• chapter seven •

A month went by. It was October now, and the cold was slowly settling in, the chilly winds announcing the advent of winter. There were leaves everywhere on the pavement, the trees were almost bare.

I'd hung a painting on my drawing-room wall, which I called August Rain. I had painted it in September actually, when the rain was beating against the windows and there was nothing else to do, but I still called it August Rain because that was the rain I liked best — it was warm, and it actually smelled like rain, and somehow, the rain didn't make you feel humid at all, and the sky was always half-sunny, half-dark, very unlike the dark grey-clouded rains.

I loved the rain.

Sometimes, when it rained at night, I thought back to our hiking trip when we'd gone into the sanatorium. It wasn't a very good memory, and so I tried not to think much about it, until one day something happened which caused the memory to escape the deep recesses of my mind and come right to the front, making me wonder if the two events were somehow connected.

It was a Sunday.

After painting the sunset outside my window, I left the paints on my table and went to the bathroom. I put on a nice pair of jeans with red sandals and a red top, and then started brushing my brown hair. Yes, brown. Last week Ashley had taken me to a parlor, insisting that chocolate-brown hair would look much better on me than red. Then, when I was seated on the chair in front of the mirror, she secretly told the hairdresser to give me a new haircut called 'steps' or 'layers' or something like that. Without even asking me what I wanted, the guy picked up a pair of scissors and started chopping down my locks. I would've been angry at them both, but the new look suited me, so I stayed quiet.

Zack still couldn't wrap his head around all this. When I went to school the next day, he held a lock of my hair between his fingers and playfully said, "How dare you? I can't call you Reddie now."

"You can call me Brownie."

"No."

"You can call me Reddie, actually."

And so I was still Reddie.

But, back to Sunday. I brushed back my front hair and pinned them behind my head with a clutcher, letting the rest of the hair fall loosely about my shoulders, and then went out of the house where Liam was waiting for me because I still couldn't navigate my way around the city.

"Hi," he said, smiling that beautiful, happy smile. I still hadn't got used to seeing him without braces. It made his smile prettier, and his face more handsome. The setting sun lit up his face in an orange glow. "You look pretty."

I smiled. "You look handsome."

Together we walked to his house. I knew very little about why I was going to his house in the first place. On Friday, all Zack had told me was to come for a secret party at Liam's, saying that we were going to celebrate some soccer match. Then he'd run away to talk to some guy.

This was the first time I was visiting Liam's place. It was a nice little brick house with a couple of rose bushes in the garden. He opened the door. The drawing room was huge, but there was so less furniture there that it looked empty. A fire smoldered in the fireplace. His dad was sitting on a couch, wearing the clothes one usually wears when going out. Before I could greet him, Liam said, "This is Hazel and she's not my girlfriend, and we're going to my room."

He looked at me. His hair was black but grey at the roots, and there was a white stubble on his cheeks. He didn't look much like Liam, so I assumed Liam had taken after his mother.

"Hello," he said with a smile.

"Um, hello." I felt so uncomfortable that I wanted to run out through the door. Sure, I could never talk to strangers easily, but strangers older than me totally made me awkward.

"When are you going?" Liam asked.

His dad frowned. "You're pretty eager to send me away."

Liam laughed. "Yeah, sort of."

"Well, I don't know. The car should come any minute."

"Okay." He grabbed my hand and took me down a corridor to his room. On the door there hung a hand-made sign which said:

Warning: Teenager's Room. Proceed with Caution.

I laughed. "Seriously?" But I gasped when he opened the door. It was a huge mess: clothes were everywhere on the floor, the dresser drawer was open and the clothes were falling out of there too, there were soda cans on the floor and a football rested in a corner, next to a black beanbag. The only things he'd kept properly were his books, which were neatly arranged in a huge bookshelf that covered an entire wall.

"Whoa," I said.

"Yeah, my room's pretty messy."

"No, I'm talking about the bookshelf. It's awesome."

"Well, everything about me is awesome."

I rolled my eyes. He stepped forward carefully and cleared some space with his foot, and pulled me along. We hopped like that to his bed and sat down.

A photo-frame resting on his night-table caught my attention. It was the picture of a small fat boy of about twelve, standing on the beach with Liam's dad's arm around his shoulders. It was Liam, I realized with surprise. He was as fat as Zack had described the day I'd met him for the first time.

"That's you, right?" I asked, pointing at the picture.

In a flash, Liam got up, picked up the picture, and threw it under the bed. "That embarrassing photo. Don't know why I keep it," he mumbled. "Yeah, that's me. I was thirteen at that time. I started jogging at five in the morning everyday and slimmed down." He placed his hands on either side of his waist to illustrate.

