𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞

𝟐𝟏. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐕𝐞𝐢𝐥 𝐎𝐟 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

Anger boiled deep in Alice's system, as hot as lava. Her face was the color of an over ripe tomato. On the contrary, Jenny was as if she expected to find me here, she had a look of satisfaction as she was trying to keep a straight face and look angry.

A satisfaction, as if having completed a deeply, personally needed action, expressed by the slightest curve at her mouth's corner and a youthful confidence worn in a light raise of her eyebrow above her quizzical, joyful eye. I knew it. She had set me up for this, she knew all along that I was going to come in here.

I couldn't find the right words to say, I didn't know what to say to make things better. I had to find an excuse and fast but I didn't know which excuse would be believable in Alice's eyes. That was all I cared about, if Alice would believe me or not.

"Do you happen to have any pain killers? My head is killing me, I thought that you may have some in your bedroom but no luck." I said while looking Jenny straight into the eyes. I faked holding my head firmly because of the pain and fell into Jenny's bed.

"Let me check to see if I have anything," she quickly left with a disappointed yet angry look on her face.

"What do think you are doing? Are you crazy?" Alice's voice was hard in the edges. "Why are you snooping around Jenny's bedroom? This has to do about that stupid diary you are reading?" she yelled while trying to keep her voice low.

"I have a migraine, can't I look for some pain killers?" I posted my innocent face as I was looking into her eyes. Alice rolled her eyes on me and she simply walked away. Tomorrow she would forget it for sure.

After some minutes Jenny came back with the pain killers that I had asked. On her face, dissapointment was posted as she entered the room. She slowly approached me and handed me the pills.

''Here you go."

"Thanks," I tried forcing the slightest smile.

After that incident we quickly left from Jenny's house. On the way back home I had Alice lecturing me for snooping through Jenny's bedroom. I couldn't stop myself from going through her stuff, I was sure that she was hiding something. I could feel it twisting in my stomach. She wasn't as innocent as she would like us to believe.

From now on I had to be very careful with her and also with James. His behavior was very strange the last time we had talked, he just got up and rushed out of the cafe while we were talking about the strange deaths. I always had the feeling that everyone knew more than I did, way more.

Once we returned home, Alice walked upstairs and a loud thud sounded, she had closed her door as she did when she was a teen. I rushed upstairs and grabbed aunt's Grace journal and sat outside on the bench. I stared into the night sky.

Stars lighted the sky like snow flakes in the night, yet appeared still, like an old photograph. There were times in the daytime, under skies of blue, I would think of those faraway stars and how they would return after the shadows blended into the dark. To me, the night was when the curtain was pulled back, when we got to see out of the window we called "the sky" to the universe beyond.

The wind sounded with its mighty roar, making everything that surrounded shake in fear, even the leaves fled in terror. In the silence I could hear the wind sweeping around my feet, whispering in my ear as it pushed my hair back. Was I really ready to face the reality? Come face to face with the tremendous things that I was going to read, I walked steadily towards the truth.

I didn't know what to do, everything was confusing. Before we went to Jenny's house for dinner, I stole a minute and went outside to call the morgue back in England. I asked about the causes of my aunt's death and it was poisoning. I was now more than sure that she hadn't died randomly, someone had killed her by poisoning her.

There was a scream from deep within that forced its way from my mouth, it was as if my terrified soul had unleashed a demon. All I felt was anger. I was angry at myself for not being there for her, I was angry at the world for taking her away from us, for practically stealing her, stealing her beauty and her brightness. I was angry at everyone else who didn't want to help me uncover the truth.

I was right. I know I was. I was right and Alice wouldn't listen, nobody would. The only thing that I had was that diary. That small hole that opened a whole new world to me, that opened the past.

I run my hands on the cover of the diary, it was as if I wanted to open it but fear held me back, fear of what might came next. Fear of the unknown. Would I be able to bear with everything? Would my heart be able to rest after I learn the truth? I couldn't quite answer to that but the diary was challenging me once again to open it. Open this new world that was presented in front of me. I had everything in my hands, holding this fragile old diary. Sometimes I just wanted to throw it away and not read a single thing that was written inside, but it was practically impossible.

My thoughts raced up to Jenny, she had planned everything all along, she knew from the moment we agreed to come to her house that I was going to try and search around. She brought Alice on purpose so that she could see me. She was trying to break us, trying to let me fight alone, she knew I had the diary. She knew I was reading it.

Why did aunt Grace hired her as the caretaker of her own house? The answer needed to be in those pages, it had to. All my hopes were upon that diary.

Her words rock my mind, leaving it moving in foreign ways, ways I had become unaccustomed to these many years. She was an echo, but one with the power to tear down walls I had built high and deep. So though I needed her, wanted her, loved her, most likely I had to finish this soon. I felt lost and confused, but happy and certain. I was like a ball of tangled yarn. The parts that were untangled were available, useable, the rest was a mess, useless until it was untied. That mess felt endless and at most times unyielding.