Dark Chemistry

Natalia's POV :

The loud roaring sounds of the clouds echoed throughout the busy town. Everybody was rushing to their destinations before the heavy rainfall.

I was looking at the busy street and enjoying the mind blowing gift of nature, standing on my small balcony which was containing many flower plants.

A few minutes later it started raining cats and dogs.

Cold breeze, the sound of rain, and the wet smell of nature during rain is really amazing especially in the evening. It blows my mind, relaxes my body and nerves.

When soothing smells of roses and lilies hit my nostrils, I closed my eyes and took a deep inhale. Darkness was surrounding me but the only lights I could see were coming from the street and the lightning.

"Talia!" My mother's voice came from downstairs.

"Coming, mom!" I got up and walked downstairs.

I have such a typical strict, hot tempered and at the same time a very loving, caring mother. I got the exact same feature from my mother.

Long dark hair that falls down the back, dark eyes and flawless fair skin. Everybody says that I'm the younger version of my mother.

"Your granny finally agreed to visit the doctor. She is coming tomorrow morning and told me to book an appointment." Mom sighed.

"That's impressive, mom." I laughed.

"And I don't wanna hear any complaints from her about you. Be careful when she's here." Mom smiled tightly.

Well, my granny, my mother's mother, never agreed to visit the doctor so we have to manipulate her in many ways. She thinks that she can heal without medicines and the doctors are useless. They just prescribed a bunch of medicines and that's why she became more weak.

She has even problems with everything we modern people do. I had to wear a scarf when I went outside and had to wake up at 6 am in the morning, whenever she came to our house. Even mom and dad fear her grumpy mood. This old lady even hates my two best friends because she thinks they're impolite, irritating and foul.

But she loves us unconditionally. And actually I enjoy her grumpy mood.

"I don't do anything stupid. She always finds a problem in everything."

"Don't talk about her like this. She's your grandma. She does that because she is a cultural and pious woman and she's not used to living in the modern decade. Don't disrespect her. You know she loves us more than anything in the world."

"Yeah, I know. I'll be careful. I won't upset her anymore." I nodded.

"And you got a C in mathematics test. Can I know the reason?" Mom glared at me.

"Mom! You again went through my backpack!" I groaned in frustration.

"You're falling day by day, Natalia. We provide you everything you need but you can't just make a good result for us, can you? Instead of using mobile phone and laptop all day, read attentively this time." She said.

"Okay, I will." I huffed.

"You know you're more lazy than Nova's cat, Natalia." Ellerie scoffed.

Ellerie, six years old baby brother of mine who has a big smart mouth and a tiny figure. He has some weird habits like throwing things here and there when he gets angry, bringing things from neighbors house without telling them though they know it's his habit, wailing and screaming 'mom' for simple reasons.

"I'm not." I slightly pinched his cheeks.

"Don't touch me with your hands."

"Do you want me to touch you with my legs?"

"What! Mom!"

"Natalia!" Mom warned not to make him mad.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" I grinned.

"I told dad to bring chocolate ice cream and chocolate muffins only for me." He smirked.

"Then I'm gonna steal all of them from you." I grimaced.

"Mom!" He started wailing.

My father is a big grocery store owner. He's a very charming and handsome man. Ellerie got my dad's hazel eyes and brown hair. Many women who come to dad's store regularly have a huge crush on him and one day mom saw a young woman trying to flirt with dad so she grabbed her hair right then and threw her outside of the store.

Dad and I were laughing at that funny scene but mom was so angry that she shattered a vase right there and made us hide behind the shelves.

"If you steal my muffins again, I'll tell everyone that you're a thief who steals muffins and ice creams. And then I'll ask uncle Jacob if he can arrest you and throw you into the jail." Ellerie smiled widely at his own idea.

"No way." I surrendered as I held my hands up and laughed.

Aunt Hannah Hernandez is our neighbor who lives next to our house. She's a kind and generous woman. Her husband, uncle Jacob Hernandez is a police officer. She has a ten year old daughter named Nova. She's quite adorable and brilliant. I made my way to the kitchen with mom and helped her to serve the dinner.

A few minutes later, dad arrived at home with Ellerie's favorite ice cream and chocolate muffins.

"Thank you dad!" I heard Ellerie yelling and dad was chuckling.

"Here's my princess. How was your day, my little girl?" Dad smiled as I went to the living room.

"It was good. How about yours?"

"Busy as always. I've heard that your granny is coming."

"Yes. She finally agreed to visit the doctor." I hummed.

"That's good. But if she keeps hiding her sickness like this, it'll be worse later." He sighed.

"Yeah. But she doesn't want to understand that." Mom sighed too.

After dinner I headed upstairs and entered my bedroom. I'm in high school and the next year I want to admit myself into a good college in the city so I was trying hard.

It was already 11:40 pm when I finished my assignments. After a few moments of scrolling through social media, I shut my laptop and walked into the bathroom.

Finishing my daily night routine, I turned the lights off and got into the bed.

Our town is blessed with natural beauty, surrounded by a big forest from the southeast part and the ocean. The ocean has passed by the west side to another city flowing behind the deep forest. To the north side, there is the main road and railway station by which people communicate with cities.

Though this town is almost inside of a forest and at the edge of the country, it's quite developed. Many travelers come here every year to visit the beautiful, enchanting beach. This town is a hidden little paradise inside the globe without a doubt.

The sky was clear, stars were twinkling and the moon was shining brightly as the rain stopped pouring. Moonlight was showering my room through the open windows.

The sweet smell of roses was coming from the balcony, the thin curtains of my room were dancing with the wave of cold breezes. I smiled widely and sat on my bed and looked outside through my bedside window. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply as a cold breeze mixed with the smell of roses and lilies hit my nostrils and filled my lungs. It felt like I was in heaven.

