Getting off the car took so much energy and restrain from Avery, because the last thing she wanted was to be with Tsuda under the same roof, again. But she needed to be there, one thing her uncle told her again and again was to keep your enemies closer to you than your friends. Avery could only get the chance to kill him, if she was close to him.

But what she didn't expect was Tsuda's persistent demand of sleeping in the same room as her. "What the f*ck do you mean you're not leaving? Get out of my room." Tsuda stood with a pillow gripped under his arm. "It means what I said." His grim reply made her fume. "I'm not even sleeping in the bed, so I don't see what the issue is." She stood infront of him with clenched fists.

"The issue here is, I'd rather sleep on a side walk than be in the same room as you." She seethed. "Come on, don't be like that." He walked passed her and laid down on the couch, with his back towards her. She stomped out of the room and sat down on the carpet of the living room, with her back touching the couch base. She hugged her legs and rested her cheek on her knees. Looking out into the winter night, such gloomy night it was.

She huffed and went back inside, "Give me a cigarette." She demanded, as her hand extended to his back. "No, you're not a smoker." He replied, without moving an inch. "Give it to me right now or I'm going to sleep in the living room." He sighed and handed one cigarette to her. "Need a light?" He tried lighting it for her, but she snatched the lighter out of his hand and walked away.

She leaned on the railing of the balcony with her arms stretched out, but one holding cigarette in it. She looked down on her bare feet as she felt pins of cold pricking her toes. She heard some rusteling sound and a slight weight was placed on her shoulders. She looked up and saw Tsuda retreating back inside her room. He had put a blanket on her shoulders and as she looked down, apparently he had also left some slippers out for her. Few inches away from her feet.

She felt too tired to move, so netheir did she wear the slippers, nor did she take the blanket off. She looked ahead at the sky with snowflakes fluttering down from the sky. She missed the line of the time as she thought about her mother, her father, her laughter, everything that died that night. "Were we worth that little, mom? To be destroyed for mere piece of paper." She asked out to her dead mother.

A burning rage took over her once again and whitening her knuckles with wrath. She walked inside the room and saw Tsuda sleeping soundly where she had last seen him. She got on his chest and wrapped her hands around his neck, strangling him. He jerked awake at the pressure and instinctively held her wrists in a bone breaking grip. She gulped the pain down and choked him harder.

Once he could register the situation, his grip loosened instantly. His eyes looked up at hers, as if they were searching for something. She gritted out, "Die. Die you son of a bitch!" He found something in them, although if it was what he was looking for or the opposite, she couldn't tell. But his body completely surrendered to her, laying limp as she was choking him to death.

His face turned red and a slight shiver broke out in his body, at her strong grip and lack of oxygen. His hand moved up and cupped her cheek. "Ikigai.." He called in a choking whisper. The words she didn't even know the meaning of shocked her, as if waking her up from a trance.

It reminded her of all the whispers he breathed into her ears when they were the closest. When his eyes, lips and every touched screamed of adoration. As though he cherished her. A lone tear slid down her eye and she jerked away from him. I can't do this. She whimpered in her head.

He got up immediately in a coughing spasm tapping his chest, wheezing for air. While she stood there watching everything like a nightmare. After a while he sipped some water and laid back down, turning his back to her again. "You're.. tired. Sleep now." He whispered out in a cracked breath.

She was pale and had sweat beaded on her temples and forehead. She stood still for a while with her hands clenched, reliving the feeling of his warm, sensitive skin being crushed under her hand. She walked towards the bed and slept hoping, praying that one of them would not wake up the next morning.

But not so surprisingly they did wake up, both of them. She woke up in an empty room and sighed, already feeling a headache. "Slept well?" She heard from the doorway. She only scoffed at that without looking at him.

"Come, I've made breakfast." He said. "And it's not a question." He told her.

She pulled herself out of the bed and followed him out to the breakfast table. They eat in silence and Avery looked outside the snowey window most of the time.

"We need to go somewhere today." Tsuda voiced. "I am not going anywhere." She told him.

"You either come with me to help me find out who gave you the information about me. Or you can leave us both the trouble and just tell me now." He told her while sipping at his coffee.

She scoffed at him, ridiculing him with her gaze. "F**k you." She cursed at him. "I know you want to." He bit back. "Stop deluding yourself. I would take my skin off, if I could, just to take the memory of every touch you..." She couldn't finish because Tsuda covered her mouth with his mouth.

She gasped, pushing him hard to get herself away from him. She failed to do so for Tsuda held her wrists in a tight grip on her back. She did not want it, this was not Tsuda's touch. He has always been gentle, this was not him. She felt tears welling up in her eyes as she let her body lose the stiffness. As though, giving up on something, maybe the last memory of them? Or maybe the tiniest bit of hope for them.

The moment Tsuda felt her demeanour change, he let her go, stepping back. As soon as she was released she swung her hand straight at his face, slapping him the hardest she could.

Tsuda stumbled back a little and looked up at her in shock. "You are dead to me now." She whispered.

She was half hoping to be hit back. He could do anything now, she had no expectations from him. She felt nothing but rage and hatred for him.

She saw him spit some blood out at the floor and realised he has bit his cheek from the shock. A sense of satisfaction warmed her slightly, but not nearly enough.

