Robert's car returned about an hour later. Marie could hear the tires grinding against gravel. She hopped up from the sofa and went out the front door, emerging into the driveway.
Hannah was already standing there, with her arms wrapped about herself to guard against some of the cold night air.
Marie stared as Mum exited the car and hugged Robert tightly before thanking him for the lift.
"Oh, it was nothing, really, Elizabeth," he said as he assisted her up the driveway, like she was some old lady. "Just trying to be a decent neighbour, is all."
Marie felt a sickening churning in her gut at the sight of her Mother laughing at that. And it wasn't like he'd actually taken care of them. All he'd done was cook weird food and let them watch TV on his retro set. Big deal.
"Honestly, you're a life savour, maybe literally."
"Really, it's no problem at all," Robert said stiffly after glancing to Marie.
She hardened her stare.
As Mum approached, Hannah asked her, "Are you alright?"
"I am now. I just hate all of that hospital stuff." She placed a hand on Hannah's head before she lowered it down to her back. "Time to get you home." Then she glanced at Marie. "Both of you."
Always the afterthought, Marie thought as she trailed after Mother and her sister down Robert's driveway and up their own one.
For the whole walk, they chatted about their nights. Evidently, they'd both enjoyed the music immensely. How nice for them.
It was only after they waved goodbye to Robert and entered the coat room that Mum asked, "And you, Marie, how did your date go?"
"I told you, it wasn't a date."
Hannah shielded the lower half of her face with a coat, but the smile was clear in her eyes.
"Sorry," Mum said.
"And it was fine," Marie said. "My night was totally fine."
"Well, thanks for the juicy details," Hannah said.
Marie glowered at her.
After that, Hannah and Mum went into the kitchen to have a nighttime cup of lavender tea, whatever that meant.
Marie climbed up to her room then sank down into the middle of her bed. The creaky springs screamed at her in way of greeting. It was weird how comfortable, how at home she felt in this dingy bedroom tonight. Had the brainwashing finally taken effect? Was she officially becoming another crazed member of this town? Or was it just relief to be indoors and alone again, which was always a winning combination?
Yes, that was it, she was just glad to feel safe and to be in her own space.
But rather than reflecting on anything or trying to make sense of it, she did what she usually did before bed. She checked her laptop, expecting the usual, to receive nothing but radio silence in return from Rosemary.
Instead, she was assaulted by a flood of messages.
"Hey, missing you," the first one said.
The second one said, "Just been thinking about you and all the stuff we used to joke about. I keep glancing at your seat, expecting you to sit in it any second. I don't think it's properly sunken in yet that you're really gone. I can't wait to hear more about what adventures you're having over there."
Then there were more messages about events that'd happened in Ballyfield while she was gone, including all the drama from her old school.
After all of this, there was one final message that read, "Did I do something wrong?"
Marie wondered why all of this had happened. She was able to surf the web previously, so she'd been properly connected to Wifi. Why had the messages been delayed like this? Was it something from Rosemary's end?
Confused, Marie began typing back, just in case her own messages hadn't sent previously and maybe now the error had corrected itself.
"Hiya, something really odd just happened with your messages. I've been writing to you this whole time, thinking you weren't responding, because none of yours came through to me. I thought maybe you were mad at me too. It's like they were all delayed and now have only come through all at once. I don't know what happened."
She hit send.
She waited to see if Rosemary might pop on to reply, but when she glanced at the clock and saw that it was just after midnight, she realised that her old friend would probably be asleep, like most normal people.
Marie closed her laptop and rolled over.
Usually, she was a bad sleeper. She'd just lay there for hours and hours, unable to drift off, until she randomly disappeared. There was no method to it. But tonight, her body and mind were so weary that it felt as if she fell asleep in an instant.
That night, she had horrible, awful dreams about running through a forest, about whipping branches and tangled roots trying to trip her up.
She also found herself stuck in abandoned buildings, grey and washed out, with endless, twisting hallways that ultimately led nowhere. Doors were scattered throughout. When she opened them, the rooms within were simple, uniform square boxes. Inside, shadows twisted and writhed like flames, laughing at her.
When she awoke with a start, the first thing that she did was glance at her clock to see that it was already afternoon.
Twelve hours? Twelve freaking hours? She could not remember the last time she'd slept so long. She must've been even more tired than she realised.
After wiping the dry drool from her chin, she opened her laptop, only to find that Rosemary had left no reply. It seemed logical to Marie that this only confirmed it was something to do with her own side. Maybe she should reach out on a different platform or God forbid, give her a call.
She'd been wrestling with the idea of calling her, but since she wasn't replying to any of her messages, Marie thought that perhaps Rosemary didn't want to talk to her. Perhaps she'd had the same thought from the other end.
Come on, just give her a call and explain.
But when Marie tried, she was unable to connect. Typical. She searched online for a possible fix for this, but was interrupted from the task after a call from her Mum.
"Marie, we need you to come down here."
There was something about her voice, a note of concern.
Realising that she was still costumed from last night, Marie stripped it off and wiped off her makeup. Then as fast as a speeding missile, she found a pair of shorts and a t-shirt that was so big on her that it hung past her knees. The shirt read The Stone Roses. It belonged to her Dad. They were his absolute favourite band and he'd given it to her, to be transformed into the perfect weekend-wear.
