Longing

" The fan letters and gifts are endless," I said. I looked around Bea and Helen's porch. Zen was crouched down to look at a teddy bear to my left while Helen was moving around the stuff to my right.

"What do you expect?" Helen said. "My lovely wife is a superstar."

"I just thought it would be less now since it's been a while since Bea's death was publicly announced," I said.

"Me too," Zen said. "We already put so much of it inside you house."

"Really?" Helen said. "This isn't all of it?"

"Nope," Zen said.

"Awwwww!" Helen said. "My Bea is really the best!" I looked at Zen.

"She is," Zen said. They walked

"Well, we should bring these stuff in" I said. I kneeled down and grabbed a handful of the stuff on the porch. I stood up.

"Wait," I said. "The door is still locked."

"Let me!" Helen said. She ran towards the front door, fishing something from her pocket. When she got to the door, she immediately inserted the key and opened the door.

"I missed the sound of that," Helen said. "I missed my house." She ran inside. I walked towards Zen.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I said. "I'm still worried someone might recognize her."

"They won't," Zen said. "She already put a ton of make-up and is hidden beneath layers of clothes." I sighed.

"You're right," I said. "All we need to really worry about is her hidden agenda."

"Baby," Zen said. "We don't even know if she really has one. I am suspicious too but we have no evidence of that."

"I know babe," I said. "I know. I'm only being careful."

"Holy shit!" I heard Helen shout. "You guys weren't kidding when you said the gifts weren't everything. It was only a small part of everything!"

"I really am hoping that what I'm feeling is wrong," I said. Zen nodded and gave me a hug. He stopped then looked at me.

"Let's go," Zen said. "I think we have to take several trips again to bring everything in."

"Ohhhhh!" I heard Helen say.

"Yup," I said. "Like last time too." I watched Zen crouch and pick stuff up from the porch. Once they were done, they stood up. Together, we walked inside and immediately turned right towards the living room. Bea's alive, Bea's alive, Bea's alive, I thought. That body wasn't Bea's . I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. When we got there, Helen was sitting on the floor, separating the stuff into different piles.

"Do you need help with that?" Zen asked.

"No need," Helen said. "I'm used to doing this for Bea." Her facial expression shifted.

"I wish we can speed things up so we can get Bea back," Helen said.

"Me too," I said. "But unfortunately-"

"I know," Helen said. "We need to abide by their rules." I crouched down beside her and put the pile of stuff down. Zen did the same.

"Thanks, by the way," Helen said. "I'm not sure if I already said it but thank you for not giving up on Bea and me." Oh, I thought.

"Of course we didn't," Zen said. "You guys are our closest friends."

"Still, you guys are putting your lives at risk for this," Helen said. "And for that, I sincerely thank you."

"Thank you for staying alive," Zen said.

"Thank you for fighting even alone," I said. She stopped separating the things in front of her. Helen nodded.

"Thanks," Helen said. We nodded at Helen.

"We should better finish up here quickly," Helen said. "Your shift to take care of Virginia is soon isn't it?"

"Well its still at night so," I said. "We have time. And in any case, I can go there by myself. But why did we go here again?"

"Yeah," Zen said. "You haven't told us, except that you wanted to get some of your clothes." She look at us then at the floor. She took a deep breath.

"Can I stay here instead of your house?" Helen said. "I know you guys are responsible for me and have to trade me in for Bea in good condition but I missed staying here. I wasn't gone for long but it felt like it to me." She sighed.

"As much as I want to say yes," I said. "I think its too risky. There's more foot traffic here than at our house. Plus, no one is expecting to see that the house is occupied seeing as Bea's dead and you're missing. If they see suspicious activity like that, they might inform the police and we might get caught, losing our chance to get Bea back." Helen looked at me.

"I know you're right but maybe just a few nights?" Helen said. I looked at Zen. They sighed.

"Three nights then we go back to our house," Zen said. I nodded at Zen.

"Yayyyy!" Helen said. "Thank you!"

"We need to lay low though," I said.

"That's a given," Helen said. The doorbell suddenly rang.

"What the?" Helen said.

"It must be that neighbor," I said.

"What neighbor?" Helen asked.

"The one who always says hi when we come here," I said.

"The weird," Helen said.

"Yeah, but they haven't done anything wrong so yeah," Zen said.

"Except that creepy smile," I said.

