CHAPTER 7

TROUBLE TROUBLE TROUBLE

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It had been a week and I was still healing. I knew that Elec would have told Irsia and Irsia to Aiden about the calls that I had been getting. They didn't ask me out loud, but every time I looked at my phone, they looked weird. Um, no, to be exact, they looked at each other. I wanted to tell them about what was going on, but I still didn't have the energy to explain what was really going on. So, I kept my phone turned off most of the time. At home, it was dead quiet. I felt like I had no one to talk to.

The nights were the worst. I remembered the days when Damon was still a puppy. He used to be so scared of the dark that we left a small light on for him. He was such a baby. The thought that he was lying underground in the dark hit me right in my chest every time I closed my eyes. It wasn't easy. Sometimes for no reason I left the light on in my bedroom and went to bed. When the silence was screaming, I put the earphones on and slept. Sometimes I found Elec peeking at my room. She wanted to stay with me, but I pushed her away. I pushed away Irsia and Aiden, too. That's what I did when I didn't know when I could burst into tears. That's exactly what I did when I found Kyle was cheating on me.

Another week passed. I would just see my dad in the morning when he was getting ready for work. The only interaction we had was waving bye to each other when either one of us left home. The only conversation I had with my mom was when she called me to have food and I'd respond with a 'I'm coming'. This week I promised myself to unfreeze my sad face and pull my lips on either side because I was scared that I would fall into this freaking sadness abyss and die. I didn't want to die because I wanted to freaking live. Become a published author or a poet. I wanted to prove my parents that I'm not a failure. I wanted to prove Kyle that I survived and every other pervert that I survived. Most of all, I wanted to prove myself that I wasn't the type to give up.

There was no news about Desiree Gardiner. The newspaper had headlines about 4 missing people. All from Aelburn town. Aelburn was the most affected because of CONMISDUM. The Aelburn cemetery had much of ghoul sightings, too. News on TV said that Aelburn was becoming a ghost town. People started to move into other towns. People were just ready to even ditch their own houses and jobs. It was a small town, after all. The news also added that the whole town could become empty in a matter of a fortnight. Even my neighborhood had some new move-ins from Aelburn. They were supposed to be in quarantine for a week.

It was Monday and after 2 hours of math and one hour of chemistry, my brain was numb. At lunch, I planned to tell my friends about what was really going on with those phone calls. I knew they would have probably guessed, and they were probably waiting for me to tell it out loud to them for some form of confirmation. Somewhere in between chewing, clenching and listening to Irsia talk about the missing corpses, I took a deep breath and I uttered, "I have a confession."

I literally felt the depth of six eyeballs at me. I felt Elec and Irsia move closer to me with curiosity shining in their eyes, and Aiden had a slightly frowned forehead. Just then, Fiona walked over. I just didn't know whether her timing was off or perfect.

"I heard Kyle is moving to Glasscoast University next month and he is throwing a party this weekend..." She jabbed in the scar.

"He can go to jail for all I care," I hissed.

"What happened, Margo...?" She faked. "Oh! I'm sorry. I forgot that you guys broke up..." She paused for a faux exclamation. "Or should I say that I forgot that he dumped you."

"Are you done?" I was losing my patience. I could have channeled all my rage and pain to use her as a punching bag.

"Fiona, go away," Irsia shrieked.

"Or do you want me to come over there and make you leave...." Elec seethed, from beside me.

"Shush, alpha female. Let Margo talk."

I was compelled to stand up. It must be one of the two things. I either wanted to leave that place, or I wanted to slap her, or who knew maybe both.

Elec pulled my hand in a gesture to make me sit. I didn't sit.

Aiden insisted in an exhausted tone caused by the drama, "please sit, Margo." And I sat.

Aiden told Fiona, "Fiona, please... leave..." He pressed every word to make the importance of her absence obvious.

"Well, if you insist." Fiona shrugged and from what I saw, it looked like she was batting her eyes at Aiden and waved him bye.

I blurted out, suppressing a retching reaction, "you are in trouble, Aiden."

"Oh! No!" Aiden paused to swallow his food. "She is in trouble." And he flashed a goofy but a slightly cocky smile.

I couldn't help but laugh. Even Elec laughed and Irsia was holding her nonexistent stomach while laughing.

"I think it's going to be disgusting and fun." Elec managed to let out the words barely between her laughter, or at least I thought that's what I heard.

My greatest weakness was that when I started laughing, I just couldn't stop my laughter that soon.

