Of the Twisted and the Lost

Chapter 10:

"Would you like anything to eat?" Nyleve asks, wringing her hand back and forth. "Cookies? Milk?" 

Sera shakes her head. "It's fine," she replies. "I already had some ice cream with Cami, so there's no need." 

Before Nyleve can say anything, Sera is already dashing for the stairs. 

Sera flings open her bedroom door, located on the second floor, throwing her sneakers to the floor. 

Unwrapping the lollipop wrapper, Sera pops it into her mouth, before ducking under a curtain that hangs over her bed and grabbing her laptop. 

How To Kidnap A Merperson, she types in the Google search bar. 

Sera's eyes scan and take in the contents, mouth pursing. 

"No," she mumbles, scowling at the websites. "No, no, no, no, no, all this is ridiculous!" 

Then again, Sera has to admit that trying to kidnap a merperson is pretty ridiculous too. "Complete bull." There is literally nothing at all that can help Sera. "What the hell." 

After scrolling through YouTube videos and finding absolutely nothing but short episodes of mermaid TV shows, Sera slumps into her bed, utterly defeated. 

"Why is there seriously no freaking thing that can actually help me?" Sera spits out, glaring. "I've been searching through everything for two freaking—" 

She stops. 

An inbox. 

In her email. 

Reluctantly switching the tabs — thinking, I'm not really making any huge discovery — she clicks on the email. 

To: Sera Chang 

From: anonymous 

Subject: i want to help. 

dear sera, 

i suppose finding an email who's addressed from the name "anonymous" might be pretty strange, but before you decide to block me, i would like you to hear me out. 

i know what you want. and i know what i want. i have a little proposal for you, sera: why don't we work to kidnap the merman? 

and no, i am not a) a stalker b) a hacker c) all of the above. 

please don't give me that look. you're most likely giving this email a suspicious look because obviously, this whole situation would be shady. 

to be honest, you won't get anywhere without me. i won't get anywhere without you, either. we basically need each other, i suppose, if you want to go to that extent. 

i have strings that i can pull and you don't. you know first-hand what the merman looks like and i don't. 

i know that you went to mr. fitzpatrick's office this morning and i also know you got rejected. the reason why you wouldn't be able to prove anything is because he told everyone you're going crazy, hallucinating fictional things, and is trying to seek attention because of what happened to your family - rest assured, everyone's never going to believe merpeople are real. 

that's where i come in. i'm powerful. i'm well-known. and most of all, people trust my words. 

you're absolutely correct, sera. the only way to gather real evidence is to kidnap the merman because no one's going to believe "assumptions" or "small evidence that can mean basically nothing" so i just want to get to the point here. 

you're absolutely correct, sera chang. we must kidnap a merperson. 

i'd prefer to remain anonymous, but i'll give you two facts about me: 1) i like paying attention to things that people don't notice 2) my favorite color is blue. 

you might be wondering how these two facts can help you with your little merperson problem. the second fact does not help at all. i was just trying to make small talk, which i'm never doing again, as i very much suck at it. 

the first fact?  

well, paying attention is crucial. not trying to give a whole lecture or anything, but it's the whole reason why i can help you. 

when i pay attention, i find evidence. and when i find evidence, i can find a merperson, no problem. 

not trying to push or anything, but i'm the only one who will willingly help you. just stating the truth here. 

so anyways, i was wondering if you will help you on this expedition? 

if yes, brilliant. if no, you are utterly stupid for not taking this opportunity. 

please respond to this message before 24 hours, otherwise this message will get lost in all that clutter of homework and spam messages from cami. 

sincerely, 

anonymous. 

Sera gapes at the email, as she hesitantly clicks the reply button on the email. She isn't sure what to say, especially since they are anonymous. 

"What if they're a stalker?" she whispers. "Or a hacker who wants to put a virus in my computer?" 

After a full minute of staring at the screen, Sera finally makes up her mind. 

To: anonymous 

From: Sera Chang 

Subject: How do I know I can really trust you? 

Dear Anonymous, 

I want to know how the hell you knew all that stuff. Are you a stalker? A hacker? Who are you? Or maybe what are you? 

Sincerely, Sera.