He sighed and walked away without looking at her. He came back with a handcuff in his hand and an ice pack pressed to his cheek.

"No!" She tried to get away from him but he caught her in a tight grip and cuffed her after putting some sort of thick wrist bands on her.

"Don't struggle too much with the cuffs. I don't want to see your wrists getting hurt." He told her in a serious yet grim tone.

"What a gentleman." She said blandly.

"A gentleman, a beast. Call me what you wish. But don't even dream of f*cking me over or leaving my side." He held the back of her neck in a grip that was not too tight but nor genuine either.

"Guess what? I'll do both. What are you going to do about it?" She seethed.

"Well, it will only make you meet your parents sooner than I wished." His words struck her deep. If she felt anything for him even after all this, it died with his words.

"And you know what? You don't deserve to step out of this house. Stay where I leave you and eat what my hand feeds you. Just like a pet.." He was interrupted by her, as she launched at him trying to hit him with her head or legs or whatever she could used with her hands cuffed behind her back like that.

He grabbed her by the upper arms and pulled her up, clean off of the ground. Her eyes were wide in shock, as she was taken back to her room and tied to the bed with great ease. With her feet and cuffed hands tied to the bed, she could do nothing but exactly what he said. Stay where he leaves her and eat what his hand gives her.

"Whenever I try to be kind to you, you throw it right back at my face. So we'll do it your way now." He stated and left after locking the doors behind him, leaving her helpless.

After the night fell, she heard the door locks opening. Her while body was soar from laying on bed for the whole day. Her muscles were screaming and her wrists and feet were burning.

"I'm back. Brought you some soup and some curry rice." He told her while taking his coat off. He set the food up on a tray placed on the bed near Avery.

She sat her up and took the roped off of her, undoing everything to bound her but her left her hand cuffs.

"I know you've not eaten or drank anything for hours." He said putting a straw to her lips. He was trying to make her drink water.

She glared at him and got nothing from him, but another tap of the straw to her lips. "Drink it." He told her, his eyes warning her not to try anything funny.

"I want to go to Ava. The child and her..." She said but coughed as the straw slipped inside her mouth.

"Drink it or I will make you swallow it down from my own mouth." He warned her. She closed her eyes and gulped the water down.

"Good, now eat." Tsuda said blowing onto the spoon full of soup and putting it to her lips.

She refused to budge. "Do you want to have the rice first? I think you should start with something light like the soup because you haven't eaten the whole day." She ignored him.

"Ava..." She started but went silent with a flinch.

"Stop it!" He bellowed very loudly. "She is getting along with her soon to be husband. Eat!" He said pushing the spoon more forcefully.

"Both of you friends... I wish I could kill you before any of this even started. You will die by my hands. I've already started the engine of this train. And the driver has pulled the liver and it has started moving." She told him in a dead serious tone.

"And who is the driver, you?" He asked with a smirk. "No, not me. I'll be the one keeping you down, tied to the track. As he runs you over." She told him with an answering smirk.

"He? Is this 'He' the one who told you about your parents?" He asked.

"No, I don't know who he was. He had a patch on his right eye while the left side of his face was covered in a black mask." She told him feeling no threat from him now.

"I don't remember anyone like that." His brows were furrowed in deep thoughts. "Anyways now that you're in the mood for telling, would you mind telling me who's your ally, in this great plan of yours?" He asked her.

"I can put up our meeting right away." She told him with a smirk and right that moment his phone started ringing.

"Boss! The main house is on fire!" Tsuda shot out of his seat the moment he heard the familiar voice from the speaker.

"You did this..." He looked at her in shock and with something dangerous lurking underneath.

She shrugged, "An eye for an eye, a family for a family." She told him with a smile.

"F**k" He cursed and snatched her up but the back of her shirt. He rushed out, dragging her alongside him.

He got in his car and rushed to the main house. Avery let him do whatever he wanted with a slight smile on her face.

She could hear him breathing hard, trying to reach his parents as soon as possible. "You know I have a friend, he is a computer genius. But something disturbed me about him. He could use anyone's voice while calling, like anyone. Isn't it interesting?" He understood what she meant. The call was a trap. Shit!

He turned to her and felt something sharp pricking his neck. "No!" He unconsciously turned the car around. But their speed was too high for him to successfully make the turn without the car flipping.

So it did flip and dragged for a while and crashed with a nearby tree. "Avery!" He panicked and reached for her. He climbed out of the car with her in his arms.

The moment he was out of the car he felt his body giving out. Avery had injected something in his neck earlier. He fell on his knees and put Avery down. Then his body gave out and thumped down in the middle of the road.

He groaned trying to hold Avery close to him, it was cold out and she was hurt. He could see the blood running down her temple.

Suddenly, lights from cars flashed in his eyes and the last thing he wanted was done. Avery was taken away from him arms.

"No.." He groaned out, trying to reach out for her and fight the people, but his arms would not as much as twitch at his command. "Ikigai..." He gasped out.

He saw a man taking Avery away in his arms. No! He could not even voice it out anymore. Before he blacked out he saw the man turn back to him and Tsuda recognised him right away. Charles.