At dusk, when I was writing my chemistry assignment, I heard a knock. It must be Elec. Yep, it was her.

"Hey, I brought you a lemonade popsicle."

"I'd have been happier if you have brought that after I finished my assignment. By the way, did you finish yours?" I got the popsicle and it was already melting in my mouth.

"I finished mine." She sat on my bed and continued, "why have you become so Irsia...?"

Of course, she had finished her assignment. She was damn fast in everything. "I still need 15 more minutes to finish this," I complained.

"Uhhh... time calculations...! This is all the influence of Irsia on you." She paused. "Speaking of Irsia... she notified, she saw someone moving along the windows of Auroville Villa."

"Again?" Irsia had been seeing someone appearing along the windows of that house for a while now. "I think some homeless person is trespassing."

"Mmm... may be..." She walked around and took my lip stain. "Can I use this once?"

"No," I declared. She gave me an annoyed look through the mirror in front of her.

"Come on... I'll let you use mine."

"N....O...," I enunciated.

"Fine." She snorted.

As she hung around my room quietly, I finished my assignment with two thoughts in my head. 1. She was beating around the bush to ask me about the phone stalking. 2. She was beating around the bush to ask me to Irsia's home. Once, I finished the assignment and stopped typing, she was going to ask me one or maybe both. So, I made up my mind to eliminate one of the questions by answering it before she could ask.

"If you think of asking me out to Irsia's home, forget it," I reprimanded. "My mom wouldn't let me out after it's dark. She's scared that I could get infected."

Before she could answer me, her phone rang. "Irsia..., Walker says she can't come." She mimicked being sad, squeezing her lower lip out.

My mom strolled into my room, just like every other time. Without knocking. "Your dad and I are going to buy groceries. Do you want anything?"

A virtual smile spread across my face. I could feel Elec jumping up and down mentally. "No." I tried to keep my voice as normal as possible. Irsia would have overheard the conversation and was probably calculating in how many minutes we could reach there.

When she was about to leave my room, Elec asked, "how long will you be gone, Mrs. Fawn?"
I kept looking at my laptop as if I was busy.

"About an hour. Why?" my mom replied and interrogated.

"Can I take Margo to my home for dinner?" Elec sweetened her voice.

"Um...," I dragged and Elec's stare conveyed the message 'why the heaven can't you tell one freaking lie?' "Yeah... sure." I shrugged.

"Okay, I'll see you later." My mom left the door ajar just like every freaking time.

I yelled, "mom, shut the door. I have an assignment to finish."

Elec stared at me again like she was going to choke me. "I got it, Mrs. Fawn," Elec chirped uncharacteristically and closed the door. "Really? You have an assignment to finish? I know you finished your assignment 10 minutes ago and you were dodging the talk."

I didn't answer her. As soon as we heard my mom and dad leave, Elec rushed to get her car. In about fifteen minutes we reached Irsia's. I saw Aiden's shoes outside. Okay, there was going to be an intervention. Elec and I greeted Mrs. Bookman and she asked me about Desiree and Damon. I really appreciated her concern. I answered that I was doing great and we went upstairs to Irsia's room.

"Hey, you guys... I took a video of the person who was moving along the windows of Auroville Villa...," gushed Irsia with a contagious enthusiasm.

Next to Irsia's home was a plain piece of land, and next to the land stood Auroville Villa. She somehow managed to get the trespasser who was inside Auroville Villa, in a video. This had been going on for quite some while. Ever since the murder in Auroville Villa, the house had been empty. As far as we knew, someone was using the empty house. As she showed us the video, I saw a figure moving along the window just for a brief moment. Just someone crossing the window.

"Is someone actually living in there?" Elec asked, in utter disgust.

"That's what I'd like to find out." Irsia and her curiosity, ugh!

"Should we tell someone about this?" I put forward a logical question. Who cared if someone lived in an abandoned building? Besides, it wasn't ours to worry about.

"Why don't we tell this to your uncle, Electra...? He's a cop, right...?" Aiden suggested.

"Yeah, I could tell him but I won't." She paused. I knew. I knew she won't tell her uncle about this. She would want to go in there herself and find out who was living in there. Classic Elec! "Because why would I do anything that you want me to...?"

Aiden ignored her. He had gotten really good at that.

