Nalda learned from a young age to look at things in a positive light. That's what her parents tried to teach her at least. Her elder sister couldn't be more pessimistic even if she tried. It was truly a skill at this point.
That's why Nalda decided to not be like her hot headed, pessimistic older sister. Instead she was patient, optimistic and young.
That's why she was currently lying on the rock hard bed in the cell of a police station and staring at the ceiling.
'If you think about it, those letters are like a superpower. Yeah! Who said I didn't have one? Those letters are good enough! Information is power after all.'
The letters for once didn't break her optimistic view of life and let her be delusional.
'People with gifts or curses are physically and mentally stronger than normal people.'
The gas in the shape of letters told her.
Nalda punched the air, fed up with the nonsense she had to deal with. Of course this garnered a few weird stares from the people nearby but she didn't care.
Everything was so unfair towards her!
The letters, who had been destroying her hopes and dreams for hours on end without even an ounce of pity, disappeared again. Maybe she should cry for it to understand how hurt she was.
She wanted to sigh again but decided against it because she had already gone over the sighing limit for today. Her sister always said that sighing made you more pessimistic and it seemed to be true. Her sister, the most pessimistic person ever, sighed non-stop.
At that moment the cell door opened without her even realising that someone had arrived. It was the female officer from earlier.
She looked tense as she handed me a phone with a number already written on it. She hadn't pressed call yet, it seemed like she was going to wait until Nalda would press it herself.
Nalda was about to press it when the officer suddenly spoke in a very agitated tone. "Ah! Don't let her notice anything about where you are!" She sounded serious.
Nalda looked at the number on the phone and quickly realised that it was her sister's number.
Why was the officer so agitated and tense? Was she seriously worried about getting random people involved?
Nalda sensed that something was off but didn't say anything and just nodded. She took a deep breath and pressed the call button. The phone rang for a while and eventually went to voicemail.
'Right… Mave is the last person to answer a phone from an unknown number… Guess I'll have to spam call her.'
Nalda was unimpressed as she clicked the end call button and went to the call history to call her sister again. She did this within seconds, not giving the officer a chance to say anything.
The female officer looked rather nervous as she saw Nalda call again but she didn't say anything because the phone was ringing.
It continued to ring before eventually ending in voicemail. Nalda simply repeated the process six times before her sister finally answered the call.
"...Hello?" A tired voice came out of the phone speaker. It sounded hesitant and also expectant. In the background the sound of glass being put down could be heard.
"Hello." Nalda replied flatly as she heard her sister's voice. "Are you eating without me? You're so mean."
Mave sighed and Nalda imagined her staring up at the ceiling and questioning her life choices. "Yes, I'm eating without you. You should've come home in time. I couldn't reach you through your phone either. I was about to run down the streets like spidermonkey looking for you. Where are you right now?" She sounded calm with an undertone of anger and concern. If you listened very carefully you might even hear the nagging tone a little bit.
Earlier while the male officer was delivering her food, he told her that the story she was supposed to go off was staying at a friend's house for a day. Seeing the female officer becoming pale at what she was hearing, she looked at Nalda with an expression that could only be described as anxiety.
She was worried that Nalda would make a mistake. Nalda on the other hand shrugged as if it was normal. "You know, a new friend's house. My phone's battery died and I forgot to charge it."
The story would've been strange for anyone else. It wasn't normal to suddenly decide to stay the night at a friend's house without saying anything in advance, especially if no one else except you and your sister are the only ones at home.
For anyone else this situation would've been highly suspicious and would've started to doubt the words spoken on the phone. Especially someone like Mave who was already on high alert on a daily basis.
"Hmmm…" However, Mave just hummed at Nalda's explanation. "Who is it this time? Who did you terrorise? How much did you terrorise them? Do I need to prepare for a lawsuit?"
But Mave believed her sister easily without a doubt. It's not because she had some unwavering trust that Nalda wouldn't get in trouble, in fact it happened more often than once that Nalda got caught up in things. The reason why she believed Nalda was because Nalda sometimes acted on a whim. It wasn't the first time something similar to this happened. That's why she was taking it in so easily.
"Hey, What's that supposed to mean? I'm a very kind and respectful person. Why would anyone sue me?" Nalda felt offended by her sister's reaction. She felt like she was being treated unfairly.
Mave didn't answer and instead made her sister return to the point. "Nevermind the lawsuits, just tell me who you are with and when you're coming back."
Nalda was about to complain but then she just answered normally. "I made a new friend. You wouldn't know her." She stared at the officer and flashed a bright smile which made the officer excessively nervous about Nalda's following words. "And I'll be back tomorrow sometime during the day." Luckily for the officer, Nalda didn't say anything weird.
Tomorrow was Saturday so it was okay to return whenever. If she had school the next day then she'd need to return home today to not worry her sister too much and that would've made the situation a lot more difficult for the 'police' officers.
Nalda's sister hummed again to acknowledge the answer she got. "Are you okay?" She eventually asked after a few moments of silence.