"So that's why Luke calls you Meatball? Because of how fat you were?"

He laughed. "Yeah, I was still quite overweight in my freshman year. Luke was that confident kind of guy who was used to getting away with everything. I hated his kind of guys. One day he came up to me and said—it was probably a dare— 'How's it going, Meatball?' and I got angry. I punched him hard and he punched me back, and some teacher saw us and gave us detention. We've hated each other since."

"Oh." I lay down on my back on the bed with my hands behind my head and my legs hanging down from the edge."So...what now?"

He shrugged. "Dad will go and the others will come, what else?"

"And your mom? It's some secret party, right?"

He paused for a moment before answering, "She passed away when I was a kid." He wasn't looking at me.

"Oh." I sat up. "I'm sorry."

He took out his phone. "I should order the pizza."

While he talked on the phone, I let my mind wander to somewhere else. It wasn't often that I got invited to parties. I wondered what it would be like when everyone came. I wasn't going to be familiar with anyone, I knew that already.

Liam made another call, probably to Zack, and said, "Get your own beer. I don't have any," and hung up without saying bye.

"Beer?" I asked. "We're not eighteen yet."

He grinned. "Why are you talking like my dad? That's exactly what he says, you're not eighteen yet. I'm going to turn eighteen in November, which is less than a month away, and still people tell me I'm not eighteen yet. I don't even drink much."

I laughed. The sound of the main door opening and closing traveled to my ears, telling me that his dad had gone wherever he was going. A moment later, the sound repeated. Liam frowned and opened his bedroom door to peek outside.

"I'm here!" Ashley's voice called.

"Yeah. Cool. Don't announce it like your arrival makes me happy."

"Why can't you ever be polite to me?"

"Do you want to sit in my room, ma'am? I can press your feet."

She laughed. "I'm not sitting in your utterly disgusting room."

He turned to me. "Let's go outside."

Ash was lying on a couch. "Hey, you actually look hot for the first time, you know," she told me.

Zack arrived a minute later with a lanky and muscularAfrican-American guy wearing a jersey, carrying so many beer cans that they were almost tumbling out of his arms.

Liam dropped into an empty seat. "Hey, Shorty."

"Yo, man. I got bad news for you. I heard Cody asked out Abigail. I caught them kissin' in fronta her locker today."

"What?" Liam's eyes popped out of their sockets. He stared at Shorty. "You're kidding."

"I swear, buddy. I'm not kiddin'."

After a pause, Liam asked no one in particular, "If that's her type, why did she ever date me?"

Zack opened one can. "I invited Abigail, by the way, but Cody's coming, too."

Liam groaned.

"Don't worry, I'll keep him busy. Flirt with her as much as you want." He took a sip.

The doorbell rang. Five guys who were on the soccer team were standing outside. They were the last people to come.

"Looks like your dream girl ain't comin', after all." Shorty laughed, and it sounded like a donkey's bray.

"Yeah," Liam said, bored. "Nothing for me to do, then."

Apart from Liam and me, everyone got drunk slowly to the point where they started shouting and jumping up and down. They turned on some rock music by Green Day and started singing off-key at the top of their lungs, which drove me nuts. I massaged my temples.

I wasn't a drinker, so I sat on a couch away from them, wondering what to do till the pizza came. Liam came and sat next to me.

"You don't want to drink, almost-eighteen-year-old?" I asked.

He laughed. "I don't actually drink, it gives me a horrible hangover and a sick stomach. I just take two or three sips."

"What are we celebrating here, anyway? I don't know anything about anything."

He took off his shoes and socks and threw them in a corner. "Zack wanted this boring party. Apparently, these guys won some football match, and his mom doesn't like this kind of parties, so he begged me to host one for him. I knew you'd get bored."

"Really?"

"Yeah." He shrugged. "You just don't seem like a girl who drinks or smokes or does anything like that. But he wanted to invite you, so he did."

"Oh."

The pizza guy came. Shorty ran to the door, snatched the pizza and banged the door shut. The doorbell rang again. Liam opened it and paid the angry man. "Sorry, he's drunk."

The pizza boxes went around, and when they were finally passed to me and Liam, just three, cold pieces were left. "Great party" I remarked, picking up a piece.

Liam laughed. "I know, right? I'll get some coke." He came back with two cans. There was a thin line of sweat on his upper lip. "It's getting really hot here. That fire isn't even needed. But no, dad has to light a fire." He sat and took a bite of his pizza. "You know what I have to do when this party gets over?"

"No, what?"

"I have to drive all of these drunken idiots home and deliver them safely to their parents."

