|| - Hook - ||

It beats
It breaks
It loves
It aches
For you
Only you

Love does not come in triangles. If it had things would have been much simpler - and love thrives in complexity. The man she loved, loved another. But it would be no joy to the fates if it stopped there. Jo Jo sighed to herself as she watched the old printer wheeze and spit the paper out.

It was dark in the study mostly lit by the amber light from the streetlight across the narrow street and the printer coughed like an old dog. JoJo gave it a sharp smack on the top and it finally splattered the paper it had been chewing for a while. She took it and glanced over the content before cutting out the brief write - up on Vanya Moirai.

The scrap book was pressed open on her study top waiting for its latest add on. Jo Jo pulled a chair and switched on a study lamp to finish her work.

In the lamp light a few streaks of silver glittered in her short hair. Her always meticulous hands shook a little. It would not have done if she was to perform a magic trick but Jo Jo had retired from that field a few months back. Her nerves were weary and there was no excitement in the crowd anymore. Instead of the wonder of her youth they watched her like hawks waiting to catch on to the trick and gloat pompously that they had seen it coming all along. She was an artist not a swindler. The perception hurt a little.

Jo Jo liked the calm and quite of her home better than the crowds. There were whispers of memories here. The kids she told stories to had grown up into young men and women. She kept tabs on most of them, their achievements stroked a sense of parental pride. Jo Jo never had children of her own. It was one of those ‘could have been’ s of her life.

Had he loved her back, she would not have returned to an empty house every night. Had he loved her back, she would have raised Vanya. She was still close to her heart. The girl who in another life would have been her daughter. There was an aching fulfillment in looking at her pictures whenever they appear. Trying to find the subtle similarities she had to the man Jo Jo loved. There was not many.

But to Jo Jo Vanya always represented that man and a promise he never asked her to keep. She would always look after the child he had left behind in any way fates allowed her.

She pressed the paper and brushed over the thumbnail of Vanya’s head-shot.

“How are you doing Anya?” she whispered in wonder. “You remember all those stories huh?”

A gust of wind cooled the back of her neck, lifting the short curls that lay against her skin. A feeling of being watched crawled along her spine and Jo Jo jumped to her feet. Something moved in the shadows. A figure with no sound of footsteps - that it melted into the pools of darkness as if it never existed in the first place.

“Who is it?”

Jo Jo gripped the back of her chair harder as she heard the quiver of her own tone. With the trained eyes of a magician she could catch the slight shift in the shadows. But the next second it wasn’t there.

She fumbled with the phone in her pocket and turned on its flashlight without moving from the place where she stood. The beam of white light bounced off the trinkets displaced on her cabinets, the calender on the wall and the glass of the windows. Nothing - was out of place.

Outside a craw cawed, rather ominously in an unsuitable time. A chill ran down her spine and sweat gathered at her brow. A memory surfaced against her will.

“Zillah - the shifters. The shadow hunters. There is no escape if you’ve been marked.” Jo Jo remembered the frown upon his young face as he told her. In reply her own grin seemed forced and rather out of place in the memory.

“Why so?”

“They are shadows Jo Jo - shadows are everywhere.”

Closing her eyes Jo Jo spoke in a tongue she had not uttered in decades. The words felt foreign on her lips without their lyrical property.

“Kauda?” She repeated the same question, but in those words. Still there was no answer.

Taking a step back, her mobile still clutched closer to her heart Jo Jo moved away. The lamp outside flickered and in a shower of sparks the light went out. Another gust of ice cold wind brushed against her elbow.

She whipped around and a flash of silver caught her eye. Her eyes widened and she screamed.

The mobile cluttered on the ground with an empty ‘thud.’

**

“Are you sure you are not following me?” Vanya raised an eyebrow, as she wheeled her luggage towards the exit and Theon - ah - Adhir followed nonchalantly sipping from the smoking take - away coffee in his hand.

“Hundred percent!” He smirked at her, “you are walking ahead of me.”

Vanya stopped trying to judge his intention. She was in no mood to flirt. She had just switched on her mobile to receive a text from Hanna exclaiming in block letters that Adya wants the submission date moved up. She had no idea where to start the sequel let along submit ten episodes. And Adhir’s Theon - like face was not helping at all.

“Very smart,” she said in a clipped tone. “Now I’m going towards that girl in curls and nose - ring. Don’t tell me she is your sister or something.”

Shaily the girl in curls chose that precise moment to scream waving furiously at them.

“Bhai!” She was saying.

Adhir bit his lip and chuckled as Shaily sprinted towards them. Vanya watched them bewildered, her hands on her hips. Shaily was supposed to pick her up and exactly when did she have a brother?

“Lyla -” Adhir held out a hand before the girl jumped on him and she pulled into a stop just a minute before colliding head first into his chest. “coffee -” he said slowly, showing the plastic cup in his hand. “Dry cleaning only.” He gestured at his jacket.

“Who cares!” Lyla waved off the warning, giving him a bear hug anyway.

Vanya cleared her throat, rather put off by their display of affection.

“Anya!” Lyla turned to her next, but she stepped away determinedly before being strangled to death by her old best friend. Lyla sighed in disappointment but linked her arm through Vanya’s anyway.

“Where were you?” She asked Adhir and then turned to whisper into Vanya’s ear. “I thought he was sucked in by the Bermuda triangle!”

“In the flight apparently,” Vanya replied trying not to get too annoyed at the smug look on Adhir’s face.

“So you decided to take matters into your own hand?” Adhir said suddenly serious.

“I’ve been hearing weird things cousin, have you been threatening detectives?”

“That manager told you didn’t she?”

“She is worried for you - and of cause your label.”

“Huh puh!” Lyla snorted. “More like she can’t take her eyes off you! I’m telling you Bhai cousin or not - you are not allowed to date my employees.”

“Yes Madam,” Adhir gave her a mock bow. “She is not my type anyway.”

“Anyway it’s a good thing that you came. We might actually need you help.” Lyla added, leading them out into the falling dusk. Vanya stopped at her words.

“Get me in the loop here - who are ‘we’ and why do ‘we’ need ‘him’?”

Adhir who was almost at the car turned and leaned into it.

“Because you guys are in a mess and I’m pretty good at cleaning up?” He suggested rather innocently and then blew out air from the corner of his mouth. “Dear cousin I believe you have a lot of explaining to do!”

**
|| - Glossary -||

Kauda - who is it?
Bhai - brother
-----------

Another week is done and the mystery is finally peeling off. I'm waiting to know your thoughts on the matter. So do share them!
Vote and comment if you liked the story so far and thanks for reading!