*Warning:- This chapter contains traumatic scene (murder). Proceed with caution*

Leila did not go the ball with her brothers because she was told to take bed-rest due to her ribs. It was not like Leila wanted to go there by her own wish. She preferred staying locked in her room insured of going out.

"Leila dear. Aren't you asleep yet?" Mia entered the room with a glass of chocolate milk.

Leila looked up from her book and at the time to see that it was already 11'O clock in night. She turned towards Mia and smiled faintly.

"I just didn't see the time." She said and accepted the glass from her whispering a small thank you under her breath.

"How are your ribs?" Leila noticed nothing but pure concern laced in Mia's voice. That made her smile again.

"They do not hurt much."

Just as Leila was finished speaking, a loud sound of something falling reached their ears.

"What was that?" Mia stood up from her bed.

Leila noticed her hand reaching under her jacket. The outline of gun became evident to her eyes.

"It must be probably nothing." Leila tried to wave her concern off.

"I'm just going to check outside. Lock the door. Don't open it otherwise I call you."

Leila nodded and stood up from the bed.

She went to see her off at the door and locked the door.

Leila remained standing near it, though. It must have been two minutes. She was starting to anxiously tap her foot on the floor.

She waited for another three minutes and still Mia did not come back.

Now Leila was worried too.

She picked up a kitchen knife from the fruit bowl and slowly opened the door.

The hallways were dark and silent. It made her heart race but she ignored this feeling and slowly started to walk downstairs.

Feeling a slight tremble in her legs, she descended the stairs. On the bottom of the stairs, her eyes fell on a gun that was near her feet.

She hesitantly crouched down to pick it up and her eyes caught a sight of blood covered hand under an armchair.

A startled gasp left her lips and she fell down on her rear.

Tears covered her vision.

Making her mind after few minutes, she slowly walked towards it. Her eyes widened in horror as she saw the dead body of one of the guard.

She yelped in shock when she heard the sound of Mia's screaming.

"Mia!" Without thinking, she started to run towards the source of scream.

Her body felt like auto pilot as her feet led her to the front door. Just as she rounded a corner, her feet paused as if they were stuck in the floor.

Her eyes made contact with fearful wide eyes of Mia. Her stomach was covered in blood with a knife sticking out of it. She was roughly slammed into a wall and a man with a ski mask appeared in front of her.

A blood curdling scream left Mia and Leila's lips when he pulled the knife out and again plunged it in her abdomen.

That man's head snapped in Leila's direction. Leila immediately raised the gun in his direction.

He just pulled Mia in front of him as a human shield and raised his knife to her throat.

"NO!" Leila screamed when he slowly slit her throat.

"LEILA! OPEN YOUR FUCKING EYES!" Leila's eyes snapped open in panic.

She jerked up to sit from her bed and looked around with wide eyes.

"Leila!" She looked at Zach who was shaking her shoulders vigorously.

Her lip quivered when she saw Mia fully alright standing behind him.

"Leila.." Zach placed his hands on her cheeks and called her name again, this time calmly.

"Whatever you saw was a bad dream. Just calm down. Try to breathe."

At his words, she finally noticed that she was not even breathing at all. In her panic, she forgot it and her lungs were now screaming for oxygen.

She finally started to breathe in sending tons of relief in Zach and Mia's chest.

"Get her a glass of drink or something." He said to Mia who immediately rushed out of the room.

"Imagine my surprise after coming from party early. I heard your blood curdling screams." Zach murmured to himself and then looked down at Leila's face.

Leila squealed in surprise when he lifted her into his arms before placing her down on the other side of the bed.

To her shock, he lied down beside her.

"What? I'm not leaving you on your own tonight." He chuckled under his breath.

Leila shifted a little.

"Let's watch a movie." Just as he said that, Mia entered the room with a glass of chocolate milk.

Leila stared at it when Mia handed it to her.

"Thank you." She whispered and a little hesitantly, accepted it.

"You can leave." Zach suddenly said to Mia in a blank tone.

She bowed her head and immediately left.

Zach turned off the movie he just started and looked at Leila who was frowning at the chocolate milk.

"So you want to talk about it?" He asked.

Leila looked up at him confused.

"I know I'm not really the best one when it comes to sharing problems or stories but I just want to hear. What's troubling you?"

Leila set the glass down.

"I started having nightmares when she died." Leila swallowed hard remembering her bestfriend's face.

"After several therapies and living with Grandma, I got over with it. My nightmares stopped a long year back."

Zach did not comment anything. Instead he just silently listened to her.

"Whenever those nightmares came, I felt terrified. It was so bad that I felt like harming myself each time. Grandma was there, my therapist was there but still I felt alone. That loneliness was killing me apart. I feel like what happened with Laura is my fault. I-I should have known. Only if I wasn't so ignorant, she would have been alive today."

"This nightmare I got today was about Mia. Someone killed her in front of me and this time again I could only just watch helplessly. Same like I watched Laura when she gave up on her life. She killed herself."

Leila did not notice that she was crying badly at this point. She was just recalling those haunted memories feeling herself slowly getting sucked in between them when suddenly a strange warmth engulfed her.

Her eyes snapped open and she found herself close to Zach's chest. He was hugging her.

This was strange but still it felt so comforting she broke down and started bawling loudly and hugged him back tightly.

Maybe that's what she needed the most at this time.

A warm hug.