"No way."

"Yes way." He finished his piece and picked up another.

"Poor you."

"Yeah. Want to go for a walk after eating?"

When we were done with the pizza, we silently slipped out the back door into the garden. On shutting the door, all the sound got muffled and the silence of the night hit me suddenly. It was dark, so I stayed close to Liam. A cool wind blew. I crossed my arms to keep myself warm, regretting not wearing a hoodie. "Where are we going to, exactly?"

"Not anywhere in particular. Do you have a place in mind?"

"Not really. We can go to my place and sit for some time, because it's too cold here and it's too noisy there." I nodded towards his house.

"Yeah. That'd be great."

We walked slowly to my abode down lonely roads and through empty parks. I unlocked the door and pushed it open, stepping into the drawing-room well-lit by the cheerful glow of my abundant table-lamps.  I shut the door behind us.

"Hey. This is amazing," he breathed. He was looking at the painting of the rain.

"Thanks," I said shyly.

"No, really. You've totally captured the rain. And I love the color of the sky, like the sun is behind the clouds. This...silver lining with the rain, it looks beautiful." It had been a long time since someone had praised my painting. I felt a sudden rush of affection for him. "If you're done reading Keeping Faith, can I have it back?"

"Yeah," I replied. "And I loved it."

We walked to my bedroom. 

"You have candles?" he asked, nodding towards the thick, white candles on my nightstand.

"Yep. I just like lighting candles at night. The flame makes the room look sort of...mysterious."

The quick exhale from his nose accompanied by a smile was probably a chuckle. "I like candles for the same reason."

Then I noticed that the sunset I'd painted was lying on the floor. My eyes drifted up to my painting board. I gasped. Liam followed my gaze and stared speechlessly. On the plain white canvas, something was written in carmine, the paint dripping from the letters like it had been freshly painted: You will find and kill William.

∞

The next day at school, I went to talk to Liam about it, but it wasn't of much use. Last night, after the initial shock, we had sat and thought about it for some time.

"This has to be related to the sanatorium," I had said. "Remember that diary entry?"

"Yeah."

"What if the sanatorium is really haunted?"

He had dismissed the thought with a wave of his hand. "Impossible. There's no such thing as ghosts, Hazel, someone's probably playing a prank on us."

So, figuring that Ash would be interested, I told her about the message on my painting board. She listened with all her attention and then took out a post-it note from her pocket with a trembling hand. "I found this in my locker this morning." On the piece of paper were the same words: You will find and kill William. The handwriting was shaky and written in red ink. I felt like I'd seen the handwriting somewhere, but I pushed the thought away. "I wonder who wrote this."

"Liam said that someone's probably playing a prank on us, but I don't think so," I said. "It's totally related to that sanatorium. It was in that diary entry, this name William."

"Yeah." She tucked her hair behind her ear. In the one and a half months I'd known her, I'd never seen her tie her hair. "Hazel, if both of us got this note, Zack and Liam must've got it too, right? They went inside with us."

I thought about it. "Let's ask them during lunch, okay?"

I spotted them easily: they were sitting in a corner, eating sandwiches. They usually sat in a corner so I knew where to look. I slid into an empty seat next to Liam.

"...totally drunk last night. And you were absolutely stinking," he was saying.

"Thanks," Zack replied.

"Yeah, and at one point when I came back from Hazel's house, you stood up on the couch—with your dirty shoes still on—and shouted, 'Shut up everyone! I'm gonna tell you a joke!' and then when everyone had quietened down, you said, 'Why didn't the chicken cross the road? BECAUSE I ATE IT!!' and then you started laughing like a lunatic."

Zack laughed. "I can be awesome at times. Hey, Reddie."

"Hey." I sat quietly for a moment, wondering how to bring up the topic that was bothering me, then asked him straight out: "Did you, by chance, get any note saying something like, 'You will find and kill William'?"

He frowned. "No. Why?"

"Because Ash and I got those notes. Remember that diary entry —?"

"Oh God, not again," Liam interrupted, his forehead resting in his hand.

Shooting him an annoyed glance, I turned to Zack, who shrugged. "I dunno. I haven't got any note. I'll let you know if I do."

"Why," said Liam, "are people so interested in haunted things and "ghosts" and all?" He sketched quote marks in the air with his fingers around the word 'ghost'. Clearly, he'd done that to emphasize on the stupidity of the belief that ghosts existed, and maybe even of the people who took these things seriously. This displeased me even more.

"Look­—" I started, but then Ash came to us with her tray and sat. "There's something I need to talk about."

"Yeah?" Liam said.

