Chapter 8
"This is the closest I could find." I handed Noah my laptop where the image of Ankh was opened.
For the last 2 weeks, Noah and I have been carrying out our own researches on the burned mark on Genevie's arm. We've been she'd wake up now or then. But, she's just just like that, torn between two worlds. I see Lola from time to time in school, but never had the guts to ask how they were doing.
We were sitting on the floor in Noah's room. Sketches splattered across the room. Coffee mugs, laptops, pencils, highlighters, Noah's computer junks, all were spread, amidst which we were comparing notes. Noah took one glance at the image and said, "I saw that too. But that's not what we're looking for." he handed me some sheets of paper. "Look at these. I tried to break down the marks in several planes to see if it was a merging of two symbols."
I looked at the papers. The first one was simple. It also came in my mind. Two parts were made from the mark. An inverted cross and an infinity sign.
"That may have a lot of explanations. Inverted cross may represent devil, satanic, demonic activities, or unholy. The ground is too big and too common. And the infinity is used in a lot of fields. Abundance, a lot, unending bla bla."
"Lack of church?" I proposed.
"Not convincing. Why now? Why not 10years or 20years earlier?"
I swapped the sheet and looked at the next one. The symbol was detached from the middle in vertical plane. A "b" and a "d".
"The rest doesn't make any sense. I just had nothing to do." Noah chimed.
Clearly, the next one didn't make any sense. Cut in horizontal plane with no mentionable shape or whatsoever.
"I searched for all the cults in US. None of them matches this symbol." I let out a sigh.
"Maybe we're looking from the wrong angle." Noah took his laptop and started typing something. "What if it might be some sorority or frat? Some rival school?"
"Or from where Genevie came?" Noah considered my opinion.
I scooted beside Noah and watched him scroll through various school's sorority. There was a knock on the door followed by Mrs. Flickermen.
"Oh, Jenny you're here." She smiled soon as she saw me.
"Hi, Susannah." I got up to hug her. Susannah was my second mother. She loved me a lot. Sometimes it pricked Noah that she got me a better gift than Noah for Christmas.
"Can't you kids use the front doors like normal people?" She pinched my nose and glared at the window. "One day you might slip and cause some serious injury."
Noah and I both shrugged. Using the window was easier according to us both.
"What's this mess? Are you guys planning a robbery?" She picked up the coffee mugs from the floor. "I'm gonna go bring some cookies. You two clean this up before I get back."
"Jenny clean this mess." Noah ordered me which resulted in a glare from Susannah. "What? She did 70% of it."
"Just clean it up." Susannah shut the door on her way out.
"You heard her, start cleaning." Noah pretended to be engrossed with his laptop.
"Uhuh." I hit him with a roll of papers. "Move your butt, douchebag."
"Take this sketch with you." He handed me the whole sketch of the burned mark. An upside down cross with an infinity symbol along the horizontal line. "Bring it to school tomorrow. We'll use the library computer. It might have access to exclusive data."
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I was rummaging through my locker to find my Physics book. I was pretty sure I left it here the other day. Noah was getting impatient beside me.
"Why do you keep all those stuffs in your locker?" Noah hovered his hand over my stuffs.
"You never know what you might need."
"I'll go. You come quick." He left before I could protest.
I cursed under my breath and started turning my locker upside down. I never had problems finding books.
"Where the hell is my book!" I go through the locker for the 7th time with no result. I was about to shut and go to the class without the book when I heard a commanding voice.
"Step away from the locker Miss Ryan. "I tried to turn but the voice warned me. "Hands in the air and three steps two the right. Don't turn around."
I saw with my side view, a well build gut around 25 in police uniform trying to find something in my locker.
"Hey, you can't do that without a warrant," I shouted at him.
"We've received intel that you might have something which gives a lead to what happened to Miss Stone." He picked my bag and started going through it.
"Why me? I have nothing to do with this."
"Then how do you explain this?" He held out Noah's sketch from yesterday.
"It's not what you think. I can explain."
"You're coming to the principal's office. You can explain there." He grabbed my arm and stirred me towards the office. I could see all the shocked faces across the hallway. i was searching for Noah to help. But no sign of him.
He ushered me into the principal's office and shut the door behind him. I saw principal Hay sitting with a pitying expression. Behind him was standing someone else.
"We meet again, Ms. Ryan" I remember the bold confident voice of Alice Savvaro.
"Look what I found in her bag." The officer put the sketch on the table. Agent Savvaro took a long time to stare at it. Then she lifted her gaze to me, "Ms. Ryan, this is Officer Wild. he'll be the field officer in this case."
"I can explain the sketch. We were searching for the symbol online. I have the sketch with me because we intended to look for it in the library computer," I whimpered.
"By we, I guess Mr. Flickermen," she raised her eyebrows at me.
I was avoiding using his name after what agent Savvaro told me. But she got around it anyway.
"By your silence, it means yes." She brought a laptop from the window desk and sat on the chair beside me. "Look, we had no intel or nothing on you. We put up a show to throw the culprit off track and have a chat with you. The sketch was however a bonus to the act."
I was burning with rage. I've been played twice by agent Savvaro. All I wanted to do was take the vase from the water filter table and throw it at her.
"Why are you after me? What have I done?" I managed my best scowl.
"Don't you think somebody knew about this checking and made sure you had the sketch in your bag?"
"No. Cause this is bullshit. You said this was an act. Not a thorough check."
"But we did tell some of the staff that we will check all of you. We made sure the word got around. We just hit two birds with one stone. We got a chat with you and found someone did try to frame you."
"No. Noah asked me to take this with me. He didn't try to frame me."
"Then why didn't he bring it himself?" Agent Savvaro's words caught me off-guard. This never occurred to me. But I wasn't falling for this again.
"I am saying this for the final time, Noah has nothing to do with it."
I looked at agent Savvaro directly in the eye. She held my gaze without blinking. She might be good, but I am not losing this staring contest. I had to win this for Noah. She let out a sigh and averted her eyes.
"So you're saying that, we should hold you accountable because we found the sketch in your bag?" She challenged me with a deadly gaze.
I swallowed hard. She was trying to scare me. But I would never sell out Noah for something he didn't do just to get out of this mess.
"You can do that. Then the actual culprit might get the time he requires to escape. " My voice cold and steady.
"All of this is stating that you are Mr. Flickermen's accomplice."
"I am his accomplice. I'm his best friend. If this was about some senior prank, we definitely would've been accomplices. But this," I gave a pause. "has nothing to do with us."
"Ms. Ryan. I would suggest you to choose your words carefully," principal Hay opened his mouth at last. "I've known both you and Mr. Flickermen for a long time. Top students of our school. But I'm afraid there are some events pointing towards Mr. Flickermen."