CHAPTER 36

GHOULS?

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The footsteps were steady and striding toward me. I pulled the pepper spray from the pocket with my shivering, clammy hands. A thought flashed –what if it was Desiree? Before I spray it off, I should get a good look at who it was. I didn't want to injure Desiree if it was her and I didn't want to get injured if it was someone else. Before I could turn to get a good look, two hands gripped me from behind me. The grip around my waist was familiar and I knew who it was. I gasped a little surprised by the touch and then sighed, exhilarated at the familiarity. I just didn't think in any of my dreams that this would happen. Oh! God! He was going to be mad at me.

He whispered into my ear, "turn off the flash light." And I obeyed instantly. He hoisted me off the ground and in five seconds we weren't near the cemetery anymore. He let me down as we came to the road, where we saw Desiree appear first, but he didn't let go of his grip on my wrist. All the way to his car, he didn't say a word and I didn't either. He opened the door for me and gestured for me to get in. As he got in the car, the click confirmed that he locked the doors, as if I was going to escape. I was still shivering and the angry Aiden was not a good combination. Not that he was scary. It just wasn't a good time for him to be angry.

"I can't believe you did this," he stated, giving a thud on the steering wheel.

I expected this reaction from him, but I didn't budge. "You know, I could ask you the same thing."

He gave me a stare. What did he expect of me? To fear his stare? Oh! I've seen the stares that Mrs. Lin gave me at chemistry and the stares of my mother, alright. I wasn't going to be scared of his stare. Funny, I liked him staring at me like that. I had to stop studying every detail of his every feature. Because it wasn't helping at situations like this.

"Why do you think we didn't let you do your homework alone this evening?"

This came as a shock. I didn't realize they were trying to stall me from doing this. "You three planned against me?"

"Margo, we were trying to save your life." He held the steering wheel too tight and I was wondering if his knuckles would hurt. "Elec and Irsia didn't have the slightest idea that you would have the courage to leave home at the middle of the night like this, but I knew," he seared with another thud on the steering wheel.

"How?" I asked, with my voice so low with so much perplex. I was so confused at how he could read my mind and stop me from executing my plans.

"Because I know you don't go half way, Margo," He muttered softly this time. He wasn't angry now. His voice proved that I had put him through pins and needles. "Are you alright?" he asked his voice much more softer now, looking at his clenched fingers. I wished he would look at me.

"Are you mad at me?"

"I was." His eyes were wary at the direction of the cemetery.

"What changed?" I could already see something else shining in his eyes. It wasn't anger anymore. It was the purest of solicitude.

"Seeing you in your pajamas, under your raincoat, with a pepper spray protruding from your pocket, with your hair pulled in a tight bun, not to break your concentration and with that little flash light... I thank God –I got to see you like this." he turned toward me. His eyes detained mine. "and if you didn't do this, you wouldn't be my Margo."

Did he just say 'my Margo'? And my eyes were such traitors, they swelled up. "Why didn't you talk to me this evening?"

"Because I was betting against my instincts that you wouldn't do this and I was mad at you back then."

"And you couldn't even take one look at me? All I did was look at you."

"If it weren't for our friends back then –do you think I'd have stayed away from you? After seeing you act all feisty in the middle of the road?" He still had his eyes fastened on mine.

God! I was blushing through my tears now. I sobbingly said, "I can't take that kind of silence from you, Aiden. I can take it from my mom, dad... I have even spent quite some time without talking to Elec and Irsia... but not you."

He reached for me with a frown and wiped my tears with his knuckles. "Sorry." He cupped my cheek with one hand and his other hand still clenched the steering and it looked flexed and rigid. I was suddenly on anodyne with just one gesture of his. Just how naïve could I be?

"Wait." I said on a sudden rush of realization. "Did you see what it was inside the cemetery? Could it really be...?" I paused. I didn't even want to finish the sentence.

"– ghouls..." he finished. "I didn't get a good look at it. I wanted to get you out of there before it got to us. But I think there were two of them."

"How long have you been here?"

"Long..."he said, cocking his head to the side. "Look, Margo... I get it. She is your friend. You want to help her. I get it. But if you want to do something stupid like this... I want you to tell me beforehand." He looked away for a brief second. "The lunacy around CONMISDUM is getting very real." 

He was right. Ghouls in our town's cemetery? Nothing scarier than that. I remembered the speculations that I happened to read online, that ghouls and all this CONMISDUM drama were a play for a huge coup d'état. But I did take one brief glance at the ghouls. That didn't look forged. They definitely were masticating over some corpse. This was exactly why people chose cremating against religious beliefs. 

"What could have happened if the ghouls saw us?" I shuddered.

"I don't know, but it wouldn't have been great to tell at thanksgiving dinners." 

"Are we safe here?"

"They don't seem like the type to leave the party early." He pinned me again with a serious look. "Did you really think of running into the cornfields in search of her?"

"Yeah..." I shouldn't be feeling embarrassed about it, but a slight doubt peeked at the corner of my brain.

"What did you think you would find there? Her? Desiree waiting for you there?" Now he was mocking me.

"No, I thought I could find some clues. Maybe find her footprints in the mud. You know... like the ones we saw near the fence." I pointed roughly in the direction, in the dark, that I thought was the direction of the cemetery. "Yeah, I also fantasized I'd find her there." I admitted it idiotically.

He bobbed his head in disbelief and laughed. "There was no sign of her in the cornfields."

My eyes went wide. "You went in there alone? What were you thinking?" I yelled in utter disbelief. It was my turn to be mad at him now. "If you had any idea of going in there, why didn't you let me come with you? We could have looked together. Why didn't you let me go and why did you drag me back to your car?"

Now he was smiling. Something about me being all worked up made him smile. "I didn't want you running inside those tall stalks. What if she came so close to you out of nowhere? What if she touched you and infected you?"

"First of all, there is no solid proof that touching gets you infected."

"Not worth taking the risk. Not with you. And?"

I knew he'd say something like that. "And this is a two-way street, Aiden" I clicked my tongue into the silence. "Are you going to hold me captive here or are you going to drop me home?"

"Are you going to do something wildly devil-may-care again or are you going to go home and sleep?" he mimicked my tone.

"Would you follow me again?" I asked playfully derisive.

"All the damn time if I have to." He was dead serious. Something about him getting impatient made me smile. The impatient hot chocolate version.

As he dropped me home, he helped me climb the fence. As I sat on the fence wall, he gave a peck on my hand, which was still in his. I jumped awkwardly down the fence. If he hadn't been there, I would have used the garbage can outside my home to climb. I really didn't think it through when I left home. He watched me go, walking toward the ladder, through the bars in the gate. I turned waving him, thinking that I at least got lucky with good friends and a boyfriend.

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