"I found a... note in my locker this morning. It said, 'You will find and kill William.' It's scary. Hazel got it too."

"Yeah, she already told us, and no, we haven't got a note like that, and we'll tell you if we do, now can we please talk about something else?"

Ash glared at him for a moment, and then got up with her tray. She walked angrily to Luke's table and sat down with Jessica.

"There goes my girlfriend," Zack mumbled. "You have to be rude."

"Whatever."

∞

I hadn't noticed the swing in the garden behind Ashley's house when I'd come here for the first time, because it was dark and we didn't go to the backside of the house anyway. It was a white, two seater swing, which hung desolately from an iron frame. Ash and I carried some cushions along with snacks and our books. The weather was nice, neither too sunny nor too cold. We sat. Ash pushed with her feet, setting the swing in motion.

"You know, let's do our homework later. It's Friday anyway. Let's enjoy the weather," she suggested and settled back on the cushions.

"If we keep on postponing it, we'll never get it done," I said and opened my history textbook. She groaned and took out her science assignment. I shuddered. I was glad I'd changed my subjects to humanities upon coming here. I'd learnt a week ago that Ash was actually a junior, and not a senior like I'd assumed.

I stared at my uninteresting textbook for some time. "You were right. Let's do our homework later." I closed the book and put it in my bag, then took a handful of popcorns from the snack bowl. 

Ash smiled. She had kicked off her slippers and pulled up her legs, folding them so she could rest her chin on her knees. "Brown hair looks good on you, you know."

I agreed. When the sun had almost set, she stood and wore her slippers. "Let's go inside and watch a movie." Without a word, I gathered my stuff and followed her inside.

Just like the rest of the houses here, her house was made up of brown bricks too, and it was L-shaped. We went inside. My eyes had almost popped open the first time I'd come here. Her house was luxurious. The wall to my right looked as if it was made up of glass. Three-fourths of the wall were covered with windows, and faint light of the setting sun was pouring in, casting eerie shadows all around the room. The parquet floor was covered with a light-brown carpet, the color of caramel, which looked so furry that it could be passed off as a dog's coat.

There were two brown sofas, arranged perpendicular to each other. A small white beanbag stood a little away from them. There was a square-shaped table in the centre of the carpet. A crystal vase, which must've been as tall as my legs, was placed in one corner, filled with tiny glass pebbles, and fake lilies.

It was always quiet in here because there was no one else in the house. She lived alone.

When we'd come here after hiking that day, she told me that her parents' jobs required them to travel frequently and for long stretches of time, so she practically lived alone.

She plopped down on the leather couch and took out a tray of CDs from under the table.

"So, which movie do you want to watch?" she asked.

"You choose. I'll watch whatever you want."

She grinned. "Liam and Zack should learn something from you." She put some CD in the player. I sat by her quietly, interested in nothing but the popcorns and her science textbook. I wanted to see how different American textbooks were from ours. She was watching some romance movie, squealing excitedly like a little girl whenever the hot male protagonist smiled or laughed or touched the heroine (even though she'd probably watched this movie more than five times).

At one point she screamed so loudly that I dropped the popcorn all over my clothes.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"He's kissing her! They look so cute together!"

I sighed and went back to her textbook, and she to her movie. Okay, hey, don't get me wrong. I like romances, but they are fun to watch only when one is in love. We wasted the whole evening that way, and when Ash finally switched off the TV and got up, night had fallen.

"Ash, I think I'll go home now." I picked up my bag and started to rise, but she pushed me back down.

"Not now. I'll be bored if you go."

I smiled. "Fine, I'll stay for some time."

The lights went out abruptly. It got unnaturally cold. Everything was dark. It suffocated me. I couldn't see anything. My mouth went dry and my breath caught in my throat. A loud scream erupted from between my lips. I felt Ash slip her arms around me. "Don't worry. I'm here."

I held on to her tightly. The lights were out for what felt like an eternity but was actually probably one minute.

Then they came on. I breathed a sigh of relief and let go. My heart was beating so loudly it could have broken my rib-cage, and blood roared in my ears. "Thanks."

Ash grinned. "You're welcome. More popcorn?" she inquired, nodding towards the empty snack bowl.

"Um, I'd prefer nachos." She picked up the bowl and started to get up. "I'll get them," I said quickly, not wanting to bother her. She handed me the bowl, but froze midway, her eyes wide and her mouth a big O. She was looking right through me. "Hazel," she said quietly.

I turned around. My heart nearly stopped beating (again). On the wall were the same haunting words, written in the same carmine paint, the paint dripping as if freshly painted:

You will find and kill William

Under that, a paintbrush lay on the floor.

∞