Alright, it looked like Nalda couldn't completely deceive her sister. Her sister probably sensed something was slightly off because Nalda was a little too relaxed.
The officer didn't notice that Nalda was about to get caught, otherwise her anxiety would've probably spiked abnormally high. She seemed abnormally scared of getting caught by Mave after all.
'How do I fix this?'
Nalda cleared her throat almost as if she was offended and spoke. "Huh? Of course I'm okay? Why wouldn't I be? I'm old enough to take care of myself." Her tone came off as playful rather than offended.
Nalda was well aware that that's what she did when she was actually offended so her sister shouldn't notice that something was off.
Mave hummed again. That was a bad sign. Nalda was just reminded how oddly accurate Mave's hunches could get. Maybe she had a hunch that something was wrong with Nalda's situation.
"Answer me honestly, is everything okay?"
It was now that the female officer's expression hardened and then turned into something akin to acceptance. She almost looked like she had accepted her death.
Nalda had half expected her to flail around anxiously but instead she saw that pitiful sight. She couldn't help but sigh.
Nalda's sister heard that of course. "Why are you sighing? I do the sighing, not you." It was a firm answer.
"I'm fine. In fact I'm so fine that I might be able to eat everything at home two times over." Nalda replied in a tone that made it clear that she was starting to get frustrated by her sister's questions.
After a few seconds of silence Mave replied again. "Is that not how you usually are…?" She sounded confused but deep down, Nalda knew that she was teasing her.
'Yes, it's working! But I can't let it show yet.'
Nalda cleared her throat again, sounding annoyed. "Are you trying to embarrass me in front of my new friend? And I don't eat that much."
"Yes."
"Oh…"
There wasn't much Nalda could say to that. The reply was so firm that there was no way she could argue against that.
Eventually Nalda came back to her senses and decided to finish off the phone call. "Okay, okay, that's enough. I wanna go hang out with my friend now. Bye!"
"Alright, see you tomorrow."
Once Nalda heard that she immediately hung up and sighed in relief. She hadn't noticed the sweat building up until now.
Despite that though she looked at the officer with a confident look in her eyes. "Done." She said while handing the phone over. "I can go to sleep now right?"
The officer took the phone back, she had already collected herself. The emotions from earlier were completely gone and the demeanour she had shown earlier was back.
She nodded at Nalda's question. "You're free to do whatever you like and if you need the bathroom, it's over there." She said while nodding towards a door in the cell.
Nalda hadn't noticed the door earlier and blinked as she looked at the door. She was about to ask about the obvious escape plan any criminal could make when the officer spoke again.
"There's CCTV, don't do anything weird."
'Ah… yeah I'm not going anymore then. I'll just hold it in or something. Still, I should check it out later.'
After that the officer left and Nalda laid down on the bed. She stared up at the ceiling and realised that she couldn't even brush her teeth here.
It bothered her but she eventually just accepted it. There was nothing she could do about it.
Resisting the urge to sigh, she turned towards the wall and closed her eyes, trying her best to sleep.
***
Mave stared at her phone.
She lied to her sister about eating. She was only drinking a glass of water in the kitchen with a jacket on.
When she said that she was ready to go look for Nalda, she meant it.
Through the conversation, Mave had thrown in a few things that contradicted each other to see how her sister would react. Normally, Nalda would've immediately noticed and told her to stop being an idiot, today she didn't notice.
The first contradiction was saying that she was eating and a few seconds later she said that she was ready to go search for her. However, considering that Nalda's thought process was sometimes a little odd, Mave carefully threw in something she normally wouldn't say.
Even when Nalda said that she was staying with a new friend, Mave asked who it was. Normally, Mave wouldn't ask something so pointless because if it was a new friend, she wouldn't know who it was so there was no point in asking who it was twice.
Still, Nalda didn't point that out either.
Mave reasoned with herself that if something was seriously wrong, Nalda would've said something or at least given a hint if she couldn't. However the unease she felt from the moment she picked up the phone hadn't disappeared yet.
She sighed out loud and stared at the glass of water on the kitchen counter. She couldn't go search for her sister now.
While she knew that something was off, the fact that her sister wasn't actively making signals that she was in danger made her pause. That meant that she was safe and the things Nalda hadn't noticed were because she had a lot on her mind already.
That second part was what bothered Mave the most because why would that thoughtless brat have so much on her mind to the point that she'd miss up on an opportunity to mess with Mave? That sounded incredibly suspicious.
Just like that all her efforts to calm down disappeared and she started to overthink the situation. She sighed once more and tried to stop herself from overthinking by thinking of possible solutions.
Eventually she decided that it would be best to wait until tomorrow. Nalda said she'd be back tomorrow during the day. All Mave could do was wait for her. If her sister doesn't come back then she'll have to turn her work place upside down and force someone with a tracking gift to work with her.
With that final thought, Mave took off her jacket and threw it on a nearby chair.
'If they don't let me then I'll just have to rip that chicken's wings off. Maybe then they'll listen.'