Page 85 of Nocturne

She has changed her clothes from the morning. When?

More importantly, why?

“What’s going on?” I hiss, watching her.

She leans back, relaxed, a look that’s far too nonchalant for my liking.

“Something happened.”

Of course, it did. Why wouldn’t it?

I’m convinced that someone up there has something against me. I think they keep a bell on my behalf, which rings every time I take a breather which reminds them to send chaos my way.

"The next words out of your mouth better not include you being somewhere you’re not supposed to be." I try to be strict, but I sound pathetically scared.

“Like this place?” She teases, trying to divert.

I narrow my eyes at her.

“You have one minute to explain before I poke this fork in your hand.” I threaten.

That is a lie. I am not touching anything in this god-forsaken place. God knows what kind of germs this place plays a hospitable host to. It is a sheer miracle that I somehow managed to remain seated even after hours of nitpicking every gross detail of this place. In times like this, I was thankful to be carrying a sanitisation spray and a pack of tissues with me.

“Jeez.” Ivy rolls her eyes.

She seems relaxed, but her insistence to keep rubbing the side of her nose is her dead giveaway. She is nervous.

“Ivy,” I warn.

“Fine, fine” She raises her hands in surrender.

There’s a flicker of tension in her eyes. She leans in, her face shadowed by the hood.

“Illegal experimentation,” she whispers.

I was about to let out a loud gasp, but Ivy, anticipating my reaction, had already clamped her hand over my mouth.

“I’ve been working on this story—on these people,” she says quietly. “There’s a pharmaceutical company conducting untested human experiments. I finally found their site, and it’s bad. Ara, they’re shackling people to beds. I saw it myself, rows of them, people being tortured. It’s…” She trails off, her face ashen, as if speaking the words aloud makes them real.

I know that she has a blog where she anonymously writes articles and reports about crimes that other papers do not have the guts to write. But ever since she had started working for Mariam, the workload had become demanding and she did not have much time to write, let alone go out and scope out the stories.

I also know that she volunteers in multiple NGO’s, trying to help the people who need it. Trying to uncover the truths others are too afraid to. Ever since the warehouse incident, I thought she put a rest on it. I’ve thought wrong.

But what she revealed just now…I cannot wrap my head around it.

I blink, struggling to process the information. I know the world isn’t filled with unicorns and rainbows, I’m aware of the darkness lurking beneath the surface. But… has humanity truly stooped this low?

Ivy’s words echo in my mind, slow to fully register. Things like this don’t happen in real life, do they? This is the kind of horror reserved for movies or some twisted thriller novel. Right?

If I could, I’d scoff at my own naivety. I’ve witnessed things that go beyond anything shown in movies or written in books—horrors beyond comprehension. Yet, hearing her words now,trying to fathom that people like this exist, my mind comes up blank.

I knew Walius was a city filled with bigwigs who didn’t play by the rules, but I’m beginning to see it’s not just that. It’s a city crawling with monsters who lack any trace of humanity. The whole world is.

A sudden thought flashes through my mind—things like this are hidden for a reason. Secrets they’d kill to protect. They control when, if ever, the truth comes out. And anyone who knows too much is immediately at risk. My eyes widen as I see the same realisation and fear reflected in Ivy’s gaze.

There’s a hint of resignation on her face, and I’m not letting it linger. Gently, I pull her hand away from my mouth, breaking the silence between us when I see it on her face.

“There’s something else,” I say.

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