"Oh, its the one who lives across the street," Helen said. "And yeah, they have that iconic look."

"Yikes," Zen said.

"You better hide Helen," I said.

"Right," Helen said. She stood up and walked into the adjoining kitchen. Zen and I stood up and walked towards the front door. We peeked through the window beside the door to see who it was. What? I thought. I looked at Zen then back through the window and at the person walking around the garden, looking at the area intently.

"Am I seeing things correctly?" Zen said.

"If you see Valentina, then yeah," I said.

"Shit," Zen said. "What is she doing here?"

"I don't know," I said.

"And why would she ring the doorbell knowing that Bea's dead?" Zen said.

"Hmmmmm," I said. "What the fuck is this?"

"What's the hold up?" I heard Helen say.

"Uhm," I said.

"Its not the neighbor is it?" I heard Helen say.

"No," Zen said. "You should see who it is for yourself." I heard Helen walk towards us as I watched Valentina sit down on the one of the benches and looked towards the sky.

"Is that-" Helen said. "VALENTINA?"

"Shhhh," I said.

"THAT BITCH HAS THE AUDACITY TO COME HERE?" Helen said. She took a deep breath.

"I'm going out there to ask what she's doing here," Helen said.

"Stop," I said. "You can't."

"Why not?" Helen asked. I looked at Zen. They nodded.

"Did you get to meet the boss of the kidnappers?" I asked.

"What?" Helen said. "What does that have to do with this?"

"Trust me," I said. Valentina suddenly put down her head.

"Shit," I said. I crouched down and pulled Zen and Helen down with me.

"Okay. I haven't," Helen said. "Why?"

"Valentina's one of the people we're suspecting is the mastermind of all this," I said.

"THAT DUMB BITCH KIDNAPPED BEA AND ME?" Helen said. "THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE BECAUSE SHE CAN'T FUCKING EVER BE BETTER THAN BEA." Zen put their hand out towards Helen.

"We're not 100 percent sure yet," Zen said. "We don't have concrete evidence to prove that she was the one. Plus, we're also suspecting Maxine."

"Maxine?" Helen said. "As in Maxine Liu, the CEO of the Bea's company?"

"Yeah," I said. "I saw her talking to a hooded person."

"No way!" Helen said. "We're you able to take pics or anything?"

"No," I said. "I was too scared and shocked."

"But that's not concrete evidence anyway," Zen said. "Its suspicious but not definitive."

"I didn't miss this side of you Zen," Helen said.

"What?" Zen said. "My rational side?"

"Ugh," Helen said. "But what does that mean? We can't do anything?"

"Yeah, I think its better not to," Zen said. "We don't know the extent of her influence is anyways."

"So what are we going to do now?" Helen said.

"Let's continue what we're doing, quietly," Zen said

"Okay," Helen said. "I'll go get my clothes upstairs."

"No lights," I said. She nodded. Helen stood up, turned around and tiptoed towards the stairs northwest of us.

"I'll stay and watch Valentina," I said. "We don't know what she's plotting. I mean what is she doing here without her guards or anything? A secret task?"

"Okay," Zen said. "I'll sort the things Bea got in the living room."

"Are you sure you want to do that?" I said. "Helen seems to be enjoying to do it anyways."

"I'll just help her out a bit," Zen said.

"So sweet and caring babe," I said. They chuckled. They slowly crawled to avoid being seen through the window, towards the sofa northeast of me. I slowly stood up, just enough to peek through the window. Valentina was dancing around the garden. Huh? I thought. What am I watching? She stopped and looked at the house. She sighed and walked around the garden once more. She stopped in front of one of the flowers, picked one of it, and pulled it out. She picked out the petals one by one.

This is weird, I thought. What is she doing? Why is she here? Valentina layed on the ground and crumpled herself.

Is she going to sleep? I thought. Hmmmmm. "What's she doing?" I heard Helen say behind me.

"Laying on the garden floor," I said. "Trying to sleep I think."

"The fuck?" Helen said.

"I know right," I said. My phone rang.

"Shit," I said. I grabbed my phone quickly from my pocket and answered the call.

"Hello?" I said. "Snow?"

"I was just gone for a bit and-" Snow said crying.

"Slow down Snow, I can't hear you," I said. I listened intently to what Snow was saying.

"What?" I said. My heart sank.