It was finally Friday afternoon. Mave had left a message for Nalda telling her that she couldn't come pick her up from school because of something urgent. It probably was very urgent because even her texts felt hurried.
It was a good coincidence because Nalda was planning on finally hunting down the serial killer that has been haunting her thoughts and dreams. She wasn't sure what she would do once she found out who it was but she was sure she'd come up with something to torment this fellow back.
Maybe cook a 'delicious' meal with rat poison. She'll have an idea by next Friday. That was the deadline she set for herself
Nalda got startled when Irene tapped her shoulder. Before Nalda could even turn or ask what was wrong, a phone was being shoved into her face.
"L- look!" Irene's voice sounded terrified. Her face was probably making a similar expression but Nalda was currently being blinded by a phone to actually check.
"I can't look if you're putting it that close to my eyes." Nalda complained while grabbing Irene's wrist to pull her hand back.
When the phone was finally gone, she looked at her friend. Irene indeed looked terrified. She was pale and her expression was similar to someone who was left behind in the mountains with a kangaroo.
Nalda had no clue what could've caused such a reaction but it probably was whatever she was trying to show on her phone. Obviously she looked at the phone screen next and she had no clue how to react.
It was a news article about Winter Treewell's death but the details were extremely twisted. First of all, the article said that it was an attack by some angry fan, second of all, it said that it happened in her own house and third of all, the date was wrong. The article was saying that it happened on Wednesday but it actually happened a week ago.
Looking at all the wrong information made Nalda shudder a little. How much of the news was real and how much was this twisted? The only thing they got right was that Winter Treewell was dead. That's all.
Looking at how pale Irene was, it kind of made sense. She probably had a similar thought process as Nalda, how did the murderer bypass security and how safe am I? Though the main difference between the two of them was that Irene didn't know that it actually happened in an alleyway so the security was much lower.
Irene suddenly looked at Nalda with a look of concern. "Nalda, is Mave picking you up today?" She suddenly asked. Nalda shook her head. Then Irene suddenly grabbed her shoulders with a surprisingly strong grip. "Then come with me."
"Huh? Why?" Nalda felt like she didn't have a say in this which was both rude and unfair.
Irene finally pulled her arm back and put her phone in her pocket. She looked out towards the streets and frowned. "I… I feel uneasy…" She muttered, her voice was even quieter than usual.
That's when Nalda realised something.
'She wasn't scared for herself, she was scared for me.'
Nalda felt like smacking Irene's head. "No, I'll be fine." She tried to sound as firm as possible but Irene's head snapping in her direction was a little scary. Okay, maybe it was very scary. "Okay! Okay! Please stop staring at me like that."
Irene's expression relaxed and colour finally began to return. "Uhm… sorry for forcing you…"
'So you do the thing and apologize right after. Don't you think you're a little late?'
Nalda didn't spill her thoughts out loud and instead chose to sigh. It was a good thing Mave wasn't there to see how deep the sigh was.
She didn't understand why Irene was so worried about Nalda's safety when it was a literal celebrity that got murdered. She had no clue what that got to do with her but she'll probably only get a vague answer like earlier if she asked.
After a few minutes of chatting, Irene's car finally pulled up and Nalda got dragged and shoved into the car by Irene.
It was a very fancy car so Nalda was very, very self conscious of herself. This was exactly why she hated being in Irene's car.
Yes, Irene's car, not a family car. Of course it wasn't Irene driving but the car was still under her name. Nalda had no clue how it was allowed considering that you're only allowed to own a car with a drivers license.
The seats were soft. Windows were clean. Inside was clean. Outside was clean. Inside was warm. Everything was usual.
Was it worth mentioning that even the driver was as stiff as usual?
It was only halfway through the ride that she noticed that she wasn't being taken home.
Nalda urgently turned towards Irene. "Uhh, where are we going?"
Irene smiled innocently. "Home." Before Nalda could even say anything, she spoke again. "My home."
'And my plans? What about my plans?'
Nalda almost wanted to say that but she didn't because she first needed to put some rationality in Irene's mind. "Why?"
"Because… I wanted to…?" Irene's tone sounded like she genuinely didn't understand why Nalda was asking.
Nalda stared at her best friend who just got downgraded to friend. "Are you being serious right now? That's a ridiculous excuse." That earned her a glare from Irene's driver. "Send me home. I have something I need to do."
"But it's Friday afternoon…"
"Does everything have to revolve around school? I can also have business outside of school."
Irene seemed a bit reluctant but eventually accepted it. "Alright…" She gave the driver Nalda's address. She looked like a depressed salamander for some strange reason.
Nalda felt a little bad but if she didn't stand firm with herself then she'd get trampled over by other people. Even if those people didn't realise it.
That didn't mean that she was going to let Irene look so sad for the entire drive. She probably only did what she did because she was worried and Nalda was using her car so…
"Irene, have you heard about the Muffinman?" Irene slowly turned her head in Nalda's direction and nodded. Nalda smiled brightly. "Clearly you haven't heard enough. Just listen to me, I'll fill you in on all the information you could possibly be missing."
That's how Nalda ended up giving a twenty minute long lecture about absolute nonsense. She was proud of it though.
***
Mave was honestly very angry. How often hasn't she told them to only release the information about Winter's death when she was with her sister? There had to be a limit to how little people are willing to listen.
Of course she didn't storm to HQ. She was actually called to help calming people down. It was supposed to be shocking after all but from the reactions she has seen so far it seemed unnecessary. Nobody was taking it as seriously.
