Kiltchy described the sparkled objects to Eldon before handing them over to him. It was the first time a sparkled object, a grucass , was passed across the border. The nimbus from all across the world gathered above the portal to witness the event. It rained like never before as Eldon's hands touched the grucasses. Lightning tried to strike the receiver of the forbidden but they could not stop it. Eldon was determined to abandon his doubts with tides that washed off in a faraway land and Kiltchy was determined to have the sparkless one's meat. Kiltchy did not need her sorcery to assure herself that Helena was cheating on her husband because a lady can sense the deceit in another lady. Kiltchy was sure that Helena had handed over her heart to another person. Eldon had narrated his story to her when he came for her aid and she knew that he was being betrayed.

The 'Iris of hell' was the most dangerous grucass to be ever sparkled in the other world. It had the power to turn this world upside down because it had the ability to ashen the very fountain of this world; lies. Anybody who held it would answer any questions asked to him or her, with not but pure truth. Once Eldon had it in his hands, Kiltchy asked him if he loved his wife and he answered the question with an innocent 'yes'. On hearing the answer, She asked him to hurry to his wife because of the other grucass.

The 'Wail of lover' was another unbelievable grucass that none but Kiltchy could sparkle. The person, whom the holder of the necklace loves the most in this whole world, would suffer from immense pain as long it was in contact with the holder. Kiltchy knew that 'Iris of hell' was more than enough to serve Eldon with the truth but she wanted the betrayer to suffer and that was why she gave it to him. She was happy to know that Eldon loved his wife because she also wanted Helena to suffer from the unbearable pain. Kiltchy asked Eldon to place the stone inside the locket and give it to his love as a romantic gift. She told him about the necklace and he was more than ready to suffer the pain of love, he still had hope that it was not a secret lover whom Helena visited every Sunday.

Helena was screaming while wriggling on the floor when Eldon reached home . He helped her to sit across him and he placed the necklace around her neck and hooked it. He waited for the pain of love that never came and he was raged by it. He threw each everything he could get a grasp of . He threw the plates, the showpieces, the chairs...

Helena was terrified by her husband's sudden outburst and she could not understand the cause. Her husband was never angry. Eldon always dealt with situations carefully and calmly. She could not believe that the man in front of her was her husband. She was shocked by his question that followed the unexpected outburst. Her husband asked her about the man that she loved the most. She gasped when she said the name of her dead lover. She could not comprehend about the event that just occurred and her eyes filled with tears. All those years of joy were vaporized by a single word; James.

Her husband stormed off the mansion, leaving behind a devastated Helena.

Helena's world turned upside down in a matter of seconds and she fell on her knees as she thought about her destructed family. That was when she heard a scream from the upstairs and there was only one person there, her son.

Helena rushed to his room and screamed as she saw Joshua writhing in pain on the floor. She went near her son and hugged him. He was in such pain that he could not control his actions. Joshua snatched the first thing he could hold on to and that was his mother's new necklace. Joshua pushed Helena and his body hit against the wall behind him in the process. He closed his eyes as he felt pain conquer every fibre in his body.

There are a lot of people who support the fact that this is a cursed stone. However, A group of farmers near the Kolpin Lake see this stone as a divine object sent from the heavens during the earthquakes of 1986. I strongly oppose this opinion due to the various proofs that I have collected from-

"Hey, hey, stop there." Stella moved closer to me and moved her fingers along the paragraph that I read last "There is something wrong".

She took the book from me and placed it on her lap. She said, "A few pages are missing from here"

I looked at the page number that was written in the left bottom corner of each page to find that the last paragraph I read was on page number 100 while the paragraph I read previous to it was on page number 23.

"I was totally getting into the story, couldn't they take better care of the book?" I said as I massaged my temples.

Stella simply smiled at me before turning over the pages. I stood from my position and stretched my body before walking to the kitchen to drink something.

"Do you really think that what this book says is the truth?" I asked Stella as I closed the door to my room and walked to my bed with two glasses of water.

"It seems so, I skimmed through the pages before taking it and its description about the curse is accurate," Stella said as she looked at the pictures of the 'Iris of Hell' and 'wail of a lover'. The pictures in the book were black and white photos glued to the pages. The 'wail of a lover' was a necklace with a heart locket on it. I felt like I had seen it somewhere before but I just could not figure it out.

"But they said nothing about Eldon or Helena having a gruesome pain and closing their eyes once they had the stone with them, don't you think it was a piece of crucial information considering the fact that it was way too painful not to notice?"

"Yeah, but the son did experience something like that when he snatched the necklace, didn't he?"

I nodded while answering her positively and gave her a glass of water.

