Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five: No Body, No Crime

Even though it was raining even harder and it had gotten darker outside, the girls were riding their bikes (El now riding on Annie's) to Heather's house. When they got there, they saw the red door that El had seen.

"I'm scared," Annie whispered as they parked their bikes. "We don't know what we'll find."

El took Annie's hand, a gesture she had seen Max do a couple times. "It's okay. We got this," she said, her dialogue a bit choppy but still meaningful. Annie smiled at her and then the girls hurried to the front door.

Up at the front door, El used her powers to turn the lock and push the door opened. It creaked and they looked inside. Max took the first steps in, followed by El, then Annie.

They removed their hoods and crept further inside, taking glances at the photos around them. Heather had a cute, picture-perfect looking family. Annie felt jealousy turn her insides a bit at the thought of a happy family.

"This is her house," Max said. Annie turned to the redhead and saw her staring at the family pictures as well.

Laughing caught them all off guard, and they all snapped their heads to where the sound came from. Annie's breath caught in her throat as the scenarios ran through her head. The noise wasn't inherently bad, but Annie had seen enough awful scary movies to know to know that laughing in these kinds of situation was never good.

The girls carefully walked towards the sound, Max leading the charge. When they turned the corner, none of them expected to see Billy sitting with Heather's parents, laughing about some joke or story.

They all paused when the parents and Billy stopped and turned to look at the girls. It sent chills all over Annie, the way they stared.

"Max," Billy states.

Now they had to come up with an excuse. Max took the lead again, considering Annie was too freaked out and El was too suspicious. "We didn't mean to... barge in," she started. "We tried to knock but maybe you didn't hear us over the storm."

Annie trembled slightly, seeing the way Billy stared at them. Something was very wrong with him.

"I'm sorry, who is this dripping all over my living room right now?" the man asked, Heather's father.

Billy resumed his weird persona, chuckling. "I'm sorry. Janet, Tom, this is my sister Maxine." He set his napkin down on the table and moved to stand up. Annie shared the quickest look with Max, because something was very wrong if Billy was calling her 'Maxine' and 'sister'. Especially in the same sentence.

"Oh!" Janet said, trying to sound pleasant. Tom was still weirded out.

"What on earth are you doing here?" Billy asked as he walked over to the girls. "Is something wrong?"

Annie almost said yes, because there was something wrong. Luckily, Max took over. "We just wanted to make sure everything was okay," she said.

"Okay? Why wouldn't it be okay?" Billy asked.

"Where is she?" El suddenly asked. Annie cleared her throat, wishing El would understand social situations a bit better. If Billy really was... whatever, they didn't need him to know they were onto him.

All that went away the second Billy turned his head to look directly at El. "I'm sorry, where is who?" he asked.

"Well, they're a little burnt, I'm sorry," a new voice said. The girls looked over and saw Heather walking out of the kitchen with a tray in hand. She froze when she saw Annie, Max, and El standing in the living room.