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I thought that Island sunk already…
–Don't insult my home country like that
–Bro shut up if youre stupid shut up
– bro wrote shut uo twice
Whot? Is security on trash island that bad?
– 'Whot'
–shush
– you could say, the security on trash island is trash, haha haha (please laugh)
–Joke so dry it started a water shortage
Can we take this seriously? Somebody died and we're paying more attention to the country instead of what the real issue is.
– I'm not reading allat
– I was thinking about that too like why are people not taking this seriously??
–Just let people joke around you don't expect everyone to mourn a stranger now do you?
Man our only tourist attraction is gone now… how will this trashy island survive now??
– damnit it I want to move
– so you're allowed to call it trash but we're not?
– Bruh shut up you're clearly American
– Whatvdoes being American have to do with this?
– Our Winterr Ó╭╮Ò why did she have to dieeee?? ༼ ༎ຶ ༎ຶ༽
– Man this island will be so dry and boring for a while…
They say our island was made of trash, I'm starting to believe that we're the trash from how we're treating a dead person…
– Ugh stop ruining the fun
– You can't be serious, you're seriously enjoying this?? Are you even human??
–No because you're right why is everyone just joking?
– Finally someone said it!
–Someonze said something similar earleir thought
– exactly all I've seen is people mocking our country
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Yeah everyone was just fine except for someone. Nalda probably was reminded of what she found. She must also be disturbed by how much the news was twisted. Almost all the original details were changed.
Suddenly someone tapped Mave's shoulder. Mave turned around to see a woman with a strange aura. She was younger than Mave but still gave the vibe that she experienced more.
"Aurelia." Mave greeted and in return Aurelia smiled.
"Hello." When she spoke she sounded strangely excited. "What brings you here today?"
Mave looked at Aurelia. "I should be asking you that. Aren't you the one that usually doesn't come to work? Did you get forced into viewing another person's memories again?"
"No, no I just came because I heard you were coming."
Mave gave her a suspicious look. "You know I'm not into-"
Aurelia immediately cut her off. "Don't get the wrong idea! I just admire how you work!"
Mave slowly nodded in response. "Right…" It was true that Aurelia seemed to admire Mave to the point that she even copied a few of Mave's habits.
At that moment someone entered the hallway and Aurelia's starry-eyed expression immediately turned into a scowl.
'Is this how people see me? I don't think I'm that bad. Yes I do get angry quite a lot these days but my little sister's life is on the line so I guess it's just stress...'
Mave didn't like Aurelia's admiration but there wasn't much she could do about it. Aurelia was younger after all and Mave was much more mature anyways.
The person coming in their direction was Oren. He was an old man with glasses that were barely holding on and white hairs already forming on his head though he always swears that it's from the stress and not from his age. He was holding a small pile of documents in his right hand and a cup of coffee in his left.
He almost froze in his tracks when he saw the two of them in the hallway. The reaction was especially severe towards Aurelia. "Ah, you two actually came…" He sounded rather worried. "How many gray hairs am I getting today…?" He muttered while shaking his head.
Mave didn't like how he didn't even greet them properly before she started insulting them and glared at him. "Get to the point."
Oren seemed to sense that Mave was in a bad mood and quickly began speaking. "Aurelia, you should go to the fourth floor. They're in need of your help there." Aurelia rolled her eyes and didn't move but when Mave pushed her in the stairs' direction she quickly began moving.
It was clear that Oren was trying to talk with Mave in private. It seemed that he had something important to tell her.
"What is it?" Mave asked but Oren shook his head and began walking. Mave sighed and followed him.
Once they were in a quiet corner he began talking. "Roscoe warned you not to act on your own. The information on the article was purposely manipulated in that way."
Ah. It seemed like that chicken figured out that she had a few concerns. Didn't mean she'll listen to his advice though.
"Okay Captain Obvious, how can manipulated information be on accident? And don't mention new employees, they don't count." Mave replied without a second thought. "Tell me who did it."
Oren looked around and only after he confirmed that it was only the two of them there did he speak. "The CEO did."
Mave almost thought that her ears were playing tricks on her. "The CEO?" When she repeated his words he nodded.
If it was the CEO then this situation just got really complicated.
Oren hesitated before he continued speaking. "They say the CEO and Winter Treewell were really good friends."
Ah right, there was a rumour like that floating around for years.
"If Roscoe said that then it must be the truth." Mave said in a sarcastic tone.
Oren froze and laughed. "Please don't be reckless with your words. Roscoe said nothing like that. He only told me to tell you to be careful…" Mave gave him a look and he trailed off. "Right, right, nevermind what's the point of hiding anything if kids these days already know everything." He complained out loud.
"Well whatever, I have a meeting. We need to discuss how we're replacing Winter." Mave said as she turned to leave the quiet corner.
"Mave don't be so tactless. We're not replacing Winter, we're just filling in an empty position." Oren sounded serious for once which meant that he was serious.
Of course he's serious when it comes to people hating his workplace. He seems to only care about that.
"Yeah, yeah say what you want." She didn't argue with him. He was far too stubborn and only listened to himself or the people he chose to believe. That chicken was one of them.
She heard him sigh while walking away and mutter something about Mave being frustrating.
Well she wasn't trying to make herself less frustrating. At the end of the day it was his problem for trying to get her to agree with his brainwashing.
With those thoughts Mave went to the meeting hoping that it wouldn't be as annoying as she believed it would be.