As she traipsed along the landing and arrived at the top of the spiral stairs, she saw down below, standing in the foyer with Mother and Hannah, were a pair of police officers.
The fog of sleep lifted from her as quickly as if it'd been blown away by an industrial street cleaner. Marie had a sudden, overwhelming desire to go change into something more appropriate, but thought that if she ran away now, it might seem suspicious.
Suspicious for what though? She hadn't done anything.
Why were they here?
What was this about?
She was hooked by a sudden fear as she realised that last night, she'd ventured into an abandoned house. There was even video evidence. Could someone be fined for that? Did that count as trespassing?
Her teeth went together and her palms ran sweaty as she used the banister to steady herself until she landed down into the foyer.
"You're Marie?" the female officer said. Her hair was so dark that it violently reflected the light that emanated from the chandelier, like a sheen of oil. Her irises were pale, in a way that enhanced her pupils and made them appear three dimensional, like the tips of two armour-piercing bullets.
"Yes," Marie said hesitantly.
"I'm Officer Morrow and this is Deputy Tanner."
Deputy Tanner's dirty brown hair shone too, but it seemed to be more from either sweat or grease, rather than any vibrancy of colour. He tightened his lips in way of greeting, perhaps to indicate that he'd be taking a back seat on this one.
Officer Morrow glanced hesitantly to Mum before her attention snapped back to Marie. "Marie, this morning, we received a call regarding a missing boy, Ryan Quick. After digging into it, we've had it confirmed by multiple sources that you were the last one to see him up in the Slate Woods."
The relief arrived first as she realised that no, she was not about to be reprimanded for trespassing.
But then, the real reason, which was much more serious, hit her across the head like a sledgehammer. It was slow in arriving but hit heavily when it did.
"Ryan is missing?" she asked.
Those two black bullets searched her face. "Well, his Mother is very worried about him. He didn't return home and she hasn't received any calls from him. None of his friends know where he is either."
Marie felt a coldness start in her hands. It journeyed all the way up her arms and throughout her body, like an electric current.
Then she swiftly explained all that'd happened, starting with how Ryan had asked her out, then how they'd gone intotown for costumes, and how she'd met Ryan and her friends later in the pier for the concert. She went on to tell them how he convinced them all to go up to the overlook for a better view of the fireworks.
After a sidelong glance to Hannah and Mum, who were already wearing shocked expressions, Marie took a heavy breath and explained how they'd gone to the Pearson House. She explained how it'd all been a prank, all along, calculated right from the beginning.
"Then I ran away from the house and that was the last I saw of him all night. I found my friends along the trail."
Of course, she told them nothing about the endless place, or the headaches, or the bad feelings that she'd had within the woods.
"So you bumped into your friends after leaving the house?" Officer Morrow said, in an effort to get the story straight, "But there was a period where you were on your own, between one point and another. Do you remember how long that lasted?"
Marie had absolutely no idea how long she'd been trapped for. Time didn't seem to operate under the same laws in that place. It stretched and shrank simultaneously, like a dream world. But basing it more on distance and how fast she thought she'd been running, she said, "It would have been about five minutes."
"And your friends can confirm this?"
"They can."
"You sound very angry about the prank."
Marie, realising what she was getting at, said, "Well yeah, of course. But in the moment, I was more hurt than angry. They took a video if you want to see my reaction for yourself."
Officer Morrow's expression showed surprise. Evidently, none of them had bothered telling her about the video.
Deputy Tanner jotted something down on his notepad.
"His friends said it was a misunderstanding," Officer Morrow said.
"They would say that," Marie spat.
Officer Morrow raised an eyebrow. It was pencil-thin. "Their version of events is that he wanted to explain that it was just a harmless haze, and that's why he ran after you."
"He did?"
"That's what our other sources confirmed."
Of course, because they probably all talked to each other after you phoned the first one, to get their stories straight. 'Delete the video and tell them this...' was probably the start of the instruction sent into their group chat.
"He never caught up to me," Marie said. "Like I said, I never saw him for the rest of the night. I was alone until I got back to my friends."
"Our sources said that he was yelling after you, loudly. They could hear it back at the house, but you didn't hear anything?"
How did she explain it? How did she tell them that she'd gone into a place where no sound could breach? She shook her head. "I'm really sorry, but I didn't hear anything."
Officer Morrow exchanged a look with Deputy Tanner. His mouth tightened again, as if that was the only communication of which he was capable. "Alright, thank you for your co-operation. We may be back in touch as we continue our investigation."
Even after the officers were out the door, Marie's heart was still hammering hard.
When she glanced over her shoulder, she saw the pitying looks offered by both Mum and Hannah.
"What?" Marie asked sharply.
"I'm so sorry that all of that happened to you," Hannah said.
"Sweetie..." Mum began.
Marie snapped. "Are you sorry? Are you really? Weren't you both just so happy to abandon our old lives and come here?" She stormed up the stairs, trying to hide the tears forming in her eyes as her confused mind attempted to process it all.