The Broken Fade

Chapter Thirteen- Mystery Stranger

Emma did not know how long did it took her to fall asleep, as she was woken up by the ringing of her phone downstairs. 

"Oh, shoot." She had no exact idea what time it was, or what happened to Hazel. What was she doing downstairs as a 'guest' with the boss of the home crying upstairs in a locked room anyway? During their World History lesson that afternoon, she had switched her phone to the silent mode and secretly used Twitter and Instagram while her boring teacher gave them a long and lame talk about Christopher Columbus. That was the fourth time in the week that their teacher, Miss Lindsay, had discussed and talked about.

Meanwhile, her phone was ringing downstairs. Perhaps someone who had tried to call her by her cellphone couldn't get through because it was still on silent mode.

Emma unlocked the door and rushed down the stairs, to be caught by surprise to see no one.

"Hello? Emma speaking." She mumbled in a boring and sleepy tone, avoiding not to yawn while she let the unknown person who had called her up, talk.

"Hey, this is Aurel..." Emma recognised the mild and gentle voice easily.

"Mmm hmm?" Emma mumbled on the phone as she glanced around the living room and the kitchen. No sign of Hazel. Her bags were gone too.

Perhaps she had left?

But the question is, where would she go? Home? Would she?

Emma had no idea, neither was she giving herself a guess.

"Hazel phoned me up about...ten minutes ago." Aurel spoke, her voice getting higher, that means that she felt excited and bright and cheerful.

"She...oh...umm, yeah." Emma stammered, unsure of what to say. She wasn't in a perfect condition after the argument that had broke out between her and Hazel. 

Well, she wasn't injured or anything though. Literally, she wasn't in a perfect condition. She felt hurt and angry, confused, astonished by Hazel's leave and moody and glum.

"Anything that you're feeling down for?"

"Huh?" Emma felt like as if someone had pinched her, only to realize that it was Elmo nibbling on the sleeve of her red and black blouse with stripes. 

"We're planning to celebrate her sudden return at the mall tonight!" Aurel squealed in delight. Emma was too busy placing the phone on her neck and face, making sure it wasn't unbalanced and would not topple, she used both hands and shook them violently, swaying them back and forth quickly, to shoo away the nasty cat.

"Emma, what are you doing?" Emma remembered that Aurel was still on the phone and immediately replied, "Huh? What did you say? I'm sorry, Aurel, it's just..."

"It's fine. I get it." Aurel sighed.

No, you don't. Emma wanted to say. "What were you saying again?"

Aurel repeated the whole conversation and the message she wanted to deliver to Emma. Emma listened intently as Aurel blabbered about which restaurant to eat at the mall, and the shops that they were going to explore. Yeah, yeah. The usual thing. Forever 21, Dolce & Gabbana, Bossini, Emma loved them all. The kids arcade included.

"What do you think I should wear?" To avoid being misunderstood by Aurel for being an ignorant brat, Emma randomly brought up that subject. Aurel hates being ignored.

"I don't know. You have everything once you open up your closet." Aurel responded.

Honestly, she's right, Emma found herself loss in thoughts until Aurel's voice 'awoke' her from any more further daydreams.

"I guess that's all. See you tonight." Said Aurel as she didn't wait for Emma to say 'Bye' and immediately hung up. 

Emma began to feel that she was being put into a hectic situation when she realized that it was six o'clock in the evening. She had skipped her two-hour volleyball practice at school and, hooray, the big news was that she had to show up at the Grand Venetian Mall at seven. It would take her at least thirty mintues excluding traffic to get there, plus, finding a parking spot was definitely a lot of hell.

Cursing, she rushed upstairs and opened her closet. To her dismay, her tee shirts were in a pile of undescribable, unimaginable mess.

"Great." Looks like Emma needed to make full use of her Sunday for a change, for the sake of her clothes. So much for a fashion blogger like Emma.

That sort of reminded her that she hasn't been fashion blogging for months ever since her parents' 'incident'. Well, she wouldn't want to be reminded of the past anymore.

She randomly picked a pair of black short pants and her favourtie red and white polka dot denim shirt that only costed her a good ten dollars during the Christmas Annual Sale last December at Forever 21. 

She wore a few accesories as a bonus to her looks. 

She wondered if she should phone Hazel and ask if she was alright. But then she figured out that if she could turn back the time to when Aurel had called her, she would have, and should have asked. 

After wearing her floral flats, she made sure that the windows and doors were locked and fully secured. As she was done preparing Elmo a bowl of warm milk and two platters of good, scrumptious food that only cats would understand why they'd love eating it so much, she prepared to leave the house when the telephone in the living room rang again.

"Yes, this is Emma speaking," Emma answered the phone in a hectic tone. She was seriously running out of time, and who was this other person seeking her this time?

"Hello there, Emma dear." An unfamilair voice spoke through the phone. At that one moment, Emma considered slamming the receiver down, but she always had second thoughts and began to reconsider. I was taught how to be well-behaved and good as gold when I was a toddler...She reminded herself over and over again althought her temper was picking up pretty fast.

"Who is this?" Emma asked anxiously and out of curiosity.

"You may find it hard to believe but...I'm your aunt." An eerie chill was sent down Emma's spine. She tried to calm down but she wasn't really in a good time to sit back, cross her legs and have a sweet and relaxing chat.

"Sorry, I know their many scams like you out there and I'm not foolish enough to fall for it!" Emma snapped as she hung up and walked out of the house, flush with reliefness to be on the way for a delicious meal at a restaurant, and not tasting her horrible cooking anymore.