Present day….
Unexpectedly, the following morning Nate was the one to be disturbed from his pleasant slumber, not realizing the space beside him was empty and the warmth of a certain beauty was missing, until he felt an irritating object poking at his nose, jaws and even his closed eye lids.
“Hmm… M, what are you doing?” The boy subconsciously grumbled in a low husky voice, wondering what on earth she was up to, literally poking around his face.
“You look so sweet when you’re not awake, pretend I’m not here.” Marcel continued to hover at the side of his bed, resting one elbow on the mattress with her chin in her palms and her knees bent on the carpeted floors below, while her free hand stubbornly traced the outline of his near perfect facial features.
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“This has nothing to do with Marcel, stop looking for a reason to blame her.” Nate instinctively defended. In other matters he could reluctantly ignore their accusations knowing that the girl was capable of handling the issue on her own, but having a strange premonition that things were about to get a lot more complicated if his previous intuition was correct, for the sake of protecting her from the possible storm to come; he desperately wanted to deflect any sort of blame towards her… surely rumors must be spreading like wildfire. “Open your eyes, or are you blind? This place use to be packed with customers, but since the jinx got here, it’s completely empty.”Sarah stretched out her hands in the open space as if presenting evidence to support her claims. “That’s bull… umm… ri
“Wait a minute, this director… Victory what’s his name, he had already told you about your father… then what about aunt Ruby? We only know that she’s missing, how could he announce her death when she wasn’t anywhere near Acre Hills?” Nate openly questioned. “This is sheer bullshit; he stood there lying through his teeth when I asked if my mom came to visit; if she was there then he must know where both my parents are.” “Ha! Stop pretending, you two obviously planned the entire thing.” Sarah refused to believe a single word, in fact like most of the villagers she instantly accepted what was heard and retold by others… why? because of what happened in the past. It was all somehow connected to that one person. “I don’t care if you believe me or not, but the director is lying, I know he is.” Marcel swallowed the bitterness at the back
“Is this about what happened the last time I was there? because if it is…” “No M, it’s hard to explain, but umm… well I wasn’t the one that packed your belongings, I brought it back to my place after I found it stacked together at the bottom of the stairs.” “I don’t understand, does that mean someone else was in the house?” Marcel frowned in confusion waiting for a response as the car drove closer and closer to the familiar vicinity. “That’s the thing, none of the neighbors I asked saw anyone coming in or out of there and the weirdest part is… it wasn’t just your stuff, the rest of the house was completely cleared out.” “What the hell! That’s crazy! Were they all suffering from temporary blindness? How c
“Okay, now what the hell is this? I can’t believe he would stoop so low, that idiot!” Marcel vented out loud standing with her back to the closed doors she had just entered moments ago, grumpily taking out the boy’s phone from her jeans, prepared to dial his land line number, but suddenly stopped realizing that a single call might be enough to make him rush on over before she could even issue a complain. “Humph! I should have seen through his lies, there’s no way someone would steal a bunch of old furniture and ornaments, no wonder the neighbors didn’t see anything… because there wasn’t anything ‘to’ see.” The girl shook her head in disappointment wondering why Nate would try to deceive her, clearly the house wasn’t empty… everything was exactly the way it was before.
“Calm down Marcel, I need you to stay focus… listen to my voice.” Mike reassured her, understanding that for any normal human being, seeing such a next to impossible occurrence of having a deceased loved one appear even in a foggy state, it would be both incredibly painful and frightening all at once. “Why… how… what… this is just insane! I’m going crazy…” The girl yet again anxiously shook her head, not realizing that her limbs had actually moved despite being numb… but unfortunately stumbled backwards onto the wooden floors. “Be careful!” The ghostly figure excitedly hovered closer, worry evident in his static tone. “M… Mike…” Marcel held her raging chest murmuring lowly as she found the strength to stare directly at the m
“No, that just doesn’t make any sense. Why would the director go to such lengths to destroy your family? Spreading lies is one thing… but to use some weird gas which may or may not exist… I find it hard to believe.” “Grandpa! Mike said it had something to do with him. Then there was the doctor’s report and the mention of the whole bizarre experiment. I think it’s all linked to what’s happening now.” Marcel paced back and forth across the room trying to connect the dots. “Alright, wait a second… let me see if I get right. Michael Rayburn, your grandfather; we know that he was at Acre Hills apparently admitted for mental instability at a time when he had supposedly died from heart attack. No one in your family had ever said anything about this yet his file was there, could it be that th
Like any other level-minded individual, Nate obviously found most of what she was saying to be quite outrageous yet as with the past, it didn’t stop him from going to the ends of the earth in supporting her theory. If she believed all this was true, then he would try his best to help her find the answers she needed. “So what now? What are we going to do about aunty Betty? I’m sure those nosy neighbors are keeping tabs on me to see if I’ll get rid of you too… humph! they definitely saw you bringing me back here.” “Hmm, everyone at the diner is going to know by tomorrow… or by the end of the day.” Nate sighed wearily at the thought of them being under twenty-four hour surveillance in their own town. “At times like this I’m glad this crappy place doesn’t take gossips a
Although they were both anxious for answers, at this very moment it was still rather useless to take action, the most they could do was speculate and plan out their next move in solving the mystery. So running around in the open was absolutely not such a good idea when logically they were mere young adults battling against the heartless enemy. Marcel obediently stayed at the boy’s residence jotting down her conclusion and reviewing them, convincing herself that this was real… all the recent irrational, crazy things in her life was actually happening. Nate did as he said, driving back to the diner hoping that Betty was calm enough to be reasoned with, thinking that since he had managed to persuade her for a chance in the beginning then maybe he could do the same once more, now that she wouldn’t be influenced or provoked by the reminders of gossiping empl