Ever since the murder at Auroville Villa and all the stuff that had been going on around us, she had wanted to go in there and see the house. Besides, she had always wondered how pleasing the view of Crossburn Lake and the woods must be from the room where the murder had happened. What bothered me out of all this was the thought that how could anyone murder someone in a room like that, which had a view like that. We had seen the house only from the outside when went to Crossburn Lake. I was sure Elec would stop at nothing and add her to the one with unquenchable curiosity. Well, there was no stopping Elec and Irsia.

I finally uttered it out loud, "well, there is no stopping you both. Suit yourself. I don't want any part of it. Thanks. And oh! Elec..., I'm leaving home. I'll walk or Aiden can drop me home." I gestured at Aiden.

"Sure." He gave a really polite smile and stood up.

As I stood up to leave, "Where do you think you are going?" Irsia's voice was demanding.

I turned to her, puzzled. "Home...," I uttered.

"I think you owe us an explanation."

Oh! That. Too late to act dumb.

"Sit down, Aiden." Elec gestured at Aiden in distilled annoyance. "You are not gonna drop her home when I am alive," she seared.

"Elec, please be nice," I yelled at her.

"Are you taking his side?" Elec threw her hands in the air, getting all dramatic.

"I am not taking anyone's side," I growled.

"Okay, let me put it this way...," Irsia started "Why do you keep getting calls from strangers...? Over and again? Why do you keep your phone turned off almost all the time?" she asked me damn straight.

"I've been meaning to ask that." Aiden joined. A virtual eye roll for him.

Elec just sat there looking straight at me for an answer.

"It's Kyle," I started. "After he spread rumors that I have been cheating on him with Aiden... he had staged this..." I took a breath in. "They keep calling me every day..." I didn't know until that moment that I had so much tears left in my body after Damon.

"Are you sure it is him?" Aiden was the first to ask this stupid question.

"Yes," I blurted and I think my face showed my clear annoyance.

"Margo..." Irsia gave me a hug. "Get new digits. It's that simple."

"No, it's not." I sobbed, letting go of her. "What am I supposed to tell my parents as a reason?"

"I have an idea," said Elec. "The success rate of that depends on how well you can lie to your mom."

"What is it?" I sighed, wiping my tears.

Aiden leaned his back against the chair and stared at the floor with a frown on his face. I had never seen him with that kind of look, not even when Elec would keep poking him.

"Lie to your mom that you dropped your phone. It shattered to pieces and that your SIM card went missing. When you found it, it was broken. Add more essence like someone stamped on it." That was the plan/lie that Elec told me to tell my mom.

"It's a good plan. A simple one," I muttered.

"We'll execute it tomorrow after school," Irsia declared, giving my back a soothing rub. "Just hang in there until then."

I felt a bit of relief at the thought that this plan could work. Aiden looked at the floor all through the conversation and he still was.

"See, it was that easy. You should have told us earlier. And oh, don't give your new digits to anyone else at school," Elec added and I agreed.

"Let's go home, Elec. My mom would come home soon."

"Yeah, let's go home." Elec took a look at the window of Auroville Villa. The chill wind amplified the creepiness. While I left the room saying good night to Aiden and Irsia, that was when Aiden snapped out of it and lifted his head and nodded at me.

We left Irsia's and on the way, Elec muttered that she made a big mistake.

Puzzled, I asked her, "what mistake?"

"Well, I should have flat ironed him with my wheels when I had the chance that evening." She was serious and that's what bothered me.

Elec pulled over at her house. She was nice enough to keep her word on the dinner part of the lie. I went home and hit the sack. That was when the eerie feeling kicked in. Something didn't feel right. Something about Auroville Villa. A tension began building up from my stomach until my neck and I jumped at the sound of my phone ringing. I cursed myself for forgetting to turn it off, but it was Elec who called me.

I picked up and asked her, "what?" Annoyed.

"I have a bad feeling."

"You know, I was just thinking the same thing."

"I don't know what it is," she groaned. "I think I should go see Miles. One last time before he leaves for college."

"Ahh... finally...! You absolutely should go see him, Elec. That would be the right thing to do; given the fact that you broke his heart."

"Oh! God! Don't say that, Walker. You are taking me on a guilt trip." She sighed and groaned again. "Well, it hurts my dignity to say this but I miss him." She admitted, and I muzzled my smile. "I am going to go see him tomorrow - meaning you won't be seeing me at school tomorrow."

"Gee, Elec. You sound like you love him."

"I feel like I'm going to sneeze and I feel like my eyes are going to water with irritation. Hello, I'm allergic to that word."

"Be nice to him."

"I'll try."

"My eyes are begging me to rest."

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