I wanted to walk on the moonlight showered street during the midnight, I wanted to shiver when cold breezes would hit my skin, I wanted to stand beneath a street light which would illuminate me, I wanted to watch those twinkling stars in the dark sky everyday.

I wanted to enjoy many many moonlight nights alone when the whole world would remain sunken in deep sleep.

I laid down and smiled as the moonlight was showering me. A few minutes later my eyes felt heavy as I fell into a deep sleep.

• • •

"What if our parents find out that we're in the night club?" I leaned against the wall in the corner of the hallway and looked at my best friend Marjan McCarthy.

"They won't find out. We'll tell them that we three are going to a restaurant for dinner." She smirked mischievously.

"Wow, we're going to a club and our parents will know that we're going to a restaurant. This idea is insane, we're insane." Reema Morales, my other best friend laughed loudly.

"Shh... someone might hear us." I whispered.

"What about our dresses?" I frowned.

"Leave it on me baby." Marjan winked.

Marjan, Reema and I have been attached to our hips since we're kids as our parents are pretty close friends.

Marjan is a chilling and charming girl with brown hair and hazel eyes. Reema is talkative and has a big mouth with short zed black hair and black eyes.

We were planning to go to a night club for the first time in our life and of course without our parents permission. Actually Marjan had gone to a club twice with her cousins before so it was mine and Reema's first time.

As we belong to typical strict families of Bangladesh, our parents would never allow us to go to a bar or night clubs. If we go back home drunk then they will kick our asses and throw us out of the house. Night clubs, bars and alcohol are totally banned for us.

"I heard that some students of our school also go there everyday night. What if they catch us and tell our parents?" Reema whispered.

"I think they won't leak because they wouldn't want to be exposed." I mumbled.

"Yeah you're right. Be ready at 7 tomorrow evening. I'll pick you two." Marjan muttered.

"Well, well, well.. What are we missing?"

We paused when we saw the familiar caked faces with bitchy clothes, Delilah Lawrence walking towards us with Amrin Knowles and Sima Vanderwood behind.

"And why do you care, granny?" I snorted.

"You should restrain your mouth hag or you won't like the consequences." Delilah looked at me like she was gonna bite me.

"Oh yeah, granny has a rattan stick." Marjan laughed.

"You three stay away from my boyfriend, especially Natalia. If I see you're looking at him anymore, I'll pluck your eyes out of their socket and then I'll shallow them with some tasting salt." Delilah pressed a finger on my forehead and tilted her head.

"I don't look at your ball less boyfriend. We're not pathetic like you." I slapped her hand and removed it from my head.

"You won't learn how to talk until I break your jaw." She hissed.

"Why don't you go to your boyfriend and worship his three inches c*ck instead of teaching us how to talk to someone like you?" Reema inputted.

Marjan and I laughed out loudly. Reema knew how to defeat Delilah.

"You b*tch!"

Delilah rushed toward Reema and was about to slap her but Marjan grabbed her hand and shoved her back. She was almost falling on the floor but Amrin and Sima grabbed her.

"You three will regret it later!" Sima gritted her teeth.

"And look who is threatening us. A tiny maid." I chuckled.

"Ouch! We're scared!" Reema fake-widened her eyes and laughed. "We'll see you later." Amrin pointed at us as they stormed down the hallway.

Delilah's father is the mayor of our town. She's quite infamous in our school for her rich lifestyle and itchy bitchy behavior. There are rumors that she slept with many rich men and takes drugs and alcohol.

She always walks with two chickens named Amrin and Sima. Their fathers are also renowned businessmen in the town. They walk with some power like they can behave whatever they want.

Delilah has a boyfriend named Fardinn Matthews. He is the popular boy in our school with a huge attitude. His father is the commissioner of the town. He's also the captain of the school football team.

We had been good friends for a few months. I helped him with some study materials until something between us built, maybe a relationship we both didn't bother to recognize. But Delilah ruined it by telling the whole school that Fardinn took drugs and bad things but blamed me for the rumor. After that Fardinn stopped talking to me though I tried to explain, he neither talked to me nor listened to me.

School went well but we were afraid thinking about Dalilah would do anything stupid. But surprisingly she didn't do anything, except throwing us ghosty glares. It was quite funny because she looked like a circus joker with a ghostly look on her caked face.

Returning home, I took a quick shower and moved downstairs to help my mother with making dinner.

When dad returned, we had dinner together. I came to the living room and turned on the TV as I sat down on the couch.

"A few fishermen discovered a dead body on the seashore behind the mangrove forest of Monpura town this afternoon. Monpura police arrived there immediately and sent the dead body to the forensic department." A news anchor read the news.

"Talia, give me the tv remote! I wanna watch Oggy!"

"Shut up, Ell ! Let me hear the news!"

"MOM!" Ellerie started wailing.

"What happened again!" Mom shouted and came to the living room.

"Mom, just hear the news. Please." Mom looked at the TV while dad came to the living room and sat on the couch.

"According to the senior officer Jacob Hernandez's speech, the killer cut the victim's hands and tainted his face badly. "

"The dead body is almost unrecognizable. But monpura police are trying their best to find his identity. We haven't gotten any information from the forensic department yet."

I gulped the lump in my throat. I had watched many Korean psycho thriller movies where psycho killers kill people horribly. But I never imagined something like that would happen one day in my town. That was horrendous.

"This is so horrible, God. Now nobody's safe in this safest town. I never thought this would ever happen." Dad sighed and shook his head.

"Please stay cautious when you're outside." Mom looked at dad, worries clearly visible in their eyes.

"Yeah, we all have to be cautious. Natalia, don't go outside unless it is necessary. Okay?"

"Okay, dad."