"I do know that you do not have a library card but couldn't you just use mine rather than stealing the book, "I asked before taking a sip from my glass. I was growing used to having the stone stuck to my palm but it still felt a little disturbing. My mom did not notice it's presence and I am pretty sure that things would not have been much different if she saw because she had stopped asking me questions long before.

" I did not want your name on anything related to this piece of hell," She pointed at the stone in my hand "Because Hermes already knows your name and having it on a book in the only library with books related to the stone did not seem like a good idea."

Libraries were rare in our area and the books related to myths, magic and taboos were only available in the national library. The national library was not much far away from our house and thus I had a membership there. Stella insisted on not having a library card since she thought that the monthly charge for its renewal was a waste of money in her case since she could instead take books with my card.

In a country where poverty was as wide as the blue sky, education came after food. The Yoyomian government provided it's citizens with a lot of facilities including food with a low price however, it was not always the suffering citizens who got the benefit and this story is as old as time.

"Hermes... I hate even hearing that name," I said.

"Whose name do you hate to hear ?" Rihanna asked as she jumped into my room through the window. She was also in her uniform and I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows while eying her from head to toe.

"Hermes," I said.

"Yeah about him, he said that he wants to meet all three of us on next Friday night"

"When did he say it and why are you in your uniform," I asked her.

"I wore the uniform to meet him at the dark alley," She sat on my bed and sighed.

"Woah, woah , when did you start having secret meetings with him?" I asked as Stella started to detect the tension in the air. She started acting like she was byhearting each and every word in the book. She was so bad at acting but she never gave up.

"It was the first and I wanted to take one of you with him but you were" she looked at the stone in my hand " and I thought that it would not be safe to meet him like this due to what happened last time"

"So should I never go in front of him again because of this stupid thing, how is that-"

"Not until it is necessary"

"What about Stella?" Stella stiffened at her position once I pronounced her name. She was always afraid of being pulled into fights between me and Rihanna and we were never tired of fighting. We found one or the other thing to create tension between us but this time it was not a thing, it was a guy. We never fought on boys and I cursed Hermes silently.

"Well, she said that she was busy tonight" She looked at Stella and her eyes flickered at the book on her lap "Oh, this book, I read it. It's from the library, isn't it?"

I was already angry at Rihanna for not letting me know about her meeting. I did not even know when they had planned it. It was like kerosene was poured over the fire when I knew that my best friend knew about the curse that I would be effected with if I took the stone and yet she never gave a clue about it to me.

"Seems like you are keeping a lot of secrets from us, nowadays"

"Says the girl who admitted herself that she keeps a lot of secrets including her crush on my brother" Rihanna did not wait for me to speak she jumped off the window through which she came in.

I sat there motionless for a little while. I knew that it was my mistake that I made her angry but I was getting tired of the stone in my hand. I was forced to live isolated for the previous two weeks and I felt exhausted by the fact that none of my two best friends even bothered to take turns with me. I didn't know if I was being selfish or not but everything seemed unfair.

Stella took my hand in hers and smiled at me.

"It's okay, Lilly, everything is going to be alright"

"Yeah, I know" If there was one thing that I was happy about the stone, it was the fact that I could lie if it was not an answer to someone else's question.

"All of us keep secrets, it is not just you" Stella side hugged me while sitting beside me.

"But why do I have to suffer, why can't we take turns?"

"I and Rihanna are as afraid as you about getting our secrets out and it's not that I have not considered it but..." Her eyes lingered on a photo of me and my uncle that was hung near the window.

"I am not going to force you but can't you tell me that why do you hate my uncle?"

"All that I can say is that I believe it is not your uncle that I hate, it is the man who dragged me and my mother into this mess that I hate," Her voice was trembling.

"What is the difference?"

"Your uncle is a person loved by my best friend and I love him too but this man is not" She said.

I looked at her with eyebrows that were knitted together. I had a controlled smile on my face that could betray me at any moment. Her words made no sense according to me

"The thing is ...the hatred is in no way related to you and trust me when I say that you would have felt the same if you were in my shoes. I pinky promise you that it did not, does not and will not affect us in any way." She took my pinky finger with hers and raised it to our face level and said," Look, I would have taken that stone from you and repeated the same if you ask me about it in some twisted question but I will not do it because I am pretty sure that you will not take the stone back once it is out of your hand, isn't it?"

"Yes," Both of us chuckled at the measure of my honesty.

She stood up and opened the door to leave.

"Do you hate me for pulling you into this, into what we do?"

"I would have if you were not my sister who wanted to avenge and help my mother" Saying that she smiled and left the room.

Till that day I thought that I got a mother and a sister when my uncle married Stella's mom but on that day I realized that I actually got a mother and a caring elder sister due to that marriage.