NORAH PAUSED ONLY AFTER HER knuckles started bleeding. She set a hand against the punching bag to stop it from swinging, then spun on her heels. She headed towards the washroom, holding her hands still under the cool water, glancing at her reflection before wiping her hands on her napkin and walking out.
Norah hated the fact that she inherited most of her father's features. Tanned skin. Black hair. Long nose. Only her blue eyes were her mother's. She was proud of her Spanish culture, she really was. The only thing that bothered her was that she'd inherited it from him. Her features pointedly reminded her of her father every time she looked in the mirror and she grew weary of it. Her father, who never really cared about his children. Her father, who frequently fought with her mother over petty issues. Her father, who left his family on his youngest son's birthday.
On the day his eldest daughter died.
The memories of that day came rushing back to her, just as they usually did when she stared in the mirror for too long. The face staring back at her usually reminded her of her father, then of the day her elder sister died, on Julian's birthday.
Her father had picked another silly fight with her mother, and seven-year-old Noah and Norah silently watching them sitting on the couch, their eyes alternating between the muted TV and their parents. Their eleven-year-old elder sister had been upstairs, sitting with the birthday boy. Jules had asked her for ice cream, and Hazel was desperate to make him happy on his birthday.
Hazel and Norah went out to get Jules an ice cream, opting not to tell it to their parents because the store was near. Noah had been sitting with Jules.
They bought the ice creams, and were walking back home. That was when it happened. It happened so quickly, too quickly for Norah to process. A robber had stolen money from the bank, and was rushing out. He needed a hostage to threaten the bank officials, and two young girls had been passing him just then.
He had grabbed the girl closest to him. Her elder sister Hazel had writhed beneath his grip, stomping on his foot and elbowing him. Norah watched with wide eyes and hit him aimlessly, but it hadn't helped her sister. The robber had started running, taking Hazel with him, and Norah ran behind them, not being able to keep up.
But after seeing that the bank officials had still been following the robber, the robber stopped and plunged a knife right into Hazel's chest because of the fury and panic he experienced in the moment of time, right in front of Norah's eyes. And Norah couldn't do anything but clutch her sister's hand and take her into her lap, watching helplessly with tears streaking down her face as Hazel died in her arms.
The robber had taken advantage of this distraction and jumped a wall. He was caught a couple of months later.
That night, her father had packed a few suitcases and fled from his house, right after the death of his eldest daughter. Her mother received divorce letters a month later, which her mother was happy to sign.
Her father was a coward, and everything Norah didn't want to be. That was why she demanded her mother to teach her to fight, taught herself to be alert and ready every minute, and worked out ruthlessly in the gym as she was doing now. Norah knew there was nothing she could do that day, but she always remembered those moments when Norah was utterly helpless and couldn't do anything.
The incident had scarred her for her life. She was diagnosed with PTSD, her panic raising whenever she spotted a knife. It had been getting better in the last few years. After her father left, her mother, Noah, Jules and herself had clung to each other and grew inseparably close. The four of them were very, very, close, and that was why it shattered them when Noah died.
Norah shut her eyes tightly, standing up after she completed the push-ups. She changed out of her very sweaty shirt and headed downstairs, taking a sip of her water bottle and directing her thoughts to another topic. She fished her phone out and took a look at the details she'd noted down the previous day, and wondered for the hundredth time about the person who spray-painted the message onto the murder mystery book club classroom's wall.
أنت تقرأ
The Mystery Of Eastbrooks High
غموض / الإثارة[FEATURED ON YA MYSTERY AND MYSTERYTHRILLERIN!] [PREVIOUSLY FEATURED ON MYSTERY!] ❝All of this is nothing but a cruel, sinister twist to an innocent game.❞ +++ A serial killer is on the loose at a high school, methodically killing the members of the...
