Dear Immortal Tyrant

Kaden could feel himself slipping into insanity. A part of him snapped at her words. The one and only person in this world who didn't fear him was now frightened of him. It happened slowly, before it sped up. One by one, his emotions started to shut down. His beating heart suddenly grew numb. He was shell shocked. Quietly, he blinked. His fingers began to turn into rocks. His mouth was dry.

"Tell me how I can change," Kaden begged one final time. "Tell me what I must do to erase that fear, dove. Tell me."

What terrified Lina was the lack of emotion in his voice. She stumbled back in bewilderment. This was the Kaden she knew, but also not the Kaden she knew. Lina couldn't put her finger on it, but something about him changed for the worse.

Lina opened and closed her mouth, but couldn't produce words. He delivered his plea with more indifference than she had ever seen in his entire life.

"I… I can't."

Before he could respond, Lina turned on her heels and ran off. Her heart was in her lungs, her voice stuck in her throat. She had never run faster than that night. And even now, she was haunted by his eerily still expression. The one time she looked back, she saw him staring at her, and there was no emotion on his face.

What did it all mean? 

- - - - -

Days went by and Lina saw traces of Kaden, but not him. She saw his silhouette in every man she came across, tried to find similarities in everyone else, and would look around for him. He was usually tailing her, whether it was him personally or one of his men.

"What are you looking for?" Isabelle asked, peering over her tea cup to see Lina glancing at her surroundings, for the thousandth time.

"Your attention has waned since coming here," Krystal pointed out, brushing her thumb on the teacup ring. She worriedly shifted her gaze to Lina.

"Kaden has been pursuing me recently," Lina admitted.

"What?!" Isabelle shouted, slamming the cup down in disbelief. Her eyes grew larger than the moon.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Isabelle continued, leaning forward for the juicy gossip. She would never publish anything about this, for the gossip column was beneath her. She worked for a credible company and wanted to keep it that way. Still, the news shocked her to her core.

"None of you asked," Lina said with a blink.

"W-well yeah…" Isabelle nodded in agreement. "So what happened?"

Whereas Isabelle was excited, Krystal was the voice of reason. Frowning into her tea, she took a sip and thought about the consequences. 

"It started at the Museum of Ritan," Lina said.

Lina proceeded to explain what happened. From seeing Sebastian in the museum to Kaden's insistence to be with her. He pursued her, but then everything went south. The closure at the garden left everyone speechless.

"He went… emotionless?" Krystal repeated, analyzing what the meaning of this could be. 

"Yes," Lina sighed. "It's not a surprise, though. You've worked with him before. You know how he is."

"If there's anyone more emotionless than Kaden," Isabelle grumbled. "I want to meet him myself. But since there is none, it's not shocking the way Kaden behaved."

"No, it's not like that," Lina said. "In all the years I've known him, he's never gone… fully indifferent like that. I don't know how to explain it."

"Well, I'm glad your PhD came in useful," Isabelle retorted.

"I studied History, not linguistics," Lina deadpanned.

"Oh alright," Isabelle agreed with a nod. "Why is this an issue?"

"It's not," Lina said. "It just worried me for a bit."

"So do you love him or not?" Isabelle asked, jumping straight to the point. She generally disliked beating around the bushes. Blunt confrontation was much easier and faster. 

"Now, now," Krystal murmured. "Let the woman breathe. First, we should consider how you feel about him going aloof on you."

Isabelle pouted and slumped in her chair. Leave it to Krystal to word it nicely. The businesswoman side of Krystal always came out at moments like this.

"I'm just shocked… and scared."

"Scared?" Krystal echoed in an understanding voice. She lowered her tone, for the high octave could make Lina wary to share, even if they were good friends.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Lina said, rubbing her chest where she felt a significant weight. Her gut instincts were trying to tell her something, but she didn't know what.

"You know what you need?" Isabelle suddenly asked. "You need to take a break from work and focus on yourself."

Isabelle reached into her purse and took out two tickets. "Go with Milo or someone. The museum is hosting a special premiere for a movie with one of the highest budgets of this year. Go and watch it."

Lina scowled. "I can't. There's this one artist—"

"I agree," Krystal suddenly told Lina. "This time off will do you well. In the five years you've worked to build your art gallery, you have never taken a break for yourself. You've worked hard. You deserve the break."

Lina reluctantly took the tickets. She gazed down at the invitations, brushing her fingers over the day of the premiere. It was coming up in three weeks.

"The movie is about a wealthy heiress in 1900s Ritan who's been betrothed to her childhood best friend but falls in love with a military general outside of her ranks," Isabelle explained, tapping on the name of the movie.

"Dear Commander," Lina read the title out loud. 

"There's a subtitle," Isabelle explained. "The Heiress, the Pen, and the Gun."

"Fun," Lina dryly said, placing the tickets into her purse.

"It also has action in it, Milo will love it," Krystal further told Lina. "It will do him good to experience the outside air and not just clubs."

At this, Lina finally relented. Krystal and Isabelle were right. Instead of prioritizing everything else, she should spend some quality time with Milo. Premieres were just the kind of thing that Milo enjoyed.

"Alright, I'll go," Lina said. 

"Anyway, I should really thank you!" Isabelle happily chirped. "Thanks to your help, my journalist was able to capture these amazing photos of—"

Lina's phone went off.

"Excuse me," Lina mused, taking out her phone and realizing it was Estella. Instantly, she departed from the table as Isabelle shoved the photos towards Krystal, who awed and admired the images.

"What's wrong?" Lina asked upon picking up the call. In the corner of her eye, she saw Krystal mesmerized by something, but didn't give it anymore attention as she listened to Estella..

"Director… We should hire more security," Estella warily said.

"We already have my men and Kaden's following us from a distance. How many more do we need?" Lina teased her worrywort secretary.

"That's not it," Estella stated in an ominous tone.

Lina instantly moved further away from the table to keep the conversation more private and so there would be  less background noise. Once she was at the corner of the cafe, she spoke again.

"You're beginning to scare me Estella, what is happening on your end?" Lina asked, frowning to herself. Not many things scared Estella, except Lina's safety and privacy. 

"It's about the disgruntled artist," Estella admitted.

"Oh?"

"I looked into the people you told me about last time based on your conversation with the landlady. Through the security cameras, we identified the strangers," Estella explained.

"You've worked hard."

"Director, they're arms dealers.. The artist owns a gun and we believe your life is in danger."