands now together with a few dark brown newly died highlights on her once black coloured hair. Her sense of fashion still rocks elegantly even at an old age. She tried to stand up slowly and played with the top button of her peach cardigan as she leaned on the window pane and watch the sunlight touch the palm of her hands.

She continued with a thrilled soft voice, “Summer, oh I miss this. This is indeed the best time for you to go to Sylfaen and meet my knights, my favourite chess pieces. You owe a debt from one of them and you should pay it back.”

I frowned at her while still holding my planner thickly tied with a lot of notes on it for all of my scheduled meetings, projects and deadlines in the company. I held it tightly and tried not to twist my head but it voluntarily shook from left to right because my body is fully aware about my routine.

“Wait what? A Debt? To whom? I can’t remember about anything like that Nana and you know I hate things like that. Can I just wire money to that person’s bank account? It will save me more time to catch up with some appointments.” I tried to escape from her momentum.

She turned to face me and her reaction is unfathomable. She smiled at me and simply laughed.

“Kris, I know you would say that. I will be taking full responsibility from here. The debt that I mentioned is unfortunately not convertible to cash. You will never be able to measure its worth until you are able to identify it. The moment you arrive to that town, they will be there waiting for you. You will recognize them right away because they will know your name even before you could introduce yourself to them.”

She planned all of this. I can tell. But I will try to dodge it one more time. “You’re saying ‘THEM’ how am I going to know who’s who?” I firmly held my posture as I ended my sentence.

“Silly, of course here’s a clue” she paused and cleared . “All of them knew at least three random facts about you. All of which are different from each other. The person whom you owe this debt knows exceptionally two more secrets that concern you. Isn’t it exciting?” she let go of the button of her cardigan and went to her table and pulled open one of her cabinet’s doors attached to its lower part.

While she is busy looking for something, it still sounded ridiculous to me. I felt cheated.

“Nana! How can you do this to me? What made you tell other people about me? No – about my secrets? All my random facts? Are you crazy?” letting the sound of disappointment slide off my tongue just like that.

She straightened up and looked at me bewildered.

“I never told them anything about you. They already knew that even before I could tell or learn it from you. And, speaking of that, I have a rule in this game. You can’t ask them how they knew the facts – they must voluntarily tell you how they acquired the information or else, your return will be voided and the verdict will be most likely unbearable for you.”

My eyes widened with shock. There is more in the package of this entire non-cliché chapter of my life.

“What do you mean?” I asked with an almost shouting tone of voice.

“I will send you to Sylfaen for a month vacation. You need this. Healing? Relaxation? Refresh? I feel so burdened seeing you living like a robot. It’s not healthy that your consistent life of being a workaholic does not even allow you to have friends anymore by which I mean “true” friends. There is more to life than work. So meet up with my favourite knights. Don’t dare to ask them anything which involves crossing the lines of our rules or you will be stuck there for the rest of the year. Do you understand?” she told me without blinking her eyes and shifted again looking for something. She closed the mini cabinet’s door and opened her drawer. She did found an old planner and walked towards me.

She snatched my planner away and rested a black linen covered notebook on my open hands. “Write down everything just like how you write meticulously on this notebook to keep track of your busy boring life. I would like to read about all your adventures with them.” She said pinching my lower chin.

I looked on it and it looked like my life will be in pitch black dreadfulness just like the colour of this journal. I closed my eyes with disgust as I gripped it firmly.

Nana’s not getting any younger. I don’t know if this can be the last game that I will play with her so I tried hard to convince myself to agree with her and now I am here. The black notebook is surely waiting for me.

I opened the secret compartment of my luggage located beneath the second layer of my piled up clothes and pulled it out. I opened the first page and got surprised to see Nana’s hand written reminder.

With a very nice cursive lettering she wrote:

“Kirsten, rediscover yourself with my beloved people in Sylfaen.”

I just realized that I miss my best friend more than ever. This was the first time that I will stay far from her and endure the longest month of my life alone. I let out a sigh as I closed the journal and something fell from its side. I noticed it was a shiny silver fountain pen with my nickname engraved on it in an old English writing.

The word read – KRIS.